A PROMISE KEPT: Book 1 in the 'Promises' Series

by Cece Peters

  I finally couldn’t hold back any longer, and I arched my back, trying to create more pressure against his hand. I could never have imagined losing control this way with Matty just watching me, but I felt completely safe with him. I wanted him to see the effect he had on me, to know that he alone was the only man I would ever be this way with.

  “Ah, there you go, love,” Matty said, smiling down at me. “You want me to go a little faster? Press a little harder?”

  “Yes, please,” I moaned as I looked deep into Matthew’s eyes. “I love you, Matty. I love you!” I nearly yelled as the release finally came. Matty didn’t take his hand away, though; he continued touching me, which was almost painful as I was so sensitive. Now, however, he did slide a finger into me, finding a new spot to arouse. I didn’t think I could take any more, but he continued rhythmically pressing until I came again. I finally unclenched my back and relaxed into the bed. I was absolutely spent and my body almost numb.

  Matty leaned down and kissed me. “I would pleasure you every day for the rest of my life just like that, Leah, and go without it myself just to prove to you how much I love you. From here on out, my number one goal in life is to make you happy. As much as I wanted to be inside of you just now, I don’t ever want you to doubt that your happiness is my number one priority. Do you believe me?”

  “Yes, I do,” I said, “but you must let me show you how much I love you, too. Marriage is a two-way street, and I want you to let me drive sometimes. I want to prove to you that I’m a good driver, Matty,” and with that, I mustered up my strength and rolled over, pushing Matty down onto his back. “Now it’s your turn to lay back and enjoy yourself.” Matty grinned as he watched my head go lower and lower. I pulled down his briefs and our eyes stayed locked as I took him into my mouth, playing with him the same way he had me. He was still aroused from when he had been pleasing me, so once I committed, he came hard and fast. We collapsed side by side, holding hands and staring up at the ceiling before drifting off to sleep once again.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “Crap, I’m late!” I said frantically as I awoke suddenly to the reminder on my phone going off. I had totally forgotten that I had a late morning meeting. “Crap, crap, crap,” I yelled as I rushed into the bathroom to clean myself up.

  “What’s going on?” Matty called out, startled from his deep sleep but not yet fully awake.

  “I have a meeting in less than an hour,” I shouted back. “And I’m not ready for it.” Not only was I not physically ready, I didn’t have any of my notes prepared. It wasn’t a very important meeting, just a check in for the first part of the summer session; but, regardless, I needed to show up prepared.

  I started to quickly brush my teeth. I glanced at myself in the mirror above the sink and was mortified at my smudged makeup and disheveled hair. I took my toothbrush into shower with me and finished brushing in there before quickly lathering up some body wash. I used the suds to scrub my face, too, hoping to get all the eye makeup from the night before off. There was no time to wash my hair, so I grabbed a ponytail holder that I kept in the shower for when I did deep conditioning treatments and threw my hair into a messy bun. I finished rinsing off the soap and jumped out of the shower, throwing a towel around me, and running over to my closet to find something to wear.

  “What would your academic colleagues think of Professor Andrews activities last night?” Matty teased as he lay sprawled out naked on top of my bed, with the edge of the blanket just barely covering him. “Professor Andrews was being rather naughty, I must say.” I had my back to him but could sense the huge smile that I knew was on his face.

  “Oh, zip it,” I said, trying to feign annoyance but enjoying the joke, smiling myself as I flipped through the tops in my closet. “Mr. Boyd was rather ill-behaved himself, if I remember correctly.” I told myself not to turn around to look at him as I knew I wouldn’t be able to control myself if I saw his naked body.

  “Ill-behaved? You seemed to rather enjoy my behavior….and I certainly enjoyed yours,” Matty rolled out of bed, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw the blanket fall to the floor. He came from behind and wrapped his arms around me and began to kiss my neck, his naked body rubbing up against my back. I felt myself starting to melt against him; it took everything I had to pry myself away. But the thought of being late distressed me so much that I was able to quickly refocus, reluctantly stepping away from Matty and pulling on a pair of capri pants along with a button front blouse. I grabbed a pair of flats to put on once I was downstairs.

