Romantic Promises (Alluring Promises Series, #2) (16 page)

“Damn, girl, you’ve had way too much to drink,” Z told her as he kissed the top of her head.

Izzy looked slightly confused as Aubrey pinned her gaze on me. “That pretty much sums it up, Izzy.” I swallowed feeling my cheeks heat up as I stared back at Aubrey, at the same time wondering what the heck was going through Matt’s head as he heard all that.

Z tilted his head down at Izzy, laughing. “Babe, I think we might need to get you back to the hotel soon.”

“I don’t wanna go,” she mumbled, barely audible into his chest.

I watched as the bride and her groom made their way over to our group. Flynn clapped Z’s back as he approached, still holding the bride’s hand.

The bride sighed heavily as she approached, looking exhausted, but still smiling. “I think we’ve made all our rounds.” Matt left my side to grab some drinks for them at the bar. I felt odd standing there with the group that I barely knew, but glad Aubrey was here. Well, slightly here since she and Clark were busy fondling each other.

Mel placed her hand on Izzy’s back. “Hey, are you doing alright, Iz?” She asked, clearly concerned about Izzy.

Izzy rolled her head looking over at Mel and slurred drunkenly, “I’m soooo drunk. Shhh.” She put her finger up to her mouth to show her to be quiet even though she didn’t whisper it.

Mel started laughing as she looked up at Z. “I think I’m going to take her back to the room soon,” Z told Mel and Flynn.

“He’s gonna do naughty things to me, Mel,” Izzy slurred as she laughed into Z’s chest. Mel glanced back up at Z and she and Flynn started laughing.

“I think you do need to take her back, if she’s already talking like that,” Flynn joked while looking at Izzy. He pulled her hair out of her face. “Hey Iz.”

“Mmm,” she mumbled, barely looking up at Flynn as her eyes were fluttering closed. Matt returned and handed drinks to the bride and groom as he listened to the silly conversation going on.

Flynn lowered his voice and spoke to Izzy, almost as if she were a child, teasing her, “Thanks for helping out with the wedding. The guy who’s holding you up is going to take you back to the hotel now. Just be warned that he might try to fight any guy that looks your way, okay.” Flynn looked up at Z after he said that and smirked.

“Mmm hmm. But if he gets t’ fight, I get t’a hustle guys in pool again,” Izzy said softly.

Z scoffed, “Yeah, no fucking way, babe. We’re done with all that.” He grabbed Izzy by her waist and gave Flynn a handshake and then half hugged Mel while holding Izzy. “We’ll see you guys in the morning before your flight.”

Flynn nodded as the rest of our group said their goodnights to Izzy and Z as they made their way out.

I looked up at Matt. “She hustles pool?”

Matt smiled bright. “Yeah, she’s amazing at pool. She used to hustle guys in college. Do you play?”

I shook my head.

“We’ll have to get Izzy to teach you. She is really great to watch.” He said as he rubbed my back. I flushed at the touch of his hand when he slowly circled his fingertips along the small of my back. My first thought was how amazing it would be to be in his arms.

I glanced up at him timidly, catching his eyes glance away from me as he turned his attention back to our group conversation. I watched him lick his full bottom lip and I couldn’t help but wonder how amazing he would taste. How his tongue gliding against mine would feel. I hadn’t really had thoughts of another man since I’ve been with Charles.

Charles. My thoughts reverted back to him and I started to wonder what he was doing tonight. Was he thinking about another woman the same way that I just thought about Matt? 

I glanced up and noticed Aubrey was staring at me. She briefly shook her head at me. She knows me too well. I gave her a brief fake smile. There was no sense in both of us thinking about my soon-to-be ex-fiancé.

I felt my glass being lifted from my hand and realized Matt was placing it on the bar before I could protest. He took my hand and led me to the dance floor. A slow romantic song was playing as he guided me until we finally stopped in the middle of the floor. He gave me a small grin as his strong hand wrapped around my waist while taking my other hand into his. He pulled our hands close to his heart as he pulled me close to him. I pressed my head sideways to his chest and began to sway softly to the music with him. His hand shifted lower to the small of my back, pulling me tighter to him as he pressed his lips against my hair.

The music guided us, pulling us closer together and giving me the feeling that this could be a possibility. Matt could be someone to share my life with. All my insecurities seemed to float away as I felt his hot breath and his hard body pressed to mine. I nuzzled my head to his chest thinking how tall he is and I was glad my heels made me tall enough to rest my head close to his neck.

“It’s nice when you’re loosened up like this, Vanessa,” his smooth voice broke my silly romantic notions. I gave a small fake laugh in reply. “I could really get used to this.” He paused briefly after he gave me a small kiss on my head. “I don’t think I told you how beautiful you look tonight, have I?”

