All it took was a kiss, and Leslie was addicted to the taste of Ben. They had pulled away, but God, she didn't want to, and she didn't let go of his arms.
Ben seemed to be thinking the same thing, because seconds later he was pulling her into his office and shutting the door, slamming his lips back against hers. They walked backwards until they hit his desk, almost completely tripping over it, but not once did they break the kiss, not even for air.
"Ben," she gasped at some point in between kisses. "Ben." He took the opportunity to move his lips elsewhere, kissing down her jaw to her neck. Her whole body shivered in reaction to this, her nails digging into his shoulders. "Ben, we should… do you want to get out of here?"
"Yes." He answered immediately, pulling her impossibly closer to him. "Yes. God, yes. Um, where to?"
Leslie couldn't help but laugh at his current inability to think straight. "My place isn't exactly empty, Ben."
He sucked in a breath. "Right. Right, well, I live with Andy and April, but if they find out they can totally keep a secret."
She pursued her lips, thinking of every interaction she's had with Andy and April, and seriously doubting Ben's statement. "Are you sure?"
"I'll kill them if they don't." Ben gripped her face in his hands when she still seemed skeptical, brushing her cheeks with his thumbs. "Trust me, Leslie. They won't say anything. And… we'll be quiet."
She snorted a laugh. "Easy for you to say." Leslie reveled in the face Ben made at this, before pulling away slightly to pull out her phone. If she was going to do this, she needed to make sure she had the time for it. So, she texted Mark.
'I want to talk about this with you, I do, but I don't think I'm ready yet. I'm going to be spending the night at Ann's. See you tomorrow morning.' That sounded solid, not at all like a lie. She hit send, and for an extra safety measure, pulled up Ann's name to text her too.
'ANN! If Mark asks you anything, I'm staying at your house tonight. I'll tell you everything tomorrow and I love you and you're beautiful.'
Ann texted back immediately, almost impossibly quickly, in all caps: 'TELL ME NOW' but Leslie didn't have the time. She hated to leave Ann waiting, but there was a very sexy man in front of her who wanted to take her home and there was absolutely no way she could resist that butt of his. She shoved her phone back in her pocket and lunged for Ben again.
He laughed and kissed her once, lingering longer than they should have. "You have the night?"
She nodded. "For one whole night, I'm all yours."
"Thank god," he said, kissing her again for good measure. "Now is the hard part. Getting in separate cars and driving to my house."
A wicked look creeped onto Leslie's face. "Oh? Well… last one there is a rotten egg!" she yelled, and she shoved him aside and ran out the door, Ben sprinting and laughing behind her.
Andy and April were home. And they were in the living room when Leslie and Ben walked in.
April's eyes narrowed in suspicion, while Andy just looked ecstatic, smiling bright. "Woah, hey Leslie! Super cool that you're here, you want some cake?"
Ben sighed. "You're eating cake for dinner?"
Andy scoffed. "Obviously, BEN. What else would I eat for dinner?"
"Oh, I dunno, one of the many cans of turkey chili you have—"
"HAH, that's funny, Ben," Andy laughed. "That's a good joke. Everyone knows turkey chili is for breakfast."
"What are you doing here, Leslie?" April cut in, still giving her that odd look. "You're not gonna make us do work, are you?"
Leslie exchanged a (hopefully) very subtle glance with Ben, and the distance between them was still unbearable. She would've jumped him the minute they opened the door if Andy and April hadn't been sitting there. "Uhhh, no, actually," Leslie started, trying to come up with a lie very quickly. "Um, just work with Ben. We have this project, you see—"
"Pretty big project," Ben nodded along.
"Super secret right now, can't tell anyone—"
"And we had so much to do at work today that we decided to work late, I invited her here—"
"Which was so nice of him, right! So nice of Ben. We can get so much work done. Just… just tons and tons of… work."
Leslie and Ben smiled as Andy and April continued to stare at them.
"Okay!" Andy exclaimed.
"Whatever," April muttered.
Ben cleared his throat. "So… Leslie and I are just going to be quietly working in my room. Don't bother us, we're very busy. Great? Great."
Thank god it was a Friday, Leslie thought, as she followed Ben into his bedroom, avoiding looking back at Andy and April. She was so wired and so ready to completely jump Ben that she felt for the first time she might need the day off in the morning. Maybe. At least a half day. Either way, Ben had only just shut his bedroom door before he was pushing Leslie against it, giving her no time to even look around his room. He was wasting no time. She couldn't blame him.
Ben pressed his body and his lips against hers, and thank god the door didn't creak against the pressure, because neither of them were feeling particularly gentle that night. Ben, more than ever, and Leslie melted against him, and the way he very decidedly took control just then.
"I have an idea," he whispered into her ear, his teeth brushing her earlobe. "But you have to be very quiet. Can you do that?"
Her breathing was already coming out shaky, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, fingers slipping into his hair like she's always wanted to. "Challenge accepted," she told him, right as his lips captured hers again. His fingers gripped her hips, pressing her against his bedroom door, both of them silently deciding there was no time to move to the bed, no time yet to even remove clothes. There was only one night, right now. One night, after so many months of pining and tension and heartache, and it was all coming together just then with tangled limbs and Ben's teeth latching on her collarbone.
"Tell me if I'm going too fast," Ben told her, his hands massaging her hips. "And tell me if you want me to stop."
She nodded, but couldn't imagine not liking anything Ben would do to her. Just the idea… it sent a shiver down her spine, especially as one of Ben's hands trailed to the waistband of her pants. She could barely wait, it was torture, and they were moving so fast, so why did it feel so slow?
