"Seriously? What the fuck?" Ben grumbled from his bean bag chair. Nobody answered him though unless a half hearted swat from his cat Kree counted. She was clearly tired of listening to him bitch and moan about the hundred and ten degree weather. Not tired enough to give up her spot on his stomach which happened to be directly in the path of both the AC, ceiling fan and a rotary fan but more than enough to express herself. "Don't make me toss you." She opened one eye and stared at him gently kneading his bare flesh with her claws. "Point made."
Summers in southern California were always hot but this year was more than a little ridiculous. It was hot enough that everybody had actually abandoned the pool because the concrete around it was too hot to stand on. Everybody had heard stories before about how it was possible to fry an egg on the sidewalk but today the kids across the street had proven the urban myth to be urban fact. Ben didn't care but the flex alert had been sounded hours ago telling people to turn down their AC's and turn off any device they could spare. Being essentially locked inside however prevented him from obeying that request. Besides he wasn't some hippy liberal punk who listened to the government toadies about their global warming bullshit.
Kree closed her eye and turned herself around trying to find a more comfortable place and ultimately settling right back where she'd started with a frustrated huff. Ben reached down resting one hand on the cat's back mostly to keep her from wandering too far. He was only wearing a pair of boxers and if she insisted on relocating it needed to be either to his chest or off him entirely.
Ben had known that setting his ring tone as "Paralyzer" by Finger Eleven wasn't a great idea when he'd done it. He'd learned way back with his first cell phone that he should pick songs he hated for ring tones so he'd hurry up and answer instead of singing along in his head.
"Hello?" Ben mumbled into his phone. He hadn't been expecting anybody to call him. It was his day off and most of his friends were on vacations around the country. It was his ex, Stephanie, and apparently her power had gone out. Like him all her friends had wandered off. She didn't want to call him but she didn't have anybody else. Steph promised to be polite and she'd even pick up a case of beer along with a few cartons of ice cream that were going to melt anyway. Ben was really only half listening to Stephanie but he heard the important parts about beer and ice cream. She said something else about anything he wanted that he simply grunted noncommittally to and told her she could come over. Ben couldn't fathom why she hung up in such a huff. He'd told her it was okay for her to come over and share his AC, have a few beers and eat some ice cream.
Forty or so minutes later Ben had all but forgotten that Stephanie was headed over. He was dreamily alternating between light sleep and watching a Burn Notice Marathon. The doorbell ringing however shocked him from that happy state and back awake though still not in a rush to get up. Kree like the confused not dog she was immediately leapt off his stomach and raced over to the door meowing at the top of her tiny feline lungs. "Quiet Kree. Maybe who ever it is will just go away if I ignore them." The response to that was several angry thuds from the door and Kree leaping into the nearby window and continuing to cry. "Unless you can open the door whoever it is can fucking roast." Ben grumbled turning the volume up. Twice more the doorbell rang and three more angry thuds echoed through the door and Ben continued to ignore it and his cat.
Ben thought he'd finally outlasted whoever it was when his phone rang and an angry Stephanie started complaining about how hot it was outside, a lack of parking so she had to walk half a block and some other whiny crybaby shit that Ben droned out. Someone at the door, someone on the phone, didn't these people understand that today was a day for everybody to just lay back and hold perfectly still. He was about to hang up and tell her to call when she arrived when she mentioned that the beer would get warm if she didn't get it into a fridge quickly. "Oh, why didn't you say so?" Ben hung up the phone and tossed it aside and walked over to the door opening it quickly.
Stephanie had always been an attractive woman but she usually dressed down a bit. Back when the two of them had dated she hadn't had the best of self esteem either. Ben had taken advantage of that and made her do some things that he wasn't proud of but she treated it all as water under the bridge. That was just over two years ago and it had been hard at the time to get her to dress sexy in private. He barely recognized the woman standing in his doorway.
