AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘And you can’t say no?’
Her glare was scathing. ‘I said no to you, didn’t I?’
Ben took her the tea before he replied. ‘You told me you wouldn’t stay here tonight, and now you are.’
‘I told you I wouldn’t sleep with you. I’m holding firm on that one.’
He chuckled, and saw her frown grow deeper. Had she always been this much fun to tease? How had he not noticed? ‘We’ll see. Anyway, the point is you do all these things for other people and you get nothing back. You need to think about what you want for yourself.’
Luce sighed into her cup of tea. ‘I know.’
She sounded defeated, which wasn’t quite what Ben had been going for. She hadn’t stopped fighting him since they met in the lobby. He kind of liked that about her.
‘But there’s just never any time. If I don’t take care of things for Tom, or Dolly, or Mum, it’ll just cause a bigger mess further along the line that I’ll have to clear up.’
‘Tom and Dolly—your brother and sister?’ He didn’t remember her even talking about her family at university. Not that they’d ever really had any long, meaningful talks about their lives, of course. But he was starting to wish they had. Maybe then Luce would make more sense to him.
Luce nodded. ‘They...they’re not very good at getting by on their own. Neither is Mum. It was different when Grandad was still alive. But now...’
‘They all rely on you.’ Ben slouched down in his chair, stretching his foot out to nudge against hers. ‘Sounds to me like you need someone you can rely on for a change.’
Her head jerked up in surprise. ‘You cannot possibly be suggesting that person is you.’
‘Good God, no!’ Ben shuddered at the very thought. ‘Good for one night only. I have a rule.’
‘Of course you do. Every girl’s dream.’
Ben gave her a wry smile. ‘You’d be surprised.’ There were always enough women looking for exactly that.
‘So, what are you suggesting?’ Luce asked.
The hint of desperation in her voice, the pleading in her eyes, told him she was really hoping he had an answer. She was in so deep she didn’t even know how to get out.
‘Stay here tonight with me, like we planned. And tomorrow, first thing, head back to Cardiff. Screw your colleague and his lecture. Forget about your family for a couple of days. You’re supposed to be in Chester until Thursday, right? So no one will know you’re home. You can knuckle down, sort out your book, and then spend Christmas relaxing instead of stressing out about all the work you should be doing.’
Luce’s gaze darted away. ‘I’m not sure I even remember how to relax.’
Ben smiled. ‘Spend the night with me and I’ll remind you.’
* * *
Oh, it was so, so tempting. Not just the sex—although that was bad enough. But the thought of three whole days with nothing to do except work on her book. No one asking her for anything.
Luce bit her lip. ‘What about the lecture? Or my conference report? Or the Christmas Eve dinner?’
‘Screw them,’ Ben said, raising his glass to her. ‘Decide, right here and now, that you are more important than what other people want from you. Decide that your book is what matters most to you at this moment in time and focus on that for the week. Make your family help you for a change. Get some priorities for once.’
He was right. The world might stop turning on its axis because of it, but he, Ben Hampton, was actually right. Maybe he’d been wrong every time he’d called her boring or obsessed at university—or maybe he hadn’t been. But now he was right. She needed priorities. And maybe, if nothing else, three days alone would help her figure out what they were.
‘Maybe I can get my ticket refunded. Or changed to tomorrow,’ she mused. The conference organisers had bought the original ticket, but after the fiasco with her hotel room she didn’t feel inclined to trust them to rearrange her travel home. She’d head down to the station in the morning—see what they could do.
‘I’ll buy you a ticket,’ Ben said carelessly. ‘First-class. You can work on the train.’
Luce raised her eyebrows at him. ‘What? As payment for services rendered? I’m not sleeping with you, remember?’
‘As an apology.’ Sitting up straighter, Ben fixed his gaze onto her own, and she found it impossible to look away. ‘From Hampton & Sons. For losing your booking. I don’t pay for sex.’
He looked more than insulted. He looked hurt. Luce’s gaze darted away. ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean...’
