I still can't believe I'm posting this. You can either thank or blame ephiiphxny. I wrote two versions of this and she convinced me that not fading to black was the way to go😂

For anyone who doesn't want to see them get it on on Ben's desk, the shift is about 3/4 down the page and starts at 'In one swift move'

Ben.

Twenty Four (and a half).

The day had started so well.

Auradon City was hosting a K20 Climate Change Summit in the Old Course Hotel, Golf Resort & Spa. Twenty of the world's richest kingdoms were brought together to pressure each other into being good global citizens. Mal and Hades had been invited on his fathers request - their job was to lurk around the event, reminding people that death came for everyone, and that they liked their souls without unnecessary years removed.

Everyone had arrived over the course of the afternoon, and tonight was a cocktail hour and dinner before the real negotiations began bright and early tomorrow.

He'd been discussing the Auradon Knights chances this season with King Agnarr of Arendelle, a quaint little kingdom to their north. They'd politely declined to join Auradon, but had been happy to strike up a trade relationship. One of their main exports was ice, so they had a vested interest in setting ambitious targets.

Agnarr also had two girls - Elsa was a few years older than he was, but he was sure Anna was their age. No one had ever seen them. Rumour had it there had been a terrible accident years ago, and now the princesses were kept inside the castle walls for their own safety. When Ben had brought it up while discussing the guest list, Mal had merely shrugged and told him there was a Story there that hadn't started yet.

So far, so good. It had all been perfectly princely and normal. Networking. Doing his public duty.

And then Mal had arrived with her father, twenty minutes late, and when she met his eye from across the room, slowly looking him over...well the minute she'd bit her lip and shot him a look completely full of promise, he was half hard already. He'd had to excuse himself, quickly, so that he could make a quick trip to the bathroom. One boxer trick later, he was sneaking up behind her at the buffet table.

"You look beautiful." Ben murmured, sliding his arms around her waist and pressing a quick kiss to her cheek. It was a risk, anyone could see them.

It was a risk he was willing to take.

He was getting braver recently. Maybe it was the fact that they'd been at this for years. Or that people were whispering about how he'd secure the line of succession. Or maybe it was the fact that he hadn't seen her for eight weeks and Evie was putting her in more and more outfits that could only be meant to torture him.

Tonight she was wearing another Evie4Hearts creation, and if Ben didn't know better, he'd say her dress complemented his suit perfectly. This one was going to be on all the covers - it was a deep purple mini dress really. Sweetheart neckline, mid thigh, all the embellishments (purple, blue and clear crystals), it could have been incredibly risqué - but Evie had added a flared train of sheer fabric that made it perfectly acceptable for the present company.

Mal could have been wearing a bin bag for all he cared. He'd missed her. And he had no issues with taking the risk to make sure she knew exactly how much he'd missed her.

It was incredibly un-Princely.

Anyone could notice.

Hades could notice.

But judging by the way she leaned back into his embrace with a very deliberate brush up against him, he wasn't the only one who'd been feeling the absence.

"That better be a roll of change in your pocket, or this could be a very long night for you." Mal mused, taking a sip of her champagne without taking her eyes off the room in front of them.

Ben brushed his lips against her bare shoulder, taking his risk one step further. When Mal melted against his chest, he decided to do something even more reckless, "Why don't you sneak out that side door with me and find out?"

His father was going to be furious. Cogsworth would genuinely kill him. Hades...he didn't want to think about that.

But maybe there could be something said for being a little bad…

"As much as I'd love to," Mal's tone was apologetic as she stepped out of his embrace. He frowned at her, confused, as she leant up to drop a chaste kiss to his lips. Then she handed him her drink and inclined her head in the direction of a group of men to their right, "I have a cad I need to catch first."

Then she threw him a wink and sashayed off towards the bar.

Ben was left holding her drink, far too hot and bothered for his liking, as he watched her slide up to Prince Hans of the Southern Isles with a grin that was pure sin.

Growling, he slammed both drinks on the table behind him and stalked off after her. Signalling the bartender, he ordered a scotch, trying to ignore the way Mal was clearly flirting with another man right in front of him.

This was not how he anticipated tonight going.

Ben didn't bother turning when Emperor Kuzco appeared next to his elbow, chattering away. Taking a gulp of the amber liquid, he muttered something that he hoped was an appropriate yet noncommittal response. The Emperor was their age, and he made Chad seem like a gentleman. Apparently, he called all his assistants Mindy because he was too lazy to learn their real ones. Another Story that was yet to start, seemingly. Mal liked the guy. Kept sending Audrey in his direction for 'stress relief', whatever that meant.

