Getting It Right!

And she’d definitely find out. Unless things had changed vastly over the years—and he highly suspected that they hadn’t—April had never been able to make a move that her mother hadn’t known about first. Ben chuckled again, rocked back in his chair once more and savored the idea of her chilly, furious face. Petty? Yes. But after the hell that selfish, vengeful bitch put him through, he didn’t care.

What was it she’d said again when she’d warned him away? Oh, yeah. “I’ve already lost a husband to your cracked-up white-trash father. I’ll be damned before I’ll lose my daughter to his filthy son.”

A regular little ray of sunshine she’d been, Ben thought, his insides churning with old unabsorbed hatred. Let her try to warn him away this time, dammit. He was ready for her.

“I DID IT.”

Frankie whooped excitedly, forcing April to momentarily pull the cell away from her ear. “Oh, thank God!” she said. “I’m so proud of you. One giant step for you, one small step for womankind. Way to buck that double standard, babe.”

April smiled and carefully negotiated traffic. Ah, yes, the sexual double standard. Frankie’s biggest pet peeve—though she had many—which made her a fantastic advocate for Chicks In Charge and a huge success as the movement’s Carnal Contessa. Anything that smacked of a double standard or sexual repression made Frankie’s blood boil. Of her three best friends, Frankie had been the most concerned over April’s inability to reach climax.

“So how did it go? Did he whisper to you in his office?” she murmured with a wicked, suggestive purr. “Are you cured?”

April chuckled. “No and no. I’m supposed to meet him at his house at seven.” Goose bumps erupted on her skin at the mere thought. To think that after all this time she was only hours away from a guaranteed orgasm. It almost made her light-headed.

“Oooh. So he’s taking you to his lair, his den of iniquity, allowing you into the inter sanctum. Very, very interesting,” she said, doing a comical Einstein impression. “I figured a house call would be more in keeping with his style.”

April would have, too, come to think of it. She couldn’t be certain of course, but from everything she’d heard, Ben customarily guarded his personal space. He’d happily share another woman’s bed, but if one had managed to actually share his, April had never caught wind of it.

“Or multiple house calls,” Frankie continued. A wicked laugh bubbled up her throat. “What do you wanna bet that he prescribes more than one treatment?”

Would that she would be so lucky, April thought. After a year and a half with no conclusive action, she was due for more than one treatment, thank you very much.

“So tell me everything,” her friend finally demanded. “What was he wearing?”

April laughed. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“You’ll see,” she said. “Indulge me.”

“Er…Okay. Let’s see.” April paused, easily pulling Ben’s image to the forefront of her mind. He was never very far away anyway. “He was wearing a dark almond handwoven wool sweater and a pair of khaki slacks.” Both of which had looked fantastic on him. Very European. Very hot. The sweater had draped over those broad shoulders and muscled pecs, competently displaying the beautiful manly shape underneath.

“Any jewelry?”

“Aside from a designer watch—a TAG Heuer, I think—none that I could see.”

“Looking that closely at him, eh?” Frankie said knowingly.

Aha, April thought, letting go a quiet laugh. She had been looking closely, evidently even more closely than she’d realized. But then again, Ben was hard not to look at.

Aside from being remarkably handsome—flawless bone structure, angular jaw, hollow cheeks, heavy-lidded soulful eyes and a slightly imperfect nose to add character—Ben had that whole mysterious dark thing going on. He could have easily stepped onto any gothic movie set and played the part of a sexy vampire or elusive shape-shifter…and she could just as easily see herself playing the role of his devoted familiar. He was…magnetic, April decided. God knows she’d always been drawn to him. Ben had that “It” quality, that certain charisma that put him leagues above the average guy.

“Well, now that Operation Orgasm is underway, would you like me to tell you about some good news I heard this morning?” Frankie asked.

Operation Orgasm? She’d named it? Sheesh. April shook her head. “Sure. What’s up?”

“Carrie got a call from the producers of Let’s Cook, New Orleans! this morning.”

April squealed as a bolt of glee shot through her. “Oh, you’re kidding!”

“I’m not,” Frankie assured her, laughing herself. “She’s meeting them next week. And she’s a nervous wreck.”