I looked up to his gorgeous face and my breath hitched at how attractive he really is, especially when his eyes are hooded and looking down into mine. As my heart beat faster knowing he thinks I’m beautiful, everything inside my brain was telling me how many other women he’s probably told that to. I gathered my strength enough to say, “Actually, you sort of did earlier with your pick up line. The one I’m sure you give every girl you’re trying to bed.”

His brows pulled together in confusion as he stopped dancing, still holding my hand tight, still holding my body close and firmly to his. “That wasn’t a pick up line, Vanessa. Even when I didn’t recognize who you were, I meant what I said.” I glanced away from his heated gaze and swallowed. What had I said about him at the office? Wasn’t I annoyed with him earlier? Why did it feel so right being in his arms? Just dancing. One dance.

“You don’t take compliments very well, do you?” he asked.

I didn’t respond. I just put my head back to his chest not wanting to think about his question. Not wanting to tell him all the reasons why I don’t accept compliments very well.

He held me tight and didn’t speak any more as we continued to sway to the music. God, it felt fantastic to be in his arms. The music continued to play and I was lost in the moment.

I inhaled deeply and his spicy, woodsy scent filled my lungs, melting me closer into his chest. His strong arms held me so firm, as if anything that was going to happen after tonight wouldn’t matter.

I nuzzled my cheek into his neck as he lowered his head towards mine. My heart picked up and my breath hitched, as my lips seemed to find their own way to his throat. I inhaled his amazing scent as my lips grazed his skin, as my tongue begged to taste him. I moaned the second I tasted his salty skin, my lips slowly curled around my tongue, wanting their own taste of him. My lips felt the vibration of his throaty groan as he felt my kiss graze his neck.

His warm lips barely touched my lobe as I felt his hot breath on my neck. His hands gripped my lower back, pulling me closer to feel his hard maleness. What I had done. How I made him feel.

The music started to change to an upbeat tempo and he pulled back. His head cocked to one side with that half grin. My heart beat faster and faster as I stared into his blue eyes. He lowered his head to mine, as we both glanced at each other’s lips in anticipation of our soon to be kiss. As our mouths moved closer towards each other, I caught his scent in that very instant. His own personal essence that we shared for just that moment. That very second, right before our soon to be kiss, consumed me. It stole my breath.

I felt a grasp on my arm, which instantly brought me back to reality. I snapped my head back and stared right into Matt’s beautiful blue eyes, both of us in disbelief that whatever spell we had between us was broken. It took me a second, realizing both of Matt’s arms were wrapped around me.

“Vanessa, darling. How is Charles?” An older woman’s stern voice startled me making me turn my head to the voice, completely taken off guard.

Charles?

My fiancé.

She was asking about Charles, my fiancé.

As I stood there, embraced by another man and almost kissed him. Oh dear God. What had I almost done?

The question ran through my mind as I blinked myself back to the real world and I stared at the older woman, realizing how familiar she looked.

Matt must have noticed my mixed expression as I continued to try to place who the woman was. He stepped back and held out his hand. “I’m Matt Williams. And you are?”

“Anna Lee Weber.” The woman said briefly to Matt as she glanced back at me with a cold stare. “Best friend of LeeAnne, Charles’ mother.” Oh dear God. I swallowed and gave a nervous laugh.

“Of course. How silly of me not to introduce you. Umm. Charles is fine, thank you for asking,” I choked out, barely audible above the music that was now blaring an upbeat tempo.

“I’m sure he’s working very hard tonight at the hospital,” She sneered as she glanced back at Matt.

“I’m sure he is,” I mumbled. “It was nice to see you again.” I quickly sputtered as I fled the dance floor, making my way back to the bar and away from Mrs. Weber.

Each step off the dance floor caused panic and a huge unsettling in my stomach as I realized how it must have looked to everyone around us. I should have never done that. I just brought disgrace to Charles and my mother, should this get back to them at the country club. There was no way Mrs. Weber will be able to hold back on this tidbit of gossip. Tears of shame filled my eyes as I turned back to the bar, grabbed my purse and ran out of the reception, quickly finding a cab. I didn’t look back.

I didn’t want to see the look on Matt’s face. Was he happy that happened? Would he have some joke to tell at the office about me? Was Mrs. Weber thrilled that she had some new gossip — how she broke my connection with Matt right before we were about to kiss? Before I kissed another man, someone other than my fiancé. We were broken up, but of course she didn’t know that. All she could think was that Charles was slaving away in surgery while his slut fiancée danced with another man and was just about to kiss him.

