Misbehaving

  up the butt whether he likes it or not.” Ben glared at Henry. Henry blanched.

  “We’re going. Thank you both.” Claudia grabbed Henry by the front of his shirt and dragged him from the room.

  “So…” Beatriz said once they were alone again in her room, “just use lube?”

  “I was bi for like a week in college,” he said.

  Beatriz sat on the bed and looked up at him.

  “Thank you for getting Henry and straightening this mess out,” she said, feeling uncharacteristically nervous around Ben. They’d been having sex only five hours ago, but that was before Henry decided to turn the world upside-down.

  Ben shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I knew he had to be hallucinating or something to think Claudia was cheating on him.”

  “Guess this is my fault. Well, John’s fault. That’s fine. It gives me another reason to yell at him.”

  “As long as you aren’t yelling at me anymore.”

  “About that…” Beatriz began, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear in nervousness. “I’m sorry. I overreacted and—”

  Ben held up his hand and Beatriz fell silent.

  “You never asked me how I know Spanish,” Ben said. “Ever been curious?”

  “Not really,” she admitted. “I assumed you learned it in high school.”

  “I didn’t. How old were you your senior year of college?” Ben asked.

  “Twenty-one.”

  “Right. I was twenty-three. Ever wonder why I was two years older than Henry our senior year?”

  “I just assumed you’d been held back in high school,” she teased.

  Ben laughed. “Not quite. I graduated salutatorian. Brooks was my dream school but scholarships and student loans didn’t cover the tuition. I got a job after high school. Construction work. And then I got a second job—waiting tables at a Mexican restaurant. I did both for two years before I could afford Brooks.”

  “I didn’t know that,” Beatriz said. “You fit in so well with Henry and Claudia that I thought you were one of them.”

  “Rich kids?”

  “Right.”

  “I’m not. Never was. I worked my ass off to afford Brooks. My parents worked their asses off for me to afford Brooks. I didn’t think they’d be thrilled to hear that I’d turned down the six-figure job waiting for me after college because I’d fallen for a freshman and needed to hang around a few years until she graduated.”

  “I wouldn’t want to make that phone call either,” Beatriz admitted.

  Ben shrugged. “It’s no big deal. Mom and Dad never acted like they minded what they had to sacrifice. But I minded. So I decided I’d have no commitments. If things got too serious with a girl, I broke up with her. I had one close friend—Henry. Casual dating. Bea, I didn’t even join a frat. Nothing serious for me except the job at the end of the tunnel.”

  “You and I didn’t get serious. We went on one date. Not even a date. Half a date,” she reminded him. One walk around campus, talking, and the kiss to end all kisses.

  “No, but we would have,” Ben said. “That was love at first sight, and I’m not even kidding. I couldn’t believe how crazy I was about you. It scared the hell out of me.”

  “Why? I’m not that scary, I promise.”

  “You were then,” Ben said. “You were a freshman. I was going to graduate. I had a great job already waiting for me on the other side of the country…. I was scared to death you were going to give me a reason to fuck all that up.”

  “Thanks for thinking I’d ruin your life.”

  Ben laughed and squeezed her knee. The heat from his hand seeped into her skin. She wanted to wrap her arms around Ben and hold him, but held back. He had to talk and she had to listen.

  “It’s not that. You couldn’t ruin anyone’s life if you tried. I just had my eyes forward and on the future, on what would happen as soon as I graduated. I didn’t want anyone giving me a reason to look back.”

  “And I made you want to look back?” Beatriz asked.

  “You,” he said, taking her face in his hands, “made me want to look at you. Always. All the time. All day and all night. And so when Henry asked me to back off…”

  “You backed off.”

  Ben nodded. “It was the perfect excuse. ‘Do the right thing, Ben. Your best friend asks you not to sleep with his girlfriend’s little sister, then you don’t sleep with your best friend’s girlfriend’s little sister.’ And I could pat myself on the back for being such a good friend. But the truth was, I probably would have slept with you and broken up with you like Henry said I would have. And not because I wasn’t crazy about you, but because I was so crazy about you, it scared me.”

  “I’m going to try to take that as a compliment.”

  “It is. Bea…my father sold his Harley Davidson which he’d saved up for since he was fifteen to help me pay for Brooks. The most beautiful bike on the planet. He sold it without batting an eye. I couldn’t pay him back by screwing up my future.”

  Beatriz smiled at him. “I like your dad. Sounds like a wonderful man.”