"So what's the deal with you and the chick in the purple?"

Ben almost groaned when he processed Kuzco's next question. Glancing to his right, he watched Kuzco zero in on Mal, spending a little too long on her lower half for Ben's liking. As he was flexing his fingers in an attempt not to throw a punch, Kuzco's constant train of thought continued to rile him up, "They do not make girls like that back home. Although - ooooooh no. Douche touched her."

Ben grit his teeth, his head spinning back just in time to see Prince Hans put his hand on Mal's lower back...and try to go lower. He saw red.

With Kuzco's monologue in his ear, Ben tried not to react.

"Dude, even I know you don't touch a girl without permission. Yzma would straight up kill me if did - um, hey, BennyBear, you're breaking the bar."

Ben looked down at that, and yep, he'd cracked the bar. Part of the wood had broken off in his hand.

Prince Hans and Mal turned, Mal shrugging off the offending hand easily, as Hans frowned, "That's a solid oak bar?"

Mal just looked at him, her brow furrowed in confusion. Her expression clearly said why are you overreacting despite the fact none of this was even a little bit okay.

Ben couldn't look at her, so he just shrugged and aimed a quick Add it to my tab at the bartender before storming off.

He needed some air.

...

"What the fuck was that Ben?"

Ben didn't even bother to look up when Mal barged into his hotel room, her clutch pointed at him dangerously. The door slammed behind her - opening and closing with magic, given he'd double locked it - and a moment later her hands came down on either side of the memo he was pretending to read.

He held out for a moment longer before he looked up, schooling his features to hide his frustration. They were off, she'd made it clear they were off. So he had no right to say anything about whoever she let-

"What the fuck?"

He didn't reply. He looked back down at his memo. Tried to ignore the fact his body was still ready to play.

Mal growled. His dick twitched in response.

"Oh, okay, that's how we're playing it. One minute you're coming up behind me letting me know just how much you missed me. And the next you're storming off all growley and self righteous because some asshole with an agenda decided he wanted to grab my ass."

"If I remember correctly, you told me no." Ben rolled his eyes at the paperwork before scribbling another signature. He didn't even know what he was signing. He'd need to check it all again tomorrow. When he wasn't hiding behind the Beast. "And then you went to get cozy with Prince Hans."

Prince Hans was the thirteenth child of the King of the Southern Isle. All to wife number one. Big family. He was the afterthought. Barely even a minor royal. He was an opportunistic, womanising, self-serving-

"I was doing my fucking job," Mal snapped, throwing him back in his chair with a flick of her wrist. Ben landed heavily, throwing his chair back from the desk. He was looking up at her now, and boy was he pissed.

"Seriously?"

Something like excitement flashed in Mal's eyes as his temper flared to meet hers, like she knew she was playing with fire and didn't care if she got burnt. Glaring, she bent forward to lean on the table. Keeping her voice low and dangerous, Mal spoke to him as if he was three, "Your dad wanted me to play nice with the baby prince to find out why the Southern Isles sent the afterthought to the K20 Summit. What exactly did you think that was going to entail?"

"That's not a Hades job." Ben scoffed, folding his arms and looking away, mentally adding his father to his shit list. When they'd had the planning session that morning to finalise their plan of attack for the summit - the Houses of Beast, Rose and Hades - Ben did remember his father and Mal talking off by the scones towards the end.

He hadn't thought anything of it.

But Mal and her father didn't get involved in petty kingdom politics. There was no reason to ask Mal to look into Hans.

"No, but it is if I'm your- You know what, forget it." Mal stopped herself from whatever she was about to say, instead settling on complete disdain. She pushed off the desk and turned to walk away, heading for the door. The only indication that she was getting more angry instead of less was the rapidly dropping temperature and the flames starting to curl through her hair.

That just riled him up even more.

He was sick of sitting on things. Sick of biting his tongue and walking away.

If she had something to say, she might as well say it. This skirting around things was doing them absolutely no favours.

He started to say exactly that, but she cut him off without turning around. "It was a favour, it's done, and you have made your point perfectly clear."

Her voice was high pitched and verging on hysteria. That should have made him feel bad.

It didn't.

"You're definitely reading the room wrong if that's what you think." Ben growled, standing now, slamming his own hands down on the desk. The wood creaked under the force. Mal froze, and Ben glared at her back, daring her to continue that train of thought. To pretend she thought he didn't care.

He knew she knew. Even if she wasn't ready to accept it.

