Alluring Promises Box Set (Books 1-3)

by Josie Bordeaux

  Izzy came up to us to refill our drinks and saw Steve. Her eyes lit up and she came around the opening of the bar and gave him a huge hug. What the fuck? Anger swelled in me, not to mention the jealousy coursing through my veins. If I hadn’t known Steve for all these years, I’d have beaten the fucking piss out of him. I tried to remain calm because I wanted to figure out how these two knew each other. I began to wonder if she was fucking him behind my back all this time. Although I tried to remember that we’re together just about all the time except when I went to box and she goes on her runs. Izzy went back behind the bar, got our drinks and then was called away by a customer.

  He looked back over to me and smiled. “So, actually, I came here tonight because I heard that Isabella…,” he chuckled and shook his head, “I mean Izzy is single again.”

  I tried not to grind my teeth as I asked, “What the fuck did you just say?”

  I watched him pale a bit, probably from my reaction and he asked, “Well…she’s not dating Mark anymore, is she?”

  I looked over at Flynn unsure what to think. How did Steve even know about Izzy, why did he hug her and why did he just call her Isabella? “What…How do you know Izzy?” I asked as I tried to keep my anger out of my voice hoping to get an answer.

  “I…well, we sort of used to work together, and I ran into her at the banquet when she was with Mark. I heard about some fight he had and was going to press charges, but we convinced him it would be bad for business. When I spoke with Mark, he said he wasn’t seeing Izzy anymore. I… well, I kind of feel like we had some sort of connection when we spoke with each other at the banquet. I was hoping to ask her out,” he told me a bit sheepishly. He watched both Flynn and me as we exchanged glances.

  “That fight Mark had was with me and it was because he kept trying to get with Izzy. How fucking long have you known her?” Like I said, I was trying to keep calm, but it wasn’t really working out for me.

  Steve held up both his hands looking shocked. “Whoa, Z, buddy, I’m so sorry. I had no idea. As I said, I haven’t seen her since the banquet awhile back.” He swallowed nervously, looking at Flynn trying to convince him, too.

  I wasn’t sure what to think or if he was telling me the truth. What I do know is how he was just making eyes at her and hoping he could get with her and I was wondering if he had already been with her before. “Why’d you say you worked with her? Where did you work with her? At the bar in college?” I was trying to remember what college he attended, but that still didn’t match up with our ages. Since he’s my age and Izzy is several years younger than I am, things weren’t adding up.

  “I…well, she never actually worked at the company it was more like…” He swallowed hard and looked like he was trying to make something up. I could tell he was going to lie by the way he was looking around with his eyes. Then it seemed like he caught Izzy’s eyes and she was giving him a questioning look.

  “Where the fuck do you know her from?” I asked again more sternly. Izzy came running to us, leaned over the bar putting her hand on my arm asking what we were talking about.

  “Z just asked where we worked together.” Steve nervously said. Well, asshole, that really doesn’t make it any less suspicious, does it?

  Izzy’s eyes widened and she looked like she was going to start lying to me. I stood up quickly deciding I needed to break these two apart. If they were going to lie, they were going to do it without knowing what the other one was going to say. Trick I learned from getting arrested so many fucking times for stealing cars. Gotta learn something from my past, right? I grabbed Izzy’s arm and led her back to my office, closed and locked the door.

  I crossed my arms and leaned against my desk. “How do you know Steve and how long have you been fucking him?” She looked around in amazement and I was trying to figure out if she was thinking up a lie.

  “Fucking him?” She spat back at me. “Why on earth would you ask me that?” She questioned me. No sweetheart, you have no right to ask me any fucking questions.

  “You heard me. Answer the question.” I stared her down and tried not to grind my teeth again. It wasn’t working out so great, the grinding not the staring thing. That was working great because she started answering my question.

  “Z, I haven’t been with anyone but you since we started dating,” she replied with a confused look on her face. God, I’m being such a dick and can’t stop. I just feel like she’s lying to me somehow. She has to be. All the girls I’ve dated have cheated on me, why wouldn’t Izzy?