  “He is. Hope I take after him.”

  “I verbally castrated you today and you took it like a man, found Henry, saved their wedding and didn’t once tell me to shut the hell up.”

  “Well…your sexy Spanish accent comes out when you’re mad. I should piss you off more often.”

  Beatriz laughed and ran a hand through her hair while trying to think of the best words to say to him. She found two words very quickly.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Ben took her hand and kissed the back of it.

  “So am I.”

  “So now what?” she asked, squeezing his hand.

  “We do need to get back to our work, don’t we?” Ben asked and Beatriz raised her eyebrow at him. “What? Too soon?”

  Beatriz burst into laughter and she stood up in front of him. She took his phone from his hand and laid it on the bedside table.

  “Never too soon,” she said and started undressing.

  Ben stood up and ran his hands down her back before slipping them under her dress. He cupped her bottom and squeezed.

  “So what chapter are we on?” Ben slid the straps of her dress down and pushed it all the way to the floor. They quickly dispensed with all her clothes and his, too.

  “Anal,” Beatriz said as she dragged Ben down to the bed and on top of her. He kissed her roughly as his hands roved all over her naked body. She lifted her hips in an invitation and Ben pushed his thumb and index finger into her, letting the knuckle of his thumb grind deep into her G-spot. As she moved her hips in rhythm with his hand, she reached out and grabbed THE MANUAL off the bedside table.

  Ben took the book from her hand and tossed it across the room.

  “What did you do that for?” Beatriz asked, shocked by his violence to the book.

  “Because, I got this.” Ben grinned down at her and Beatriz’s body temperature shot up from the heat in the look alone.

  “You did say you were bi in college,” she said.

  “For like a week. But trust me, it was an educational week. You want to do this?”

  Beatriz raised her head and kissed him. As she kissed him she felt the stirrings of something deep and dangerous, something she thought she’d killed and buried back in college. Love. Stupid, foolish, stubborn love. Ben had let her chew him out and then instead of pouting or fighting back, he’d gone out and saved the day. And although he’d walk away from her again at the end of the week, she let go and let herself love him. She’d survived loving him and losing him before. She’d survive it again.

  “I want to do everything with you, Ben.”

  He grinned down at her.

  “Everything?” he asked.

  “Absolutely.”

  “Good. Your sex toys nearly train-wrecked a wedding today. I think we should put them to better use.”

  “I love the way you think.”

  They kissed again, kissed until Beatriz
couldn’t stand it anymore. She had to have him inside her. Gently Ben pushed her onto her stomach and let her lay there relaxing while he gathered all the necessary supplies. He kissed Beatriz’s back, up and down her spine, and she shivered from the gentle pleasure. The kissing continued as he flipped open the lube, poured it onto his fingertips, and started to work it inside her. She pulled her knees into her chest to open herself up further.

  “You’re amazing. You know that, right?” Ben asked as he started to work his wet fingers into her.

  “Always nice to hear from a man with three fingers in your asshole.”

  “That’s what I mean. You’re so comfortable with yourself. Nothing scares you or freaks you out.”

  “I hate centipedes.”

  “Okay, other than centipedes. I just mean you’re so free and open. I love that about you.”

  “Well, you’re smart, hilarious, and you hunted Henry down like a dog and dragged him back to reality. I love all that about you.”

  Ben rolled a condom on and covered himself in lubricant. Slowly he started to push into her.

  “God, you’re tight,” Ben groaned.

  “That was a good groan?” Beatriz asked.

  “The best groan. I could live and die inside you.” He pushed in deeper.

  “And that…” she moaned the words. “I love that about you.”

  “What?” Ben pushed himself a few more inches into her.

  “Your cock. I love your cock. Especially when it’s in me.”

  “That’s its favorite place to be, I promise.” He sank into her all the way as Beatriz took slow deep breaths. Her body welcomed his in further with each exhalation.

  Carefully, Ben began to thrust into her—long, slow, thrusts, both gentle and deep. Her muscles twitched and tightened around him.

  “Ay dios mío, que rico,” she half breathed, half moaned.

  “I only caught the first part of that,” he said. “Oh, God, something something.”

  Beatriz turned her head to the side and he saw the smile on her face.

  “I said, ‘Oh, God, that’s good.’ When I’m this turned on, I forget English.”

  “Good sign then. Let’s see if I can get any more Spanish out of you.” Ben picked up the dildo that had arrived for Beatriz under Claudia’s name. Beatriz laughed a rich, throaty laugh. She’d forgotten the last time she’d been this turned on.

