Page 112 of Beni

He didn’t care as long as they fed themselves.

In a couple of hours, they were going to be rushing to the airport to fight through TSA checks, and get on a damn plane. Right now, he could enjoy being in bed with her, because like this, they didn’t have to pretend like the rest of the world existed.

It was just them.

August and Beni.

“I have the digital spreads they made as a mock-up on my phone,” she said, “but I won’t know how it’ll all look and what will make it in for sure until closer to printing time.”

“So, show me the digital.”

Shaking her head, which caused her headful of corkscrew curls to go wild in every direction, he smiled at the unusual shyness she displayed. He wasn’t sure when she had taken her braids out, but those curls of hers looked just as good as her braids.

“Come on,” he said, “I want to see what made it in.”

She sighed. “That’s part of the problem.”

“What?”

Without answering, she was fast to jump out of the bed, just barely out of his reach when he tried to smack her ass. Almost. Her light laughter followed her out of the bedroom, teasing him and making him think he should have just kept her right there in bed with him.

What had this woman done to him?

Many good things.

Despite his last-minute decision to hop on a flight to spend a single day with her before she was coming to him for a weekend, being here with August settled Beni in a way nothing else could. All his worries, the shit keeping him up at night, and busy in the daytime, well, none of it mattered when he was with her.

That’s why he did this.

Why he was here.

Before long, August was back in the bedroom, phone in hand. He did his best not to leer as she climbed—beautifully naked and on display—back into the bed. And failed like the fucker he was, because shit … how could he not stare at that woman?

And she was his.

Because yeah, Beni decided on that.

He just had to make it clear to her.

“Okay, here it is,” she said, settling down into the bed beside him on her stomach. She flipped through the mock-up digital spread of her article showcasing the urban areas of Chicago, the brands that had come out of the city, and the impact it had on the culture. “All in all, it has the tone I wanted, and showcases what I intended for it to display.”

“But?”

Because he heard that.

Her unspoken whatever.

Felt it, too.

August frowned as she pressed the button on the side of the phone, blanking out the screen. Tossing it aside to the table next to the bed, she stared at the print on her silk pillowcase, shrugging those delicate shoulders he loved to bite when he fucked her from behind.

Head in the game, Beni.

Right, right.

“I wanted to include other things, too,” she said, “initiatives for the communities, and whatever else might encourage the reader to want to be involved with, well, if not Chicago, maybe their own community. Especially youth, and whatever else.”

“I didn’t see anything in there for that.”