  “So you fucked him right before we were dating?” I knew she’d start digging a hole on her own and it’s just a matter of time before she slips up.

  “What? No! I met Steve at that banquet I went to with Mark. That’s the first time I met him.”

  Lie. “Really…so how come he says you worked together?” Come on Izzy, let’s see you work your way out of this one now. She was looking around as if totally thrown off by that question and I knew I had caught her in the lie.

  She started shaking her head and looked really flustered. “I…he was at my ex’s company. He saw me at company functions, that’s the only way he knows me. I hadn’t met him officially until the banquet. He only knew me when I attended with my ex.” She repeated the same theory. Hmm, that actually seemed pretty plausible.

  “How come he says that he worked with you?”

  She rolled her eyes and took a step toward me. “Because Mark asked how he knew me as Isabella, so we said that I was under contract with my ex at his company.”

  “So you lied to Mark about him too?”

  “No, no... that’s not what I meant. He works at my ex’s company and so he already knew my name as Isabella. Mark had no idea about my past and I didn’t want to tell him about that at the banquet, so Steve just played along with the whole ‘we worked together’ thing. You already know about my ex and my past. I’m not lying to you Z. You’ve got to start trusting me at some point.” She had lowered her voice by then and sat down in the chair. She looked so upset that I wanted to start believing her.

  “So why is my old high school friend out there trying to tell me he has some sort of connection with you and wants to date you.” She looked shocked by what I just said so I started thinking maybe she didn’t know his feelings or intentions for her. Maybe.

  “He told you he was going to ask me out? Didn’t you tell him we’re together?” She looked confused at first and then seemed a bit angry on the last question.

  “No, I wanted to see how he knew you first.”

  “Why didn’t you tell him we were dating? Are you just trying to see if I would lie to you? Are you testing me now? What the fuck, Z? I thought we were finally past all this type of crap.” She was actually raising her voice and she never raised her voice. She’s always been able to keep calm. She stood up and started toward the door. “I don’t need this type of shit from you. I thought we could actually trust each other now. You’re out there flirting with all these girls all the time and I watch you constantly, but the second someone comes in who knows me, you tell me I’m the one cheating.” She had tears welled up in her eyes as she said all that and now they were starting to stream down her face. “Fuck you, Z. Fuck you and all your stupid theories. I’m not cheating on you. I told you I never would.” She reached for the door handle. I rushed over and put my hand up against the door so she couldn’t leave.

  “I’m sorry, maybe I misjudged. Steve came in here all goofy eyed and wanted to ask you out and I became…jealous, I guess.”

  “You guess?” She spat at me, her eyes were blazing with fury. God her eyes are gorgeous when she’s pissed. Wow. I’ve never seen her this way. Maybe it’s because she’s never gotten angry with me before. Shit that’s hot. “You’re sitting here judging me and I’ve done nothing wrong!”

  I had no idea what she said to me, something about judging and being wrong, I think. I couldn’t stop staring at her gorgeous eyes. I grabbed her and started kissing her with everything I had and I
was glad that she kissed me back just as hard. I slammed her up against the door, continuing to show her the passion I had for her and dying to prove to her that all my reservations about her were now gone.

  Well, I would like to say that my jealousy and any reservations were gone forever, but they weren’t. After I ‘sealed’ my apology to her in my office, we went back out and I told Steve all about us dating and everything else. I felt sorry for the guy because I could tell he really liked Izzy.

  Of course, that wasn’t the only time I was jealous over another guy. It was about a week later when another man came walking in, actually, two of them really. It was a Friday night and Izzy was on her break in the back. Normally, I’m with her in my office, but I had a VIP come in and I needed to tend to them.

  The two guys talked to Mark and he smiled and then nodded his head over toward Mel. Mel lit up and started hugging both of them. I watched Flynn’s face go through the emotions of anger and jealousy until she introduced them, then he seemed to calm down.

