Hannah laughed. “Quit whining, you big baby. I am a grown, twenty-five-year-old woman and can spend the night with whoever I want. I don’t need big brother’s permission.”
Ben growled and pulled softly on her long golden hair, wrapping it in his fist. “I’d better be the only man who has that privilege, or I’ll turn you over and slap your ass so hard.” He squeezed her butt cheeks and smiled wolfishly making the threat useless. “Maybe I will anyway. Do you tan down by the creek nude? I’ve driven myself crazy wondering.”
“Come surprise me one day and you will see,” she said, giving him that flirty smile that melted his insides and got him hard as a rock. The doorbell rang again three times in a row. Ben sighed impatiently and got out of bed and pulled his jeans and a T-shirt on. “If I’m not back in five minutes, come and save me, okay? I don’t need Jackson to put me out of commission. I have plans for you.”
Hannah sat up fully naked, knowing he was taking a good look at her bare breasts. “Okay, but try not to get hurt, Ben. We have negotiations going on and I’m willing to compromise.”
Ben looked at her full breasts and hard pink nipples and groaned. “Terrific, Hannah, now I have to answer the door with a hard on. Jackson will kill me for sure now.” He slammed the door listening to her laugh and he couldn’t prevent the grin that came to his face. Hannah was his—finally.
Chapter Two
Ben ran his hands through his hair and tried not to look like he spent all night in bed with his best friend’s sister. He plastered a polite smile on his face and opened the door, expecting an angry Jackson Hawthorne. Instead it was Dorothy Anderson. “Great,” he muttered. He’d rather deal with Jackson than this woman who had been chasing after him for months now.
“Dorothy, this is a surprise,” he said in his polite sheriff’s voice, not wanting to deal with her right now. Dorothy was a hairdresser in town who had been pursuing Ben for a date for months now. She was attractive, with short black hair and brown eyes, slim and tall and close to his thirty years of age. He had turned her down repeatedly because Hannah had been the only woman he wanted in his bed, but Dorothy was tenacious, never giving up, and following him everywhere.
“I wanted to come by personally and see if everything was okay.” She smiled at him, running her hands up his chest in a suggestive manner that made him uncomfortable, but he always strived not to be rude to women.
“You broke our date last night because of work and I wanted to make sure I got a rain check, Ben. I worked hard to get a yes out of you. I thought maybe we could spend the day together,” she said suggestively.
Ben groaned with regret and stepped away from her roaming hands by casually stepping back. He was an idiot for sure. What had possessed him to say yes to a date with Dorothy? He knew it was his depression over Hannah not talking to him and now he had Hannah here and he had to get rid of Dorothy fast, but how? He couldn’t be rude. He was the sheriff of Bear Creek, after all. It wasn’t Dorothy’s fault that he had made such a stupid mistake.
* * * *
Hannah had been lying in bed impatiently waiting for Ben to come back and make love to her again. She knew it wasn’t Jackson because Grace, her brother’s girlfriend, knew she was coming out here to spend the night with Ben and she wouldn’t let Jackson come out here to cause a scene. Suddenly she heard a woman’s voice and curiosity got the better of her. She got out of bed and put a T-shirt of Ben’s on and tiptoed down the hallway quietly. Was Ben dating someone else? She knew she had a suspicious mind but she couldn’t help it. Rumors about Ben and his one night stands ran rampant around town. People were always trying to guess who he was sleeping with and it had always burned Hannah up inside because she had wanted it to be her. She tried hard not to listen too closely because if she did, she knew it would hurt.
She stood in the hallway and listened, unashamed that she was eavesdropping on a private conversation. It was Dorothy Anderson and she was telling Ben she wanted a rain check on their broken date last night and she was rubbing her hands all over his chest. That jerk, he was dating someone and still slept with her? Wiping the angry tears from her eyes, she stomped back into the bedroom and started getting dressed while cursing Ben and all men in general. What a fool she was.
Ben came in to the bedroom, looking at Hannah pulling her clothes on in an angry manner and he knew Hannah had heard Dorothy at the door. He had taken the coward’s way out and gotten rid of her by saying he’d call her later because he was still trying to sleep after a late night of working.
“Hannah, it’s not what you think.” He began to say desperately but she interrupted his speech by lifting her hand and signaling him to stop talking.
“Save the lies, Ben. You should have told me last night you had a girlfriend and I would have left you alone,” she said, softly trying her best to hold her tears in and not let them out in front of him. Her heart was breaking and the pain was unbearable. She felt humiliated and hurt and needed to get out quickly before she broke down in front of him, letting him know exactly how much he had hurt her. Her pride couldn’t handle that.
