Summer Fire
Page 113
“Chastity…” he whispered. “Wow…”
“I couldn’t fasten it, but you get the idea.” She turned back towards the fitting room. Joey rose to his feet.
“I’ll do it for you.” He moved behind her and fastened the clasp, his fingers brushing against her skin. When he finished, he placed his hands on her bare, upper arms and kept them there.
“The dress is breathtaking, but someone my size doesn’t do it any justice. It looks much better on the hanger!” she chuckled, because she didn’t know what else to do.
“Uh, no.” His voice became deep, and Chastity felt her skin prickle. “You have sexy, amazing curves. Forgive me if I’m drooling.” He inhaled and let the air out slowly. “Turn around for me.” She did as he asked, while continuing to press the neckline against her chest. Joey’s brown eyes had become even darker.
“I have a limp sometimes, and I’m not—” He shook his head, and she stopped talking.
“Come.” He pulled Chastity into the dressing room and slowly turned her to face the mirror. Joey stood behind her, reached over her shoulder and removed her hand from the neckline. Chastity averted her eyes. Any second now, he was going to shriek.
“Look how pretty you are.” All she saw, however, was her bruised face.
“If I took off this dress, and put my jeans and sweater back on, you wouldn’t think that.” This time Chastity didn’t laugh, because she was more serious than she’d ever been. Men never gave her a second look.
“I want you to take the dress off then. If you don’t feel comfortable in it, Chastity, we’ll find a different one. He undid the clasp. I’ll wait out there.” Joey looked saddened when he pulled the door closed behind him, but he told a truth like no other. She didn’t even feel comfortable in her own skin.
She took the dress off, hung it up, and pulled on her jeans and sweater. Carefully, she bent her legs to put her socks and shoes on. Chastity couldn’t face him right now. Instead of walking out of the dressing room, she sat on the bench as tears slid down her cheeks. She covered her face, but soft sobs escaped. When she heard someone trying to open the door, she pulled her sweater up and wiped off her face. “Just a second.”
“Let me in, Chastity. I’ll get the girl to unlock the door if you don’t,” he warned, but his voice wasn’t harsh.
“I’m coming out.” She stood up and checked her face in the mirror, making sure it was dry. She opened the door, planning to walk out of the store and return to her apartment. But he was standing there, blocking her way. He gently pushed her back inside with his strong body, closing the door behind him. He turned her toward the mirror again.
“You wouldn’t have had anything to do with me when I was growing up, trust me. Chastity, you’re perfect the way you are. Are you wearing the dress now? No.” He lowered his face to her neck and softly kissed it. “How about now?” He moved his mouth to her ear and gently tugged at her earlobe with his teeth. “I still don’t see you wearing the black dress…” Her back slightly bowed, causing her butt to press against him. “Feel that?” he whispered. “Is that from the dress? I don’t think so, do you?” He slid his hands around her, unbuttoned her jeans, and tugged them down. Her cheeks were flushed, but not from embarrassment. Joey was awakening something she’d thought was long gone.
She shivered in anticipation when she heard his pants unzip. Very slowly, he entered her from behind. His hard member throbbed, and she tightened her moist walls around him. Chastity’s back bowed more, and her ear was filled with raw sounds escaping his lips. “Oh, God, Joey,” she moaned. He hugged her close to his body with one arm, and with the other, he reached up and held her jaw.
“Look in the mirror, Chastity. I want you to see how hungry you make me. We’re not going to buy that black dress…”
“Excuse me! Is everything okay in there?” A high-pitched voice came from the other side of the door. “Hello?”
“Everything’s just fine,” Joey answered, as he continued to slowly move his hips. His eyes remained glued on Chastity’s in the mirror.
“Sir, you can’t be in there! This is the women’s fitting room!” She knocked again. “Sir?” When the sale’s girl put her key in the lock and started opening the door, Joey lost it.
“Good God! Get the hell out of here!”
Chastity felt the room spin…like she was being suffocated. She jerked her body away and flung open the door. She was still buttoning her jeans, while she fled from the store. Chastity had to get far away from Cameron Barron.
The End
To be continued in the full-length version of
Someone Exactly Like You
A Billionaire in Disguise
Book 4
(Coming July, 2015)
A Special Note to my Readers
I’d like to thank you all for reading “Summer Fire: Some Like It Hot” and for supporting all of us authors! Without you, we wouldn’t be living our dreams. I hope we’ve made your summer a little more enjoyable.
Much love,
Terri Marie
Website
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Books by Terri Marie
A Billionaire in Disguise Series: (Contemporary Romance)
Forbidden Disclosure, Book 1
A Perfect Plan, Book 2
The Wrong Side of Midnight, Book 3
A Billionaire in Disguise Collection, Books 1-3
Someone Exactly Like You, Book 4 (Coming summer, 2015)
The Montclair Brothers Series: (Romantic Suspense)
Make it Rain, Book 1
Through the Storm. Book 2
Waves of Reckoning, Book 3
The Montclair Brothers Collection, Books 1-3
Tides of Vengeance, Book 4
Robert the King, Book 5
On Bended Knee, A Montclair Christmas Novella, Book 6
The Montclair Brothers Collection, Books 4-6
To Deserve You, A Montclair Valentine’s Novella, Book 7
Book 8 (Coming summer, 2015)
The Ties that Bind Series: (Women’s Fiction)
Running from Beige, Book 1
Secrets by the River, Book 2
You can find Terri Marie’s books at all major retailers.
