Page 7 of Hot n Bothered

I sobelle stared up at Ben. Surely he was kidding right?

She didn’t think she could come again, not after those intense ones, she'd never achieved more than two even by herself.

But then he moved, slowly at first, really drawing it out.

He kissed her as though he was a drowning man and she was his oxygen.

She ran her nails down his back and he arched up hissing her name.

His hips moved faster until he was slamming into her hard and fast. She licked and nipped the skin at his neck and shoulder.

Closing her eyes at the sensations that were going through her.

She’d read about how a good fucking could be a religious experience and thought it was an over exaggeration used by romance authors.

But…

Oh.

My.

Fucking.

God!!

She bit down hard on his shoulder to stop from screaming. Where had that come from? She was never vocal before. He jerked and blasted out her name before collapsing on top of her breathing hard. She was so exhausted, she could do little else than close her eyes with a satisfied sigh.

His shoulders moved under her hands as he chuckled.

“You sound like you’re falling asleep.” He said pressing soft kisses to her shoulder, lifting his weight from her.

She could only manage an. “Uh huh.”

“Go to sleep then my sweet Belle. I’ll be here when you wake.” He pressed a kiss to her lips.

She felt him get off her and move to her side, she couldn't even open her eyes when she felt him cleaning her. All she could do was sigh a thanks. When he'd finished he pulled her into his arms and she felt his lips at her forehead before she slipped asleep.

Isobelle slowly woke up thinking her weighted blanket had gotten twisted up again across her ribs.

But then last night came flooding back. She was in Ben’s bed, the weight was his arms wrapped around her pulling her back into his chest. His forehead to her neck, steady breaths brushing her shoulder showed he was still asleep.

She smiled when she clocked the time. He was never one to wake up early anyway. She still couldn’t believe he wanted her, that this was real. She wanted to lay there and just enjoy being held by him. But now she was awake her body demanded she move or it would embarrass her.

She felt a resounding satisfaction to the way his arms tightened around her when she tried to extract herself out of his embrace.

After she slid from the bed she was sure she heard him sigh her name.

She quickly dressed and used the bathroom, while she was tempted to return to his bed, to him, she needed coffee first.

She stretched her arms above her head as she made her way downstairs. Her entire body felt like it had done a massive workout. She smiled to herself, well it had.

“Morning. Sleep well?”

She froze to realise the others had also spent the night, did they know she hadn’t slept in the spare room? Was this something to tell them? Would Ben want them to know? Or is this something he would want to keep as a secret?

“Not in that spare bed.” Rob said. “It’s much too hard. I’m glad you took it, the sofa is much more comfortable.”

“Birthday boy still snoozing?” Darren asked. “Coffee?”

“Yes and probably.”

“You probably want coffee?”

“Other way round.”

Urgh, why were they still here and this wide awake? They were making her all flustered. She didn’t know what to say, she sucked at lying and everyone knew that. Her stupid face went bright red and she couldn’t look at anyone.

Joey laughed. “He’s probably still passed out, the amount he had to drink last night.”

“Huh?” She frowned at him stretched out on the sofa. Ben hadn’t seemed that drunk last night, in fact she thought he was sober.

“Or he’s up there with those hotties.” Rich waggled his eyebrows. “I noticed they disappeared right before he did.”

“Lucky man.” Joey yawned. “I tried chatting some of them up but they all shut me down.”

“Good.” Darren passed Isobelle a coffee. “They were bitches.”

Rich snorted from his position on the floor. “What’s with that attitude? Not like they turned you down as well. Ow! What the fuck Cat?” He yelped as she slapped him on the back of his head.

“They were saying horrible things about our Iz. That’s why they were bitches.”

Isobelle smiled at her. “Thanks Cat.”

“Who invited them anyway?” Bianca mumbled, eyes still closed, her head on Cat’s lap.

“Thought you’d gone back to sleep babe.” Cat smoothed the hair from her face. “And I suspect it was the creep we call Joey.”

“And I bet he name dropped Ben to get them to come.” Darren shot him a look as he had the decency to look ashamed.

“Yeah well I didn’t realise they’d be mean to you Iz. Sorry about that.” He grimaced.

“Was that why you disappeared?” Cat asked.

She could feel her face burn so she took a big gulp of coffee instead of answering. Her mind returning to what Joey had said about Ben being drunk.

“What’s up?” Darren asked, eyeing the way she was chewing on her nail.

“Just wondering how drunk Ben was last night.”

