Breathless Promises (Alluring Promises Series Book 3) (13 page)

“I…umm. Hey Aubrey, what if…”

I barely heard him speaking and couldn’t stop my ramblings. “How strange is it that we’re engaged and now you tell me you love me? I mean, how easy does that make it for our marriage? God, how easy does it make things for you? I mean, you didn’t even have to propose and all that stuff guys usually worry about.” I laughed as I continued putting on my makeup for the party. Glancing up at Gregory, I noticed he seemed a bit pale. “Do you feel all right, hon?” I asked as I shoved the wand back into the tube of mascara.

He cleared his throat as he answered, “Yeah, I just. Whew. Last night. I drank a lot, huh?”

I smiled as I turned back to my makeup bag and pulled out my lip gloss. “Yeah, you did. What were you drinking anyway?” I asked as I started to apply gloss to my lips. I puckered and then mashed them together making sure it was applied evenly. I tossed the tube of gloss into my handbag I’d take tonight to the party.

“Umm, I think some Jack Daniels and then I switched to something else, maybe Vodka and Red Bull?” I watched his reflection in the mirror as he scratched his head. I turned around and straightened his tie for him and pulled his shirt straight. I looked up to his beautiful brown eyes and bit my lip trying to contain some of my happiness. He’s really my fiancé now.
All mine.
I smiled again as he looked down at me with a confused expression. “I probably shouldn’t have had the last two drinks.”

“Well, that couldn’t be helped when you were talking to that one guy about doing business with his company.” I glanced up and noticed his frown.

“What guy?”

“The one hanging out next to Harry Karnon. The one wearing the navy blue suit with the ugly yellow tie.” I chuckled as I remembered how hideous it was. That shade of yellow could probably be seen from every angle of the room.

“Oh shit. That’s Larry Melander. Crap, I’ve been trying to avoid doing business with him forever now.”

“Well…” I patted his chest. “
That’ll
be changing now,” I joked. I was still nervous about meeting his parents on Sunday, but this overwhelming surge of love seemed to tame any thoughts I had about meeting them.

******

One of the best weeks of my life just happened. I still can’t believe he told me he loved me. I felt the need to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. The excitement of that was now mixing with the nervousness rolling through my stomach. I went back to my room again to check my appearance before meeting Gregory’s parents. I made sure to wear something tasteful that barely showed my cleavage. I went over the manner and careful usage of my words I’d use when we meet. What the woman said to me in the bathroom at the charity function kept popping into my head. That really didn’t help my nerves.

I heard a knock at the front door and checked my reflection in the mirror one last time. Maybe I should have worn my hair up? What if she hates that I have fake long hair and asks me to go back to my short hair, like in the engagement pictures? I would do it. For Gregory, I would do it in a heartbeat.
He loves me.

I overheard harsh whispers as I approached my bedroom door.
Crap.
What if she already doesn’t like me? That can’t be true; I haven’t even met her yet. I smoothed any invisible wrinkles on my cream-colored dress one last time and took a deep calming breath.
She’s going to love me
, I kept repeating to myself. The corners of my mouth turned up as far as I could without looking completely fake and walked out intent on being confident with every step I took.

Our eyes met instantly, only hers had a cloud of dark hatred to them. I could see immediately where Gregory got his sharp nose and full lips. Her dark brown hair was swept up in a tight chignon, which I began to wonder if it was too tight and hoped that was the cause of distress in her features.
Maybe I should have put my hair up too and it would have pleased her.
Her eyes grazed over my body, top to bottom before finally resting back to my eyes. I tried to ignore the unsettling feeling that crept up and held my hand out walking straight toward her, smiling as bright as I could.

“Hello, Mrs. DuBois. It’s so nice to finally meet you,” I introduced myself, hoping that my voice wasn’t shaking.

The coldness could be felt from her entire body as she glanced at my hand and then back to my eyes. The look she threw at me gave me goosebumps. “Gregory, I’d like to speak with you privately, please,” she told him with a tightness to her voice while blatantly ignoring my outstretched hand. I swallowed hard as I tried to keep my smile from falling and slowly pulled my hand back to my side.

Gregory cleared his throat and I looked over to him. The meek smile on his face sent a new wave of rumblings through my stomach. This time it was from fear. “Excuse us, Aubrey. I’ll be right back.” His tight smile left quickly as he leaned over and gave me a quick kiss on my cheek.

As soon as the office door closed, I began to pace. His mother was cold and callous. She barely acknowledged me and obviously didn’t approve. I wondered how long she would hate me during our marriage.

The huge grandfather clock that adorned a small wall near the door taunted me with its swinging pendulum. I realized I was staring at it and every swing of the ballast kicked my fear up a notch. I could hear their voices become louder, their argument increasing with every swing of the timepiece.

The office door flew open and she came stalking toward me, hatred for me clearly visible on her facial features. Gregory was right behind her looking just about as nervous as I felt. I glanced down and noticed a file she held in her hands. That had to be the reason why they were arguing. Whatever was in that file was going to be my demise.

“If you don’t leave now, I’ll make sure to leak these photos to the public, along with your dating profiles. Notice I said that plural. You seem to enjoy dating quite a bit. The last thing our company needs is another gold-digger.” As soon as she said that, my heart suddenly got stuck in my throat. Gregory’s shoulders slumped, clearly defeated by his overbearing mother.

“Mom. She’s not a gold-digger. I’ve known Aubrey since college,” Gregory insisted.

“Really? Was she such a slut in college too?” His mom snapped without even looking at him. She glared at me, daring me to take the file.

