I opened my mouth to scream but never got a single sound out.
Warm lips latched onto mine as those hands curled around my back and pulled me to a familiar chest that was covered in an obviously expensive button-down shirt and bisected by a super soft silk tie. I knew that heartbeat as well as I knew my own. It was the one I dreamed of at night and the one I listened for every moment that I was awake. His facial hair was much shorter than it had been the last time I saw him, neatly trimmed against his jaw and around his mouth. It was all executive and zero lumberjack, but it still felt amazing as it brushed across my chin and rubbed against my cheeks. I’d missed everything about him but the shallow part of me put his beard at the top of the list.
His hair was shorter and more severely styled than it had been in the woods and he’d traded his work wear for a suit that looked like it cost a year’s worth of rent. The heavy black boots were also gone and polished wingtips winked up at me from the dingy carpet of my apartment. The gaudy ring on his finger was now joined by another one on his opposite hand and the watch I’d been sleeping with, keeping it stashed under my pillow, was now wrapped around his wrist, looking like it had always belonged there. Everything on the outside was new and unknown, but those gleaming gray eyes and the smirk that told me he knew I was taking inventory and liking everything I saw were all the same.
So was the way he kissed me.
It was ruthless. It was desperate. It was hungry and hard. It was desperate, like we would never have enough time together.
His hands fisted in my hair as he continued to devour my mouth while he walked me backward toward the front door, which he had closed at some point. Once I hit the barrier, he pressed the entire length of his body along mine and finally released my lips so we could both drag in some much-needed air. He shoved one of his legs between mine and untangled one hand from my hair so he could wrap his fingers around my jaw. He brushed his thumb over my lower lip and smiled at me as I lifted both my arms up to wind around his neck. It was the first time I could hold him the way I wanted to and I thought my entire being was going to come apart at the seams from the way I was vibrating with relief and delight.
Now that my head was no longer spinning from fear and excitement, I noticed that he looked thinner and that he had lines fanning out from the corners of his eyes that hadn’t been there before. He also had a cut on his cheek that was being held closed with a couple of steri strips and what looked like a healing black eye that had hit the yellowish green phase of bruising. The suit looked good on him. It was obviously made to fit his bulk and build but it did little to hide the stiffness in his movements as he bent forward to touch his lips to mine, softer and sweeter this time.
“Missed the way you taste, Pop-Tart.” His fingers dug into my jaw as his breath danced over my now wet and swollen lips. “Missed this smart mouth and all of this hair.” He dragged the tip of his nose along the curve of my cheek and touched his lips to my ear. “Missed this soft skin and those long fucking legs.” His leg shifted between mine so that my center was pressed tightly against his thigh. “Missed that sweet pussy and those perfect tits of yours, Snow White.” He pulled back so that we were eye to eye, both of us breathing hard as we tried to catch up with our racing hearts. “I really just missed everything about you, Echo.”
I nodded and tightened my hold on his neck. “I missed you too, Ben.” That was an understatement if there ever was one. I felt like I’d been frozen in place and he was the only thing that could warm me up and get me going again.
He grinned at me and shook his dark head. “Not a Ben anymore, babe.”
I frowned up at him and he pressed even more fully into me. “What does that mean?”
“It means that Ben can’t be here but Nicholas Benton can.” He lifted his eyebrows at me. “I think you can call me Benny from here on out and no one would question it because of the last name.”
I blinked at him and let out a shuddering sigh. “How did you end up here…Benny? How did you find me?” Denver wasn’t exactly a small town and I hadn’t given him my address or anything.
He let his head fall until his forehead touched mine. I could feel the weight of the world pressing down on his back but luckily, I was there to keep him upright, to keep him from getting crushed by it.
“Does the how matter? It’s the why that you should focus on.” He kissed me again, pushing off the door and taking me with him. “I’m here because you’re here, Echo, and that’s the only place I ever want to be. Even if it means I have to make deals with the devil.”
I gave him a hard look, knowing there was a story there that I was going to need sooner rather than later. He had to know I would take him however he came, and that included tainted and tarnished. Logically it made no sense. We barely knew each other, but somehow, some way we knew enough to know this was it.
“Is there room under your new leaf for deals with the devil?” I gave a yelp of surprise as his hands went to my waist. He lifted me up onto the counter that separated my kitchen from the small living area, and stepped between my legs. His hands skimmed over my shoulders, taking my coat with them as they found their way to my collarbone.
“As it turns out, my new leaf is still attached to the same ole tree. The only thing I care about is that you’re under that leaf when it gets turned over.” He put his hand over my heart and closed his eyes as it danced against his palm. “Are you going to be there? Can you handle the fact that all I have to offer is fruit from a poisoned tree?”
I waited a beat, a second that had my entire future caught inside of it. If I told him I couldn’t handle it, that who he really was wasn’t good enough for me, he would go, and I would never see him again. When he got tired of waiting for my answer and pried his long, dark lashes up, I saw the truth clearly in his eyes. He would walk away because he wasn’t going to apologize for who he was, but I could also see that he was going to try his best to be a man that no one needed to apologize for.
“I’m right here, Benny. I’m not going anywhere, even if the tree gets chopped down and takes all the leaves with it. I’ve been waiting for you to find me.” And once he had, he’d managed to lead me to myself.