The Shepherd of Ashburn Court Pt. 05

Catherine spun around in Ben's arms and kissed him deeply. "Ben, you are the absolute best!"

The band started playing one of their favorites so Ben pulled her out onto the dancefloor.

Three songs later Ben was sitting one out at their table. His calf had begun to ache so he let Catherine know that fast numbers were out for the rest of the night for him. She found some other dance partners and he was pleased to see her happily dancing the evening away.

Ingrid was passing by and Ben reached out to snag her hand. He'd seen her watching people dance but she never joined in. She jumped when she felt someone touch her. She looked down and saw Ben smiling up at her. She blushed and sat in the chair Ben pulled out for her.

"How are you enjoying the party?" he asked her.

"It's fine." she said with a shy smile.

"I was wondering if you would dance with me on the next slow number. I'm afraid I've strained my calf a little too much with the fast dancing so I'm down to slow dancing only."

Ingrid's eyes were wide and her face flushed. "I- I- I don't think that's such a good idea. I don't dance."

"Everyone can dance a slow dance. I'd really like it if you would share one with me. Please?" he looked into her eyes and she nodded.

"What happened to your calf?" she asked to change the topic.

"I was stabbed."

"STABBED?" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, a neighbor of mine dated a man who didn't like being told he wasn't worthy of another date. He got rough with her and I stopped him. He managed to stab me in the calf before I incapacitated him."

"Are you always this heroic?" she asked.

Ben winced. "No, I used to be crippled with shyness. I'm actually still pretty shy but I'm learning to speak up when it's important."

The next song began and Ben recognized a nice long slow number. He stood up and held out his hand for Ingrid's. She timidly placed hers in his and he led her to the dancefloor. He caught Catherine's eye and she gave him a big grin when she saw who he was with.

Once more the dancefloor was full so he pulled Ingrid up against his body and they began to move with the slow steady beat. He felt the woman trembling in his arms.

"Ingrid, it's alright. You're doing beautifully! You can relax." Ben said gently.

"I'm so nervous!" she gasped.

"Why? I'm not a scary man, am I?" he asked

"God no! You're beautiful-" she blurted then realized what she said and tried to escape in her mortification. Ben wasn't letting her go and kept her pinned to his chest.

"That was a very nice compliment. Thank you. I think you are beautiful as well." he smiled.

She looked up and blinked at him. "You think I'm beautiful?"

"Ingrid, a man would have to be blind to not see that. You've had several admirers watching you all night. The bass player in the band, the bartender, the man wearing the blue pinstripe jacket sitting at the table next to mine. All of these men watch you every time you pass by. Avoid the man with the pinstripes as I believe he's married but the other two are potential dating material."

She wore a look of shock as she tried not to turn her head to look at the men he was talking about.

"Next time you pass them by, if you like what you see give them a smile and see where it takes you. If you don't care for their look just keep walking. Trust me there are people who think you're hot! You just have to be open to the possibility of new relationship. Maybe it will work or maybe it won't. You have SO much to offer you should ensure they are worthy of it."

By this point their rubbing and touches were working their magic on Ben and he was beginning to press against Ingrid in intimate ways. She suddenly realized what the wonderful pressure was coming from.

"Oh my god!" she gasped.

"I'm so sorry! When we're dancing this close I can't help it." he blushed. "Maybe we should sit down."

"NO! I mean I- I've never felt that before. I don't mind. It- it's kind of flattering! But won't Catherine get upset?"

"Over this? No, she knows my body well enough to know I was bound to get excited dancing with you." Ben smiled.

"So... you and Catherine are... lovers?" Ingrid couldn't believe she'd had the nerve to speak with Ben like this. He just made her feel so comfortable, like she could say anything without fear of being ridiculed. She wasn't aware that she'd fallen into an easy pattern of dancing with Ben, their bodies pressed firmly together, slowly moving across the floor

Ben nodded. "She's a very special woman! I'm honored she's part of my life."

Ingrid began to feel a little flushed and the tingling in her body was intensifying. She was afraid to say anything about it as she didn't want it to stop. They continued to dance and Ingrid rested her cheek on Ben's shoulder. She remembered seeing couples on the dancefloor in high school. How were they holding each other? Oh right. She moved her arms around Ben's back and after a little pause he did the same to her. His hands felt so good on her body. They swayed to the music and Ingrid's body ground against Ben's. God, she was in heaven! If only she'd had the nerve to dance with the boys way back then. She'd missed out on so much pleasure.

