BenI struggled to sleep that night. Everyone was telling me it wasn’t my fault that it hadn’t happened because I had done anything wrong. It was purely a matter of circumstance that someone else had been injured instead of me.Logically that made sense. I knew Ted had called me back at the last minute to ask for advice. I knew Jonas had jumped at the opportunity to go into the warehouse instead, and the accident had been exactly that—an accident.But I couldn’t shake the guilt. I felt terrible that Jonas was fighting for his life, that his face was mangled beyond recognition, that he might not be able to fight fires for a long time to come, if ever. I felt like I was responsible for the difficult time that lay ahead of him and the pain he had to endure.The worst was that there was nothing I could do about it. I could pay for the best possible care and therapy there was. And I planned to do just that. I could be there for him every day and ensure that they were doing everything possi
BenI nodded. “Yeah, eventually they did. The warehouse is ruined, though.” I’d heard it on the news late last night when I hadn’t been able to sleep.“How’s Luke? And Jonas?”“I haven’t seen Jonas yet. Luke is okay. The tube is out, but he’s weak.”Steve nodded. “Yeah, playing hero will do that to you when it blows up in your face. Thanks for coming around today.”I nodded. So far, things were looking up. I was starting to slowly feel better about the whole thing. If everyone was out of the hospital safe and sound, then I would be happy.When we walked to Jonas’s room, I knew we weren’t in the clear yet. Jonas’s skin was terribly burned, and he didn’t seem to be conscious. His leg had been put in a cast, and machines whirred and beeped all around him, making the room seem like something from a sci-fi movie. I carefully walked to his bed.“What happened?” I asked. He looked worse off than yesterday.“He had a rough night,” Mila said, reading his chart. “He’s in a chemically induced co
MilaMy heart went out to Ben. Everything seemed to be going wrong for him, and the hits just kept on rolling. First, the guilt from the fire and everything Ben had been struggling with since the fire had taken place yesterday. Now, he’d lost his uncle. I could only imagine how much he had to be struggling.I knew it was hard, and I had been through enough pain myself to know what it was like to deal with loss. I hadn’t ever lost someone in the sense of the death of a loved one, but I had lost a lot of patients who had felt as personal to me as if they had been family. Ben was going to have a tough time ahead.I wished I could be there for him the way he needed me. Until now, I had been there, trying to comfort him in his time of need. I had offered to be a shoulder he could cry on, a pillar of strength when he felt like he was swaying in the wind. But with his uncle gone and his sudden trip to New York, I couldn’t be there for him. Not in the way I wanted to.A part of me hoped he ha
MilaI pulled up my shoulders. “He kissed me. Or maybe I kissed him. I can’t remember who moved first but it was definitely not one-sided. And it was amazing. Oh my god, Skylar. Everything about him is fantastic.”Skylar’s eyes widened. “Fantastic, huh? You don’t just think it was the alcohol talking?”I giggled and shook my head. “I know what a good kiss should be like, and that was definitely top shelf.” I blushed again, thinking about it. I still didn’t know where I stood with Ben regarding that kiss, but every time I thought about it, I could feel his lips on mine. The warmth that radiated from him was still in my skin, and heat washed through my body. Every. Time.I had been drunk but not enough to forget it.“Okay, this is what I want to know,” Skylar said. “You kissed the guy of your dreams—the kiss you’ve been fantasizing about for the past ten years—and you haven’t told me. Are you crazy?”I shrugged my shoulders. “A lot happened since then. It was one emergency after the oth
BenMy trip to New York was quick. There wasn’t much I could do other than making sure the business ran the way it was supposed to and offering my condolences to Penny. Uncle Dean had taken care of her in the event of his death, so other than making sure she was all right, there hadn’t been anything I could do. Uncle Dean’s lawyers were still working on his estate, and everything else had come to a standstill without the sole owner of the company.Going home had been the only other option.By Saturday, I was back in Portland, and I felt like I’d been hit by a train. I had to carry on with my life here until there was any news about the will, about what was going to happen to the company and everything else that Uncle Dean had left behind.I dialed Mila’s number and waited for her to take the call or get her voice mail. I wasn’t sure if she was at the hospital today or not.“Yeah?” she answered. She sounded like she’d been sleeping.“Did I wake you?” I asked.“Ben? Oh my god. How are y
Ben“I’ll have you know, I’m not that kind of woman,” she said with a giggle. I laughed, grabbed her hand, and we ran through the rain to my car. I was lucky I hadn’t drank more than I had. No damn way I’d drive if I were over the limit.By the time we reached the car, we were drenched.“This weather is crazy,” Mila said when lightning zigzagged across the sky and thunder followed on its heels.We made it back to Mila’s apartment. The rain had made it a little harder to drive, but it felt like we were enclosed in a bubble with the rain showering down all around us, and I loved it.“Let me walk you inside,” I said when I stopped in front of Mila’s building. “You could slip and fall in this.”“Then, I’ll have a handsome fireman to save me,” she said with a cute smile. She was cute and sexy and beautiful and fun all in one go, and I couldn’t believe it was possible for one woman to be so perfect without even trying.We jumped out into the rain and ran to the front door of the building. M
MilaWhen Ben left, I was stunned. Emotions had been running high. My body had been on fire for him. I had wanted him to touch me in ways I had never wanted from anyone.His kiss had been even better than I had remembered it, and even though we hadn’t ever spoken about what had happened between us in the taxi, it had seemed like Ben wanted me as much as I wanted him.Then, he had stopped it all as if it had been a switch he could just turn on and off.It wasn’t that simple for me. I was still horny as hell, almost trembling with the need for a release, an ache in my gut for the connection with a man I hadn’t only crushed on for as long as I could remember but someone who had come to mean so very much to me.Instead of having the best sex ever, of losing my virginity to someone I deemed worthy of something that serious to me, I was alone in my apartment, frustrated, abandoned, and stranded with my own tumult of emotions.I paced my apartment, pressing my hand to my forehead. When I tou
MilaAfter paying attention to my breasts for a while, my pussy begged for attention enough to distract me, and I ran my hands down my body, over my stomach. I pulled up my knees and arched my back, curling into the bed before my thighs fell open. I played my fingers over my pussy lips, gasping. My touch was almost electric after I had teased myself for so long, and I gasped, wanting more. I tried to hold out and drag it out, but my clit throbbed, and I pushed my fingers into my slit. I was so wet, and I shivered when I touched my clit. I smeared the wetness all around my pussy, moving slowly and gently. With my eyes closed, I pictured Ben. I imagined it was his hands on my body, his fingers on my clit.I had never masturbated thinking about someone in particular. Even though I had crushed on Ben for ages, I hadn’t used him as fuel for my sexual fantasies. Not when I had thought he didn’t even think about me. It had seemed wrong somehow.But now, I knew he’d wanted me. His dick had be