Breathless Promises (Alluring Promises Series Book 3) (44 page)

“What?” She spewed. I swallowed knowing her anger was all from this morning. It had built up throughout the day. The longer I had stayed away, the more time anger had brewed about what I did. Or really didn’t do.

“I…umm, well,” I stuttered trying to get something out. I probably should have thought more about what I’d say.

“You fucking asshole!” Vanessa shocked the hell out of me by storming out of the bathroom. Holding a tube of toothpaste in her hand, she came at me. I held up my hands as she shoved me against the wall. “What the hell do you want?”

“Fuck! Vanessa!” I cried out as she started smacking my arm. Just then, Matt came through our apartment door holding boxes and dropped them immediately.

He grabbed her and hugged her tight. “Let me go!” She started yelling.

“Matt, man. God, is she always like this?” Straightening my shirt, I glanced over to Aub, who went back to her packing not bothering to see what her friend had done.

“Just around you, asshole!”

“Come on, Vanessa. I think they need to talk.” Matt told her.

“Talk? Aubrey has nothing to say to him except to tell him he’s an asshole!” I watched Matt snicker as he shook his head and dragged his woman out of the apartment.

I ran my fingers through my hair as I tried to calm down from being pissed off at Vanessa. Then I got nervous again as I remembered what exactly I was here to do.

“I…well, I love you too,” I admitted to her. There. Now I felt better. I watched her storm toward me and fully expected her to hug me and smile. I told her that I felt it too and now we can go back to what we were like yesterday.

She stood in front of me. My expression changed when I realized she was still pissed. I had no idea why. I gave her what she wanted. She wanted me to admit it and I did.

“Ohhhh,” I coughed out. All the air left my lungs as Aub kneed me right in my balls. Doubled over feeling that horrible pain in my stomach and my balls. She hit my jewels so hard; I thought my eyes might pop out. “What the hell’d you do that for?” I asked looking down at the floor, holding my crotch, doubled over.

“That’s for screwing me over when I told you I loved you!” She yelled as I started to try to right myself. I took a deep breath.

“But I do love you!” I insisted, even though I could barely get the words out from the blinding pain. “Ungh!” I cried out as her fist hit my gut hard.

“That’s for lying to me!” She screamed. I looked back up and caught her fist in my hand just in time to stop another blow to my gut.

“Aub! Quit hitting me!” I shouted back, still holding my stomach with my other hand as I tried to pull her to me with the one I was holding.

“No, you asshole, quit screwing with my heart!” Her hands were still clenched and the anger was clear on her face. I stared up at her for a moment longer as the tears started flooding her eyes. She sniffed and then told me in barely a whisper, “You don’t deserve me.”

Without thinking, I pulled her over to her bed and sat her down. I knelt before her and took both her hands into mine as I gazed up at her. “You’re right, I don’t. I’m scared shitless of the feelings I have for you. I wasn’t expecting them.” I paused as I cupped her face. I needed her to fully understand that I really do feel it. “I don’t deserve you. No man really does. You’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever met.” I swallowed and took a deep breath. “If you’ll let me, I promise to try to be the man you deserve. I
want
to be that man for you.”

She remained quiet and avoided my eyes, still seething and not believing me.

“I meant what I said a moment ago. I love you. I really love you.” Her eyes flicked to mine and still held disbelief. Man, I really screwed up. I reached my other hand up and held both sides of her face, forcing her to try to believe me.

“You’re
my
calm, Aubrey. And if you’ll let me…I’ll always be your calm.”

A moment passed as she stared into my eyes, the anger subsiding and replacing with hope. She sniffled and then a small beautiful smile graced her perfect lips. “You called me ‘Aubrey’.”

I couldn’t help but smile back. “I did.” I swallowed before I asked, “Do you want me to call you that?”

She chuckled. “Well, it is my name. But I like that you have your own name for me.”

