Still the One

Chapter 30 - Confusion is Nothing New

I'm staying at the Connaught. Have dinner with me? Jake

"What the fu...fudge is he doing sending flowers and dinner invitations to my wife?" Luckily Ben halted his bad language in time, with two avid listeners hanging on to his every word, though he sounded quietly furious. "The gall of that guy; I ought to..." Eyes narrowed and a flush spread up from his neck, morphing him rapidly into Caveman Ben – though not in a good way. Well, I guess it would be a good way if we were alone, because testosterone-fueled Ben is pretty damn sexy, but, um, yeah, young children present.

"Daddy mad!" exclaimed Alex, staring up at his father's red face.

"Him need poop?" Lizzie asked innocently and it was all I could do to stifle a giggle. Our daughter had recently adopted a rather novel approach to filling her nappy; she would stand firm, feet apart, knees bent, hands clenched into tiny fists and scrunch her face up into a red, wizened ball while she...well, you know. Pooped.

Still swallowing my mirth, I answered. "No darling, daddy doesn't need...he's just had a bit of upsetting news." Ben snorted at my description but the next minute his expression softened when Lizzie clung to his leg, hugging him in comfort.

"Love, dada."

He knelt down, taking her in his arms; she flung her small arms around his neck and kissed him sweetly on the cheek. The red was slowly receding. "Thank you, sweetheart. I love you too."

Alex, seemingly bored with the conversation, began racing his truck round in circles on the rug. Lizzie, a real daddy's girl, snuggled into Ben's shoulder and patted his chest – presumably in reassurance. Ben kissed her hair then looked at me.

"I had no idea he was coming to London; I assumed he'd be going back to California with Josh. Perhaps he wants to apologise for the other night?" I suggested hopefully, though I could tell from Ben's face he either didn't believe it was possible or didn't care even if it were.

"You're not going to dinner with him."

"It would be rude to just..."

"Cara."

"I could..."

"No."

I frowned, torn between being annoyed at his high-handed attitude of telling me what I could and could not do, and feeling all warm and cuddly inside at the 'me Tarzan, you Jane' side of him. Dammit, it's so confusing! Deciding discretion was the better part of valour, I reminded him he wanted to call the real estate agent but I may as well have saved my breath; he wasn't fooled. Stepping close – really close – he put a finger under my chin so I was forced to look right into steely eyes.

"You Will. Not. Have. Dinner. With. Jake. Do I make myself clear?"

Okay, now sexy Caveman Ben has made his appearance and dammit, I'm tingling in all sorts of places I shouldn't be with our children present. I opened my mouth to answer him, though I had no idea exactly what I was going to say, but it didn't matter because I wasn't given the chance. His mouth claimed mine in a kiss so intense, so searing, so...manly and masterful and so damned sexy and don't even get me started on his...oh, um, sorry – where was I? Oh yes, the only thing I could concentrate on was remaining upright. All my girly parts colluded with my heart and staged a bloodless coup; there was absolutely no part of my body prepared to argue with him.

Holy shit.

"Holy shit!" a small voice repeated. Dammit, I said that out loud and now Lizzie was parroting the wonderful new phrase. I moaned.