Chapter 14
The helicopter pilot happily ferries me across the channel, having apparently been given orders to fly me over whenever I want. There’s a golf cart with keys waiting at the Merit dock.
When I get to the house, Ben isn’t home yet. I make my way up to the guest room where I stayed the first night. The one I guess I’m officially claiming as my own. I don’t know that I actually need a room here, but it feels good to know there’s somewhere private I can go and close the door.
I have the strangest feeling when I’m here. It’s like I know he wants me here, but at the same time, I could ruin it all with one word.
And then be trapped on this island. At Ben’s mercy.
Is the possible danger of it contributing to my desire for the guy? I mean, I do like scary movies.
I leave my stuff in the bedroom, even though I’m pretty determined to make my way into Ben’s elusive bedroom tonight, and wander back downstairs. The dusky sky is starting to darken, and the wind has picked up considerably. The large glass doors off the living room are scattered with rain drops.
“There you are.”
I jump a foot as the voice comes from right behind me. Ben laughs and takes me by the shoulders from behind, dragging his lips from my shoulder to my collarbone and up my neck.
I shiver as his warm breath dances across my skin.
“Cold?” he asks, noticing, of course. This man doesn”t miss much.
“No.”
“Hot?”
I smile at him in our reflection in the glass doors. “This is going to be my first island storm.”
Ben’s grip on my shoulders tightens and he pulls me to him sharply. “I like the idea of being your first anything,” he growls into my ear.
“You can be the first guy to ever make me dinner and eat it in front of a scary movie during a storm.”
His gruff laugh echoes through my bones from where his mouth is still connected to my skin.
Then he releases me and walks off toward the kitchen. “I don’t think the house got stocked up, you’re going to have to deal with my food.”
I follow him, hand on hips, grinning. “Torture food?”
“If by torture you mean healthy, then yes.”
I let out a dramatic sigh. “I guess I’ll survive.”
Ben manages to whip up some not terrible looking salads with grilled chicken and arugula. He even found a sweet potato to roast for the side, so I’m happy.
We settle on the couch with our bowls.
“As for storm horror, I think we’re deciding between a truly gruesome and violent movie about some bad dudes who do really bad shit to two girls and then have revenge taken on them by the girl’s parents and a loosely based Agatha Christie-like movie about a bunch of rich kids who hole up in a mansion to ride out a hurricane and die one by one.”
“Did you just give away the ending?”
I laugh. “It’s the plot of most horror movies. Everyone dies except for one. Sometimes two or three.”
“Which movie’s better?”
I crinkle my nose and shrug. “No movie is really better than any other. It’s just a matter of taste. The first one, the violent one, has higher ratings, but the kind of people who would choose that movie are going to rate it high. The second one seems to have a broader appeal based on the premise, so a wider variety of people will try watching it. And some of them will hate it. So, lower overall rating.”
“When you say bad dudes doing really bad shit to a couple of girls, you mean…”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe not that one.”
I nod, happy with his choice. Bodies will make for a more fun evening, I’m sure. “The hurricane film will be perfect for tonight.” I freeze, remote in hand, and turn to him, my mouth wide in horror. “Wait, you don’t think there will be a hurricane here tonight, do you?”
Ben smiles kindly and shakes his head. “It’s not hurricane season. We’re going to get high winds and some rain, but the house is built to withstand it. We have a generator as well for when we lose power.”
“When?”
Another smile, this one slightly more evil. “Scared?”
“No. Of course not.”
“We’re safe out here. Faraday tends to fare a bit worse in storms like this because the storm drain systems clog easily, and the sewer system is pretty shallow due to the underground coral and rock.”
“But we’re okay out here.”
He pulls me to his side and kisses the top of my head in a move so sweet that I nearly panic. “I’ll keep you safe.”
I order the television to turn on so I don’t have to respond.
We finish our dinner in the first twenty minutes of the movie, which is lucky considering the high gore level that hits about forty minutes in. It”s deliciously bloody and violent, each spoiled rich kid meeting their death in a different, highly creative way.
