Cowboy Casanova (Rough Riders #12)(59)

Then Ben’s hands were on her face. “What you are is a beautiful, sexy woman. Smart

enough to get out of a situation that didn’t fit you. The real you.”


Her eyes searched his. “You really believe I’m submissive.”


“Yes. It’s not control you want, Ainsley. It’s freedom from control. Freedom not to

have to micromanage every aspect of your life. Freedom to trust that your sexual well-

being will be tended to by a man you trust. Freedom to feel instead of think.”



“You are the man who can get me to do that?”


Ben leveled that panty-dampening smile at her. “Oh yeah.” His hands fell from her

face. “We’ll finish this conversation after we eat.”


The rest of the meal was quiet, except for the dogs barking. After he cleared the

plates, he led her to the oversized corduroy couches. Ben plopped down beside her, and

picked up her hand. “Tell me about your job.”


“That’s guaranteed to put you to sleep.”


He chuckled.


“I switched banking corporations during our separation since my ex and I had worked

for the same company. Basically I started over.”


“So you go around opening new banks?”


“No. This was sort of a fluke. I turned around a branch office in Denver. When this

job unexpectedly opened up, they offered it to me. I’m probably in over my head. And

since this is a small bank in a small community, they expect me to have a community

presence.”


He groaned. “A man could go broke supporting all the community causes.”


“Two words a banker doesn’t like to hear together: go broke.”


Ben turned his head, brushing his lips in front of her ear. “Does the stern bank

president ever wear her hair up?”


Okay. That was an abrupt subject change. “Sometimes.”


“Would you jerk away if I put my mouth on that sexy sweep of skin between your

hairline and your shoulder?” Ben blew a stream of air across her ear. “Would I have

to pull your hair to take what I wanted?”


More shivers spread across her body. “I thought you said we’d just talk tonight?”


“We are talkin’.”


“So why does this feel like a seduction?”


“Because I am trying to get you to feel instead of think.”


Ainsley fought the urge to push him away as his mouth wandered over her skin. She’d

never let a man know her weak spots, let alone hone in on them.


“I sense the fight in you, angel. Let. It. Go.”


Hot kisses seared her neck and she whimpered.


“Drop your head back on the couch.”


Ben’s voice had become Bennett’s. Demanding in that deceptively soft way that only

increased its power.


She inhaled a deep breath and…obeyed.


Bennett nestled his mouth into the curve of her neck. Kissing her with tiny pecks.

Flicking his tongue over the pulsing vein. Whipping her into such a frenzy that she

didn’t notice his fingers inching up her thigh until his fingertips breached midpoint

beneath her skirt.


When she tensed, he warned, “Don’t. Spread your legs.”