Suddenly her body went stiff and Ben continued to sway to keep up the illusion they were dancing for the people around them. He felt her gasping into his collar as she'd turned her face inwards to hide the look on her face as a sweet release swept through her.

After she returned to her senses her mind slowly cleared until she realized what she'd just done. Her face went red and she tried to push away but Ben knew she'd have this reaction so he was prepared. He held her close and whispered in her ear that it was fine, she was beautiful, and he was very happy she was able to feel so comfortable in his arms. The song was ending so he led her from the dancefloor and sat with her at his table. When she was finally able to look at him he smiled gently.

"You were remembering your high school dances weren't you?" She nodded hesitantly. "I remember mine too. I didn't dance very much as I was always too shy. I'd watch the others and wish I had the nerve to ask a girl to dance. I had no idea they were just as nervous. We don't have to feel like that anymore. If you want to dance with someone ask them. If you'd like to get to know someone, speak with them. You're an amazing woman! Men are going to want to spend time with you. Just be careful you don't collect too many. Start with one." She grinned at that. She was looking at him with genuine affection and he leaned over and kissed her forehead.

"That's my signal to sweep in and collect my boyfriend before he's completely smitten." Catherine said as she stepped up to the table between the two. Ben looked up with a loving smile. Ingrid looked up with a guilty expression and Catherine chuckled. "Not to worry Ingrid, I know Ben's a physically affectionate man but I also know he loves me and that's all I really need to know." Ingrid's face showed her relief.

Catherine looked at Ben. "The party is winding down and I'd like to make a quick exit before I get roped into helping clean up." she grinned, knowing full well that they'd hired a crew for that task.

"Oh! Sure." Ben said. He turned to Ingrid. "Thank you for the dance! It really was lovely to meet you. Enjoy the rest of the party!"

She nodded and blushed looking at him.

Catherine pulled him up and led him through the dancers to the exit. As they walked through the lobby she occasionally stopped to say a few words to a departing guest. The general consensus was the party was a roaring success. As they passed the bar in the lobby Catherine stopped and stared at the figure slumped at the bar. The distinct black and white striped cocktail dress was a dead give-away. She looked at Ben in concern and they immediately went inside.

Catherine approached from her right side while Ben went left.

"Jacqueline? Are you alright?" she said gently.

The woman lifted her head from her arm on the bar and looked unsteadily towards the sound of the voice calling her name. Unfocused eyes swung around trying to see who was bothering her in her misery. When they finally locked on Catherine they went wide with exaggerated anger.

"YOU! You BITCH! You ruined EVERYTHING!" Jacqueline roared drunkenly.

"What?" Catherine pulled back from the blast of rum breath and spittle.

"Greg fired me! ME!" the woman squealed and tears burst forth.

Ben looked questioningly at Catherine. "Greg Masters. Head of the Ministry of Heaven's Voice." She explained.

"Yes, Greg Masters, bitch!" Jacqueline growled dragging a bar napkin across her eyes to dry the tears. "I told him you sabotaged our tenth consecutive win and he fired me!"

"Why?" Catherine asked.

"He had millions of dollars of sponsorship deals locked into our winning that tenth annual award. Now he has to pay them all back and there's no money! He called me an incompetent cunt!" More tears followed the confession.

Ben started the recorder app on his phone.

"Where is the money the Heaven's Herald Foundation raised Jacqueline?" Catherine said gently.

"It's invested." she mumbled.

"In what?"

"A casino! Okay? Greg is building a casino in Las Vegas." Jacqueline growled. She suddenly got this desperate look on her face like she had to justify herself.

"We used the foundations money and most of the sponsorship money to purchase the land and pay for construction costs. The remaining sponsorship money would have covered the minimal needs of the charity until the casino was built and income started flowing in from that. No one sees how many churches and schools we build! They're in fucking Africa! This year we were only planning on building one of each. Now we can't afford to do even that! We would have generated far more income from the casino than we would have squeezing those fossils for donations."

"If Greg fired you, his chief fundraiser, how is he going to pay the foundation and sponsors back?"

