Stony Creek Hero [Stony Creek 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (20 page)

Gathering her purse which seemed to grow heavier since she left the house and the tray of chocolate mousse cups that she made to soothe the savage men that roamed the ranch, she started the nerve-wracking lonely first walk to the Sunday dinner. A soft breeze made the hem of her dress flutter around her upper thighs as she stepped up on the first runner. Just as her hem rose a bit higher, she heard the voice that made her G-string damp.

“Now that’s the prettiest picture I think I have ever seen, darlin’,” Ben drawled out as he pushed away from the doorframe that he had been leaning against. She finished climbing the porch stairs, smiling at the comfortable rattan furniture Lillian had spread out, practically inviting people to stay and chat.

Lizzie felt herself blush under his perusal and allowed him to “inspect” her new outfit.

“Good evening, Ben,” she offered almost shyly.

Ben had a naughty grin plastered on his handsome face as he stopped right in front of her. She felt flutters of delight in her stomach as he ran his palms over her smooth, exposed shoulders that were scented with her favorite cream. Her lips parted slightly as he leaned in and inhaled with a moan of delight at her offering.

“You smell so fucking arousing, Lizzie. What is it?” he whispered suggestively into her ear. She felt his lips graze the lobe of her ear and was sure he felt her tremble in desire for him. Damn the man, he had already turned her to mush and she was still standing on the porch.

“It’s the chocolate, Ben, not me,” she countered.

Ben started to kiss her lightly just in front of her ear, his lips never really leaving her skin as he shifted them slightly with each kiss inching toward her mouth. It felt like he was tasting and savoring her, warming her up for god knows what.

“Nope,” Ben murmured, not willing to engage in a full conversation. He continued his exploration along her silky skin to her full lips. “It’s you, baby, your cream and not the kind from the bottle. I am salivating over here remembering what you taste like down there. I may not be able to wait until we are alone, baby.”

Lizzie let out a soft gasp at his confession and allowed him to briefly claim her lips. Well, there went her concern that he may have cooled off a little in the past week. She let out a whimper of longing as he tilted his head and she could taste him as well as his tongue was consuming her mouth.

“Well, you had better wait until you are alone, young man, or I will personally tan your backside and don’t think that you are too old for me to do it, Benjamin Powell! I will have your brothers and cousins hold you while your father and I remind you of how you were brought up to treat women, mister,” Lillian’s voice firmly rang out.

Lizzie wanted to die and disappear directly into the floorboards below her feet while Ben slowly disengaged his mouth from his delectable treat.

“Nice try, Mom. I have manners, lots of them when I choose to use them. Rest assured that this woman will always be treated to my best behavior,” Ben proudly stated.

Lillian winked at Lizzie as though to reassure her while returning her fire-breathing-mom routine back on her son. “If this was any sort of display of your manners, Benjamin, I am going to have your father have a talk with you. Now, unhand my guest and go rabble-rouse with the rest of the primitive species please.”

Ben leaned down and gave Lizzie a smile that promised anything but proper behavior with a quick peck on the lips and walked himself back into the house. Lillian took Lizzie by the arm, gave her a gentle pat, and brought her in herself.

“Welcome, dear Lizzie, to what I hope is the first of many Sunday dinners with us, dear. Billie is with Florence in the kitchen. Let’s go talk with the only other civilized people here.” Lillian practically smiled her enthusiasm for Lizzie as she spoke to her. It felt wonderful, the feeling of acceptance. Lizzie threaded her arm in Lillian’s and walked into heaven. The entire house smelled of home that was laced with roasting ham, turkey, and probably a bounty of side dishes that Billie had surely provided.

As they passed the den, the men stood and ran over to give her hugs and comments of how relieved they were that Ben was able to pull her from harm. She was shocked at how Brody, Troy, Jackson, Bill, Donny, and even Cole chastised her very gently for making what they all agreed was a bad decision. Hunter alone sat not unnaturally quiet on the sofa. He just looked stern and waited for the comforting support to calm down.