Gone were her shoulder length blonde tresses replaced with red dyed pixie cut that looked a little like something out an anime. Her just slightly more than a handful breasts were hiding behind a bubblegum pink bikini top. Stephanie's cut off shorts were so short that her pockets were hanging lower than the ripped denim and probably covering more of her thighs as well. She hadn't been fat before or even overweight but now she had the slightest hint of abs where a soft belly had been the last time he saw her. "Are you planning on letting me in?" Stephanie asked thrusting the box of beer into Ben's chest. A temporary loss for words struck Ben. He did the only thing that he could and grabbed the box of beer and retreated to the kitchen. Stephanie was right behind him with a bag with three cartons of ice cream in one hand, the other holding a bag with two liquor bottles clanking against each other. "Thanks for letting me come over. You have no idea how fucking hot that apartment can get. Hell I had no idea how hot it could get until today." Ben was still searching for his tongue and trying to keep from staring at her.
It was more than just the outfit which could have been explained away in the searing heat. Stephanie wasn't carrying herself the same way she had before either. She hadn't even owned any heels before and here she was in sexy if fairly modest platform sandals. Before she'd had an unusual ability to sense when he was looking at her and she'd take a knee or squat down to avoid it. This new Stephanie however either didn't notice or didn't care that she was giving him an eyeful when she bent at the waist to put her liquor in the fridge. The shorts were so short that when she leaned over the fabric partially vanished between her buttocks. Those hadn't been nearly as high and tight the last time he'd seen her either. "Did you want a drink?" Stephanie asked staring at him between her long toned legs. Ben tried to stammer an answer but the best he could manage was grabbing a beer and holding it up with a smile.
"Okay." Stephanie drawled at his unusual behavior. They'd dated for almost two years and she'd never seen him acting so strangely. It was actually a little annoying not that she was going to say anything about it. She'd worked very hard to drop the eleven and a half pounds she'd lost over the last year and she'd expected him to at least compliment her. The old Ben never hesitated to tell her or any other woman how sexy they were. He usually wasn't particularly subtle about it either. Now she came over with drinks and ice cream dressed like something out of men's magazine and he couldn't say anything to her?
Thrusting two of the three cartons of ice cream in the freezer Stephanie grabbed up a pair of spoons and beer before plopping down on the couch next to Ben. "Ice cream?" She offered a spoon. Ben's eyes didn't leave the television but he managed after a few blind grabs to snag it. Stephanie was glad that he couldn't see the frown on her face right then. The Ben she used to date would have snatched her into the apartment and ravaged her in the door way, against her protests if need be and now he was ignoring her for a TV show she knew he'd already seen because she'd already seen it. "You okay?"
Ben mumbled a response and caught a glimpse of Steph from the corner of his eye. She was directly beneath the vent and the cold air had already hardened her nipples to the point that they were straining against the thin fabric. He couldn't risk staring but it looked like she had nipple rings which she certainly didn't have before. Ben was trying to find the carton of ice cream so he wasn't really sure why he found himself staring at a droplet of sweat that started at the nape of her neck and slipped down between her breasts, traced the faint lines on her stomach and ultimately vanished into her naval. Luckily for him the droplet of sweat had also lead him to the carton of ice cream tucked between her shapely thighs.
"So how are you?" Steph scooted herself closer so her bare thigh brushed up against his. He hadn't changed much since they'd been together. He still had that obvious combination of lazy good looks and lucky genes. Ben still had a cute little belly hanging over the waistband of his boxers but he wasn't joking when he said his idea of a work out was lifting twelve ounces until it became weightless. If he'd so much as go for a walk around the block he'd be trimmed and fit. He either hadn't bothered combing his hair at all or he'd fallen asleep on the couch, probably both knowing him. It didn't matter she preferred the scraggly unkempt look that his hair naturally had. It made him look like a savage.
It helped that he really was a savage. A wicked brute who knew exactly what he wanted from his women and he would take it. Anne hadn't realized it when she was with him but she actually loved that about him. When they'd been together she often felt like he took her granted and he probably did, she'd certainly taken him for granted. It wasn't until she dated three more men that she realized that no matter what her friends told her not every man was the kind who could take control. She'd rot in the ground before admitting to him, or anybody, that sometimes she didn't want to be asked for permission.
"Alright you?" Ben dipped his spoon into the ice cream and quickly brought it to his lips. "Oh good gods." It was Cookies and Cream, and not some cheap off brand either, it was Dryers more cookie than cream.
