The Shepherd of Ashburn Court

Author's Notes:

In Part 3 as the relationships become far more physical Ben begins to have a crisis of the heart.

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

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Chapter 11

Ben was sitting in the office of Shelly Spencer, Master Realtor. Master mouth would have been a more accurate title as the woman never shut up. When she wasn't talking she was giggling nervously. She didn't look much like Trish so there wasn't really a family resemblance aside from her height and her fake boobs. Trish whispered to Ben that Shelly had gotten hers the month after Trish had shown up at a family Christmas gathering with her new boobs. Trish was a red head while Shelly was blond. Big blond hair in gentle waves to mid back, soft blue eyes, very plump lips which may have been cosmetically enhanced, elegantly attired, tasteful jewelry but too much volume in her voice.

Ben was already getting a headache from the woman's constant need to fill any silence with noise from her face. Trish picked up on Ben's discomfort and tried to play interference by distracting Shelly when she could. Shelly rushed off to get some paperwork his lawyer was faxing to her so Trish leaned over to Ben.

"I'm so sorry Ben! I forgot how Shelly gets around men she's trying to impress. I haven't seen in her some time."

"I'd be more impressed if there was less coming out of her mouth. Maybe she needs to chew gum, bite down on a pencil, or find something else to do with her mouth other than talking." he grumbled. He knew it was more her nervousness that was grating on him than her talking but he wasn't sure what to say about that. He looked at Trish. "Maybe you could just ask her to calm down. The sale is a done deal, she's going to get her commission. I think she's a nice person, she just needs to relax." He noticed Trish had a mischievous look on her face. "What?"

"You just made me think of something Shelly would LOVE to do with her mouth." she said slyly.

"I'm really starting to worry that people have this impression of me as some kind of... damn, is there a term for promiscuous male?"

"Male?" Trish said with a smile.

"You're a million laughs." he growled.

"Sorry Ben, you're gorgeous, sexy and people assume you'll be great in bed- I mean from the one experience I had, which I will admit was way too rushed, it's true!" Trish said rubbing her thighs together as she recalled the event. "People want to believe in the possibility that you'll share all this with them." She gestured at his body.

"That's nice of you to say but I'm not looking to 'bang anything that moves'. I'm not even currently looking for a girlfriend." he replied quietly as he heard Shelly returning.

"Sorry about the wait. Ben, your lawyer faxed over the paperwork so you'll just need to sign in the appropriate places. He was remarkably quick on the title search as well! Once you've signed we can walk over to the bank to transfer the funds. Then I get my cheque!" Shelly began to giggle once more. Ben's smile looked just a little strained.

Trish knew what to say to stop Shelly from giggling.

"Ben, did I tell you Shelly and I once dated the same guy and we didn't know he was two timing us?"

"TRISH! You can't tell Ben that story!" Shelly shrieked.

"We'd both started college and he'd just graduated. He was older, more mature and worldly, a real smooth operator. I was in love and Shelly was too. We just didn't know it was the same guy."

"Trish! Please!" Shelly started to blush and her expression was moving from nervousness to panic. Ben started to feel bad for her and looked over at Trish but she was lost in her reverie.

"I would have done anything for this guy, I was that infatuated with him. Hell, I DID do things with him I haven't done with anyone else, not even John." Trish blushed and squirmed as she squeezed her thighs together hard. "God, he was hot! Then one day he said he wanted to try a threesome, add another woman to the mix. I was a little threatened but he made me feel special and loved, so I agreed. The night arrived and the lights in his place were off. He said this was to add to the mystery. We weren't allowed to speak and we had those stupid feathered ball masks on, covering the top half of our faces only. I was nervous as hell so we had a drink then another. Then we started. I have to admit it was pretty damn hot. What she could do with her mouth! It was the first time I'd seen anyone take a cock all the way down her throat. I'd never been able to do that for him. I should have been jealous but I was just amazed. She was incredible. And the best part was she loved it. You could see it in her eyes, her movements, the way she breathed, her moans, I was mesmerised. It was breathtaking!"

"Trish. Please. Don't." Shelly was whimpering, pleading, and her face and chest were red with embarrassment.

