The Shepherd of Ashburn Court Pt. 02

The food was wonderful and the conversation was lively and happy. When they'd eaten their fill and treated themselves to dessert they returned to the living room to continue their conversations.

Trish's cell rang and she looked at the caller ID. Her face froze and she looked at Ben. He walked over and she showed him it was Angelo. He took the phone and walked with her over to the foyer for privacy. "How much did John own them?" he asked her.

"$40,000" she said with a desperate expression.

Ben answered the call. "Trish Campbell's phone."

"Who the fuck is this?" Angelo barked.

"Ben Shepherd. A friend of the family. Is this Angelo?" he asked calmly.

"Put the bitch on the phone."

Ben took a breath. "I understand there was an outstanding debt with her husband. $40,000? I'm going to pay the debt."

"That was four months ago. Now it's $60,000."

"$60,000? Fine. Digital account transfer or cash?" Ben asked. Trish's eyes widened and filled with tears but Ben just patted her shoulder and nodded.

"Digital? It's cash only, asshole!"

"Monday at 3PM? Millers Park, inside the north entrance? I'll be carrying a blue gym bag."

"Why Monday?" Angelo asked.

"As you want cash I'll have to go to the bank which is closed tomorrow." Ben answered calmly.

"Fine! Don't be late or it doubles!" Angelo growled.

"I'll be there." Ben said as the phone hung up.

"OK, this guy sounds like an idiot. Small time. Did John tell you about the people he owed money to or the people he was gambling with?"

"John just gambled with his work buddies and sometimes he'd play poker in the back room of a restaurant in town. I think that's where Angelo is from." Trish said.

"Which restaurant?" he asked.

"John took me there once. He thought it was pretty special but it's tired and the food was bad. It was called The Celestial." she said.

"OK, I know the restaurant and who runs it. I went to University with three of the brothers. Two of them got kicked out for running a crooked Poker game. We're not talking about the mob here. I'll take care of it." Ben said.

"Ben, I don't have $60,000! I didn't have the $40,000!" Trish cried.

"It's ok, Trish. I said I'd take care of it. After Monday we won't have to worry about Angelo ever again. That's worth a little money." Ben smiled at her. She looked up at him in shock.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked.

Ben shrugged. "Because I can... and I'd like you to stay in the neighborhood."

Trish gave him a tight hug then they went back to the living room to enjoy the company of their friends.

Beth patted his spot on the couch and he sat next to her once more. She seemed to draw strength and comfort just from leaning against him.

Trish was occasionally casting admiring glances over at Ben and it was starting to trigger his nerves. Hannah noticed and had a little talk with her friend.

Catherine walked through the room with a tray of small butter tarts. Beth turned it down but Ben picked up two. He smiled at Beth as he bit into the soft pastry. The sugary liquid center was exquisite and he closed his eyes as he relished the flavor.

Suddenly he felt a finger stroking his lip. He opened his eyes and saw Beth lifting a little of the sweet syrup from his lip on her fingertip. She looked at it then put the finger in her mouth as she looked at him. It was so damn sexy he immediately felt his pulse divert to his pants. As her arm was resting on his leg she felt the surge under the fabric. She smiled at Ben and he swallowed. Neither realized that the room had grown silent as everyone watched.

"Would you care for the other half?" he asked her, his voice deep and rough.

"Yes." she breathed and opened her mouth. He lifted the small pastry to her mouth and placed it on her tongue. Her lips closed on his fingers and he slowly pulled them free. He noticed some of the sticky sweetness was on his fingers so he put them in his own mouth to lick them clean.

Cat's moan caught everyone by surprise. Ben and Beth suddenly realized they were being watched and blushed. They matched the red faces from the others in the room.

"Damn! Cat, quick! Get me one of those butter tarts so Ben can feed it to me next!" Rochelle joked.

Nervous giggles erupted as the ladies found other things to look at other than Ben.

He smiled self-consciously at Beth who leaned her head against his arm.

"Thank you Ben." she said quietly.

"For what?" he replied as quietly.

"For making me feel desirable again."

He gave her a hug and she felt his bulge press against her arm more firmly. "You never lost that." he whispered. She smiled as a tingle ran up her spine.

