The Promise

by River Laurent

  He runs a hand through his hair. “It’s all so ridiculous and stupid. I feel so stupid. She showed up here with a bottle of red wine and put on this big show about being nervous for the ceremony, needing a drink with an old friend. Wanting to bury the hatchet. Wanting to start off with a clean slate, no bad blood between us. What a joke. But I let her in when she made a big deal about it. She poured an obnoxious glass for herself, but she did always like her wine, so I let it go. Until she spilled almost all of it on me.” He grimaces.

  “That’s not even very original,” I can’t help but observe.

  “No, it isn’t. I got in the shower to clean up and when I came out…she was in my bed and you looked as if you had been struck by lightning. You have to believe me she was fully dressed when I left her.”

  I do believe him, but I can’t make it so easy, either. “What happened after I left?”

  “She tried to make it seem like she really just wanted me back, one last time with me before she got married, and you coming back was a surprise.” His eyes glitter with fury. “I saw the text she sent you.”

  I had forgotten all about the text until that very second. Demanding that I come upstairs at once. I was so upset and so shocked I didn’t see what was so obvious. Yes, she set us both up. Now that I have the benefit of a little time passing between my discovery and my conversation with Mark, I see just how absurd it all was. Like Brock would text me to come upstairs with Charlotte in his bed.

  “I was very deeply hurt when I saw her there,” I admit. “I know I have no right to be hurt, but that was how I felt.”

  “And I told her I’d never forgive her for what she did. I never forgave her for spiking your chocolates with strawberry juice to begin with, but this is inexcusable. I threw her out. I don’t ever want to see or speak to that ignorant piece of trash again,” he declares.

  What a relief it is to hear that. “You never forgave her for that?”

  “That was a low thing to do to you. You’re just a sweet thing. You’ve never hurt her.”

  I tilt my head to the side as though I’m ignorant of the truth. “I thought you were still in love with her. I thought that was why we were here to begin with?”

  For the first time in my presence, Brock flushes.

  I actually got him to flush. It takes all my self-control not to jump up from the sofa and pump my fist in triumph.

  “Yes. That. It’s a long story.”

  “I have time,” I assure him, leaning against the cushions. It’s nice, feeling like I’m the one in control for once. Watching him squirm a little. Knowing who he really is, and how he knew me from the start goes a long way toward humanizing him.

  “Suffice it to say I never cared about her. You’re the one I wanted.” He moves closer. Tentative at first, as though he fears I’ll run away. When I don’t, he gets more confident, and shifts closer. “I wanted you from the very beginning. I didn’t know any other way to get you into my life.”

  “You could’ve just said you wanted to get to know me better,” I suggest, raising an eyebrow.

  “And if you said no, that would’ve been the end of it. I couldn’t take that chance.”

  “So you chose to bribe me? Is that it? You took advantage when you knew I didn’t have any money, and you’re loaded?”

  “I guessed you’d be too proud to accept charity, and that would be how you’d see it. As charity. I wanted to help you, and I still do. I want you to have every good thing you deserve. And you deserve a hell of a lot more than being so exhausted that you passed out on my bed. So, I came up with this plan.”

  “Scheme. Plot.”

  “Plan,” he insists.

  He’s so close I can feel his breath on my face and smell his cologne as he wraps himself around my senses. He has a way of doing that. I could forgive him of anything in this moment. And there isn’t anything to forgive, not really. I know why he did it. I wish he’d been honest, but at least I understand where he was coming from. And who wouldn’t be flattered? Even touched?

  I place my palm against his chest, and feel his heart pounding. He’s so warm and real, and he’s right here, wanting to be mine. I can feel it, and that knowledge crackles between us. It practically lights up the room. The energy between us is so strong I feel it on my skin. Even so, there’s one thing he has to know first. I take a deep breath and say it, “I remember you now. From when we were kids.”

  A little of the light leaves his eyes. “What?”

  “I remember you from that day. In the schoolyard.”

  “You do?”

