AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ll drop it tonight, but we need to talk about this. I need to know what I’m dealing with. What we need to do.”
“Whatyou’redealing with?”
“You’re mine now. I have to know what I need to do to keep you safe.” I try to leave his lap.
“What? No.” He holds me tighter, staring at me. “Ben, no.”
“Yes.”
“You can’t stand me.”
“You drive me insane,” he agrees.
“How does driving you insane equate to being yours?”
“Who the fuck knows? You tell me. All I know is I’ve seen this once before with my brother. Him and his girl Jordan? They butt heads like I’ve never seen before. Same with my mom and my dad. Probably something in my genes.”
“That’s fucked up,” I say, looking at him with a healthy dose of disbelief.
“Are you denying there’s something between us? Something that we’ve both been denying for fucking weeks?”
That much I can’t do.
There is most definitely something between Ben and me despite my adamant thoughts to the contrary.
“Exactly. So until we have this shit figured out—” I open my mouth to cut him off, tell him I do, in fact, have this figured out. “—and by figured out, babe, I mean to my standards. Not you telling me you figured it out and then burying the stress of whatever you’re working with.Figuring it out together.” I screw up my nose.
I should probably be flattered.
Instead, I’m annoyed.
I also expect him to keep talking.
And he does—just not on whatever his master plan is.
“How long have you been fighting this battle alone, sweet girl?” he asks, tucking a stray strand of hair behind my ear.
That gets me.
Thatguts me.
His eyes look into mine, and he sees my answer without my having to give it.
“Too fucking long,” he says. “Now I’m here to share that burden.”
* * *
“Alright, babe—you go in there. Shirts are in the top drawer. Not your fancy nighties, but should fit about the same,” Ben says as he points me to his bedroom long after pizza and a surprising amount of . . . cuddling.
If you’d have asked me a mere six hours ago if Ben Coleman was a cuddler, I would have laughed in your face. But here we are.
His words hold a laugh, and when I look at him with a glare, he’s smiling.
“Fuck off.”
“Nothing to be embarrassed about, babe. Jacked myself off to the thought of you standing in the hall in that fucking nightie, fighting with me with your ass hanging out, holding a plate of cookies and fuckin’ cursing me in your head.”
“You jack off to the idea of me being mad at you?” That smile grows. It’s almost boyish when he’s not pissed at me.
