BenWednesday finally rolled around. I had made the most of the days in between while I counted down to see Mila again. I had gone to the station to see the guys. I had worked as a firefighter – my dream job – for only a few short weeks after Uncle Dean had bought the company from me to give me my freedom. But then he had passed away. I had built wonderful friendships, but I’d had to quit. They had all wished me well except Tyler. I had gone to school with him back in the day, and he’d been hostile.When I had gone to see them, Tyler had been distant and switched off, polite but nothing more. I had been upset until Sam, one of the other firefighters and the worst cook that ever walked the face of the earth, told me that Tyler became very attached to people and hadn’t taken my departure very well.I felt bad that I had done it to him, but he wasn’t the only person I had left behind.I had spent time with other friends and family members, too. But I was mainly back in Portland for Mila,
Ben“I’m glad you’re handling your uncle’s death so well,” Mila finally said after I told her about Penny, Uncle Dean’s widow, and how I was worried about her. She wasn’t dealing with his death nearly as well as I had hoped she would. I was worried that she would lose the will to carry on.“When someone dies, there are two ways to handle it,” I said. “Especially if they were close to you. You can lie down and die, too. Or you can pick yourself up and move forward. Give your life meaning, even.”“That’s a good way to look at it,” Mila said. “It’s so easy to give up, but we owe it to ourselves to keep fighting.”“Exactly,” I said. It made me feel amazing that Mila and I were on the same page about big things like this. We were very different in some ways, but in other ways, we were exactly the same.I thought about the investigation that was pending now that Uncle Dean’s death turned out to be exactly the same as that of my father. I wanted to share it with Mila. It was a big deal, some
MilaBen drove me home. We were quiet in the car, but it was an amicable silence. Everything that had gone wrong before seemed to be okay, now. Ben was back, and he had told me, almost in so many words, that he was in love with me. That he hadn’t said the exact words was okay.The atmosphere was thick in the car, and I was aware of him next to me. I wanted to be with him. It hadn’t changed since the last time we had been together when we had almost fucked. But this time, it was different. We weren’t trying to fight what was happening. In fact, we were both going with it.Even if we were keeping it a secret.When Ben parked in front of my apartment building, I looked at him.“Do you want to come inside?” I asked. It was forward, but I didn’t want him to leave. I didn’t want this amazing night to end, didn’t want him to turn around and leave when I had finally gotten him back.“Yeah,” he said. His voice was a little rough around the edges as if he had the same thing on his mind as I did
MilaBen dropped to his knees in front of me and unzipped my jeans, pulling them down along with my panties. I was riddled with lust as I lifted one leg after the other, letting him strip the jeans and underwear down and pull them off. I stood before him naked, trembling with anticipation. Ben ran his fingers over my pussy lips, and I widened my legs, giving him access.“You’re so wet,” he said.“I really want you.”Ben didn’t answer. Instead, he pushed his fingers into me, and I cried out. At the same time, he closed his mouth over my clit, making me shudder. He started sucking my clit, and it was better than anything I could ever have imagined.The first orgasm shattered me, and I cried out as my body tightened and pleasure washed over me in waves. I sagged against the wall when it was over, and Ben stood up, his mouth glistening with my sex, an arrogant grin on his face. He knew he was good.“Follow me,” I said, stepping around him and walking to my bedroom on jelly legs. Ben follo
BenOn Thursday morning, it took me a few seconds to figure out where I was. It wasn’t the ceiling of my penthouse in New York or the ceiling of my old room in my mom’s house. A hotel?Mila stirred next to me, and I remembered where I was. I had stayed over at Mila’s place after I had fucked her.Oh. My. God. I had been around, but I had never had sex that good. And she had been a fucking virgin. I still wasn’t sure how that had happened. Mila was everything a man could want. I had assumed she had been with at least a few of them. Even though she was single and committed to her job. Mila was beautiful and smart, and she could have any man she set her heart on.I was honored that I was the one she had chosen. I didn’t feel guilty at all. I felt satisfied. In every way.This had been a long time coming. I’d wanted Mila since I’d sold the company and come back home. And now, finally, I’d had her.A pang of guilt shot into my chest when I thought about the conversation we’d had at dinner.