Daphne stood up. "Catherine, Gabriella and Ben, thank you for the lovely lunch and conversation... and entertainment." she said with a grin. "I have to head home as my daughters are coming home for a visit. I look forward to our next get together!"

Hannah stood and indicated she had to leaving as well. Beth reluctantly pulled herself away from Ben and moved to join Hannah. Once the flow started all of the ladies started towards the door.

Ben collected the coats and helped the ladies put them on. After she got her coat on Hannah arranged with Ben to meet the following night after supper with Beth so they could continue their group sessions. He hugged Hanna and Beth crushed herself against his body in fully body hug.

The rest of the ladies wanted hugs as they left after seeing what Beth got. Rochelle's hands went directly to his ass as she crushed her big boobs against him and growled playfully. That benefited the next hug recipient. Trish felt the hot ridge pressed against her when she squeezed him tight. Her breath rushed out past his ear and he felt her tremble and moan then she ducked out the door with a blush.

Ben asked Tina to wait until the end so he could walk her home and look over the papers she received from the bank. Gabriella and Catherine gave each other a sad look. Both had hoped to pick up where they'd left off before the guests had arrived.

Then it was just the four of them. Five counting Christopher.

Catherine held Ben's coat and smiled up at him. "Could I get a kiss before you go?" she asked blinking her blue eyes up at him.

Ben looked sideways at Tina who smiled back at him. "Uh, sure." he said.

The blond stepped up right against his body and pressed her lips against his, sucking gently on his lower lip. He struggled to keep his hands from sliding down her back to her ass. She sensed his need and pressed against him harder, her tongue dipping into his mouth. He grabbed her shoulders and gently eased her away though his lips kept hers for as long as they could. He wobbled slightly with his eyes closed and she grinned at his obvious excitement. She stepped back and guided Gabriella into her place. When Ben's eyes opened he was looking into her beautiful green eyes. Her lips reached his and his breath was stolen away by the pure sensuality of her tongue sliding against his. Finally she pulled back and Ben was breathing hard. He reached out for his coat and clumsily tried to pull it on. The ladies had to help him finally and Tina guided him outside.

When the cold air hit him he snapped back into focus and looked back at Catherine's front door. The ladies waved at him from the window and he weakly waved back. He realized the sun must have been setting as it was quite dark out as they walked to Tina's.

Tina led him to her house and let them in. The house was a little cooler than comfortable and the lights wouldn't come on. He looked at Tina. "Did you pay the electrical bill?" He looked into the drawer of the table by the front door and sure enough there was a flashlight. He pulled it out and turned it on. The light was bright so the batteries were fresh.

"James would not let me touch the home finances so I do not know how to do it." she replied. "But I did figure out his password to get into his computer." She led him into the den. "Not surprisingly it was his mother's name. He kept his passwords in a file on the PC. I found his pin number for his bank card and I used it to withdraw cash from the bank every day up to the limit of the card until there was no more money. This gave me enough money to feed Christopher and myself."

Ben looked at her and was amazed at her ingenuity. And shocked by the desperate state of her life. She looked at him anxiously and he saw she was trembling. Christopher began to fuss.

"Can you get me the papers you got from the bank? When did the power go out?' he asked. Tina turned to the filing cabinet and pulled the papers out. They were neatly filed and the cabinet was very organized.

"The power went off yesterday." she said sadly.

"What were you going to do if we hadn't called the meeting?" he growled as he looked at the papers. When she didn't answer he looked at her and saw she was struggling not to cry and her whole body was trembling. His heart went out to the young woman. He pulled out the desk chair and sat down on it. He pulled her over beside him and had her sit on his knee. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to shout at you. I'm just a little frustrated. James left you in a bad way. You need help and you have to be ready and willing to ask. You have friends all around you, ready to help you out. All of his accounts are likely in his name only. You will have to get a lawyer to change that now that he's gone. Has the life insurance come through for you?"

Tina sniffed. "James made his mother the beneficiary. She has sent me nothing."

"Son of a bitch!" he growled.

"Yes, exactly." she smiled.

He looked at her in surprise and smiled back. She had spunk. Then he felt her shiver. The house did feel a little colder. "Well, you and Christopher can't stay here tonight. I'll call Gabriella or Catherine and I'm sure they can put you up in a spare room."

"Can't I stay with you?" she asked.

