For His Pleasure

64

After I had taken a shower, I found Ben in his living room, drinking a shot of cognac and looking at a piece of art above the fireplace.

"Hey," I spoke softly from the entrance, catching his attention. He cleared his throat and straightened in his seat, no longer comfortably leaning back.

He patted the place beside him and offered me a tightlipped smile.

"Are you feeling better?" he asked, dark eyes following my movements as I made my way to him.

"Yes, thank you," I sat down next to him, my body facing his.

He was still wearing his suit pants and dress shirt, the top buttons opened and sleeves rolled up, while I had changed into a white shirt and jeans.

Ben nodded and looked down at his glass of cognac, lazily held in his fingers as his elbows rested on his thighs.

"I'm not lying to you," he then began, and I reached one hand over to gently play with the hair at the back of his head, "just want to spare you the gory details."

"I don't want you to deal with it by yourself," I assured him, "I've been in this business long enough to know about the gory details."

"First you want a baby, and then you want to know about our plans to attack?" he chuckled lowly, glancing quickly at me.

I ignored his comment about a baby, needing to stay on subject.

"My mother grew bitter the more she knew and got involved," he continued more seriously, head leaning a little back into my touch, "this will end soon, anyway, it's not worth wasting your time."

"You've been working non-stop for months, I see how stressed you've been," I frowned, "you've barely talked to me, I've barely seen you.."

"I know, sweetheart," he placed his glass on the coffee table and turned toward me on the couch, "it was unfair to you. I should have talked to you instead of bottling it up."

"That's okay, just..." I offered him a gentle smile, "next time, if something like this happens again."

"This won't repeat. Winston will be dead by this weekend," he muttered, the bitterness Winston Horan's name caused him audible in his tone.

"Is Tony helping you with this?" I dared wonder, "what about the dinner tomorrow?"

"No," Ben spoke, carefully studying my reaction to the following, "tomorrow I'll make sure he understands that it's better to respect me than be my enemy."

I nodded slowly, knowing Ben wouldn't hurt Tony, especially when I was in the same room.

"I need you to put on that Versace dress, the one I love," he continued, a boyish grin tugging at the side of his lips at the mention of the dress, before it faded, "and I'm going to have a gun with me, I don't want to scare you with it."

"Will it be loaded?"

"Yes," Ben nodded once, "but it won't be fired, I can assure you of that."

"Tony's very careful, always," I reminded him, "will he bring his men here?"

"Everyone will stay outside the apartment besides the three of us," he shifted closer to me, "it'll be calm and safe."

"Will it?" I raised my brows at him, his idea of having a loaded gun with him wasn't matching up with calm and safe.

"The only thing that knob and I have in common is wanting to keep you safe," he shook his head to himself, "and I'd like to think you wouldn't speak to him anymore if he was the reason something happened to me."