Free Benjamin by Emma Lang

watered the horses, kept busy tidying the clearing and gathering some brush to create a little comfort beneath their bedrolls.
    When she finally returned, Ben’s mouth decided to take over his brain.
    “No more arguing about clothes. We need to make better time tomorrow. We’ll need to ride harder. Whoever is chasing us might catch our scent any moment.” He could have slapped himself for being such an ass. What was wrong with him?
    Instead of getting angry with him, she sat on a rock and propped her jaw on her hands and stared at him.
    He frowned at her, wondering what could be going through her head. Her wet hair hung in dark blonde waves. In the dim twilight, her eyes were the darkest green, offsetting the color of the clothing.
    “Why you?”
    He frowned. “I don’t know what you mean?” The words tumbled from his mouth but something inside him knew. Liar.
    “Why are you the man who made me remember I’m a woman?” Beneath the calm, husky voice, he heard the pain. Whatever drove her to weep alone wasn’t gone, it had simply retreated.
    He didn’t know how to answer her. Truthfully, she was the first woman to make him remember he was a man. The pull between them was strong, much as he wanted to deny it. They were on a mission of incredible importance to find her son, they couldn’t be distracted by this attraction.
    Yet they were. Both of them.
    He shook his head. “Damned if I know.” He sat beside her, his palms sweating.
    What was he doing?
    He leaned forward so slowly, he wondered if he was moving. She watched him, her eyes wide. By the time he reached her, his heart pounded hard enough to make his ears hurt.
    Ben kissed her.
    Her lips were softer than he expected, like flower petals that hadn’t fully opened, sweet and new. He shook as he kissed her with infinite slowness. A sweep of his lips from one end to the other of hers and he forgot how to breathe.
    A warmth began to spread through him from the middle of his chest and outward. He pressed his lips to hers fully and something inside him shifted. He leaned back and opened his eyes. Every part of his body ached and throbbed. He didn’t know it would feel like this.
    He didn’t know.
    Her eyes fluttered open. “You kissed me.”
    “I did.” He licked his lips, tasting her. Her gaze dropped to his mouth and his body jerked as though she’d touched him.
    Instead of yelling at him, hitting him, or shooting him, she nodded and got to her feet. As she took her bedroll and settled into camp, he sat there, vibrating as though he’d run the length of the state. And back.
    Ben wouldn’t admit this to anyone, especially his brothers, but that had been his first kiss. He’d not come close enough to kiss any woman before now. Grace had something about her that called to him, that made him break every rule he’d established more than a decade ago.
    He ran his hands down his face and tried to stop shaking. Instead of disgust and fear, Ben felt elated and excited. He wanted to kiss her again, and more. His brothers had done their job to educate him on how to pleasure a woman, not that he’d had any occasion to use that information. He wasn’t even sure he would but he would be forever in Grace’s debt. She had unlocked a piece of his soul he had thought didn’t exist.
    By the time she’d finished doing whatever she needed to do, he heard her eating a quick supper and then she snuggled down into her bedroll.
    Ben hadn’t moved, still shocked by the fact he’d kissed Grace. And it appeared she enjoyed it as much as he did. He managed to chew a piece of jerky and wash it down with water from his canteen. As he crept into his bedroll, he doubted he would sleep that night. The feel and taste of Grace’s lips would haunt his dreams.
    *
    Grace woke some time in the night with the blanket of stars above her. She shivered and hugged the bedroll around her, but the night was cooler than it had been. It seemed that she had barely fallen asleep, plagued by