I had plenty of time to cry my eyes out in the cab ride home. A chime rang from my purse and I ignored it, knowing it was Aubrey. I wasn’t ready to talk about my shame yet, nor hear her feelings on the situation.

I finally arrived home and stripped off my dress, throwing on my comfortable sweats. I wiped my tears that still were coming as I headed to the kitchen. Another chime from my purse rang and I decided to see what she had to say this time.

Aubrey:
You doing alright? Matt said you ran out.

Me:
We almost kissed.

Somehow, telling her that made me feel even worse, like I was admitting to cheating on Charles. At least in Mrs. Weber’s eyes, I was cheating on him...

I tossed my cell phone onto the counter and reached for the freezer door. Peering in, I saw the Ben & Jerry’s pint of Cherry Garcia. I stared at it knowing my crutch was always food. Knowing I wasn’t supposed to do it, I still grabbed it and was just about to open the lid when I saw my own handwriting on a Post-it note. “
This won’t solve your problem
.” Damn it. Stupid fit camps taught me to leave notes for myself in the kitchen for desperate times like this. I rolled my eyes as I debated grabbing a spoon. I slammed the freezer door hating myself for the stupid notes I left myself. I hated myself for being in this situation where I’m made out to be the bad guy.

I ran to my bedroom and pulled off my sweatpants and quickly put on my workout clothes before I could think twice. I hurriedly pulled on and tied my running sneakers, cursing myself for my stupidity under my breath. Tears streaming down my face, I knew I needed to expend some of this hurt, and the best way to do that was to head to the gym before I could think about it.

I grabbed my keys and my iPod, leaving my cellphone on the counter. I ran out of the apartment and took the stairs as fast as I could before I had time to think about anything else. I arrived at the dark gym, stuck my key in the door and flipped on all the lights. It was just me. I quickly turned on my music and I jumped on the StairMaster.

I hated running and refused to hit the treadmill. My personal trainer at fit camp used to make me get on that thing all the time and I developed a serious hatred for running after that. My cardio had to come from another source. Tonight would be the StairMaster. It was that or the rowing machine
— and I didn’t trust my arms not to hit myself in the face with the pull bar if I got too into it.

It was thirty-five minutes later when I realized I was breathing so hard that I was gasping for air. I stopped and leaned down on both arms and began to bawl my eyes out. I was feeling sorry for myself, as if it were the end of the world.

I managed to get back up to our apartment and shower, tears still streaming down my face, trying to reason with myself that this wasn’t the end of the world. I know that I was overreacting as I tried to reassess the situation.

I woke the next morning and felt as if my eyes were glued shut from crying so hard last night. After I managed to pry them open, I went into the kitchen. I noticed Aubrey’s bedroom door was open and realized she probably wasn’t back yet.

I made coffee, flopped onto the couch and turned on the TV. I flipped through all the channels before settling on a romantic movie. I nodded off to sleep and awoke to the sound of Aubrey’s key in the door a couple of hours later.

I sat up and watched as she came in, waving to me on her way to the kitchen. I got up and followed her in there.

“So, how was last night? Did you get to be Lois Lane?” I bit my lip, pretending to show my eagerness to listen to her details.

I knew she couldn’t resist my question as she leaned back on the counter with a dreamy smile on her face. Dreamy didn’t match her story, but at least she was happy. “Dear God. The guy’s cock is huge.
And
he was honest. It really was insatiable. He rocked my world and then tore that shit in half!” She teased.

“Well, are you going to see him again?” I asked, wondering if maybe Clark will break her no double dip rule.

She pushed off the counter and shook her head pressing her lips together. “Nope. Sticking to the rule. There’s no way it could be that great the second time around. It’s only fun the first time. The bar is set way too high for him to perform like that again. Rule stays.”

I rolled my eyes. Aubrey has never given a guy a second chance. I’ve known her since college and no one has been able to penetrate her rule.

“Work out with me?” Aubrey asked as she took a sip from her mug.

I shook my head. “Nope, I worked out last night.” She pulled her brows together and frowned so I felt compelled to explain further. “It was either that or Ben & Jerry. I was able to fight the urge this time.” She nodded her head in understanding.

“So what happened last night?” I looked around feeling guilty as I remembered last night. “Vanessa?”

I gave a faint smile remembering almost kissing Matt. “It was…romantic. We had one of those storybook ‘almost’ kisses. Then a friend of Charles’ mom literally stopped us from kissing.” I cringed thinking about how much of a gossip she is. “I just know she’s going to say something.”

Aubrey threw her hands in the air as if she were about to claw the invisible woman right in front of her, making a frustrated growl. “They’re like fucking vultures everywhere.”

I gave a quick laugh at her description of the woman. It was a pretty accurate description of the way I felt about the whole thing.

