After I had taken a shower, I found Ben in his living room, drinking a shot of cognac and looking at a piece of art above the fireplace.

"Hey," I spoke softly from the entrance, catching his attention. He cleared his throat and straightened in his seat, no longer comfortably leaning back.

He patted the place beside him and offered me a tightlipped smile.

"Are you feeling better?" he asked, dark eyes following my movements as I made my way to him.

"Yes, thank you," I sat down next to him, my body facing his.

He was still wearing his suit pants and dress shirt, the top buttons opened and sleeves rolled up, while I had changed into a white shirt and jeans.

Ben nodded and looked down at his glass of cognac, lazily held in his fingers as his elbows rested on his thighs.

"I'm not lying to you," he then began, and I reached one hand over to gently play with the hair at the back of his head, "just want to spare you the gory details."

"I don't want you to deal with it by yourself," I assured him, "I've been in this business long enough to know about the gory details."

"First you want a baby, and then you want to know about our plans to attack?" he chuckled lowly, glancing quickly at me.

I ignored his comment about a baby, needing to stay on subject.

"My mother grew bitter the more she knew and got involved," he continued more seriously, head leaning a little back into my touch, "this will end soon, anyway, it's not worth wasting your time."

"You've been working non-stop for months, I see how stressed you've been," I frowned, "you've barely talked to me, I've barely seen you.."

"I know, sweetheart," he placed his glass on the coffee table and turned toward me on the couch, "it was unfair to you. I should have talked to you instead of bottling it up."

"That's okay, just..." I offered him a gentle smile, "next time, if something like this happens again."

"This won't repeat. Winston will be dead by this weekend," he muttered, the bitterness Winston Horan's name caused him audible in his tone.

"Is Tony helping you with this?" I dared wonder, "what about the dinner tomorrow?"

"No," Ben spoke, carefully studying my reaction to the following, "tomorrow I'll make sure he understands that it's better to respect me than be my enemy."

I nodded slowly, knowing Ben wouldn't hurt Tony, especially when I was in the same room.

"I need you to put on that Versace dress, the one I love," he continued, a boyish grin tugging at the side of his lips at the mention of the dress, before it faded, "and I'm going to have a gun with me, I don't want to scare you with it."

"Will it be loaded?"

"Yes," Ben nodded once, "but it won't be fired, I can assure you of that."

"Tony's very careful, always," I reminded him, "will he bring his men here?"

"Everyone will stay outside the apartment besides the three of us," he shifted closer to me, "it'll be calm and safe."

"Will it?" I raised my brows at him, his idea of having a loaded gun with him wasn't matching up with calm and safe.

"The only thing that knob and I have in common is wanting to keep you safe," he shook his head to himself, "and I'd like to think you wouldn't speak to him anymore if he was the reason something happened to me."

"That is true," I smiled and inched closer to him as well, watching as he relaxed back against the couch with his dark eyes focused solely on me, "and Tony knows that."

Ben chuckled, arm resting behind me on the couch, his hand reaching up to twirl a strand of my hair between his fingers, "I've never been so glad he has such a hard-on for you."

"You're silly," I giggled and gently nudged him, "the only hard-on I care about is yours."

"Feisty," he let out a laugh at my sudden comment, which succeeded in relaxing him more, "would you like some?"

He lifted up his glass of cognac again, offering it to me. I accepted it and took a few sips, thanking him after. He finished the rest and leaned back against the couch.

"I can't wait to see his face," he cleared his throat, jaw tightening for a moment as his eyes focused on the piece of art on the opposite side of the living room, "when he finds out the man he's working with almost murdered you."

A cold shiver ran down my spine and my smile faded, the words leaving his lips bringing up a frightening reality. I looked down at my lap, not knowing what to say, still shaken up about what had happened with Mr Capra Sr and now with me.

I then felt incredibly bad at how Ben must be feeling. Just imagining him having had both his father and I targeted within the same day must be as traumatic or more as it was for me.

So close to him now that I was basically on his lap, I rested my head against his upper arm, gaze still focused up on him.

"So," he met my eyes and shot me a sneaky grin, "how about that baby?"

"Ben," I laughed quietly, "I don't think it's an appropriate time."

"Why not? Don't you want one?" he wondered, dark eyes so pure it warmed my heart.

"We're not even married..."

"Thank God it's not the 18th century," he spoke sarcastically, grinning when I laughed again and nudged him, "I do want to marry you, you do know that, right?"

My laughter faded at the honesty in his voice and the sincerity in his eyes, my body craving him in every way right now.

"And I want two kids, a boy and a girl," he continued, "a house wherever you want, not a cold apartment."

By cold he meant purely white and uber-modern, as I had described the one we were moving into very soon.

()

"And a dog, of course. A big backyard, we'll give the kids the best birthday parties there," he continued, and I shook my head at how cute he was being.

"You've planned very far ahead," I kissed his cheek, feeling warm and appreciative.

"You're the only one I could ever see myself having all that with," he explained, surprising me as he in one swift motion maneuvered me to straddle his lap, "of course I've planned."

"You're being very cute," I kissed him, unable to stop smiling.

"Yeah?" his voice turned suggestive, amusing me more, "cute enough for you to stop taking the pill?"

I kissed him again, and this time one of his hands quickly raised up to the back of my neck to keep me in place as he kissed back hungrily.

"When everything has calmed down," I whispered against his lips, body still reacting to him as if every time was our first, "then we can start on our future."

"That makes me so bloody happy, baby," he grunted out hotly and kissed me passionately, his free hand on my lower back pulling my front closer to his.

"And excited," I smiled, feeling the bulge underneath me.

Without a word, he lifted me to lay down on the couch. He quickly situated himself between my legs, dark and hungry eyes burning into my body, and in no time our passionate kiss continued.

My fingers gently tugged at his hair as he pushed himself against me, both of us breathing heavily with arousal.

"Fuck," he murmured, sitting up all of a sudden. He ran a hand through his hair, the look in his eyes driving me crazy with need.

"How do you always look this incredible?" Ben chuckled breathlessly, shaking his head down at me.

I smiled, feeling as if in a daze from his intoxicating self, and reached my hand up in an attempt to take a hold of his dress shirt and pull him back down to kiss me.

He grabbed my wrist to stop my action, and my smile faded. I lifted myself up onto one elbow, confused.

"We're going to finish what we started earlier," he told me, his husky voice sending a pleasurable tingle down my body, "I need to make one call and then I'll join you in the bedroom. I'll tie you up and won't listen to any complaints, okay?"

"Yes," I breathed out shakily, his commanding tone one I hadn't heard in a long time, and it made me feel dizzy with arousal.

"Good," he grinned lightly, leaning down to give me one more hard kiss, "just you wait."