Promise (40 page)

I lean my forehead into hers because we both know there are no words for this kind of moment. That moment when you are both deciding so many things, anything you say will sound insignificant.

“Will you keep trying?” she asks. It’s a whisper, and I’m not even sure she wants an answer, but those four words tell me everything I need to know.

“Until the last beat of my heart.”

I’m falling. Like I jumped off a cliff into the rush of a waterfall. That is how I love her, loud and fast and dangerous. I don’t even think of what might be at the bottom when I fall, I just fall.

“I’ll never get my brother now.” The sorrow in her voice smashes into me like a shovel.

“Never isn’t the word I would use. We’ll keep fighting, Promise. I can't let you give up your life. Jeremy has falsified documents before; I’ve seen him do it. Louis has been around, and he knows, too. Jeremy’s bad. He got a kid locked up once just because he had some evidence that showed Jeremy’s bullshit. If he likes you,
and you're a girl
, it’s all rainbows and unicorns. But, not so much if you’re a boy. You’re not the first girl he’s taken under his wing, Promise. If you want to know more, you can talk to Louis. Louis got him suspended once. Then, Jeremy got Louis fired. He’s a fuck.”

She’s staring at me, and I can feel the rush of my own blood through each vein. Her skin is so white and her eyes so tired as they follow the drop of her hands from my cheeks and down my neck until her palms press flat against my chest.

There is doubt in her eyes, and I want to shake it out of her. I want her to know that everything is different now.

“Do you love me?” I ask like it will be the verdict that decides the rest of my life. “I need the truth. From here on out, that’s the one standing order. I want the truth. Do you love me?” I’m not sure it’s a fair question right now, but it’s the only thing that matters.

I hate it when her eyes don’t meet mine. I hate the seconds that are ticking away in silence.

I want to tell her I knew the word existed before her, but I didn’t understand its meaning. I want her to know that what I feel for her happened in an instant. Like she drowned in its meaning the moment I saw her with my dad.

There is such a thing as love at first sight. I would have fought you about that prior to seeing her again, but I’m a believer. I fell so hard that day; I can’t believe I didn’t shake the floor.

“How do I know?” She’s licking her bottom lip, and it’s all I can do not to lay her out and taste her right here on the counter. But, I can tell her answer is a delay tactic. What I feel for her, I’ve never felt before, but I sure as shit knew what it was right away.

“Because you know. So, give me the answer. It’s simple. Yes or no.”

Every curse word I can think of is going through my head, waiting for her answer.

It was one second. Maybe two.

But it felt like forever.

Her cheeks are rising pink, and finally, her eyes give me the answer before her lips form any words, and her head bounces up and down in a single nod.

Now, I’ve been through some shit in my life I won’t ever talk about. Had to hunker down and dig deep into my soul to get through things. But, nothing has ever lit me up like the feeling of being with her. Of being inside her and listening to the sounds, she makes when I make her cum. It’s been worth the pain to get here, to be who I am for her now.

I’m done talking, and I manage to get my lips on hers as I lay her back on the counter, then slip down her body. My hands tear off the tight as fuck skinny jeans that show off her ass like a spotlight.

Tugging her jeans off, I can feel myself ramping up. Apparently, I’m still pissed about her running off like she did and ending up with another man’s ring on the finger that belongs to me. I rip her pants off her ankles and before I know it, I’ve got one hand on her neck and my teeth pressing into one of her soaking outer lips.

I’ve got two fingers of my other hand inside her in a flash, and she’s gushing. I switch my bite to her other side and hear her pain-cry as I get her slippery outer lip between my teeth.

The taste of her is enough to wash away my anger. I start working every fold and bump with my lips and tongue, my fingers still lodged deep, curling and touching the little spot that makes her body flood my mouth with her climax.

She’s howling like a wolf on the counter, and I have to drop my hand from her throat and steady her crazy hips, trying to stay on top of every buck and thrust, so she doesn’t knock us both onto the damn floor. She’s letting go, and I’ve never seen or heard anything more beautiful.

I let go for a second to let out the forged steel that is straining to get inside of her.

Before she can gather her next thought, I pull her sweet ass with legs wide to the edge of the counter. I sniff, smile and sink into her in one push. Her eyes go wide, and she makes that special sound reserved for when my cock is tapping at her limit and filling her completely.

Her body clutches around me, and I wait because she’s not breathing. She’s frozen around me, and I run a hand up her belly to her throat, touch her there softly until her eyes come back to me.

“Shhhh, babe. I’ve got you. Take a breath and just let it go. Let it all go, and let me take you there.”

When I see her chest rise and her eyes flutter then close, I slowly glide out of her, feeling every beautiful, amazing inch as I go.

Fuck, being inside her is nothing like anyone before. It really is like two beings becoming one. I take a long, deep stroke, watching each change in her face, every inflection of her noises. I want my cock to be her Master and give her everything she’s ever wanted.

She’s wildly tight, and I give her a hard thrust, driving the air from her lungs, then draw back, doing everything I can to control my urge to destroy her. She’s twitching her hips because I’m teasing her, leaving just the tip of my cock inside her soaking opening, waiting for her to relax.

“Let it go, babe. Give me all of you right now. Give it all to me, and see what happens.”

I hook my hands in the crook behind her knees, lifting her legs up and out, spreading her, and then when she softens under me, I give her every inch in one, deep thrust.

Her chest comes up like a shark out of the water, making noises that are completely new, but I hold her open, completely at my mercy and slam into her with a barrage of my hips.

“Don’t you ever run from me again. Are we clear?”

She’s already gone. I’m riding her hard and keeping her hips canted just right, pulling and pushing and grinding against her, letting her feel my dick coming up inside her belly, owning and claiming. Branding her.

