Stony Creek Hero [Stony Creek 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (29 page)

Lizzie let him control and dominate her most of the time but the truth had almost frightened Ben. She was the one that owned him. With every fiber of his being, he was hers. Forever. Ben had known at the moment, something had changed, permanently. He was never going to want another. He was going to try to boss this woman around until the day he died and even then he would haunt her. As he rolled to his side, cuddling her precious form against his very sated hard body, he just now knew.

He was going to marry her.

* * * *

Ben shook himself out of his pleasant recollections and gave his cousin an obnoxious gesture before fishing out his errant cellphone.

In his usual pleasant manner he answered, “What?”

“Nice greeting, dumbass. You need to get your lazy ass in town, like now. I just heard a confession from my stubborn fiancée that a certain asshole banker threatened Lizzie last week. Neither she nor my pregnant little doctor felt that they needed to burden us with either the knowledge of the incident or the details of the threat. I can’t discipline Billie right now, but Lizzie is definitely fair game! Get in here now,” Jackson related very quickly and succinctly.

“Are you serious? There is no way she wouldn’t tell me something like that. I made it very clear to her, Jackson, that I would handle everything from now on with that scumbag. Are you sure?” Ben hoped that Jackson was mistaken because his blood pressure was already rising, giving him a headache.

“Well, I was in Braxton Feed and Seed and got it directly from the source of all information, Gus. He is worse than Mom. I just walked in and he asked me what we had done about Theodore grabbing Lizzie the other week as he hadn’t heard anything about it since and figured that the girls had kept it a secret from us. He saw the whole thing as he was getting a delivery but that the asshole had taken off by the time he had reached his front door. The girls apparently had run off by then, too. Damn it, when did they grow the balls to start keeping stuff like this from us. I have balls, big ones, and I will be the only one in my family who has a set! I can’t spank Billie but I sure as hell can torture her sexually. What are you going to do about it?” Jackson returned, getting louder by the second.

“I will be right there. I am not going to overreact. I am going to discuss this like other men do. My little woman is going to have an opportunity to explain this to me rationally, then she may try to placate me and then by all that’s holy she is going to get a raw, red bottom but good! Damn it, I am getting too soft! Don’t tell her I am coming, I need to stop for some more nylon rope.” Ben’s voice was barely restrained.

Jackson had let out a laugh at Ben’s last comment. “No time for your kinks, moron, just get in here!” Ben closed his phone as Jackson just hung up on him.

She didn’t tell him about being threatened. Was she nuts? Ben couldn’t fathom that this was even possible. He trusted her and she trusted him implicitly. What reason could she have had not to tell him? Oh, Ben, could guess all right. She didn’t want him overreacting and having either Sly or Nat throw his butt in jail after he creamed that scuzzy banker all over Stony Creek’s main street. He had touched her? Ben began to see red as he reined Cuff toward the main barn, ignoring Brody calling out to him in concern. He touched his woman? Had he hurt her? If he had to guess, he figured that he hadn’t, as he tried to calm down. Lizzie may be sensitive to his feelings and thus acted foolishly, but Billie would have immediately attacked and tattled had anything really happened to her physically. Mentally, well that was another story. It didn’t sit well with him that she might be still frightened that he could hurt her in some fashion and that was something that Ben couldn’t, no, wouldn’t tolerate.

* * * *

The warm sun beat down on the girls as they stood chatting outside Maddy’s office, oblivious to the scene that was about to unfold. Billie laughed at something Maddy had said about warm weather and how it seemed to make so many animals riled up and ornery.

“Well, it’s true! I have been sewing up more dog bites than I can shake a stick at, the way those beast are going at each other. The males are the worst in this heat. They get a crazed look in their eyes, hair standing on end, and their barking is so loud you cannot think. It makes you just want to run away to tell the truth,” Maddy exclaimed in frustration.

Lizzie watched Jackson as he was lightly stroking Billie’s back. His movements were calm and soothing but he looked distracted and well, downright smug, as if he knew something they didn’t and was quite proud of it. She decided that she must be imagining things and focused on Maddy explaining that the louder the bark, the worse the bite was sure to be. As if on cue, they all turned at the sound of a large dually’s door slamming shut from the brute strength of the man who exited it.

