* * * * *

Cass had gone into the house with Jessica and Nate to show Steve Pickard’s wife some pictures of Jeremy. She’d told Lucas she’d be okay, and so he was sitting out in a corner of the pavilion, keeping an eye on Cherry and Talia. Steve had the two girls engaged in conversation about their school activities, so all the kids were handled, giving him a momentary break.

As he took a swallow of Scotch he’d poured from the self-serve wet bar, he glanced out over the marsh and saw Ben and Marcie coming back from the lake. He’d intended to go after her when he didn’t see her come in from the service, but he’d gotten involved in other things. His moment of guilt was short-lived, though, seeing Marcie tucked under Ben’s arm, a comfortable fit.

His lips twisted wryly. He hoped he’d done well by Cass’ siblings, because he loved all of the kids. The rest of the guys felt the same way, but there’d been a special relationship between Ben and Marcie from the beginning, he couldn’t deny it. He hadn’t had to worry about Marcie all that much, because when she needed an adult friend, a shoulder, an ear, Ben had been there. Her playmate, her surrogate big brother, and now something else entirely.

As they stopped on the bridge and he saw her register the song, the sadness from it reflected in her face, he was ready to go to her. But Ben turned to her, going into that slow dance, his head bent protective and attentive over hers.

“She’s the one for him, Lucas. You can tell.” Jon was standing at his shoulder now, holding a beer and gazing at them. “He gave his heart to her a long time ago. She brought it back to him.”

“Yeah, I know.” Lucas sighed. “With all this other shit, I’d forgotten their history. There it is, right in front of us.”

“Right where it was destined to be. That was why it took him so much longer. He had to wait for her to be ready. And figure out what he truly wanted.”

“Hell, if his head’s back on straight, there’s no one in the world I’d trust with her more.”

“You might want to tell Ben that at some point. I think he’d be surprised to hear it.”

Lucas glanced at Matt as he took a seat next to him. The CEO nodded toward them. “She had to have enough faith for both of them. She’s a remarkable young woman.”

“In some ways, I get how Ben felt,” Peter said. “I still don’t know what I did to deserve a gift like Dana. I just try to do whatever’s needed to earn it, every day, weighting the other side of that scale as much as I can.” He gave a half smile. “She always gives me twice as much, so I’ll never catch up. Some gifts take a lifetime to find the balance.”

”For some of us, maybe not even then.” Lucas nudged Matt. “Most of us still think Savannah married beneath her.”

No argument there,” Matt returned, unruffled. “Cass’ll probably throw your midwest beancounting ass back into the pond any day now.”

Lucas sobered, looking back at Ben and Marcie. Their lawyer had his hand curved around her jaw, thumb stroking her cheek as she pressed her face into his chest. “He’ll protect her with everything he is. He’s figured it out. He won’t let her down.”

“That’s the job.” Matt lifted his glass, tapped it to his. “And the blessing.”

Marcie: I’m sitting in the student commons, and the sunset is spectacular. The reds are painted against the clouds, as if the sun is courting the moon.

Ben: Does the moon like being courted?

Marcie: What woman doesn’t?

Marcie texting Ben, sophomore year

Chapter Fifteen

Marcie stood on the footbridge, watching the sky and remembering the dance she and Ben had shared here, three weeks before. Tonight would be a full moon. She felt like its light was already filling her, lifting her up toward the heavens.

Ever since Jeremy’s service, she’d received some type of whimsical gift or gesture from Ben every day. He’d made her dinner at his Garden District house. Her as well as Cass and Lucas, the other K&A men, her siblings. He’d had her come early, help him chop, mix, sauté. Driven her completely crazy when he laid kisses on her neck, holding her inside his armspan as he showed her exactly how he wanted things prepared. But her Master had been clear.

No sex right now. These next three weeks are for something different.

She tried really hard to change his mind. Alice had returned from her trip, but Peter needed some admin help on an offsite project. Therefore, Ben agreed to let Marcie split her internship between his office and the research department on the days Alice was gone. Of course, on those days, she always wore provocative clothes, doing a lot of bending over file cabinets in line with his office door. When he brought her close enough to touch, she made sure he knew what every inch of her felt like against him. She couldn’t help herself, and it wasn’t entirely her fault. While he’d said no sex, apparently that didn’t mean he couldn’t kiss her whenever he desired, long, drugging kisses that left her knees weak and her pussy soaked.