“What? No! No, and please don’t call her that. She…”

Gregory’s voice trailed off when my shaky hand took the file from hers and opened it. I gasped and inwardly begged myself not to tear up as I flipped through pictures of Clark and me against the wall of the building. Of course, there wasn’t a picture of me kneeing him in the balls, just pictures of Clark and I entangled romantically.
Well, I can correct that misunderstanding.
There were pictures of me between Blake’s legs at Allure and leaning over him. There were pictures of Clark and I dancing with my fingers curled through his hair.

All of these things I could explain. Until I continued further. I realized I wouldn’t be able to explain the rest as I glanced through the remainder of the file, seeing my online dating accounts. The way I presented myself online had clearly ensured I’d meet for sex. I gasped again as I read through more documents.

“How…did you…”

“Easy. It’s technology and when you’re a huge conglomerate, the ease of obtaining information is at my fingertips. The conversations you have with men are disgusting. You might as well have accepted money for sex the way you are.”

Bile began to rise in my throat and I fought to push back the tears that welled up in my eyes. Fear now gripped me as I realized my past was going to rip away my future with Gregory. There was no way out of this and I knew it. 

My eyes flicked to Gregory’s and I noted the disappointment in them. “I’m sorry,” I mouthed to Gregory as my legs began to give way. I quickly sat down holding my head in my hands as my world began to crumble.

“I’ll leave this here for you to discuss together. Gregory, don’t make the wrong decision.” Her stern voice felt like it echoed throughout the room before I finally heard the elevator descend.

“I can’t…” Gregory began and then took a deep breath. “There’s no way to change her mind once she has it set on something.” His soft voice lingered in the air before he sat down in the chair next to mine. I couldn’t get my bottom lip to stop quivering. With tears now coursing down my face, I glanced at Gregory. He was slouched back in the chair, staring at the floor while his hand rubbed his forehead.

“You weren’t like this in college. Why…” his voice trailed off as he huffed, stood up and started to pace. His hands kept thrusting through his hair out of frustration. The disappointment on his face crushed me.

But he said he loves me.

I didn’t know what to say. Would his mom
really
do what she said? I didn’t doubt it, especially after remembering what the woman in the bathroom said to me. Dammit, I finally have love. He said he loves me. If he loves me, he would fight for me, right?

Panicked, I debated what to do as I watched him sit back down. Resting his elbows on his knees, he placed his head in his hands and stared at the Persian carpet below him.

I have to fight for this.

I want him to still love me.

I want to be loved, dammit.

I deserve this.

I
need
this.

My world felt like it was collapsing around me. The perfect image of what I wanted was right within my fingertips and now being snatched away by some papers in a manila folder. I wasn’t going to let that happen without a fight. I inhaled deeply gathering that courage I had before his mother walked in with a bomb.

I dropped to my knees and crawled over to him. Yes, crawled because I wanted this so badly. Placing my hands on his thighs, I began begging him with my fingers, squeezing him to look up at me. “I can make this right. I don’t know how, but I can explain the first pictures. It’s really not what it looks like, I promise you.” My eyes pleaded for him to understand.

Slowly he raised his head, his eyes were as dark as his mothers, filled with loathing for me. My stomach sank further as I stared into his orbs. “You can’t explain the dating profiles, Aubrey.”

“I can!” I practically shouted. “I mean, we could say that someone else used my profile. I could tell her my friend used my account. And all of this could blow over quickly.” My words rushed out, hoping to convince him. I was desperate for him to believe that I could fix this.

Standing quick, he began to pace again as I sat back on my heels, still on the floor. The tears were coming now and I couldn’t stop them from streaming down my cheeks.

“This isn’t going to work, Aubrey. Were you like this in college? Did you sleep around and I had no idea? How is that possi…” I watched his eyes spark and I knew he realized it then. “You always left campus on the weekends. After Vanessa had made that pass at me, I thought you always left so that she could have time alone with me. You…did you sleep around then?”

I glanced at the floor and picked at my dress before smoothing it over again. I could lie to him right now and try to make him still love me. “I…dated, back then.” I couldn’t tell him the real reason I had left campus was so that I could go to the guys’ homes. I didn’t want to risk another episode of my roommate getting harmed from my choices.

The room was completely silent except for that ticking of the clock. The way it echoed through the room, it was more like the sound of a time bomb.

“You fucking slut!” His voice exploded throughout the room. I’d never heard him use such language. My whole body jerked from the boom of his voice in the quiet. I barely had time to look up before I felt his fingers dig into my skin. The force of him pulling me up to standing shot fear in me of what he might do. “You fucked this whole thing up, dammit!” My heart raced as his hands dug further into my skin. He gripped tighter as he dragged me by my arm to the elevator. I watched in horror as he pounded the button for the elevator.

My mind raced between the desire to flee or to stay and try to convince him. My chest heaved as I tried to catch my breath, feeling the stabbing pain in my heart. “You’ve fucking ruined the whole deal. Now what am I supposed to do? How the fuck am I supposed to get control of the company now?” He continued to yell as he swung me around. I clutched at my elbow, still feeling the pain from his grip.

I tried to catch my breath and quickly stole a glance at his eyes. Black as night and full of hatred.
For me
. I’d never seen Gregory angry. Never. His entire face was red, his hands clenched into fists. He began pacing the floor and I could feel rage emanating from his body. “Fuck!” He startled me with another outburst as the elevator door opened. I quivered where I stood as he stormed at me and grabbed my purse lying near the door where I dropped it last night.

The black patent leather purse was on the receiving end of his anger as I watched it hit the back of the elevator and then fell to the floor. Just as I turned my head, I felt his grip on my arm again. My body followed the same exact path as my purse just had. I collapsed to the floor and heard a gasp. Only to soon realize it was coming from me—from my heavy sobs. I didn’t bother to stand as the doors shut closed. I only watched with horror seeing the soles of Gregory’s shoes as he walked away from me.