Nineteen

Ben had moved into a room next to the one Sally shared with Wilson. It made her nervous, his proximity. His arrogant treatment of her only grew more overt. He behaved as if she were absolutely no threat to him. He ought to be cautious around her and the fact that he wasn’t had to mean there was something she didn’t know.

Tonight Sally intended to find out exactly what she didn’t know about Ben.

Every morning he came strolling into Sally and Wilson’s bedroom and Wilson actually asked her to go into the bathroom and “start makin’ herself pretty” while he talked to his new bodyguard about the plans for the day. And Ben never as much as looked in her direction, even when she climbed half-naked from the bed.

She would find out what that was all about too. So much for the wonderful surprises he’d promised her back on that first delicious morning when all he’d been angling for was a permanent job on the household staff. He hadn’t touched her since.

On the night of that same day, at the last fund-raiser, Wilson had singled Ben out and appointed him his almost constant sidekick. Sally had begun to wonder if Wilson’s tastes ran in

directions she’d never guessed at. There was no doubt that Ben had a cute ass.

Sally was looking at that ass now. Once more the house was filled with Wilson’s adoring followers, including Neville Payne, who had surprised them by arriving without Bitsy and with some excuse that she wasn’t feeling well. Wilson had barely hidden his anger when Neville told him that Celina would not be coming. Cyrus has been invited too but hadn’t arrived. So far this evening wasn’t going at all as Sally had planned.

But it was time to do something about Ben.

She waited until Wilson was deep in conversation with the president of one of the most prestigious banks in the South, then walked nonchalantly close to Ben, who looked so irresistible in evening dress.

She put a hand on his shoulder and said, “Evenin’, sugar,” in a voice meant only for him. “I’m really wounded that you haven’t found the time to thank me for your wonderful new job yet.”

He glanced sideways at her with those marvelous smoldering eyes of his and said, “Thank you for helping me be in the right place at the right time.”

“Think nothing of it, lover. Don’t I remember you talkin’ about some surprises you had in mind for me. Didn’t you tell me I was goin’ to have to be on my toes because I was never goin’ to know when you’d decide to give me one of those surprises?”

His blank stare angered her.

“Well, Ben, you may think you don’t need me anymore, but you’re wrong. I’m goin’ for a walk in the gardens. I anticipate bein’ in the old pergola in about five minutes. In case you don’t know where that is—it’s out back of the house. On the other side of the greenhouses. No one goes there anymore. If you want to keep your wonderful new job, you’ll meet me there.”

Sally walked quickly away, smiling and nodding to the guests she passed. Holding her head high and swinging her hips in the short, stretchy, black-sequin-covered halter dress she wore, she left the house by an open door at the end of the passageway that bordered the kitchens.

Excitement mounted with every step, and confidence. She would teach him to respect her. Her backless high-heeled sandals slowed her down, so she took them off and carried them in one hand. And she hurried, because she wanted to have time to collect herself before Ben got to the pergola.

This wasn’t the first time Sally had received gentlemen callers in the pergola that dated back to her grandmother’s time. The thought made her smile and remember some pleasurable interludes.

She arrived at the birdcage-shaped iron structure, opened the door that squealed on its ancient hinges, and went inside. Clematis vines completely covered the wrought iron bars that curved to a point overhead. A circular stone bench with a hole in the middle was the only inner adornment. Huge white blooms on the vines loaded the air with a heavy night fragrance.

Sally went to the far side of the pergola. She put on her sandals again, faced the door, and reached to grip bars behind her head. Even from this distance she could hear the strains of the Dixieland band playing in the house, and she swayed from side to side with her eyes partly closed. Anticipation was half the fun, so they said. Well, she wouldn’t put it quite that high, but she did enjoy feeling her body get ready for a man.

The door whined open.

She leaned her head against the bars and watched Ben come in. In the almost complete darkness his eyes glittered, and his teeth shone very white. His high cheekbones gleamed paler than the rest of his face. He looked frightening. Almost satanic.

Sally wriggled a little with delicious apprehension. “Hello, Ben.”

“What is it?” he said. “What do you need to say that couldn’t be said in the house.”

She was older, wiser, and a whole lot tougher than he was. “Sit down, Ben. We need to talk.”

Rather than do as she told him, he pushed his hands in his pockets and sauntered around the pergola.

“You don’t get it, do you?” she said. “You’re here because of me, because I showed an interest in you that first day. You think that gave you the upper hand. But all I have to do is talk to Wilson, and you’re out.”

Ben picked a clematis blossom and held it to his nose.

Sally’s skin prickled. He was too sure of himself. “What is it about you?” She was surprised she’d asked the question aloud.

He crossed his arms, held the flower against his mouth, and regarded her with inscrutable calm.

“You arrogant little bastard,” she said through her teeth. “If you think you’re bulletproof, you are so wrong. My husband is a jealous man, Ben. What’s his is most definitely his. If I tell him you took advantage of me, you are in big trouble, honey.”

The flower’s petals took a twirl on Ben’s chin.

