Chapter 22
S hortly after Azazel’s abrupt departure from the café, Sam had felt nothing but treacherous for revealing Kyla’s secrets. How had she given all of that up so easily? Was it her need to share the burden or was it her desire for Kyla to be understood?
She could come across bold and brash, always on the offensive and cold hearted, but it all came from a place of fear. A fear of being loved and a fear of loving. The only love Kyla knew and felt comfortable with was that between her and Sam.
And Sam now felt that she had betrayed that. Sure, they’d gone to school with the Worthington brothers but they were older than them, they’d never been close, and they’d vanished for years. Spilling those things after a few hours in their company was something Sam never expected to do.
“I apologise for my brother,” Ben said. “He can be a little temperamental.”
“It’s ok,” Sam replied, wiping her nose. “No harm done.”
“That’s a truly horrific thing what happened to her. I can’t even comprehend it. Some humans are just...I can’t even think of the word.”
Sam nodded. “I know.” She looked down at her empty plate and saw the time ticking on to midday. “I want to get out of here. I need to walk or do something. Sorry.”
Ben jumped straight to his feet. “Of course, no problem.” He cleared his throat and then asked, “Would you perhaps like some company?”
Sam slid her phone in her pocket and looked up at him, taking in his handsome face and the genuine care rolling through his dark eyes. “Sure. Why not?” She scratched her head and then said, “Maybe the woods? We could have a wander around the woods?”
Ben grabbed his car keys and nodded. “That sounds perfect.”
As the pair headed out towards the Porsche, Sam couldn’t help but feel a tiny piece of hope settling inside her. She even wondered if her liking for older men might even be cured by this one man. But how would he feel about her and her past? About her liking for sugar daddies and wanting to be taken care of?
Ben opened the car door for her, waiting for her to settle into the seat before closing the door and heading around to his side. Sam liked that. She liked it a lot. Part of her attraction to older men was the fact that they were gentlemen and treated her like a lady, such as opening doors, pulling out chairs, walking roadside on the pavement. It was all the little things like that which added up to making Sam feel special and that’s all any woman wanted, right?
“So what’s your next plans?” Sam asked, as Ben reversed out onto the road. “Are you going travelling again or looking for work?”
Ben put the car into drive and headed out of town, quickly considering the best response. “I think we may travel for a couple more months then come back and settle down, I’m not sure. We’re still debating whether to keep or sell the house.”
“It’s a beautiful house,” Sam said, picturing the sprawling mansion in her mind. “It’s been in your family for so long, it would be dreadful to sell it. Maybe one of you can live in it and raise your family in it.”
Ben smiled. “To be fair, it would be big enough for both of us to do that. Twelve bedrooms, five bathrooms, a living room the size of an apartment, it could have two families in it. The biggest question would be whether me and Az...asshole would be able to not kill each other.”
Sam giggled. “You two are very opposites from what I’ve seen. Like chalk and cheese. You seem very grounded, sensible, capable of empathy for sure, but your brother?” Sam let out a long breath. “He’s antagonistic, lacks any emotion whatsoever, and seems like a bit of a wild card. I’m sure I don’t remember him being like that at school.”
Ben shifted in his seat as he smiled. “Well, who is still the same from their school days?”
“Fair point,” Sam said. “Kyla said you had been to Pompeii, is that right?”
He nodded. “Several times. It’s beautiful. You should definitely put it on your bucket list.”
“I think half of the world is on my bucket list,” she said, laughing. “St Lucia, Barbados, Mauritius, Maldives, Hawaii, Dominican—”
“All the affordable places, I see,” Ben said, chuckling.
Sam shrugged her shoulders. “I have high expectations and I want a good life. What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing at all. If you know what you want, go get it. Life is too short to not do that.”
“What about your bucket list?”
Ben pursed his lips for a few seconds, thinking if there was anything he could say that wouldn’t make him look an idiot. All that remained on his bucket list was to settle down with a woman, live a human life, and finally end his days as he should have done two thousand years ago.
“I think we’ve crossed most of it off on our travels to be fair. The world is such a huge, picturesque place. I have a million memories to keep me happy every day. What else is on your bucket list? Apart from places to see, I mean.”
A heated blush swept over Sam’s face. She kept her eyes pinned straight ahead, watching the road in front of them. “Well, you know, the usual. Find a nice husband, have a gorgeous house, and fill it with mini me’s.”
