Her eyes were glazed seconds later as he pushed away from her to remove his own clothes. She watched as he stripped, her eyes absorbing and memorizing every gloriously dark-skinned inch of him, from his taut pectorals to his sculpted abs. When he pushed his jeans over his hips, his boxers going south with them, she gulped. Ben Donovan was a magnificently built specimen with muscled thighs, a gorgeous a.s.s and further endowments that made him an excellent candidate for a Playgirl centerfold. She grabbed the edge of her shirt, pulling it over her head quickly, unable and unwilling to keep her desire for him at bay.

"Take off the bra," he instructed, and she sat up, reaching her arms behind her back to do as he requested.

"Cup your b.r.e.a.s.t.s in your hands."

He was watching her, his hooded gaze sending spikes of heat straight to her nipples where he stared. She put her hands to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, cupped their weight and let her thumbs rub over her nipples.

Ben licked his lips.

"Squeeze harder."

As he spoke, his hand went to his rigid arousal, grasping its length with all the power the man exuded.

Of their own accord, her legs spread open and one hand slipped down her torso. Victoria had no idea what she was doing. She wasn't a stranger to pleasuring herself, especially with her demanding work schedule, but she'd never in all her life imagined she'd be performing such acts in front of a man.

"Lay back and show me," he virtually growled, coming closer to the bed. "Show me now."

She lay back against the pillows, one hand still ma.s.saging her breast, the other slipping through the damp folds of her center. She opened herself and gasped at the hungry look covering Ben's face as he climbed onto the bed with her.

"I like what I see," he murmured, still stroking his length.

She sighed. "I like what I see."

"Then take it," he told her, coming onto his knees, positioning himself between her legs.

The hand that was on her breast retreated and she extended her arms, reaching for him.

"Take it," he told her again when he released his length. She sat up slowly, licking her lips as she spotted the glistening bead of arousal at his tip.

Her mouth watered when she took him in both her hands, rubbing from the base to the tip. He sucked in a breath and she trembled, dipping her head to lick away the droplet of pleasure. She moaned as his fingers sc.r.a.ped along her scalp, his hands tugging insistently against her head. She kissed him as he'd kissed her, loved his masculine scent as it permeated her nostrils.

When he'd finally had enough of her blissful torture, Ben pushed her mouth away from him. He'd never been addicted to any type of substance, but had to believe that this was what withdrawal felt like, the clenching in his chest and deep sense of loss he was now experiencing.

She hadn't said slow. Had only commanded that she wanted him. He couldn't wait to give her what she wanted and, sinking his thick length into her waiting center, he could do nothing more than whisper her name.

With her ankles resting on his shoulders, Ben pumped into her mercilessly, searching desperately for the intense release he knew was stored inside. Below he watched as her b.r.e.a.s.t.s jiggled with his ministrations, her mouth was agape, her eyes focused on him. She gave as well as she received, pumping with his strokes, touching her nipples once more, enticing him as he loved her.

Loved her.

The words echoed around in Ben's mind as the feel of his erection delving deep and slipping out slowly, being grasped by her hot and wet walls, lulled him along the path to complete abyss.

She whispered his name, lifted her hips, gnashed her teeth as his fingers grasped her b.u.t.tocks. He wanted more, so much more and pulled out of her quickly, twisting her into another position. When she was up on her knees, her delectable bottom facing him, Ben wanted to scream. No, he wanted to come deep inside her. His body strained with the effort of holding back, just a few moments longer.

"Take me," she whispered when she'd turned to look at him over her shoulder.

He didn't need to be asked twice as he slipped inside her from behind. She pumped back immediately, thrusting her hips until they'd found a beautiful rhythm, one that incited the delicious sound of their bodies joining.

Ben held tight to her hips, loved the feel of her surrounding him, the tingling that had begun at the base of his spine. When she tensed beneath him, calling his name loudly, Ben couldn't fight it any longer. It was intense, moreso than he'd antic.i.p.ated and it was delicious, addicting, invigorating. They came together in a maelstrom of moans and tremors. Hearts pounded as they shifted and he pulled her into his arms. Ben held her tightly, his chin resting on the top of her head as she wrapped her legs and arms around him. She pressed against him, fitting them together like they'd been born attached, like this was where and how they belonged.

As they both struggled to catch their breath, Ben thought it was true. This was where they belonged and this was how they were meant to be. Together.

CHAPTER 15.

"Why'd you become a prosecutor?" Ben asked when they lay in the dark, listening to the absolute quiet that surrounded them.

"My father was killed when I was fifteen. He was coming to pick me up after the soph.o.m.ore dance. He parked his car at the corner of the school instead of coming to the door-I'd requested he do that. Anyway, he stepped out of the car to smoke a cigarette when he was approached by a guy. Robert Fulgham was his name. Fulgham demanded my father's money and his car keys. My father gave him his wallet, but not his keys. Fulgham got mad and shot him. Point blank range, three times straight to the chest. He died before the paramedics could arrive."

She stiffened slightly in his arms as she spoke, but her voice remained calm and decisive, as if she were giving an opening statement.

