Private Message (22 page)

I lean over her and kiss her on the cheek.

"Is that all you got, Bond?" I laugh through my last tears. I grab her face with both of my hands and kiss her. Hard.

A knock on the door disturbs out moment. Damn it. It's a police officer. "Sorry to interrupt, but I need Ms. Martin's statement now."

Tess blushes a little and nods. The officer asks for the name of Tess's attacker, and I hear it for the first time.

"How do you know Mr. Stratton?"

"Initially we worked together for two years. But after tonight I learned that I knew him from three years ago."

Now I am confused.

"How is that, Ms. Martin?" the cops asks her.

She closes her eyes and looks up at me. "Dave was the one who tried to attack me at a concert three years ago. Ben here saved me from him then, not knowing me at the time. He told me tonight that he had to have a lot of facial surgeries to fix what Ben did. And he wanted revenge. So he stalked me and befriended me into trusting him, so he could get his wish. He also broke into my apartment and stole my sketchbook. It had a detailed sketch of Ben in there and he threw it in my face, telling me that 'your boyfriend will pay'"

I am going to kill the fucker. I should have the first time.

The cop nods. "That's what Mr. Stratton admitted to as well this evening when we picked him up."

Smart move, asshole. You're lucky to be behind bars.

The officer says he'll take a full statement later, and leaves.

"I thought you said this Dave guy was gay?" I ask her.

She shrugs. "That's what he made me believe to raise the trust bar. Sick, right?"

"Very. Thankfully they have him now and I don't have any plans on letting you go," I tell her.

She smiles and takes my hand. "Good."

It's been four days since my attack. I recovered pretty quickly, and returned to work as normal on Wednesday. Ben has been busy with his new feature from covering the DJ from Pearl that night. Tonight, however, both of us are free.

I decide to pull out the dress Erin begged me to buy on our shopping trip. It's spaghetti-strapped, with a deep red corset-ribbed top, and the bottom part is black, with thin layers of sheer material. I pair it with my crimson red pumps that match my lipstick perfectly. I do a half pull back with my hair allowing my shorter strands to fall loose around my face. Looking in the mirror, I hardly recognize myself, but you know what? For the first time in my life I feel hot, and just might fit in with the in crowd at the bar tonight. Ben mentioned he might stop in for a drink at Chatz tonight. Apparently he and the burly bartender are friends.

I look around for Ben's Ducati, but thankfully I don't see it…yet. I know Chatz is going to be crawling with horny drunks looking for a hookup. God, I can see all the typos now on the screen...

The bar is full, but I spot an empty seat at the end. The same burly bartender asks for my ID again, even though he has seen me a couple of times now. He looks at my license and back to me, raising an eyebrow.

"You were here a couple of times the other week. Damn, you look different! Hot!" he exclaims. I give a polite smile. I have never taken compliments well; they make me feel uncomfortable.

"Rum and Coke, please."

I pull out my phone and get logged in. As soon as I enter the chat room, it's full of come-ons, bad pickup lines and drunken typos, just as I predicted.

I sit and watch the conversations.

Jeremy88: Hey
SweetSarah how you doin' baby?

SweetSarah:
Hey Jeremy88 I am doing good, a little tipsy and ready for someone to take me home, why don't you give your hand a little raise so I know who I am going home with tonight.

Wow, really? I don't think I have seen a woman be so forward here before. It's kinda cool and refreshing. Why shouldn't she just go for what she wants? I keep watching the screen when…oh shit.

Slippery_When_Wet69:
Hey Big_Ben I know your hiding in here somewhere, come out, come out wherever you are.

Big_Ben:
I told you to leave me the fuck alone. I am not here for you or anyone else tonight.

Whoa.

Slippery_When_Wet69:
Oh come on baby I will take care of you. You seem down, let me make it all better.

I wait for Ben to say something to her, when I see a little red dot appear at the top of my screen

"1 Private Message"

Ben…oh thank God.

Big_Ben:
Tess what are you doing here? And where are you sitting? I don't see you.

Punky_Painter:
I'm at the bar. I was hoping to see you.

Big_Ben:
I'm not here looking for a hookup Tess. Please don't think. I just came in for a drink before I went home.

Punky_Painter:
Come talk to me, please.

Big_Ben:
Weren't you supposed to be working tonight?

You know what? I have had enough if this softball crap. I get up and walk to the restroom. In a stall, I hang up my purse.

Big_Ben:
I am at the bar, where did you go?

I tip the top of my dress and let my breasts peek out, and I hold out my phone and snap a photo. I can't believe I am actually doing this, but I want to get his attention somehow.

And I hit send.

I wait for a reply, but I don't get one. I hear someone come into the bathroom. And what sounds like the door being locked. What the hell?

I am the only one in here, so this doesn't make sense. I watch the floor and the space between the stall door and the floor, and I see a pair of nice black MEN'S dress shoes stop at my stall, and then hear a small knock. My heart is racing at this point. I am no longer someone who likes to be snuck up on. Not after everything that has happened. I am about to freak out and scream, I hear a very familiar accent "Tess."

When I open the stall, I see Ben. Oh, God he looks so hot and tasty in his suit. He looks at me with hooded eyes, and I realize my breasts are barely covered. I cover myself up as he enters the stall and closes the door.

My breathing hitches; I am wet already. He hasn't yet touched me and I am ready for him. He gently grabs my elbow to steer my back against the stall door and pins my body between his thick arms as they reach out on both sides of my head, trapping me.

I lick my red-stained bottom lip when he leans in closer. That's all it took. His mouth was on mine so fast I didn't have a chance to release my lip, but he did it for me. He thrusts his tongue in my eager mouth. I need him, I need to taste him. I reach down for his belt, then his button, and finally his zipper.