"And it wasn't just that she loved it, it was all the more special because she loved him. It was a pure connection between two souls! I had tears in my eyes! After his orgasm I leaned down and kissed her to share but the moment our lips touched I knew. It was my cousin. And he knew. The bastard knew. His smug, cruel expression made me ill but what hurt most... wasn't that he'd broken my heart. No, it was that he'd broken the heart of a woman who had expressed such pure passion and love. He hurt my cousin and I could never forgive him for that. I loved her far more than I loved him."

Shelly's face was the picture of surprise. She was crying but the tears were no longer of embarrassment. They were of love. Shelly grabbed her cousin in a hug and the two women cried together.

Ben was awestruck. Obviously this was the first time Shelly had heard Trish's confession of love. What seemed to begin as an embarrassing and potentially cruel tale had turned into something truly special. He wondered why Trish had chosen this moment to open up to her. He felt honored to have been included. Tears were running down his face. Trish looked over and smiled at her neighbor.

"Oh Ben, you're such a sweet man. You know you're the reason I was finally able to tell Shelly how I truly feel."

"What? Me?" Ben exclaimed.

"Brutal honesty." she said. "You said it to Tina and she told me what that meant last night. How you can't live any other way. I thought about when in my life I had been less honest than I should have been. There was one truly defining moment where I should have been truthful. I immediately thought of my beautiful, loving cousin and how I'd left her there that night and never let her know that I didn't hate her for taking that worthless man from me. I left because I was so consumed with rage for that selfish bastard that I couldn't trust myself to speak. I was afraid of the violence I wanted to do to him." She looked at her cousin. "I only wish I'd had the strength to speak my mind that night and drag you away with me."

Shelly was still holding her cousin and love was written all over her face. Trish leaned her forehead against Shelly's. "I love you, cousin!" Shelly's smile glowed across her entire face and tears of joy continued to fall.

It took a while but they finally got control of themselves and dabbed the tears from their eyes.

"Shall we go to the bank now?" Ben asked.

"Yes, let's." Shelly said. She was so much calmer and Ben could finally see the grace she'd hidden behind her nerves.

When they got outside, Trish hooked her arm through Ben's and Shelly looked up at Ben hopefully. He put out his other arm and she put hers through it. They walked like that all the way to the bank.

Ben spoke with the manager and the man authorized the transfer from his account to Trish's. He also arranged the cheque for Shelly. Trish paid off the remaining balance on her mortgage and was still left with over $675,000. She rushed across the bank and leapt into Ben's arms with a whoop of joy. Customers turned to look and smiles were on a lot of faces.

"Feeling a little more comfortable now?" Ben asked putting her back on her feet with a smile.

"Yes, my future looks a lot more promising! And a critical mistake in my past has been repaired!" She took Shelly's hand in hers. "And I owe both to you Ben."

"I can't really take credit for you and Shelly. That was your bravery and your love for your cousin." Ben said.

"You were right, he is a sweet man!" Shelly said looking at Ben who squirmed under their admiring eyes.

They walked back to Shelly's office arm in arm again only their grip on Ben was a little tighter now. Back at the parking lot Ben said his goodbyes as he had to head home. Trish insisted on giving Ben a big kiss. She pressed her body against him and her tongue explored his mouth. This had the intended effect and Ben swelled quickly in his tight pants.

What Ben couldn't see was Trish reaching out for her cousin's hand. As Trish's tongue tangled with his he felt a tentative touch on his bulge between their bodies. Then the hand was pressing hard and sliding up and up until it was gripping the head. He heard Shelly gasp and his eyes opened. She was standing right next to them hiding her actions and it was her hand rubbing and squeezing his cock through his pants with Trish guiding her wrist. He pulled back from the kiss and took a step away which made them pull their hands back. He was trembling with reaction. His body wanted more but his mind was confused.

"Trish, we'll talk later. Shelly, it was really nice meeting you." he said, his voice deep and rough. Ben turned and walked awkwardly to his truck and quickly pulled out of the lot. He saw them standing together watching him drive away. It was difficult driving with his erection trying to escape from his pants. Once more his body betrayed him. He'd just finished telling Trish he didn't want to be promiscuous and she was encouraging her cousin to grab his cock!