"Me?" he looked at her in surprise.

"Yes, we do not take too much room and we are very quiet. Christopher rarely cries as he is a sweet child." she smiled.

"I don't think it would be appropriate for you to stay in my home. Catherine has lots of spare bedrooms since her girls are at school." he explained. He saw her face fall.

"I understand. We are a burden. We will go where you say." she said quietly.

"Damn." he thought and sighed. "Can you get me one of each of the bills you've recently received? Then go get your toiletries and a change of clothes for yourself and Christopher. And his food. You can stay with me tonight while I go over all of these bills. We'll make some calls in the morning and see if we can get your utilities back on. If we can't we'll make alternate living arrangements then. Sound like a plan?"

She beamed a huge smile at him and kissed his cheek. "Can you hold Christopher?" she asked.

"Certainly!" he said and gently took the boy in his arms. She smiled at him again and moved back to the cabinet. She quickly gathered the papers and left them in a stack on the desk. Then she went to the closet and pulled out a small suitcase. She rolled it out of the room with the flashlight. He turned on his cell phone flashlight app and used it to light the area around him. He heard Tina thump up the stairs. Minutes later she thumped back down and moved to the kitchen. A minute later she was back. He turned off his phone and handed Christopher back to Tina. He picked up the suitcase and followed her out of the house. After she locked up they walked back to his place and he let her in. She looked around and made pleased noises.

"Your home is beautiful!" she said with wonder.

He smiled at the young woman and led her down the hall to the first guest room. He flipped the light on saw the empty bed platform. Then he remembered that he'd pulled the mattress from the bed to replace the damaged one in the master bedroom. "Sorry, not this one." He moved further down the hall to the bedroom next to his. He flipped the lights on and saw the bed had no sheets. "I'll get you fresh sheets."

"Do you not have a mattress cover?" she asked.

"No, I never needed one before." he replied thinking of his California King. His cell rang and he saw it was Catherine. Speak of the Devil. "Excuse me a minute."

He stepped into the hall to get some sheets and answer the phone.

"Hi Catherine! What's up?"

"Hi Ben! Gabriella and I were just cleaning up in the living room and we saw you and Tina out the front window walking past with a suitcase. Is everything ok?"

"Tina's power was shut off and I think some of the other utilities may be off or about to go off. Her house has no heat."

"Oh my god! She and Christopher are welcome to stay with me. I have plenty of room." Catherine offered.

"Yeah, I suggested that. She was pretty upset and embarrassed. I told her she could stay with me for the first night but tomorrow we'd make alternate plans. If you don't mind I'll suggest again that we take you up on your offer." he replied.

The line was silent for a bit and he thought it had disconnected then she was back. "OK, yeah, that would be fine. If you need anything please give me a call. Any time."

"Thanks Catherine! You are as generous as you are lovely." he said with a smile.

"Goodnight, Ben. Sweet dreams." she said, her tone a little wistful.

"Goodnight."

He got the sheets and went back into the guest bedroom. Tina was sitting on the edge of the bed feeding Christopher at her breast. Her other breast was exposed. The first thought that went through Ben's mind was that she had surprisingly large breasts for someone with such a small frame. Then he decided it was likely due to her breastfeeding. Then he realized that he standing watching her feeding her baby and it was such a lovely natural experience. He would have liked to have seen Wendy like this. Only when she smiled up at his wistful expression did he realize that maybe he shouldn't be there what with her other breast being exposed like that. He did an about face and went back out into the hall. "Sorry about that. I'll give you your privacy."

"I do not mind. Ben, the bed is lovely and soft but a little too soft for Christopher. I will need to get his bassinette."

"I can get that for you. Where is it?" Ben asked. He was grateful to have a mission to do while the baby was fed.

"It is in the master bedroom." she replied. "Here are my keys."

Ben entered the room and averted his eyes as he reached for the keys. When she didn't put them in his hand he had to look. Christopher was on her other breast now and the nipple of the first was red and swollen from his sucking. She had a small smile on her lips.

"Thank you for letting us stay tonight." she said and handed him the keys.

He couldn't trust his voice so he just nodded then left the room.

It didn't take him more than seven minutes to retrieve the bassinette. When he returned with it Tina had already put the sheets on the bed and... she hadn't covered up her breasts yet.