Then I do something I have never done before. I drop to my knees. I reach into his pants; he is already hard as a rock. I stroke him for a moment and I look up at him. He stares at me as I lick the tip of his head and a tight gasp escapes his lips, this giving me the courage to take him deep into my mouth and as far as I could in my throat. He groans loudly and holds my head. I pick up my pace, sucking and licking every long delicious inch of him. He rocks his hips with my rhythm, and as soon as I am about to go deep again, he pulls away. Backing up enough to look me in the eyes, he puts his index finger under my chin and urges me to stand up. I do.

His mouth goes for my breasts, fully exposed now, and he sucks and teases one nipple and rolling the other with his thumb and forefinger. I throw my head back and moan. He moves his eager mouth to my neck and hikes up the hem of my dress. I feel him rip off my lace thong. Holy crap, that is incredibly hot. He reaches up my thigh and slips his fingers between my lips and begins to tease me. Not being able to take any more, I break the silence.

"Fuck me." I tell him.

"No."

"Why? I need you."

He looks me in the eye. "I told you once already, Tess. I won't fuck you. You are more than a fuck or a lay. What I am going to do to you is press you up against this stall door and make love to you fast and very hard."

I nearly come at his words. "Then do it, make love to me. But you can't leave me anymore. You have done it one too many times now, in the times I have needed you the most. Even when I didn't know it was you that night, I needed YOU."

"I know." He takes a condom out of his pocket, tears it open with his teeth and rolls it on. He lifts me at my waist, pushing my back against the door, and I feel the head of his dick at my opening.

"Please," I beg with a whimper, and he slams into me just as he promised, hard and fast. I let out a high-pitched squeal and catch a smile on his lips. He keeps up his fast pace and as I feel myself building, going higher and higher, he moans my name, and I am lost. I am soaring above Earth, searching for my body, as I come plummeting back.

We are both breathing heavily when he carefully lowers me to the floor and helps fix the straps to my dress. He then pinches the tip of the condom, squinting as he pulls it off and tosses it in the toilet behind him.

"I really hate these suckers," he says with a little snicker.

I giggle a little. "I can see about going on the pill. That is, if we are going to make this a regular thing."

He smirks. "Oh, it will be. If you'll have me?"

"Sir, are you asking to be mine?" I tease him in a mock English accent.

He raises an eyebrow. "Well, whenever I asked you to be mine, you never fully answered so I may as well ask to be yours."

I lick my lips and nod slowly.

"Let me buy you a drink." he states.

We walk out of the restroom to find a line of women impatiently waiting.

Oh, crap, crap! People know that we just had a quickie in a public restroom. I probably look like a pretty big slut right now. Then Ben does something that surprises me: He takes my hand. And leads me down the slim hallway back out to the bar. I look to the right and to the left to see the women glaring at me, passing their judgments on me. Then one speaks up. "I see how it is, Ben, you take the short dog into the toilet for a quick screw but you won't even give me the time of day?"

Ben stops in his tracks and turns toward her. "If you EVER say anything like that again to or about my GIRLFRIEND, I will be sure that everyone will know what you did to Dan and what kind of a dirty bag you are. Do you understand me, Jackie?"

I look up; she has the look of pure horror and humiliation. Good. Jackie just nods. I wonder how he knows her or her name and what dirt he has on her.

Ben offers me a stool at the bar and sits next to me, not letting go of my hand.

"Girlfriend, huh?" I ask him.

He smiles his million-dollar panty-dropping smile. "Is that all right with you? I know you wanted to know last week what we were. I suppose now I know and so do you."

I try to resist the megawatt smile from spreading across my face. "What makes you think I want to be your girlfriend?"

He leans in close to my ear, brushing his lips against my cheek and says, "Because what you and I have is the most important thing to me and I will not let you slip through my fingers, that and you're not the 'fuck 'em and leave 'em' kind of girl."

I am literally panting.

I sigh. "I guess you're right, Bond. You have officially ruined me."

He lightly laughs. "Back to Bond, are we? Punky?"

The sound of our nicknames makes me full on laugh and snort a little. Oh God! I cover my face in horror, but Ben pulls them away and holds them both.

"Don't ever hide who you are."

I blush. "So who was that woman and what did she do to Dan?" I ask him

"Let's get our drinks, head to a sofa, and I will tell you." He orders us glasses of moscato. We sit; he puts his long arm around my shoulder. Oh, I am loving this. He is so warm and smells a mix of me and him. I take a little sip of my wine and notice him staring at my mouth.

I put my free hand on his thigh. "So…?"

"All right, so, when my family and I moved here from London, Dan was a guy who lived up the street and we became fast friends, and even attempted a little band out of his garage. We were inseparable. He's a great guy and even though we didn't go to the same college, we ended up working at
Tones
together. We have been friends since we were fifteen."

He pauses, takes a sip of his wine, licks his tasty lips, and I oh so bravely push myself up and lick them myself. I have no self-control at the time being. He looks at me with burning eyes when I settle back down next to him.

"Like I was saying…Dan and I worked at Tones together and he started to date this girl, who he fell pretty hard for. They dated for nearly a year, and one day he discovers he has crabs. Now we all know you can get crabs from a public toilet, but in Dan's case it was because his girlfriend was cheating on him with any guy who would look at her, and that was a lot."

"Jackie?"

He nods his head. "Yes. So obviously Dan dumped her ass, before he could catch another STD, and was so humiliated and fed up that he asked to be relocated to another location."

"So do you still see Dan?" I can tell he misses his old friend.