Her Arranged Alpha Husband by Alicia Banks
Chapter 11
Ben
Teri was in his arms and asleep in seconds. He had never seen someone go to sleep so fast, but it left them both in a strange position. He was looking at her, studying her beautiful face that was far easier to look at when she wasn’t giving him dirty looks. Teri was beautiful and his desire to get his hands on her was all encompassing. She was so close, her body pressed up against much of his, but he could do nothing.
His body responded right away, and it took several minutes for it to calm down. He tried to put some distance between them, but as soon as he and his warm body weren’t touching her, she sought him out in her sleep. The sound of contentment she made when she was right next to him, glued to him, was harder to handle than her slight body moving against him. His new wife was tantalizing and while he would have liked to have partaken in her curves, he knew that he had other things to do. The time wasn’t right, and he had to remind himself that he had already waited this long. He could wait a little while longer.
The night was long and several times he wanted to detach from her for his own peace of mind, but she glommed onto him and wasn’t letting go. It was sweet, but he figured it was just because Teri was so cold. He thought about how she would feel when they got to the real cold. She wasn’t going to be happy, but he would like the fact that she would hold onto him during the ordeal. He liked having her in his arms, so that didn’t sound like it was going to be too bad.
When the morning hit, the sun was coming up and he hadn’t slept a wink. Mark opened up the tent and gave him a look of surprise that Teri was in his arms. Ben was surprised too, but it wasn’t what it looked like unfortunately. He would have liked her being there to have meant something else.
Extricating himself from her arms, Ben went out of the tent to talk to Mark.
“So, did you see anything last night while we were camped?”
Mark said that there was no one skulking around and that made him feel a little better.
“What is going on with you and your new wife?” Mark asked innocently.
Ben didn’t want to talk about it. He had already been razzed from him the whole time because Teri wasn’t acting like she wanted to be mated. They hadn’t touched, kissed, not in a way that he wanted. He wasn’t going to admit to any of that though, even if it was obvious in his mind. It was embarrassing that he couldn’t manage to get Teri to want him.
“Nothing is going on with her. Why?”
Mark shrugged. “You know what happens if you bring her back and you haven’t consummated. Your father is not going to be happy, and you will be the one at fault.”
Ben didn’t want to think about it. It was private, but he knew that his father expected an heir or two to be in her stomach by the time he got back home. Looking at Teri and knowing how she felt about it all, that seemed to be an impossibility. Ben wasn’t going to push it, and Teri wasn’t going to give in so easily.
“Father might just have to wait like I have to.”
Mark leaned in. “You could always just put her under your spell and make it happen. It’s been done many times before if the female wasn’t ready.”
Ben didn’t want to hear that, and he said as much. “I am not like that, Mark. You know that.”
Mark agreed, “I know, but maybe you should be. We need this to go well, or your father is never going to step down.”
Ben knew that to be true, but he wasn’t ready for any of that yet. He wasn’t ready to push Teri into anything she didn’t want. She was to be his lifelong mate and that meant something to Ben. He was going to take his time, no matter the consequences. He had promised her that he would be a good husband and he meant it.
***
Teri woke up a bit later and everyone was waiting around for her to get up. They should have been gone hours before, but Teri looked so peaceful while she slept. It looked like she really needed sleep, and Ben didn’t want to wake her. She wasn’t suspicious right then; her face was open and calm. He liked it when she looked like that, not when she was all worked up and had too much on her mind.
She came out of the tent, and she was freezing. He could see her visibly shaking and he wrapped his arms around her, before he pushed her back into the tent. “We will get you something to wear before we go.”
Teri tried to say that she didn’t need anything, but that was obviously a lie. He knew it just by looking at her and seeing she was shivering.
“Here is a cape that will work while you are shifted. It is going to be a lot colder by the end of the day. You will need this.”
Ben had said the right thing or Teri was starting to see that he was trying to help her, not harm her. She took the cape, not looking him in the eyes when they were so close. She said thank you, even if she couldn’t take the gaze he was giving her. Ben wanted to kiss her, it would have been so easy, but instead he tried to do what he was supposed to do. He was giving her space, letting her get used to him. Just because he was ready to come unglued because of it, didn’t mean much. It just meant that Ben was going to have to take his time.
Mark’s words echoed in his ears, and he wondered if he was right. What would happen if he got back home, and Teri was still not officially his? How would that look and what would be done because of it?
They started off in the direction of home and it was another long day of travel. Ben kept up with Teri and tried to take her mind off of everything that was going on. She was a bit warmer, but her eyes were all over the scenery around her. If he didn’t know any better, he would have thought that she had never left the Valley. Everything made her interested and big eyed. It was nice to see and a few times he got caught up in it and forgot that they weren’t close enough for him to grab her and pull her in for a kiss. He didn’t realize that he’d gone too far, until she was kissing him back and his emotions flipped. Ben was dying to be with her, really it was killing him inside, and he had no idea what to do about it.
Because he knew that it wasn’t what she really wanted, Ben was able to pull back and put the space between them. He didn’t want to, but he didn’t have a choice. He wanted her right there where they had all stopped for a break and food. It wouldn’t have been too hard to convince her. Teri was untouched, and even though she fought the feeling, it was welling up inside of her. She was curious what came next, and he was dying to show her.
“Sorry, I don’t know what just came over me.”
Teri waved him off like it wasn’t a big deal, but he could see the shake in her hands and the way she was holding herself. She was worked up and to Ben, there was nothing better than knowing she was starting to see him in a new way. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be long before they were together. If it was before they got home, it would be even better. He wasn’t worried about his dad anymore and what he would think if she wasn’t secured as his mate. He was far more worried about being with her, the taste of their kiss and her desperate desire still on his lips.
“It’s okay. I just…um.”
Ben nodded his head and smiled. It was a good answer for him, about how he felt about it too. Teri was his, but she was still just out of reach. Soon though, he promised himself that he would have her in his arms. Ben couldn’t wait for that evening, when she would curl up against him and sleep. Ben would likely never sleep again, but he was okay with that, as long as it meant he could have her in his arms. That was where she was supposed to be.