The hurricane rages outside the house they’re holed up in, preventing anyone from leaving. Our own storm is raging as well, lashing against the windows and making me jump just as often as the scares on screen.
Ben has pulled me closer and closer throughout the movie, so by the time the credits roll, and the power finally flashes out, I’m pretty much in his lap.
I let out a little scream as the room goes dark. Then I giggle.
This is so much fun.
“Don’t be scared. I’ll protect you.”
His lips land on mine, and I really do feel safe here in his arms. I open and let him enter me, his tongue smoothing over my teeth and the inside of my mouth. He’s taller than me, pressing down while holding tightly to my waist as I sit on his lap. He’s so naturally powerful, so effortlessly in control, it’s an instant turn-on.
I want his power overtaking me.
I try to pull away, but he only relinquishes my mouth, keeping the rest of my body close. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I want to go look at the storm.”
It’s too dark to see his expression, but after a moment, he lets me go. I hear him following me over to the glass doors. He presses me to the cool glass with the full weight of his body and bites down on the meat of my shoulder.
I watch the wind thrash the palms on the trail to the beach, the dark ocean wild with whitecaps. The porch is relatively protected, the staff having put away the furniture and lashed down the pool cover. All that’s left out there is the terra-cotta colored tile and a built-in cement table, a few feet from the door, collecting rainwater on its wide, smooth surface.
“There’s nowhere for you to run.”
His words send chills through my already cooled body, followed quickly by a hot rush of excitement. “I can think of a few places to hide in this giant house.”
“Not ones where I wouldn’t find you.”
“Care to place a wager on that?”
Ben’s hand moves swiftly from my shoulder, down across my stomach and straight into my shorts. He pushes roughly past my underwear and presses his fingers inside me.
It’s slick enough down there to swallow him whole.
“I’ll bet that no matter where you try to hide, I’ll smell you.”
I can”t help but grin to myself at his words. I like the sound of this game very much.
“What do you get if you win?”
“You’ll have to wait and find out.”
“I’m not sure that’s a bet I’m willing to take.” I’m playing coy. Obviously, I’m going to let this man do whatever he wants to me.
His soft laugh hits my neck in a wave of hot breath. “You already have, lover. You’re stuck here with me.” He spins me so quickly that I gasp, the sound catching in my breath as his hand catches my neck and presses my back to the door by my throat. “So you can either submit to me now…”
Even in the darkness, I can see how hooded his eyes are. If I was to reach down, I know I”d find his cock hard enough to drive through my stomach.
“Or you can run.”
We stay locked in a heated stare for a long moment before Ben releases me and steps back. I stand frozen against the glass doors, unsure of my next move.
He takes another step back.
I glance toward the staircase that leads up to the bedrooms. No, too confined. It would be so easy to find me up there.
I look to the stairs leading down. More wide-open space, and I could possibly move hiding places if he got too close.
I bite my lip with uncertainty.
“Are we playing a game?” I’m stalling now, still nervous about heading off into the dark house alone, but also wanting to build up the moment. It’s deliciously tense and nerve wracking.
“If you run we are.”
Oh god. Okay.
“Is it a scary game?”
I watch as his head turns to the left and then to the right in the dark room before coming back to the center and pinning me with his gaze. “Looks pretty scary to me.”
“Do you…do you remember my safeword?”” The last word squeaks out of me, my confidence draining as I start to embody my role in this little game of ours.
I’m the scared one. And I’m starting to feel it.
Ben laughs darkly. “Do you remember your safeword?”
I nod.
He crosses his arms over his chest and takes another step back. “I’m going to close my eyes and count to ten.”
Like a sexy, twisted, game of hide and seek.
I’m so into it, my thighs clench together at just the thought of being chased and caught.
“One.”
With a deep breath, I run.
