Dating Dr Notorious (7 page)

“Wow. You were married and faithful for twenty-five years? I hope your wife appreciated you,” Regina said reverently, twisting the stem of her empty glass. “Do you still miss her?”

Ben looked at Regina, wondering what to say. Regina reached out and put a hand over his. “Nothing you say will make me change my mind about being with you tonight. I envy you your long-term relationship. My marriage only lasted seven years.”

Ben placed a hand over Regina’s, amazed to find comfort in the touch. “Yes. Sometimes I miss her. We were together a very long time. I lost her little by little to a terrible illness over a period of several years. The worst of my grief was over long before she died.”

Ben paused. “Would it seem hard and cold of me to say the woman I buried was not the one I married? I prefer to remember the happier times of our life.”

Regina shook her head. “No, Ben. It doesn’t make you cold at all. I think it just makes you human. I imagine your wife would rather be remembered that way herself.”

“I absolutely know she would,” Ben said firmly.

Regina smiled and pulled her hand from his. “Well, you’re good then. My first two lovers were wonderful experiences, but lousy timing. Then in my mid-thirties I married lover number three and my sex life took a serious nosedive.”

Regina twirled her glass as she talked. “After getting married, I only had sex five times over the following seven years. All five were in the first year and half. My ex-husband made me the woman you see today because everything I did for many, many years was to try and figure out what was wrong with us. By the time I gave up and divorced Gerald, I was over forty and outspoken enough about sex to scare most men away.”

She paused for dramatic effect and to make sure Ben was paying attention before delivering the last bit of information.

“The last two men both ran screaming from my bed, one during and one after. The last time I tried to be intimate with someone was probably a year ago. Stop me if I’m scaring you, Ben.”

Ben looked at Regina and laughed out loud, drawing the attention of the other diners. The only thing he was scared about was keeping up with her. If Regina Logan followed through on even half of the desire he felt radiating from her, he’d be too exhausted to run from the bed.
There
, Ben thought with another laugh,
one problem solved as far as he was concerned
.

“You’re laughing at me now Ben, but I carry condoms all the time and have no problems recommending male enhancement drugs if I feel they are needed,” Regina said more gently.

Ben laughed more softly and just shook his head. How could he explain his reaction to her? Maybe it was his whole history with Catherine. He knew what it took to have a good sex life. He didn’t for a moment doubt his ability to please her in bed. What had come before he touched Regina simply wasn’t going to be an issue for him. He wasn’t quite sure how it would work, but being with her still felt like the right thing. For Ben, instinct was enough to build on.

Reaching out, he took Regina’s hand when her second drink arrived. He waited until she had the drink to her lips before speaking. He smiled and winked, delighted when she choked a bit. He absolutely loved knowing he could unnerve her.

“Okay. I’m not laughing anymore,” Ben said, still smiling. “I heard your lectures today and realize how straightforward you are about sex. So let’s get some things settled. First, I’ll buy my own condoms because you probably don’t have the right size to fit me. That’s not bragging, just a fact—but it probably needs to be said up front.”

Ben fought not to laugh at the excitement in her gaze.

“Next, I’m going to be very bold and suggest—given both our limited sexual histories and the last time we had partners—that we don’t even need to use the condoms unless it’s important to you or you could still get pregnant. Quite frankly, I want to take the intimacy risk with you. I think it’s going to communicate very clearly that I believe everything you have ever said to me about who you are and what you have and have not done,” Ben told her. “I want to trust you and I want you to trust me, Regina.”

He picked up her hand with the ugly watch attached to the wrist, and sucked a finger into his mouth. Ben watched her eyes grow dark as midnight as he tasted the flavor of her drink and her. They both shivered when he groaned.

Ben let her finger go reluctantly, and then let her hand rest alone again on the table as well. Regina whimpered then, saying his name so softly Ben could barely hear it, but his erection answered the whispered plea. By now, he was getting used to being semi-hard around Regina most of the time, so he was able to pick up the dinner menu and start looking over it.

