The Promise (49 page)

“Oh man,” she shakes her head at me. “Tomorrow’s going to suck for you, Buddy.” That’s when I
realize how often women talk about their ‘stuff.’

I know Ana’s talking about the reason for Sophie’s mood swing. Seconds later
, when Sophie reappears from the ladies room, Ana leans over to Sophie and smiles softly, “Even though you couldn’t be further off if you tried, I forgive you for saying what you said to me. I know you didn’t mean it.”

I think for sure she’s pissed her off further
, but then Sophie’s eyes tear up as she hugs Ana tightly. Ana smirks over her shoulder at me, mouthing the word ‘sorry’ before they leave. Sophie leans against me and is smiling sweetly, before she manages to slur out an ‘I love you’ and telling me that she’s ready to go home.

“Do you need me to carry you, Babe?” I ask her
as we reach the door to the bar. She’s already stumbled multiple times. She laughs as I pick her up and wrap her legs around my waist, carrying her towards the truck as she leans her head against the crook of my neck. She’s already biting and sucking up the side of my neck, while trying to sloppily unfasten the buttons of my shirt. Considering how inebriated she is, I’m impressed by the speed in which her fingers work their way down my front, clearing a path of uncovered skin.

“You’re so hot
, Baby,” she slurs quietly. My steady walk falters slightly when she pushes the fabric away from my chest before sliding her hands across my bare stomach.

My shirt is hanging open
, and although we’re almost by my truck there are still patrons spilling out of the bar, a few of them receiving the finger when I hear them whistling at the two of us.

I know
that Sophie will be mortified tomorrow if we’re caught going at it in the parking lot. Finding my voice as she runs her lips and wet tongue over my nipple is impossible. I increase my speed, hoping I’ll be able to keep her from removing any more of our clothing before we’re at the very least hidden behind the trucks dark window tint.

“I want you inside me,” she whispers into my ear
, tugging my neck so that I’m facing her and crashing her mouth against mine as I reach the side of the truck.

The abruptness of her kiss has me pushing her body up hard against the side of the cold metal door
. I reach for the keys that are in my pocket, holding her steady with my leg beneath her as I keep my other arm wrapped tightly around her waist.

I break the kiss to find the lock and hurriedly open the door, placing her inside on the seat
. She pulls me down to her, resuming our kiss, her tongue sweeping across mine forcefully before she lets out a soft moan of pleasure as I suck gently on her lip.

One of her hands is resting on my neck a
s she grips that same spot that always sends me over the edge, tugging my hair roughly, making me groan into her mouth. She moves one of the hands I have placed on her hip and slides it between her hot thighs, attempting to guide my fingers into her wet opening and I know if I’m going to stop this, I have to pull away from her now.

“Let’s go home
, Baby,” I pant against her mouth and stroke my thumb against her sex, now penetrating her with my fingers.

“I don’t want to wait, Chase. I need you to fuck me now!
” she demands, slurring her speech as bites down hard on my neck, causing me to instantly let out a growl of pleasure.

I don’t want to wait either, but there’s no way
we’re going to have sex in a parking lot. Especially in front of the people who are making their way past my truck. These people aren’t exactly being shy about their interest in our already very public display. It’s just not going to happen. Not only will I die before I let anyone else see Sophie like that, but she would be humiliated in the morning and I’ll never cheapen what we have by making a show of ourselves in that way.

“I know
, Baby,” I say, “I want you too, but we’re in the middle of a busy parking lot.” I chuckle to myself and find her gaze while kissing her softly on the lips.

“I don’t care,” she pulls me harder towards her
. As I try to move my hand away, she tightens her grip on me.

“Baby, come on,” I say
, pulling away. I see the playfulness instantly leaving her eyes as she sits up on her elbows, staring at me with what appears to be pure disbelief.

“Are you
saying no?” She grinds out as she asks. The look crossing her face almost kills me. She’s hurt. She’s embarrassed, and she appears to be mad as hell.

“No
, Baby. I’m not saying no. I’m saying we …” I try to explain but she pushes me away from her before turning in her seat.

“Chase if you don’t want me
then all you have to do is just fucking say so!” she hisses. “You think I didn’t notice all of those women in there looking at you?”

“Baby, what are you talking about?” I ask her, genuinely confused
by her outburst.

“The other women in the bar, Chase
!” she yells back at me. I don’t know what the hell she’s talking about. I’d noticed people looking at us, yes, but I assumed they were all looking at her. “Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about! The other women who are always staring at you no matter where we go! Those women! If you want them, then go get them, but at least have the decency to tell me you don’t want me first!”

“I do want you, Baby. There is nobody but you Sophie. I swear it. I’m just not sure a parking lot is the best place for us to do this,” I try to explain but she’s
already emotionally shut herself off of the conversation in hand. “I love you,” I tell her firmly. As I move to help her get her seatbelt on, she pushes my hand away angrily.

“Just leave it. I can do it myself
!” she snaps at me while pulling the seatbelt into her hand. I watch her struggle to snap the belt into place and after a minute, she just glares at me. “Are we going or what?” I bite my tongue, knowing she’s drunk and emotional.

I
close her door for her before making my way around the front of the truck. As I climb into the driver’s seat, I look over at her and take in her profile as she continues to glare out of the windshield. She is
seething.

“Baby,” I whisper, putting my hand on her thigh before she whips her head around at m
e.

“Just take me home, Chase. I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want you to touch me right now. I’m really drunk and really pissed off and
all I really want to do right now is go home,” she hisses the words out quietly, with both her words and tone sending chills up my spine.

I put the truck in reverse and pull out of my spot
. As I make it to my place in the line of cars that are also leaving the bar’s parking lot, I put my blinker on as I to head back towards my place. “You’re going the wrong way. My apartment is that way,” she says, pointing in the opposite direction.

