Had he really thought that by not facing her when she came he wouldn’t be affected? Had he really believed that if he didn’t come inside her he’d remain detached? Hell, had he been stupid enough to buy into the belief that he wasn’t falling hard for this woman he was deceiving?
He laid her onto her comforter and propped her up against the pillows, then turned away.
“Where are you going?” Panic tinged her voice, causing guilt and regret to swamp him once more.
“To get myself a towel. I’m dripping all over your floor.” Without waiting for her reply, he headed for the steam-filled bathroom, the site of his latest sin, and yanked a towel off a hook behind the door. He dried himself off and grabbed his boxer briefs from the floor in the living room, pulling them on in the futile hope the barrier would provide him with some needed restraint.
When he returned, she was waiting for him just as he’d left her. She gazed at him through heavy-lidded eyes. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to panic on you. Can I ask you for something? I know I said I wouldn’t, but this… it would mean a lot to me.”
“Anything.” He spoke without thinking but wouldn’t retract that one word. Instead, he lowered himself beside her. The fragrant scent of soap and shampoo lingered in the air, reminding him of their shower and how she’d come apart in his arms.
Anything, he thought. He wanted to give her anything she desired. “What is it?”
“Stay the night.”
At least she wasn’t asking for a lifetime. Ben’s gut clenched hard. A lifetime, the one thing they could never share, was the one thing he could so easily imagine. He shook himself out of that particular fantasy. “I can manage that.”
“Thanks.”
“None necessary. But we need to dry you off before we can crawl under the covers.” He tugged at the end of the towel he’d wrapped around her and pulled open the ends.
Her skin was red from the heated water and the scratch of his unshaven face, her makeup was long gone, and damp strands of unbrushed hair fell over her cheeks. And still, she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes upon.
She shivered. “It’s cold.”
“Then let me warm you.” He joined her on the bed and pulled the towel out from beneath her, then he began to pat her legs dry with the fluffy material, working his way upward, starting with her toes.
“You’re pampering me,” she murmured.
“Yup.”
“It’s nice.”
“Something you’re used to?” he asked, wondering just how luxurious her previous life had been.
“Not really, although we grew up in a mausoleum of a house we called The Estate, and we had servants galore… but we also had Emma.”
The warmth and love in her tone were unmistakable. Having met the impish older woman, Ben could understand Grace’s affection. “Your grandmother.” He moved from her toes to her ankles, working his way up her skin with slow, circular motions.
“Mmm. Emma kept us grounded. She didn’t let us take advantage of the help or use them as our personal maids. Logan and I learned early on to pick up after and take care of ourselves.”
He wanted to hear more about her life and deliberately slowed his movements. “You keep talking about Emma and Logan. You never mention the rest of your family. What about your parents?”
She levered herself up, resting her weight on her elbows. “I’m going to answer your questions because after all we’ve just shared, I want to open up to you. But make no mistake, the next round is mine.”
He laughed. “Okay, go on.”
“My parents are my parents in name only. Or should I say especially in name. Nothing’s more important to them than the Montgomery name, the legacy, the money—not even their kids. We were expected to be trained pets, taken out for show when it looked good for my father, the judge, to have family around and ignored the rest of the time.”
The pain of her childhood was evident in her voice and by the way she’d clenched her jaw tight. He’d been curious, but he hadn’t meant to make her relive unpleasant memories or tense up on him now. “Was it really that bad?”
She nodded. “When I was fifteen, I wanted to run for class president. I decided I wasn’t going to tell my family until I’d won. It was my way of carrying on the Montgomery family tradition, and let’s face it, I desperately wanted to please my father. But it was just another futile attempt to get him to pay attention to me.”
“What happened?”
“Someone told him about the race, and I came in to school to find he’d spoken to the teachers and volunteered to speak at an assembly on
the proper way to handle a campaign. And when Judge Montgomery speaks, people listen.”