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"Don't leave," he said again.
She set her suitcase on the floor in the back of the cab before facing him. "Benjamin, deep down I don't think you want me here. We'll have time later. When you get back to Boston. I swear, I'm just giving you space here. I'll be waiting when you come home."
He shook his head and cupped her face in his hands. "Jewell, sweetheart, it isn't a matter of wanting you here or not. If you don't want to stay, I won't make you. I can't. But you are the only sanity I have right now."
She pulled her lower lip through her teeth and met his gaze. "I don't think so, Benjamin. I'm just something else you have to deal with. You need to focus and get through what you need to get through." She touched his cheek and stood on her toes to kiss the corner of his mouth. "I'll be waiting for you. I promise."
Jewell pulled away and slid into the back seat of the cab. She wiped a tear from her cheek before she looked up at him again. Benjamin's insides were in knots and his pulse pounded in his temples. What was he doing! Why was he letting her leave? She blew him a kiss from her fingertips.
"Goodbye," he read on her lips.
She spoke to the cab driver and pulled the door shut. Benjamin stepped back as the car slowly pulled away. Jewell said something through the window he didn't catch. Something suddenly burst in his chest and he made the decision. With a quick sprint, Benjamin caught up with the cab and banged on the trunk to get the driver's attention. The car stopped.
Benjamin pulled open Jewell's door and crouched down to see her face. Tears streaked her tender cheeks and her lips parted in the unasked question.
"I need you," he told her, hoping he could somehow express just how much he didn't want her to go. "Jewell, I need you."
She held his gaze for an eternity and several new tears rolled down her moisture-spiked lashes. An almost indiscernible quiver shook her chin and she brushed back a wave of hair from his temple. The touch of her fingertips warmed his cheek. Benjamin held her palm against his lips and kissed the soft flesh.
"Please," he asked. She shook her head, but he squeezed her hands tighter. "Please."
Jewell's lip trembled when she attempted a smile. "Okay."
A soothing rush spread through Benjamin's chest and he released a long breath, pressing into lips into the palms of her cool hands. She turned to the driver and apologized for making him come out for nothing. The middle-aged man smiled earnestly at them and said it was no problem at all. Benjamin gave the man two twenties for his trouble. Then he stood and offered his hand to Jewell to help her from the car.
When they stood alone at the foot of the front steps, Benjamin turned to her and pulled Jewell in a hard embrace. He pressed his face into her fragrant hair and felt the softness of her skin against his cheek. Her arms wrapped around his neck, and he cursed the jacket she wore and cursed his reluctance for the last two days to hold her like this. Benjamin tightened his hold and felt a surge of energy in his blood as Jewell fed him with her touch.
She pulled back, looked up at him, her eyes bright, and touched his face and neck with her fingers. "You're cold. Let's go inside."
Benjamin shook his head. "Why do you worry so much about me?"
She smiled and slipped her hand into the bend of his arm. "Because you need me."
* * *
Jewell sat on the bed with the day's Wall Street Journal spread out on the duvet. She glanced over a variety of stock quotes and market closings with marginal interest. Her true interest was the sound of the shower running in the bathroom. Without question or reservation, Benjamin came up to the bedroom with her after dinner. As he showered and shaved, she waited with intense anticipation.
The bathroom door opened and she looked up. Jewell's heart leaped to her throat and a hot flush ran over her entire body. Benjamin stood in the doorway with a bath sheet wrapped around his narrow waist and a smaller towel around his shoulders. He rubbed the smaller towel vigorously over his damp hair.
Jewell tried to remember why they were there, and the solemnity of the whole thing, but the sculpted beauty of Benjamin's torso was undeniable. Moisture glistened in droplets on his arms and chest. He turned his back to her and bent over to retrieve something from his suitcase. The way the damp towel clung to his backside made Jewell's stomach flutter and she groaned loudly. She ran her hand over her face and forced herself to look away. With a sharp rustle, Jewell folded the newspaper and stood to toss it in a nearby chair. She took off her reading glasses and set them on the bedside table.
Benjamin turned and ran his fingers through the damp waves of his hair. That intoxicating, seductively slow grin of his made Jewell's knees weak and it was all she could do to smile back. Suddenly, the short pajamas she wore seemed highly inadequate and overly revealing. They were not intended for seduction, but with the heat and electricity that rushed over her skin, a turtleneck sweater and thermal ski pants wouldn't have been sufficient. She crossed her arms over her body and walked back to the bed.
"Are you okay?" Benjamin signed with arched brows and a smirk on his face.
Jewell nodded and put one knee up on the mattress to sit down again near the pillows. "I'm fine. Did your shower help with your headache?"
"It did. I think I just needed to come up here and get away from everything else." His brown eyes held her gaze and his lips pursed ever so slightly. "I needed to come be with you."
Jewell lifted one shoulder in a nonchalant gesture. "I've been here for three days."
He sighed and picked up a pair of silk boxer shorts in navy blue paisley from the bed. "I know…now."
Jewell gasped as he dropped the towel and pulled on the boxers. The nonchalant expression on his face was a sharp contrast to the unsettling shock that coursed in Jewell's veins. The mattress was high enough that she didn't actually catch a glimpse of Benjamin in his fully naked state, but enough was revealed to set off butterflies in Jewell's stomach and turn her blood to liquid heat. The enticing angle where his thigh met his hip teased her with what hid only scant inches away. She swallowed against the giggle in her throat and the grin stretching her lips.
The elastic waistband snapped against his skin and he tossed the towel through the open door of the bathroom. Benjamin took the edge of the duvet and pulled it back to slip beneath the covers.
"Anything in the Journal I need to know?" he asked.