I head to the stairs leading up first, taking three of them with heavy footfalls before retracing my steps quietly and coming back to the main room.
“Two.”
I glance up at his word and find that he’s turned to face me. I can just make out his hands covering his eyes, the image of him standing there, silhouetted against the storm-lashed windows makes the perfect horror movie scene.
I run toward the kitchen and then back to the glass doors, dragging my hand across the pane and causing him to turn in my direction once more.
“Three.”
I run in a circle around the living room, barely avoiding crashing into end tables and discarded flip-flops. I make my way up a few stairs again before stopping dead and tiptoeing back down, across the living room, and to the stairs leading to the lower level.
“Four.”
I glance up as I creep downward, my last glimpse of Ben before slipping out of sight down the stairs is his back. He’s still facing the stairs leading up.
I think I got him.
I creep the rest of the way down to the lower level and glance nervously around in the dark.
“Five.”
His voice echoing through the house makes me jump slightly. Is it louder than it was before? Does he know I”m further away?
I’m only partially familiar with the layout of this floor. Other than the gym and the hallway that leads off the main room to the bathroom, I don’t know what’s down here.
Ben does, though.
He’s definitely got the upper hand.
“Six.”
Shit. I’ve gotta make a move.
I decide to stick with what I know, making my way down the hallway across from the exterior doors toward the bathroom. Once inside, I creep into the shower as quietly as I can, pulling the curtain closed and crouching down. I’m on the side closest to the door, figuring I might be able to escape if he comes in here.
“Seven.”
Fuck! He’s definitely on the lower level with me. I thought I tricked him into thinking I went upstairs, but I guess not.
“Eight.”
I hold my breath. I don’t want to get caught right away, but I’m not exactly sure why.
As soon as he catches me, the game gets even better, but there’s something about the thrill of crouching here in this cold, hard bathtub that has my heart racing. I never want this game to end.
“Nine.”
He hasn’t come down the hallway toward the bathroom. Maybe he thinks I went into the gym or hid in one of the closets in the main living space.
I wait anxiously for the last number…and whatever’s going to happen next.
It doesn’t come.
I count to ten in my head over and over as I breathe in and out as silently as I can. I must have counted to at least a hundred by now.
Maybe he went back upstairs?
I’m just starting to wonder if I’m going to spend the night in this cold, hard bathtub, and wishing I’d found a closet full of blankets or something to hide in, when I think I hear something.
My senses kick into high gear as I remain frozen in place, trying to listen as hard as I can.
I don’t hear anything else. It was probably the storm.
With a sudden whoosh, the curtain flies open at the far end of the tub.
“I told you I could smell you, lover.”
I’m on my feet without thinking, the prehistoric animal in my brain running the show. I manage to escape Ben’s grasp as he reaches for me, and I make it out the door—but just barely.
I don’t get two steps into the hallway before he’s got a strong hand on my shoulder, pushing me against the wall.
“Why are you running?” Ben asks in his calm, terrifying serial killer voice at the same time I scream, “Let me go!”
The contrast of our two levels of calmness is distinct. Every scary movie I”ve ever watched has had a scene just like this, and the woman being chased—or caught as it so happens—acts just like I’m acting.
I know I should remain calm and think this through, but I don’t seem to have that ability any longer.
All I can do is try to escape.
I drop to my knees, hoping to dislodge his arm from my shoulder.
It’s the wrong move.
Once I’m in a ball on the floor, Ben covers me with his much larger body like paper covering rock.
“You thought you could get away. I’m going to have to punish you now.”
I want the punishment—whatever it is. I want it so bad my clit is throbbing between my legs. I’m surprised we can’t both hear it screaming for his touch.
But, unfortunately for my poor pussy, I also want to win.
I go limp in his grasp and make him drag me to my feet, supporting my full weight as we head toward the stairs. It doesn”t even seem to faze him to be lugging a hundred and forty pounds of dead weight with one arm.
Hell, he probably does something similar at CrossFit.