  He sounds so hopeful, like a little boy. It’s enough to crack my heart open. I nod slowly. “You were standing there, against the wall. Watching me. I was so ashamed. Not just of what I was doing, but of me. For being poor, for having to sink so low as to sell kisses just to put food on the table that night. That was what made me run away, that shame.”

  “So it wasn’t the fat, greasy, smelly kid who was waiting for a kiss? He’s not the reason you ran?”

  I frown. “No. I wished it was you I was kissing, instead of all the rest of them.”

  “That’s good to hear. I always did wonder about that.” He smiles, tilting his head to the side, staring deep into my eyes. “Because I wasn’t the boy watching from against the wall. I was the fat kid who was waiting to kiss you.”

  The truth hits me like a slap in the face. That boy had dark hair too, and blue eyes. Only I hadn’t been paying attention to him. I never had. I shake my head in wonder. “You were him.”

  He nods, and I see a sad flash of that bullied, unpopular fat boy all over again.

  “I’m glad you are him. I never forgot you. I always felt bad about you. I took the money and never said thank you or gave you your kiss. You lost all that weight?”

  He grins. “Yeah, I stopped eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and went to the gym.”

  “Oh Brock. I’m sorry if I hurt you all those years ago. I was just a child.”

  “I know. I never held it against you. And when you started to cry,” he continues, stroking my cheek with the back of his fingers. “I wanted to make it all better for you. I wanted to protect you and comfort you. I loved you even then.”

  My eyes widen with surprise.

  He nods. “Yes, I was a kid, but I did love you. I gave you all the money I had and told you to go home, because I didn’t want to see you do what you were doing to yourself. It was tearing me up inside to see you cry.”

  I touch his face with a trembling hand. It was him. That sweet boy who shoved money into my hand and told me to go home. Who saved me from having to embarrass myself any further. Even then, all those years ago, he was trying to protect me. “Oh, Brock.”

  “I loved you then, and I’m in love with you now,” he whispers, still holding onto my chin and using it to draw my face closer. “I love you, Dani.”

  “And I love you,” I breathe the words out before a deep, searing kiss rocks me to my core and sets the rest of my life on course.

  A life with this man, loving him and letting him love me. I couldn’t ask for anything more.

  Epilogue (1)

  Dani

  One Year Later

  “To you.” Brock raises the champagne flute with a smile, and touches it to the one I’m holding.

  The fizzy liquid tickles my tongue. I take just the tiniest sip, savoring it right along with the feeling of success. “To me?” I point to myself. “You’re the one who made it possible for me to go to school full-time, even over the summer. I never could’ve done it on my own. It would’ve taken two or three years at the rate I was going.”

  He looks so handsome, standing in front of the fireplace in the living room of our penthouse. Our penthouse. The thought of anything so extravagant being mine still surprises me, even after a year.

  His smile widens. “I never really had the chance to do something truly worthwhile with my money. Charity, sure, but you gave me the chance to see the money being put to good use. I had
a connection to the outcome. That meant everything.”

  “Well, gee. I’m glad I could do that for you.” I giggle.

  His lighthearted chuckle shows me how far he’s come. Still serious when the situation calls for it, still a bulldog when it comes to getting his way—especially in business—but when it’s just the two of us, he’s like a totally different person. Relaxed, sweet, indulgent. Everything I ever could’ve asked for, but never thought existed.

  The face of his Rolex catches my eye, and I let out a gasp of surprise. “We’ll be late for our reservation if we don’t get a move on. I know how much you hate being late.”

  “Who, me?”

  I shake my head and roll my eyes. He hasn’t changed all that much. Still a stickler for being on time. I had my choice of any restaurant in the city for our celebration dinner, and Lord knows there were plenty to choose from.

  He’s opened my eyes in a million ways, large and small, and our faces are familiar ones in at least a dozen or two of the city’s top establishments. Even so, there’s only one place that came to mind when it came time to choosing the location—the place where we had our first date, which wasn’t a date at the time but was definitely the night when I first started falling in love with him. There’s a beautiful symmetry to it.