“Well, that doesn’t mean you still can’t get some with Matt. You’re technically broken up with Charles, right? Except for this fake engagement for your parents.” She rolled her eyes on the last part, which I ignored.

“I still can’t. I should have never even gotten that close. We work together and I have the policies in place for a reason. Not to mention I have to watch him ogle every woman at work anyway. He’s such a player, it wouldn’t work out. I’ll just stay to my side of the building and he can stay to his. My office is a pretty good walk from his. Everything is, except for the break room.”  She gave a brief head nod as I continued my explanation, “I need to be single for awhile anyway. I really need to concentrate on my career and focus on myself for a while.” I received an approving head nod from Aubrey on my last statement. I took a deep breath. “It did seem kind of nice though. To feel wanted by him…you know, by someone
like
him.”

“What on earth do you mean? Are you doing that whole ‘I’m not good enough’ thing again?”

“I wasn’t saying that. I was just saying that…” I sighed. “I guess I did mean that, didn’t I?”

Aubrey nodded. “You did. And you need to snap out of that. That’s your goal for your single timeframe. If you go back to Charles, you’re going back a different and stronger woman. You need to stop the ‘I’m not good enough’ shit.”

I bit my lip and nodded knowing she was right.

“So what’s the plan for today?” Aubrey asked, changing the subject. I glanced out the window and gave a sigh of relief that the weather matched my mood. It was dark and grey. Rain was pretty much a sure thing with the heavy clouds. Just the thought made my stomach drop.

“Movies, lots of movies.” I looked back at Aubrey as I asked, “What should we watch?”

Aubrey’s lips curled up into a knowing smile. “Superman marathon it is.”

******

I had a horrible night
’s sleep, filled with nightmares of Matt having sex with anything that moved and the horror on everyone’s face as that woman from the country club makes an announcement about me kissing other men. Add to that, the look Mom will give me when I finally tell her Charles and I are no longer engaged — all of it kept me from any sort of restful sleep. I looked out my window and realized that the grey that daunted me yesterday was continuing on through today.

My eyes were still swollen and puffy from crying yesterday. I broke into sobs several times during our Superman marathon.

I tried to push aside my irritability as I rushed through my morning routine to get out the door and to the office on time. My nerves were shot and I couldn’t stop thinking about what it would be like at the office if I ran into Matt. I decided I would avoid him at all costs today and hopefully this thing between us would blow over.

I turned around from locking my door and stared right at Matt and Clark walking out the door across the hall. My heart felt like it stopped beating and was coming out of my throat. What the…? “Did you guys both hook up with the same girl or something?” I blurted out my thoughts. I regretted it only slightly, but why else would they be coming
out of that apartment together?

They both looked at me with shocked and quizzical looks on their faces. Matt’s half smile returned as he grazed over my body, making me melt. I couldn’t have these feeling for him anymore, but then I remembered our near kiss and it made my stomach twitch with excitement again.

I had decided yesterday that I would refrain from any further feelings for him, especially now that I see him walking out of some woman’s apartment with his best friend. Matt and Clark both walked towards me. “Why would you ask that?” Matt asked, still sporting that half smile and also the curious expression.

“Well, you’re both coming out of someone’s apartment together.”

The both exchanged glances, laughing glances at that. “Yeah, because we live here,” Matt told me.

My mouth dropped open. “You what?”

Matt seemed to enjoy repeating himself to me. “We live here.”

Stunned, I glanced at Clark. His face lit up immediately. “Please tell me you live with Lois Lane. Dear God, please tell me that.”

“Her name is Aubrey and yes, she’s my roommate. But you won’t ever be with her again.”

“What?” Clark asked.

“She won’t sleep with you again. She never beds the same man twice,” I stated bluntly, still reeling from the fact that they live right across from us. How the hell did I not know this? And why I felt like disclosing that information to him, I had no idea. But somehow I took comfort knowing that he wouldn’t be over at our place. Then I went over the fact that they live here. “You live here? In that apartment, right there?” I asked, still shocked, as I pointed to the door.

Matt smiled huge. “Yes, apartment 630. And I can see you must live in apartment 629. Interesting.” He smiled again. “Need a lift to work?”

Deeply agitated, I sputtered out, “What? No! No, I don’t need a lift to work. I have my own car.” My thoughts were spinning as I tried to process this whole situation. I took a deep breath. “You live there, right there in that apartment?”

They exchanged glances again and Matt laughed. “That’s pretty much what I just said.” He paused and then chuckled, giving me that damn sexy half smile. “Since we’re neighbors, do I get to call you Vanessa at work now?”

“I, uh...”
Oh shit.