5
Ben
“We can go shopping if you don’t care for any of the things we brought,” Pink tells Bunny as she moves the bags of clothes to the side.
The girls didn’t let me down. I’d told them to go all out with getting Bunny anything she might need from clothes to any of the shit girls use. They hauled in bags and bags of crap.
“No, this is already too much. You’re all so kind.” Bunny leans over into me, feeling shy. We’ve moved to the sitting area that’s off the kitchen.
Ollie is putting the leftovers from our meal into containers to save them for later. She not only cooked dinner, but she made a bunch of other things that can be heated up later. I’m a shit cook, so I’m grateful that she’s stocked the fridge.
I’ve never really picked up on cooking. There was no need to with Ollie in the house growing up. She loved to do it. Even though she’s my little sister, she slipped into a bit of the mom role when we all lived at home.
Hell, sometimes she still shows up at my house and does shit. I’ve come home from a work trip to find my kitchen stocked full. Well, that used to be the case, anyway. Not so much now that she’s knocked up and married, but she still swings by from time to time. It’s in her nature to be a caretaker. I won’t be surprised if she ends up with a herd of kids. And seeing the way my brother-in-law, Jason, looks at her, I’m pretty sure that will be the case.
The sudden thought of having my own herd of kids hits me. My eyes drop to Bunny, my brain conjuring up the image of her pregnant. I quickly push the thought out of my head. So not the fucking time. I’ve already been fighting a hard-on, so I don't need to add fuel to the fire.
“Don’t be silly. We’re here for you.” Pink drops down on the sofa next to Bunny so she’s in between us. “If you need anything, you can call Ollie or me. We programmed our numbers into your phone.”
“Phone?” Bunny peeks up at me.
“I’ve got it,” Ollie calls from the kitchen. “It’s in my purse.” She walks over and grabs it. “I set it up like you asked, and we put some numbers in.” She holds it out toward Bunny and me.
“It’s mine?” Bunny asks, still a bit confused. Or maybe not confused but surprised I got her a phone. I take it from my sister’s hand.
“Yes, it’s yours, babe.” She sucks her bottom lip into her mouth at my term of endearment.
I’m really trying not to come on too strong. I told myself when we left the hospital I was going to go slowly with her. She’s already been through so much. The plan was to just be really fucking good to her. Give her all the time she needs to recover and figure stuff out.
In the meantime, for her to start falling for me. I know I could tell her all I wanted that I am here for her, but what she truly needs is for me to show her. I want to be a steady force in her life that she can always count on without a second thought. To let her see for herself what kind of man I’d be for her.
I have this fear that she already belongs to someone else. That when everything comes back to her, she might remember she has a boyfriend or some shit. Her being a virgin at least nixed a husband. I eyed her ring finger to see if there was an outline of some kind from an engagement ring, but I didn’t see one, so I knocked that off the list. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a boyfriend.
My thought process, albeit flawed, is that if I can get her to fall in love with me and see that I’m better than whatever fucker she might have had before, than she’ll stay with me. I mean clearly if she does have someone, he sucks ass because he hadn’t wifed her little ass or protected her. Is my line of thinking fucked up? Sure. Do I care? I could lie and say I feel a little bad about it, but the honest truth is I don’t give one flying fuck.
If Bunny was my woman, her picture would be plastered on every news station. The whole world would be looking for her, but so far, we haven't found shit for a missing person that matches her. We started local the second we found her.
Each time we come back with nothing, we broaden the search, but we can only go so quickly. We’re doing this under the radar. It’s why we don’t have her face blasted everywhere because I do believe someone is looking for her. So we have to be careful until we know what their intentions are toward her.
I’m sure whoever bought her has an interest in her whereabouts as well. I don’t want him knowing anything about where she is. Hell, the press doesn’t even know about Flex Kilduff being dead. That’s part of why a shelter was never on the table. The only place I would have allowed her to go would have been a safe house where I could have kept an eye on her.
Luckily, she agreed to come with me. I didn’t want to throw the words safe house out there or let her know I was worried that someone was still looking for her. I don’t have hard proof of that yet, but I know he is. Because if it were me, I’d stop at nothing to have Bunny, and I’m sure this man is the same way, and I’m betting the price Flex sold her for was extreme if he took the time to take her with him when he ran. It risked slowing him down and upped the chance of him being caught, but she’d been worth it to him.
After her freak out earlier, when she thought my sister could be my girlfriend, plans changed. Not fully—I still know she needs time, but she already has some kind of feelings for me and that I could more than work with.
“Thank you.” Bunny takes the phone from my hand and starts to click around with it.
“I set up some of the apps we talked about,” Ollie says.
“If there is something you need that’s not here, you can order from Amazon or the grocery app,” I tell her.
