Promise Me (15 page)

Some of his hair has fallen onto his brow, and I brush them aside with my right hand. He captures my hand on its trip back to his shoulder and turns it over to place a kiss in my palm.

"Stay with me tonight," he says as he locks his fingers in mine.

My mouth drops open at his bluntness and before I can answer he places his finger on my lips to keep me from saying anything.

"It's not what you think," he explains, "I promise, I'll be a complete gentleman."

"After the elevator ride and this, I'm not sure I can be held to such a high standard," I say partly in jest back to him.

A wicked grin comes across his face at my attempt to lighten the mood. He bends slightly to nip at my neck again, working his way up to my earlobe. Capturing it between his teeth, he lets go and then whispers in my ear, "Well... I could make an exception for you... because there's nothing I'd rather do right now than throw you onto that bed, remove this beautiful dress and taste every inch of your body."

I gulp as all I hear is Liz Lemon in my head saying, "
I want to go to there
."

Still nibbling on my ear and making me lose my mind, he stops and slowly pulls back to see my dumbfounded expression. "Don't worry," he says, "I keep my promises. I'll be the perfect gentleman. Besides, I'd say it's about time we talk about you letting me take you on a proper date."

I smile at him while his chocolate eyes show a trace of amusement still and I'm mildly put back at ease. It makes my decision a little easier than I thought possible given my ability to over think a situation to death. Although, the mere thought of sharing a bed with him and doing nothing other than sleeping is shaping up to be an increasingly difficult task if he keeps the ear nibbling up like he's doing again.

"Okay, I'll stay with you."

When he tears himself away this time, I drop my hands from his shoulders and try to get this situation back to normal which isn't easy with the way he looks right now. His hair has that "I just had sex" look going on and it doesn't help that those brown eyes of his are full of craving still.

I clear my throat before I ask, "Now, what about this date?"

He winks at me and asks if I have plans for tomorrow. I don't, other than maybe thinking I was going to catch an exhibit at the museum in Philadelphia. I tell him this while he grabs my hand and leads me towards the bed.

"Good," he says, "You can come to my place in Philly... and pack a bag."

I sit down on the edge and he goes down on his knees in front of me to untie the clasps on my left shoe while lightly rubbing my arch.

Oh dear God, he's killing me.

I practically purr as my head falls back on my shoulders, "That feels
soooo
good."

His hands stop moving so abruptly that my head pops back up to look down at him and find his face devoid of expression except for the slight tick of his jaw.

"What?"

"I'm glad that it feels good and all, Sabrina, but you can't say things like that if you expect me to keep being a gentleman tonight. Deal?"

I blush then nod as he laughs and goes back to rubbing my foot again. After he does the same to the other foot and is half way to standing up again, he places a quick kiss on my lips and asks if I'd like one of his shirts to sleep in instead of my dress. I say yes almost instantly, since there is no way I'll be able to sleep comfortably in this thing.

When he starts to untuck his dress shirt in front of me, I can't help but stare. The smooth ripples of his muscular chest are revealed with every button he pops open. Reaching the last button, his arms flex as he pulls the shirt from off his shoulders to show off the "V" that leads to… well, to there. But, what has captured my attention more than anything is the rest of the tattoo that is finally on full display. I'm enraptured by the black swirls that start on his right forearm and go to cover most of his shoulder and upper chest. Simply beautiful. He's truly like a work of art and way too sexy for his own good.

"Here. You can change in the bathroom. There should be a hanger in there for your dress too," he says and hands his shirt to me. I look at it for a second, still momentarily lost in his perfectly sculpted body before I grab it and make my way into the bathroom to change.

I hang my dress up carefully behind the bathroom door and go to put on Tyler's shirt that I don't think I'll ever want to give back since it smells of him. Turning to face the mirror, I undo the hairpins that are just barely keeping some of my hair still in place thanks to his handiwork. I give myself a final once over in the mirror before opening the door to find him in only a pair of pajama bottoms as he's putting his duffel bag onto the floor.

When he looks up to see me nervously play with the rolled up sleeves of his shirt, he sits down on the bed and looks me over thoughtfully.

"I always thought you were the most beautiful girl I had ever seen when we were younger," he stops then stands up to walk towards me. He takes my hand and leads me towards the bed before he continues. "When I saw you tonight for the first time after all these years, I was blown away. But seeing you in my shirt is probably the sexiest thing I've ever seen in my life."

When I climb into bed, I don't know what comes over me, but I blurt it out anyway, "You're not so bad yourself." And that's probably the understatement of the year.

He keeps his eyes on me the entire time as he stalks back to his side and turns off the light. Finally, he stretches out next to me so that we're facing each other lying on our sides.

Even in the dark, there is just enough light through the window to make out his handsome features. I bring my hand up to stroke his cheek softly and I feel his smile underneath my palm. I can't believe I'm actually here with him. I giggle as the thought of how absolutely crazy this whole situation is crosses my mind.

"What's so funny?" He asks with a trace of playfulness in his voice.

"Nothing... well, not nothing, but this," I say and remove my hand from his face then motion at the small space between us. "I mean, this is crazy, right?"

He scoots closer to me, forcing me onto my back in the process. He takes his hand and removes all the stray hairs from my face then leans in and starts to kiss me again until I'm just shy of panting. When he pulls back, he easily maneuvers me so that I'm on my other side facing the wall and wraps his arms around me from behind.

