For Ben (Corbin's Bend Book 6) Read online

  He was sounding way too happy, but, he would be trying to keep things cheerful for Ben. “That’s true. You wouldn’t.” She scooped the last bite of green deliciousness into her mouth and sighed. “And even if they did, I couldn’t do this often, or I’d never fit in my clothes. Especially since, when I was packing, I found all my control undergarments missing.” Roy chuckled then piled their trash on a tray and dumped it in a barrel by the door. Teri’s gaze lit on the messy face and hands of their new charge. And his shirt. Perhaps his mother would have tucked a paper towel or something into his collar to keep him neater.

  “Come here, Ben.” She balled up a couple of fresh napkins from the dispenser and wiped at the sticky mess. “It’s hopeless.” The woe in his eyes, amplified by the multi-colored cheeks brought her heart into her throat. His nose and full upper lip were her father’s although his irises were Teri-and-Melinda green.

  Still, her eyes flooded, and she blinked hard and sniffed. Holding his gaze, she spoke low. “I know this sucks, buddy. I know I am a poor replacement for your mom, but if you hang in there, I promise to do my best to take care of you.” Straightening, she forced her lips into a smile. “Now, let’s get you home and into a sudsy tub. We can’t leave you with Saundra looking like you fell into a giant banana split.” Watching him closely, she thought, hoped, a flicker of something responded but it disappeared before she could be sure.

  Roy had tried not to interfere as Teri talked to her nephew. They needed each other. She still hadn’t really reacted to the loss of her sister. Sure, she’d cried a little and her eyes were often watery, but despite the distance between them, Melinda had been her touchstone. The one person who could bring out her human side. After their weekly Skype, he often enjoyed the company of a nicer, calmer wife. In fact, they usually made love that night—Melinda made her approachable.

  Without her twin, his wife needed someone to fill the huge hole in her heart, and he hoped it would be he and Ben. But first, she had to acknowledge the cavern was even there.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Simms?” The older man beckoned them back inside. Time to hear the Board’s decision. After reviewing their application packet, the group had asked them a few questions then sent them out to cool their heels in an adjacent area. An hour before. “They’re ready for you.”

  Teri had been texting with a client overseas—thank heavens, the Asian market was open and gave her something to do, but her tension still held a warning. He stood and held out his hand but she brushed past him and into the room where strangers would decide whether they could stay in Corbin’s Bend for however long it took Ben to recover—at least somewhat—from an experience no child should suffer.

  He followed her and took the straight-backed chair he’d occupied during the original questioning. The conference table seemed very long, and with only a pitcher of water and a printout of their application, very empty. Some of the things they’d mentioned had been odd. They’d asked how much Melinda and Shane had shared about the community and seemed to be trying to tell them something, but he’d not quite figured out it out.

  Somehow their approval mattered. He didn’t even care on any deep level what the senior partners in his law firm thought of him. He offered them his time as an effective attorney and a hard worker. Why these four strangers’ opinion of him should have any bearing puzzled him. An open window let in birdsong and the sweet smell of fresh air. Quite a contrast to the sealed windows in his office protecting him from the clamor of traffic and city stink echoing up the narrow canyon between high-rises.

  In any case.

  “Please have a seat, Teri.” Brent Carmichael waved at the chair next to Roy’s.

  “I’d rather stand.” She clenched her hands at her sides, a storm warning if he’d ever seen one. “I am having a hard time understanding why this is such a difficult process. We are occupying my sister’s home until such time as the doctor pronounces my nephew ready to travel. It’s not as if we plan to stay forever. In a matter of days, we will return to New York and put the place up for sale.”

  Brent nodded. Although Roy guessed he was less than forty, his air of gravity was that of an older man. The kind of thing Teri reacted badly to. “We understand. But there is no guarantee it will be such a short time, so we had to go through the process as our charter requires.”

  She drew in a breath and let it out slowly. “Fine. Then please give us your decision so we can all get out of here and go about our business.”

