Her eyes narrowed and she stated, “I have to work with him, Ben.”

“Right. I get that. But stay away from this. Stay away from talk about this man who was murdered. Put your head down. Do your job. Let whatever happened blow over.”

Her eyes stayed narrowed as she replied, “I kinda was intending to do that already.”

“Take the ‘kinda’ outta that and we’re good.”

“Benny!” she snapped.

“Baby, you and murder and dicks…not a good combination. It doesn’t have anything to do with you. Let it play out not havin’ anything to do with you.”

“It can’t have anything to do with me, Ben. There’re rumors it was a professional hit. Obviously, the guy got into someone for money or pissed someone off he shouldn’t have. I mean, it’s shocking but shit happens. It has nothing to do with me.”

“Keep it that way.”

At that, her brows shot up. “I’m hardly gonna start my own amateur investigation.”

“Good news.”

“Benny!” she snapped, louder this time.

“Cara, this guy got murdered and he worked for your company. My brother was murdered. My woman was shot. You live in Brownsburg. I live in Chicago. Not easy for me to keep an eye on you the way a man should keep an eye on his woman, and I don’t like that normally. When professional hits are carried out on your coworkers, I really don’t like that. Cut me some slack here, yeah?”

She glared at him as she announced, “And this is yet another time you’ve made protectiveness annoying.”

He grinned, lunged, caught her around the back of her neck, and pulled her to him so she slammed into his body.

Luckily, she’d put down her mug.

Also luckily, she tipped her head back to say something smart so he had his target and he aimed.

His tongue sweep encountered donut, coffee, and Frankie. Getting that, even though he’d fucked her before donuts and coffee, he wanted her again.

On her knees.

First, fucking her face.

After that, taking her pussy.

So he ordered, “Finish your donut. In the mood to fuck you again.”

Her eyes widened, her body melted into his, but her mouth said, “So annoying.”

“We could spend the day at the pool,” he suggested.

“Annoying.”

He grinned. “You want me to fuck you.”

She glared and snapped, “Annoying!”

His hand tightened on the back of her neck and he dipped his face close to hers. “You want it.”

“Benny, you’re making it impossible to eat my donut,” she shared.

He put his mouth to hers and whispered, “Finish it quick, baby. I want you to drop right here and take my cock in your mouth.”

Again, her eyes got wide right before her lids went hooded.

Since he talked her through it, there was nothing in bed that fazed his Frankie. She was up for anything with no hang-ups.

Now, all attitude gone, sweet wonder was in its place when she asked, “Are you hard?”

“Oh yeah.”

She slid a hand over his hip and he touched his tongue to her lower lip when she felt for herself.

“I can eat my donut later,” she stated and proved this true, putting it on the counter.

Ben could eat his later too and knew he’d be doing that when Frankie dropped right down to her knees in front of him, opened his fly, pulled him free, didn’t hesitate a second, and took him deep.

Ben’s head fell back at the brilliant feel of the sweet pull when she slid him out and the sweeter glide when she took him back in.

He looked down and watched her work and that didn’t last very long before he slid his fingers into either side of her hair, pulling it back, and then taking over.

She held on to his hips as he watched and fucked her face. He did it slow at first, but after he got her first moan vibrating against his cock, he went faster. Finally, he watched her body start moving with his rhythm, coming up and down on her knees like she was riding him with her pussy with each stroke, and he knew she was liking this near as much as he was when he saw her hand move toward her panties.

That was when he pulled out, reached down, yanked her up, and pushed her against the kitchen counter, facing it.

“Baby,” she breathed.

He yanked up the skirt of her dress and tore her panties down to her thighs. She spread her legs and tipped her ass.

Fuck, Frankie. Ready. Wanting it. Probably so wet she was drenched.

He drove in.

Totally soaked.

Fuck.

Frankie.

He kept thrusting into her wet, tight pussy, bending over her to put a hand on the counter and press his chest into her back, face in her neck, smelling and feeling her hair, fucking her cunt, hearing her gasp and whimper, everything that was his world centered on his woman.

She tipped high and pressed up into his chest, her hips into his, moaning, “Benny.”