"I DON'T KNOW! YOU RUINED EVERYTHING!" Jacqueline raged and made to grab Catherine but Ben caught her wrists from behind and crossed them over her chest as he pinned her back against his body.

"Wha-" Jacqueline gasped as she looked down at the big arms encircling her. She looked up and saw Ben's stern face. "Oh god it's you! Why? Why couldn't you have been an escort? I would have hired you immediately and taken you home and done things to you that would curl your hair. I felt you. I know you have a huge cock. I would have taken that monster in my ass. This bitch could never do that for you!"

Jacqueline tried to hump her ass back against Ben's groin as he held her tight against her body. She almost fell off of her stool when Ben tried to angle his body away from her. To catch her he had to jerk forward to squeeze her to his body. The woman moaned loudly as she felt his hardening cock slam against her ass.

"Oh Catherine, please let me take him in my ass. I need it so bad. Greg only fucks me once a week and now he won't do it anymore.

"Greg's married to Helen." Catherine gasped, stunned by this additional confession.

"Yes, shhhh, don't tell her I'm getting some of her husband's wiener. Oh god, it's so small compared to this one. I could live without Greg's if I could have this one in my ass on a regular basis. Even once a week. Please!"

Ben's face was bright red but his erection was loving the attention from Jacqueline's ass.

Catherine was all grins at Ben's embarrassment but took pity on him and reached for his phone to turn off the recording as he couldn't reach it. She saved the file, mailed a copy to herself and one to Helen then walked a few steps away to make a call.

Jacqueline started to pull at her arms but Ben discovered she wasn't trying to escape. She was dragging Ben's knuckles over her stiff nipples. He held her tighter to stop that and she moaned in raw pleasure as his cock ground between her butt cheeks and his hands flattened her tits.

Catherine returned and saw Ben's discomfort and Jacqueline's agitated state. Sighing she looked around and saw they were alone in the bar. She reached between the woman's legs and rubbed quickly and firmly over the woman's clit through wet panties. She put her other hand over the woman's mouth as she was moaning too loudly. Seconds later, between the heat and pressure of Ben's cock wedged between her ass cheeks, his crushing grip on her tits, and Catherine's aggressive rubbing the woman screamed into Cat's palm and passed out.

Catherine went to wash her hands and was by Ben's side again when the police arrived.

Three hours later Ben and Catherine left the precinct where Jacqueline was recuperating in her cell. The police brought Greg Masters in as well. They found him in his driveway stuffing his suitcase in the trunk of his car. He was carrying his passport, fifty thousand in cash, and an e-ticket for a one way flight to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Officers from the fraud division had taken a copy of Ben's recording and statements from both of them. Catherine sent messages to several of her very wealthy and influential patrons who were also patrons of Jacqueline's charity to let them know what had happened.

By the time they got back to the hotel it was almost 4AM and they were both exhausted. They promised each other that first thing when they woke up they'd make up for lost time. They stripped naked and slipped under the sheets. Catherine tucked herself back against Ben so they were spooning.

"Uh Catherine, that's not such a good idea." Ben said sleepily.

"Mmmm." she murmured, half asleep already.

Ben's cock wasted no time in waking up and snuggling up between Catherine's legs. She lifted her top leg and his cock swung up to slap against her pussy.

"OH!" she jumped and dropped her leg to capture him in place. "Oh Ben, that's nice!" she said, feeling the heat of him trapped between her thighs and pressing against her pussy. Her hips began to twitch unconsciously, rubbing against the top of his shaft. Ben pumped his hips forward and back, sliding himself between her thighs and strongly rubbing across her now wet pussy. "Oh Ben, that feels so good!" she moaned. She moved her hands down and rubbed the head of his cock when it emerged from between her thighs. Ben gasped. He pulled back once more and she positioned him to enter her. As Ben pushed forward he slid smoothly into her wetness and Catherine sighed with contentment.

Ben put his hands on her hips and set up a nice slow long stroke which soon had Catherine crooning her pleasure. He felt his release quickly approaching so he slid his top hand up her side and around to her breast. He cupped the flesh in his palm and gently tugged on her nipple.