My hope is that he’s going to set me down somewhere and I’ll be able to make my escape.
I don’t have to wait very long.
When we get into the living room, he strips my tank top off, leaving only the white lace bralette underneath. The white fabric seems to glow in the low light.
“My pretty little prisoner.”
I continue to say nothing, give him nothing. He tosses me on the couch and comes to stand over me, his legs wide, his hands on the back of the couch as he leans over.
“I was hoping you’d put up more of a fight, but I guess your surrender is pretty sweet, too.”
He stands up and looks around the room. I see my chance and take it.
Shuffling to my hands and knees, I scurry sideways toward the far end of the couch. My sudden movement must have taken him by surprise because he’s slow in reaching for me.
I almost make it off the couch, but at the last second, he catches one of my ankles, turning my leap to freedom into more of a nosedive into the tile.
I catch myself with my hands on the firm ground and kick at him blindly, trying to free my leg. For a moment he catches my other leg as well, but pretty soon, my violent kicking connects. I can’t see where I hit him, but there’s a muffled grunt and he releases me.
I don”t take a second to think about whether or not he”s hurt—something I might need to examine later—before getting my feet underneath me and running.
Ben must not be badly hurt because he’s on me in seconds.
In my blind panic and rush of joy at freedom, I just run, and don’t consider where I’m running. I hit the glass of the patio door with one hand and cry out. Not a second later, Ben is at my back, grabbing that hand and pulling it behind my back, pressing my whole body into the cold glass.
For a moment, we’re quiet and still, both watching the storm outside.
It’s magnificent in its power. The palms are thrashing down in the yard, the sea is roiling. Rain pounds down on the patio in sheets, pooling on every surface. As we watch, a bright flash of lighting lights up the sky above the ocean.
I take the opportunity to scream, more for fun than anything else, and revel in the feeling of Ben’s hand clamping quickly over my mouth.
“You know, I brought you to this house so you’d be safe from the storm. I’m not feeling a lot of gratitude right now.”
I struggle against his hands, one still firmly over my mouth, the other keeping me pinned to the glass with one arm behind my back. His hips grind into mine and his erection is hard and obvious. My eyes roll back in my head momentarily at the thought of that hard cock taking me against the stormy window at the climax of our little game.
But, once again, Ben surprises me.
He lets go of the arm behind my back, my body effectively held in place by his. I can’t see where he’s reaching, I only know it”s for something that’s not me.
Suddenly, Ben pulls me back an inch and unlocks the door right in front of me. A blast of cool, wet air hits me right in the face. I don’t have time to even think about what’s happening before he’s shoved me outside.
And closed the door behind me.
After being pinned in confinement for so long, blood rushes into my limbs and I gasp in a full breath, looking around wildly.
It’s raining so hard that I’m already soaked. It”s not particularly cold, but it could not be wetter, and the wind is strong against my side, forcing me to focus on staying upright.
Ben is standing on the other side of the glass, arms crossed over his chest.
Smiling.
That motherfucker.
I love this game so much I could laugh out loud. Instead, I throw myself at the glass door and pound with both fists, screaming at him to let me in.
He barely even reacts, simply cocking his head to one side and cupping his hand around one ear as if to hear me better.
I know the asshole can hear me just fine. “Let me in, you crazy bastard!”
Another flash of lightning lights up the world around me and I scream louder than ever, looking frantically behind me as if the light was coming up on the patio to get me.
When I turn back to the glass, I scream once more. Ben is now standing with his forehead pressed against the glass, leaning over so he’s eye to eye with me.
“Let me in!” I scream.
“You know the password,” he responds calmly, his voice perfectly audible even at his normal level.
“You’re crazy,” I yell back.
Ben shrugs, keeping eye contact.
Another flash of lightning makes me jump and spin around.
I need to get a grasp on my surroundings here so I can decide my next move. I’m not safewording out. I’m just not.
I need to think rationally about this.
