For Ben (Corbin's Bend Book 6) Page 2

  “No you don’t, and if you want to remain my wife, you will never wear them again.” He might be going too far, but her butt cheeks and upper thighs bore a pink stain from his hands, and his desire surged. He grabbed a stack of pillows to raise her hips then opened his belt, unzipped his suit pants, and pulled his erect cock out of the boxer briefs.

  Ready to fuck her right then, he cautioned himself to slow down, to make sure she was ready. Usually she would tell him, but he had the reins. Pushing her ass higher, he admired the picture she made before him on the silky black comforter. The one she always put aside so he wouldn’t soil it with his cum.

  “Roy, I need to—” She looked over her shoulder and he saw the start of the old, in-control Teri surfacing. He pushed her face into the pillows.

  “You need to spread your legs, woman.” He jerked them apart for her, baring her rosy pussy to his perusal.

  “I don’t want….”

  Roy stroked one finger from her clit to her anus, dragging moisture with it. “I can’t imagine what you don’t want, you’re so wet for me.” Unable to resist, he slapped her bare bottom, rewarded by the sharp crack. So much better than over those damn girdle-things. He’d go through her drawer and dispose of every pair. A woman’s curves, especially those of his wife, deserved more respect than to be crammed into such things. What happened to the jiggle he’d loved? “Do you want me to stop, baby?” He rubbed her with two fingers, teasing at her entrance and then retreating as her breathing grew harsh. “You’ll have to speak up.”

  “No…I….” Teri lapsed into silence and he paused, holding light pressure on her clit. She jerked.

  “No, stop? Or no, don’t stop.”

  “Damn you,” she murmured. “Just fuck me, why don’t you, so we can get on with our conversation.”

  He fought his usual reaction to her words. He’d zipped up and walked away before, when she became shrewish, but instead he rained down on her cheeks a flurry of slaps, holding her in place with the other hand. “But, wife, you don’t expect me to leave you hanging to take my own pleasure.” He spanked over her upper thighs, making overlapping handprints, to his great satisfaction. But anger was not in the game. He was hot for her form and anxious to bring her back to the soft woman he’d glimpsed in the living room. “This is our evening together and we are going to enjoy it.”

  Roy’s passion for his wife deepened along with the flush on her backside. Cherry red suited her, and if she couldn’t sit down at work in comfort the next day, perhaps she’d remember how she had attempted—yes, attempted, because he was not going to let her have her way—to change their plans. If she insisted, they were over.

  The thought slowed his hand but also fired his blood. They were worth fighting for. But he couldn’t do it unless they had some time together. More than a stolen hour, which often ended with either an argument or a pair of exhausted people asleep before they even got undressed. Dammit, they needed the two weeks they’d scheduled.

  But even if she refused, he’d use the evening to make a lasting memory. Grasping her hips, he dragged her and the heap of pillows closer to the edge of the bed and lifted her rump higher, exposing her swollen pussy. A droplet of moisture clung to her thigh and he bent to lap it up. Heat burned his cheek from her well-spanked leg and he pressed his lips to the handprint, cherishing his mark on her skin.

  Teri moaned and, anxious to amp up the mood, he buried his face in her cunt, licking and sucking and drinking in her sweetness. How long had it been since he’d eaten her out? Her thrashing fed his passion and he rested a hand on her butt cheek, where raised prints marked her. His handprints. He’d love to spank a little more, but he didn’t want to cause her any harm.

  Maybe on their vacation. He could bring along a few things and add to the fun. A hair brush, wooden spoon…his cock jerked.

  He lifted his face, smiling when she groaned in protest.

  “Sweetheart,” he announced, “we are going on our trip.”

  “No, I…oh, God.”

  He sucked on her clit, holding it between his teeth with just enough pressure to send her to the moon and back. Teri bucked against him and he stopped again. “Wrong answer.” Pinning her knees to the mattress, Roy held her in place, to give her time to think. “Well?”

  She whimpered.

  He licked her, from front to back, and added a soft slap to her backside.

  “I can’t.”

