“He wanted to be sittin’ at a table with Sal like he wanted someone to pull out all of his teeth. He was puttin’ up with Sal because he caught sight of you and knows you might possibly be in danger. He also knows Sal’s on that so you mean somethin’ to Sal and Sal means somethin’ to you. He didn’t show him a lot of respect, but he showed him more than he normally would and he did that because of you. He thought you are what you are, beautiful and funny. Man like him doesn’t go soft for some hard bitch or just anybody. He goes soft for a beautiful woman who’s funny.”

“But he’s married.”

“He’s married, but he isn’t dead.”

“I think he’s very married,” I informed him.

“Definitely,” Benny agreed. “Man wears that obvious of a wedding band because he’s weak and let his wife pick the rings or because he’s seriously in love with his wife. There’s nothin’ weak about that man.”

This was true.

“Aren’t you…I mean, he was attractive and you caught that I caught that. Aren’t you pissed?”

“Babe, you’re mine, but you aren’t dead either. It’s not like just because you’re bangin’ me you’re not gonna see guys you don’t like to see.”

“That doesn’t upset you?” I asked.

“You gonna bang ’em?” he asked back.

“No,” I replied sharply.

That got me a grin and, “Then why would it upset me?”

“But you didn’t like the idea of me being Cheryl’s wingman.”

“You likin’ the look of a guy who’s very married and doin’ that sittin’ next to me is one thing. You out with one of your girls, my ring not yet on your finger, for any guy to get an eyeful and maybe call up the courage to approach is another.”

“I wouldn’t bang any of them either,” I pointed out.

“You like the idea of some woman approachin’ me when you’re not around?” he asked.

I saw his point so I pressed my lips together.

His eyes dropped to my mouth, and when they came back to mine, they were lit with humor.

I understood that part, but I didn’t trust the earlier part and I told him why.

“So, you’re cool with this so I’ll be cool with you lookin’ at pretty women while you’re with me?”

“I’m not dead, either, babe. And I might see a pretty woman, but even if I do, I’m not doin’ my job if you don’t know down to your gut there’s nothin’ I see that’s as beautiful as what I see in you.”

God.

Benny.

I liked his words so much, I couldn’t stop my head from dropping so my forehead was on his throat, and that was where I kept it in order to deep breathe and not burst into tears.

Ben glided a hand up my spine and curled it around the back of my neck before he murmured into the top of my hair, “See I scored with that.”

“Sometimes your sweet overwhelms me,” I admitted to his throat.

“Challenge accepted.”

I lifted my head and looked at him again. “What?”

He looked into my eyes. “Challenge accepted, findin’ ways to give you a lifetime of just that.”

I could deep breathe for eternity and not stop the tears that wet my eyes at that.

“You just did it again,” I whispered.

He smiled and whispered back, “Good.”

I looked to his smile, then back to his eyes that were warm and tender and beautiful and also smiling and kept whispering, “And again.”

He slid his hand into my hair and replied, “Babe, you feel all I see you feelin’, don’t put it into tears. Kiss me.”

My Benny.

So wise.

That was a much better idea.

So I didn’t cry.

I shifted up and kissed him.

Ben shifted us on the couch so he was on top and kissed me back.

Then he banged me.

After that, Ben held me close and I snoozed off my pancakes while he watched the game.

* * * * *

Later, we made dinner together and watched movie.

And later, before heading to bed, I stood in the bathroom, wearing my nightie, and stared at myself in the mirror.

I saw what I always saw, but it was different.

It was a person who inspired love and loyalty and protection. It was a person who got this because she gave it back. It was the person I’d always been but never seen.

She was beautiful.

My eyes shifted from my reflection to watch Benny, wearing nothing but light blue pajama bottoms, approach me.

He watched me in the mirror as he made his approach but lost sight of me when he fitted his front to my back and wrapped his arms around my middle, burying his face in my neck.

“You okay?” he asked the skin of my neck.

I slid my hands over his arms and held him there, answering, “Yeah.”

He gave me a squeeze and murmured, “Come to bed.”

One more promise that day for Benny to fulfill.

“Okay, baby,” I whispered.

It was then that I got to experience the second best part of the day. Or it might be tied for first. Making love with and then going to sleep beside Benny Bianchi. Hearing his deep and easy voice saying good-night to me. Making me fall into a peaceful sleep, knowing that tomorrow, I’d wake up to Benny and all the amazing promises he would keep.

Chapter Twenty-Five

The Promise

“You don’t leave your office all day,” Ben ordered as he drove me to work the next morning, telling me something we’d already gone over, him being bossy all the while I got ready for work. “I’ll be in the lobby at noon to take you to lunch. You don’t work late. I’ll be at the front door waitin’ for you at five. I’ll keep in touch with Stark. They don’t put the nails in the coffin, tomorrow we do the same thing.”

“Okay, Benny,” I replied, knowing he needed me to be docile and not give him lip, seeing as he’d woken up agitated. And giving me a hard, rough quickie hadn’t taken the edge off that. I knew that when he took his gun with him and put it in the glove compartment before we took off so he could get me to work.

“Nose down, you work. Don’t even look at Bierman if you don’t have to,” Ben went on like I didn’t speak.

“Okay, baby.”

Benny fell silent.

I looked his way.

“You doin’ okay?” I asked quietly.

He glanced at me, then back at the road before he muttered, “Woke up with a shit feeling.”