Ben must think I’m safe here on the patio or he never would have shoved me out that door. He’s far too concerned with consent and possible litigation to put me in actual danger.
I decide to lean into that.
I turn around and face him just as the sky lights up once more, the brilliant electric white and blue reflected in his eyes. I hold that gaze and take a deep breath.
And then I turn and start to walk away.
I hear the door behind me open immediately and try to break into a run, but the puddle of water I happen to be standing in at that moment foils that plan. I go down hard on one knee and both hands, scrambling to get myself back up.
Ben’s behind me with both arms around my waist, capturing me and lifting my body as I flail and kick, screaming at him to let me go.
I make it as hard for him as I possibly can, but I’m no match for his strength as he drags me back up the patio and presses me over the stone table. The surface is slightly dipped in the center, meaning it’s completely filled with water at this point. More water pounds down from the sky as the wind continues to try to throw us sideways.
Ben is unmovable behind me, hips pressing mine to the table. He captures my hands even as I swing them wildly to try to prevent it.
I’m disappointed at how easy it was for him to take me down. I hope that if I knew the stakes were higher, I would have done a better job at fighting back. But it’s hard to say. When actually faced with this kind of situation, the whole thing is a lot harder than I ever imagined it would be. It moves too quickly for rational thought and my instincts are apparently not up to par.
Ben shifts one hand to hold both of my wrists at the small of my back and fists his other hand in my soaking wet mess of hair. “Quite the predicament you’ve gotten yourself into now, isn’t it?”
I struggle against him, even though it’s pointless.
Ben uses his grip in my hair to press my face down into the puddle of water on the surface of the table. I hold my breath and clench my eyes and mouth closed.
Finally, he pulls me back up, sputtering and coughing.
“I’m going to give you one more chance to do the right thing here, lover,” Ben says, leaning down so his face is parallel to mine.
He wants me to safeword out so we can go back inside. But that would mean he won the game. There’s no way.
“Fuck. You.” I spit the words into his face.
He smiles. “Yes, that’s the idea.”
His face disappears from my view as he stands back up. His grip on my hair relaxes, and I feel my shorts and underwear pulled roughly down to my knees.
“Shall we see how wet you are for me, lover?”
He laughs softly at his own joke as the rain continues to drench us. I feel my legs pushed roughly apart and his hand enters me without warning.
I gasp and squeeze my eyes closed, trying my hardest not to come at the first bit of contact that I”ve been dying for.
“So fucking wet. Inside and out.”
“Let me go.” It”s a pathetic attempt, and Ben doesn’t even bother to respond.
The next thing I feel is his hard, swollen tip driving into my entrance. He has to push my legs further apart to get the angle he needs to press his enormous, hard cock further into my body, but I’m a puppet in his hands. With a few firm presses, he seats himself inside me.
“Fuck, you feel so good.”
I’m teetering on the edge of orgasm once more, his harsh entrance having rubbed my clit just the right way. He continues that sweet, rough rub as he slides out and shoves himself back in.
It’s brutal and terrifying, cold and chaotic, but it also might be the best thing I’ve ever felt. I’m a prisoner to this man, but free as a bird in my own mind. The confinement allows me to let go for a moment and just be.
Ben is slowly sliding his tip up and down my inner walls, still pressing my hands to my lower back.
“If I let these arms go, are you going to use them to hit me?” he asks gruffly, not pausing in his thrusts.
“Probably,” I manage to get out.
He lets them go anyway and I swing them wildly, or as wildly as I can pressed face down on the wet table. They’ve gone to sleep, making my attempt even more pathetic.
Ben laughs darkly, easily avoiding my attack.
I’m so blind with pleasure, excitement, and the utter darkness that I don’t see his next move coming.
With one quick motion, he grabs my hair once more and lowers my face back into the inch deep puddle of water on the table. I didn”t have a chance to hold my breath, but my body tries anyway, and a little bit of water gets sucked in. I cough and thrash, but Ben holds me there.