His Promise
Lorhainne Eckhart
His Promise
COPYRIGHT © Lorhainne Ekelund, 2015, All Rights Reserved.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover Design: Steven Novak
Contact Information: Lorhainne@LorhainneEckhart.com
ISBN: 9781928085317
A love they thought would last forever.
Kim and Bruce were inseparable as teens and believed their love was strong enough to overcome everything. Bruce promised they would be together forever, but when he left for medical school, everything changed—and Kim married someone else.
When they both return to their hometown after Kim’s divorce, they end up fighting the attraction between them. Neither is willing to talk about the promise Bruce made…until one summer night.
Chapter One
There wasn’t a day that Kim hadn’t loved Bruce. Never in a million years had she doubted that they would be together. At seventeen, they were inseparable. She couldn’t imagine, as she stared up at the thousands of stars in the dark Montana sky not kissing Bruce or feeling his touch on every other day like this one, when she would gaze up at the light of the moon or the bright blue sky.
But then, you never forget the taste of your first love. He touched her th
e way no other man could. It was imprinted on her soul—the way she molded against him, skin to skin, with each breath. Each moment with him, kissing, touching, or just talking, the sound of his voice melted her soul and had her yearning to see him again before he even left.
She didn’t believe her lips would ever forget the taste of his love. His touch, his smile, the light in his hazel eyes when he held her face in his hands the very first time he’d kissed her—it was all burned forever in her memory.
Like yesterday.
“Hey, baby.” He came up behind her, sliding his hand over the flat of her stomach. He lifted her hair and pressed a kiss to her cheek before sliding his lips down the soft skin on her neck. He was pulling her back with him into the shadows.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked, then giggled. She couldn’t help it, as he had his hand under her shirt. He’d pulled the long cotton fabric free from the waistband of her jeans and was running his hand over her skin. His belt buckle was pressing into her. She craved the feel of him all the time and mourned his touch when he was gone.
“Where your daddy can’t find us,” he said. He had his hand on the rail of the wooden ladder that led up to the loft. “Go on.”
She didn’t hesitate as she climbed the rail. She could hear the tractor purring in the field. The sound carried, so she knew as long as she could hear it in the distance, they had time alone. “You weren’t supposed to be here today,” she said. “You said you couldn’t come, that you had to pack.”
He pulled her to their space in the loft where the hay bales were stacked against the dark planks. She climbed over the two bales and into their hidden spot, a bed of hay with an old blanket thrown overtop. It was where they always met, where they hid out together. It was where they’d met last night, when she’d snuck out of the house after her parents were asleep. It was where they’d last been together—touching, tasting, exploring each other.
“I couldn’t leave without seeing you again.” He pulled her down with him so they were lying side by side. Her body had a mind of its own and responded to Bruce, moving closer to him, her legs tangled with his, her hands pulling at his shirt, kissing him as she threaded her fingers through his short brown hair. She loved his hair, how it too seemed to do whatever it wanted. The natural waves always had that messy bad-boy look, and every time he cut it, it made the smile that lit up his face and his eyes stand out on his cheeks. And his lips…full and so kissable. Oh, and could Bruce kiss. She loved his long, lean body, his legs, how much taller he was than her—how much stronger. She truly believed he was forever hers, and he wouldn’t let anything come between them.
But she was wrong. Oh so wrong.
“Just one more kiss,” he said as he leaned over her. “I need to know you’ll wait for me.”
“You know I will. I wish you didn’t have to go.” She wanted to cry. It would be ninety-three days of hell until she could feel his touch again, feel his lips on her again, feel his love again. Life was so unfair.
“Kim! Kim!” It was her mother calling out.
“I have to go, but I don’t want to,” she said, rolling onto her back, her hands above her head.
He kissed her one more time and pulled a strand of hay from her hair. “I’ll call you. I promise I will. Baby, remember I fall in love with you over and over every single day. Nothing will come between us. Remember this, feel this.” He took her hand and pressed it to his beating heart. “It’s for you, only for you, that my heart beats. This moment, the way you look now, the blueness in your eyes and how they smile only for me and beg me into your loving arms, the way your long hair teases me and has that curly, messy look even when you try to brush it straight…”
Not a day had gone by without her remembering those last moments together—almost twenty years ago, now. She’d promised to be his forever…that was, until she married someone else.
Chapter Two
Kim loved the drive into town, the rolling hills, the way the grass had turned brown from the heat of the summer sun. These fields were prime grazing land for cattle and horses. Before long, she was back in the town of Columbia Falls, where she’d grown up, fallen in love, and then gotten married and divorced. She had lived a lifetime even though she was only thirty-six. There were days she mourned how much time she’d lost.
