The Promise (The 'Burg #5)(98)

That flutter came back and it wasn’t a flutter anymore.

It was shaking me to the core from the inside.

I held on to his wrists and stared into his eyes and knew in that instant exactly why I was falling so fast for Benny Bianchi.

Because he had zero intention of treating me like shit and every intention of caring about me.

“See I scored with that,” he said softly, staring right back at me.

“Big time,” I replied softly too.

“You’re worried about hurting me,” he kept talking softly. “Doin’ the shit you grew up watchin’ your parents do.”

I nodded uncertainly. “I think so.”

“So, in order to protect me, you instigated a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

I just kept nodding.

He lifted his hands and mine went with them, even as he cupped my jaw and bent close so his face was all I could see.

“Baby, let that shit go.” His fingers dug in. “It’s not in you.”

“What if it is?” My voice sounded tortured.

“How could that be?” he asked gently.

“It’s who I am.”

“If it was, think about it, Francesca, when would you have left Vinnie?”

I didn’t answer, just held on to his wrists at my jaw and stared in his eyes, knowing it would have been early.

After the franchise idea crashed and burned, possibly.

After the sandwich shop tanked, probably.

The minute he started things up with Sal.

Definitely.

“You got it good. You got someone who looks after you; you got someone who gives a shit. Livin’ the way you lived, losin’ shit you didn’t even know you should have, do you ever think you’d leave?” he pushed.

“No,” I breathed.

“No,” Ben agreed.

I kept holding on, staring into his eyes while I said, “I think the noodles are gonna turn mushy, Benny.”

“I don’t give a f**k, Frankie.”

“I also think I need tequila with dinner,” I went on.

“Lucky for you, cupboards are bare, but I got that.”

“You’re the shit, Benny Bianchi,” I whispered and watched him close his eyes.

Then I felt his hands pull me to him. He kissed my forehead before he moved me back and, again, looked at me.

“You gonna let me give you good?” he whispered back.

God.

Benny.

“Yes.”

“You gonna freak and bail on me?”

“No.”

His fingers dug in again as he said, “That’s my Frankie.”

I wanted to, I really did, but I couldn’t stop them. The tears hit my eyes, one dropping and sliding down my cheek.

Ben saw it, pulled me by my jaw into his chest, and let go only to wrap his arms tight around me.

I did the same to him.

Another tear slid down, but I held tight to Ben and got control.

While I did, Ben held tight to me.

Minutes later, he moved to put his lips to my hair and said there, “I’ll get the noodles, babe. You deal with the rest.”

“Right,” I agreed.

“You good?” he asked.

I was better than I’d ever been, in the arms of Benny Bianchi.

“Yep.”

“Good,” he murmured, then kissed the top of my head, let me go, and went to the noodles on the stove.

I turned to the counter and dealt with the rest.

* * * * *

The next day, Ben and I went to the market.

We got napkins.

Chapter Fifteen

Crazy

I was hustling out of the staff kitchen on my way to my office with my clean coffee cup because it was Friday and no one wanted to come back to the office on Monday seeing the dried remains of last week’s coffee in their mug.

Even though it was barely four o’clock, the place was nearly deserted. It was May, summer was coming on strong, and people were way past cabin fever. They wanted out and about and to make as much of the weekend as possible.

I was one of the last in the office, because even though I’d been there seven months, I wasn’t the kind of person to slow down. I had numbers to reach, but I never looked at numbers to reach as numbers to reach. I looked at them as numbers whose asses needed kicked. I was guiding my reps to kicking that ass, and even though Ben was right then at my apartment, having called ten minutes ago to tell me he’d arrived, I wanted to make sure it was all good at work before I left. I hadn’t seen him since I spent the week with him two weeks ago. He was down for a long weekend, leaving on Tuesday, and I was taking Monday off.

So I had to have my ducks in a row so I could be all about Ben and not have work encroach on that.

I’d already packed up so when I got to my office, I put down my mug, grabbed my purse and my computer bag, nabbed my keys and cell off my desk, and hightailed it out the door.

I was walking by Randy Bierman, the Director of Research and Development’s door and saw he was the only one left in the office. He was mostly turned in his chair to look outside, phone to his ear.

In all the time I’d been there, I still didn’t know what to make of Randy, seeing as most of the time he was kind of a dick. He treated his assistant like shit, was cranky nearly every day, and he was intensely secretive. Always behind closed doors. Rushing to his office the instant his cell phone rang. Shutting the blinds on the window wall to his office, like we all could read lips or had superhuman hearing.