No one made him feel like this. So...out of control.

So chaotic.

"Am I?" Mal rolled her eyes as she turned to face him. Cocking a hip, she pointed back at the door with her clutch accusingly, "Because Prince Hans lives up to his name, and what did my b- friend do when that happened? He stormed off instead of backing me up and letting me do my damn job!"

If he hadn't been so angry, Ben might have wanted to deflate at that. The thought that he'd failed her when she needed him would never sit right with him.

But he was that angry. The Beast growled from deep inside him, ready for the fight he knew was coming, "You made it clear minutes beforehand that you weren't interested."

Because god dammit he wasn't psychic. He wasn't a demigod who could see Lifelines and Stories and emotions and desires and know what was coming before it did.

He didn't even know if they were together half the time.

And she was pissed he hadn't backed her up? Please.

"Because I thought you knew what your dad had asked me to do!" Mal screeched, finally snapping. She threw her purse at his head, flames bursting through her hair and rushing towards the ceiling as she lost the handle on her anger.

Ben caught her purse easily, years of high school sports still ingrained in his muscle memory. He launched it at the other wall, satisfied with the noise it made as it made contact with the wood paneling. "I'm not going to push it when you tell me no!"

They ignored the purse as it burst open, the contents landing all over the floor. A bottle of perfume smashed. A pale pink demon fell out as the clutch hit the ground, looked at Mal and Ben warily, shuddered, then disappeared.

Mal barely noticed Pain, instead she growled at Ben, advancing towards him slowly. Wild flames fanned out behind her like a large purple halo. Her skin started glowing. She seemed...bigger. Commanding. Her eyes burned black, the depths of the Underworld reflected in her fury. Ben didn't know what he was seeing, but it was probably supposed to scare him.

This was Mal the demigod.

The angel of death people feared.

Good thing he wasn't 'people'.

"It wasn't a no, it was a later." Her voice took on a distant, echoey quality he'd never heard before. Like a siren's call, it drew him in. Towards his doom.

He leaned in. He'd go willingly. Always.

Dammit. Growling, Ben looked away, pulling himself out of the trance. Mal wasn't getting off the hook that easily. His grip on his desk was splintering the wood. He had a brief thought about the fact that Cogsworth was going to kill him when they didn't get the damages deposit back.

"You don't want to play? Fine. New plan." Mal laughed hollowly, her voice still sounding far-away.

Ben felt the air leave the room, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end. His brain, running on survival instinct more than conscious thought, shifted fully into Beast mode. Without realising what he was doing, Ben shifted his weight, planting his feet firmly as he shifted from offense to defence.

He was definitely about to be murdered by his angry not-girlfriend. But he wasn't going down without a fight. Folding his arms, he scowled. Even if he knew his hungry eyes betrayed him.

He still wanted her. Even like this. Especially like this.

Mal smirked, cocking her head to the side like a curious puppy. Then she clicked her fingers.

Ben wasn't sure how it happened.

One minute he was standing by his desk. The next he was flying through the air, back into his chair, his wrists bound to the arms by some invisible force. He looked up at Mal in shock - and more than a little outrage, fighting with magic was cheating - as she rounded the desk. She stopped in front of him, still studying him like he was one of Cerberus' chew toys. Planting her hands on top of his arms, she kept eye contact as she invaded his personal space.

Her eyes were still pitch black, but Ben thought he could see movement within their depths. He could feel the fear, and the despair and the hopelessness. But he didn't flinch. If she was trying to scare him with Tartarus, it wouldn't work.

"Hmm," Mal made a noise in the back of her throat, then glanced down with a grin. When she looked back up, her eyes were her own again, and the look of approval made the fact that he was still hard for her just a little bit more bearable.

Reaching between them, Mal cupped him through his suit trousers. "I think I'm due a little payback."

In one swift move, Mal had his zip down and his boxers out the way, letting his cock spring free between them, begging for attention. Ben had to bite back a groan as she ran her thumb over the head. Just enough contact to short circuit his brain but nowhere near what he needed.

Then, just as quickly as she'd grabbed him, she was gone. Pushing his paperwork onto the floor, she scooted back onto the desk. Ben didn't try to hide his desire, instead giving an experimental tug on his bindings. Mal smirked and, without breaking eye contact, let her legs fall open.

His desk was the perfect height to give Ben an all access view - and she wasn't wearing underwear.

Ben's world narrowed to nothing except the woman before him.

Mal's eyes darkened as she watched his cock twitch in response, and then she began slowly stroking lazy circles over her centre, "You pissed me off, so now I'm going to get myself off on your desk. And there's nothing you can do about it but watch."