  “Teri, you’re being rude.” Roy came to her side and rested a hand on her arm. “We appreciate the Board’s time. Have you reached a decision?”

  Brent stood also, followed by the other three men. “This is a rather unusual situation. We need to consider your application, but we will have an answer within forty-eight hours.”

  Teri trembled. He needed to get her out of there before she caused a scene and the board reversed their decision. “Thank you. We appreciate your consideration.” Closing his hand on her elbow, he turned her and hustled her toward the door.

  It no sooner closed behind them than she exploded. “How can they throw us out of a place my sister and her husband paid for in full? There’s not even a mortgage on it; she used her share of the farm sale when mother died to buy it. I want to take legal action. You can start it tomorrow.”

  Keeping his grip on her he continued to guide her until they were outside. “Stop this. It’s not like they bought a single family home in a small town. Corbin’s Bend is a co-op where there are specific rules. Sam assures me they have every right to ask us to leave.” Although, he wished they wouldn’t. He’d felt envy for the lawyer in his storefront office. The rat race wore him down more every day. “Let’s go pick up Ben and get a good night’s sleep.”

  Opening the passenger door he half helped-half pushed her inside and closed it then turned.

  “Roy? Can I speak to you a moment?” Brent, the man who’d led the meeting—who he understood had been instrumental in developing the community he’d begun to admire.

  “Certainly. What can I do for you?”

  “We are sorry to have so upset your wife. We are bound by the rules every member of the co-op has agreed to. You know, with the special elements of our agreement.” He rested a hand on Roy’s shoulder and gave him a friendly wink. “We also know you’re under a lot of pressure. If you ever want someone to talk to, give me a call.” He handed him a business card. “Sometimes a man just needs to vent to another man.” With a wave, he left, and Roy watched him go, his easy stride enviable.

  But then, the man didn’t have to spend his evening with a wife brewing a tantrum and a devastated child. Brent Carmichael looked like a man with a well-ordered home. His wife would have an appetizing dinner ready to go on the table in their neat, comfortable dining room. Then he and the kids would settle in the family room for homework and video games together. His wife would join them with a plate of cookies and they’d all laugh and enjoy one another’s company until they tucked the kids in bed, kissed them goodnight, and returned to sit together on the couch in the peace of their happy home. Later, they’d make love and fall asleep entangled together. What a life the man had.

  Lost in the fantasy, he jumped when approaching headlights flashed in his eyes. He pulled out of the parking spot and turned the car toward his temporary home and Ben.

  Teri dug in her purse, muttering to herself as she dug out her phone. It gave a low beep. “Dammit. Of course it would go dead right now. Who the hell are these people, thinking they can tell us what we can and cannot do?”

  Was Brent even married? Roy had no idea.

  But the life he imagined for him sure sounded good.

  To the music of his unhappy wife, he piloted the minivan along the quiet streets of Corbin’s Bend. Whatever Brent and those other content-looking fellows had, Roy Simms would never have the opportunity to enjoy. Rather he would have to make the best of what fate dealt him.

  A sometimes frighteningly driven wife and a child who needed the t
wo of them more than they would ever be able to understand. And if they didn’t get their act together, Ben would be the first one to suffer the consequences.

  A heavy cloud replaced the happy fantasy and he offered a prayer to Saint Jude, the patron of lost causes and desperate situations. He hadn’t been to mass since high school, but he hoped the good saint wouldn’t hold the lack against him. He needed all the help he could get to make a family out of the hodgepodge of broken pieces he had to work with.

  If you can help me, Jude, I promise to do my best to hold up my end of things. To take care of these people in the best way possible. I won’t lie. We may never be churchgoers, but it doesn’t mean I don’t believe in you.

  Chapter Five

  Roy sank into the worn easy chair in Melinda and Shane’s haphazardly decorated living room. Not a thing matched, but somehow the blue flowered sofa and ancient oriental rug fell into happy harmony with the rattan occasional tables and olive-green beanbag chair in the corner. A sprinkling of toys replaced the perfectly arranged art crap in their own home. He closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of Corbin’s Bend. Just after dark, there weren’t many. Even with the windows open, the muffled passage of a car, a distant owl’s hoot, a low sound of the highway so far off he had to strain to hear it. If he had the strength, he’d go out for a walk, but the day had taken every bit of energy he had. Maybe tomorrow.