  “Do you want to stay here until I get back?” I asked. “Could you take care of the dogs?” I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten to feed them breakfast. “Oh my God, I’m a terrible dog mom! My babies must be starving!” Guilt ran through me and I wanted to cry. I had completely let myself go with Matty last night, and now look at the consequences.

  “Leah, it’s okay,” Matty reassured me as he sat down on the edge of the bed, still making no effort to cover himself. “I woke up hungry a few of hours ago and fed them; we had a nice breakfast together. Your babies and your fiancé are all fine.”

  “I have a fiancé!” I said stupidly with a happy grin on my face. “And it’s Matthew Boyd. I am marrying Matthew Boyd. I am going to be Leah Boyd! Professor Leah Boyd. Oh my God, I’ll need a new plaque for my door. And my desk. And new business cards!” Clearly the events of the night before and the stress of the morning were making me downright loopy. Matty just laughed and watched me as I dumped the contents of my clutch back into my regular purses. “Okay, I’ll be back around one, two tops. I gotta go!”

  I quickly went over to Matty for one last kiss before running out of the bedroom and down the stairs. I called out a “good-bye” to my dogs before dashing out the front door and racing to my car. I pulled into my parking space on campus with twenty minutes to spare, which sounds like a lot, but I still had to walk to the English department building, up to my office, throw together the illusion of some notes, and get to the meeting.

  By the time I made it to the small conference room, I was a sweaty mess. I threw open the door to see my colleagues already seated, clearly waiting for me. “Well, hello there!” I said in a bright, loud voice with an insane smile on my face. “So sorry I’m late!”

  “Yes, it’s very unlike you, Professor Andrews,” Professor Jenkins, who was the head of the English Department, and my direct supervisor, said. “We were just about to start without you.” Jenkins was an older, by-the-books man; and by the look on his face, he wasn’t too happy with me. I slunk down into my seat and opened my portfolio, feeling like a student who was tardy to class. I was resigned to the fact that I was going to have to pull information for the meeting right out of my head.

  Douglas was seated next to me and leaned over to ask, “Everything okay?”

  “Oh, fine, fine. I just had a late night; and then my alarm didn’t go off.” The look on his face reminded me that he knew about my date and was no doubt figuring out why I hadn’t been on time this morning. I turned away from him, forcing myself to focus on the meeting at hand. I managed to make it seem like I had some semblance of what I was supposed to be sharing with the group. No one seemed to pick up that I was basically making it up as I went along. The good thing about college professors is that they are often so caught up in their own thoughts that they aren’t always tuned into what is happening around them.

  I had anticipated the meeting lasting at least two hours, but thankfully we were done in less than ninety minutes. Jenkins quickly left the room, which allowed everyone to relax and chat. However, while my fellow professors weren’t in any hurry to leave, I frantically gathered up my belongings, desperate to get back home to Matty.

  “Leah, would you like to grab a coffee?” Douglas asked. “Or maybe even lunch?”

  My heart sank at the look of desperation in his eyes. I don’t know why I’d been hesitant to acknowledge this little crush he clearly had on me. Maybe because I just knew we would never make
it as a couple. Douglas was a good friend; I silently berated myself for taking advantage of his friendship and not working harder to cool things down. He was so persistent, though, always showing up with a smile and willing to just talk. He had asked me to get coffee and lunch many times before, and I had usually accepted. But now I was realizing that he likely saw those get-togethers as something more than just two co-workers grabbing a drink or a bite to eat.

  “I’d love to, Doug, but I actually have to get home. I have a lot to do. Rain check?” I asked as I grabbed my belongings and exited the room quickly, not waiting to hear his reply. I felt bad just cutting him off, but with my relationship with Matty firmly solidified, I knew I would have to be more careful with Doug. I wasn’t sure how he would take it once Matty and I were married, but I also knew I could not worry about that now.