It was cruel.

He never wanted it to stop.

Ben growled, fighting against the magic in an attempt to get free. To close the distance between them.

He loved watching her. Loved it. But he needed to touch her more.

It had been eight weeks. She had to know how much pent up energy was built up inside him. They hadn't even been in similar time zones for most of that period. Sporadic texts did absolutely nothing to ease the ache of missing her.

And now she was on his desk, trailing the pads of her fingers lazily through her slick folds, letting out breathy little moans every so often - had it been like that a moment ago? God, she was that wet already and he was missing it. Ben pulled against the magic binding his wrists unsuccessfully, but the fight just made him harder. More frustrated. More des- she'd magically unzipped her dress and now it was pooled at her waist. There was no bra either. He swore as he pulled again.

"Like what you see?" Mal breathed, her head dropping back as she slipped a finger inside and arched into her own touch.

He lost it.

The Beast roared, and Ben was vaguely aware of the sound of splintering wood as he reached for Mal. Diving forward onto his knees, he vaguely registered the chair falling to pieces behind him. They could deal with that later. He grabbed her hips and pulled her to him, nudging her hand out the way and replacing it with his mouth.

"About time," Mal moaned, now lying against the desk and reaching for his shoulders. "I thought you were holding out on me."

"Never." Ben challenged, just pulling back long enough to nip the inside of her thigh before returning his attention to her opening - alternating between long licks, shallow thrusts and sucking on her already swollen nub. It wasn't long before Mal was digging her nails into his shoulders, his biceps, pulling at his hair, anything she could to get some kind of grounding. Arching into him, Mal almost came apart when he replaced his mouth with his fingers, standing over her so that he could shift his attention to her breasts.

Mal gave him a moment to lavish his attention there - one hand palming one breast, while he took the other in his mouth. Ben always enjoyed this part, the fact that she was so sensitive and reactive to his-

"Fuck, Ben. I need-" Mal gasped, knotting her fingers in his hair and roughly pulling his lips to hers. She could taste herself on him when he kissed her deeply. Desperately. She reached for his cock, trying to get him where she wanted him faster. She ran her thumb over the tip again, and Ben's hips jerked up into her hand. "Inside. Now."

"Not a chance." Ben murmured. His self control was astounding, even to him. Their kisses were frenzied, pulling the other closer. But the pace he was setting with his fingers was just slow enough to tease her without getting her where she needed to be.

Whimpering into the kiss, Mal shifted her hips impatiently, riding his hand in an attempt to get the friction she needed. But no matter how much she writhed under his touch or ground against his hand, he wasn't giving her the friction she needed. Not yet.

His own payback.

"I'm still pissed at you." Mal moaned, tightening her grip on his weeping cock. She pumped it lazily a few times, trying to break him.

"Right back at you." Ben bit her shoulder, trying to push through the way his vision went white, and he felt her walls begin to clench around him. He shifted the angle, hitting deeper, and began rubbing tight circles over her clit with his thumb. That was it - she moaned into the kiss, letting the high build and -

"For the love of god, what is wrong with you two."

Ben didn't even pause at Doug's irate tone, and with one flick of Mal's wrist the calls from the other side of the door were silenced.

Suddenly painfully aware that their time was about to be cut short, Ben changed plans. He removed his fingers, ignoring Mal's indignant cries of displeasure, and thrust himself inside her. Digging his fingers into her hips, he slammed into her, losing himself in the feeling.

Ben could already feel her walls beginning to tighten around him, her words now just an incoherent jumble of moans and cries. The whole thing was too much. So good. Too good.

His phone rang, and with another flick of her wrist Mal silenced it. "I swear to god if you stop I'll-"

The rest of her retort was cut off as Ben rolled his hips to hit her just right and her climax hit. He crushed his lips to hers as he felt her clench around him, silencing her shout with a kiss, focusing on the way she felt coming undone beneath him.

And then it hit him.

This time, Ben couldn't fight it when the pressure in his groin exploded, his own climax hitting him like a rouge wave. Ben thrust into Mal again and again, all pretence of control gone, but she rocked with him, riding the wave together.

As the sound of Mal's phone ringing cut through the air, Ben realised something.

It didn't matter what anyone else thought.

It didn't matter that this was only temporary, and that in ten minutes they'd be at dinner acting like nothing had happened.

It was his name falling from her lips.

She was coming undone for him.

This was real.

This was his life.

And honestly, he wouldn't trade her for the world.