“I’ve actually got a couple of other names I’d like to call you,” I teased, unable to resist another jab. Not to mention break up all this sappy talk.

She rolled her eyes as she leaned forward. “Let’s stick with ‘Aub’ for now.”

Clark

Aubrey’s job and the way she travels off and on, sucked. But she loved her work and who was I to try to sway her from that? The one thing I learned after all our time together is that I didn’t want to be without her. Ever. It sounded sappy and I hated thinking that I’d never want to be without someone, but with Aub everything just made sense. Everything felt…just right.

I called in the girls because I knew I’d need to solicit some womanly advice for what I was about to do. The biggest thing I would ever do in my entire life. Benji and Corrina had already given me their two cents, which to me seemed pretty lame. They wanted to throw a backyard party and have me get down on one knee in front of everyone. Stupid. And what if she said no in front of everyone?
Loser!
That was not going to be me.

Gathering at Flynn and Mel’s house, the guys were watching a basketball game and basically mocking me whenever they could. Sitting around the kitchen island with the girls, we tried to get some ideas flowing about how I’ll propose to Aub when she comes back.

“You can’t propose to her in a back alley!” Izzy spit out at me after I told her my latest idea.

“Why not? I mean…that’s where I kept finding her and helping her out.” It made sense to me. Propose at the place where I saved her from the bad guys. Isn’t that in every fairytale ever written?

“No. Those weren’t her best memories of you two. Those were probably some of her lowest points,” Vanessa told me, her face scrunched up, completely disgusted.

“But I was there to save her,” I insisted. “It’s perfect. I’d be there to sweep her off her feet again.” I heard the guys laugh at that one and I threw a wadded up paper towel at Matt’s head.

She shook her head as Mel stared at me in disgust. “No, you’re missing the point. You want something that holds a good memory between the two of you. Something sweet and romantic—not where she was almost raped.”

“Hmm, that is a good point.” I stood there trying to think of some place that meant something strong for both of us. “Allure. I should propose at Allure,” I stated proudly. Now that one would be great. “I could put the ring in one of her drinks as Sandy hands it to her.
And
Sandy would more than love to get involved in that.” It was the perfect proposal.

“No. You were both picking up dates there. That won’t do,” Izzy admonished me.

I threw her a weird look and reminded her, “Z proposed to you there!

“Over the pool table and might I remind you, we weren’t dating a ton of other people.”

“Sheila,” Mel mumbled. Izzy shot her a mean look and rolled her eyes.

I knew that would start a whole new discussion. So I thought of how Matt proposed to Vanessa. “Okay, how about the picnic thing, like Matt did with Vanessa. That’s sweet, right?”

“No, it’s gotta be special to the two of you. You can’t follow your best friend’s footsteps,” Mel told me. She seemed as exasperated as I was. 

“I give up. Why don’t I just slip the ring on her finger after we have sex next time?”

All three answered in unison, “No!”

I snapped my fingers knowing exactly what to do. “What about the roses thing? She loved that. That went over
really
well.”

Mel rolled her eyes at me. “You really overdid it that night. That’s what you should have saved for a proposal.”

At that very moment, the only thing I could think of doing in response was to stick my tongue out at her. She knocked into me with her shoulder, laughing.

“Think of something personal. Something just the two of you share.” She quirked up her brow as she noticed my sardonic smile. “Not sex. Something else, you jerk!”

“You could have Daryl bring it to her at the boxing ring,” Z piped up thinking he’s some sort of comedian.

“
Asshole.
That’s not funny.”

“Clark,” Izzy said, pulling me away from wanting to punch her husband. “You’ll think of something special between just the two of you. Even if it’s at your favorite café or something like that, or that restaurant—the Italian place,” she suggested. I nodded, liking where she was going with that.

“Yeah,” Matt started joking. “You could hide it in her lasagna and she could shit it out days later.”

