Love Play

    

“I thought I told you that I didn’t want anything to do with you. Why are you still bothering me? I’ve moved on with my life and so should you.”

 

“I don’t believe you. We were good together. Just give me a chance to explain,” Ben uttered determined not to lose Rishelle a second time.

 

 Rishelle stared at the man who broke her heart all those months ago. She wasn’t going to open herself up to that kind of pain again. Ben Forster was out of her life and it was going to stay that away. “No, you’re all out of chances. Go away.” She spun away, but Ben grabbed her arm preventing her from storming off.

 

“Please wait. Have dinner with me tonight. I have spent months looking for you. You can at least give me an hour of your day. Do you know how stunned yet excited I was to see you at Spencer’s party?”

 

Jerking her arm away, Rishelle glared at Ben over her shoulder. “How can you ask me anything after I found you with her? If you didn’t want to date me anymore, you should have let me known.”

 

“Damn it, I wasn’t interested in what’s her name. I was only with her because my job called for it.”

 

As she faced him, Rishelle tried not to laugh at the tired line Ben was feeding her. “You were working in an accountant’s office. What kind of job did you have that called for you to make out with the boss?”

 

“I don’t want to go into it here,” Ben answered, looking around the crowded shopping center, but I swear I wasn’t cheating on you.”

 

“You don’t know how to love anyone else, but yourself,” Rishelle shouted, then lowered her voice when several people looked her way.

 

Ben frowned at her and then shook his head. “That’s a lie. Like I said, have dinner with me and we can get things worked out between us.”

 

Do it. Do it.

 

Her heart screamed at her, but her mind was going to win out this time. Listening to her heart was how she got into trouble last time. She was older and wiser now. She wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice.

 

~~~

 

Ben didn’t know what else to say to make Rishelle to listen to him. She couldn’t go on believing he would cheat on her. God, he loved her too much for that. Hell, he was still in love with her. Now all he had to do was find a way to make her believe it. If they could just get sometime along without the distractions of their jobs, he knew with a little love play that he could win her back.

 

“Come away with me for a month. Give me a chance to redeem myself.” The look on Rishelle’s face almost made him wish that he hadn’t said a word. He didn’t know if she was pissed or shock, but either way it didn’t look good for him.

 

“You can’t be serious,” she gasped. “Why would I go away with you?”

 

“Because like me you’re wondering what could have been. Give us both this chance to find out.” Ben prayed that Rishelle was still interested and she agreed to his suggestion.

 

“How do you know that I’m not already involved with someone? Do you think I waited around for you to come back into my life?” she tossed back.

 

Ben quickly banked his anger before his jealousy chased Rishelle away. “If you were with someone, you wouldn’t have spent the better part of thirty minutes talking to me, so it a yes or no?”

 

“I’ll accept, but only on one condition,” Rishelle answered.

 

I’ll give you anything you want as long as you agree to go, he thought. “What’s the condition?”

 

“The condition is I’ll be able to leave before the thirty days is up if I want to.”

 

He wanted to argue, but decided against it. Rishelle was giving him this much, so he couldn’t complain. “You’ve a deal,” he agreed, then grinned.