The Shepherd's Crook Pt. 04

Author's Notes:

'A Shepherd's Crook' is the fourth book in the Chronicles of Ben Shepherd. The chronological order of the stories is:

• The Shepherd of Ashburn Court - Parts 1 - 5
• A Shepherd in France - Parts 1 & 2
• A Shepherd Afield - Parts 1 - 5
• The Shepherd's Crook - Parts 1 - 5

Minimal effort is made in this tale to explain the backstory, so please read the other stories first.

All characters engaging in sexual relationships or activities are 18 years old or older.

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A Shepherd's Crook - Part 4

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Chapter 36

Ben was sitting in his favorite chair in his living room with his laptop nearby, in case he wanted to browse the engineering boards for new puzzles. He had a steaming mug of herbal tea resting on the table beside him. He'd discovered he enjoyed the beverage while in Singapore. Tina and Lucy were doting on him while his children played on the floor before him. Christopher was having a play date at Ashley's.

Just another Sunday morning in Ashburn Court. He'd been following this pattern for weeks and was beginning to feel restless.

General Davis' commando team had fulfilled their promise almost two months ago to get him from the hospital to the airport and on a jet flying home with no fuss. There hadn't been any sign of another hit team from the Russians since their last group had been wiped out so quickly.

His fever spiked when they landed, and he'd spent a week in Hannah's hospital after emergency exploratory surgery with their guest surgeon, Mishka Shyamalan. She'd repaired a torn suture in his small intestine, and he underwent another course of antibiotics to deal with the infection.

When he was finally cleared to go home, he had weeks of recovery ahead of him, and now he was finally beginning to feel like himself again. He'd even been allowed to do a low-impact, low-stress workout. He knew he had a long road ahead to return to his previous strength levels. That didn't discourage him, though, as he'd done it before, and he knew he could do it again.

He'd had multiple visits from each of his loved ones and spent much of that time in cuddle mode. Initially, he was forbidden to do anything more strenuous. Making love fell into that category, but cuddling in bed and kissing were allowed. Being naked was also allowed if the mood called for it, and not surprisingly, most often, it did. He was assured that no one felt neglected, and Ben calmed their fears about his health.

During the initial weeks of his recovery, he'd had a surprise visit from Jahal Mannan, who'd heard of his close call and took it upon herself to personally hand-deliver the ring she'd made for him. Tina and Lucy met her at the door, as Ben was still bedridden at the time.

Unfortunately, while she was a master jewelry designer, she sucked at being secretive as her eyes found the ring on Tina's hand and searched for the one on Lucy's before realizing she was being watched by two women far too intuitive for their own good.

The surprise was ruined.

While Lucy shed tears of joy on Ben's shoulder and was extra cuddly with him for weeks, Ben was more than a little annoyed at being robbed of being the one to present it to her. It took many kisses from her to dull that disappointment.

As he was restricted to his home for recovery, there hadn't been much for Liliya to do, but she did walk with him around the block once he could manage it. She told him she was taking online courses in photography as a new hobby. She said it was teaching her how to see the world with fresh eyes, not just from an assassin's perspective.

Evelyn's wounds healed, and her eyes had no permanent damage. When he looked closely into her lovely blue eyes to see for himself, her face warmed up considerably.

That's when he saw the scar.

A thin white line ran across both cheeks and bisected her nose.

Just... like... him.

Something moved in his chest, and he'd wrapped his arms around the woman, holding her close as he dealt with his emotional upheaval. The idea that he'd almost lost her was knocking him off balance. She'd frozen momentarily, then she'd held him equally tight.

She'd been smiling more since that day as they finally managed to get back to work in his basement for lengthening amounts of time as he recuperated. She'd been very diligent in ensuring he kept to the schedule and didn't push himself too hard.

Hector's team completed the tear-down of Rochelle's home and prepared the site for the new construction. While Ben had been spending time on the designs for the new homes with Dan Bishop, he put the project on hold as he wasn't ready to work on it. Additionally, Chanel hadn't informed him when Beth's home would be released. Hector told Ben that his team would be prepared to start again in spring.

Ben and Evelyn returned to the battery project, but his mind told him it was a dead end. They set up a second test in his basement with the bulletproof shielding. This time they removed the plastic wrap from the lithium cells. The result was a battery with no better performance than any others.