“Sophie,” I start softly,
while pinching the bridge of my nose. I know she’s drunk and obviously something must have happened that I don’t yet know about. Although I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong here, I don’t know how to try and fix this.

She shakes her head and orders me to take her to the apartment again
. My frustration finally gets the better of me, something inside of me snapping and letting the irritation fly out of me. “No! I’m not taking you to your fucking apartment right now, Sophie. You’re being ridiculous, Baby. What do you want from me? Are you seriously this pissed off at me over a couple of girls looking at me in a bar? I didn’t even know about it and even if I had, it doesn’t matter to me because I don’t want them!”

I’m driving in the direction of my
place, and even though I know it will do nothing more than piss her off more, I can’t help it. “If you really want to scream and yell at me, even though I haven’t done a fucking thing to deserve it, then fine! But I’m not taking you back to your apartment just so we can have this ridiculous fight in front of Drake and Ana at three o’clock in the fucking morning!”

“First of all, I don’t give a shit who hears us fighting! Second of all, who said I
was asking you to come with me?” she crosses her arms in front of her as she yells back at me. “I don’t want to be with you right now, Chase! You’re obviously sick of me so why drag out the inevitable? Just take me home!” Her voice falters for a second and she tries to clear her throat in an attempt to hide it, but it’s too late. I heard her.

“Why the hell would you think that?”

“You have
never
told me no before!” she accuses. “I think that says it all, don’t you?”

“
That’s
what you’re mad about?” I ask her, my eyes widening in disbelief as we pull into my driveway. Before the truck has even come to a complete stop, her seatbelt is off and she’s opening her door.

I press the button to close the garage behind us and follow her into the house. I try grabbing her elbow to turn her to face me
, but she moves away from me and stomps across the kitchen, “Are you kidding me Sophie?”

“Do I look like I’m fucking kidding right now?” she rants
, throwing her purse on the bar before making her way into the bedroom, slamming the door shut in my face.

Opening it just in time to find her slamming my bathroom door, I can’t wrap my head around how she can be this mad at me over something so stupid. I’m a patient man
, but hormonal or not, she’s being completely unreasonable and she’s beginning to piss me off in the process.

“Do you have any idea how many people were watching us in that parking lot tonight?” I yell
through the locked bathroom door.

No response.

“You can get as mad as you want at me over this but you’re not just some random girl to me, Sophie. I’m not going to fuck you in the middle of a disgusting parking lot while a bunch of drunken assholes stare at your naked body! You mean more to me than that so if you want to get pissed off at me for that, then fine! Fuck it! Go ahead and get as mad as you want to get, I really don’t give a shit! I guess we’ll just have to be pissed off together, but just for the record, you’re acting completely fucking ridiculous right now!”

I throw my hands up
with pure exasperation before turning and walking away from the door. I need to give us both some space and let us cool down, but as I think about this, I hear the door creaking open. I look at her. While she’s obviously still upset, she doesn’t look as livid as she had when she locked herself inside just a few moments ago.

“You’ve never yelled at me like that before,” she says quietly
, her arms crossed firmly under her breasts. She’s thrown her hair up into a messy bun and discarded her heels. I look into her eyes and see that they’ve softened a little, before my eyes search her face and that’s when I notice how her makeup has smudged beneath her eyes, obviously caused by her tears.

The anger instantly leaves me.

“You’ve never been an unreasonable pain in the ass before,” I say softly, reaching over and stroking her face clean underneath her eyes. She slowly closes her eyes and rests her cheek into my palm, her body shuddering with a stifled cry. “Come here, Baby,” I say, gently pulling her to my chest. I hold her as she wraps her arms around my waist, resting her cheek against my chest.

“Lots of fun firsts for us tonight,” she whispers and
her words make me hug her even closer to me. “I’m sorry.”

“Me too,” I say, kissing her on the top of her head. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that, Baby.” I can smell the rum on her breath,
mixed with the sweet smell of her perfume. I inhale her scent before raising her head, so my eyes meet with hers. “If you decide you really want to try the whole exhibitionist thing, then I guess we can. I’m just not letting you make that decision when you’re drunk,” I chuckle as she blushes, before returning her cheek to rest back on my chest.

“I’m not that drunk anymore. I guess our argument sobered me up a bit,” she says
while releasing a deep breath. “I was just being jealous and irrational.”

“You have nothing to be jealous of
though, Baby,” I start. “I don’t care who’s looking at me, I’ll only be looking at you.” She tightens her arms around me as I kiss her on the head again, while softly stroking my fingers up and down her spine.

“It wasn’t just the looks,” she
begins, he voice is almost as quiet as a whisper. “I’d be lying if I said it didn’t drive me crazy when other women look at you, but I’ve gotten used to that.” She pauses, looking as though she wants to say more but stops herself from doing so.

“What is it then?” I ask.

After a few seconds of silent deliberation, she pulls away from me and blows out a frustrated breath before meeting my eyes with her own.

“When I was in the bathroom
, Lauren came in while I was still in one of the stalls and I overheard her talking to her friend about you. She kept saying how she couldn’t believe you were with me and that she couldn’t wait for you to come to your senses and take her back. The friend she was with I guess was someone you’d …
been with
,” she says slowly, her words making me internally cringe. “Anyway, they were basically swapping sex stories and it got to me,” I hug her close to me again, making her look up at me. “Then I came out of the bathroom and thought I saw Ana looking at you and, well, I guess that’s why I snapped at her,” she admits, looking down to her hands. “I’m not a naïve person, Chase. I know you’ve been with other women, but knowing that still doesn’t make it easy to hear about. Then, when you told me
no
… I just think that it was more than I could handle right then.”