The Inn at Laurel Creek (4 page)

"Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority."

"What's that?" he asked.

"You know, MARTA? The transportation company? They run
the buses and trains and stuff."

"Oh, MARTA," he said. "I thought that stood for moving armed
robbers through Atlanta." He laughed.

I laughed, too. "I hadn't heard that one before."

"I'm pretty sure I just made it up."

"Got it." I nodded. "Anyway, I'm the lead on their account."

"That's cool," he said. "So what do you do for them? Their advertising?"

"I work with their advertising company, yes, but I do a lot more than that. I handle all of their internal marketing pieces and stuff. I also designed the format for the messages on the buses and I'm in the process of creating a mural piece for the inside of their new railway bus. I'm really excited about that."

He tilted his head. "Look at you. You
are
excited. Your eyes are sparkling and your face is flushed. Clearly you love what you do."

I touched my cheek. "I go a little overboard when I talk about
work sometimes. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. It looks good on you." He leaned over and brushed a hair away from my face. His lips were less than six inches
from mine, and I had to force myself from tilting my head to kiss him. "You have a beautiful smile."

His touch caused the butterflies sleeping in my stomach to wake up and dance. I desperately wanted to set them free, but knew the only way to do that would involve physical contact and I didn't want
to force
myself on him. "Oh, thanks." I stood. "Well, I guess I'd better go and
get ready for dinner."

He stood too. "Yeah, me too. So, I'll see you in the dining room then?"

"Yup," I said walking inside. "That's where they serve dinner, so I'll be there."

He shuffled from one foot to the other. "Okay, great. See you at dinner," he said, walking toward me.

I backed up into the house, my eyes locked with his. "Okay. See you at dinner."

He stepped closer, his body not even an inch from mine. His fingers
just barely grazed my hips, sending sparks sailing directly into my skin and throughout my body. "Dinner then," he whispered in a deep, sexy tone.

"Uh huh. Dinner," I replied, and then quickly turned and walked up the stairs to my room, my heart racing the entire way.

I shut my door behind me, leaned against it and sank to the
floor.
"Holy crap, Ben is hot." I pressed my hand to my chest. "Slow down little one, you don't wanna go and have a heart attack right when
things are
gettin' good, do ya?" I inhaled deeply through my nose and blew it slowly out through my mouth. "Wow. Wow. Wow."

Five minutes later my butt was sore from the hard wood floor, so I got up and lay across the bed. The windows in the room were open and a gentle breeze floated in, the smell of lavender settling on the duvet. My eyelids weighed a ton and I forced them to stay open, staring at the popcorn ceiling, thinking about Ben and not even realizing I'd
drifted off to sleep.

***

"Carly honey, everything okay in there, dear?" It was Lou,
knocking on my door.

My eyes shot open and I sat up, startled. "Ah, yeah, I'm good, Lou. Just a sec." I climbed off of the bed, ran my hand through my
hair and
searched in the dark for the door. When I opened it, Lou was
smiling.

"Well look what the cat drug in," she said. "I guess you plum
needed yourself a bit of a nap, huh?" She eyed my hair.

I patted my head, trying to make myself presentable. "What time is it?"

"It's after ten o'clock," she said. "We was gettin' worried about you. Figured I had better check and make sure you was still breathing right quick."

I crossed my arms. "I missed dinner."

"That you did," she said. "But no matter." She waved her hand to show me she didn't mind. "I saved you some. You hungry? I might
could bring it up if you'd like?"

I heard an acoustic guitar playing from the French doors leading out to the deck, and knew it was Ben. "That would be lovely, Lou. Thank you." I glanced at my clothes, which were a wrinkled mess. "I'm just going to freshen up a bit, and then sit on the deck up here. May I eat there?"

"You sure can. I'll prepare a tray for you and bring it up right quick."

"Thanks, Lou. I appreciate it."

She smiled, flicked her head toward the deck and whispered, "Ben looked a little sad when you didn't show up in the dining room.
The way he talked about you and all, I think he's a little love struck."

I blushed. "I doubt that."

She nodded. "I don't. I've known that boy since he was nothing but a seed in his momma's belly, and I never seen him like this before. And what with him able to have any girl he wants, too." She winked and pointed her finger at my chest. "But you got a good heart, and I think he sees that."

I didn't know how to respond so I just said, "Thank you. I'll be
ready in a few minutes."

I changed out of my wrinkled clothes, ran a brush through my hair, pulled it back into a clip and brushed my teeth before making an appearance on the deck. I opened the doors slowly so I wouldn't disturb
Ben.

I know nothing about music, except what I like and what I don't
like, and I couldn't say anything about scales, notes or any such things because I didn't know what I didn't know. I just knew that
whatever his fingers strummed on that guitar sounded lovely and made him even more sexy than I thought possible. When he stopped I said, "That's beautiful. Did you write it?"

He twisted his head in my direction. "Still am, actually. This is
just the refrain. I'm still working on the verse."

I sat in the rocker next to him. "I don't know what that means. I just know that it sounds beautiful."

"Thanks, I've been inspired." He strummed on the guitar. "The refrain is basically the chorus of the song. The verse is the sections
where the words are different, but the music is similar."

"Oh, duh. I knew that, about the verse part at least. If you'd said 'chorus' that would have made sense." I listened as he strummed something different. When he finished I said, "Do you write the lyrics
before or after the music?"

"It depends. Sometimes the lyrics come to me first and I work around
them. Other times I have the music in my head and I write lyrics to match it."

"I hope I get to hear your stuff on the radio some day," I said.
"You're really good."

"Thank you. It's nice to know people like what I do." He strummed something that sounded familiar but I couldn't quite place it.

