Prologue
Victoria
Eleven Years Ago
“He makes me sick,” Victoria snapped heading into the lecture hall where the legal contracts class was always held.
“Who? Ben? He’s gorgeous and he’s rich as hell. I’d fuck him in a heartbeat if I had the chance.” Her best friend, Grace Monroe, was a second-year law student with her mind more focused on getting laid and finding the perfect—and by perfect she meant good looking and rich—husband to settle down with than getting her law degree. The degree and subsequent career as an attorney were actually Grace’s back-up plan. Grace didn’t like hard work, which was clear by her lackluster grades.
Victoria Madeline Lashley, was the exact opposite. Hard work should’ve been her middle name and goal-oriented, her nickname. She knew what she wanted and planned to get it without anyone’s help. Especially not some arrogant, stuck up, rich guy who was skating through law school on his good looks and family name.
“You can have him. He’ll never make it as an attorney because he doesn’t care about anyone but himself,” she said.
“And parties. Don’t forget Benjamin Donovan is always the life of the party,” Grace said looking towards the man they were scrutinizing.
He was about five feet eleven, or maybe he was six feet, who knew and who cared? His skin was the exact color of a Hershey bar, plain, no almonds. His eyes that same milky brown color. And his smile, well, he always seemed to be smiling. A fact that both perplexed and pissed Victoria off because it seemed that no matter what her mood was when she saw him, Ben’s smile never failed to make her pussy jump. Today was no different.
Memories of the dream she’d had last night came flooding back, ratcheting her ire toward him up to higher heights. What was it about this man that completely rubbed her the wrong way? Was it just that he was rich and annoying? Or could it be something deeper, something like the fact that she was attracted to him, when he was seriously the very last person in the world she wanted to be dreaming about.
Yet, that dream had seemed so damn realistic, even in the light of day.
He’d come up behind her while she stood on a balcony. Victoria had no idea where they were in this dream, only that she’d seemed to be waiting for him. And when he’d arrived, he’d laced his arms around her waist, pulling her back against him so that her ass cradled perfectly against his already thick erection.
He didn’t speak, didn’t need too. She knew why he was here. They both knew and she reached an arm back until her hand clasped the nape of his neck, pulling him down closer as his teeth scraped the lobe of her left ear. She lay her head back against him, resting it on his shoulder. When her eyes closed to the desire that swirled through her like a torrential storm, her lips parted and she gasped. It was so easy to let go here, in this dream, to give in to the pleasure she’d been longing for.The pleasure that she purposely denied herself for fear of losing something much more precious than a torrid affair.
His hands moved to her hips and down her thighs where he gathered the material of the short dress she wore. In seconds, the material was bunched at her waist. One hand slipped to her inner thigh, pulling it away from its partner. His other hand moved in quickly to slide long fingers through the already damp curls at her juncture. He parted her folds effortlessly while his tongue dipped in and out of her ear. When his finger scraped over her clit she whispered his name. It was the first time she’d spoken in the dream, but it wouldn’t be the last.
He toyed with her clit while his tongue moved from her ear to the line of her neck. She turned to him then, lips already parted for the kiss. He took her lips hungrily and she sucked at his tongue as if she were starving. In a way, she was. For him. Always for this man that she knew she could never have. This man that she didn’t want. Except for here in this space.
His fingers moved further into the slickened folds of her pussy until he found her entrance and pushed inside without request. She bucked against his hand, her body trembling with the fevered pitch of her arousal. He was going to make her cum with just his fingers, in only seconds after he’d stepped out onto this balcony. How pitiful was that? Was she really that into this guy that all he had to do was touch her intimately and she’d crumble in his hands? And if so, what would a man like this do to her heart?
A tiny voice way in the back of her mind warned her to walk away, to push these disastrous thoughts out of her mind and live her life. Her body screamed, “chill the fuck out, it’s just a dream!” She listened to her body, determined to take all the pleasure she could in this dreamland.
It didn’t take long before she exploded with pleasure, her mind soaring as her body quaked beneath his touch. Shemoaned his name as she floated back to the dream and this time, he whispered, “Victoria.”
“Victoria!” Grace shook her arm and shouted at her. “Vic? You hear me talkin’ to you girl?”
“Hmm?” she answered trying to separate that delicious dream from the reality of having her arm shaken repeatedly. One was obviously preferred over the other, but such was life. “Yeah, I hear you, you’re standing right next to me. And stop shaking me,” she said.
Grace rolled her eyes as she took a step back. “Well, I couldn’t tell the way you and Ben got so caught up in that staring thing the two of you like to do before he finally walked away.”
“I was not staring at him,” Victoria said and turned completely from the spot where he’d been standing before.
“Yeah, tell that to them birds that just flew past, they’re ‘bout the only ones who’ll believe you.” Grace started to walk away. “And come on so we won’t be late for this class.”
With a huff that reminded her of how terribly sexually frustrated she must be to keep harping on those vivid dreams about a guy like Ben Donovan, Victoria fell into step beside Grace. On the walk to their next class she reminded herself that she had goals and dreams and none of them involved a man. They especially didn’t involve Ben Donovan. All she had to do was remember that and she’d be just fine.
Ben
She had a funky attitude, but sexy as hell eyes. And that’s what really counted, because the eyes really said all that he needed to know about a person. They were gray, like gunmetal, or maybe a little lighter. Her cashew brown skin always looked so silky smooth. And her body…damn! That’s the only word Bencould come up with to describe Victoria Lashley. But again, she had a jacked-up attitude that made her one of the most hated girls in law school. Still, he couldn’t resist looking at her.
Looking and wondering how it would feel to touch her. Just a simple touch—maybe to push away one of the long braids that always fell into her face whenever she didn’t have them pulled back in a ponytail. He liked it better when she wore them down, but he also liked a clear and unfettered view of her face. It was like a drug, pulling him in at every moment, even when he knew it was pointless. He told himself it was because she remined him so much of his mother with her fierce independent streak and that hint of I’ll-fuck-you-up-if-you-keep-playin’-with-me. He grinned at the thought because it was so accurate and it intrigued him. She intrigued him and enticed him and confused the hell out of him.
She was in his next class, but he’d gotten into the auditorium-style room before her and Grace. Now, getting up from the seat in the back row that he loved to occupy, he walked down the aisle until he came to the row where she and her only friend sat. With a nod to Grace while Victoria was searching for something in that huge bag she always carried, Ben switched seats with the other woman.
“Need help finding something?” he asked, his signature smile already in place when she looked up at him.
There they were, those eyes, cool and flinty. He loved when she looked at him, felt like he’d been captured and waited anxiously for her to reel him in. Instead of that actually happening, a little line appeared between her eyes as she frowned at him.