  They had dined on one of the many casseroles dropped off by the good people of Corbin’s Bend and he’d loaded their few dishes into the dishwasher. He’d intended to run it when full, as he always did, but a plaintive cry from the kitchen let him know, for the first time, his wife had decided to take action in that room.

  “Roy, I can’t make this damn thing work. How are we supposed to wash dishes if the stupid machine sits there and laughs at me.”

  “I’ll get it later.” He reached for a magazine on the table to his left. “Come in and sit down. We’ve had a long day.”

  “No, I will not let a stupid piece of hardware win.” A dull thud followed and a cry of rage.

  “Be right there, Teri.” Why did she pick that moment to want to help? Pushing to his feet, he plodded into the small kitchen to find his wife’s leg drawn back. He should have known better than to leave her alone in the kitchen to handle things. “Hang on. Don’t—”

  She slammed her foot, toes first, into the stainless steel front of the machine. And lost.

  “Ow, oh ow.” She hopped on one foot then pulled the injured one back again and he leapt forward and grabbed her around the waist, her silk nightshirt making her a slippery handful. “Let me go, Roy! I am going to kick it until it works. Let me go!” She struggled and shrieked, sweeping a pair of wine glasses to shatter on the tile floor.

  “Teri, stop. Just stop it.” He tried to drag her away from the counters where she couldn’t do any more damage, but she wriggled to get loose, limbs flailing like the work of an insane puppeteer. “Someone is going to get hurt.” A flying elbow hit him below the eye and his vision swam.

  Enough.

  Holding her with one arm, he felt behind him and yanked a kitchen chair close enough to sit in it and threw her over his lap. “This is for your own good.” He lifted his hand and spanked hard across the center of her bottom. Once, twice, three times.

  Instead of having the hoped for effect, she struggled harder, so he flipped her nightie over her back and pulled the sheer panties down to her knees. “We’re not stopping until you calm down.” One. Two. Three sharp slaps, his palm leaving prints on her white skin.”

  “Roy, damn you, don’t you dare hit me.” Her voice rose an octave.

  “Hush, you’ll wake Ben.” Even with his door closed on the far side of the house, he would hear her if she got any louder. “Quiet!”

  To his amazement, she lowered her voice, but continued to struggle. And cry. Ragged sobs interspersed with curses and threats of bloody retribution. His mother, according to her diatribe, had been unmarried when she conceived him and might have been a female dog as well.

  But he kept going. Despite everything logical, he wanted to calm her and his palm smacking her backside had worked once. A puddle of her tears collected on the floor and his heart ached but to his disgust, his cock responded to the bare-bottomed wench taking up his lap. He tried to ignore it.

  She regained her strength and shrieked again and his gaze caught the vase of kitchen implements within reach on the countertop. Roy pulled out a long-handled wooden spoon. “If you do not settle down,” he said, holding it under her nose so she could see what he meant, “I will spank you with this until you do.” He didn’t want to think about what he might do if the threat—or the action—didn’t calm her.

  She bit his leg, hard. Only his khakis kept her from drawing blood.

  And he grabbed her hair and pulled. “No biting, sweetie. But there is a punishment for that.”

  As she cursed again, he brought the spoon high and down across her thighs with a whap. Lifted it and did it again and again. Five times. Ten. Fifteen. “I am not stopping until you calm down.”

  Please calm down before I do any damage to you.

  A row of welts rose along the tops of her legs, red and white rows illustrating his passage.

  Please, Teri, please stop.

  His hand rested on her hot bottom, fingerprints and spoon marks decorating her from the top of her butt to almost the backs of her knees. He no longer felt the slightest bit of arousal, nausea replaced it. He wanted to get through this. It had been a mistake, but how could he go back on his word? If not, how could he get through to her. It wasn’t just the two of them anymore. They were a family.

