Kiss a Stranger Read online

  He cocked his head to the side and looked at me curiously. “Why is that?”

  “It was very strained near the end. I only remember bits and pieces.” I paused, trying to sift through the memories of my adolescent years. “I remember the police coming to the door and arresting him. He ended up being some crook, and it devastated Mom when he was laid with heavy charges of fraud. Faked his name and everything, even to her. That’s why he didn’t like being in one spot too long. He was on the run.”

  “Fuck.”

  “Yeah. It was a very hard time for her. My father got put away. He’s still rotting in prison. Armed robbery and assault – those kinds of charges. I don’t really know the details. She doesn’t talk about it, and I don’t care anymore to ask.”

  “Why don’t you care?”

  I shrugged and stared down at my plate. “I didn’t have fond memories of my father. He wasn’t a very affectionate man, and I remember him being aggressive to Mom on a few occasions. I don’t think I ever respected him, or regarded him as someone I loved. It was always Mom and me, you know?”

  Ben nodded. “So what happened after?”

  “We were there for another two years. Then when I turned ten, my grandmother passed away. We came here for the funeral and to go over the will. My grandmother left her a lot of money, and Mom decided it was best to stay here and start fresh. She bought the house we’re living in outright, and the rest went to me. It’s to see me through school so I don’t have to work while studying at the same time.”

  “That’s an incredible gift from your grandmother to you.”

  I chuckled and shook my head. “My grandmother was a cow. She’d abuse me over the phone when I was kid. Called me a tool when I took too long to give the phone to Mom. No, it was Mom that decided to tuck away the rest for me.”

  Ben laughed lightly. “Right. That’s some story.”

  “It’s only interesting when you’re reflecting back on it. It certainly wasn’t living it.”

  “No, it wouldn’t be.” He paused and locked his eyes with mine. “You ever curious about seeing your father again?”

  “No,” I said firmly. “He really hurt my mother. It only took the last few years to finally move on to someone else. She lost her trust in people and it really messed her up. She had to start over again. There’s no way I want to see a man I can’t trust.”

  He reflected on that. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “Trust is very hard to come by.”

  “Well, enough about me. Tell me why your family decided to come here.”

  “They wanted a new place to open up some businesses.”

  “Like the furniture one?”

  “No, that’s mine,” he said before swiftly changing the subject. “Now are you an only child?”

  Smooth, Ben. Real smooth.

  “Yes,” I answered. “Are you?”

  “I have a younger brother.”

  Is he as hot as you? “Is he in the same line of work as you?”

  “No. My brother’s…” He stopped talking for a moment as a fleeting look of irritation crossed him. “He’s not very stable.”

  Was his brother mentally unstable? Or was it drugs? Maybe alcohol? Or did he mean violent? I wanted to know what was wrong with him that had Ben momentarily look so unforgiving. I wanted to dig into the layers of this mercurial man and see what remained. His answers were too vague for my liking.

  “What about your parents?” I then asked.

  “What about them?” he replied, looking away from me.

  “Are they here?”

  “No – well, I mean, they were here. But they died a long while ago.”

  “I’m sorry for your loss.” It seemed like such a recycled line to use, but I was short of knowing what else to say. I didn’t know the boundaries when it came to this. Was it alright to ask him how they died?

  Reading me so well, he shot me a weary look. “Too much thinking, beauty. Car accident. That’s how they went.”

  “Oh. That’s rough.”

  He nodded, saying nothing more.

  “Is that why your brother’s unstable?”

  He was taken aback by the question, but he looked equally impressed. His brows came together. “Partly, actually.”

  “I guess we all have ways of acting out,” I remarked.

  “I agree. Different people cope in different ways.”

  Oh, how true that was!

  Thankfully we moved on from that sore topic, and talked about other things. He told me his hobbies, one that included being a pilot, and when I laughed at that, he demanded to know why.

  “Well, because you’re wealthy,” I explained.

  “How do you know I’m wealthy?”

  “It’s sort of obvious.”

  He smiled. “Okay, so why does that warrant a laugh?”

  “Because I always read about rich characters owning their own jet and flying helicopters on the helipad sitting on their roof.”

  He laughed with me. “Actually, I’m going to really disappoint you right now.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I fly those Ultralight planes instead. The one seaters, and sometimes two if some unfortunate soul is daring enough to ride with me. Nowhere near the sphere of flying a bloody helicopter or jet.”

  Oh, my God, I adored him. He was fucking perfect. My heart… gone. Just gone. I wanted to just tear it out of my bleeding chest and give it to him and say, “Keep it! It’s all yours, man.”

  “That is actually very disappointing,” I remarked, feigning that disappointment.

  “Sorry, little lady.”

  “It’s alright, I guess. Not everyone’s perfect.”

  “I can think of someone,” he muttered, obviously referring to me.

  I blushed and rolled my eyes. “Smooth, Ben.”

  “I know. I saw the opportunity and I took it.”

  “Nicely done.”

  “I’ve got more cheap lines in store for later.”

  I laughed again. God, I was going to get abs by tomorrow at this rate.