“The last and most important thing I need to say is that I want you more than any woman I’ve ever known. But seriously, Dr. Logan, if I take a drug that keeps me going for hours and hours, I may damage us both trying to get my fill of you in one night. I’ll try to keep an open mind about it if you insist,” Ben said, calling her bluff, pretending he was more interested in ordering food. “Do you know if the steak is good?”

Regina’s hand trembled as she raised the drink to her lips and sipped. Ben had to work extremely hard at not laughing at Regina’s melted form. He couldn’t help feeling damn proud of himself for managing to destroy her impressive composure at last.

“I don’t know about the steak,” Regina said, clearing her throat and looking for her dignity. “I’m mostly a vegetarian, but meat doesn’t offend me. Please eat what you like.”

“Mostly vegetarian, huh? Looks like I’m learning all kinds of things about you today,” Ben said companionably, smiling at her again.

After dinner, they walked to the hotel lobby together. Regina excused herself and went to the front desk. She came back and pressed a room key card into Ben’s hand. “I have to attend a late workshop panel I promised to mediate. If you still want to stay, I should be finished by ten.”

“Are you sure?” Ben asked, eyes serious even if his tone was teasing. “I wouldn’t blame you for having some doubts. I know I get traumatized about having to commit to a new toothbrush. I hadn’t really thought about what would happen if you actually said yes and let me stay.”

“Well, this is me saying yes. I want you to stay,” she told him, laughing at his teasing. She reached out to kiss him quickly. Ben leaned into her to return the kiss, but pulled back quickly as well.

Later
, he promised himself.
Later. Then he was going to have all he wanted of her.

Regina dashed off smiling, while Ben stared for long moments at the key card in his hand. He bought toothpaste, a toothbrush, condoms, and a change of underwear from the lobby store before heading up.

In Regina’s room, he lay down on her bed, using the side not containing the clothes she had obviously shed from the night before. Picking them up, Ben inhaled the scent of her. It made him both restless and brought him peace. He folded and laid them next to his head on the pillow, turned his face into them, and fell straight to sleep.

Regina opened the door quietly and saw Ben Kaiser sleeping peacefully on her bed. Then she saw his face pressed into her nightclothes. She had to bite a quivering bottom lip to keep from crying at the sweetness of the gesture.

Damn the man for blasting a hole in every defense mechanism she had spent years creating for herself. At every turn, Ben Kaiser stripped her down emotionally to nothing more than a wishing, hopeful mess of a woman. Regina wanted to hate him for it, but between his tongue probing kisses and the finger-sucking thing, she was too far gone to fight the physical attraction between them.

All she could hope now was that there would be enough of her left when Ben was done to go on without him when she needed to do so.

Regina stepped out of her shoes and dropped her bag into a chair. After a quick trip to the bathroom to freshen up, she came back out and crawled onto the bed beside Ben, wearing only her slip. It was the best she could do not having brought any seduction wear with her. She hadn’t even brought any sexy underwear along, so she’d come to bed without any at all, hoping it would shock and please Ben a little to discover the absence of it later.

Her body barely hit the bed before Ben pulled her into his arms. Sleepy or not, Regina realized, Ben had been waiting for her to return.

“I missed you,” Ben whispered as his hands stroked her back firmly, making her arch against him.

Regina felt him run both hands down her hips and across the silky slip before he paused. His hands shook a little as they pulled the hem of the slip up her legs. When he could get his hands fully under it, Ben unerringly found her naked backside. The quiver in his touch and his ragged sigh made Regina giggle. It had taken the man all of fifteen seconds to discover she was naked under the slip.

“Regina,” Ben choked, one hand moving to the front of her thighs and between her legs to discover she was already very hot and very wet. Ben left his hand there, absorbing his discovery, while his heartbeat tried to find a steady pace that wouldn’t rocket him off somewhere without her.

Regina clamped her thighs to hold Ben’s hand in place between them, and then leaned into him to kiss his neck, enjoying the rough scrape of beard already growing there.

Ben sighed against her hair and dipped his mouth to hers. His tongue sought hers for a lifeline, and Regina threw it out to him willingly. He broke their kiss roughly and pulled back to look at her.

“Condom or no condom?” Ben demanded desperately.

“No condom. There’s no chance of pregnancy,” Regina told him. “I decided I feel the same way you do about trust.”

