Page 21 of Ben

She shivered, and his gaze turned sharp. “Go to bed, Diamond; it’s late, and we can talk some more in the morning.”

Diamond moved closer; she was sore, but she found she wanted to spend her first night of marriage lying next to Ben.

“Are you coming? You had a long day too and looked tired.” She reached up to touch his cheek and then the skin underneath his eyes.

His lips quirked to the side, and he took the finger that was tracing his jaw now. “No, you need to go to bed now.”

Her eyebrows rose. “But—”

“Go before my control snaps again, Diamond.” He warned harshly. Then he pulled her hand down to cup him, and she felt his cock getting harder and rising in her hand.

“I still want you, and if you don’t go to bed and away from me, I will fuck you, even though you are sore, and I hurt you the first time.” He then groaned when she cupped him fully and began to squeeze as she moved closer to him, her eyes taking in the truth of the power she had over him, and she was getting wet again from his body’s reaction to her touch. She rose up on her tiptoes and, with her other hand, grabbed the back of his head, moving his mouth closer to hers.

“Please, Diamond, I don’t—” She silenced him with her mouth, and then her tongue ran against the seam of his lips. He growled and then opened to her, his head dipping lower to deepen the kiss between them.

The length of him grew in her hand, and she ran it along his base to the tip she could feel through the material of his pajamas; his hands went around her waist and pulled her against him, trapping her hand. She removed it, and he lifted her up so that her wet core rested against his cock head. She flexed her hips, and he began to walk back with her when suddenly he pulled away from her, lowering her feet to the floor and his attention now on his wrist. Through the haze of intense desire running through her, she heard the beeping sound and screamed internally.

“Go to bed.” He now sounded distracted as he moved away from her.

“What is happening?”

She followed behind him as he reached his desk and opened his laptop, waking it up. He then pressed his thumb to it, holding it for a couple of seconds and then moving back.The screen opened to several applications running in different areas on the main screen; he touched one, and it opened up to her bank account. She didn’t see anything; the money hadn’t changed, and she did understand why it went off, sounding the alarm.

“The virus is testing the parameters and looking for a back door; that was why I got the beep. You should go and get some sleep; I am going to run some stuff and see if that will get it to go dormant again.”

She nodded, finally feeling the exhaustion of the past couple of days hitting her. As she made to move away, she thought of something.

“Tomorrow is Sunday, and Monday is soon to follow. What should I do at work?”

“You’re not going in for the next couple of days.”

She came back as his fingers flew over the keys, his focus seemingly on what was in front of him, but as she moved closer, she saw his jaw clench, showing that there was still sexual tension between them.

“Why, why not? And won’t that make me look very guilty when or if this virus gets rid of the rest of the money exposing me?”

“No, because on Monday everyone will be too busy talking about us getting married. All the outlets are set to run with the story.”

“Well, thank you for not talking to me about it. I would have liked to have gotten ahead of this and talked to my family, and you should let yours know too.”

He shrugged. “They will find out at the same time, and this is for the best; it will cause a firestorm among the gossipsand our families that it will buy us, namely me, more time to get rid of this virus and to find the culprit.”

“Have you received anything?” He turned his head, his eyes studying her.

“How? You have control of my phone; anything coming in or going out, I am sure you know about.”

He nodded, pleased, and she suddenly had the urge to thump him for testing to see if she was telling him the truth.

She rolled her eyes and then turned to head toward the door, and before she left, she turned and did some studying of her own, watching the look of concentration, determination, and a look of,was that excitement? Ben was having fun pitting his tech knowledge against the person who created the virus and knew that he would not give up until he found whoever did this.

Chapter 11

Ben came home, weary from his busy day and fielding all the questions from the reporters and the angry blast he received from his parents and his brother Carter, who threatened that as soon as he could, he was going to be on the next plane out, as Ben refused to come to Vegas, where he was currently with his wife Zahara, his parents, and their children.

His brother was in the middle of brokering another deal for properties in Vegas and was looking into now expanding to the Caribbean, specifically Barbados, after Michael had called telling him about some prime spots there. His parents couldn’t fly back because they were helping out Zahara with the twins as she continued her studies. Zahara’s parents were set to fly out to take over and relieve his parents when they came back from her mom spending time with Selena and Calum visiting their two grandchildren.

He glanced down at his watch, his eyes blurry. He’d made sure for the past two days that he kept himself busy at work, the gym, and then back at work. He was trying to stay away from his wife. He’d spent their wedding night working, trying to get rid of the virus and tracing it back to its source, but really avoiding what had happened in their bedroom. He left early in the morning to continue avoiding her.

Was he being cowardly? Yes. But it was for her well-being because after having a taste of her, he craved more and didn’t think he could stop himself from taking her over and over again. She needed time for her body to heal andto forgive him. He was afraid that with the dawning of a new day, his wife, afterthinking about everything, would not want to have anything physically to do with him. For her to not want him, even just the thought of it had made him go completely numb, and he resorted to what he did in the past to seek out pain.

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