“Lizzie Carmichael! Get over here!” Ben bellowed loudly enough for people up and down Main Street to all stop and stare at his very uncharacteristic display of emotion, any emotion.

“What on earth could have him in such a tizzy?” Lizzie exclaimed out loud.

Just at that moment, Billie turned to look up at Jackson in suspicious accusation. “Jackson Powell, did you perchance share anything in particular with your brother? Maybe what we discussed earlier, you know, the thing you promised not to tell Ben about?”

As Ben lumbered closer, Jackson got one of those annoyingly self-righteous expressions on his face.

“First of all, darlin’, I didn’t promise you anything. I said I would try not to tell him. I didn’t lie to you, my gorgeous, pregnant love. I did try for about ten minutes and then decided that it was in Lizzie’s best interest’s if I told on her and told but good. I care very much about the woman who has tamed my wayward brother and may very well be my family in the future, yours too, sweetheart,” Jackson drawled out in explanation.

Lizzie watched with a rapidly increasing need for self-preservation as Billie gasped in outrage into Jackson’s amused face.

Billie quickly turned to her best friend and whispered, “Honey, I think you had better run. Now would be a good time. Jackson may or may not have let the cat out of the bag about our discussion with Mr. Davis. Now get the lead out of your rear and move it, quickly, honey!”

Ben was rapidly approaching like a stampeding elephant. The look on his face was definitely not a pleasant one and Lizzie turned and made a wise choice.

“Um, see you all later. Gotta go!” With that, Lizzie broke off in a trot in the opposite direction of the very large, very angry Powell that was making people jump out of his way as he stomped in her direction.

Jackson quickly swung an arm around both Billie and Maddy as he ushered them backward out of his enraged brother’s path. Across the street, Phillip and Sam came out of the new real estate office that they were remodeling for Candice to watch the spectacle that was taking place. Gus and Millie Braxton were now sitting outside the feed and seed, eating chips as they waited and watched to see what sort of entertaining things Ben would do.

“Lizzie Carmichael!” Ben thundered at her retreating form. “Did you or did you not have personal contact with Mr. Davis after you were explicitly instructed not to? Stop running and answer me, woman!”

Lizzie crossed the street and picked up her pace a bit as she threw her answer over her shoulder, perhaps a bit too rashly.

“So? You don’t own me, we aren’t married, and I am going to tell your mother that you are yelling at me in public on Main Street, buster!”

“I don’t own you? The hell I don’t, wait until I catch up to you, little one, and I am going to show you the title and deed I own to your behind!” Ben yelled back.

Oh dear, this wasn’t going well. She ran across the street, back to the side where Maddy, Billie, and Jackson were watching with everyone else, waiting to see how their entertainment would end. Everyone was so enthralled by the spectacle they were unwittingly providing that no one noticed the keen observation that was coming from the window of the bank’s second floor. The large, mysterious men that had been with Theodore were taking in the scene with interest, taking pictures and notes.

Lizzie called out to Maddy, “Okay, Ms. Veterinarian, what do you do to soothe those wild animals that bite, bark, and yell in aggression from this heat? How do you calm a charging bull? Any suggestions would be helpful here.”

Ignoring the laughter from both sides of the street, Maddy yelled back to Lizzie, “Just tell him that you were wrong and you are sorry. That might help. Otherwise I guess I could get you the chloroform.”

That was met with more laughter at the image of Ben being brought down by a small rag soaked in the drug. Apparently, the male beast doing the charging didn’t find it amusing at all.

“You are so getting a spanking, Lizzie! A big one!” Ben hollered loud enough for everyone to hear.

For some reason, Lizzie wasn’t afraid of the big brute chasing her down and offered the response of, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Blah, blah, blah.”

Brody and Troy had shown up at some point during the fiasco and were lounging against the wall near Sly and Nat who were smiling.

“Lizzie, I am talking to you! I also found the letter from that scumbag threatening you and your body that we all know I now own! Try stuffing it into your purse completely the next time you try to hide something from me!” Ben bellowed out, getting more frustrated than he had ever been at being forced to chase his disobedient girlfriend all over Main Street.