Finally he just forced himself to put the event out of his mind and concentrate on his next project, saving Tina's financial resources. He got home and immediately called his lawyer. The man said that the prenup was solid. He'd spoken with James' lawyer and there was no wiggle room. All assets were exclusively in James' name and there was more bad news. James had made a lot of bad investments and hadn't properly insulated his personal assets. His estate was being sued and the bank had already moved to seize the funds in his account, the house, and the car. There would be no money.

The good news was that James had done such an excellent job of isolating Tina that she was protected from the outstanding debts. Any assets she had were protected and she couldn't be named in the lawsuits. She could walk away.

Ben was glad he'd told her to get her personal items from the house as to try now would just get her in trouble. He thanked his lawyer and hung up.

Late in the afternoon his doorbell rang. Gabriella and Catherine were on his step wearing identical looks of shame. He let them in, took their coats and led them into the living room. After they turned down an offer for something to drink Gabriella leaned forward and looked him right in the eye.

"Ben, we just wanted you to know how sorry we are for accusing you of being an arsonist. When you protected us from the paparazzo we were stunned by how far you were willing to go to protect your friends." she said earnestly. "We were just worried that you might be caught this time as they were likely to take what happened to the Celestial far more seriously."

Ben nodded and sighed. "I'm sorry about how I reacted last night. I can see how you might have made that leap to the idea I was responsible. Let me assure you I wasn't. I spent the evening talking with Hannah and Beth from 7PM until midnight. When I told Trish I'd take care of it I meant by paying the debt. I don't think that will be necessary now." Ben stopped there as he didn't want to implicate his University buddy Dominic whose calls had obviously been very effective.

"I saw a locksmith park in Tina's driveway this morning. Is she changing the locks?" Cat asked.

"No, they were likely sent by the bank. They've seized all of James' assets as his estate is under a few lawsuits for his bad investments. Luckily Tina is protected from those but all she has now is the stuff she took out yesterday in some suitcases." he said sadly.

"No Ben, she also has us as her friends. Where is she going to live?" Gabriella asked.

"She and Christopher are going to live with Trish. I just bought Trish's house today. " Ben said.

The women looked at each other. "That's great!" Catherine said. "What is she going to do for work? She'll need daycare for Christopher."

"Yeah, I figured she could get Christopher enrolled in Daphne's day care when it opens. She's going to go to University for a Bachelor of Science in Accounting. It was what she had planned on doing before her parents married her off to that asshole James."

Again the women shared a concerned look. "Ben, how can she afford to do this? You said all she has are the suitcases with her. Unless they were filled with money, she's not going to be able to afford to pay for daycare much less University." Gabriella said gently.

"I'm paying for it." was all he said.

"Why?" Cat asked.

Ben frowned looking down at his big hands. He looked up at the two women who were leaning towards him with concern plain on their faces. He came to a decision. "May I show you something?" he asked quietly. They nodded. He got up and walked out of the room gesturing for them to follow. He walked downstairs and the two women stayed close. He stopped at a closed door and looked back. They saw he was struggling with something.

"This is my inner sanctum if you will. This is where I spent the years after I resurfaced from losing Wendy. After Gabriella brought me home from the hospital. I haven't shown anyone this room.

Cat and Gabriella were both very curious and just a little apprehensive.

Ben punched in a code on a panel they couldn't see and the lock clicked open. He pushed into the dark room and the lights came on automatically. The room was enormous and Gabriella realized it had to extend out under the backyard. There was some kind of machine shop at the far end of the room and dominating the foreground was a huge drafting table surrounded by smaller tables with papers and tools stacked upon them. Neatly organized clutter.

Along one wall was a series of lit display cases. Inside were objects of different sizes and shapes. Nothing was recognizable but thankfully nothing looked in the least sinister. Gabriella and Catherine both took a deep breath and they grinned because they realized they'd both been holding their breath.

Ben walked over to the first display case. Inside was a small silver valve.

