Hot Pursuit (45 page)

“Congratulations.” Ben climbed onto his bike after helping Zoey onto the seat behind him. “That will be one spoiled grandchild.”

“Grandson,” Greg said, beaming. “We already know. You should see all the baby stuff packed in the back of the motor home,” he said, nodding in the direction of their R.V. parked at the end of the circular drive.

“Congrats again,” Ben said, beaming at the proud grandparents-to-be. “But why are you asking me to come back to work if you aren’t going to be here?”

“Haley is answering the office phone on the road,” Greg explained. “We’ve got three bounty hunters on call and Haley contacts them with their assignments every day. I get to consult while driving if needed.”

Although that sounded like a killjoy for their vacationing, Ben had a feeling both of them ate up any opportunity to talk shop or brainstorm with their employees. He could easily see the two of them sitting next to each other in that big rig while discussing a hunt via speakerphone.

“Well, if you need another man, I’m more than willing to come back to work.” He’d rather work for KFA than have to find work elsewhere, which would probably mean doing security work until he found something better.

“Never thought you left,” Haley said, smiling and leaning against Greg’s large, thick chest as he wrapped his arm around her. She looked so small next to her giant husband but was larger than life in her own right. Haley was going to be the best-looking, youngest grandmother Ben had ever known. She shifted her attention to Zoey. “Once you’re up to it, let me know. There is a lot of office work I can’t handle from the road. That is, if you’re interested in working.”

“Am I?”

Ben didn’t have to see Zoey to know her entire face lit up. Oddly enough, Cortez had left Zoey as his sole beneficiary. She wasn’t thrilled about receiving so much dirty money, but Zoey wouldn’t have to work for the rest of her life if she so chose.

“I can start whenever you like,” Zoey said, sounding delighted.

Ben took his time driving home. Zoey was relaxed, her cheek resting on the back of his shoulder. Her small hands were tucked under one of his hands at his waist, and her breasts tortured his back. It was a perfect fall evening, and he almost considered a long drive out to the coast. There was so much of L.A. to show Zoey. With such a huge city, there was a lot they could do. In the short time since they’d been home, she’d gotten to know his neighborhood and the beach. She’d pointed out to him that she could imagine living in a small town since they always went to the same grocery store, same gas station, or same other place to shop. Granted his grocery store was also a discount center and surrounded by a strip mall. Anything they could possibly want they could find in a ten-mile-square radius, which was still just a fraction of Los Angeles. He loved how she laughed and commented frequently that she’d never seen so many people walking, or in stores, or driving on the street. She had been ten when she’d moved to Zounds, and although she had lived in and visited larger cities, Zoey had reluctantly admitted that over the years she had become a small-town girl.

“I had fun tonight,” she said once they were inside his apartment. “You were right; those two are an amazing couple.”

Zoey’s cell phone rang and Ben groaned.

“Don’t answer it.” There wasn’t anyone he could think of they needed to talk to right now, except each other. And he had a lot more than talking in mind.

“It’s the bookstore,” Zoey said after fishing out her cell. She smiled at Ben. “It’s Angel.”

She answered the phone and moved to Ben’s bed. “Of course it’s not a bad time,” she said, her grin broadening as she let her gaze travel up Ben’s body. “We just got back from having dinner with Greg and Haley King, Ben’s bosses.”

Ben leaned in the doorway, willing the phone call to be short. Zoey looked amazing in her snug-fitting yellow dress. He couldn’t wait to get it off of her.

“What? Really? Oh, Angel, that is such good news.”

Angel said something and Zoey looked down. Was she blushing?

“Can I get back to you on that one?” she asked, lowering her voice to a sultry breath of a whisper.

But when she shot Ben a quick glance, he had a feeling he knew what Angel had just asked.

“Yes. I love it here. I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”

He gave silent thanks when she hung up the phone.

“Wolf is moving to Zounds,” she said without ceremony, her bright smile as intoxicating as the rest of her. “He and Angel are going to live together.” She closed her cell, stood, placed it on his dresser, and picked up her brush. “And it appears he has quite a bit of money that he thought would be well invested in Angel’s bookstore.”

