Page 55 of Trial Run

“It’s fine. I increased my time by two minutes. So I call it a win.”

“I agree.” She cleared her throat. “So, not to change the subject. But if you want to come over again sometime. Maybe after Marco goes to bed? He takes a while to fall asleep, but then he sleeps like the dead.”

“Does he.” The hot gleam returned to Ben’s eyes.

“Yes. He doesn’t, um, wake up very easily once he’s out.”

“I’ll be over tonight. If that works for you.”

He sent her back to her car with another too-brief kiss and a soft pat on her hip, which she somehow managed to feel throughout her whole body.

* * *

At 8:30 that night, a quiet knock had her jumping up off the couch and running to open the door. She flung herself into Ben’s arms, kissing him mindlessly as they stumbled inside. She kicked the door shut with her foot and sank deeper into his embrace. Nothing could touch this feeling, that when he was close, everything was right.

Upstairs, behind her locked door, she pressed a forearm over her mouth to muffle her cries as he made love to her, bringing her over the edge again and again. He touched her a hundred different ways, pulling out more responses she hadn’t known lived inside her. And she got braver, exploring his body, tasting and touching while he watched her with glittering eyes.

Afterward, she curled on her side and he spooned her from behind. His arm wrapped securely around her middle and his face rested in the hollow of her neck. He placed a gentle kiss there, then one on her ear, then her temple.

She shivered and relaxed further into him, absorbing his warmth.

“Talk to me so I stay awake,” she told him after her third yawn. “I want to be with you a little longer.”

“What should I talk about? How beautiful you are?” Ben’s voice was sleepy, satisfied and relaxed in a way no one got to hear but her.

She ducked her head. “Not that.”

“But it’s a good subject. For example, have you seen your eyes?”

“Stop.”

“They’re extraordinary. They contain at least five different shades of gray and blue.”

She turned her head to look at him over her shoulder. “They do not.”

“They do. I’ve studied them a lot. I couldn’t stop looking at them, since the first day we met. I looked down at you, kneeling on my porch in the broken glass, and my thoughts stopped. Your eyes have an effect on me. They hypnotize me. I can’t resist them.” His hands roamed down her body again, with increasing purpose.

“Ben. That’s ridiculous.” She shut her eyes and looked away, embarrassed and turned on despite herself.

“And then there’s your hair. Did you know, I could smell your shampoo every time we were in the van together? It drove me crazy. Hundreds of flowers in that van with us, and all I could smell was you.”

“Please … Let’s talk about something else.”

He turned her face toward him again with a finger on her chin. “Why?”

With his face this close, she had nowhere to hide. “Because I don’t like compliments.”

“You don’t believe them. Right?”

“I guess so.”

“Well, this is my perception. You can’t argue with my perception. And maybe you don’t believe it, but I do.”

“Okay,” she whispered. Ben believed a lot of things about her that might not be true. But maybe it wasn’t so bad, having someone see the good in you.

He squeezed her gently, settling her back into his arms. “Good. And … you probably don’t want me to spend the night?”

She tensed in his arms. “I can’t. Not yet. Marco will wake up in the morning, and—”

---