Ben“I didn’t mean to get drunk at all. But you know how it goes.”“Yeah. Tequila hits you from left field, and before you know it, your balance is fucked, and you swipe your card again and again, thinking more alcohol will fix it.” Jerrod chuckled. “At least you’re back and having fun.”The same guilt I had felt earlier twisted my stomach in a knot. I couldn’t tell Jerrod I was leaving soon. Not with Mila here. I was lying to Jerrod about more than one thing. I was an awful friend.“I better get going before my mom calls the cops to look for me.”“Maybe she already did,” Jerrod said.I shook my head. “Where the hell is my shirt?” I asked, pretending I didn’t know.Jerrod pointed to it on the floor.“How did that happen?” I asked, trying to sound like it had been a blackout drunk night. I stood and walked to my shirt, picking it up and putting it on. I found my shoes, too. After I was dressed, I turned to Jerrod and Mila.“Thanks for forcing me to stay over. I think I would have pisse
MilaAfter Ben had left on Thursday, I’d showered and headed to work. My mind had been filled with Ben and everything we’d done. I was walking on air after we’d slept together.It had been so much better than anything I’d been able to do with my vibrator, and I felt like I was more of a woman now that I had lost my virginity. I reveled in the delicious feeling that washed over my body whenever I thought about Ben.I headed back to the hospital on Friday. My mind was on Ben again, but I thought about Jerrod and how he had nearly caught us. It had been a complete coincidence that Jerrod had decided to bring me donuts on the same morning Ben was naked in my bed, but shit happened sometimes.It hadn’t been the first time Jerrod had brought me donuts for breakfast to cheer me up after I’d had a rough time at the hospital. And he’d never had to worry about me having any company before.But it had been so close this time. I shuddered to think what would have happened if he’d figured out what
Mila“She looked like she was going to faint when I took her with me to clean Mr. Hendricks’s stitches.”They all laughed.“What do you think?” Claire asked me.“About what?” I sat down with them and opened my sandwich.“About Danielle, the new nurse. Have you met her?”I shook my head. I’d seen her around, but she had been shadowing the other nurses and seemed shy and unsure.“She’s so green. I’m sure she’ll cry if you look at her wrong,” someone said.“We’re placing bets on how long she’ll last.”My mouth dropped. “That’s a bit rude, isn’t it? We all started somewhere.”“It takes a lot to do this, you know that Mila,” Claire said. “Not everyone has what it takes.”I couldn’t disagree with that, but we had all learned how to cope with the horrors we saw here every day. If this new nurse had a passion for helping people, she would make it through.Suddenly, I wondered if nurses had bet on whether I would survive as well. I had started in the ICU ward in the same way. It was a hard pla
BenI had sold the company as Jerrod had suggested. I had thought about it long and hard and decided it was what I wanted. I hadn’t wanted to be the CEO of the company in the first place. Not when my father had left it to me and not when Uncle Dean had, either. I had put in the work and found someone worthy of the company. I heard it was thriving, now.The money received for the company sale had been enough to pay Brantley, and I still had enough left to give Penny an amount. I felt Uncle Dean’s widow had deserved a bit of an allowance after everything she had been through because of my father.After Brantley and Penny, I had bought a large house in Portland for me, Mila and Landon, and I had put the rest away as an investment for the future. We had so much money we would never struggle, even if we both stopped working.Mila and I were both working because we loved what we did. Mila didn’t want to stop nursing after she had Landon, and I understood. She asked for fewer shifts so that
BenSeven Months LaterWhen I unlocked the door to the house I had bought six months ago, I was stepping over the threshold as a father. It was the first time, and I was very aware of it. A lump rose in my throat, but I swallowed it down.“Ready?” I asked Mila. She nodded and climbed out of the car. She moved comfortably. It was amazing how women bounced back from giving birth in no more than a day or two. It would have been different if she had had a C-section or something, but Mila had given birth naturally.She opened the car door and lifted the carrier out of its brace.“I’m coming,” I said, running to her. I took the carrier from her so she didn’t have to strain herself and put my arm around her as I carried little Landon in the other hand.Mila had given birth to a beautiful baby boy twenty-four hours ago. It had been a beautiful surprise. I would have been just as proud if it was a girl, but I was so happy it was a boy. Landon Atwood had a great ring to it.We walked together t
MilaAgain, he didn’t touch my pussy even though he came so close. Instead, he moved up my hip bones and kissed my stomach, my ribs, moving past my breasts to my shoulders and working his way down one arm. When he reached my fingers, he sucked them into his mouth and played with his tongue around them. It was a strange feeling, ticklish and such a turn on.Ben let go of my hand and moved across my chest, avoiding my breasts, moving over my shoulder and down my other arm. When he reached my fingers, I was just about losing my mind with lust. I wanted him inside me so badly, and he’d been teasing me by not touching any of the areas I so desperately wanted him to touch.When Ben pressed his fingers against my pussy, I jumped. I had wanted it so badly, now that I had it, it was like a jolt of electricity shooting into my body. Ben pressed his thumb against my clit and pushed two fingers into me. He moved his thumb while curling his fingers over my G-spot, and it didn’t take long at all be