He slid a hand over her belly, down, and found her clit.

“Benny,” she gasped, her body jerking, one hand moving to cover his on the counter and curl over the top of it.

He bent his knees and powered deep.

Her neck twisted and her back arched as her cunt tightened around his cock and she cried out when she came.

He took his finger from her clit, wrapped his arm around her belly, held her steady, and drove in deeper.

She whimpered through it, clutching him tight with her pussy until she took him there. He shoved his face deeper into her neck and exploded on a grunt against her skin.

He kept taking her, gliding his hand back down her belly and in, cupping her, feeling his cock slide in and out slowly, how wet she was, how deep she was breathing. Fuck, he couldn’t even see her face and everything he had from her was crazy-beautiful.

She slid a hand down his forearm, his wrist, then covered his hand between her legs, holding there lightly but shifting her index finger so she could run it along his cock as he pulled it out and glided it back in.

He buried his face deeper into her neck.

Finally, he twisted his hand, taking hers from between her legs, and slid out. He straightened, put his hands to her hips, and turned her to face him. He pulled up her panties and pulled down the stretchy skirt to her sexy-as-fuck, threw-it-on-like-it-was-nothing, straight-from-the-pages-of-a-magazine tight black dress.

He righted himself while brushing his lips against hers, her hands curling into the waistband of his jeans as he did.

Finally, he lifted his head and said, “You can finish your donut now.”

Her eyes were still hooded and sated from her climax.

But still, pure Frankie, she whispered, “Annoying.”

***

“Don’t court that either, Frankie.”

Lying on top of him on her couch, she lifted her head from his chest and looked down at him.

They had been winding down after dinner, about to watch a movie, discussing which one to watch as Benny shuffled through Netflix, and somehow they got to the fact that Frankie had not heard from Cat since before the shooting.

“Ben, she can disappear, but she’s never disappeared. I’m worried.”

“Francesca, the last time I saw Cat and Art was at Vinnie’s wake. Before that, every time I saw them, they were half a step away from bein’ functional alcoholics. They were hammered at Vinnie’s wake, and watchin’ them, I figured they took that half a step but took out the functional part. They tried to leave with Art havin’ the keys to the car. Pop intervened. Art lost his mind and Manny and I had to step in, get ’em into a taxi.”

Her eyes had grown wide while he talked, and when he was done, she asked, “Really?”

“Yeah,” he answered.

“How’d I miss that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it was because your man had a hit carried out on him. He was dead at thirty-two. You were understandably beside yourself, grieving. And your sister, who should have been at your side holdin’ your hand, was downing vodka tonics like they were gonna outlaw vodka the next day.”

“Oh, yeah,” she whispered. “That’s probably how I missed it.”

He shook his head and muttered, “Unbelievable.”

“What?” she asked.

“You nearly imploded us, thinkin’ you were gonna bail on me, and you hold tight to anything you got, no matter that it’s not good for you.”

“She’s my sister, Benny, and Dad’s havin’ a baby any day now. Enzo’s already had two. Enzo says she’s not answering his calls either. And Nat says she hasn’t heard from her in longer than I haven’t heard from her.”

He felt his brows snap together. “You’re talkin’ to Nat?”

Her head tipped to the side. “Not exactly. I’m keepin’ tabs on her through Enzo.”

“Thought she was dead to you,” Ben noted.

Frankie bit her lip for a moment before she said, “She’s dead to me, but she isn’t actually dead.”

Jesus.

Frankie.

“Leave it at that,” he ordered.

“I can’t,” she returned, her voice rising.

He tightened his arms around her and pulled her up his chest so they were face-to-face.

“I get it,” he said quietly. “You didn’t have a lot to hold on to growin’ up. It would stand to reason you not growin’ up with anything solid, that you’d hold on to anything you can get. But you gotta learn when to cut shit that is not healthy for you loose.”

Her face softened and her tone lightened as she slid a hand up to curl it around his jaw and said, “Ben, I’m seein’ things clearer now, but I am who I am. And I need you to see that’s how I am. I also need you to see that how I am is okay now. It’s better. Because now I do have something solid, so when the unhealthy part comes, I can deal.”