"Before I left University I designed and patented this valve. Far more efficient and safe for use in nuclear power installations. I sold the patent for 4 million dollars and invested it well. I could have lived off that but for my master life plan I wanted a home, a wife, and a big family." Ben moved over to the next display. "This was a new type of insulator which greatly reduces electric current harmonics. I sold the patent for 10 million. I invested that too."

He turned back to the two women. "I had my nest egg. I needed the home, wife and family." He gestured to the house. "I got one out of three. Wendy was sterile and I was pretty close to being sterile myself. No kids. She didn't take it well. I reminded her that she would never have kids. She left me for someone who could make her happy." He winced and turned away, tears coming to his eyes. Catherine reached out but Gabriella caught her hand as she knew Ben still needed to get through his story. "You know the next five years of my story. Drunk and good for nothing much else. I'd lost all purpose. My master life plan disappeared like the smoke it was made of. Nothing proves how stupid making plans can be like a smack in the face by life. Then the day of the pedophile. A child on MY street! One of MY neighbor's children being abducted. I couldn't let that happen. When I had his neck in my hands I looked at you and Miriam and I thought of the grief and pain he was going to cause you both when he went to trial and I couldn't let that happen. I was so angry. Then he was dead. I killed him. It wasn't an accident. It was murder. At that moment I realized how low I was willing to go. What kind of person I really was. It didn't matter what happened to me after that. For all my careful planning I hadn't amounted to anything in the long run but if I could protect just this one child it somehow it felt like maybe, just maybe it made up for everything."

Ben looked at Gabriella with tears in his eyes. "I had three bullets in me and that wasn't enough to end me. As a cosmic joke one of them deflected off a bone and finished the job of neutering me. A bullet vasectomy. Take that for the ironic twist it is. A monster who destroys children's lives ensuring his killer can't bring any children of his own into the world." Ben shook his head and started to move a little further down the wall of display cases. Gabriella and Catherine followed with tears of their own in their eyes.

"When I got home I just went into automatic pilot. I fell into a routine of working out and spending time in this room. I'd find an issue someone reported on the Engineering forums and I'd come up with a solution. I'd patent the design and license it out to some manufacturing plant to provide the actual physical products. Sometimes I'd just sell the patent and invest the money. Lately I've done a few just for fun. Once I solved a Mexican Electrical Power Station technician's issue and I emailed him the solution anonymously saying it was his to do with as he chose. He made a fortune and it benefited his home town immensely. Spreading the wealth."

The women looked at the display cases and realized there were maybe fifty of so little devices each representing a small fortune if what Ben was telling them was accurate. They believed him.

"Money, I have. What I lack is purpose. My parent's died when I was young so I wasn't born to take care of them. I have no brothers, sister, or even cousins to love and support. I can't produce children of my own to carry on the family name. I'm a genetic dead end and my family tree ends with me. Obviously I'm not here to make a wife happy. What do I have? I can engineer and invent solutions and generate money but money is useless without a purpose too." Ben's tears were flowing freely but he didn't appear to be aware of them.

"Tina is young. Young enough to be my daughter had I been so fortunate. But her life was given a bad start. I can help her get her life back on track. It's only money. I don't care about that. It's far more important to me that she not waste that brilliant mind of hers. She needs to get her life back and I can help her so I will. That gives my life just a little purpose."

"I love this neighborhood. I don't socialize with everyone but there are people in it who are like parts of the family I never had. I want to protect that. If I can keep a member of that family close by using some of my money to buy her house and provide her with a place to live in it, I'm going to do it. It makes me feel like I have a purpose. Like maybe, just maybe I'm worth something."

The women couldn't take any more so they rushed to his side and grabbed Ben in a fierce hug. The three stood there in his office crying and holding each other. Finally he pulled away and led them from the room. He locked it up tight and led them back to the living room.

"Like I told Tina, I don't like secrets. So I'm not going to ask you to keep what I've told you a secret but I'd really appreciate it if you could use discretion in who you share it with and avoid talking about it if you can. Hannah is the only other one I've shared with and she's only heard some of it. You two are... special to me." Ben said looking down at his clenched hands in his lap.