As if to give him permission, she grabbed one of Ben's hands and placed it on her stomach underneath her breast. He noticed the signal immediately and his palm cupped her breast over her blouse, squeezing just enough to make Leslie gasp. The hand at her waistband flew up to press a finger to her lips.
"Shhh," Ben instructed her. "Thin walls." It was dangerous, so dangerous, but for some reason that seemed to turn them both on, smirking at each other as if the real life danger only added to the entire situation. Leslie nodded her head, and Ben dipped his hand back down again, unbuttoning her pants and sliding his palm down.
He moved just slowly enough to tease Leslie, his fingers so soft as they trailed carefully down. She took a deep, shuddering breath, and then his hand slipped into her underwear, rubbing her decisively. He had barely touched her, and it was already hard to keep her gasps contained, just simply reveling in the fact that it was Ben touching her, like she'd been imagining, something she thought she would never get to experience. She wondered if she would regret it in the morning, or when she wasn't quite so horny.
Those thoughts, however, were very quickly shoved out of her brain as Ben slipped a finger inside her, and then two not long after that. The action pushed an involuntary groan past her lips, and Ben pressed his free palm directly over her mouth. "Shhhh," he hissed. "Quiet, babe, quiet."
She nodded, and she squeezed her eyes shut. Ben's fingers only pushed in and out of her faster and faster, and it was getting harder to contain the noise even with Ben's hand staying over her mouth. His head leaned on the door behind her, his whispers landing directly into her ear. "Quiet, quiet…"
She moaned into his hand, causing him to hold her tighter, push faster. His fingers were long and pushed in and out with ease, his palm rubbing against her clit. Leslie felt the orgasm start to build, but Ben wasn't ready for this to be over so soon. He would slow down everytime she felt she was about to explode, and then start all over again, building up slowly, torturing her effectively.
Her fingernails dug into his back, grasping at his stupid plaid shirt and his skinny tie that never got removed, and was so close to begging him for release. But he was so good, she didn't know if she could even find the words to say it. Instead, her moans threatened to grow louder, and she mouthed Ben's name against his palm. He was breathing heavily too, biting down on his lip. "Ben," she breathed, when his hand slipped from her lips. "Oh my god, Ben."
It was obvious Ben loved the way she said his name. In the midst of it all, his eyelashes fluttered and his lips twisted into a soft smile, all at the sound of his name. "Say it again."
"Ben," she gasped, no hesitation, and his fingers sped up, his thumb flicking upwards to rub circles around her clit, with no sign of stopping this time around. "Ben."
"Leslie," he said, and then she came, her head thrown back against the door, and her mouth flew open in a way that Ben practically had to force it shut, trying as hard as he could to silence the low moan that rolled through her body. She was sweaty, and her legs were aching, and Ben waited until she could breathe again to kiss her, much more gentle this time. Just a soft brush of their lips, as if they had all the time in the world. Even if they didn't.
They didn't do anything else. Leslie suddenly felt as if she couldn't. "I'm so sorry," she told him, feeling he must have thought it was unfair. But he didn't. He only smiled at her, tucked her hair behind her ear, and threw a blanket around her.
"Never apologize for something like that," he told her, and they curled up together in his bed, suddenly very tired. "Never ever feel like you have to walk on eggshells around me just because you have with others."
Leslie rested her head on his chest and listened to his heartbeat as he fell asleep. She already knew she wouldn't be sleeping tonight, not a wink. Her head was full of thoughts pushed aside while she was kissing Ben, but with no more happy distractions, they were all there to torture her.
She and Ben would have so much to talk about, she didn't even know where to begin.
Ben woke up to an empty bed and a mushy brain.
It was Saturday, in his bedroom, and a quick look at his clock showed it to still be early— seven in the morning kind of early.
He had reached an arm out for Leslie, to feel her warmth, to remind himself that she was there, that she was real, that it wasn't a cruel game or trick designed to haunt him. He wanted to hug her to his chest and kiss her shoulder and then her lips, just because he could, and he wanted to stare at her and how beautiful she would be in the morning before she put on her work clothes, before she looked perfectly professional, when her hair was still a mess.
When she wasn't there, a part of him wondered why he even expected her to be at all.
It was pure panic for a few minutes, throwing back his blankets and searching the room, and then the house, as if she would be hiding or something, Ben not thinking in his right mind. And then he decided that she must hate him, or she never wanted to see him again, that she regretted what they did last night and he might as well leave Pawnee now before she tells everyone and Mark Brendanawicz comes to beat him up—
He found a handwritten note on his dresser.
'Ben— I'm sorry that I didn't wake you before I left, but you just looked so cute sleeping that I couldn't bear to. I had to go early to risk any awkward encounters with Andy and April, I hope you understand. Let's talk soon. From Leslie.'
Oh.
Ben realized very quickly that his panic was for nothing, because obviously she had to leave before Andy and April got up. As it was, he was sure to face some awkward questions from them soon about why Leslie stayed so late. And maybe why there was an odd banging on his bedroom door. Ben felt flushed just imagining a situation where he had to make up a lie to tell his roommates.
His heart was still beating very fast. They would have to talk. They would absolutely have to talk. There was no time for it last night, just greedy hands and stolen kisses and even though it was likely objectively stupid and incredibly dangerous and morally wrong, Ben found that he didn't regret it even for a moment.
In fact, he would do it again. He only hoped she would feel the same way.