“I wonder where he got that.” Ben didn’t really wonder. At the moment he didn’t care either.

It was closure for Micah. That was all that mattered. Not that he didn’t wish Wolf and Angel the best, especially since Angel and Zoey were so close. Wolf would have hauled Micah in if he’d had the chance, though. Ben was grateful as hell that Micah would possibly now have the chance to live life without hiding and looking over his shoulder every second. The life he had painted for Ben while they’d been together in Zounds hadn’t been a life Ben would have wished on anyone. Possibly with the bounty paid, Micah and Maggie would now have a shot at living a normal life.

“I hope they’ll be happy.” Zoey returned to brushing her hair. “Kind of like Greg and Haley. That’s the type of relationship I want.”

“They’re best friends.” Ben watched when she began brushing the tangles out of her hair. “Something you don’t see enough of today.”

“It just takes hard work and dedication.” She smiled at him but then made a face when her brush caught in a tangle.

Ben came up behind her and took her brush, then, pulling her backward, sat on the edge of his bed and planted her between his legs. Then brushing her hair, he took his time, working the windblown tangles out of her long straight black hair.

“I’ve never had a problem with hard work and dedication.”

She turned her head to look at him, not flinching when the brush caught in her hair again. “Are you suggesting we give it a shot?”

“I was already planning on it,” he informed her, putting the brush down and turning her farther for a deep kiss.

All evening he’d imagined what he might do with Zoey once they got home. Since they’d first arrived in L.A., there had been a lot of foreplay, but he wasn’t sure he could wait any longer. Zoey hadn’t discouraged him from having sex with her. But he’d needed to know she wasn’t haunted by too many ghosts when he entered her. Maybe he was a selfish bastard, but he wanted to be the only man on her mind when they made love.

Her head fell back and she sighed as he cradled her and found the zipper to her dress, which was underneath her arm of all places.

“Are you going to tell me no again tonight?” she murmured, her long, thick lashes shuttering her dark eyes.

“Do you want me to?”

“No,” she said on a breath, and opened her eyes to look at him. “I don’t ever want you to stop.”

“Then I won’t.”

He barely managed to get her zipper down to her waist causing her snug yellow dress to hang on her when she leaned forward. Zoey adjusted herself on his lap and began tugging his T-shirt up his torso. She had lost weight since he’d pulled her out of her father’s house but in just the past few days seemed to be recovering faster than those two weeks in Zounds after Cortez had been given a burial at sea. Her color was good, her appetite restored, and her energy level back to normal. The bruises were gone. And she smiled all the time. Zoey was a different person from the hesitant young lady he’d first met outside a bed-and-breakfast in Zounds.

The moment Zoey pulled his shirt over his head, Ben pounced on her. His breath caught in his throat when he managed to get her dress to her waist and spotted the tiny yellow thong that barely covered her freshly shaved pussy.

“Oh crap,” he managed, and stared down between them.

Then slowly raising himself off her, Ben lifted his gaze to her face and began pulling her dress up the rest of her body. A tiny lace bra, matching yellow—and it was tiny—barely covered her hard brown nipples.

“Zoey.” He could barely choke out her name.

Her smile was seductive. “Yes?” she whispered.

Even her voice enticed and made his blood boil. “It’s a damn good thing you don’t want me to stop.”

“I never did,” she reminded him.

Ben knew that but also knew she would enjoy herself a lot more now that she was free of the torture of her father and demons of a life now behind her.

“Where did you get—” He didn’t finish his question but instead freed her of her dress, dropped it to the floor, and ran his finger along the lacy edge of her bra. His dick swelled painfully in his jeans when her nipple hardened even further. “Damn. You’re so incredibly sexy.”

“I found it the other day when you were buying beer.”

Ben remembered when they’d gone to the store. He had thought he’d left her to pick out fresh vegetables while he’d gone to the other side of the store for beer. He had taken so long trying to choose a nice bottle of wine for her.

“And wine,” he reminded her, and pulled her off the bed into his arms. Burying his face between her breasts, he died and was in heaven as he breathed in her scent and felt her soft flesh against his face.

“Wine does sound good.”