  He tweaked her clit with two fingers and applied pressure. “Teri, this is an important decision. I suggest you think carefully because I won’t ask again.” Lifting his hand, he waited.

  “You aren’t playing fair.” She panted and reached back, pushing at his head, but he held firm. Her musk drove him mad, made it crazy difficult to hold still, but he played for life. For their life together. “Okay, fine. I will make it work. If it’s so important to you.”

  Damn right. He dove into her warmth, licking and sucking like a madman, devouring her and rejoicing in the small victory. Driving two fingers inside her pussy, he added a third and spread them, drawing her clit into his mouth and closing his teeth over it hard enough to send her over the edge, shaking all over. Gentle had never worked for his ambitious, driven woman.

  Rising, he grabbed his cock and directed it into her sopping hole. “Good girl.” Thrusting to the hilt and rising back, he savored the tight sheath rippling around his dick. She still clenched with her orgasm and he wanted to give her another before he took his own pleasure, but it wouldn’t take long. Her glowing bottom against his groin lit his fire like nothing ever before. Wrapping his arms around her, he lifted her and reached to stroke her between her legs. Within seconds, she shrieked his name and flung herself around like a rag doll in the throes of another orgasm. His balls tightened and cum surged up and into her, pumping into his wife’s sweet body.

  Dropping onto the bed beside her, he gathered her and held her tight. She might never know how precious she was to him, but he did. He’d do anything to save their marriage and keep her close. And if it turned them both on in the process, bonus!

  They would go to the island paradise where he would tell her it was time to start a family. And, perhaps, she would agree. Darkness closed over him in the first peaceful rest he’d had in recorded memory. He didn’t even get up to take his bedtime antacid.

  Chapter Two

  Teri blinked. She patted the bed next to her, but the sheet was cool and unoccupied. Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the sun edged between two high-rises. A lovely day, if only she didn’t have such a heavy schedule planned. Perhaps she and Roy could have gone on a picnic. She’d see if she could squeeze him in for lunch. She spent too little time with her husband, and he could be quite charming. She’d chosen well when she’d picked him in college. Handsome, successful, and very understanding.

  Daylight washed away the shadows in the corners and she frowned, distracted from her loving thoughts. Why weren’t the blinds closed? She reached for the button then let her hand drop, irritated beyond reason.

  Roy knew she hated waking up before the alarm. She’d be working from nine to nine or longer. Why should she have to get up with the sun like the farm girl she would never be again? The hours were one of the reasons she’d left home for college and a career in the City. No cows to milk in high finance.

  “Roy!” Where was the man? The door to the en-suite bathroom stood open. He must be in the living room for some reason at such an ungodly hour. With a sigh, she stood up and stuffed her feet into slippers, wrapped her robe over her shoulders.

  She shivered as the cool silk settled against her bare skin. She rarely slept naked. Why had….oh, God. The events of the previous night came rushing into her groggy brain. Roy hadn’t really spanked her, had he? But yes, a tentative probing of her backside revealed a soreness she hadn’t noticed sleeping on her side. She lifted her robe and twisted, trying to see her bottom, to no avail. The dresser mirror provided a better way and, backing up to it, she looked over her shoulder expectin
g purple bruises from the top of her cheeks down to the middle of her thighs. To her surprise, her behind showed no signs of the abuse to which it had been objected.

  But it hurt. And despite the smooth skin, without a trace of lurid color, he’d hurt her pride. How dare he do such a thing? Ohh, and then she’d actually allowed him to touch her, to manhandle her into bed like some kind of…of submissive.

  Who the hell did he think he was? A vague memory of an idea they had once shared tried to intrude. In her youth, she’d wanted spanking part of their life, finding the idea of him going all alpha on her appealing. But since then, she’d pushed him—pushed them both—so hard to succeed. Having her fanny paddled by a big, strong man no longer suited her. Undignified, at best and ridiculous at worst. She bent forward and back and winced. Too sore for Lycra, she’d have to wear something loose.

