“We’ve wasted so much time,” she fretted. “Years we could have been together – should have been together. And then, when we finally met up again, somehow found each other, you were – with her. With Elle. And you broke my heart all over again.”

“Hush.” He caressed her cheek. “That’s all over now. Should never have happened in the first place. Elle was a good friend, a nice person, but that’s really as far as it went for me. She knew there had been someone else, someone I was still in love with, and I think it drove her a little crazy to think about it. Especially since I always made it clear that I didn’t love her that way. She’d fly into these jealous rages simply if another woman said hello to me. And she was always suspicious of you, accused me more than once of having an affair with you.”

“Me, too. It was at the holiday party last year, the night you and I danced together. Guess maybe we got a little carried away with the whole staring into each other’s eyes bit for her liking. Enough that she actually threatened to go to Daddy’s friend the big boss and have me fired if I didn’t leave you alone.”

“What?” Ben stared at her in slack-jawed disbelief. “You’ve got to be joking. I never imagined her paranoia would go to that sort of extreme. Is that why you seemed more distant than usual towards me after the party?”

Lauren gave a little shrug. “Maybe. Mostly, though, it just seemed sort of hopeless at that point. And you know what? I really don’t want to talk about Elle anymore right now. I’ve just had two of the worst days of my life, only to have all of that forgotten the second I saw you waiting for me at the airport. So I’d really rather just focus on that instead. Okay?”

“Totally okay,” Ben whispered, pulling her head down to his for a long, searching kiss. His hands drifted to the belt of her robe, spreading the sides apart and pushing it off her body. Almost reverently, he traced a finger around one taut pink nipple. “And these are still the most sensational tits I’ve ever seen.”

“They’d better be,” she gasped as he lifted one breast to his lips and tugged the nipple between his teeth.

Ben rose up from the chair in one fluid motion, picking her up as he did so. He practically tossed her on the bed before quickly pulling off his clothes and joining her.

“And nothing, nothing,” he whispered in her ear as his hands roved greedily over her body, “has ever felt as good, as right, as this. And every time I’d remember how good it was between us, what I’d walked away from, I died a little bit more on the inside.”

Lauren clutched his head to her breasts, stroking his hair soothingly. “It was the same for me,” she murmured. “It’s like I was half alive for six years. So, come on, Blue Eyes. It’s way past time for us to be whole again.”

He kissed a path down between her breasts to her belly, his hands stroking over her hips, thighs, ass, as he did so. “Let me, sweetheart,” he urged, spreading her legs apart. “I’m dying to taste you after all this time.”

At the first lick of his tongue against her clit, her hips bucked up off the mattress as she clutched handfuls of the sheets. “Mmm, ohh, that’s sooo good,” she panted, as his fingers began a slow steady rhythm, pumping in and out of her slick, tight pussy. At the same time his tongue fluttered delicately against the inner folds of her labia before his lips closed over her clit, sucking hard. That was really all it took for her to climax, her lower body thrashing wildly to and fro as he kept at her, refusing to give her a respite from his unselfish attentions.

But as she was finally coming back down to earth, his finger began to trace over a spot on the tender flesh of her inner thigh.

“I, ah, think I’ve found one of those mysterious additional tattoos of yours,” he chuckled. “And now I know why that gigolo Franco thought my own ink looked so familiar. You had him make a duplicate.”

“Yes,” she confessed. “It was my own personal little reminder of you. One that only I would recognize. A way to keep a tiny part of you with me forever.”

As his tongue traced around the tiny mark, she flinched a bit. “That tickles,” she giggled.

Ben lifted his head and gave her a wry smile. “I’m just guessing it didn’t exactly tickle when that bastard inked you, though.”

She nodded. “You’d be right. Even with the numbing it still hurt like fuck.”

He scowled. “And you had to have it put right here? The thought of his hands on you here, so close to - ”

Lauren laughed and tweaked his nose as though he was a pouting child. “Relax, honey. The whole time Franco was working on this his wife was sitting there chatting with me. And if that doesn’t sound like enough of a cockblocker, both of his kids were playing in the room at the same time.”

“I guess,” replied Ben sullenly. “But do I even want to ask what – and where – tattoo number six might be?”

In reply she promptly flopped over onto her stomach and gave a little wiggle of her ass. She knew the second he found the tiny, almost indiscernible mark by his hoot of laughter.

“Lips?” he chuckled. “What’s the reason behind this one?”

She tilted her head up at him inquiringly. “You don’t remember? Well, allow me to refresh your memory. We were in bed, just like this, and I’d had my wicked way with you about four times in a row. You were kissing my back and then my butt, and you said - ”

“That I wish I could leave an imprint of my lips right here because you had such a perfect little ass,” he recalled. And then his mouth covered the exact same spot as the tattoo before traveling a slow path up her spine to the nape of her neck. “And do you remember what happened after that?” he whispered wickedly in her ear.

“Hmm. Let me think,” she said teasingly. “Did we take a nap? Watch the baseball game? Or did we – ow!”

She flinched as he gave her a quick smack on the ass, his voice clearly amused. “No, you little witch. That is not what we did. What happened next was - ”

Lauren gasped as he pulled and pushed her thighs apart, bending her legs out to the side as he slid the full, hard length of his cock inside of her body with one hard thrust.

“Ohh,” she moaned. “Oh, yeah. It – it all comes back to me now.”

***

The sun had set, and they had barely ten minutes before they had to meet the others for dinner. Lauren was calmly digging through her bag for clean clothes, stark naked and completely unselfconscious, while Ben could only stand there and try his best not to drool.

“Okay. Found them. My very last set of clean undies. I have no idea what I’m going to wear home tomorrow,” she fretted.

He stepped in behind her, the fabric of his jeans rough against the bare skin of her thighs. “If you can hustle this cute little butt up, we can make a quick stop at the gift shop in the lobby.”

“Deal.” She pulled on her clothes in record time, ran a brush through her hair, and took him by the hand. “Let’s go.”

Ben shook his head in amazement as they began to walk towards the elevator. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone get dressed that quickly. I guess the thought of buying new lingerie is a great motivator.”

Lauren grinned, patting his cheek. “It isn’t that, honey. I’m starving again, so the faster we run our little errand, the faster I can start shoving breadsticks into my mouth. And tequila.”

He slid an arm around her waist, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “As long as its not that extra expensive brand you like so much, especially since this meal is going to be on the magazine. And I was actually thinking that champagne might be more appropriate tonight.”

“You’re right,” she agreed. “I guess we do have a lot to celebrate, don’t we? Like not dying in a plane crash for one.”

“Well, there is that for sure,” he drawled. “And then, of course, there’s the fact that you and I are back together since you finally agreed to listen to my explanation.”