“You made a damned foolish decision that could have cost you your life, Lizzie!” he bellowed, shocking everyone into silence. Hunter never raised his voice. In fact, he rarely spoke but here he was, bellowing at the top of his lungs.

“Yell a little louder, Hunter, I don’t think your animals at Green River Ranch heard you!” Troy laughed out, always the diplomat.

“She deserves it and more. Lizzie, you had better not ever do something so foolish like trying to drive that hunk of junk you called a car, in conditions like that, ever again. We care about you…you crazy woman. I hope Ben took you in hand.” Hunter ended his speech and sat down, leaving the room silent.

Ben let out a soft chuckle. “I assure you, buddy, she was, um, taken in hand, quite well. No worries about the car though as it is an aquarium at the moment.”

Lizzie heard a gasp but it didn’t come from her. She wanted to pinch that man for embarrassing her with intimate information in front of everyone! How could he? He was acting like a possessive, arrogant boyfriend, something that he had yet to declare. Lizzie was justifiably outraged that it wasn’t his right to reveal such things. She was about to deliver on her pinch when she was stunned as three different feminine hands slapped at different parts of his exposed body. Ben flinched as his mother got the back of his head, Aunt Florence connected viciously to his rear, and Billie, bless her, got his stomach.

“Ouch! What was that for?” Ben actually yelped out, trying to evade the feminine onslaught.

One more slap was delivered to the other side of the back of Ben’s head, but this time it was his father Bill who administered the discipline.

“It was for not having more respect, the sort you just promised me you would always exercise. It probably won’t be a mistake you will be making in the future, I predict, or you will probably be losing the company of one of the finest women,” Lillian lectured to her misguided middle child.

Lizzie felt herself being dragged along behind Lillian and Florence who left the room with loud
humpfs
. She was thankful, however, because she was pretty sure she didn’t want to hear the conversation that was going to ensue.

Peals of feminine laughter drifted out from the kitchen as the women settled themselves. Lizzie looked in confusion as Florence and Lillian had to hold each other up as they tried to stop laughing long enough to catch their breath.

“What is more funny to you both, the fact that Lizzie got herself a heap of Ben’s kink or that we all slapped him silly for being damned proud of it?” Billie laughed as she too appeared to find the humor.

“Oh, definitely the unintentionally coordinated female ‘don’t be insensitive’ correction therapy! We couldn’t have impacted him any better than if we sat down and planned out to remind him not to be an arrogant boy. That was fabulous and a demonstration of women’s talent at efficiency! One slap for Ben caused the entire room of insensitive males to think twice in the future.” Florence smiled at Lizzie.

Lizzie felt very embarrassed that her spanking was now public knowledge. What would they think of her, the type of woman she was? She felt the weight of her discomfort descend as she was sure this would be her first and last invite to Powell Sunday dinners.

Billie, ever sensitive and perceptive, corrected Lizzie’s misinterpretation of Florence and Lillian’s humor. “Lizzie, sweetie, please understand that no one here is going to look at you in any other way than admiration, regardless of what my future dopey brother-in-law said back there. His tendencies to enjoy, ah, certain things, are hardly considered a secret in this family. In fact I am sure you will find Cole looking at you with a whole new and honorable perspective, shall we say! There is nothing wrong with it unless it was something that you didn’t want or he hurt you.”

Without thinking, Lizzie immediately looked up at Lillian. “Oh no! Your son would never hurt me. He saved my life, in more ways than one. I could never look at him with anything other than love. Please don’t think he would ever touch me or any woman other than with affection and care.”

