Call Her Mine (Harmony Pointe #1)- Melissa Foster Page 0,56
pocket. He unhooked Molly’s leash, showed her the ball, and threw it.
They followed a path toward a gazebo. In the distance, kids fed ducks around the pond, a family sat on a blanket beneath a big oak tree, and an older couple walked hand in hand along a footpath. Molly skidded to a stop by the gazebo, retrieved the ball, and bounded toward them.
The baby fussed, and Aurelia stopped to take her out of the stroller. “Come here, little one.” She kissed her cheek, and Ben pushed the stroller to the gazebo. “I love this gazebo. Fletch, do you ever attend the lectures they give here? Or the concerts?”
“Yeah, sure,” he said as Molly dropped the ball at his feet. He picked it up and threw it again, sending Molly on another mad dash. “Do you think you guys will come to them now that you’re living here?”
“Oh gosh, yes. I hope to, at least,” she said, glancing at Ben.
“Sure. Whatever you want,” Ben said.
“Once I hire staff and I’ve worked out all the kinks at the bookstore”—she sat on the gazebo steps—“I hope to be able to do readings here a few times a year.” Talia had referred a couple of college students to work part-time at the bookstore, and Aurelia had scheduled interviews for the coming week.
“Will you dress up like you did for the readings at Pages?” Ben asked.
She looked curiously at him as he parked the stroller and sat beside her. “How do you know I dressed up for my readings?”
Fletch chuckled, and Ben scrubbed a hand down his face, grinning like a Cheshire cat.
“Ben . . . ?” She didn’t remember ever telling him about dressing up. In fact, she didn’t remember mentioning much about the readings other than that she did them.
“I might have . . . um . . .” He glanced at Fletch. Then he turned that panty-melting grin on Aurelia and said, “I caught a few of them.”
“When? I don’t remember seeing you. Wait a sec. You had meetings Thursday nights. Aida Strong meetings,” she said with a wince of discomfort. “You couldn’t have gone to my readings.”
Ben looked like a kid caught with his hand in the candy jar. “You were my meetings, babe, not her. Second and fourth Thursdays of the month.”
She couldn’t believe he’d secretly gone to hear her readings. “I . . . But . . . ?”
“No buts. I was there, babe.”
“But I never saw you at the bookstore.”
“That was by design. I wanted to see you, but that didn’t mean I thought you wanted to see me.” He kissed B’s head, and then he said, “You were the sexiest Scarlett O’Hara I’ve ever seen. And when you were Anna Karenina? Whew, Rels. I’m not gonna lie. You made for some pretty interesting fantasies.”
A rumble of laughter burst from Fletch’s lungs. “That’s definitely TMI for this guy. I’ll catch up with y’all another time.” He threw the ball for Molly and walked off in the same direction.
“Ben, are you serious? Did you really come see me without me knowing?”
“Like clockwork, babe.”
She filled with joy. “Do you have any idea how many nooky points that could have won you?”
He laughed and slid a hand to the nape of her neck, drawing her mouth closer to his. “I’m going to calculate how many times I went to see you, and you’re going to have a lot of payback to do.”
“Good thing I make good on all of my IOUs.”
“If I have my way, you’ll be paying me back for a very long time. But don’t worry, I’ll make it worth your while.” He lowered his lips toward hers, and his warm breath coasted over her skin as he said, “When this little one goes down tonight, your man’s going down, too.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
AURELIA’S BACK HIT the cold, wet shower tile with a thud early Sunday morning as Ben thrust his rigid cock in deep, sending shocks of heat searing through her.
“Oh God, yes!” she panted out.
Ben’s mouth crashed over hers, rough and demanding, as he pounded into her beneath the warm spray of the shower. She loved his strength and his ravenous desire for her. He’d made good on his promise last night. Having his greedy hands and his talented, insanely wicked mouth all over her had left her fantasizing about what she wanted to do to him. She’d woken up wet and needy, craving him like a drug, and decided to take their pleasure into her own hands.