I started heading over to at least give him a good punch, when Vanessa pulled me back, laughing. “Hey, whatever you do, she’ll love it. Just go with your gut.”

The problem was, my gut was terrified to propose, worried that she might actually tell me no. That would really just suck.

******

I waited patiently for her to finally go up there. Aub hadn’t needed to go up to the rooftop since she started sleeping with me. Since she can get her fill of “calm” by just rolling over and watching me sleep. Of course, I can always tell. I mean, seriously, who the hell can sleep when someone is watching them? With her, it’s easy though. Now, I just pull her to me and have her snuggle up when I find her staring at me. We both get to sleep. Win-win.

After going back and forth through all the ways to propose, I hated all of them, until one particular night when she seemed restless. She always gets that way right before she’s about to leave for her job, which, of course, makes me edgy because I can’t stop my fears that she’ll leave me for good.

As much as she travels for work, I gotta say, Aub is really good when it comes to easing my worry. With her constant text reminders of her flight times, her daily schedule and then our evening calls each night, you’d think I was some crazy jealous guy, but that wasn’t the case. Aub just knows that it eases my worries after what my mom did. She’s surprised me on more than one occasion by just showing up at Allure on a Friday night and then leaving again on Sunday. Usually, she likes to stay at the hotel through the weekends to make sure everyone continues the weekend shift routines.

Tonight was the night though. She was leaving tomorrow for another month or so, depending on how long it takes her to get things set up. I felt her staring at me and managed to keep my eyes shut. Then I rolled away from her, more so because I wanted to start laughing. I mean, she’s staring at me and it was tough to pretend to be asleep.

The bed shifted and I heard one of the dresser drawers opening. She’s so quiet and stealth-like, sometimes it creeps me out.
She really should consider the vampire thing.

I heard the apartment door open and close and my heart thumped out of my chest immediately.
This is it.
I took a deep breath as I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood. Reaching into my nightstand, I moved my magazines away as I dug for the little box. I pulled it out and opened the velvet case, removing the ring and holding it between my fingers. The moonlight shone between the slats and shined right onto the diamond. Vanessa insisted this was the right ring for Aub, telling me how much she loves the diamond shaped cut. I think she called it marquise, but what the hell did I know? All I knew is that it cost a fortune and I hoped to God she loved it.

“This is it,” I said out loud as I gathered my nerves and stood up. I climbed the steps up to the rooftop and the door was ajar; the brick holding it open just like always. There she was laying on the concrete in her pajama bottoms and camisole staring up at the stars. I took in a deep breath of warm summer air and looked up briefly. I realized all the stars were out and it really was the perfect night for this. If only my nerves were as calm as the night sky.

Stepping lightly over to her, I sat down on the ground next to her. It seemed like forever since we’d done this, which only made what I was about to do even more perfect. My heart thumped uncontrollably out of my chest as I lowered my body next to hers.

“I can’t remember the last time we did this,” Aub whispered, still staring up at the stars.

Attempting to keep my voice even I responded, “Yeah.” I managed to swallow nervously before continuing, “It’s been awhile.”

She rolled her head toward me and smiled. “I love you. I’m sorry I’m leaving again so soon. I tried to get out of it, but you know how that goes.” She shrugged as I stared at her blankly not even registering what she said. My nerves were rolling way too strong.

“I love you too,” I managed to respond. At least I remembered her saying that at some point.

“You okay? I probably woke you, huh? I tried to be quiet. Guess I’m not as quiet as I used to be.” She smiled and let out that chuckle that makes me want to kiss her. Aub really does have the most incredible smile. Maybe because she spent so much time in the beginning crying that when she did smile it made it more incredible.

“You’re fine,” I managed to say. Man, I sound like a pussy. The nerves rolling through me were nothing like I’d ever experienced. Which is stupid. I mean…I’m asking her a simple question that she’ll say yes to, right? Unless she tells me no. Shit. What then?

Suck it up asshole and just do it.