She curses and nods, her arms flailing around finding only the faucet to hold onto, but that doesn't help her. I’m strong as fuck, and with her legs in my hands, no way she’s going anywhere.

I lock into her pussy, deep, holding her against me, raising and lowering her open folds, grinding my body into hers until I feel her drench every inch of me as she starts to speak in tongues, lurching around my dick with her climax.

I raise her legs straight up, resting them on my shoulders, and go to town on her. Looking down, watching her body soak me and take my thick length in and out, has my balls tight and ready to send out the troops.

I growl at her in a low whisper that comes in grunts and breaths. “You want me to cum inside you? You want my cum?”

I let my hands stray over her body. They settle on the baby-blue oxford she’s still wearing, and I tear at it until I get to the soft, white cotton bra underneath, and then I do the same to it.

With her laid bare, my hands cup and pull on her tits. It hurts, I want it to. She fucked up and sometimes the sex will be like this. All about the rough, because it’s what she needs.

From the way she’s arching into my hands, we’re on the same page.

“You like it, babe? You like that dick deep like that?”

“Yes.” Her eyes light on mine as I set myself as close to her womb as I can.

“Tell me you want my cum, babe. Beg for it.”

I watch as she takes in my words. I see her moment of hesitation, and I bat it away with a deep thrust, spinning her eyes to white.

“I didn’t hear you.” I rebuke, her eyes coming back down, regaining their ability to see. As a punishment, I stop moving.

“
Please
, yes. Please cum inside me.
I want you to
.” I start thumping in and out before her words finish, her voice lilting high in response.

“Cum with me, babe.” I grunt each word, intent on her face, and then let my hands settle flat on her soft belly until I feel her tense and her hips wiggle and dance, her neck arching. The sounds she makes push me over the edge with her.

We cum together with a scream and a groan. Her body milks every drop from my balls. I’ve never felt anything more amazing than sinking head deep, letting her have all of me in her own moment of bliss. It is as close to giving her part of my soul as I can ever imagine.

“I love you. I’ve loved you so long.” The words come out of me in a hot panting breath as I gently bring her quivering legs from my shoulders, kissing her ankles, each of her toes.

I’m not done. I scoop my arms around her waist, gathering her limp body against me.

“Get those legs around me babe and hold on.”

“I don’t know if I can; my legs are shaking so bad.” She manages to get her ankles behind my ass and her arms around my neck. She’s so warm and soft; I drift into that place that imagines us like this for the next hundred years.

Carrying her to the bath, I’m overwhelmed with my feelings of responsibility for her. The same feelings that were planted the first day I saw her face in that courtroom—listening to a mother tell her child she’s unwanted, watching that little girl’s face turn to stone. I knew from that second; she belonged to me and that it was my life’s mission to make sure she never felt unwanted again.

“Just tell me I know everything. Give me everything, Promise. No more secrets, no more lies. We can’t be who we are destined to be with that between us. Okay?”

“I know. I promise. I want you to have everything. I want it; I won’t hide anything ever again. I’m sorry, it’s just this life . . .” She takes a shaky breath. “It teaches you things. . . . I promise, I’ll give it all to you.”

That’s it, what I need. A promise.

Beckett

Two days later we’re in her apartment, and Bruce is staring at the check I just put in his hands. Then at me. Then back down at the check.

“Uh, well, for this amount of money, I’d hide a body for you. She’s moving out; I just asked for thirty days notice. This is like a
dowry.
She’s not my daughter; you know that, right?” Bruce can’t help his chuckling snort as he pushes his glasses back up his nose. He is his own biggest fan.

“I don’t like to leave people hanging.” I tap my fingers on the counter, then look over toward the hall where I hear Promise talking to herself.

“Hey, she said you got a book deal? You’re like some hot, SEAL, badass, sugar-daddy artist. You know anyone you can set me up with?”

I nod and laugh with him.

“Naw, sorry bro. But, yeah, I signed a deal yesterday. It’s all coming together for once. I wouldn’t say I’m on the sugar-daddy level, though.”

“These drawings are the shit.”

Bruce flips the pages on one of my notebooks. Promise insisted we bring it. She wanted to show it off before letting it slip that the drawing in her room was the first one. The one that started it all. Chicks love that romantic stuff, and my little angel seems no different now that she’s back in the land of the living.

She’d beamed when telling him I’d given her that drawing ten years ago and that I’ve been waiting for her ever since.

“Did you decide yet? About going back?” Bruce is ex-Army and gives me a sympathetic smile.

“Naw. You know how it is. Those guys are my brothers. We just lost two of us, and Pipes has decided he’s not doing another round. Brendan’s not coming back either . . . his wife divorced him, and he doesn’t want to lose his kids, so he’s staying put here at home. I don’t want to abandon my team. There’s only four of us left.”

Thinking about them takes me back, the blanket of darkness comes down around me. Jakes and Randolph went home in boxes because of me. It doesn’t matter that the investigation showed no fault—I was driving. I made the decision to drive over that bump in the road and not have ordinance check it out first.

The echo of the bomb concussion still wakes me up at night. I can still see the inside of Jakes helmet filled with blood. Randolph’s wife was pregnant with their first baby. That’s never leaving me. My brothers didn’t deserve to die on the side of a fucking road like that.

“Not me.” Bruce’s voice pulls me back to the moment. “I did my two tours, and I never looked back. I still have sand in my ass crack. And, it sort of cramped my style, if you know what I mean. None of that ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ when they had my ass sign on the dotted line. I had to stay under
deep
cover. When I got back, I decided that was enough. No more closet for me—not one more blessed day—and I came out
swinging
.” Bruce raises his eyebrows and looks at me from under his lashes with a wink.