  I drove back home, driving a few miles over the speed limit, which was very unlike me; but I was so eager to get back to Matty. As I was driving, I made a mental do-to list for the day, number one of which was contacting the courthouse about what we needed to do to get married. “Married,” I said aloud, not able to control the huge smile that spread across my face. I was marrying Matthew Boyd. I should think myself crazy for moving this fast, but every fiber in my being knew that this was right. Had Matty not moved away, this likely would have already happened, I told myself. He had said that he had been in love with me and had thought our first time together would have been the start of something; we’d just had to wait sixteen years to get to the place we’d always been meant to end up at.

  I had daydreamed so many times that Matty had not moved, that we had continued our high school years together, finally moving from childhood friends to a romantic couple. Maybe we wouldn’t have had sex on that night long ago as we wouldn’t have felt the urgency to be together before it was too late. But we both knew, deep down, that it would have happened eventually.

  So what if we’d only been back together for three days? I knew him now just like I had known him then; and he clearly knew me, too. Yes, we were older, but our souls were still the same. The sixteen years apart suddenly felt like only sixteen days.

  “Matty!” I called, opening my front door, only to be jumped on by my dogs. “Oh, my babies!” I squealed, dropping down to my knees to give them both snuggles and belly rubs, forgetting once again that I was supposed to discourage the jumping as part of their obedience training. “Mommy has been so preoccupied over the past few days, I’m sorry. I will make it up to you with…. TREATS!” And with that, Sadie and Jack both barked in excitement and quickly headed towards the kitchen where their treat jar was. I followed them with a big smile plastered across my face, stopping in my tracks when I saw Matty sitting at the kitchen table, silent and with his head in his hands.

  “Hey, Matty,” I said, my heart dropping at the sight of him, the smile on my face instantly gone. Something was clearly wrong. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”

  Matty slowly lifted his head up and I could see he had been crying. He didn’t look at me, just shook his head, clearly unable to speak.

  “Is it your folks?” I asked, with a sinking feeling in my stomach. “Is someone hurt or sick?” I crossed the room and put my hand on his back. “Matty, please tell me what’s wrong.”

  Matty shook his head again before leaning into me. He body shook as fresh tears ran down his face. I just held him for a few moments, stroking the back of his neck, waiting for him to speak. He finally sat back up straight and pushed his cell phone towards me. I looked down at the screen, immediately seeing that there was a text message from Molly. The words cut through me like a knife. “Hey Matt, just so you know, I’m pregnant. And yes, it’s yours. If you want to ever see your kid, you’d better get back to L.A. asap.”

  The shock of those words literally made me sick, and I quickly turned to the kitchen sink and choked on dry heaves as there was nothing in my stomach to bring up. Matty came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me, burying his face in my hair. I could feel his body shaking as he said, “It’s okay, Leah, I’m going to fix this. Nothing is going to change for us. We will be together. I promise!”

  “How?” I shrieked as I turned around, pushing him away with tears streaming down my face. “You’re going to have a baby with another woman, and that woman is Molly Timmerman. In L.A. How the hell can we be together now?” I pushed past him and ran up to my bedroom, realizing half way up that I was stomping up the stairs like a teenager. Well, so what? I’d held my emotions in for years; what point was there in me holding them back now?

  Matty was right behind me on the steps and followed me into my bedroom. The bedding was a tangled mess from our lovemaking, and the sight of the rumpled sheets and blankets brought on another round of tears from me.

  “First of all, I don’t even know if I can believe Molly’s message,” Matty said, taking a deep breath and reaching for me. “She was really pissed at me when I broke things off. She could just be making a revenge play to get my attention back. And secondly, I do not care if she is pregnant or not, it does not change the fact that I love you, Leah; that I want to be with you. Nothing has changed!” He had ahold of my arms and was forcing me to look him in the eye.

  “Nothing has changed?” I spat out he words through my tears, shrugging his arms off of me and backing away into a corner of the room. “You are going to be a father. You are going to have a baby. With a woman I absolutely hate. You are now tied to her forever. That changes everything, Matthew.”