MilaLate on Friday night, my phone rang. I was already sleeping, and it took me a while to find my phone on my nightstand.“Are you awake?” Ben asked.I smiled. “I am, now.”“Can I come over? I have great news.”I looked at the alarm clock next to my lamp. The red numbers said it was well after midnight.“Of course,” I said.Half an hour later, a cab pulled up and dropped Ben off in front of my apartment building. I had been looking out for him. I buzzed him up before he rang my apartment, and I smiled when he stumbled up the step to the front door. He had been drinking.When I opened the front door to him, he stepped forward and folded me against his body.“I missed you,” he said.I laughed. “It’s been two days.”“Two days too many,” Ben said. He smelled like beer and cigarette smoke.“Where were you?” I asked.“I was at the bar, having drinks with Jerrod.”I raised my eyebrows. It was good news. Unexpected, and good. I led Ben into my apartment and closed the door.“Get back in bed
BenI shook my head. “I won’t. I know I haven’t treated her right, but I thought I was doing the right thing. I’m sticking around, now. I’m not going anywhere. I’m madly in love with her. Mila is one of a kind.”Jerrod nodded. “She is. And I can see how you feel about her. I have no doubt that you care for her. It just pissed me off so much that I was the last to know.”“I get that,” I said. I really did feel bad for what we’d done. But there was only so many times I could say I was sorry. I knew that this time, Jerrod had accepted my apology.Jerrod nodded again. We both drank our beers, listening to the music and watching the crowds shuffle in. As the night dragged on, the bar filled up with patrons who were done with their work week and looking for a way to unwind.“It’s just all so unexpected,” Jerrod said after a while. “Your relationship with her when I still see her as a kid is one thing. But now she’s pregnant. Man.” He scrubbed his face with his hands. “I don’t know what to m
BenOn Friday I walked into the bar where Mila and I had gone with Jerrod and Skylar. We hadn’t been careful enough that night, and Jerrod had seen us together. That was when the trouble had all started between me and Jerrod, and I was hoping this was where it would all end.I had texted him, telling him I was going to be at the bar tonight. I wanted to talk to him, but I was tired of running after him when he wasn’t interested. I had asked him to come to meet me. He hadn’t replied. I had told him what time I was going to be there, and now that I was here, time would tell if Jerrod was going to show up to talk to me.My wristwatch told me it was eight o’clock. I would give him half an hour before I left again.Until now, everything had been about Jerrod. He had been the one who had been wronged. Mila and I had kept our relationship secret from him when it was already a no-no that his best friend and younger sister were dating. It had been wrong not to tell him and even worse that he h
Mila“I love you, too.”There was nothing else to say. Words couldn’t describe how we both felt at that moment.After I changed back into my clothes, we met Dr. Holt in her office again. She gave me a prescription for prenatal supplements and an eating plan with do’s and don’ts for the next seven months.“I’ll see you back here in about eight weeks,” Dr. Holt said. “Then we’ll find out what you’re having.”When Ben and I walked back to the car, I felt like I was walking on air. Everything felt different, now. I felt more ready to be a mother, to have this baby and to raise it, than I had before. Now that I had seen the baby, I knew that I wanted all of this.Did Ben feel the same?“You know, you still have time to back out of this,” I said to Ben. He stopped dead in his tracks and looked at me.“What makes you think I would want that?” he asked.I pulled up my shoulder. I couldn’t guarantee that this feeling of amazement was mutual. Ben took a step closer to me and kissed me long and
MilaOn Wednesday I had the day off again and had scheduled an ultrasound. Now that everyone knew about me being pregnant, it was time to meet the baby.Ben was with me. It made me less nervous, but only a little. It was crazy how tense I was about the appointment, even though everything was out in the open now. The idea that I was pregnant, that we were having a baby, was terrifying.It had all happened so fast. It had been mere weeks since Ben had come back to Portland for the first time and now we were starting a family together. There were nights when I was sleepless and in a fit of panic, wondering how the hell we were going to get through this. We had been a part of each other’s lives for years, but when it came down to knowing each other, we were practically strangers.When I was with Ben, like now, all my worries melted away. We were great together. He was so attentive now that I was pregnant, and since he had told me he was going to stay, our relationship was stronger than ev
BenI let go of Jerrod’s shirt. He stumbled back, his expression surprised. Maybe he had expected me to throw the first punch. He had been ready to fight me. But I wasn’t here for that. I hadn’t come to beat up my best friend. I had only come to set the record straight.“She’s a great person, Jerrod. You know that. She doesn’t deserve this shit.”I turned around and left the office. Jerrod stayed behind, gaping. I had never been one to back down from a fight. There had been enough fights in high school that had shown Jerrod that. But this wasn’t high school, and Jerrod was like a brother to me. If I ended up with Mila, he would be a brother-in-law, in fact.So, I wasn’t going to go there.Instead, I headed back home like a good boy to seethe in private.After I had taken the time to calm down, I phoned Mila.“How are you doing?” I asked.“Better,” she said, and I was relieved. “I came off my shift just now. I’m going to crawl into bed for a few hours.“Have you told your parents yet?”