"You're really good at your job. He would have been extremely proud of you."

"My mother would say he was always proud of me, no matter what." She took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. "I have to believe I'm doing some good in this world or his death is in vain."

Silence filled the air again as Ben thought about her words. "I became a defense attorney because I wanted to help those that others discarded. I wanted to be the voice of those whom everyone had already decided did not deserve to be heard. So I get up every morning and head into the office, taking drug cases and murder cases and more often than not, traffic cases. And I try each case as if my client were being faced with the death penalty because I think each one of them deserve a zealous defense. I don't ask about their guilt. I make my case from the notion that they're innocent."

With one hand tucked between his head and the pillow, the other running fingers up and down her arms, Ben paused and thought about his next words. It would be his first time making this admission out loud.

"Vega was my first mistake."

"Because you believe he's guilty?" she asked.

"I know he's guilty," was his reply.

She waited a beat and so did he.

"This is totally off the record, Ben. I would never use anything you tell me in our personal life in the courtroom."

He believed her. He trusted her. Otherwise they wouldn't be here.

"Three weeks before the first trial, just as I was about to start working on the case, I received a call. They wouldn't say who they were, just that they worked in the mayor's office and had some information about my case. Naturally, I wanted to know what it was. I don't like surprises in court."

"Surprises are never good," she agreed, shifting slightly so that she was now laying on her side, her cheek pressed to his bare chest, one leg tossed over his.

"Exactly. So I agreed to meet with this person. We met at my brother's casino. Lots of witnesses for me if it turned out I needed it. He was an older guy, balding, sweating. We talked in the men's room of all places."

"Cozy," she quipped, which made him laugh.

He felt that telling her was the right thing to do.

"Mayor Radcliffe is the father of Alayna Jonas' baby. Congressman McGlinn had an affair with her last year as well, so there was an apparent discrepancy as to who the real father was. Alayna was in love with the congressman and so she wanted it to be his. She'd just left the congressman's house after telling him and his wife that she planned to go public with the baby scandal when Vega arrived. The mayor had paid Vega to kill Congressman McGlinn. Myrna McGlinn was just a casualty since she was there."

"Wow," she said, letting out a whoosh of breath. "d.a.m.n, Ben. How did you continue to represent him knowing all that?"

"How could I not? He was my client. Innocent until proven guilty. All I had was this sweaty bald guy's word taken in the men's room of a casino. Not exactly the most credible evidence and I didn't have a lot of time to investigate its viability."

"Why not ask for a postponement?"

"The state had requested two prior postponements. I vehemently argued at the last one that my client's right to a speedy trial was being sacrificed at the state's whimsy. There were going to be no more postponements. Besides, I needed Alayna to back all this up. Either her or Mayor Radcliffe and I knew that wasn't about to happen. But she was gone. Which meant I didn't have anything either way. I tried the case I had going on my client's account of where he'd been and what he'd been doing that night."

"And there was a mistrial."

Ben sighed realizing this wasn't what she really wanted to hear, but knowing that she needed to hear it. "Think about it, Victoria. The state has no real case against Vega. No weapon and no eyewitness."

"Alayna signed a statement," she argued.

"But she's not here to be cross-examined, or to even verify that she signed that statement. Her statement means nothing. n.o.body can place Vega near the crime scene, nor can anybody prove that Vega and McGlinn had ever even met. I know you know all this."

The sound of her releasing a shaky breath said she did indeed.

"So what now? I try a losing case and Vega continues to haunt you because he somehow knows what you know?"

She was very smart, there was no doubt about that. "Yeah. I think Vega knows. I tried calling the informant on his cell but I didn't get an answer. The name he gave me when I asked was a fake. n.o.body by that name has ever worked at the mayor's office. Trent's tracing the number but I'm not real hopeful. It would have been common sense to use a disposable phone. But I should have at least gotten his real name."

"You can't get information that he wasn't willing to give," she said. "And thinking of what you should have done isn't going to help us now."

She was right and he'd already been down that road with himself. Moreso the night he found out Ebony was dead. But the one thing that was always true about the past was that you couldn't erase it, no matter how hard you might want to.

"Probably not," he admitted. "But I went to see the mayor earlier today."

"You did what?" she asked, bolting up from the bed.

"I have to make this right. I still believe everyone deserves a fair trial and I believe I'm a d.a.m.n good defense attorney and that's why I declined to represent Vega again. But he's bringing all this right back to my door. If he had simply walked away and let his new counsel handle his case, I would have been okay with that. The information I had was hearsay. It couldn't be corroborated. But he couldn't walk away. He had to show me who he really was. He killed Ebony."

In that moment, Victoria saw something she never in a million years would have guessed she'd see on Ben Donovan. Guilt. It weighed on him like a hundred tons of steel, in his eyes, his shoulders, even in the way he breathed as he'd said those words. This was personal for him now, very personal.

"And if that wasn't bad enough, he started coming after you. I can't let him get away with that. So I have two choices, get him legally or get him illegally."

"Ben," she said, placing a hand on his chest. "Think about this rationally."