God, he wasn’t sure he could move enough to get out of his jeans, let alone walk into the kitchen. All he wanted was to dive deep into her heat, feel Zoey’s tight pussy squeeze the life out of him. When his thoughts were teetering dangerously close to making him lose all self-control, Zoey leapt off the bed. She was nimble enough to escape his grasp and laughed as she trotted out of the bedroom.

Ben collapsed with a loud groan where she’d been lying. “You aren’t supposed to kill me, woman,” he complained.

Her laughter from the other room only succeeded in getting him even harder. A feat he hadn’t known himself capable of until that moment. Rolling to his back, he managed to pull off his shoes and jeans just as Zoey returned with a chilled bottle of wine and corkscrew in one hand and two wineglasses clinking in the other.

“If you’re trying to get me drunk, I’m here to tell you, I’m a sure thing.”

Her big smile lit up her eyes. “Better safe than sorry. You haven’t been putting out much lately.”

Ben took the bottle and corkscrew that she had in one hand. Zoey held up the glasses. He twisted the screw into the cork, glancing up several times at her breasts that were almost spilling out of her bra. When he caught her staring at the rather large tent in his boxers, he hid a smile and focused on his task. In spite of himself, his cock did an eager dance for her, and Zoey hissed in a breath.

“I’m really wet,” she whispered.

Ben pulled too hard on the cork, and it came flying out of the bottle. It was good wine, but he still almost dropped the bottle and managed to spill some on him and Zoey. She jumped backward, laughing.

“Now I’m really, really wet.” She giggled and turned toward the bathroom.

“Oh no, you don’t.” Ben lunged for her, but his hands were full. “You aren’t leaving this room again.”

“What are you going to do, lick the wine off me?”

Ben grabbed her, put the wine on top of his dresser, and took both glasses from her hand and set them down.

“But I might be thirsty,” she complained, laughing when he tossed her to the bed.

Ben came down on top of her but braced himself so that he wasn’t smashing her. “And I might want to lick the wine off of you.”

He gripped her arms at her elbows and ran his tongue down from the bottom of her bra to her belly button. Zoey giggled and squirmed under his grasp.

“Zoey,” Ben said. “Look at me.”

She was smiling broadly when she raised her head and looked at him. Zoey sobered as she stared at him.

“Keep watching,” he instructed, and ran his tongue farther down her body, from her belly button to the edge of her thong.

Zoey moaned and her head fell back. Ben stared at her full, round breasts and the lacy yellow material that barely covered them. He let go of her arms and she reached for the edges of his bed. For the past week he’d teased her and been teased out of his mind. They had flirted, cuddled, spent time talking and time making out. But he’d held back, wanting all of her.

“Zoey,” he whispered, and dragged his tongue along the length of her thong as it disappeared between her legs.

“God. Yes,” she panted, and lifted her head again.

That was the look he wanted. Tortured, passionate, full of craving and pleasure. There were no more tormented clouds haunting her pretty eyes. Her expression was relaxed instead of pinched with distracting thoughts. Ben knew it would take a lot longer before her past was simply that. She might never be able to forgive her father for his crimes. But as long as she didn’t think she was to blame for how Cortez had abused the citizens of Zounds, she and Ben were making progress.

Ben slipped her thong to the side. He eased his finger down the length of her slit.

“You were right.” He could barely think straight. But he wanted all of Zoey’s attention. He wanted to know she was enjoying every minute of their passion. She deserved the best first time, and he would see that she had it.

“Right?” she breathed.

Her eyes were glazed over, but it was from desire, lust, a craving for the pressure that was building inside her to break. Ben saw it not only in her eyes but also in her expression. Her entire body was tense. He couldn’t wait to see her bask in her orgasm.

“You are soaked.”

Her eyes cleared and she studied him, a slow smile appeared on her face, Ben grabbed the thin straps that curved over her hips and yanked them down her thighs.

“Oh God!” she cried out, and managed to lift her ass off the bed.

Ben pulled, moving to a kneeling position, and dragged the gauzy thong down her legs. It was tossed to the side of his bed along with the rest of her clothes.

“Should I take off my bra?”

“It’s fine.” He would get to it in due time if she left it on.