“Yep. I logged into Ben’s accounts so you’re good to go. I put the Kindle app on there too. It’s linked up with your Kindle. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I read on my phone if I’m stuck in a line somewhere or something. It’s handy to have.”
“I don’t have a Kindle.” She taps the Kindle app.
“You do. It’s in the bag with the MacBook,” Pink tells her. “Oh, did you do the Audible app too?”
“Audible?” I ask, having no clue what that is. I’m guessing it has to do with books. Pink, Ollie, and Vee, Ollie’s best friend who is like a little sister to me, can go on about books for hours.
“Audiobooks,” Bunny says. Her brows pull together. An adorable confused look takes over her face. “How come I know things like what Audible is and how to use this phone but I don’t remember my life?”
“I have no clue,” Ollie says.
“The brain works in crazy ways. I think you’re suppressing things, though. Because you didn’t have any trauma to your head,” Pink adds. That’s exactly what the doctor thinks too: that Bunny doesn’t want to remember. That scares the shit out of me.
“You got me too much. I can’t take all this.” Tears start to fill her eyes. Fuck me. I’m overwhelming her. So much for taking it slowly.
“I think we should head out. Let you get settled in.” Ollie stands. We lock eyes, and I give her a silent thank you.
“If you need anything, text. We already started a group text.” Pink leans down and hugs her. Ollie does the same.
“Thank you,” Bunny says again.
“As far as I’m concerned, you’re one of us now. We don’t need all those thank yous. You’re family,” Ollie tells her before both she and Pink duck out. No sooner does the door close than Bunny is crawling over into my lap, surprising the hell out of me before bursting into tears.
“Bunny.” I whisper her name as I hold her close with one arm while the other soothes her. Her tears rip me apart, but her clinging to me helps. “I’ve got you,” I try to reassure her. Thankfully, the tears soon stop.
“I always feel so much better when I’m hanging on to you.”
“Hang away,” I tell her, meaning it.
“I can’t live clinging to you.”
“I don’t know. We haven't tried. Might take some adjustment, but we’ll work it out.” A small giggle leaves her. Buttons jumps onto the sofa next to us, nudging her. She lifts her head from out of my neck.
“I think he’s jealous I’m stealing your attention.” She reaches out and pets his head.
“I think it is your attention he wants. He’s not nudging my arm.”
“Oh.” A smile plays on her lips. She keeps on petting him. “Do they sleep in the laundry room?”
“Not when I’m home. They sleep in my bedroom. Dino has a rug he favors at the end of the bed, and Buttons has a tower he sleeps on the top of so he can remind us all he’s in charge and is watching our every move so we better stay in line.” I expect her to laugh, but she chews on her bottom lip. Something she does when she is unsure of something. “Go on, Bunny. Ask me anything you want. Nothing is off limits. Tell me what's working in that pretty head of yours.”
“You really think I’m pretty?” She peeks up at me through her lashes.
“I think you’re more than pretty, Bunny.” I slowly lean in so she realizes what I’m doing, pressing my lips to her neck right below her ear. She sighs, tilting her head, letting me know she wants more.
I’m more than happy to oblige. I trail kisses down her neck and back up. A small moan leaves her. The sweetest sound I’ve ever heard comes from her. I can’t control my cock. It jerks against her ass. It’s been hard since she crawled into my lap because I’m a bastard. She was in tears, but her soft body that smells of peaches was too much for me to fight.
“Ben?” A small gasp leaves her.
“Sorry, Bunny. You’re in my lap.”
“That’s all it takes for you to get…” She trails off.
“You merely existing gets me hard.”
“Really?” She turns her head my way, her whole face lit up. Fuck me. She likes that she turns me on so easily. Good.
“Yeah, now tell me what you were getting worked up about.”
“Bedtime.”
“Your nightmares?” She nods.
“Well, you can sleep in my bed and I could take the floor so I’m close.”
“The floor?” Her face drops. “You can’t sleep in the bed with me? I like you close.”
“Bunny, I’d sleep on gravel if it made you happy and you slept better. I only suggested the floor so you didn’t feel pressured for me to be in the bed.”
“No, I don’t feel that at all.” She turns in my lap. It’s not until she’s fully shifted does she realize how she positioned herself. “Oh, I—”
“Nope.” I grip her hips. “I wanna be real clear 'cause you keep getting flustered on me. You can sit on my head for all I care, and I’m not going to mind. You want to sit on my lap this way, have at it. You don’t have to hesitate when it comes to you touching me.” Thankfully, her face lights back up for me. “Got it?”
“Got it.”
“Now, you wanna go lie in the bed? We can watch a movie or something.”
“I’d love that.” I stand with her in my arms, carrying her toward the bedroom. She wraps herself around me.
I hope she never lets go.