He nodded. "I have, Victoria. Believe me, I don't want to lose all that I've worked for and I definitely don't want to disgrace my family in any way. At this point, I just don't want anybody else to be hurt because of the decisions I've made."

He was about to say something else when his cellphone rang. She watched him reach across the bed to retrieve the pants he'd dropped to the floor soon after they'd made it to the bedroom. He took the call.

She thought about everything he'd said and couldn't believe it. This was like something off a television show. It couldn't be real. The mayor and the congressman sharing a woman, a baby with a father who most likely would never publicly claim it and the infuriating fact that murder seemed to be the easiest answer to all of these supposed intelligent adults. It was heartbreaking and senseless.

"We gotta go!" Ben's words jolted her out of her thoughts.

"What? Who was that on the phone?"

"It was Devlin. He followed us from your place. When he figured out who was tailing us, he distracted them, then circled back to come up here to keep an eye on us. One of his men just spotted Vega's infamous Lexus heading this way."

"How does he know that and where are we going? There's nowhere to go out here." A fact that wasn't rea.s.suring right about now.

"There are some back roads," he told her as he was already off the bed and tossing her clothes to her. "Besides, we'll have a head start and Dev and his guys will stay between us and them."

She talked as she dressed. "So we're running from Vega?"

Ben shook his head. "I doubt he'd chase us himself. He's had guys following both of us. My guess is that my little meeting with the mayor ended with him calling Vega to finish the job, so he'll send his flunkies to collect us and bring us to him."

Her mouth went immediately dry, her heart pounding so fast in her chest it was almost painful. "So now he's past intimidating us. He's going to just kill us?"

"He's going to try," were Ben's words before he pulled open a drawer and lifted a gun into his hands. "I'm betting he won't succeed."

This motorcycle ride was different from the first. There was no romance here, no closing her eyes to inhale the scent of the wind. Ben had hurriedly placed the helmet on her head before donning his own and climbing on the bike. They took off without Victoria seeing anyone, anywhere. If there was a threat she hoped they made it out before it arrived.

Ben drove for what seemed like forever until finally he pulled to the side of the highway and took out his cellphone. After he talked for a few minutes, he slammed it back in its holster and stood with his hands on his hips.

"Trent made us a reservation at a hotel. He wants us to lay low for a couple of days."

"What? I can't lay low. I have to work."

"Vega's got men everywhere. The hit on both our lives is official, especially since he knows that we're together. If you go back to your place, you're as good as dead."

She must have looked like his words had scared the c.r.a.p out of her because Ben sighed, then took a step closer to where she still sat on the bike.

"Look," he said, placing his hands on her shoulders. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you. This is going to be over soon, I promise. But for right now, I need you to go along with the plan."

"And what exactly is the plan, Ben? How long are we going to be in some hotel and what happens to the other people in our lives until then? What about my mother?" she asked, refusing to let her voice depict how the thought of losing another parent upset her.

"I'll take care of it. All of this is going to work out, Victoria. I promise you."

She'd promised her father she'd be the best she could be and that she'd make a difference. If Vega killed her, that would obviously be a promise broken. She had to live and so did Ben, because for all that she still wanted to deny it, he was slipping closer into her heart. It wasn't intentional. She'd fought it for years. Now, with her eyes blurring with tears, the night sky hovering like a heavy blanket over them and Ben standing close to her offering her his protection and his own promises, she couldn't lie. She was falling in love with him.

As if that weren't enough, Victoria was also pretty d.a.m.ned p.i.s.sed off! If he weren't so c.o.c.ky and arrogant Ben would have gone to the police with all this information sooner. He would have gone to the judge and had himself removed from the first trial because of new evidence. And that evidence could have convicted Vega on the first go round then they wouldn't be in this predicament.

Her temples throbbed at the thought and she came to the conclusion that it was useless. Anger had always been a useless emotion for her. In this case, just as with her father's death, it wasn't going to change the past. What was done was done, all she could do was look to controlling the future.

About an hour later, they pulled into the parking lot of a hotel. Ben rode his bike to the back of the lot and slipped between two black SUVS. She didn't move until he got off the bike and removed his helmet. He reached for hers and helped her off the bike. Her thighs were sore, her b.u.t.t flat out hurt. She was hungry and she was tired. This wasn't her home and she didn't know when she'd sleep in her own bed again. Complaining was futile. This was the situation and she would need to suck it up and deal with it. Besides, she was so exhausted she thought that right about now, any bed might do.

The driver's side door of the SUV to their right opened and Victoria jumped. Then she cursed because fear had begun to take permanent residence in her mind. Ben touched a hand to her shoulder for rea.s.surance. She was surprised that it actually worked.

"It's okay. This is Devlin Bonner," he said, introducing her to the tall menacing looking man that had stepped out and now dwarfed her in height and width.

"Dev, this is Victoria Lashley."

"Nice to meet you, ma'am," he said in a deep drawl that had her tightening her fists at her sides and releasing them slowly.

Another man came up behind her.

"Let's get you inside," he said in a voice just a little less deep. He was big too, not bulky and beefy like the guy named Dev, but tall and broad, definitely some type of soldier and definitely fine as h.e.l.l.