  The dinner went by perfectly. There was never a quiet moment. Never any awkward pauses. We hit it off, and I was floating like a cloud with happiness.

  It was while we were finishing up our meals when a deep voice sounded out.

  “Costigan!”

  I watched a familiar looking man approach our table. Middle-aged in a black suit and greying hair slicked back. He smiled broadly at Ben and extended his hand while I stared hard at his face, wondering where the hell I’d seen him before.

  Ben took it in a hard grip and a sudden frown on his face. “Macht,” he snipped back.

  Macht?

  Oh, shit.

  John Macht.

  All that happiness from before burst. My mouth parted in shock as I continued gazing at the rich man that had just walked away scot-free from murdering his wife. And he was talking to my man – er, my dinner date, that is.

  If Mom knew about this…

  “So nice to see you eating at my place, and what a pleasure it is bumping into you too. I’ve been trying to get into contact with you recently, but haven’t had any luck.”

  “Well, you should probably keep trying,” Ben retorted icily. “At the moment, I’m unavailable.”

  “But I have a proposition I think you’d be interested in –”

  “Not now –”

  “You will benefit from it greatly –”

  “When I tell you I’m unavailable, John,” Ben cut in harshly, “that means you stop talking and move on. When I’m engaged in personal matters, I don’t care if you’re the fucking pope, you move on.”

  The silence that followed was brutally thick, but not in the way I thought it would be. John Macht looked genuinely frightened, and I couldn’t blame him. I’d never seen Ben act so intimidating before, and it made my body acutely aware of the underlying danger that was working beneath the surface here. Like a flip of a switch, he went from being a flame to an icicle.

  I clasped my hands
together, unable to look away from both Macht and Ben as they faced off.

  “I apologize, Costigan,” Macht then said with a hesitant step back. “I meant absolutely no disrespect. I will make up for my rudeness. I promise. Good night.”

  Without waiting for a response, Macht took off in haste, leaving us alone.

  Leaving me to wonder why a man that got away with murder was terrified of the man I was having dinner with.

  Chapter Eleven

  In a car

  “You’re asking yourself too many questions again.”

  I shook the thoughts away and looked at Ben. He was back to being his soft self, no longer clouded in darkness that had made my bones rigid.

  “Tell me what’s wrong,” he told me.

  “He owns the restaurant,” I stated.

  “Yes.”

  “That’s who you know.”

  He was quick to understand what I was getting at. “Like I said, he isn’t my friend.”

  “But you know him. A murderer.”

  He looked around us, making sure we were out of earshot. “I’m not involved with him in any way, Claire.”

  “He said he needed to discuss a proposition to you –”

  “I worked with him a little before,” he interrupted in a low voice, “but when the charges came to light, I, along with others, cut him out.”

  My eyes narrowed. Why would a rich businessman want to work with a furniture store owner? If only I could look inside that mind and get the answers I needed. It wasn’t fair my feelings were easily discernible to him and not the other way around. He could be so damn reserved. The only giveaway to his soul were his eyes, but even then he closed himself off in difficult situations.

  Like now.

  “You don’t really own a furniture business, do you?”

  “I do,” he replied. “I can take you there if you don’t believe me.”

  “But that’s not all you do, is it?”

  He exhaled. “It’s the only business I own.”

  I shook my head in disbelief. “If you think I’m going to sit back in ignorance and play stupid, then we might as well end this right now.”

  With a fleeting look of irritation, his jaw clenched and his hand closed into a tight fist. He gritted out, “Parts of my life will remain private, Claire. That’s just how it is.”

  I leaned over the table and shot him a seething glare. “So what makes you think I want to stick around?”

  “Don’t play stupid. You knew exactly what it is you were getting yourself into when you came here tonight. The thought was already there.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed on a nod. “And now I’m wondering why I’m sitting here.”

  He ran his tongue along his bottom lip before he leaned forward and said, “Because you love the way I make you feel. Because when I’m with you, you see how genuine I am. You see the way you make me feel. I’m entranced by you, and I’m not used to having someone hold that sort of power over me.”

  His hand took mine firmly, in a way that seemed almost possessive. “I’m not a bad man. I don’t have blood on my hands. There are questionable parts of me, sure, but I won’t be compared to a sick man that murdered his wife and got away with it because his team of lawyers played by the books to his advantage.”

  His eyes darkened as he searched my face. “Don’t think of me like that just because I yield some power in a way I’d rather you be oblivious of. Because that part of me will end. It will be in the past. Especially when I’m feeling the way I do when I’m around you. And I really like being around you. For once, I feel normal. But I could never be with a woman that is frightened of me in any way.”

  He then squeezed my hand and said with passionate conviction, “I will never, ever harm you. Or deceive you. Or betray you. For as long as you’re with me – be it a day, a week, or even a year – I will never treat you less than you deserve to be treated. And I’m a man of my word.”

  My chest swelled from his words. He melted the ice away just by opening that beautiful mouth. God, he was persuasive. Whatever fear I’d felt before instantly fell away, and I didn’t want to rationalize whether that was crazy of me, or stupid. It just was.

  I squeezed his hand back, and the simple gesture eased him.