She gathered her composure and sauntered toward him, snapping her fingers as she went. “I’ve got it. You used me. Hah! Who would have thought it? You planned the whole thing. You intended to get close to me so you could figure out a way into a fat job with my husband. Oh, you couldn’t have expected that kid to try to rob us. That was an unexpected bonus. It speeded up the process. But that’s it, isn’t it?”

“Is that all you wanted to tell me?” he asked when she paused to take a breath. “If it is, I’d better get back. Mr. Lamar might need me.”

Tears of rage smarted in Sally’s eyes. Her jaw trembled with fury. “You have met your match, Angel. I see it all now. You’re afraid to touch me again because you don’t want to jeopardize your wonderful, cozy position with Wilson. Guess what, lover? You need to get a lot smarter before you try playing in the big leagues. If you don’t do what I tell you to do, when I tell you to do it, I’ll make sure you go back where you came from, and I don’t mean you’ll get the consolation prize. No one in this town would touch you once I finished with you—they wouldn’t touch you or your aquariums. I will destroy you—not that you’re anything but a pretty face and an efficient body anyway.”

“Thank you for sharin’ that with me, Mrs. Lamar. Would you like me to escort you back to the house?”

“I’d like to take you apart piece by piece. You want me. I can feel how much you want me. I can smell it. But you’re too scared to take me. You must have been terrified you wouldn’t pull it off that morning when I took you upstairs. But you held yourself together until you could do what you wanted to do and get out safely. You decided you’d try to frighten me, to make me think you could call the shots. And you wanted sex with me so you could have something on me, but you sure as hell didn’t want to get caught.”

“Oh, dear lady,” he said softly. “Your mind is certainly goin’ in little circles. Could it be you drank too much’? Mr. Lamar will never forgive me if I don’t make sure you get home safely.”

She seethed. Sweat broke out on her back. “If there’s one thing I don’t have to put up with, it’s a fuck-and-run artist.” Half expecting him to push her away, Sally reached for his bow tie. “Υοu can run, honey, but I’m getting one for the road. And if you expect to last around here, I’ll get it again and again.”

Ben didn’t stop her from wrenching his tie undone and pulling the studs on his shirt free. He did push the bruised blossom nonchalantly inside her dress. He kept his hand inside and kneaded a breast until she fought to tear his shirt aside, panting in her hurry, angling her pelvis toward him.

“Mrs. Lamar,” he said, the tone of his voice unbelievably even, “you really should try to control yourself. you.”

He plucked at her nipple, rolled it, freed her breast from the dress she’d imagined him taking off her.

“Oh, Ben, Ben,” she said, “you have a kinky sense of humor, but I could come to love it. Don’t stop. Oh, don’t you stop.”

“You’re not yourself.”

“I am very much myself. And myself is getting better every second. Help me get your clothes off. I want to see your body shine in the dark.”

She didn’t have to guess if he wanted what she wanted. He was hard enough to make holes in concrete. Sally pressed her thighs together and dipped, reveled in what she felt while she got his pants undone.

He removed his hand from her breast.

“I told you not to stop,” she said, gasping and looking up at him. He pushed out the tip of his tongue, pulled it in again, and grinned. “You are teasin’ me, you beast.”

Laughing, she released him and struggled out of the halter top of her dress until she was nude to the waist. Hands on hips, she backed away, turned sideways, always looking at him while she posed, knowing the moonlight shone on her breasts.

It also shone on Ben’s strongly muscled chest, and on a beautiful promise that rose from a thick mat of pubic hair. His pants clung at the level of his massive thighs. He stared, and that thrilled her, but he didn’t make a move toward her.

“I do believe we’re going to hold a little lady’s-choice.” Giggling breathlessly, Sally inched her abbreviated skirt upward until it joined her bodice and revealed the tiny black G-string she wore.

Ben beckoned with a single finger. He held his tongue between his teeth now and ate her with his eyes.

“Yes,” she told him. “Oh, yes.”

He wasn’t passive anymore. With one arm he swept her up and planted her on the bench. With the other he held her to him while he buried his face in her breasts. He took as much of her as he could suck into his mouth. It hurt, but she liked it that way.

She ripped the G-string away herself, and gasped when he turned his face up to hers. He was every bit as beautiful as she’d ever thought he was. Another powerful move and he had her legs wrapped around his waist while he took her to the only paradise she cared to visit. How could one man have so much? Every part of her ached and clenched. He stretched her, and she loved it.

With a great burst of motion, he made her come. He did it, and did it carrying her while he rammed her up and down. And he didn’t come out of her when he was finally still. Waves kept right on blasting all those good places.

“Careful,” he said. “Hold on to something, please.” And he backed against the bars.

Sally giggled and bumped up and down until she felt him growing hard again. Ben let her go and she squealed, clinging to her handholds on the bars. When he raised his hands again, he held two fresh blossoms. He licked each one slowly, smiling at her all the while. Then he crowned each of her nipples with his damp tributes that stuck to her skin, and she closed her eyes.

Α snick sounded, and something sent light across her closed eyelids.

“What was that?” she said, opening her eyes and twisting around.

“Oh, no,” Ben said. “Stop it. You, get away. you.”

Α camera strobe flashed again, and Sally screamed.