She’d lost count of how many times he’d had her come into his office, shut the door and then ordered her behind his desk to straddle his thigh while he kissed her, his hands dropping to knead her ass. Every time, no matter how she tried to control herself, she found herself rubbing herself on that hard muscle, straining against him like a complete out-of-control nymphomaniac. He’d stop her before she could come, make her stay completely still. Sometimes he’d open her blouse, stroke her breasts. Lay a kiss between them, then rearrange her clothes and send her back to her desk with a firm pat on the ass.

She was going to hack him up with his commercial grade, beautifully sharpened and polished meat cleaver. She’d be sorry, but no jury of her female peers would convict her.

He took her for long walks at lunch, holding her hand, buying her food from the sidewalk vendors. At night, he’d call her, give her bedtime stories that left her toes curling and her anything but sleepy. Especially with his parting good night.

“Remember, your hand and your vibrator stays away from what’s mine. You come on my command alone.”

“What about you?” She’d purred it into the phone, trying to cover the desperation. His sexy chuckle alone made her nipples harden.

“I’ll be stroking my cock, baby. Thinking about you while I watch the evening news. And when I come, I’ll say your name. Your punishment for trying to change your Master’s mind with your tight skirts and those little stunts you pull at the office.”

Hack, hack, hack. No, forget the meat cleaver. She’d use a power saw.

He’d told her he was her Master, which meant he held the reins. So she had to wait on him. He was testing her. She was trying, but God, she was going to go crazy.

On the flip side, Ben was making no secret of the fact he considered her his. There was no emotional uncertainty anymore. With every passing day, she became joyously more confident of his feelings. The night he’d prepared that dinner, Talia, as precocious a teenager as Marcie had ever been, had tracked every time Ben grazed his fingers over Marcie’s hip, or brushed his lips against her temple when he handed her something to bring to the table. When her younger sister was helping her clear, she’d leaned in, whispered to Marcie, “Are you Ben’s girlfriend now?”

Before Marcie could answer, Ben had come by with a stack of plates, pulled Talia’s ponytail. “Yes, she is.” And that was that.

She saw the exchanged looks between the other men and their wives that night, but she had a feeling it wasn’t only because of the new dynamic between her and Ben. Something was easier about the K&A lawyer. The jokes he made, the fact he smiled a little more often…it was obvious that something was uncoiling inside of him, turning him in a better direction. Thinking she might have something to do with that was a good feeling, but just seeing him happier made her heart swell to bursting. It also touched something in her deeply, seeing him casually bypassing his normal whiskey, even abstaining from wine.

As remarkable as that was, other things were going on as well. They’d had other get-togethers, not just at Ben’s house, but at Jon and Rachel’s, and a concert at Audubon Park. During those events, she’d noted a distinct change in her relationship with the others. When Peter passed behind her chair at Jon and Rachel’s, he’d playfully put his large hands on either side of the seat, his knuckles brushing her hips as he scooted her closer to the table so he could get his massive bulk in the narrow area between wall and chair. As he straightened, he’d laid his hands on her shoulders. The wide neckline of her cotton top had made it a simple, casual thing to hook his thumb under her bra strap, and he’d idly stroked her there as he exchanged a few remarks with Jon about a subject she couldn’t possibly remember, not with that happening and Ben watching, leaned back in his chair, his green eyes intent on her reaction.

Later that same evening, when Matt was sitting on the couch with her and Savannah, he had his arm around his wife, but he also had his arm stretched behind Marcie. A couple times he stroked his strong fingers casually through Marcie’s hair, tracing the shell of her ear. She’d stayed still, nerves tingling along her spine, everything coiling up tight at the touch, which couldn’t be called anything but sexually proprietary. Once again, Ben had his eyes on her, his expression telling her that their subtle enjoyment of her had his full approval. When she leaned across him to accept Savannah’s invitation to feel the baby kick, Matt’s hand dropped to her waist, fingers wrapped over her hip bone. As the conversations continued, it was both more comfortable and titillating than expected, to stay leaning against him.

Of course, the big surprise was when Lucas demonstrated some of the same type of behavior. At the Audubon concert, Marcie had been sitting on her hip on the picnic blanket next to Cass. When Lucas asked them if they wanted more wine, he brushed a kiss along his wife’s throat, taking a nip with teeth, but as he moved around Marcie to go get them both a glass, he let his fingertips trail up the inside of Marcie’s thigh in what was undeniably a sexual caress. She felt a tingle all the way up her groin muscle.