  Damn him, what was he thinking? If he wanted to play spanky games, he should have waited until the fall, or maybe winter, when they took their vacation. She pressed fingertips into the side of her butt cheek and remembered. He’d been firm about not delaying their holiday again. Perhaps if she suggested some spanking on their trip, he’d be willing to postpone it. She’d be firm.

  She glanced at the bed where the final indignity had taken place, the black comforter tangled at the foot. It would need cleaning. Sure, their lovemaking had been routine the past few years. Three times a week, usually missionary style with the occasional oral by one or the other, but what did it say about either of them that after he slapped her butt a few times, she creamed like a slut and threw herself at him?

  Damn.

  “Roy!” If he insisted on behaving like a barbarian, she’d not have it. She’d leave him before she allowed such a thing to happen again without planning ahead to make sure their “play” didn’t interfere with work. A glance at the clock showed it later than she’d realized. Her first meeting was in an hour and a half, leaving no time for a serious discussion.

  When she got to the office, she’d have her PA check and see when she could fit in her husband and give him a piece of her mind. Satisfied with her decision, she was heading for the shower when her husband appeared in the doorway, holding her cell phone. She reached for it but he held it out of reach. “Teri, we need to talk.”

  “Damn right we do. But I don’t have time now.” He stepped in front of her. “I mean it, Roy. I am sure you want to apologize for your outrageous behavior, but…” She frowned at him. “What’s wrong? Why are you so pale?” Her fears from the night before, when she’d waited for him, resurfaced. “Are you okay?”

  “Teri, you need to sit down. We got some bad news this morning.” He tried to take her arm, but she shrugged him away.

  “I don’t want to sit.” Then she noticed his pallor. Roy never let things get to him. His patience was reflected in the way he put up with her. Sad as it was to admit. “But I think you need to take a seat.” She guided him to the black leather bench at the foot of the bed. Her heart thudded. “What’s wrong? Something at work?”

  He stared at her. “Work? No…. I wish you would sit down.”

  Real fear pushed through her remaining irritation. “Tell me. Please. Do you feel sick?” She shoved her tangled hair back from her face with a shaking hand. “Is it your dad? His heart again?” Please don’t let it be another heart attack. His father would never survive it. Was the condition hereditary? Maybe they couldn’t wait to have Roy get those tests.

  “I’m fine.” He spoke so low, she had to strain to hear him, his voice rough. “It’s your sister.”

  “Is Melinda sick? Was that Shane calling? I want to talk to her.” She reached for the phone but he held it away again and her stomach twisted in nausea.

  “Honey, you can’t talk to her. She and Shayne were out on the highway in his little car, and they were struck by a hit and run driver.” He grabbed her as her knees buckled. “They didn’t make it.”

  His words came from underwater, blurred and slow. She couldn’t process them. Couldn’t think. No. “No! I don’t believe it. If they were killed, who called then?”

  “A man named Brent Carmichael, someone in their homeowner’s association out there in Corbin’s Bend.”

  She bent double in pain. Her twin. Gone. Just like that. They were each other’s flip side. Teri, the career woman. Melinda, the artist/mom/housewife. They had argued since the womb but loved one another and skyped at least once a week. What would she do without her? “It can’t be true. It has to be some kind of mistake, a mix-up. How do we even know the guy is telling the truth?” She sought another answer but knew the reality. When she reached out in her mind for the comforting presence always there, the knowledge her twin shared the Earth with her, she found silence. People laughed at the deep connection between the two of them. But if Teri got hurt, Melinda called. Teri had known when her sister’s labor began and when she gave birth.

  How had she missed her death?

  Had it happened while she was so involved with kinky sex it went right past her?

  Had she shut her out when she was dying?

  The room spun and she closed her eyes and clutched Roy’s arm. Sobs broke from her lips and she fell over his lap and cried out all the tears she had inside her for her best friend, nemesis, and her other half. Finally, she lay still, empty, and unable to process anything else.

  Roy stroked her hair. “Their attorney, Sam Edger, is waiting to hear from us about Ben.”

  Dear God. Ben.

