AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Jewell stood as he approached the bed. He reached out his hand and she took it with both of hers. She stepped against him, pressing their joined hands between them, and her breath brushed across his chest.
"How are you?" she asked.
Benjamin brushed a wave of auburn hair behind her ear. "I wish I could answer that question."
"Is there anything I can do?" Jewell leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to his chest.
Heat spread out from the spot, quickly warming his body and limbs. Benjamin pulled in a long, deep breath through his nostrils. He pulled his hand from hers and found the knot of the robe's belt. With a tug, he worked the tie loose, holding her gaze as he did. Jewell's delicate hands touched his sides and slid along his bare skin as he worked to open the front of the robe. She wore the same cotton shorts and stretchy tank top she'd worn that night he went to her apartment, and a silk negligee couldn't be any sexier.
"Yes, there is something," he said, feeling his throat restrict as his need for her exploded in his chest.
She stood unmoving as he pushed the robe off her shoulders, her green eyes still looking up at him through auburn-tinted lashes. He ran his fingertips along her throat and arms, catching the strap and pulling it off her shoulder. As he moved along her breasts, Benjamin felt her breath catch and her eyelids fluttered.
"Make me feel real, Jewell."
She raised her arms and laced her fingers into his hair. She didn't speak, but pulled him down for a hot and sweet kiss that sucked the air from his lungs. The need to somehow affirm himself, whatever way he could, flooded him. If Jewell could still make love to him, if she could be with him, that had to mean he was worth having. Because Jewell chose him, he was worth choosing.
He pulled her against him in an intense embrace. Benjamin was a man incensed. Her touch fed him. The taste of her, as he pulled the skin of her throat between his teeth, increased his hunger. Her hands skimmed along his waist and his breath caught when she released the button of his jeans.
Benjamin lifted her off the floor and laid her down on the mattress, her hair fanning out around her head like a flame. Her emerald eyes still held his stare, unwavering.
He hovered over her, shucking his jeans as quickly as possible. Jewell beckoned him with her eyes and with her hands. "Benjamin," she started to say, but he devoured the words from her lips.
He reached over and turned off the light, plunging them into total darkness. Tonight, he wanted to only feel.
Her hands shifted over his back and brushed his ribs. Long fingernails dug gently into his backside, forcing a groan through his chest.
He was real. He was real.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Victoria's private room was already crowded by the time they arrived at the hospital half an hour into visiting hours. Jewell hung back, a step behind Benjamin holding his hand while he looked around the room.
Barbara Roth sat beside the bed, holding Victoria's hand. Ben Prescott was in the corner of the room with his arms crossed and his head down. Abigail Prescott sat in a chair beside her father, and Logan Prescott stood several feet away, his stance mirroring his father's. Logan's entire expression portrayed tension and anger, and Abigail's eyes were red and puffy.
Prescott must have stayed true to his word and told his children.
Victoria was still pale, and pinched around the eyes. Her eyes were closed until Benjamin pushed her door completely open, then the attention of everyone in the room shifted to them.
"Benjamin!" Victoria cried and held her hand out to him. Her voice was weak, rough, but her smile lit up her face at the sight of her brother.
Benjamin released Jewell's hand and rounded the end of the bed, ignoring everyone else in the room to lean over the bed and carefully embrace his sister. His mother rose from her chair and stepped back, moving closer to Prescott without moving past his children. Feeling like an outsider still, Jewell crossed her wrists and linked her fingers, holding her hands in front of her body as she tucked herself against the wall furthest from everyone else.
The communication between Victoria and Benjamin was silent, limited to the near frantic signing in the space between them. Knowing that no one else in the room signed fluently, the conversation remained private but their faces said it all. Tears streamed down Victoria's cheeks, and soft sounds of restrained weeps carried across the room. Benjamin stroked her cheek to dry the tears, and followed the path of his thumb with a kiss. Jewell made sure to keep her eyes averted so she didn't inadvertently pick up too much of their conversation.
She looked away, and found Logan watching her, his jaw set firm and his eyes angry. He pushed away from the wall and crossed to her, keeping his back to his father. Logan was tall, like Benjamin, and Jewell noted for the first time the way his hair waved away from his forehead, not quite curly but not straight, just like Benjamin's. Logan's hair was brown, like Abigail's, and Jewell wondered if their mother had been a brunette. There were similarities between them, now that Jewell knew to look. Now that she knew they were half-brothers.
"Hi," he said when he reached her, and the simplicity of the greeting surprised her.
"Hi, Logan."
He still had his arms crossed over his chest, and pivoted at the hips to look over his shoulder to where Benjamin sat with Victoria. When he turned back to her, some of the anger had faded from his face. "How is Ben doing?"
Jewell sighed and shifted to tuck her hands behind her, leaning against the edge of the large window that looked out into the hall. "I'm not sure he's processed everything yet. He's trying, but it's a lot to take." She looked up at Logan. "How are you doing? I'm assuming?—"
He nodded; a sharp jerk of his chin toward his chest. "He told us this morning."
"Abigail looks upset," Jewell said softly, looking past him to his younger sister, who dabbed at her cheeks with a crumpled tissue.