  “I knew you were the right man for this job,” she said as he knelt behind her again.

  She shivered as Ben ran his hand up and down her naked back again.

  “Beatriz…you should know, this might just be work for you, for your column, but it’s not for me. I mean, for me, this isn’t work. I hope that’s okay.”

  She heard the sincerity in his voice, the hunger and the heat, and also something more. More than passion, more than lust. It penetrated her right to the heart.

  “It’s okay, Ben. It’s more than work for me, too. A lot more.”

  “Good,” he said softly and Beatriz swallowed hard and said nothing more. If she said anything it would be, “I’m falling in love with you again,” and she wasn’t ready to say that yet. So instead she spread her legs wider as Ben came up on his hands and knees behind her. What she couldn’t say with her words she would say with her body. Ben pushed the dildo into her vagina. That was the easy part. Once more Ben started to enter her anally. He went even slower this time, which she appreciated. She wanted him inside her, filling her up completely, but she didn’t want him to rush it.

  “Is this too much?” he asked as he started to work his way into her again. With the dildo inside her, Beatriz felt even tighter.

  “No. I love it. It’s tight, and I feel really full, but in a good way. Don’t stop.”

  “That’s all I needed to hear.”

  Beatriz slipped a hand between her legs to hold the dildo in place so Ben could focus his entire attention on getting back inside her. It took longer this time. He pushed in an inch and stopped to let her adjust to him. Then another inch. In a few minutes she’d taken his full length inside her. She loved how careful he was with her, how controlled. Once he was fully penetrating her again, Ben eased them both down flat onto the bed and covered her hands with his.

  As he moved in her, she studied the sight of his hands over her hands, their fingers twined together. She shouldn’t feel this much, want him this much. She clung to his hand and wished she never had to let it go.

  Ben kept his movements short and cautious as he pushed in and out of her.

  “How does it feel?” she asked him. From his ragged breaths she could tell he was enjoying himself.

  “Tight. Unbelievably tight. I could come any second now.”

  “You can if you need to,” she offered.

  “No way. That’s the last thing I want. I want to be inside you as long as I can.”

  Ben kissed her back and shoulders as Beatriz writhed and panted underneath him, English and Spanish both lost to her.

  Ben reached around her hip and pressed two fingers on either side of her clitoris. She wanted to come so badly, wanted them to come together, something they hadn’t achieved yet. Her soft moans grew louder, more desperate and hungry.

  “Come with me,” she said, her voice barely audible between breaths.

  With his fingers working her clitoris, he thrust faster and harder into her. She’d never felt such pressure in her back and stomach. Every muscle in her body had gone taut as steel. Her ears buzzed as Ben’s hips pumped against her and not even a gun to her head could have stopped the orgasm that exploded from her and into him. As she rode out her climax, she felt Ben stiffen on top of her before he groaned, grinding his own orgasm into her.

  As soon as Beatriz came they both caught their breaths. Ben carefully pulled out of her. She grunted in some discomfort but then laughed at herself.

  “We don’t have any wedding stuff to do today?” she asked as she rolled onto her back and opened her legs. Ben slid the dildo out of her.

  “Nope. Why?

  “I don’t think I’ll be able to walk until tomorrow. Or the next day. Maybe ever.”

  “Walking’s overrated,” Ben said before kissing her. “And I’m not letting you out of bed until tomorrow.”

  “What if I want to give you another blow job in the shower?”

  Ben paused, clearly considering the question.

  “Okay. Exception for blow jobs.”

  Beatriz stretched out on his chest and settled against him. She had never felt such contentment. This went beyond afterglow. Afterglow was a sunny day. She was walking on the surface of the sun itself. She wanted every night to be like this night. Sex or no sex she wanted to end every day with Ben. He made her laugh, made her come, made her smile even when he wasn’t around. He’d failed her once and only once and she knew he would never do it again. He’d proven that today by finding Henry and saving the wedding. He was a good man, a beautiful man, the man she wanted in her life, in her bed and in her body.

  Well, fuck her up the butt and call her Henry.

  She was in love.

  Chapter Twelve

  It nearly gave the wedding planner a heart attack, but Claudia, five minutes before the wedding began, rearranged the order of the bridesmaids. She didn’t care about height or symmetry. She only wanted to tease Ben and Beatriz by forcing them to walk down the aisle side-by-side at the end of the wedding.

  Beatriz didn’t complain at all about her new escort.