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When eleven o’clock rolls on by, I know for sure he isn’t coming. And the whole group dynamic is off without him. At eleven fifteen, I’m about to leave when Seb comes back from the bar and sits down beside me. There’s silence at the table for a beat before I look at Duncan and Seb.
“Have neither of you heard from him?”
“I haven’t heard a thing, Lainey,” Duncan says. “Then again, we’re not on the best of terms at the moment.”
“He never replied to the message I sent him yesterday,” Seb says.
“Aren’t you worried?” I ask them.
“He’s a grown man,” Duncan says. “He can do what he likes. I’m done putting up with his shit. I’m sick of his attitude towards everything.”
Duncan says the words, but they sound rehearsed. Judging by his concerned expression, I don’t know if he believes them any more than I do. Seb looks just as worried.
Doesn’t Ben realise, even if he’s upset with his friends—even if they aren’t on good terms—that they care about him? Has he forgotten that?
I take out my phone and, praying he hasn’t smashed his phone like he did months ago, I send him a message.
Ben, if you get this message, please just let me know you’re all right. You never got back to me with your bank details and the guys say they haven’t seen you. Please Ben. I’m scared and I need to know you’re ok.
If no one hears from him in the next twenty-four hours, I’m going to the police.
***
Sunday morning, oneweek and one day after the party at Cass’s place, I’m woken up by the sound of a motorbike in our street. Sitting up so fast I make myself dizzy, I bolt out of bed. I’d know the sound of that bike anywhere. There’s no one else it could belong to. When I hear it roar up my driveway, I nearly cry with relief.
I don’t bother checking the time or changing out of the tank top and shorts I wear to bed. I simply race for the front door, throwing it open in time to see Ben walking towards me.
The moment he’s on my doorstep, I throw my arms around him; I’m just so happy to see him. The fact we aren’t friends or lovers anymore doesn’t seem relevant right now. I’m just glad he’s all right.
“Babe,” he growls with a husky and raw quality that travels over me and makes my knees quivery, my skin tingly, and my thighs clench together.
Then he makes it all so much worse by pulling me tighter against him and burying his face in my hair and breathing me in with such ferocity, I have to let him go before I yank him into my unit and have my way with him.
Reluctantly, I pull away from him and study him. He looks tired, and maybe a little thinner than the last time I saw him, and he looks like he hasn’t shaved in a week. Despite all this, it’s all I can do not to put my hand behind his head and drag his mouth down on mine and kiss the living daylights out of him before I tell him off for scaring me half to death.
“Where have you been, Ben? Everyone has been worried sick.”
I’ve been worried sick.
“Been working my second last week at Eagle Eye Security during the day and staking out Alkerman Security at night.”
“You’re still looking into that?”
“Not anymore. Finally caught them in the act last night. Been watching them work a pattern along the peninsula and we busted them for stealing from someone in Carrington Bay.”
“You...” I shake my head. I don’t know what to say. He didn’t get paid to do this, and he was doing it for me.
And we’re not even friends anymore.
“You’re safe now,” he says. “I can sleep at night knowing no greedy arsehole is going to come in here and steal from you.”
I’ve always known he cares about me, but right now I feel he’s letting me see just how much. And the gratitude I feel is tenfold because I now know he hasn’t been screwing everything in a skirt this past week.
“Thank you.” My voice is raw and tight with trying to hold back the emotion I feel. “You didn’t have to do that, but I’m really glad you did. I can never pay you back for what you’ve done.”
“I owed you. Had a lot of time to think about things this past week. I really screwed up, in every way, Lainey. I was selfish to insist we should keep sleeping together. I realise that in hindsight—”
“Ben, stop.”