Joey snorted. “Very. I counted around nine beers. Why?”

It started sinking in that was the reason Ben had wanted her. After all what was Joey’s favourite joke? What’s the difference between a dog and a fox? About eight pints.

“Hun? What’s going on?” Cat reached up and tugged on her sleeve to get her attention.

“Oh nothing. No, I’m fine. I just realised I have a massive pile of washing to get done or I’ll have to wear a Halloween costume to work tomorrow.

” She gave a small smile, that wasn’t exactly a lie.

She always had a mountain of washing. “I really should get to it. I don’t think I can wait for Ben to wake up to say goodbye that’s all. ”

“You should. He’s trying us on a new breakfast recipe this morning.” Rob said. “Richie and Katie are going to be gutted they went home last night.”

Just then they heard the sound of the toilet flushing and the sink being used.

“Hey, perfect timing. Morning sunshine.” Rob shouted as Ben walked down the stairs rubbing his eyes. “Who did you wake up next to?”

Ben frowned at all of them, his eyes didn’t even pause on her.

“No one.” He replied grumpily. “Why? What did you hear?”

“Nothing. We were speculating where the bitches disappeared to that’s all.”

“Bitches?” He looked confused.

Isobelle felt sick to her stomach. He had been so drunk he couldn’t remember anything from last night.

“Yeah, those model looking girls.” Cat said. “They said horrible things about our Iz. That’s why she went into your spare room for the rest of the night.”

“I think it was more to write.” Darren nudged her with his shoulder. “You know what she’s like when she gets a story stuck in her head.”

Ben finally looked at her, but she couldn’t meet his eyes.

It hurt too fucking much that the best night of her life was just a drunken fuck.

And to make matters worse a forgotten drunken fuck.

Her face burned with embarrassment and hurt.

Then shame at the idea she didn't get proper consent from him.

Oh God, what had she done? She should've realised, why else would he want someone like her?

She shrugged. “Actually I just went to sleep, I was really tired I zonked that’s all.” She drained her mug. She needed to get out of there. The coffee was souring in her stomach. She was the worst.

Joey laughed. “You mean passed out. Come on Iz you easily went through six beers last night. Never known you drink so much.”

“How is it you suddenly know how much everyone drank?” Rob asked.

“Pure talent. Four and a half beers.” He grinned at him smugly.

“We’re trying to get Iz to stay for your new breakfast recipe.” Rob said sticking his tongue out at Joey who just grinned.

“I… I can’t.” She passed her empty mug to Darren. “I have too much stuff to get on with.” She kept her eyes on the floor as she hugged herself.

“Come on Iz, stay.” Joey said.

“If she wants to go, let her go.” Ben said. “I don’t want to force her into doing something she doesn’t want to.”

“And on that note I’m out of here. See you guys.” She rushed out, just about remembering to take her bag.

She was proud that she kept her composure for as long as she did. She got strange looks on the bus because she was crying so much. Once home she hid under her duvet and switched off her phone so she could really cry it out of her system.

For the next few weeks she fobbed Darren and all the invites from everyone off.

She just couldn’t bring herself to look at Ben she was so ashamed of believing that there was a chance with him.

She spiralled down with the shame and guilt over what she did to him.

How she had been so blinded by wanting him, she'd completely missed he wasn't able to make those decisions.

During that time she struggled to get out of bed, she didn't even have the will to shower.

It was only the fact that she ran out of days off from work that forced her up.

When her depression gripped her that tightly, it took a lot to break it.

However, the shame of losing yet another job and proving just how worthless she was motivated her enough to get up and clean.

She went through her work as though she was a robot, a numbed-down shell of who she actually was.

She showed up, did her work and left, she couldn't handle anything else, she only ate lunch so she wouldn't be called into a meeting about concern for her. As soon as she got home though she collapsed back into bed, not even writing was getting through to her. Thankfully she went through periods where she couldn’t handle being around too many people and all the invites had been to public areas, so no one knew just how much of a pathetic mess she was.

Darren eventually showed up at her flat and dragged her out of bed, made sure she was eating and brought over his games console to challenge her.

Eventually his stubbornness on not letting her wallow won out and then he dragged her to his where everyone was.

Ben barely looked at her and no mention was made of that night.

She tried to forget it as well. Eventually things stopped feeling so awkward between them and thankfully they fell back into their friendship.

Which was good as she had missed the way they were together.

But she still couldn’t forget that night.