"I know that song. I can't say what it is, but I know it. Did you write it?"

He played more and I realized then that it was a familiar song
from
the radio, I just couldn't think of the name or the artist. "I like the melody.
It's got a nice flow." He put the guitar on his lap, face up. "Missed you at
dinner."

"I fell asleep and didn't wake up until Lou came to check on me. I had no idea I was so tired."

"It's the fresh air. It does it to me when I first get here too, every
single time. You missed some amazing fried catfish."

"Actually, Lou's bringing me some." I twisted my hands
together. "I've never had catfish though, so I'm a little worried."

"Don't be. Lou's a fantastic cook. I'm not a fish fan myself but I'd
sell my guitar for her catfish recipe."

"Good to know—in case I ever need a guitar."

Just then Lou came out with my tray. "Here ya go, honey," she said, handing me a tray full of fried and gravy-laden food, a heart
attack on a
tray. "I put a little extra cheesecake on there for Ben too, seeing as he
likes it so much."

"Thank you, Lou," Ben said, taking the smaller of the two pieces. "One piece wasn't enough earlier." He patted his non-existent belly, and I couldn't help but wonder what lay hidden under his shirt. "But
no more than this. I have my manly figure to maintain, you know."

"Lawdy be," Lou said. "If Stan had a manly figure like that I'd never leave the bedroom." She flicked her head toward me and winked. "Ya'll stay out here as long as you want. We're fixin' to hit
the hay soon so just leave the tray inside on the table and I'll fetch it in the morning."

"Thank you, Lou," I said. "I'm sorry I slept through dinner."

"Oh, don't you be sorry, Carly. It's your vacation. You go and do whatever your little heart desires, ya hear? We'll handle the rest."
With that, she turned and left.

I smiled at Ben. "She's so nice."

"They're great people, both of them. This is like a second home to me."

"They seem to adore you." I looked at the fried catfish on the plate. "I know I said I'd try this but I'm not sure I can." It looked like
chicken
fried steak, only thicker and with a darker breading. "I'm really not big on breaded or fried foods, actually." I picked some of the breading off, revealing the white and brown fish inside. My stomach
churned. "Oh
God, I can't eat this." I moved the green beans around on the plate with the fork and poked at the mashed potatoes smothered in dark
colored gravy. "I don't think I'm all that hungry."

Ben chuckled, set his guitar against the side of his chair and took the tray from my lap. "You'll break Lou's heart if you don't eat it." He took a
bite of the catfish and moaned. "But I'll cover for you." He dipped the fork
into the green beans and scooped a forkful into his mouth. "You owe me," he said, his mouth full of food. Even with his mouth stuffed
with fried catfish, he was hot.

A piece of breading rested on the side of his lip, and I couldn't resist pushing it off. "You had something…" I pulled my hand back. "Sorry."

He clasped my hand with his. "Your skin is soft," he said,
rubbing my fingers with his thumb.

Our hands lingered together and it took everything I had not to lean in and touch his lips with mine. Instead, I let my hand gently drop and then quickly took the other fork and dove into the
cheesecake. "Oh my God, this is amazing."

He nodded. "So's the catfish, really. It tastes a lot better than it looks. And really, there's not as much breading as you think." He pressed the fork into the tender fish and gathered a piece onto it. "Here, just try a bite." He aimed the fork at my mouth. "Here comes
the choo-choo train."

"You're funny." I cringed, but opened my mouth for the food. Hesitantly chewing the piece of breaded fish, I was pleasantly surprised by the non-fishy, smooth flavor. My eyes widened and the sides of my mouth twitched upward. "Oh wow, that
is
good." My
mouth was full of breading and fish. "It's not fishy tasting at all."

He dipped the fork into the mashed potatoes. "How about some
of these?" His voice was deep and raw, and God, it was hot.

I looked him in the eyes and licked my lips before opening my mouth just enough for the fork to enter. I swiped the soft, creamy potatoes from
the fork in one slow, clean motion, hoping it would get his blood pumping a little faster. It must have because his mouth twitched
ever so slightly.

He touched my mouth with a fingertip. "You left a little," he said,
his eyes locked with mine.

It was like porn only with food, and I would burst if something real didn't happen between us soon. I could only play the game for so long before I'd have to throw myself at him, and that was never pretty.

We shared the rest of the meal including the cheesecake, Ben fork-feeding me bites after taking one himself. I loved every bite of all of it, and was incredibly turned on by the sweetness of him
feeding me. He
must have sensed that because he never stopped smiling. His eyes glistened in the moonlight, a devilish sparkle to them, making an already unbelievably romantic moment erotic at the same time. I wondered how many women had been privy to that smile and those eyes, and what it did to their insides. I hoped it wasn't the norm for him, and that his sexy
smile and those provocative eyes were just for me. I shook off the question, instead deciding to enjoy the moment rather than over-analyze
it.

"I told you you'd like it. I bet there's more in the kitchen. Wanna
go look?"

I couldn't eat more food if I'd tried. It was fabulous and a hundred times better than I'd expected, but even though I'd only
eaten half of it,
I was stuffed. I leaned back and patted my belly. "There's no room
left.
Besides, it's not proper manners to go sneaking in the kitchen at
night like that."

"First of all, that belly you're patting looks solid as a rock, and secondly, I steal from that kitchen every time I'm here. Stan and Lou
would think something was wrong with me if I didn't."

"Well, that cheesecake was really good." I shook my head.
"No…no, I can't, but thank you. Maybe tomorrow night?"

"It's a date," Ben said, that sultry grin creeping onto his face all over again.