Page 45 of Saved By Love at Christmas
“You don’t think that was Jamie, do you?” The fear was back in her voice, which angered me. He’d put her through enough, and I hated that he was still affecting her.
“I don’t know, but I have a dashcam, so it will have recorded everything. I’m going to call the police when we get back to mine.”
If it was Jamie, they needed to know the full story. If he was stupid enough to try and run us off the road, what the hell else could he be capable of?
* * *
RUBY
By the time we got to Ben’s, I was a nervous wreck. My stress had returned, along with palpitations in my chest. My mind was also working overtime as I imagined all sorts of scenarios involving Jamie and what he could do to everyone I loved.
Ben didn’t even bother removing the tree. He headed straight inside and contacted the police. I sat numbly by his side, my hand clutching his while he recounted what had happened and my experiences in Spain at Jamie’s hands.
“They’ll send someone over to take statements in an hour or so,” he said.
I nodded mutely, unable to respond. Then tears flooded from my eyes and down my cheeks. The sofa went down at the other side of me. Fred whined and nudged at me with his nose. Animals were so attuned to emotions, and he knew I was upset. Ben rocked me like a child.
“Is this ever going to end?” I whispered more to myself than to Ben.
“It will, honey, I promise. Bullies like him always get what’s coming to them. I don’t want you to be scared.”
I pulled away from Ben, allowing Fred to put his paws in my lap. As I stroked the dog’s soft brown fur, I paused to study Ben, the face of the man I was falling for. Correction, the man I’d already fallen for such a long time ago but had kept my feelings hidden, even from myself, so I didn’t ruin our friendship. I rested one palm on his cheek. Ben turned and kissed the centre of it, his eyes on mine, covering my hand with one of his.
“I’m more scared about whether he will hurt someone I care about. I… I don’t think I could cope with that.”
“Hush, honey. Everything’s going to be fine. Look.” He stood up, taking me with him, much to Fred’s annoyance.
“Why don’t we focus on getting my tree up until the police come?”
I wasn’t really in the mood but decided to do it for Ben’s sake. He’d already got a pot in place in his living room, and together, we managed to get it set up. Then I helped Ben get his decorations from the garage and grabbed the bag from the kitchen counter with the ones I’d bought from Notcutts.
We spread the decorations out on the living room floor. I put all the ones for the tree to one side so we could focus on decorating the room first. After we’d finished, I stepped back to look at our handiwork.
“I think we’ve done a great job.” Ben stood beside me, one hand resting on my shoulder.
“Yeah, we have. Time for the tree now. Are you ready?”
“I am, as long as you don’t get too fussy about where things go.” He winked.
“Hey, I’m not that bad.”
He kissed my cheek and chuckled. “We’ll see.”
“That one needs to go a little bit higher. It must match the others on the tree.”
Ben was putting the final decorations at the top. For a while, it allowed me to focus on this, rather than the thought that Jamie had possibly tried to run us off the road earlier. Also, with him on the step ladder, I could watch his ass. My eyes were focused on it, and I didn’t hear Ben call out initially.
“Hey, no ogling the goods.” He smirked with satisfaction while tapping his ass.
“I wasn’t. I wanted to make sure you got the last decorations in the right place,” I responded a little defensively.
He narrowed his eyes and slowly came down the ladder. Ben stalked after me, and I backed away until he had me trapped against the wall. His nostrils flared and my heart thumped in my chest. Unlike when Jamie had looked at me like this, Ben’s actions turned me on. With him, I was safe.
“Since when has my ass become a decoration?” He murmured the words against the soft shell of my ear.
“I… I don’t know what you mean,” I lied, my eyes fixed on the floor.
He chuckled, a wicked sound that landed straight between my legs.