  “No more thinking,” I said to him. “You’re right.”

  He lifted it to his mouth and laid a kiss over my knuckles, and I could do nothing but watch in happy silence. My body warmed to him. I felt like a lizard seeking heat from the sun, but in this case it was the want in his eyes when they landed on me.

  I bloomed for him.

  It was while he gestured for the cheque that I noticed the clouds had finally burst. Rain trickled down the window in dozens of streaks, blending into one another. They reminded me of paths crossing, the way mine crossed his in one moment in time.

  “Come home with me,” he then said with anticipation.

  I turned to him and my lips curved up. “You think I’d get this dolled up if it didn’t mean getting fucked by the end of the night?”

  He stared, amazed by my vulgarity, before he broke out into a laugh. “Oh, beauty, you certainly have loosened up.”

  Yeah, because fuck you, shyness. I succumbed to your embrace for far too long, and I was ready to break free.

  *****

  I squealed as the rain pounded down on me. I leaped back under the restaurant cover and shook my head defiantly at Ben.

  “We’re catching a taxi,” he told me.

  “Then go get the taxi. I’m not going to get soaked finding one in this weather. You’re going to have to call for one.”

  He smiled. “There’ll be one waiting for us down the street. The same one that took you here. I wanted him around, waiting for us.”

  “Are you serious? How much did you pay the guy?”

  “A very generous amount. So, come on.”

  I shook my head again and pouted. “Fuck no. Be a gentleman and get it.”

  He stood there, getting soaked by the rain, dazzling me with that amused smile. Fuck, he was gorgeous when he was dressed and wet. But being around an attractive man didn’t mean I was going to jump when he told me to. Getting wet was not on my agenda tonight.

  “Alright,” he said after a moment. “At least kiss me goodbye before I go.”

  “That can be done.”

  He stepped forward and took my face into his hand. He kissed me, wrapping his other arm tightly around my waist.

  “Claire,” he then muttered, “since we’re getting to know each other and all, I think it’s due time I tell you I usually get my way.”

  “How do you mean?” I asked, rubbing my nose against his.

  It took less than a second before he picked me up around the waist and waded into the rain. I screamed and twisted my body around, but he simply laughed in return.

  “You’re an asshole,” I cursed. “Do you know how long it took me to straighten my hair? I’m going to look like a caveman after this. I’m so angry.” No, I wasn’t. I was getting drenched in cold rain, but I’d never felt more gleeful in my life.

  While everyone around us ran for cover, Ben turned into a dark alleyway and put me down. I felt my back hit the brick wall and his mouth instantly covered mine. His arms wrapped around me, swallowing me whole with his giant frame that shielded most of my body from the rain.

  I groaned at the close contact, wrapping my arms around his neck. His mouth worked mine passionately as he gripped my hips with both hands.

  “I wanted to see you in the rain,” he panted against me, licking the drops along my jawline. “And taste it on your skin. I want to know what turns you on, and what makes you want to fly off the edge. I want to know your sexual weaknesses so I can open them up and torture you with them.”

  Oh, Ben. How could he not know? My sexual weakness was him.

  I closed my eyes as his hands began exploring my body. I shivered when he brought his hand beneath my dress and to the sensitive skin between my thighs. The same hand went back
down and slowly roamed my upper body.

  He pinched my nipple through the fabric of my dress and huskily said, “I want to know what you haven’t done before and give them to you. And make the experience right.”

  He licked along my upper lip as he stared into my eyes with that breathless hunger I was quickly disarmed by. Then he took me by the hand and we took off down the sidewalk. Like he said, the taxi was parked at the end of the street, and the driver was cursing people away as they approached for rides.

  When he saw us, he unlocked the doors and we slid into the backseat. I ran both hands through my drenched hair and pressed against Ben’s side, seeking warmth. He wrapped his arms around me, bringing me into his lap, and said to the driver, “Home.”

  My body was buzzing, my breaths were short and fast, and Ben’s scent intoxicated me. I pressed my face into his neck and couldn’t resist kissing him lightly, uncaring of the driver or my impropriety. He held me tight, but his hand pulled my dress down as though to keep me modest.

  I was so aroused by the kiss in the alleyway, I mindlessly licked along his jawline before pressing my lips against his ear.

  “In a car,” I whispered to him.

  I waited for him to understand what I meant. I moved back to look at him. Slowly realization dawned on his face and his breaths slowed.

  “You’ve never done it in a car,” he whispered to me.

  I shook my head, smiling coyly.

  His eyes lapped my body a few times before he opened his mouth and said, “Pull over someplace quiet and grab something to eat, Juan.”

  The taxi driver – Juan, I guessed – pulled over in a nearly empty parking lot and did exactly as he was told. Jeesh, the guy must have been paid well to follow these kind of bizarre instructions. He turned the engine off and stepped out in the rain. He left us alone in the darkness, with nothing but the sound of our breaths and the pounding of rain on the roof of the car.

  Ben kissed me softly as he moved me off of him. He settled my back against the passenger door and hiked my dress up.

  “You really haven’t done it in a car?” he asked me with this strange desperation in his voice.