Balthazar turned to look at her, his chocolate eyes filling with warmth and longing. “Really?”
Sam nodded, then dared to look at him, her cheeks still carrying a pink flush of heat. “I know it sounds silly and men don’t get it but that’s really all I want in life. A good, stable family and to see some luxurious places before I die. I’m quite easily pleased.”
Ben looked back at the road, all too aware their turning for the woods was fast approaching. “I think that actually sounds quite nice to be honest. Simple but fulfilling.” He nodded and smiled. “From a man’s point of view, I think that’s more than enough to be happy with.”
Sam’s tiny bud of hope blossomed a little, her mind already flowering with ideas of her being married to Ben and living together inside his mansion. Then it suddenly struck her that he might already have a girlfriend. No, she thought to herself. He currently wouldn’t be driving you to the woods if he did. Would he?
“I’m aware of your overprotective brother,” Ben said, a playful smirk tweaking up the corner of his mouth. “But are there any overprotective boyfriends I should be aware of?”
Sam shook her head, all the while smiling at how their trains of thought seemed to be aligning already. “No, I don’t. What about you? Any jealous girlfriends?”
“No,” he replied. “I’ve been single for a long time.”
Excitement started unfurling in Sam’s gut, endless possibilities running through her mind. Could she find herself with someone her own age after all? “It’s funny where life leads you, isn’t it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, thinking back to all those years ago at school, I never would have guessed that we’d be here right now.”
“I’m a big believer in if it’s meant to be, it will be.”
Sam nodded. “I completely agree.”
Ben pulled into the car park for the woods, various other cars with kids and dogs getting ready to set out for their own adventures. He turned the car off, jumped out, and ran around to Sam’s side, offering his hand to help her out of the low sprung car.
As Sam put her hand in his, an electric shock passed between them, albeit a small one, but definitely there. Sam snatched her hand back and shook it, trying to dissipate the tingling feeling from her skin.
“Sorry,” Ben said, shaking his own hand. “Not sure what that was.”
Sam giggled. “It’s fine. It didn’t hurt, I just wasn’t expecting it.”
“This way,” Balthazar said, gesturing his arm towards a large green sign with an up facing arrow painted on it in white.
As the two meandered around the sandy trails, making mindless chit chat about anything and everything from movies and TV shows to interests in history and music tastes, Sam couldn’t ignore the feeling of belonging blooming inside her.
The more time she spent with Ben, the more comfortable and more at home she felt, almost as if she’d known him all her life and they’d never spent a day apart.
Nearing the centre of the woods, they had a choice of four different routes, or a fifth that wasn’t signposted but had been worn down to the ground by the looks of the narrow dusty path winding through the spindly tree trunks.
“Which way?” he asked.
Sam pointed at the narrow trail that had no sign. “The fun way of course,” she said, smiling. “I want to see if there’s anything down there worth going off trail for.”
Admiring her sense of adventure, Ben let her go first, following closely behind. As the path wound around trees and bushes, over fallen branches, and down a little hill, Sam began to wonder if they would end up lost.
At the bottom of the hill they’d just descended was a narrow stream, now dried up, its bed nothing but a muddy, leafy mess and the only sign it had ever existed. Sam picked her way through it before heading up the hill the other side.
Just as she neared the top of the hill, a loud bark echoed through the air. Sam turned her head to locate the source of the sound, wondering what furry friend would rush to greet her. As she looked to her left, a huge white Alsatian launched itself at her, its eyes hard and fixed on her. Sam screamed and stumbled back on instinct, forgetting she was at the top of a hill.
The dog locked onto her left forearm, snarling and grinding its teeth into her flesh. Its swinging weight toppled Sam from her feet, sending them both sprawling down the hill. As they hit the bottom, Sam fell on her back, hitting a tree stump, all the air being knocked from her body. The dog jumped straight back up and hurled itself at her, aiming for her neck.
With not even enough air to scream, she could do nothing but watch as the menacing form of the dog loomed over her. She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the final bite, when out of nowhere, a blur of Ben’s bulky body rushed over the top of her, rugby tackling the dog away from her.
The dog growled, then whimpered and squealed before falling silent. Sam turned her head to the left, seeing Ben kneeling over the dog’s limp body.
As Ben turned to look back at Sam, to check on her, he forgot himself. Seeing her emerald eyes fill with panic and confusion snapped him back to reality.
But it was too late.
Sam had seen him.
In all his demonic glory.