“Dorothy is not my girlfriend,” he denied in a grim voice. “She’s been chasing me around for months. She caught me at a weak moment when I was depressed over you and I said yes to a date, but I swear I had no intention of touching her—ever. The only woman I want in my bed and in my life is you.”
“Well, you’ve had me, Ben. Now you can move on to Dorothy or whoever is your next notch on your bedpost,” she said, glaring at him angrily. Once she was done dressing she went to walk out of the bedroom. Ben grabbed her arm, stopping her angry exit from his room.
“Let’s talk about this, Hannah, like sensible adults. I am serious about you and only you,” he stated angrily. “After all these years of knowing each other, don’t you have any trust in me at all?”
Hannah looked up at him with wounded eyes, ignoring the pain in her chest. “If you are serious about being with only me, then why are you dating Dorothy, too? How can I blindly put my trust in you with that kind of information? I know you as a good sheriff to this town and as a good friend to my family, but not as a lover, Ben.”
“I made a
huge mistake saying yes to her, I admit that. I regretted it instantly and was going to cancel anyway, but there was a car accident and I worked all day yesterday and late into the night.”
Hannah didn’t say anything for a minute then she whispered sadly. “Bye, Ben. I should have known better. You’re such a playboy and always will be. You always have some woman following you around and you seem to like it. What do you need me for?”
Hannah ran out of his house and for her truck while wiping the falling tears from her eyes. She heard him yelling her name out but she ignored him and started her truck and drove away feeling sick to her stomach. She pulled over to the side of the road as soon as she was a good distance from his house. She put her face in her hands and cried as if her heart was breaking, and it was. Hannah didn’t trust easily. Her own parents had never been happy in their marriage, always fighting and arguing. Her first lover in college had cheated on her, cementing her idea that love and faithfulness just didn’t exist. Jackson’s girlfriend, Kelly, had cheated on him and sent him into a downhill spiral of depression until he met Grace. Grace was different. She had her own problems with love but she was honest and truly loved Jackson. It gave Hannah hope that she had been wrong all this time, so she finally gave into getting involved with Ben despite all her fears. Ben always had the single ladies of the town surrounding him and stroking his ego and Hannah had always sworn she would not be part of his harem and yet here she was. She would have given anything for a love like her brother shared with Grace, but she realized it wasn’t going to happen for her. It had been foolish to even try.
Chapter Three
Hannah sat alone at the break-room table at the animal shelter she managed in town. She was a licensed veterinarian and divided her time between the Bear Creek animal shelter and the family ranch, the Lazy J. She had always loved taking care of the animals on the ranch and once she got her license, she started the shelter in town. She had dreamed of opening the shelter most of her life. People could come in and give abandoned animals a chance for a loving home or get medical treatment for the pets they already had. Now if her personal life could run as smoothly as her chosen career, life would be great.
The shelter was closed already but she stayed behind to be alone and think. She had the lights dimmed low and it was quiet, a little too quiet. But she couldn’t think at home surrounded by her family. She loved her aunt Ida, Jackson, and Grace but it would be hard to hide her upset, and emotionally she felt fragile right now.
Her head was still reeling from the pregnancy test she had taken this morning. She was pregnant with Ben’s baby. She put her hands on her flat stomach and hugged the knowledge to herself, deciding that she would keep the baby no matter what. Men couldn’t be trusted, but she’d have a baby to love and take care of. It had been six weeks since that morning she argued with Ben over Dorothy. She went home that morning and cried on Grace’s shoulders. Grace had wanted to go and sick Jackson on Ben but Hannah didn’t want that. Jackson and Ben had been close friends since they were children, with Hannah always trying to tag-along behind them. Hannah didn’t want to ruin that for her brother by involving him in her problems and making him choose sides. He had always looked after her along with Aunt Ida after her parents died when she was a teenager. She was a big girl now and it was her mistake. She had resisted Ben’s flirting with her for over a year and had given in despite her doubts. She had envied the strong bond between her brother and Grace and wanted something like that for herself.
She had always had a crush on Ben but had gone through great pains to pretend indifference to him. He was kind-hearted and handsome and she had dreamt of him often and still did. Only now she didn’t have to imagine how it felt when he touched her body. She knew exactly how amazing his fingers felt on her body and how a simple kiss could melt her insides faster than a nuclear meltdown. All she had now was a one night memory, but it would remain private. She would never be like those other women in town bragging about sleeping with the sheriff.