April guessed so. It wasn’t every day that a person interviewed for their own television show. But with Carrie’s looks—she had the face of an angel, the soul of a saint—which had been a plus considering she’d had to have the patience of one to work for that nitpicking bastard Martin, April thought—and a body that put every man who looked at her in the mood for sin. Between her good looks and incredible talent, the network would be foolish not to hire her.

Furthermore, Carrie needed the break. Chicks In Charge had given her an outlet of sorts, but the perpetual grind of working at a thankless job was beginning to wear on her. She’d worked hard for this, dammit. She deserved it.

“God, I hope this works out for her,” April told her.

Frankie sighed. “Yeah. Me, too. I’ve got a call coming in,” she said. “Keep me posted. I want details—the hot, the heaving and the horny. Call me as soon as you get home. Provided you come home,” she added.

“Duly noted.” With a soft chuckle, April disconnected, then made her way back to her home office. That was one of the benefits of her line of work.

Aside from the necessary legwork she liked to put into a project, ninety percent of her job was accomplished in the small gatehouse located at the rear of her property. She’d fallen in love with the main house, a stately Victorian in the Garden District, the instant she’d seen it. Between the money she’d managed to save and the trust fund she’d inherited at twenty-one, April had managed to pay cash in order to avoid a mortgage.

Her father’s accountant had counseled against the move, had cited numerous investments she could have made in order to make the most of her money, but buying the house—owning her own place without fear of ever losing it—had been too important to her. If she never heard, “So long as you’re living in my house…” or “My house, my rules,” again, she’d die a happy woman. Frankly, she’d always hated living with her mother and from the time she was a little girl, she’d wanted her own place. Something that was solely hers.

Thankfully, in recent years her business had done well and thanks to the popularity of Chicks In Charge, she currently had more work that she could handle alone. She’d hired a couple of capable women from her local CHiC chapter to help out part-time. Aside from her estranged relationship with her father and the lengthy absence of an orgasm, her life was going remarkably well.

She was doing all she could do in regards to her father. When he was ready to share this new chapter of his life with her, he would. Did it hurt? Hell yeah. But apart from trying to maintain a presence in his life, what could she do?

Frankie had suggested hiring a private detective. For a few hundred dollars she could identify the significant someone in her father’s life, but April couldn’t bring herself to do it. It smacked too much of what her mother would do, and April purposely avoided any reason for comparison.

Undoubtedly her mother knew who her father was seeing—precious little escaped her ever-observant eye and if it did, her private detective kept her abreast of goings-on—but something about her mother’s smug smile when the subject came up indicated to April that, for whatever reason, Morgana would take entirely too much glee in sharing her father’s secret. And evidently, the only thing she’d enjoy more was her dad telling her himself.

But clearly her father didn’t want her to know, and finding out by any other means seemed entirely too sneaky. She preferred the direct approach.

A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. As evidenced by this morning’s behavior. Hi, Ben. My orgasm is broken and I need you to fix it for me. Not verbatim, of course, but the meaning couldn’t have been any more clear. Odd how their familiarity had both terrified and liberated her. Ben knew her, which had been both a pro and a con.

On the pro side, he knew what to expect from her. He knew that she didn’t pull any punches, that she abhorred all methods of manipulation. That had given her the freedom to walk into his office and lay everything out on the line.

Then again, he knew her. It was like having your gyno and your ex being one in the same. Talk about awkward. Hell, all that had been missing this morning was the paper dress and pair of stirrups.

At any rate, given the woeful twinge in her sex and the pleasant tingling sensation in her nipples, seeing The Vagina Whisperer had definitely been the right choice. She hadn’t felt that much tension in her hot spots in over a year…and he hadn’t even touched her yet.

April pulled into her driveway, shifted into park, then let her gaze turn inward. All he’d done was sit there and stare at her with those brooding, rock-your-world eyes. He’d calmly assessed her, trailed that compelling gaze over her body like warm honey over a biscuit and something inside her had wriggled to life once more. She was starving and, though it might be unreasonable, she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ben was the only person who could feed her. April released a stuttering breath.

And the feast was at seven.