"I am sorry. I must wait for my breasts to become less sensitive before I can put my shirt back on." She said to his pinking face.

"Quite understandable." he said looking anywhere but at her exposed chest. He put the baby's bed in her room and she lifted her son into it. He had the sweetest sleeper on and Ben couldn't help but gaze down on the sleeping boy with a smile. Tina stood beside him and rested her head on his arm as they watched him sleep.

Then he became aware of her body again.

"Are you hungry?" Ben asked as he turned away.

"No, not yet." she replied.

"I'm going to the kitchen to start preparing something light, I'm not sure what yet. We can have dinner in an hour or so if you are ok with that. I'll look over your paperwork in the meantime."

"Thank you." she said.

Ben looked into the kitchen cabinets and pulled out a large can of soup. He knew he had a loaf of fresh bread he could cut slices from to go with the soup. There was dinner. He had settled himself at the kitchen table and spread the papers out in front of him. He discovered that most were past due and some were about to go to collections. He saw the balances were all overdue and made notes of the phone numbers to call in the morning to settle the bills and get the services back online. Then he moved on to the bank papers. Tina was about to lose the house to the bank as the mortgage payments had not been paid in over four months. Ben realized that James skipped a payment before he went off to Las Vegas. Maybe he'd just forgotten. Ben would have to get on this first thing Monday morning.

Ben sighed and tallied up the total outstanding. There was no way Tina was going to be able to afford this. She certainly wasn't going to be able to afford to keep the home. He looked up and saw her standing in the kitchen doorway (fully dressed) with a sad look on her face. She was reading his.

"I'm going to lose my home." she said.

"As you don't have any income I don't see any alternative. If you can prove ownership you're best option is to sell the house which is far too large for just the two of you anyway. This will give you a nice bit of money to either get a smaller place or rent an apartment. You are young. You can go back to school and get a degree in something that interests you and you can put Christopher in Daphne's daycare while you study. Maybe you could rent a room from Trish's house which is right next to Daphne's daycare. You get to stay in the neighborhood." he saw the plan coming together in his mind as he explained her options.

Tina sat in the chair next to his and put her smaller hand over his. "Or I could stay with you."

Ben looked at Tina's dark brown eyes and saw the hope in them. "Tina, I'm terribly flattered but you're almost half my age. You deserve to find yourself a young man who will love you and Christopher and make a life of your own. You could BE my daughter had my wife and I been able to have children."

Tina looked around then dropped her eyes sadly. "I did not know you had a wife."

"She left me years ago. I'd rather not talk about it other than to say neither of us could make a baby and she found a man who could give her something I couldn't." he said with a pained frown.

"I am sorry. I cannot think of anything you do that wouldn't make a woman happy." she said.

"Tina, please. Let's talk about something else." his eyes remained haunted by his pain and Tina watched him sadly.

"May I tell you about James?" she asked softly.

Ben looked at her apprehensively. "What about James?"

"James was 14 years older than me. He did some investments for my parents when I was 18. He and my father were very similar and my father arranged that I would marry James. I could not defy my parents and James was handsome and good with money. I married him that year and we moved into this neighborhood. I thought he would want children right away but he put me on the pill immediately. I was a virgin when we were married and he was not good at sex so I did not enjoy it. Over time I discovered that I am a submissive. Do you know what that means, Ben?"

Ben was a little embarrassed but Tina's delivery of her story was so matter of fact it eased his concern about spying on the intimate details of her life. He found himself drawn into her tale, eager to hear more. Her question hit him from left field and he stuttered a little. "Uh, it means, uh, you give control of your well-being to your partner? You trust in them to take care of you?"

Tina beamed a huge smile at him. "You have a much nicer understanding than James did. For James it meant he could mistreat me, hit me, slap me, degrade me, and lose respect for me. He didn't want to have a child with a woman he didn't respect. I wanted a child desperately. I stopped taking my birth control. When I became pregnant he found out and beat me severely hoping I would miscarry but I saved my baby." She watched rage flare in Ben's eyes when she mentioned the beating and a thrill ran down her spine. "Once the baby was born he was beginning the process to be rid of me. He would leave me with nothing as I signed a form when we got married. I get nothing. I do not know if the lawyer is going to be able to change that and I have no money for a lawyer if I wanted one."