Having proven this, Ben had Evelyn run a background check on the designer. She discovered, at the time of his death, that the man had been drowning in debt and needed the funding the project would get from being renewed by the Department of Energy. Instead, he was killed by his own experiment.

Ben asked Evelyn to notify the Department of Energy that they'd have to look elsewhere for a battery solution.

The effort wasn't a complete waste as it triggered some ideas for Ben. He managed to create three small innovations; a new kind of pressure switch with incredible durability and a projected lifecycle of millions of trips before failure, a new temperature sensor that could be used in high G or impact environments, and finally, a miniature sound suppression technology that required no external power source. These could be used in humble ways to improve life, but none were splashy or particularly noticeable. Ben just smiled about that as he added the small prototypes to the trophy cabinets in his office. Evelyn was thrilled to see her name on the small description cards under the title Assistant.

The General was pleased with the return on his investment, as his development teams immediately found uses for these inventions, so that was a bonus.

When he was finally capable of walking around and could last more than a few hours before his body forced him back to bed, Rain threw an engagement party for Karen, Jayden, Penny, and Frank.

The entire neighborhood attended and had a wonderful time. Ben called in all his food truck friends to cater the event, and Hector was DJ for the dance party. The foreman said it was the least he could do for his favorite employee of their new business venture.

Karen and Penny covered Ben's face with kisses for the approval of their mates and the beautiful diamonds in their spectacular rings. Ben noticed the ring's bands were embedded with tiny diamonds which he hadn't supplied. He believed this was Jahal's way of apologizing to him for the slip up with Lucy's surprise. He didn't tell his daughters that. He just praised their rings and watched their eyes glow with joy.

While incapacitated, he'd managed to get the Klein Group to complete the selection process for Berlin, Paris, London, and New York. He arranged for them to fly in the Sky Shepherd premiere jet once more but learned that Robin had unfortunately moved on.

Ben let Louis know that Ed would be his proxy in terms of Engineering approval. The younger man was very pleased to hear that.

Speaking of Ed, he'd come to visit Ben with Grace and his daughters in tow. They spent a wonderful afternoon watching the girls and Christopher playing in the tower, and Ed enjoyed playing with Sam and Gretchen. Christopher and the triplets were exhausted afterward and barely managed to eat during the lovely dinner Tina and Lucy hosted.

Just a week ago, Chanel met with Shelly and gave her the bad news that one of the victims they'd found in the excavated cellar was her missing sister, Patty. That evening, Trish brought Shelly over for an evening of cuddling with Ben, and he told her he'd decided to build a contemplation garden over the spot once the new home was built. It brought the woman to tears once more, but she loved the idea as Patty loved nature and would have treasured this.

When the doorbell rang, it jarred Ben from his reflections, and he slid forward in his chair to answer it, but Tina popped to her feet and pressed a hand against his chest to make him stay as Lucy stood and rushed to the door.

Ben gave Tina a stern look. "I'm capable of answering a door, you know."

She gave him a sweet smile. "Sunday is Pamper Ben Day."

He slid back but grabbed Tina under her arms to pull her with him, stretching her out over his body. She squeaked in surprise, then found her lips being caressed by his. The squeak turned into a moan, then another squeak as he pulled back to look into her eyes. "You're making every day Pamper Ben Day! Too much pampering!"

Catherine was grinning at them from the doorway, with Chanel smiling at her elbow. Lucy helped Tina to stand, and Ben got to his feet. Before Lucy could get away, he grabbed her for a quick kiss that left her flustered and squirming.

"I'll deal with you two naughty ladies later," he whispered to them, and their excited smiles flashed at him.

Ben walked over to hug and kiss Cat when she tilted her face up to him. Chanel settled for a hug.

"Time for a change," Tina said as she carried Sam from the room, but the boy got kisses from the two ladies, as did Gretchen in Lucy's arms.

"Would you like to take a seat?" Ben asked, and they nodded and followed him back into the living room. They sat side by side on the sofa as Ben settled back into his chair. "I'm beginning to feel trapped in this chair."

"Really?" Cat said with a skeptical look.

Ben shrugged. "A little stir crazy, then. I think I'd go mad if it wasn't for my walks around the court."