Jackson let out a laugh and offered his brother some advice.

“Good luck with that one, Ben. They never listen, never. Just go get her and stop being so damned nice.” Jackson laughed out to Ben. This garnered him an elbow in the ribs from his fiancée and a very dirty look from Maddy.

Ben stopped for a brief moment and leaned close to his brother to whisper, “Don’t tell her, but it’s more fun this way!”

Jackson let out a snort of laughter as Ben smiled, really smiled.

Apparently Ben seemed to think that Jackson’s advice had some merit. He must have been toying with her the whole time. That devil of a man probably enjoyed the chase because suddenly, he broke into a sprint and was breathing down her neck in two seconds flat. In a move reminiscent of the last time she had argued with him publically when she and Billie were assaulted by Len Drexel, she found herself flung over Ben’s shoulder like a caveman. It was a daunting position because of his great height but what a lovely view of his rear end it afforded her. Lizzie gulped and figured that maybe plan B might be in order. What was it that Maddy said about soothing the savage beast? Oh yeah apologize, darn it.

“Ben, honey, sweetie, my darling. I am very, very sorry I didn’t mention that little, itty-bitty, teeny-weeny insignificant conversation that I had with Mr. Davis. I promise it will never, ever happen again. Won’t you please put me down?” Lizzie asked him with a lilt in her voice.

Male laughter was heard from all sides of the street at her impassioned little speech. Not going to get any help from those buffoons.

“Billie, Maddy, Millie? Anyone?”

It was Maddy who spoke up. “I want to help you, Lizzie, but Jackson has a death grip on me and I really would like to fall in love just once before I meet my maker, you understand of course.”

“No one is helping you, baby, because they know I won’t hurt you. I will however be getting my temper soothed in my favorite way. I think we will both find it very comforting. Now stop trying to butter me up, my love, it isn’t working anyway,” Ben finished confidently as he strode over to his truck, pulled open the passenger door, and had her seat belt in place before Lizzie even realized what had happened.

She let out a sigh at the intense look on Ben’s face, right before he leaned and shocked her. Instead of the verbal lashing she had expected and probably deserved, she found herself speechless as he lightly stroked her face with the palm of his hand. She automatically leaned into it, nuzzling into his gentle touch without thought.

“I love you, Lizzie, more than I ever thought possible. I think that you love me as well. Why didn’t you trust me enough to tell me that he threatened you, frightened you, baby?”

The vulnerability in Ben’s voice tore at Lizzie and she finally felt the weight of her guilt. She hadn’t meant for him to feel that way and she had never even anticipated it.

“Ben, you darling man, I didn’t tell you only because I didn’t want you to worry. I trust you with all that I am and all that I have. I didn’t want you to have to deal with any trouble. I now realize how wrong I was and I am truly sorry. You love me. I cannot believe it some days and promise to endeavor to get it into my head that we are an ‘us.’ Please forgive me,” Lizzie entreated him honestly.

He really did love her, she reminded herself. It wasn’t that she didn’t hear him say it but there was something in his actions, something about his anger that pulled at her, making her realize that love wasn’t the only emotion that was fueling his temper. The incident in and of itself wasn’t so awful really. It must be her insecurity that angered Ben. Sadly, her father had never had any significant depth of feelings for her, not really, and it was difficult for Lizzie to acclimate to the idea that there was a man in this world, a very special man, who cared about her well-being. Ben cared enough to save her business, life, and now her soul. It terrified her and calmed her all in the same moment. It was surreal actually, the thing that most girls dream of, to know that she had the power to affect such a powerful man. It was something she valued and would never abuse. Her state of happiness affected Ben and it was the treasure that all women prayed for. She knew that there was one way to really make him calm about today’s fiasco and as he said, it wasn’t something that she found abhorrent. In fact, the thought of what she must submit to was rapidly sending fire through her limbs and causing dampness to her core. She knew who he was and what he needed. There was power in acknowledging that information as she was beginning to comprehend Ben more and more. The better she understood his needs, the happier she could make him. As odd as it seemed to Lizzie, Ben understood her better than she did herself.