Ben kissed her hard in reply, his jaw tight with a determination that actually worried her a little.

“I need to have my hand back,” Ben said logically, “unless you know another way to get me out of my clothes.”

Regina loosened her thighs and laughed when Ben groaned and slid a teasing intimate finger across her wet heat before moving away. He rolled agilely to the side of the bed and stood. When his shirt came off Regina stared in shock at the hard abs and the flat stomach. She had expected Ben to look good, but had not expected him to look unbelievably hot.

“I can’t believe you’ve been hiding such an amazing body under dress shirts,” she exclaimed. “That’s got to be a crime somewhere.”

Ben laughed at her flamboyant praise. “Well, I spent a lot of time working off frustration the last several years. This six-pack is a testimony to just how frustrated I was.”

When his pants and underwear hit the floor, Regina drew in a breath at surprise number two.

“Holy shit,” she said, unable to stop the expletive. It’s one thing to see a picture of a well-endowed man, totally another to be confronted with a real one standing by your bed. Ben was completely naked now, hands on hips, grinning at her stare.

Regina was speechless again, the second time he’d caused her to be so, but it was obvious Ben was waiting for her to say how she felt about the size of his—assets. She made a mental note to cover the etiquette of this moment in her next book. In the meantime, well she’d have to settle for honesty.

“Sorry about the swearing, but based on my limited experience, you’re a bit more endowed than I was expecting. I’ve never seen a man like you outside of a textbook.” Regina sighed, wishing she could have had time to think of something more sexy to say. She probably sounded like a silly girl.

“Are you afraid of my size?” Ben asked plainly, knowing that level of honesty was what someone like Regina would expect.

She checked in with herself for worry, but found only anticipation. “Not so far. I’ll let you know if I have any problems,” Regina told him, meaning it. She patted the space beside her. “Come to bed, Ben.”

When Ben came back, he stretched out, letting his erection rest on Regina’s thigh after he’d climbed in beside her.

When Regina put a tentative hand between them to stroke his length, Ben closed his eyes in gratitude for the touch.

“Catherine was sick for two years before she died,” Ben told her softly. “We had separate bedrooms toward the end. I haven’t had sex with a woman in a really long time, Regina. I can tell you for a fact I’m not going to last more than five minutes inside you.”

Regina said nothing, just gently stroked his length in appreciation of the man. She was thrilled when Ben moaned.

“Hell, I might not even last five minutes if you keep stroking me like that,” Ben warned. “There’s going to be a second, and maybe even a third time tonight. I will take care of your needs, Regina. I’m going to eventually make you very glad you let me in your bed.”

Regina laughed then, making a sound of pity with her tongue as she shook her head. “If we’re sharing bedroom confessions, then what you need to know about me is I don’t fake my orgasms, Ben. So don’t be hurt if I don’t have one. Now get inside me, and let’s get the first time over,” she said to him teasingly. “Your promises just make me more impatient. I’m already thinking about next time.”

Ben happily rolled himself onto her fully, his erection settling between her soft thighs. He pulled and pushed the slip completely above her waist as Regina spread her legs to give him access.

“You don’t have to wait,” Regina said on a moan. “I’ve been ready for you since the first time you kissed me.”

“God, Regina. You’re so damn honest,” Ben groaned, and began to ease into her gently, withdrawing and moving forward just a little at a time.

Regina murmured approval as she lifted her knees to make more room for him. When Ben was halfway inside her depths, Regina realized this was where she had been before with other men. Moments later Ben was more deeply inside her than that and her heartbeat thundered in surprise, maybe some worry even. Then as if he knew her concerns, Ben stopped to kiss her neck, to probe her mouth with his tongue, and to whisper how much he wanted her in her ear.

“Ben, please,” Regina called finally, tired of him holding back. She wanted all of him.

Ben groaned in relief when he finally plunged home inside Regina all the way.

“Ben,” Regina called, her throat tight with emotion. Realizing Ben fit completely inside her like a missing puzzle piece, tears welled at the rightness of it. It wasn’t long before she was openly weeping as she lifted her hips to meet Ben’s deep and possessive thrusts.