Page 70 of Let Me Love You (Excess All Areas 5)

Ben laughed. “I know. But I thought it would be nice to do something just you and me, away from Manchester. I like the idea of eating dinner with you in a pretty dress, and then possibly getting to strip you out of it later.”

He let the words hang.

“Possibly?”

“Possibly. I’ve been worried, since our chat on the plane.”

“I know I shouldn’t have said anything about it, I—”

He kissed her again, firmly, before pulling back. “You absolutely should. I’ve been worried that I’m going to do something triggering, trying to figure out the right way to approach it so it doesn’t hurt you.”

She smiled and touched his arm. “You won’t hurt me, Ben. And even if something is triggering, knowing I am right there with you means I can’t be in safer arms for it to happen.”

The trust she was giving him was beyond anything he’d hoped for.

“I don’t really want to know about yours and Asher's sex life, but you obviously made things work. What helped?”

Chaya looked out of the window. “I don’t mean to make it sound bad, but it wasn’t adventurous. He knew about the, well, the mouth thing. I don’t think tying me up would have occurred to him. But Ben…” She sighed. “That isn’t what I want. I want great sex. More adventurous sex. The kind of sex that hits you like a thunderbolt. With you. All of it with you.”

Ben grinned. He couldn’t help himself. “I like the sound of that. Let’s go check in.”

Their room was beautiful. All antiques, old wood, cream walls, and deep blue furnishings. The roof sloped at one end and the window had an utterly relaxing view over the fields behind the barn. Ben studied it and smiled as Chaya slipped her arms around him from behind. Gently, he placed his hands over hers.

“I have an idea,” Ben said. It had come to him while she’d been fluttering around their room, cooing about the antiques and the shower and how soft the towels were.

“What’s that?” Chaya kissed his shoulder.

“We’re going to write a list of things we want to do together.”

Chaya slid under his arm until she stood in front of him. “I like that idea. What kind of things go on the list?”

Her eyes were filled with excitement, bright and wide and there was nothing on this planet more beautiful. “Honestly? Anything. Things we want in life, things we want to cook for dinner on Tuesday, sexual things we want to try, where we want to live, to travel. Anything.”

“I’ll get my phone so we can write them down. We can take it in turns.”

She hurried to her purse while he took a seat on the bed. The bed jiggled as she climbed on board, and he caught a flash of white underwear beneath her dress. And took a deep breath and adjusted his dick in his black pants.

“I want to take you to Venice,” Ben said, starting with an easy one. “Do that whole gondolier thing and just walk around eating gelato.”

Chaya grinned as she typed. “Oh, I like that one. I know it sounds weird, but can we go wild camping? Carry the tent, hike somewhere, and set up on a lake or by the water. Climb a couple of Munros or something.”

Ben grinned, and slid his hand along her thigh, dipping beneath the hem of her dress so he could touch her soft skin. “Physical activity, fresh air, outdoor sex. I’m game. Renovate a bigger house together. Be deliberate, this time. My current house is as much you as it was me. We’ll need more space.”

“But I love your house.”

“It’s becoming a bit dangerous to carry on living there. Not enough security. And it’s not fair to the neighbours, now fans hang around outside occasionally. But we can do it all over again.”

“Okay.” Her tongue ran along her lower lip as she typed, and he wanted to capture it. Leaning forward, he did just that, teasing it with his own. Chaya sighed and he pressed her down into the bed, sliding his hands up her ribs, cupping her breasts gently. He teased her nipples with his thumbs.

“I thought we were making a list,” she said.

“We are. Continue?” He eased up on one elbow.

“What about things you’ve always resisted? Like, remember when we watched that classic movie,Pretty Woman,and I said I wanted to dress up to go to the opera?”

Ben raised an eyebrow. “Add it. But maybe when the list is complete we each get a couple of black balls to remove something we really don’t want to do.”

“You’re totally going to remove the opera.”

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