“I don’t know if that’s a great idea. They said no cops.”
“It’s perfect. What are you talking about, no cops?” she says, her eyes wide like she can’t believe I’m disagreeing.
“I’m hesitant to get any type of authorities involved.”
“There’s probably no way around it unless your parents have thirty thousand just sitting around in cash somewhere. Have you talked to them?”
“Not yet. I’m still trying to figure it out.”
“Well, you don’t have much time left, and from where I’m sitting, this is the best idea.”
“It’s the only idea,” I say with a self-deprecating chuckle.
As much as I didn’t want to bring Pepper into this, her idea is looking better and better, the more I think about it. I should have just talked to her first.
“You shouldn’t have broken up with me over this, Ben.” Her voice sounds so sad now, and my heart clenches.
I make a fist and tap it against my leg a few times, looking away so I don’t have to stare at her big brown eyes.
“I know,” I say.
She nods and turns her head, blinking a few times. “You should have let me decide for myself. My entire life, people have made the decisions for me. I don’t want you to be another one of those people.”
“God, I’m sorry, Pepper. I feel like an ass for doing that. I just didn’t want to place you in danger.”
“It’s fine. I mean, it’s not. I want to know that I get to make my own decisions from here on out.”
“I promise you that I won’t make any more decisions without consulting you.”
“I know you’re only human, Ben. None of us is perfect, and I’m still mad at you for breaking up with me, but for now, we have to figure this out.”
She stands up and begins to pace, and I enjoy the sight of her in our apartment once more. Yeah, I still refer to it as ours. I haven’t stopped loving her.
“Will you stay here with me tonight?” I don’t want her to leave. I haven’t been able to focus since she’s been gone. I even dragged our picture into my room, so I could stare at it on the bedside table.
She looks at me for a long moment, chewing on her bottom lip before nodding slightly. I can’t help myself. I break out into a grin and wrap my arms around her.
It takes a second, but she raises her arms, placing them around my neck, and I tuck my nose into her neck, breathing in.
“I’m really sorry, baby.”
“I know,” she says, patting my back.
God, it feels so good to be touching her again.
Pepper pulls back, wiping under each eye, and I feel like an ass all over again for making her cry.
“I should call Mason and let him know I’m moving back in,” she says.
I nod, agreeing with her. I figure he won’t be happy about it, but I only had the best intentions for Pepper, no matter how badly I went about them. She gets up, grabbing her phone from her pocket, and walks away, bringing her phone to her ear. Once he answers and she lets him know, I can hear him yelling on the other end, and I grimace.
It won’t be fun to see him again.
Finally, she hangs up and looks at me with a grin.
“Mason says he’s going to kick your ass the next time he sees you.”
She starts to laugh, and I break into a smile at her laughter. I’ve missed it.
“I wouldn’t expect any less,” I say, glad that Pepper has other people in her corner, willing to fight for her. “Hopefully, he won’t try until I’m not hobbling around on my ankle anymore.”
“Hopefully,” she says, coming to sit down beside me, resting her head on my shoulder. “It feels great to be back.”
30 Pepper
“Hey,” I say, raising my head and resting my chin on Ben’s chest while we are laying in his bed.
He tilts his head down to look at me, his hand drifting up to play with the ends of my hair.
“Don’t keep stuff from me anymore, okay? I’m a big girl. I can handle it … even if it’s Mafia-related.”
He frowns down at me, and I scrunch my nose up.
“Okay, but let’s not get involved with the Mafia ever again.”
“Deal.”
I push up and plant a light kiss on his lips, and he grabs me, holding me in place and deepening the kiss.
“Wait, we still have to decide what to do,” I murmur, pushing against his chest.
“Later,” he whispers back.
Rolling me over, he trails his tongue between my breasts, leaving a searing kiss on each nipple before continuing down my stomach. I lean my head back, close my eyes, and moan as soon as he hits the spot aching for him. Aching for his tongue to do naughty, naughty things. We spend the next two hours lost in each other, forgetting about everything else but us and ecstasy.
Ben’s phone ringing pulls us from our sleep. We crashed after he made me come for the third time. My lady bits are sore, but I’m happy to be back in his bed. I grimace as I turn over, reaching for the bedside table to pick up the cell.
I hand the phone to Ben before rolling back over with a groan.
“You’re holding an ice pack to my vagina later,” I mutter, burying my head back in the pillow as he laughs and swipes to answer.
“Hey, Dad,” he says, and I perk up.
“Tell him,” I whisper, but Ben ignores me and just listens to whatever his dad is saying on the other end. I poke his stomach and whisper it again.
“No,” he says back, pulling the phone away so his dad can’t hear.
“We need their help.”
“I don’t want to bring them into it,” he says.
We can hear his dad’s faint voice come across the speaker, and Ben brings the phone back up to his ear.
“Yes, I’m still here,” he says.
I watch as his eyes widen, and
