Page 10 of Falling for the Forbidden
“I won’t bite,” he says when he looks up and sees I’m still standing.
“I’m not sure I believe that.” My voice comes out as an unsure whisper and he doesn’t miss it.
“Remember what I said about trusting your gut.” He winks at me and I fall down onto my back, allowing the sun peeking through the leaves to warm my skin.
I feel heat coming from somewhere else, and when I turn my head and crack one eye open, I find Ben staring down at me.
“You’re really beautiful.”
Propping myself up on my elbows, I look around to see who he’s talking to. We’re still alone, and heat blooms from my cheeks, warming down my neck. Slowly, I look over to find him staring right at me.
“You’re talking to me?”
“No, that tree over there. Of course I’m talking to you.” I fight to keep my eyes on his, but his stare gets too intense and I have to look away. “Hey…” His warm fingertips connect with my jaw and my head is gently turned so I have no choice but to look back up at him. His deep blue eyes hold a sincerity I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.
He’s silent for the longest time. When he does speak, it’s not to say any of the things I imagined might fall from his mouth.
“Fancy a sausage roll?”
Chapter Four
Once I stop laughing,our conversation takes a bit of a lighter note. We steer clear of bringing up anything to do with work or our parents.
I never thought I’d say it, but I end up having an amazing day with Ben. He’s still intense and brooding, but as time goes on, he manages to let go of some of the anger that seems to follow him around and, for the first time since we were introduced, I feel like I’ve actually got to know him a little. He’s not nearly as scary as I once thought he was. That fear has been replaced by another feeling, one I’m not all that comfortable thinking about.
The way he looks at me, the gentleness of his touch—he awakens things within me that I’ve not experienced before, and that can’t be a good thing.
I had a semi-serious boyfriend last year. I enjoyed my time with him, but I didn’t feel the pull I do when I’m with Ben. The more time I spend with him, the more I seem to crave his attention…and his touch.
“Lauren, is that you?” Dad calls out the second we step foot inside the house.
“Yeah, Dad. I’ll be right there.”
“Don’t take any of his bullshit. I’ll be upstairs if you need me.” Ben’s fingers brush against mine and he squeezes quickly before disappearing up the stairs, leaving me with the tingles kickstarted by his caress.
“Lauren?” Dad snaps.
Following the sound of his voice, I find him in his office, staring at a spreadsheet.
“I wanted to go through what you thought you saw yesterday so we don’t have the same misunderstanding again.”
“Oh. Yeah, sure.” Pulling up a chair, I silently listen as Dad talks through the spreadsheet and the figures on it. He does the same calculation I did the previous day…and the total is fifty thousand pounds more than what I worked out.
“See, everything’s fine. You must have missed something.”
“Yeah. I guess so.”
“Happy now?”
I mumble my agreement, but Ben’s words linger in my mind.Trust your gut, Lauren. If you think something’s wrong, then it probably is.
As I walk out of Dad’s office, I put it all to the back of my mind. I haven’t even started uni yet and I’m questioning my dad’s accounts. He was right this morning. I don’t know what I’m talking about.
Something feels weird as I walk towards my bedroom door. It’s not shut like I left it, just pulled flush. I live in Dad and Jenny’s house, so I guess it’s their right to go into their own rooms, but that doesn’t stop it feeling like an invasion of privacy. As I push the door open, I realise immediately who’s been in here and suddenly I feel uncomfortable for an entirely different reason. Laid out on my bed, in the exact spot I left my ex’s black hoodie this morning, is a navy Johnson & Sons one.
I stand frozen, not knowing what to do. I should give it back. Accepting it and wearing it are wrong. It’s pushing boundaries that we shouldn’t be anywhere near. But it’s just a hoodie, right? His actions and words today come back to me, and I fear we might have already blurred a couple of those lines.
In the end, I push my door closed and walk over to the neatly laid-out fabric. In a moment of madness, I swipe it up and bring it to my nose. I’m taken back to the enclosed space of his car when the only thing I was aware of was him sitting next to me. The fullness of his parted lips as he concentrated on where he was going. The gentle rise and fall of his strong chest and the tense muscles as he held onto the steering wheel.