Lillian stopped laughing and immediately went to embrace Lizzie. The loving gesture touched Lizzie somewhere deep inside where her loneliness and pain were kept secretly hidden away. It had been a long, long while since someone cared for her in a protective, maternal manner and it unleashed a cascading waterfall of emotion too long kept bottled up. Lizzie burst into wracking sobs in Lillian’s arms at the loss of her car, the damage that her home’s roof sustained in the storm, the near miss financially of her café, a father that never really was there, and now the overwhelming unconditional warmth and caring that this dear family was freely bestowing upon her. It was just too much to hold inside and Lizzie just sobbed as it poured free. She felt another set of warm arms hug her from the back and a third from her side, literally allowing the women to envelope her in supportive affection. First one sniffle was heard, and then a quiet tremble was felt. In no time at all, there were four women crying in a group embrace right there in the center of the deliciously fragrant kitchen.

The sounds of crying had obviously not gone unnoticed in the den and footsteps were heard by the kitchen doorway.

“What the heck happened in here? Which one of you is upset?” Bill demanded, looking to Lizzie like he was ready to do battle with whichever of his sons, nephews, or friends caused the womens’ upset.

“No one, honey, we are just loving on each other,” Lillian responded to her husband without releasing her hold.

Lizzie heard a loud sigh, unsure of whether or not it was in understanding or frustration.

“Uncle Bill, what is going on in there? Do you need backup?” Brody yelled from the man cave.

“It’s okay, fellas. They are just crying,” Bill returned.

“What? What the heck for?” Brody asked but it was obvious that all the men were perplexed by the looks on their faces, Jackson’s reaction, getting ready to run to Billie in the kitchen, and most telling, the actual muting of the television.

“You will understand when you have a daughter, Brody. It’s just their hormones or something. Like the cows…” Lizzie stopped crying to listen to Bill’s ridiculous comparison of his female cattle and how they get very sensitive over some things and not others. Temperamental, he was calling it. In actuality, it was rather funny as he never had any daughters of his own and this was probably the only analogy he could think of.

“Baby, are you okay? I am sorry if I embarrassed you back there. I didn’t mean to, please forgive me or my mother never will,” Ben hesitantly said from the doorway.

All the women including Lizzie lifted their heads in his direction at his very appropriate apology.

“It’s okay, Ben, your mom, aunt, and Billie are just being, well, supportive. I am not crying over that, honey,” Lizzie said gently to Ben.

“Well, um, if you are okay then I will leave you in their capable hands. Sorry, Mom, I did know better. I won’t do that again,” Ben mumbled out awkwardly and returned to the den of testosterone.

Lizzie felt the weight of several stares and look up into the stunned expressions of the wonderful women that were surrounding her.

“What?” she asked everyone.

They all released her and stepped back a bit to look her up and down. Lillian suddenly got the hugest smile on her face and crossed her arms.

“Sweet darling girl, I have tried to get that boy to talk more, communicate like a human being, and generally just love people for, I don’t know, perhaps since the day he was born. What did you do to him? I have never heard him apologize like that, especially for something that he feels he was in the right for doing or saying. He is in love with you!” Lillian said assessingly.

“Oh no, Lillian, he was just being polite, I am sure. You did raise him after all,” Lizzie returned.

Florence had to add her two cents. “Sweetie, my dear nephew has gone through women like paper napkins at a barbecue. There is no way he isn’t in love with you. Oh this is marvelous! Maybe we can have a double wedding! Lillian, let’s get the guild in on this and start planning. This is a going to be so much fun watching Ben fight and stumble over falling for you. We need some more entertainment around here since Billie and Jackson have just fallen into the ‘madly in love, going to have a family as soon as they can get married’ phase.”

“Will you two slow yourselves down and make a cocktail or something? I am not pregnant yet and Lizzie needs to actually hear that she has a boyfriend out of that big lug before she starts picking out china patterns. I think that the Ladies of Stony Creek can amuse themselves with the latest exploits of the Saunders brothers and their desire to share a certain charming waitress, a former rodeo queen they are sweet on,” Billie said authoritatively, suddenly looking a bit, well, green.

“Ugh, what is that smell, Lillian?” Billie continued, looking worse by the second. Lillian and Florence looked conspiratorially at each other at Billie’s disgust.