"Does this feel crazy to you?" He asks quietly.

I shake my head and melt into him, eventually letting the cadence of his breathing lull me into a state of complete relaxation. Just when my eyelids are about to close for good, he places a soft kiss right below my ear. Melting into him further, I feel his lips hover above my ear before he whispers, "Sweet dreams, Sabrina."

"
You're gonna have sex. You're gonna have sex," Julia says in a sing song voice sounding more like a child when they chant, "
nani, nani, boo, boo
". I go to lower the volume on the speakerphone even though there is no one else in my car to hear her.

"You know, I called you for support and encouragement, not to give you free reign to poke fun," I say to her like I'm the only adult out of the two of us, which sometimes I'm pretty sure is a fair assessment.

"Girlie, you've got more than my encouragement," she says in a completely serious tone.

"Well, then, help me. If you can't tell, I'm having an anxiety attack!"

"Okay, okay," almost sounding exasperated at my desperate tone before she continues, "First things first... please tell me you waxed before you left."

Is she kidding? I look at the phone wishing I can see her face before I answer, "Yes, and how exactly does that help me right now?"

"Easy," she says, "that's half the battle. When he finally strips you down you won't have to worry if it looks like you have Chewbacca trapped between your legs."

I stare at the phone for a second and then back to the road completely speechless. She picks up on the crickets coming from my end so she adds, "That means you can totally relax when you're finally naked in front of him later." When I still don't say anything back to her she continues to rationalize. "Listen, you haven't had sex in a long time so I'm just trying to help here."

"Gee, thanks. Those are some really encouraging words there, Julia. I'm so glad I decided to call you," I say dripping with sarcasm.

She tries to contain her laughter before finally getting it under control and continues with her rant.

"Seriously, you need to just relax and stop over thinking this," she says and I can tell she's still trying to collect herself.

It definitely felt right last night. I think if Tyler hadn't stopped when he did, this conversation with Julia would be totally different right now. I'm blushing at the thought and we really haven't gotten much past first base. I take my hand off the steering wheel and lightly run my finger against my bottom lip as I relive the delectable moment from last night when he finally kissed me. It was like he allowed the past ten years of holding out control him.

"Did you just sigh out loud?" She asks breaking me out of my day dream.

"Um... no," I say, not even aware that a sigh escaped my mouth that she obviously heard loud and clear over the speakerphone.

"Girl, you've got it bad," and she laughs. "Tell me about last night so I can live vicariously through you for a minute before I go back to watching reruns of
Buffy
."

"Oh, what episode are you on right now?" I ask way too excited for the change in conversation.

Her irate tone snaps me back to reality. "Sabrina, focus! Fuck, Buffy, Angel, and may God forgive me, Spike! Tell me what happened. And don't you dare hold out on me."

I tell her everything. The dance at the reunion, the confession, the kiss, sleeping, as in actual sleeping with him, and waking up in his arms. That last part was heavenly. At some point in the night we must have changed positions since I woke up to find my head on his bare chest and his right arm wrapped around me. My free arm was draped over his stomach and my right leg was hitched over both his legs like he was my own personal body pillow, and I loved it.

"Julia, what do I do? I mean, I'm leaving in two days."

"Hell, forget about you coming home in two days, I was going to ask about Alex," she says matter of fact.

Alex. Shit. What am I going to do about him? I can't deny that I'm attracted to him. He is right, there is something there, but do I really want to explore it at this point? I left him thinking that I was giving him a chance and I did mean it at the time. But now, I don't know. I have yet to answer his text back from the other day and I can't bring myself to go there just yet. I'm thankful I have these few days of reprieve but then think that I now have another potential problem on my hands. Logistically, how is this with Tyler going to even work?

"Sabrina, stop driving yourself crazy. I shouldn't have brought it up," Julia says snapping me out of my inner turmoil. "I can hear the wheels turning in your head through the phone. You're not dating Alex so... no harm no foul there."

"I know that, but it doesn't make it any easier."

"Alright then. I was hoping I wouldn't have to bring out the big guns, but you leave me no choice," she says. I quickly glimpse to the cell phone in its cradle, afraid of what's possibly going to come out of her mouth as I turn onto my parent's street.

"Here's the thing, this is Tyler we're talking about, right? Tyler, Willy Wonka, Anderson! This is the guy you've been obsessing over for years! The same guy who apparently sounds like he has had it pretty bad for you all of this time too. You need to stop thinking so much about everything and just go with it... and by go with it, I mean fuck him senseless!"

"Wow, Julia," I say while pulling into my parent's driveway and parking the car, "don't hold back on my account."

"I'm just trying to help put everything in perspective for you, since I'm not there to actually give you a swift kick in the ass," she says.

"Okay, okay," and grab the phone, letting out a small giggle, "I just got to my parent's house so I gotta run. Wish me luck."

"You don't need it, I have faith in your gypsy charms," she says confidently.

I laugh and tell her I'll be in touch soon when I look down at myself and groan out loud at the fact that I'm wearing my dress from last night. I can't believe I'm about to make the walk of shame into my parent's house but what other choice do I have? I didn't plan on last night to happen like it did, but it felt so natural to stay with him. True to his word, he was a complete gentleman. If he had any notion of going back on his word he didn't let it show. I, on the other hand, was really struggling, especially after he climbed out of bed and I got a better look at his naked torso in the light of day.