  It isn’t until we’ve settled in at our favorite table that he leans over and takes my hand. “What’s next, then?”

  “Next?”

  “For you? What do you want to do, now that school’s over? Travel? Grad school? You realize you can do anything. I wouldn’t deny you for the world. Just name it.”

  I pretend to think about it, looking up at the ceiling as I chew my bottom lip. “I don’t know. There’s a project I’ve had in mind.”

  “Really? You never mentioned anything about a project.”

  “Well, I only started really thinking about it a few hours ago.”

  “What’s it all about?”

  The best part of all of this is how innocent he is. Totally clueless. I don’t know whether to laugh or kiss him. “It’s sort of long-term,” I start, winding my fingers around his. “Extremely, actually.”

  His eyes narrow. “You’re considering something long-term and you didn’t mention it to me until now?”

  “I can’t help it.” I shrug, biting back a smile. “If anything, you’re the one responsible.”

  “Me?”

  I wait while the wheels turn in his head. Understanding begins to blossom. He glances at my still-full wine glass. Maybe he even remembers how I only took a slight sip of my celebratory champagne. I don’t know what’s going through his mind, exactly. Only that he’s finally starting to get it.

  “Are you—saying what I think you’re s-saying?”

  “I am,” I whisper, suddenly nervous.

  There is no smile on his face.

  What if he’s not happy? We’ve only ever spoken of a family in the vaguest of terms, agreeing that we’d want to start one sometime in the future but never stating when.

  His face is still unreadable. A blank canvas. “You’re going to have a baby?”

  “Yes,” I breathe the word out, and my heart is barely beating anymore. I want so much for him to be happy, as happy as I was when I first realized I was pregnant. I did three tests. I wanted to be absolutely sure. My head’s been in a whirl all day, my imagination spinning all sorts of stories for my baby. Our baby. The person they’ll become, thanks to us.

  I only need to know that he wants this as much as I do.

  He sits back in his chair and lets out a sharp burst of air. “A baby.”

  “That’s what I said.”

  Just when I am about to die with unhappiness, his face just about cracks open, and my heart cracks open with it. Thank God.

  His smile shines almost bright enough to blind me. “A baby? Our baby. Oh, Dani!”

  “You’re happy?”

  “Happy? That doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel right now. Did you ever have that feeling like all your dreams are coming true at once?”

  I run my hand over the side of his handsome dear face and stare deep into his sweet blue eyes. There’s nothing in the entire world that means more to me than he does. I’ve never felt as loved, supported, protected, and secure as I have in this last year of our lives together.

  My eyes fill with tears of joy, and I nod. “Yes. I know exactly how that feels.”

  “Hey, you’re not crying?” His voice is choked up. Brock simply can’t bear to see me cry, even from happiness. It’s such a funny thing because he is such a hard-headed businessman. I hear him sometimes talking on the phone in his study and his voice is so cold, demanding and foreign that I actually think it can’t be him.

  I’ll go into the room out of sheer surprise and curiosity, and he will almost immediately put the person on hold and turn to me, his voice changed back to the one I am familiar with. No matter how long I am in that room, he will make whoever was on the phone wait. I’ve come to the conclusion that he is two different people. The one everyone else gets to see and the one he shows me. So, I don’t do that to him anymore. Nowadays I wait until he comes out of his study, when he has removed and put away the mask he wears for the world.

  I gaze at his handsome face now and smile. “I heard that a new baby is a very demanding thing and newbie parents get so tired they never have any energy for sex.”

  His head jerks back with surprise. “What?”

  “It looks like we won’t be having very much sex once the baby comes.”

  “We won’t?” he repeats slowly, staring at me.

  “Apparently not.”

  His eyes smolder with blue fire. “Not even if I do all the work.”

  “There is also the issue of lack of time.”

  He grins. “I’ll be quick.”

