Frayed (Connections, #4)(116)

His hand covers mine around the yellow oval. He inhales with an exaggerated whiff. “Okay, I give.”

I drop my hand and make a little noise, trying really hard not to sigh. “Argh . . . don’t you smell the lemony scent?”

“Yes, I smell it. I smell you. You know I love that scent, because I tell you that all the time. But if you want to know if one is ripe, you’re supposed to squeeze it, not smell it.”

I peel the skin back with my nails and toss it in the sink. I slip the tip of the wedge in my mouth, hoping it doesn’t make me gag again.

“Um . . . so good,” I say.

“I bet,” he teases, flinching at the thought of eating a lemon.

“Ben, it doesn’t matter what it tastes like. Don’t you know that when you eat a lemon it’s readily absorbed into your body and acts as a natural perfume? That’s why I always smell it before I eat it to make sure that’s what I want to smell like.”

“Fuck . . . sometimes you actually can make sense out of your nonsense,” he teases, grabbing another from the bowl and quickly slicing it into quarters and offering me the wedge with skin on. My lips circle his fingers and I put the piece in my mouth. I take my time, sucking all the juice, hollowing out my cheeks as I do. I know what I’m doing. He stays close even after I drain the liquid from the lemon. He puckers his own lips and I know exactly what he’s thinking. When I finish I take another quarter and hold it up for him to eat.

“I’m good.” He holds his hands up.

“Please try it. It tastes like lemonade.” I lick my lips.

He sighs in exaggeration. “If I do you’re going to owe me.”

I pop up on my toes. “I’ll let you pretend to be Tom Sawyer.”

“Huck Finn and you have a deal,” he counters with a devilish grin.

“You got it.” I hold the fruit to his lips.

With my fingers so close to his mouth, my breathing only hitches higher and so does his. The oil crackles and splatters from the wok, but neither of us moves as his hands find their magical way down my body. Drawn to each other as we always are, the magnetic pull gets stronger with each day we spend together. “I love you,” I say softly.

Suddenly there’s a tap at the glass doors from out in the family room. I turn with a jump and a screech to see the shadow of two people standing out on the deck—a silhouette of a man and a woman.

“You’re so f*cking adorable,” Ben whispers in my ear.

He makes his way toward the door, obviously knowing who it is.

“Who is that?” I’m wondering why they wouldn’t just ring the doorbell.

Ben slides open the door. “Caleb, where the f*ck have you been?”

The two guys slap each other’s back in a semblance of a hug. I’ve met Caleb a number of times. However, I’ve never met the girl. She’s stunning. Dark hair, dark eyes, and very fit, much like Caleb. I walk toward them.

“I knocked, but . . . ,” Caleb starts to say but stops when his eyes cut to mine. And with his grin wide asks, “Bell, how are you?”

Ben reaches out and takes my hand.

I give Caleb a smile. “Good, really good.”

“This is Gemma. Gemma, this is my best friend in the world, Ben, and his . . .” He pauses for a brief moment.

“This is my girlfriend, Bell.”

My heart chases itself in circles at his introduction. “Hi, nice to meet you.” I smile like an idiot.

“We’re just making dinner. There’s plenty.”

Caleb glances in the kitchen. “Ben’s famous stir-fry—I’d love to but Serena and Jason are waiting dinner for us. I just wanted to stop by and say a quick hi and talk to Ben.”

He rocks back on his heels and tucks his hands in his pockets, obviously feeling uncomfortable.

“Well, how about something to drink?” I ask.

“I’d love a glass of water,” Gemma says.

“The same.” Caleb smiles.

I head to the kitchen, staring back at them. I see their gestures but can’t hear anything. Ben keeps staring at me and once I put ice and water in two glasses I hurry back in to figure out what’s going on. When I hand the waters to Caleb and Gemma, Ben opens his arms to fold me into them. With my head tight against his shoulder he kisses me and says to Caleb, “You know what, I’m good the way things are.”

There was a time I would have been eager for the story. But I went down that road once and I don’t ever want to go down it again. I know he’ll tell me as soon as I ask.

I look up. “What’s going on?”

He smiles down at me and kisses the tip of my nose. “Nothing. Caleb was just looking for some advice, but I can’t really help him.”

Caleb nods.

“I’ll be right back,” Ben says, and when he comes back he hands some kind of flash drive to Caleb. “Good luck, man.”

“Thanks. I’ll be in touch.”

We say our good-byes and once they leave through the front door, Ben looks over to me and sees my puzzled expression.

“He just needed some information that I had of his.”

“Okay.” It feels as though there’s more to the story, but Ben’s body language says it all. He’s quiet, serene, and I feel he needs me to just be here for him. Next, he pulls me close and holds me tight for a very long time. “I love you,” he says.