"We were just checking in to see how you're doing and to let you know everything is on track for opening the first Shepherd Foundation Headquarters in January. The renovations and construction on the buildings downtown are ahead of schedule, and I've been given assurances they'll be done this month."

"That's great news. I assume Trish is pretty excited about the opening?" Ben asked.

"She's ready. It will be great to say we actually have one of the Foundations open. We're planning to get the rest of them open next summer if all goes well," Cat said with a smile.

He looked to Chanel. "Any more thoughts on that position I offered to you?"

Chanel nodded. "The company I arranged to handle security in the interim is doing a good job. I really want to finish this case for Shelly." Her expression became frustrated. "Grace has tied a number of people to the purchase of the home, but we have no evidence of them actually visiting the house. Not even that weasel Marion Spencer. When I questioned him, do you know what he did? He laughed at me. He said I had no evidence he was ever there. He also said he'd never see the inside of a prison cell because of his dialysis. The bastard dismissed me with a fuck off."

Ben frowned. "That must have been very frustrating."

Chanel sighed. "Yes, but I will see justice served," she insisted, and Cat gave her a hug which made her smile. She turned that smile on Ben. "It's great you have the Sergeant at this end of the street with cameras pointed everywhere and the Spa at the other end pointing camera this way, but that didn't exist back then. I don't even see any neighborhood watch signs."

Ben chuckled as that brought up a memory for him. "Our neighborhood watch moved away, and I bought his home."

Cat looked at him with a puzzled expression.

"You remember Barry Walker? He lived in the home next to Beth's. The man lived by his front window with a pair of binoculars," Ben said with a grin. "He always knew when I was raking leaves and came out to do his just as I'd be finishing mine so I could help him with his yard. Shoveling snow, too."

Chanel was watching Ben with interest. "Do you still keep in touch with him? Maybe he saw someone at the home?"

Ben looked at her in surprise. "Oh! I haven't spoken to him since I bought the property. He moved to Florida so his wife could be closer to her sister. I have his email address if you want to reach out to him."

She smiled and nodded, so Ben looked up the message from Barry offering him the house. He clicked the Reply button again and added Chanel's email to the CC line. Then, he added a brief message to Barry saying Chanel would like to ask him about the occupants of Fourteen Ashburn Court before the Wilsons moved in. He hit send. "There you go. I did an intro so he'd know who you were. Hopefully, he's still using this account."

"Thanks, Ben! Every little bit helps!" Chanel said with a pleased smile as she saw the message in her e-mail inbox.

"Any news about Tatiana?" Cat asked.

Ben's smile faded. "No. It's like she stepped off the surface of the planet."

"That's good, right?" Cat asked.

Chanel frowned as she didn't agree. "No, it's not. If she wasn't willing to fulfill her deal with the General, she belongs behind bars as restitution for the people she killed."

Cat looked at Ben. "She wouldn't come back to finish what she tried to do?" she asked nervously.

He frowned and shook his head. He'd talked with Liliya, who explained how Tatiana could have spared him but didn't.

But he vividly recalled the look of horror on her face when she did it.

"My concern is what damage she might do while on the run. People are hunting for her, but she's no easy target. She won't go easy on them, and each kill will make it worse for her," Ben said quietly.

"Ben, you did everything you could for her. Sometimes it just isn't in your power to rescue them," Chanel said.

Ben looked into her eyes, surprised by her gentle comment, then nodded.

"What's next on your to-do list?" Cat asked.

"New York," he said as a small smile returned. "I promised Ashley a trip to the Big Apple, and I also promised Phil DeMonte I'd visit and see how his movie is progressing, so I'm doing both together. We leave tomorrow night."

"Lucky lady!" Catherine said, then pouted playfully at Chanel. "You never take me to New York!"

Chanel snorted and hugged the beauty at her side. "I will take you anywhere you wish to go."

"Take me to brunch downtown!" Cat cheered and threw her arms around Chanel.

Blushing sweetly, the brunette stood and pulled Cat to her feet. "On that note, we will bid you a good day. Thanks again for the contact with Mr. Walker."

Cat pranced over to Ben's chair and stretched her body over his as she'd seen him do to Tina.

Then she kissed him.