  “So I was thinking…” I reach over with my index finger and very slowly start to push my clutch towards the edge of the table. His eyes flick over to my finger, then back to my face. As I continue to push my clutch, his eyes leave mine and follow the trajectory of the purse. As it reaches tipping point and falls, he returns his gaze to me.

  “Oops,” I say breathlessly. “I seem to have dropped my purse.”

  “It would seem that way,” he says, his eyes unreadable.

  “Would you be so kind as to pick it up for me?”

  When he bends down to pick up my purse, I widen my thighs, and give him an eyeful. For a few seconds he seems frozen, then he jerks back up, his eyes blazing.

  “Jesus, Dani, you’ve been walking around this whole time without your panties.”

  “Mmm…”

  “Well, it’s fucking time to get you home,” he mutters.

  I flutter my eyelashes. “Oh, but I’ve been waiting all night to have my dessert.”

  “You can have it to go.”

  I pout. “It’s not the same. I want that cinnamon and pear thing they do with apple ice cream. The ice cream will melt by the time we get home.”

  “You’re doing this deliberately, aren’t you?”

  “What do you think?”

  “I think, Dani Saber, you should be very careful when you play with fire.”

  I laugh and lift my hand. A waiter instantly materializes beside us. “Can we have your pear tart to share please.”

  “Of course, madam,” he says with a respectful nod before disappearing. I turn to look at Brock.

  “You are in so much trouble,” he warns.

  “I know,” I purr.

  Epilogue (2)

  (Brock)

  I can’t believe how damn long it took me to get her back home. But now that I’ve got her where I want her I’m going to teach her not to provoke me like that. Her smell never stops tantalizing me. A mixture of her apricot lotion, the almost child-like bubble gum waft of her shampoo, and the subtle scent of perfume on her skin.

  I drag my thumb across her bottom lip. She gasps softly and closes her eyes. The sight of her like this, needing me so badly, still remai
ns one of the sexiest things I’ve seen. A jolt runs up from my thighs to my balls, firing me up.

  Hell, I’m so turned on my blood is pounding in my veins and I feel like a raging bull. She twisted my insides up so bad with her little restaurant stunt, I want to fucking tear her little two piece dress off and take her hard right here on the floor, but she’s carrying my baby now. Our precious little child. And the need to be gentle overrides everything else.

  She parts her lips and I push my thumb into her mouth. Catching my hand, she runs her tongue across the fleshy pad.

  She bares her teeth, letting them catch on my skin, and I grin. Sometimes, I still can’t believe this hot little vixen is all mine. That every fucking inch belongs to me. And only me.

  I withdraw my thumb from her mouth, catch the back of her head, and draw her in for a kiss. A small moan escapes her lips as our mouths touch, and of course. The sound sends a bolt of desire right through my body. It’s always like the first time with her.

  I slide my other hand around her waist, pressing it against the small of her back, drawing her soft yielding body closer to me. The two of us have been built to fit together perfectly. I brush my fingers over the smooth strip of skin exposed by her velvet top riding up.

  Our tongues meet. And…fire burns in my gut. I could kiss this woman for years. She is that addictive.

  When I cannot bear the pressure inside my pants anymore, I move my mouth across her chin and down her neck, determined to taste as much of her as I can. After waiting for more than an hour while she purposely licked and sucked her spoon as if she was a porn star, I’m not going to wait another a second, or hold anything back.

  I find that sensitive spot between her ear and her jaw, the one that makes her shudder when I press my lips to it, and let the hand on her back skim over her ass. She shifts her weight so she can grind up against me. Ah, my greedy, greedy little Dani. I look into her eyes and…such hunger. She wants it as badly as I do.

  I lift her up and carry her to the bed. Laying her down gently, there is our baby to think of now, I climb on top of her. In the warm light of the lamp, her eyes almost glow with the intensity of her emotions. She stretches her hands above her head and, on pure instinct, I reach up and hold her wrists down, keeping them out of my way while my other hand roams across her body. Really, I want to punish her for making me suffer.