  Izzy came out from her break and I asked her if she knew the two guys talking to Mel. Izzy became excited and barely took the time tell me they were Brad and Mack before she went running over to them. She jumped, literally, into the bigger guy’s arms. He hugged her tightly, swung her around and then kissed her cheek. The other guy hugged her tightly too but didn’t swing her around nor did he kiss her cheek. He put her back down and she went in for another hug from the bigger guy. I had to assume the bigger guy was Brad from her stories. She never had described him and now looking at him, maybe it was because she knew I’d get jealous...again. He was tall, built like a football player, muscular and barely an ounce of fat on him and had dark blonde hair and bright blue eyes. I guess most girls would describe him as good looking, considering the girls around them were eyeing him like candy. Mack was shorter with black hair and brown eyes, but was just as muscular as Brad, now that I was comparing them to each other.

  Yep, anger and jealousy again were hitting me pretty hard. I stalked over there and even though I knew who they were and what these guys meant to Izzy, I couldn’t help it. If anything else, maybe it was because I knew how close these two were and that seemed to make my jealousy even worse.

  “Z,” Izzy exclaimed her eyes bright and her smile so huge, “This is Brad and Mack!” She introduced me to the two guys, gesturing that the bigger one, as I had already guessed, was Brad. I took Brad’s hand and shook it firmly and then Mack’s. I tried not to do the testosterone handshake, remembering the whole Mark thing and that she had noticed that.

  “I can’t believe you came down here! This is fantastic! Isn’t it great?” She asked excitedly as she looked back over to me.

  “Yeah…it’s great.” I tried to have some enthusiasm, but it wasn’t there. Why try to fake it, right?

  “Well, we can’t stay too long. Missy and Donna weren’t too happy we were coming to visit you both, but we tried our best to reassure them,” Brad said with a small smirk. Mack shook his head and rolled his eyes.

  “You should have brought them. It might have eased their minds a little. But, I’m glad you could come visit for any amount of time. I’ve missed you both so much,” Izzy said, still smiling bright as she looked between both of them. Brad reached down and hugged her again and I noticed he closed his eyes this time. Did he just sniff her hair? As I said, I was trying so hard to contain it all.

  Izzy looked around and noticed how busy it was. I felt bad and wanted to say she could ignore it and stay out here. But really I didn’t want her to stand there talking to him in such close proximity where she could touch and get another hug from him. So when she left to go around the bar and Mark let her take that corner of the bar, I was a bit relieved. At least she’d stop hugging him and he’d stop sniffing her hair if she were on the other side of the bar, right?

  We all came closer to the bar as some space cleared up and Mel, Brad, Mack and Flynn started talking. I was quiet as I was trying to watch Izzy and her gaze over at Brad. She was looking at Mack too, but more so at Brad, I noticed. She came over and a couple of times, leaned over the bar listening to them talk. Her gorgeous cleavage in full view and hair dangling down was giving me a chub. I glanced over at Brad and noticed his eyes wander down there a couple times. I tried not to get angry seeing that, because she has great cleavage and he’s only a guy. I actually think what started getting me pissed off was Izzy gazing at him and sometimes even biting her lower lip.

  There were also the ‘knowing’ type of glances they kept exchanging. I realized they knew each other a long time and have been through a lot together. But it was tough not to get jealous over their relationship, as I still was having a difficult time trying to figure it out.

  Finally, it was time to close the bar for the night. I noticed the guys were still there and I wanted to ask them if they told their wives they’d be out so late. I refrained. For Izzy, I tried to contain any stupid comments.

  “Z, do you mind if we all stay here and play some pool for a little while?” Izzy asked in a hopeful manner. Yes, I mind because he’s going to be checking out your tits and ass all night as you bend over the table.

  “Yeah, no, that’s fine. We can hang out for a little while and play,” I said trying to be nice, not to mention I didn’t want take away the sweet, hopeful smile on her face. I was trying really hard to decide if she saw Brad in that romantic ‘one that got away’ way or if she thought of him as a brother-type figure.