“I never knew coughing could be so fucking erotic. Do you want to know how good it feels on my cock when you cough like that?”
I use every ounce of strength I have left to stop coughing, to calm myself down, but it’s no use. Ben uses my hair to pull my head up and then dips my face into the water once more. I cough and spit uncontrollably as soon as he lifts me again.
“Fuck, lover. You trying to make me fill you up with my cum?”
It”s not exactly what I had in mind, but the words don’t induce panic like they might with anyone else. I trust this guy to not want any accidental pregnancy just as badly as me.
I trust him a lot.
“Fuck you,” I sputter, my voice a hoarse whisper.
“So you keep saying.” Ben releases my hair and I barely catch my own head before it hits the concrete table. He’s got both hips in his grip now, pounding into me with punishing thrusts.
If this is my punishment, hell, I’ll take it all night.
“If you don’t come for me, I’m leaving you out here.”
I almost laugh despite my very non-funny circumstances. I’ve been on the verge of an orgasm since the second this game started.
If he wants me to come, I’m happy to oblige.
I arch my back slightly, shifting his angle just enough. He nearly cries out with pleasure, and the thrusts get harder.
I suck in a breath and hold it, trusting him to keep rubbing my body just like that.
The sky lights up electric blue and brilliant golden white as I come. I try to keep my eyes open to see it, but they clench shut against the waves of pleasure overtaking my senses.
My arms are propping me up and I arch into the feeling even further, making Ben give me what I need to keep the feeling going.
“God, your pussy gets so fucking tight when you come. You’re gonna make me come, is that what you want?”
“Yes.” It’s the first agreeable thing I’ve said in nearly an hour, but the orgasm sucked all the fight out of me. It was like the whole game was building to this moment, priming me with the right chemicals and just enough tension to make it explosive.
And it still is. Somehow, I’m still clenched down and spasming when I feel Ben empty himself inside me. His cool, wet body folds over mine as he continues to thrust through his pleasure, moaning unintelligible things into my shoulder blades.
When we finally still, we remain like that for too long, my body turning to ice as he presses me into the wet table, the water continuing to fall from the sky in never-ending sheets.
“Ben.”
My word breaks the spell and he’s upright in an instant, falling out of me and pulling my body to his. He turns me so my chest is to his, wrapping me in his arms and kissing the top of my head—a little move I’ve been trying my hardest to stop thinking about every second of every day.
Fat chance I’ll ever forget it now.
I can’t speak, can barely move my legs to take a step, which becomes apparent when I stumble trying to walk. Ben scoops me into his arms and carries me back into the house without a word, up the stairs and to the end of the hall, to the room I’ve been waiting to see.
He places me on a pale green sofa and covers me with a soft blanket.
“We only have the hot water in the tank, so I’m going to fill the tub. You okay out here for a few minutes?”
I nod stupidly in the pitch dark before I remember. “Yeah, I’m okay.”
When he comes back for me, I’m nearly asleep. I let him lift me once more and moan in pleasure and pain as he lowers me into the warm tub. I guess all the adrenaline was keeping me warm before, because the heat of the bath makes my whole body break out in tingles.
Ben has lit candles around the room and kneels next to the tub in the warm golden glow. His arms dip beneath the water to help me adjust my position until I’m reclining comfortably in the massive clawfoot.
“Bet you wish you’d gotten those release waivers signed now, huh?” I manage to get out around my chattering teeth.
He scoffs a bit, but I know I”m right.
“You make me crazy,” is his soft answer. The words are not unkind, quite the opposite. He says the word crazy like someone else might say the word love.
Not me, of course. I’d never, ever, ever say that.
I close my eyes as Ben washes my entire body with a soft cloth from his kneeling position beside the tub. I keep telling myself that this is normal behavior for a guy who I”m sleeping with. It’s not strange or sweet or loving at all.
I know I’m starting to drift off, but I feel safe enough to allow it.
Safe. Not loved. Just safe.