Chapter 16 Ben
Ben
I’m in a cafe filled with coffee, cream, sugar. All the things I should be craving.
Yet, the only thing I want to taste is her.
Lila.
She’s pressed against the counter, lips swollen from my kisses, breath shallow, half-wrecked already.
I’m barely keeping it together.
My grip tightens on her thighs, spreading her open beneath me, my cock aching, throbbing, but it doesn’t matter.
Not yet.
Because I’m not done.
Because I haven’t tasted her.
The last time we were together it was our first time.
Our only time and as much as I’ve replayed it in my head. That night, that desperate, fumbling mess of firsts, it wasn’t enough.
I was young, too impatient. I barely knew what the fuck I was doing.
Now, I know.
Now I know exactly how to ruin her.
Lila shudders as my mouth trails down her neck, slow, deliberate, my fingers digging into the soft flesh of her thighs.
I nudge her knees wider.
She gasps, her head falling back against the cabinets, her fingers threading into my hair, gripping tight. She has no idea what’s coming.
I lower myself onto my knees.
A fucking sacrilege considering the woman in front of me has made a sport out of pissing me off. But this is exactly where I want to be.
Lila is trembling, her breath ragged, the anticipation tangling with the frustration she won’t admit. I run my hands up her legs, squeezing, feeling how soft she is, how warm.
She watches me, her lips parted, pupils blown wide.
I drag my mouth up the inside of her thigh, pressing a slow, open-mouthed kiss against the sensitive skin there. She jolts.
Fuck, she’s sensitive.
She was always like this, all fire, all attitude but beneath it?
She melts.
I look up at her, holding her gaze as I slide her dress higher, my fingers brushing over her bare skin.
“Ben…” her voice is shaky, almost unsure.
I hum against her thigh. “Relax, sweetheart. I’m about to make sure you never forget this.”
Then, I taste her.
Lila arches off the counter, a strangled sound ripping from her throat as my tongue flicks against her.
Jesus fucking Christ.
I groan, gripping her hips tighter, pinning her down as she writhes beneath me.
She’s so wet. So fucking perfect.
I bury myself deeper, my tongue lapping, teasing, pushing her higher.
She’s shaking, her thighs tensing, gripping, trying to keep control.
But she’s losing.
I suck her clit into my mouth, flicking my tongue just right.
“Oh, God—”
Her breath hitches. I feel it.
She’s close.
I slide two fingers inside her, stretching, curling, hitting exactly where she needs me.
She gasps, shatters as she falls apart in my hands.
She comes hard and I fucking love it.
Love the way she trembles, the way her hands fist in my hair, the way she whimpers my name like she never stopped belonging to me.
I grin against her, dragging it out, letting her ride it, my tongue lapping up every fucking drop like I’m starved for her.
Because I am.
Because I always was.
She’s still shaking when I stand, still panting when I kiss her, deep, letting her taste herself on my tongue.
She moans into my mouth, her nails scraping down my chest, desperate for more and fuck if that doesn’t drive me insane.
I pull her hips forward, grinding against her, letting her feel exactly what she does to me.
I’m so fucking hard, it’s painful.
I need more.
I need all of her.
My hands slide up her thighs, pushing fabric aside, preparing to undo my belt.
KNOCK KNOCK.
“Lila? Are you in there?”
Lila freezes.
I go still.
Her entire body locks up.
No.
No fucking way.
“No, no, no!” Lila shoves at my shoulders, hard.
“Ben,” she whispers, panicked. “You have to go!”
The fuck I do.
I grip the counter, bracing myself, my body still humming from her, from what just happened.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Lila scrambles off the counter like she’s just woken up from a bad dream.
Like she didn’t just fall apart in my hands.
Like she isn’t still fucking trembling from me.
She adjusts her dress, running a shaking hand through her hair as she rushes to the cafe’s security monitor mounted near the back. I barely register what’s happening because my blood is still in my cock, my body still wired from her, my fingers still fucking coated in her.
But then, she goes pale.
“Shit,” she hisses under her breath.
I push off the counter, rolling my shoulders back. “Who the hell is it?”
She doesn’t answer, just angles the screen toward me.
Mrs Herbert.
The name alone makes something twist in my chest.
The old woman stands outside, peering through the glass door, her purse clutched in front of her. My old neighbour from when I used to live here. Of all people.