  The gang walked over to the pool tables and Izzy went over behind the bar and started grabbing beers. I walked up behind her and started giving her some kisses on her neck when I noticed she was punching in some stuff at the register.

  “What are you doing?” I asked almost laughing. We had already closed up the bar and there weren’t any more customers.

  “Just making sure to keep count of what we’re drinking,” She told me with a nervous lilt in her voice.

  “Why?”

  “So I can pay for it, silly! I’m so excited the guys are here, but I don’t want to take advantage of you being the bar owner and my boyfriend.” She gave me a quick peck on my cheek with an adorable smile.

  I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it.”

  She giggled. “I don’t want to cut into your profits,” she reminded me of the conversation we had so long ago and it make me chuckle remembering our first breakfast together. I was glad we were joking around because my jaw was hurting from being locked so tight grinding all night.

  I gave her a hard kiss making sure she remembered she’s my girlfriend before she walks back to the tables and sees Brad again. By the smirk on her face, she knew what I was doing. We walked over to the tables and joined in the conversation. Well, Izzy joined in. I sat at the bar table across from Flynn to listen to the stories.

  “What’s the highest amount of money you’ve ever hustled, Izzy?” Flynn asked with an anxious smirk.

  Brad’s head lowered as he shook his head and chuckled, Mack started jumping up and down and Mel acted pissed, “That was the night I missed!”

  Mack laughed. “That’s your own fault. You had a date with Mr. Superjock.” I noticed Flynn wince from the corner of my eye, but he regained composure as Mel laughed and shook her head.

  Brad shouted, “That was the scariest night of my life.”

  “Oh please! No, it wasn’t. The biker bar was much worse,” Izzy scoffed.

  “No, it wasn’t.” Brad took center stage with the story as he stood there using his hands. “Picture this. Me, Izzy and Mack playing pool at this crappy hole in the wall bar.

  These four mafia guys come over—huge guys I need to add—and throw down money. Izzy looks at Mack and me and we start counting our money knowing Izzy could beat them easily.” He shrugged. “We saw them play earlier. So we were short probably about $500 ‘cause we’re college kids and who carries that much money around.”

  Mack interjected, “Actually, Izzy did so she could hustle.”

  Izzy laughed and
rolled her eyes. “Not that much.”

  Brad starts back into the story, “So we call a couple of wealthy friends we know. Unfortunately, one was from a frat house and he brought a shit load of his buddies with him.”

  Mel laughed. “I still don’t understand why that was such a problem. You had back up then.”

  Brad dropped his hands to his hips and looked at her like she was crazy. Then he gestured over to Flynn and me. “These guys know. Picture this–me, Mack, about fifteen drunk frat guys, the four huge mafia guys and now they started calling some of their friends!” He paused for dramatic effect and then got behind Izzy gesturing his hands up and down her body. “And Izzy,” he said louder, stressing his point.

  Yeah, he really proved his point. All of those guys leering at Izzy while she tried to play with a room full of drunk horny guys was making my stomach sick just thinking about it.

  “So we gather our money and the game starts,” Brad continued his story.

  Izzy interjected. “That guy was good,” she said as she stared into space remembering him.

  “But not as good as you,” Brad responded. Izzy shrugged her shoulders as if to dismiss his compliment.

  “So he breaks and keeps going, finally missing a shot. Izzy’s up.” He shakes his head again, “I have no idea how you could concentrate. Every guy there was quiet and watching Izzy. Not her pool playing. Every guy was whispering about whatever position she was in and how they’d like to be behind her.” Izzy rolled her eyes at Brad. He looked at her like she was crazy. “Seriously, you didn’t hear any of that?” He asked her.

  She shrugged. “I heard a couple of comments, but nothing like you’re describing. I thought they were impressed with my pool playing.”

  Brad looked over at us, shaking his head, the corner of his mouth turned up looking at us, knowing we’d agree with her being crazy. “Yeah. No. I wanted to forget the game and get you the fuck out of there!”