Come to Me Recklessly Read Online Free PDF Page A

them was just like lifting a big ol’ middle finger, one directed at Ben, one I’d never be brave enough to give him.
    One that told him to stop acting like my father and more like my partner.
    My lover.
    But I’d started to question whether I still wanted him to be either of those things.
    An unwelcome cringe assaulted me with the thought, followed by a wave of guilt. I knew I shouldn’t be in this place and with this man if it didn’t make me happy. If my heart wasn’t committed to this relationship. But my heart belonged in a place it should never go, to a man it never should have known, to an entity who was just as callous as Ben and my mother had promised he would be.
    This… this was where I belonged.
    I headed into the walk-in closet that lined the back of the bathroom, the space jammed full of both my and Ben’s things. The house was quaint but nice, a little on the small side, what most new families would consider a starter home.
    No doubt it’d be scorching out, so I dressed in a flowy white skirt that went just past my knees, a cute pink top to match, and white sandals to top the outfit off. My pedicured red toenails peeked out, the color almost as red as the natural color of my lips. I brushed on the same clear lip gloss I’d picked up over the weekend.
    I never put color on my lips.
    For very foolish reasons.
    But it was something that had stuck with me all these years.
    I was almost tempted to grab one of the lipsticks Ben had surprised me with over the years, all of them left unopened, just to mute the vibrant color out. But doing so felt wrong, like a slap to the perfect memories I had of him, the ones I cherished before everything had gone right down a festering drain.
    Hearing the shuffling behind me, I glanced up through the large mirror above the sink to find Ben lumbering into the bathroom, scratching his bare stomach while his mouth was wide with a yawn that was turned toward the ceiling.
    He wasn’t an unattractive man. Quite the opposite.
    And he definitely knew it.
    His dark blond hair was a morning mess and his chocolate eyes watched me with appreciation as he approached.
    I shuddered, and he smirked.
    This was the part I hated, Ben watching me like he wanted to eat me when I had a hard time thinking of him as something beyond a friend.
    “I see someone has left me with quite the invitation this morning… can’t say I don’t like it.” His voice was rough with the innuendo, and he went right for the hem of my skirt. He ran his hands up the outsides of my legs, gathering the material as he went, gripping my thighs.
    “Sorry, but that’s not going to happen. I have to be at work in fifteen minutes.”
    He ground himself against my ass. “I can make it fast.”
    I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. No question he could.
    Wriggling out of his hold, I sidestepped him, mustering the best smile I could find. “Sorry, babe, but I really have to go. You’ll have to take a rain check.”
    Annoyance twisted his face into a scowl. “Those rain checks just keep piling up. You owe me big. One of these days I’m going to keep you in bed the entire day so you can pay up.”
    Right.
 
    I always owed him and he never let me forget it. But this was the one debt I was always loath to pay.
    His eyes softened, and he grabbed my hand and pulled me into his chest. “I just miss you,” he whispered at the top of my head.
    Another pang of guilt ribbed me, and I sighed into his hold, remembering how good he’d always been to me. Even though he pulled so much of this overbearing crap, I knew he really cared about me. “I know… I’m sorry I’ve been so busy lately. This new job is exhausting, so by the time I make it home at night, I’m completely spent.”
    He kissed my temple. “Just as long as you’re coming home to me at night, that’s all that matters.”
    Nodding weakly, I pulled away. “I’ll see you later.”
     
    I hadn’t been lying when I told Ben I was spent by the end of the