Toying with the ring on my finger, I reached over and touched her hand. My fingers fumbled slightly as I tried to slip it onto her finger. Shit. Which finger was her ring one?

Aub giggled as she looked over to me while I tried to casually slip the ring onto her finger. “What are you up to?” She asked coyly.

“I’d like you…to marry you,” I blurted out. Then realizing how I screwed up, I quickly added, “Me. Would you marry?” I swallowed knowing I really messed the whole thing up. Why the hell would she marry a guy who screwed that up so bad?

She sat up quick and stared at her finger. I think I got the right one as I followed her gaze. I did. I got the right finger. “Did you just propose?”

I sat up just as quick. “Only if you’re going to say ‘yes’,” I blurted out.
Shit.
That sounded stupid. “I mean. Yes, I…would you marry me?”

She stared down at the ring for what seemed like an eternity.
Hell, it was an eternity.
I was just about to stand up and head back downstairs. Thoughts of divvying up all the new crap we bought together started to hurt my head.

Aub leaned over without answering me and her lips touched mine with a soft sweet kiss. She was letting me down easy. Hell, if she’s saying no, I might as well get more out of this. I pulled her body onto my lap and kissed her deep. The moan she let out only made me need her more.

“Yes,” she whispered as she pulled back before kissing me again. “Only if you slip the ring on my correct finger,” she teased.

“Deal.” I exhaled, letting out all my nerves. I looked back down and realized I slipped it onto her index finger instead. Placing it on the correct finger, I asked, “Aubrey, will you please marry me?”

“Yes. Absolutely yes.” I kissed her as if doing that only sealed the deal.

There’d be no backing out of this now. We were both in this for good.

******

“Is she here?” I asked Z as he stood in front of me. I never could get these stupid bow ties to work. I felt like a kid having to have his friend help him tie the thing. My nerves were shot, my hands were clammy and paranoia was setting in. I just hoped this wasn’t what I would remember about our wedding day.

“Of course she’s here. I might question her sanity about marrying you, but she’s here.”

I glared at him right before he threw me a smirk. I looked back to the door waiting for it to open with someone ready to tell me some bad news. My stomach churned as the cold sweats started up again.

“Clark.”

I snapped my eyes back to Z.

“She’s here. She’s in the other room and ready to marry you.” His pointed stare was supposed to ease my nerves, but all I did was swallow and still couldn’t believe him. I took in a deep breath and then clenched my jaw.

Z finished tying my tie and then smacked me on the arm.

“You’re good to go.”

I nodded, but didn’t bother looking at him. A shot glass appeared in my line of view.

“Here…this might help calm those nerves.” Matt smiled and held the small glass in front of me.

I shook my head and waved it away. Panic struck me and I snapped my head to his. “She’s not drinking, is she?”

“Nah, she’s not. Vanessa just told me she’s just as nervous as you are.”

A knock at the door made my heart jolt. I stared at it, knowing it was bad news. It had to be. Things were going way too well between us, why would it continue?

Flynn entered, smiling like the Cheshire cat. See, I knew it. He’s got bad news and out of all the shitty things I’ve done to these guys, Karma’s coming for me. My heart pounded and I thought I was going to lose whatever I had for breakfast. Had I eaten anything?

“Damn, you look pale.” Flynn laughed and clapped my back. “Ease up there, boy. Today is your wedding day.” He pulled back, still smiling.

“Why are you smiling like that? Did Aub leave?”

Flynn pulled his brows together looking like I was crazy. “Wow. Clark, ease up. She’s here and for some weird reason, she wants to marry you.” He slapped my back again and walked over for a drink.

I nodded. I needed to calm down.
She’s here and she’s in the other room. She’s going to be there when I walk down that aisle. Wait. I don’t walk down the aisle. She does. She’s going to walk down to me. Unless she doesn’t and I’m the idiot standing at the end waiting and she never walks down…