It was a damn good kiss, and Ben was left with a sizeable problem when she pulled back.

"Mmmm, we need to do more of that sometime soon," she purred and ran a fingertip along the ridge she'd left in his pants.

Ben gave her and Chanel a flustered look, and Chanel just shook her head at her wife's nature. She was no longer nervous about Ben stealing her away. She'd finally managed to put that fear behind her as keeping those negative feelings just hurt their relationship. She trusted Catherine and knew Ben wouldn't do anything to hurt either of them. That's all there was to it.

"We won't take any more of your time. I'm glad you're feeling better," Catherine said to him.

"Thanks for visiting! Have a good day," Ben said to them as he managed to get to his feet and adjusted his pants.

He followed them to the door and waved as they left.

Lucy joined him at the door and looked down. She grinned. "Ooo! Did Catherine leave a present for me?"

"Where's Tina and the kids?" he asked.

"In the playroom out back," Lucy said with a knowing smile.

"Come with me," he said, taking her hand to pull her down the hallway to the master bedroom.

Once the door was closed, Lucy wasted no time dropping to her knees before him. She undid his pants and tugged them down to his knees. His heavy cock swung into view, and she wrapped her fingers around it.

"Fuck!" Ben gasped. That doubled in volume when she stroked the length of his cock from balls to tip with her tongue.

When she ran her tongue around the thick head, his hips involuntarily thrust forward a little, and she smiled up at him. She didn't make him wait any longer as she opened her lips and accepted him into her hot mouth and down her throat.

"Oh my god!" Ben choked out as the sensation of her taking all of him was indescribably good.

She pulled him out until her lips caught the head in her mouth. She stroked that with her tongue, then plunged forward again, driving him into her throat.

Ben's eyes were beginning to roll back as it felt too good. Lucy paused on the next downstroke, and Ben opened his eyes to see her staring at the new scar on his belly. Her eyes flicked up to look into his, and he saw the shadow of her fear. He reached down, lifted her to her feet, and kissed her deeply. She moaned at his passion and clung to him. Once she'd turned to putty in his hands, he laid her over the end of the bed, ass up, and roughly pulled her yoga pants down. She sucked in a sharp breath in surprise, then slapped her hands over her mouth as Ben used his mouth and tongue on her wet pussy. She almost shrieked from the spike of pleasure. Then he was behind her driving his cock deep into her. He set up a steady but fast stroke, and Lucy clung to the sheets like her life depended on it. He was almost brutal in his need for her, and she was in heaven. His heavy balls slapped her clit as he hammered her ass with his hips.

"Oh fuck, Ben! I'm coming!" she squeaked between strokes.

He was right there as well and ground his body against hers as they erupted together.

Her hands were back over her mouth once more to smother her screams as the bliss obliterated her thoughts.

They remained connected and breathing hard until they returned to their senses.

"Oh... Ben. That was... so good."

He smiled.

After he pulled free, he sat on the end of the bed and affectionately stroked her bare ass.

"Mmmm, you're going to get me going again," she moaned.

"And that would be bad?" he asked.

"No, it would be wonderful, but tonight please, with Tina."

Ben smiled. "I like how you think." He looked down at his erection which wasn't getting the message.

"Uh, speaking of Tina, could you send her in so I can show her my appreciation for all the pampering, too."

Lucy burst into giggles and grinned at him. She ducked into the bathroom for a moment, then rushed out of the room.

He quickly stripped and cleaned himself up in the bathroom, then heard the bedroom door open and close with a thump.

"Ben?"

He rushed out and grabbed the petite beauty. She squealed in surprise as he rolled them onto the bed. She was on his chest once more when he stopped, panting with excitement. He pulled her up until he could kiss her lips, and she moaned softly. They kissed for a few minutes, and her breathing sped up as she became more and more excited. He marveled at how small she felt yet how much passion she contained as she ground her pelvis against his thick cock.

She looked down at him with dreamy eyes when she pulled back from his lips. "I thought you would deal with us naughty ladies tonight."

Ben snorted softly. "That was my plan, but Catherine got me charged up as she left."

Tina's eyes fluttered closed as her hips rolled sensually, pressing his heat against her pussy through her yoga pants. "Mmm, I must thank her later."