Page 153 of Somebody's Watching Me
“If you guys can make it the whole night without fighting, I’ll pay you forty bucks.” Ben held a hand up in surrender, hoping none of the other adults were listening. “Each.”
The kids froze, their gazes slowly rolling to him.
“Make it fifty,” Selah said. “And you’ve got a deal.”
Let it never be said that Fairweathers didn’t know how to negotiate. “My offer is for Samuel and Evie.”
As if offended, Selah laid a hand on his chest. “I am Sammy’s representative and should receive payment for my services. “
“Christ, I have told your mother not to let you watch Law and Order anymore.” Ben swiped a hand down his face. “Okay, you can have fifty dollars.”
“Me, too.” Livy stuck her head in from the hall. “I went and got Evie for you, so that’s labor cost.”
“We’ll be good,” Samuel promised, throwing out a fake smile and giving Evie a one-armed hug. He’d been asking for a new video game, and fifty dollars would cover the cost of two. “Right, Evie?”
Evie positively beamed, determined to let her fake smile outshine Samuel’s. “Right!”
The kids marched out, happier than he’d ever seen them. That might not have been his finest parenting moment, but he was learning that sometimes you just did what you had to do.
Toby sat the cat down, the thing scurrying away so fast it could hardly gain traction on the hardwood floors.
“I have fifty dollars for you, too, Toby. Only you’re going to do a different job to get paid.”
Toby blinked a few times, his head tilting to the side. “What kind of job?”
“I want you to make sure SiSi doesn’t find out about this.”
“Why?”
Ben searched for a way to say it so the boy would understand. “Not all the parts of us, or the things we do, should be shown to everyone because people don’t always understand.”
“She won’t understand fifty dollars?”
“Not in this case.”
“Is the fifty dollars bad?”
“What’s bad to one person isn’t bad to another,” Ben replied, fairly sure he was screwing this conversation up. “Everything we do won’t make everyone happy all the time.”
Toby nodded like he understood. “Okay, I can do it.”
The boy half jogged out of the room, and Ben followed, searching for signs of an adult. He had a long night of family time ahead but needed his woman.
Now.
He stuck his head into the parlor where Devon was setting up card tables. “Where’s Laura Jean?”
“She left a note in the kitchen and said you would figure it out.”
On the kitchen island, he found a bottle of Jameson Whiskey next to a slip of paper on the counter.
Find me.
Spinning the top off the whiskey, he took a deep draw, the corners of his mouth curving as he did. She would be at their spot in the forest, ready and hopefully naked. They could be normal and use a bedroom or even one of the cottages for a little more privacy, but no. Laura Jean liked him to fuck her under the stars.
Already dying to have her on his tongue, he made his way across the lawn and through the paths leading to the mill. The area they used sat on the opposite shore from the ruins. A spot where the trees thinned, and the night sky could be seen along the empty bayou.
He sipped at the whiskey as he went, the soft light ahead urging him to hurry. She would have known he needed this. Needed to bury himself inside her the moment he arrived.
