The Promise (The 'Burg #5)(89)

“There’s Dino,” I told him.

“Dino’s an anomaly, proof that you weren’t switched at the hospital ’cause he shares your blood and he’s a good guy. But he’s a good guy because he got outta the mess you were bounced around in growin’ up. You’re you because of a miracle.”

His words made my breath catch as I stared into his eyes. “You think that?”

“Fuck yeah,” he replied. “Word is, Nat’s back with Davey, and she’s since hooked up with two other guys who are not Davey, he just doesn’t know about them yet. She’s also lost her job and found another since we last saw her, and the word about that is, she’s dancing.”

Oh f**k. That wasn’t good. That meant Nat, money, a lot of men, and not very many clothes.

Poor Davey.

“Cat has dropped off the face of the earth, which could mean anything,” Ben carried on. “Your ma, I don’t know and I don’t care. And in the time I was with you after you got out of the hospital, and our time earlier on this couch catchin’ up, you didn’t say a word about your dad and he lives fifteen f**kin’ minutes away. You f**ked me over and sent me cookies. You make meetings on time and think about how to make an employee respect you. Your outfit today, babe…sexy, way too f**kin’ sexy…but admittedly, it was also don’t-f*ck-with-me business. Sounds of it, you live in an upscale apartment building. You travel for your work in a way that they put you up in fancy hotels. Your future includes raises, promotions, the possibility of gettin’ a dog—but only the kind I want—and findin’ some way to do all that and circle back to a life with me. You are not them. You are nothin’ like them. You grew up f**ked and you still grew up smart, strong, capable, funny, and loving. So yeah. Fuck yeah. That’s a miracle.”

That was all too much, too beautiful, I couldn’t take it. I couldn’t even believe it.

I certainly couldn’t comment on it.

But my voice was husky when I asked, “What kind of dog do you want?”

He gave me that play, but he did it with his eyes gentling, along with his voice, showing me he knew I needed to make it when he said, “Kid friendly.”

Kid friendly.

God, he was killing me.

“A pug?” I asked, and the gentle look vanished.

“No f**kin’ way.”

“They’re cute, sweet, snorty, and friendly.”

“Any dog that is even partially a permanent fixture in my life has to be at least five times bigger than a cat, and when I say that, I mean a big cat.”

“That’s the only rule?”

“That, and it has to be a Labrador, a golden retriever, a German shepherd, a boxer, or a bulldog.”

My heart thumped with joy in my chest as my lips said, “Oh my God, Benny, we need a bulldog named Churchill.”

I got the gentle look back and it came directly on the heels of the word “we,” but I couldn’t wallow in it because he stated, “We are not namin’ a bulldog Churchill. We get a bulldog, he’s named Gus.”

I screwed up my face. “That’s a boring name.”

He ignored that. “Lab, Charlie. Golden, Honey. Shepherd, Attila. Boxer, Bruno.”

Jeez, he had it all figured out.

“Those are all boring names, Benny,” I decreed, though Attila was kind of cool.

“You pick the dog, I pick the name,” he offered.

I shook my head. “No, you pick the dog, I pick the name.”

“Deal,” he said instantly.

Shit!

“No, wait, I wanna pick the dog!” I cried.

His lips turned up and he shook his head. “We had a deal.”

“We didn’t shake on it.”

Something changed in his face and I liked the change.

It also changed in his voice.

“Is that our gig? We make a deal, we shake on it?” he asked, his face getting closer to me.

“Yes,” I declared firmly.

His head veered at the last moment and his hand at my neck tightened as his face disappeared on the other side.

“We’ll shake on it later,” he said against my skin, then his mouth opened over it and I felt his tongue start gliding.

“Okay,” I agreed, suddenly breathless.

“Take your panties off, baby.”

“Okay,” I wheezed, totally breathless, shifting my hands to get my thumbs in the sides of my panties, thinking I was about to learn the meaning of what Ben said earlier about focus.

In short order, I found I was right.

I also found I liked Benny’s focus.

Definitely.

* * * * *

“Ben.”

“Yeah.”

“Ben.”

“Fuck yeah.”

I drove down on his c**k and ground in, coming hard. Ben was sitting up while I rode him so my arms were tight around his shoulders.

I was finding with Ben, once I got there, he needed power. So he flipped me and gave me the power. His h*ps beat into mine, his face in my neck, one forearm in the bed, the other hand at my ass, tipping me up to take him deeper.

I slid both my hands to his ass and clenched in, holding on and coaxing at the same time.

He didn’t need my coaxing. It was Saturday night. He’d come home from the restaurant, woke me, felt energetic, and this was the culmination of a lot of hard work from Benny and me.