She had to live with her choices and had given up a few years back on beating herself up and wishing for what she couldn’t have. But she couldn’t help wondering what could have been. At times, it hurt to breathe, loving a man so much that the thought of him had her lying awake for many lonely nights. Oh, she’d tried to move on, but there’s something about your first love that makes you compare every other man to the one.
She pulled into the parking lot of a block-long strip mall and the grocery store she’d driven across town to visit. She had driven past a much better, bigger grocery store to get here, but then, this store was across the street from Bruce. She stepped out of her dark blue pickup and couldn’t help looking up to the five-story red brick building where Bruce Siegel, now a pediatrician, had his office. She wondered if she’d catch a glimpse of him behind his desk, working through the mountains of paperwork that kept him for hours on end. Just the sight of his thick brown hair—shorter now, but still with a hint of messy from when they were teens—had her needing another look. There were times when she was so close that he’d happen to look out and see her, and he’d wave and come down. She always prayed for those times, like today.
“Hey, Kim.” Just the sound of his voice still caused a flutter in her stomach.
She turned to see him walking her way across the parking lot in dark dress pants, a white dress shirt, and a blue tie. He had glasses on—thin, rimless—and they only made him look better, sexier, even more handsome, if that was possible. Then he smiled for her. Damn, her heart skipped a beat.
He hadn’t always smiled at her, not when he’d first come back home.
She could feel the dimples in her cheeks, and she stepped to him as if there were an invisible cord attached to her stomach, pulling her forward. “Taking a break?” she teased as he gazed down at her with the mischievous look he’d had since they were kids.
“Lunch,” he said. “I didn’t pack anything today. This is quick, gives me a break to stretch my legs.”
His legs…she remembered his long limbs, muscled thighs, and great butt. Evidently, nothing had changed. He was still a head taller. His chest was a little broader, more solid, a man’s chest, one she’d love to feel pressed against her. One she could be held close to.
“What about you, Kim? What brings you down here?”
“Well, shopping, of course.” She lifted the strap of her red purse over her shoulder and worried, for a moment, about how she looked. She had washed and brushed her long dark hair even though some unruly waves would always pop up out of nowhere. She wore her new blue jeans, the Levis that gave her an amazing ass. She had tucked in a white sleeveless shirt with a high collar that she knew showed her tanned arms, which, she was happy to see, were firm and toned. But then, Kim didn’t sit around all day: She was always working her small farm, going out with her horse, weeding in her garden—always doing something.
Bruce was smiling. He glanced the other way before looking back at her. “You like driving all the way across town when the Food Mart’s closer to you?”
“Maybe I like my stores smaller and more out of the way,” she said, teasing him.
He laughed softly. Oh, man, did she love the sound of his deep laugh. It wasn’t loud and obnoxious like some guys’ but teasing and soft, causing all kinds of havoc to her insides. “You just want to see me, is all,” he said. Still as arrogant and cocky as ever.
“Yeah, I do. You always make my day.”
He was watching her, and something changed in the way he stared at her, something she couldn’t make out. It wasn’t happy or mad or sad, but it was confusing.
“So I didn’t see you in church this week,” she said. The community church
their families belonged to was where they’d met again when he returned to Columbia Falls after staying away for eighteen very long years.
“Had an emergency. I was on call. So how is everyone? Heard Jamie rattled some of the old timers.”
Kim had to suppress a giggle. Jamie Johnson, the dashing young blue-eyed, blond-haired single pastor, had moved in right before Bruce arrived and had taken over the congregation from the eighty-year-old minister who had been a mainstay in the community for most of Kim’s life. The man had run his church with an iron fist, but Jamie refused to stick to formalities and liked to stir things up, including his own opinions. He was far more “new age” and relaxed than any minister Kim had ever met.
“Well, at least it was too hot for him to wear his leather jacket,” she said. “Yes, after a few of the elders criticized the locals who never show up for church, Jamie asked what made a better Christian, someone who attends church every Sunday and believes all is well or someone who never sets foot in a church but treats everyone with kindness and respect, each day making an effort to make a difference? You can imagine there were a lot of red faces up front. I think he got the reaction he wanted. He says it often: he’s a devil at times, but he really does call crap out when he hears it.”
Bruce wasn’t smiling, but he was giving all of himself to her in the way he watched her. It was so unsettling. She felt a thick lump building in her throat, and for a moment she struggled to breathe. It was difficult to swallow, and the air between them was electric.
“So how are things going out at your place?” he said. “I heard you had the vet out for your horse. Everything all right?”
“Yeah, everything is fine, he said. I was worried, as Chloe hasn’t been keeping weight on. She lost a fair bit over the winter. She’s going on fourteen, still good for a horse, but she’s slowing down. He said everything looked fine, though. Could have been the quality of hay I had over the winter. With all the spring grass coming up, she usually puts on weight, just not this year.” The vet really hadn’t seemed worried, but Kim was positive he was missing something. After all, she knew her horse better than he did, vet or no vet.