Catherine gasped and pushed down harder on his cock signalling it was time for him to increase his speed. Soon he was slamming into her, her ass making wet slapping sounds on his pelvis. The pounding sensation on her ass made Catherine think of Jacqueline's confession of her dark desire to have Ben large cock deep in her ass. This thought triggered her orgasm and her pussy clamped down on Ben's cock. His orgasm quickly followed and he drove in deep one last time and held himself there. They rode out their orgasms together.

Ben kissed her shoulder and made to roll away but Catherine's hand stopped him. He moved back sliding deep once more and Catherine moaned through an aftershock.

They fell asleep spooning with Ben's cock stiff and deep inside her.

Chapter 22

Ben walked in his front door a little after lunch time. When they'd woken up at 11AM Catherine immediately climbed on him and rode him through three orgasms for her and two for him. They left the hotel feeling well satisfied if a little worn out. They hadn't used any of their precious time for eating so Ben was famished.

Tina rushed to the front door and Ben gave her a big hug and a kiss. She smiled up at him then took his overnight bag from him and put it in his bedroom. When he walked into the kitchen to make himself something to eat Tina came rushing back into the room and directed him to the kitchen table. He grinned at her eagerness. He asked for a sandwich and she immediately moved to make him one.

While she prepared him lunch the phone rang and he got up to get it. He had to direct Tina back to the counter as she leapt to get to the phone first.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Mr. Shepherd. This is Lisa McKellan."

"Hi Lisa." Tina looked over curiously

"Lori and I were wondering if it would be alright for us to come speak with you today."

"I'm just sitting down to lunch so how about 1PM?" he said.

"Thank you. That would be great! See you then." She hung up.

"Do you have any idea what Lisa and Lori will be coming over to say? I hope there is an apology in there somewhere. If they think they can seduce their way out of this mess then nothing's improved. Did you talk to them about what they'd done wrong? Did they seem to get it?"

"I did tell them I was very disappointed in myself for letting them convince me that it would be a good thing to get in bed with you and Mrs. King. I told them I wanted to stay friends with them but they were never to do such things again. I do not know what they want to speak about today. I hope they have learned to be better." Tina said nervously as she brought Ben his lunch.

He kissed her forehead and tucked into his lunch.

One o'clock found him sitting in the living room reviewing the online engineering forums to see if any of the requests he'd flagged had been answered. He saw two had been so he cleared them from his list. Three others remained outstanding and one had an update from the frustrated author pleading for assistance. He updated the item with a note indicating he was on it.

The doorbell rang and Tina answered it. Soon the twins were being ushered into the living room and they took a seat on the couch facing Ben.

"Good afternoon ladies." Ben said.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Shepherd." they replied. They looked at each other and it seemed that Lisa was voted to speak for them both.

"We just wanted to let you know that we are very sorry for getting into bed with you and Mrs. King." Lisa said contritely.

Ben waited but there didn't seem to be anything more. He sighed inwardly. "Why?" Ben asked.

Lisa blinked and glanced quickly at Lori. "Why?" she asked him.

"Why are you sorry?" he said calmly.

Lisa was starting to look very nervous. "Because we weren't invited to get in your bed." Lori blurted.

Ben looked at the two young women and wondered how they'd grown up to be such lovely and pleasant women without a better grasp of how their actions might be seen by others and how they'd need to take responsibility for those actions.

Lisa was looking very nervous now. Bordering on panic. That triggered Ben's curiosity.

"What did your mother say to you?" he asked.

Then the panic definitely kicked in.

"Never mind. Is your mother home?" Ben asked and Lisa nodded. "Stay here. I'll be right back." he growled and they nodded meekly.

Ben slipped his coat and boots on and walked over to Daphne's house. She answered the door and ushered him in. They sat on the couch in the playroom.

"Your girls came over to apologize but they still don't seem to grasp their part in this. What did you tell them?" Ben asked.

Daphne looked like she'd had a bad night's sleep and was still a little shaken up. She looked up at Ben with pleading eyes. "I'm so sorry Ben. Scott was the disciplinarian in the house. I was never good at it so I wasn't allowed to punish the girls. That was Scott's job but once they got old enough they knew they had their father wrapped around their little finger, most of the time. There was only one thing I had left that I could use to control them. It's their dream to run a daycare. I told them that you were my silent partner and that you told me they couldn't work here until they understood the ramifications of their actions."