3

AT PRECISELY SEVEN O’CLOCK—she’d circled the block three times first in order to avoid being early—April pulled into Ben’s driveway and tried to summon the courage to get out of her car. It was bad enough having to ask for an orgasm, but she had absolutely no intention of appearing too eager by preempting their prescribed meeting time. He knew she was desperate—she’d come to him, hadn’t she?—but there was no need to look downright pathetic.

Though she’d gotten a good look at the classic Georgian on her numerous trips around the block, April leaned back in her seat and took a minute to really appreciate the old manor.

Painted a pale dove-gray and accented with crisp white shutters and trim, the house sat on an expertly manicured lawn surrounded by hundred-year-old live oaks dripping with Spanish moss that swayed in the chilly evening breeze. Ivy wound its way around the central columns supporting the huge porch and created an evergreen arbor, one she suspected would be dressed in lazy purple wisteria blossoms come the spring.

An ornamental iron fence surrounded the property and accompanying accent pieces had been strategically placed around the yard. Vintage gas lamps showcased twin dancing flames on either side of the curiously forbidding door.

Despite the obvious majesty of the home, there was a slightly gothic feel—one she imagined Ben purposely cultivated. It conjured pImages** of mint juleps and voodoo dolls, and would have been right at home in an Anne Rice novel. She paused, absorbing the sensual essence of the house and decided it suited its owner. It was beautiful yet dark and seductive…full of hidden secrets.

April let out an expectant breath. But she wasn’t here to explore hidden secrets. She was more interested in his hidden talents, ones she’d been fantasizing about for years and more recently, today.

Since this morning’s conversation, every waking second had been consumed with the idea that Ben Hayes—the one guy that she’d always wanted—was going to make love to her.

Tonight.

For whatever reason, be it women’s intuition or just wishful thinking, she was absolutely certain that he was going to be able to “fix” her, that whatever had prompted her orgasmic hiatus would crumble under the expert skill of his lovemaking.

A hot thrilling kiss from that sexy mouth, the slide of those big warm hands over her bare back, his talented tongue curling around her nipple. That big hard body positioned between her legs, pushing into her until he coaxed that elusive climax out of her dormant libido.

A sigh stuttered out of her lungs. All of it, hers for the taking the instant she drummed up the nerve to get out of the freaking car, she thought, annoyed with herself for dawdling. Asking for his help had been the hurdle, dammit. Walking through that door when she knew what awaited her should be a piece of cake.

And yet, she hesitated.

April didn’t know why, couldn’t pinpoint an exact cause for her anxiety, but for reasons she couldn’t begin to explain, she knew—knew—that she was taking a huge risk. Knew that things couldn’t as be as simple as what she hoped they’d be. No matter how she tried to simplify things, she’d invited Ben Hayes back into her life in one of the most intimate ways a woman could—into her body. There was nothing casual or commonplace about it and she didn’t take it lightly.

In her opinion, there was nothing casual about sex. She’d had several lovers over the years, but they’d been chosen carefully. She had too much self-respect to hand her body over to someone who wouldn’t appreciate it or be worthy of the gift. Despite their rocky past, if she hadn’t known beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ben would fit the bill on both counts, she could have never gone to him and asked for his help.

Somewhere beneath that brooding exterior lay the sexy bad boy with the irreverent smile and kind heart she used to know. Finding him after all these years would be a chore, but she didn’t doubt that he was still there. A faint smile curled her lips. She’d seen the briefest glimpse of him this morning.

With one last bracing breath, April snagged her purse and keys and got out of the car. It was door-die time, she thought, and, since she wasn’t trying to sell him a vacuum cleaner or invite him to church, this was no front-door visit. Rather than taking the front walk, April followed the winding brick path alongside the house around to the back door. Another woeful twinge in her neglected sex prompted her to knock on the door.

Thirty seconds later, Ben appeared. Dressed in head-to-toe black, his dark hair still slightly damp and slicked away from his forehead, he looked sexy and dangerous, and completely capable of rocking her world. He smiled, just the merest quirk of his lips, and her toes curled.

“Come in.”

If he’d take her in the mudroom, she could come now, April thought, wondering if this was what it felt like to be held enthralled. One look and those two little words and she was utterly enchanted. Captivated. As a teenager he’d been addictive—as an adult, he was positively lethal.

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