  Chapter Three

  “Thank you for coming.” Roy shook another man’s hand while she tried to hold focus and nod and listen to the kind words of Melinda and Shane’s friends and neighbors. The church steps were filled with people dressed in somber clothing, each introducing him or herself and offering anything they might need during their stay in Corbin’s Bend.

  “And if you need someone to watch Ben while you put things in order….” The middle-aged woman smiled down at the little boy holding Roy’s hand. “He and I are old friends, right Benny?”

  He kept his gaze fixed on the ground and didn’t answer. In fact, hadn’t spoken a word since their arrival. Shock, the pediatrician in Denver had said. To be expected when a child lost both parents without warning. Nothing to worry about. Try to keep things as normal as possible for him.

  Like…. Don’t move him to the City right away. Give him a little time to adjust.

  And Roy, helpful as always, informed the doctor they would stay until Ben spoke, however long he took.

  Oye.

  She shifted from one foot to another. Her phone vibrated in her pocket and she struggled not to answer it. Why stand there talking to complete strangers who she would never see again? Sure, she’d accepted her sister and brother-in law’s funeral arrangements. Not that there’s been a choice. By the time they arrived, the very efficient attorney had everything in place and the service scheduled. Everything as laid out in their will. All she had to do for her only living relative….

  She swallowed the tears that threatened. Melinda was no longer a living relative, but the little redheaded boy who stood in silence was. And her every instinct insisted she get him out of the backwater town and home to the City where he could get therapy. And preschool. The child approached four and had never been enrolled in anything. So far as she knew.

  She’d need to get started right away if he stood a chance of getting into a good school. Most of her co-workers had their kids started much younger than Ben. And a nanny. Interviewing for a nanny would take time. They’d already been in Corbin’s Bend for a day. Surely, a small child couldn’t stay silent much longer. She’d get her PA on the phone and have her line up some interviews with nannies and preschools. After she determined which were the best agencies and institutions.

  “Ben, we’re going out to lunch. Would you like some pasta?” Come on, nephew, talk to me. Auntie needs to get back to the City.

  He stared up at her with her sister’s clear green eyes. Her own color, but wide and without a tr
ace of guile or the shadows underneath greeting her in the mirror each morning. A young woman paused in front of them and dropped to her knees. Saundra, the kindergarten teacher who’d stayed with Ben until their arrival the night before.

  “Hi, Benny, you doing okay?” She patted his cheek. “Of course you are. You’re a big boy.” Standing again, she brushed at her skirt and nodded. “He will be all right, now that his family is here.”

  Roy released Ben’s hand and shook the teacher’s. “Yes, a little time will fix him up. And we’ll give him as much as necessary. Family comes first, after all.”

  Teri cringed inside. Yes, she’d agreed to give the child time, but how much would it require? And how long would it take the local authorities to find the culprit who’d left her sister and Shane dead and alone at the side of the road?

  “I’m new here, too, you know, but it already feels like home.” Saundra rested her other hand on top of their joined ones then released him. “You’re good people. Be sure to approach the Board for temporary residency if you’re here longer than a week.”

  What? “We need permission to stay in the home my sister and her husband owned?”

  “They didn’t own the unit, per se. None of us do…it’s a co-op. Melinda never explained how it worked?”

  “No, she did not.” Teri’s blood pressure rose, and her voice. What more complications could arise to take up their precious time. “So some board of strangers has to decide if we are allowed to stay long enough for my nephew to recover his voice after being orphaned? I cannot believe what I am hearing.” She listened to herself as if from a distance, wishing, but unable to stop herself. What kind of an ass shrieked at near-strangers at her only sister’s funeral. But, somehow, it kept the sobs at bay, the sense of loss under control. “Even the board at our building in the city would give us time to clean out my sister’s home.”

  “Now, now, what’s going on here?” The priest, Father…Father Henry, who had conducted the archaic ritual over the combined ashes, joined them. “Is everything all right? Mrs. Simms, Teri, you are not yourself.” He cast her a glance and then spoke to Roy. “Perhaps you should take your wife home and let her rest. She’s undergone a huge loss.”