  Her shrieks faded away and her sobs took over. Deep and heart-wrenching, but not angry. So sad. Swallowing hard, he used his best lawyer voice. “If you are ready to discuss these matters calmly, I will let you sit up.”

  “Okay.” She fell silent and Roy lifted her until she sat on his lap. He eyed her red eyes and blotchy cheeks, waiting for her to demand a divorce for his brutal behavior, but instead she threw her arms around his neck and rested her cheek on his chest.

  “You okay?”

  “Well, my husband just beat my ass with a wooden spoon.”

  “Technically, I swatted your legs with the spoon. Your ass, I spanked with my hand.”

  She sniffled against his shirt. “Whatever. I won’t be able to sit down in comfort for a week. It’s lucky we’re here in Podunk Bend. I’d never be able to explain this back home.”

  His wife was so soft in his arms, he tightened them around her and stroked her hair. “I’m sorry I had to spank you. I didn’t know how else to stop you from being hysterical.”

  With a sigh, she sat straight. “I’m amazed none of the neighbors came pounding on the door with all the noise. Or called Security. God, how humiliating to explain my husband has taken to spanking me.”

  “Yeah.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “They’d probably be shocked. I was more concerned we’d wake Ben.”

  “Oh, God. You don’t think we did, do you?” She tensed and he smiled at her.

  “No, I doubt it. But we can check on him before we go to bed. We need to watch the video, too?”

  She winced. “I just can’t. Not tonight. It wouldn’t hurt to wait until the morning, would it?”

  He shrugged. “I should advise you not to delay. There could be important information in there.”

  Her eyes filled with tears again. “It’s been such a long day. I don’t think I could bear it.”

  He hugged her tight. “We’ll get up early, before Ben, and watch it. Let’s just get some rest.”

  She snuggled close. “I want some time alone with my heroic husband. Not only did you save me from destroying the kitchen and breaking my toes, I’m inexplicably horny.”

  “I’d bend you over the table, but in case Ben does wake up, we’d better take this behind closed doors.” Roy lifted her to her feet then stood and clasped her hand. “Because you’ve got an ass no
man could resist.”

  “You say the sweetest things.” But she rubbed at her abused bottom and limped a little on the way into the bedroom. “Between my toes and ass and your black eye, we look like we’ve been through a war.”

  And perhaps they had. But when they paused to peek in at the little boy sleeping, clutching a teddy bear, and then closed the door to their room behind them, he couldn’t help but feel they’d won a battle, if not the whole war.

  And when he sank his cock into his wife’s body, for a few moments, his fantasy world became a reality.

  ***

  “Mommy, mommy!”

  Teri struggled to wake up from a confused dream where Melinda was lost and she was far from home, in a world of clouds and fog, hunting for her.

  “Mommy!”

  “Ben. Aunt Teri and I are here.” Roy sat up, his hair tousled, eye swollen almost shut in the light from the hallway. Silhouetted in the door stood their new responsibility. “Come get in bed with us.”

  The child stayed where he was and she watched as her husband pulled on a robe and moved to the doorway, took his hand and bent to him.

  “Roy, he spoke.” They could go home. The humiliating meeting with the board had been unnecessary, after all.

  “I think he’s sleepwalking. His eyes are closed.” He scooped the little boy up and carried him back to bed. She flipped the covers back and pulled them over the three of them, Ben in the middle. “I didn’t want to wake him, but maybe it’s a good sign. We’ll see in the morning.”

  If he could speak in his sleep, surely he would be ready to talk when he woke up. “If he does, I can spend the day making arrangements for all of Melinda and Shane’s stuff, give most of it to some local charity, pack up Ben’s stuff, and we can be out of here in two days, max.”

  Ben moaned and rolled over, so small in his flannel PJs, and Roy pulled the comforter over his shoulders. “Let’s see what happens and not get ahead of ourselves.”