  Before he could answer, his phone dinged again with a new text message. He read it and yelled, “Stupid bitch. Now she is threatening to go to H.R. if I don’t respond to her. Leah, please, I gotta call her, get a handle on this. I’ll be right back.” Matthew turned and I could hear his footsteps running quickly down the stairs. I slumped down to the floor; my sobs had turned to hiccups and I thought I would be sick again. I could hear Matthew shouting into his phone all the way from downstairs, but I couldn’t make out any words. I forced myself to slow my breathing down. This was not like high school; I could not let myself fall apart. I had my dogs, a house, a job. There was no one here to help me. I had to get it together.

  All the feelings of inadequacy I had just days before came rushing back. This whole thing had been too good to be true, I told myself. Of course, this wasn’t going to work out. I didn’t get to be happy. And look what I had done. Spent hours having sex with a man I hadn’t seen in years. What kind of woman was I, doing things I had never, ever done before last night? What Matty didn’t know was that not only had he been my first, but he’d been my only. I’d never slept with another man in all the years we’d been apart as I just couldn’t bear to give myself to anyone else. I had secretly always held onto the hope that I would one day be reunited with Matty, and I wanted to save myself for him. And even if I never saw him again, I still wanted Matty to be the only man I had ever made love to; even if that meant my one and only sexual experience was when I was seventeen.

  And then it happened! There he was, at my college reunion. And within three days, we hadn’t just reconnected as friends, we’d become lovers, with promises of love and commitment forever. We were engaged, for crying out loud! I had agreed to marry Matty while wrapped naked in a towel. A few hours ago, I hadn’t cared what anyone else thought, but now the idea of people finding out what had transpired horrified me. I suddenly, once again, cared very much about what my friends and family would think of me if they ever found out how what I’d been doing with Matty.

  Just then I saw the box of mementoes and photos that Matty and I had been going through the other day. I crawled over to it and pushed the lid aside, pulling out the contents on the top to get to the bottom where the shoebox full of notes was. I had re-tucked the letter addressed to Matty in the very bottom of it. I pulled the white envelope out and ran my fingers over his name, which I’d written in blue ink in October of my junior year of high school. I paused just a moment before sliding my finger under the flap to
open the envelope. Inside was a torn-out piece of spiral-bound notebook paper. I unfolded it and read the words I had written sixteen years ago in the flowery handwriting of a teenage girl:

  “Dear Matty,

  How are you? I’m okay. I hope you are doing well in your new school. I was hoping I would have heard from you by now, but I guess you are busy. Junior year is going okay. Algebra II is so hard; I’s already behind. I have three classes with Krista and one with Jimmy. We still eat lunch with our same group, but we can now leave campus during the lunch hour. We usually drive over to a fast food restaurant to eat. I’m already tired of the greasy hamburgers.

  Well, the reason I am writing is because I have something I need to tell you. This is really hard for me to write down, but I think that you should know about it. The other day at school, I suddenly had a sharp pain in my stomach and started bleeding. I guess I passed out, because the next thing I knew I was in the hospital. My mom told me that I was okay, but she said I’d had a miscarriage. The doctor said I was seven weeks pregnant, but that the baby wasn’t developing right. That’s why I lost the baby. I know you know what happened seven weeks ago. The doctor told my mom that I didn’t do anything to cause it; sometimes these things just happen. He also told her it didn’t mean I couldn’t have kids when I grew up.

  My mom wasn’t even mad at me; she was just really worried. I didn’t want her to tell my dad, but she said she had already done so. But she said he wasn’t mad, either. I guess he isn’t exactly mad, but he sure seems disappointed as he won’t even look me in the eye. I had to stay the night at the hospital; and I also had to talk to a social worker about how I’d gotten pregnant to begin with. I guess they wanted to make sure I hadn’t been attacked or forced to have sex. I didn’t want to tell anyone it was you, but my mom guessed right away. So, I did tell the social worker that I had done it with a guy friend, but that we both agreed to do it. I didn’t tell her your name, and my mom swears she didn’t either. My mom said that since the baby was gone that there was no need to get in touch with your parents about it, so don’t worry about that.