Lila whirls toward me, eyes wild. “Stay in the back and don’t come out!”
I stare at her. She’s serious.
“You’re joking.”
Her expression hardens. “Ben, I swear to God—”
I grit my teeth, jaw flexing. I should tell her no. Should tell her I don’t hide from anyone.
But then I see it.
The sheer panic in her face.
Not just about getting caught. Something else. Something deeper and that’s how I find myself hiding in the back of the cafe like some teenager, barely keeping my shit together.
I hear the front bell chime as Lila unlocks it.
“Oh, Mrs Herbert,” she says, voice still slightly breathless. “What are you doing here so late?”
The old woman sighs, stepping inside. “I couldn’t sleep, dear. Kept thinking about this awful development proposal.” Her voice wavers. “I wanted to make sure I signed the petition before it’s too late.”
Silence.
Then Lila murmurs, “That’s very kind of you.”
Mrs Herbert sighs. “Not kind, Lila. Necessary. This cafe, this whole row of businesses, it’s been a lifeline for people like me. I lost my husband five years ago, and coming here, seeing you, seeing the others, having somewhere to go… It’s kept me going.”
My chest tightens.
The weight of her words sits heavy.
“It’s not just me,” Mrs Herbert continues, her voice lower now, raw. “Do you know how many people rely on this place? On all of you? I don’t understand why someone would want to take that away.”
I swallow hard.
Lila exhales, and I can hear the emotion in her voice. “Me neither.”
Fuck.
I lean back against the shelves, pressing the heels of my hands into my eyes.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
This wasn’t supposed to be personal.
I didn’t get where I am by letting shit like this get to me.
Now, I’m hiding in a back room, my body still wrecked from touching Lila, listening to a woman pour her heart out about how my fucking project is about to gut the very place she’s built her life around.
I clench my jaw, pressing my fingers into my temples as Mrs Herbert’s words echo in my head.
A lifeline.
Kept me going.
I exhale sharply through my nose. No.
They’re wrong.
They don’t see the long-term benefits. The opportunities.
They don’t see—
But then, a quiet voice in the back of my head mutters. What if you don’t see it either?
I shut it down. I can make her understand. She just has to listen.
I can show her, show all of them that this isn’t about gutting their community. It’s about elevating it. Creating something sustainable, something better. A future, not a stagnant memory.
She just needs to trust me.
She just needs to let me explain.
The door chimes again, and I hear Mrs Herbert murmur her goodbyes. Footsteps shuffle toward the back.
Lila freezes the second she sees me and in an instant, I know.
She’s shutting down.
I see it in the way her shoulders tense, the way she wraps her arms around herself like she’s trying to hold something, everything, together.
The warmth in her eyes? Gone.
That soft, breathless haze from before? Gone.
All that’s left is ice.
She inhales, exhales. Slow. Measured.
“This was a mistake.”
The words hit like a punch to the ribs.
“Lila—”
“You have to go.”
I step toward her, but she holds up a hand, fingers shaking just slightly. “Ben, just—please.”
Please.
I’ve heard her say it before.
All those years ago.
This isn’t a plea for me to stay, it’s a demand for me to leave.
For me to let her go.
I clench my jaw so tight it aches. My hands curl into fists at my sides. Everything inside me is screaming to fix this, to pull her back, to remind her what just happened, what we just had and just like that, the anger starts to burn.
Not the frustration I’ve been wrestling with all night.
No, this is different.
Because I let her in.
Because I kissed her like she was still mine. Tasted her. Worshipped her.
Now she’s shutting down like it never happened. Like I never happened.
For the first time, it hits me. Maybe this was the plan all along, this was what she wanted, her revenge. Fifteen fucking years, and I walked straight into her trap like the lovesick idiot I swore I’d never be again.
A sharp laugh escapes me, bitter and breathless.
“Right.” I exhale, shaking my head as I take a step back. “You got what you wanted, huh?”
Lila stiffens. “What? No! Ben—”
I don’t let her finish.
I swipe my coat off the chair, shove my arms through the sleeves, barely feeling the movement. My blood is still pounding, my pulse still wrecked from her, from what we just did.
But fuck her.
Fuck this whole night.
I storm past her, heading straight for the door.
She doesn’t stop me.
She doesn’t even try.
The bell above the cafe door jingles as I yank it open, the night air rushing in, biting cold against my heated skin.
I don’t look back.
Not this time.
Not ever again.