Paxton's Promise (10 page)

WHEN HE ASKED me if I was going to sneak away, I should’ve asked him the same question. I was expecting him to be in bed with me when the sun rose, but needless to say¸ he wasn’t. It was seven o’clock in the morning. Where was he?

Climbing out of bed, I grabbed my clothes up off the floor and rushed across the hall to my room so I could grab a quick shower and get a change of clothes. After sliding on a pair of yoga pants and a tank top, I heard a noise outside and peered out the window; the light to Paxton’s garage was on.

He didn’t regret last night, did he? Before getting the courage to go out there, I trudged into the kitchen and brewed a cup of coffee. If anything were to go downhill, I could count on my coffee to keep me sane. Once it was done, I carried the mug outside and slowly made my way to his garage. He had the music on, but it wasn’t loud enough to hear clearly outside the building walls.

One of the doors was open, so I peeked inside and watched him as he worked on one of the old cars. Dressed in a pair of holey jeans with no shirt on, my whole body tingled in anticipation. Even though I was a little sore, I wanted him again. He could be sweaty and covered in grease and I wouldn’t care. Everything inside me craved him. I’d denied myself for so long, it felt like I’d never be able to catch up. It was exciting.

I had to tighten my legs together to help subdue the ache between my thighs. The way he stared at his work with such pride and contentment helped me see a whole new side of him I’d never seen before. How could I not see that there was more to him than he led on?
It’s because I didn’t want to see it.

“I know you’re there, sunshine,” he quipped. “I’m sure you can admire me much better from in here.”

Rolling my eyes, I chuckled and walked through the door. “How did you know I was there? There’s no way you could’ve seen me.”

Wiping his hands on a towel, he finally looked over at me and smiled. “I don’t know, I can just tell when you’re near. It used to drive me crazy at the gym.”

I walked past him to a desk in the corner and sat down. “Trust me, it used to do the same thing to me.” Paxton went back to working on his car while I looked around his garage. Across the whole back wall there were frames with before and after pictures in them, of cars that were junk before and then completely restored. They didn’t even look like the same vehicles.

“Did you do all of these?” I asked incredulously.

Over my shoulder, he kept his attention on the car motor and grinned. “Does that surprise you? I told you there was more to me than just fighting. I do enjoy other things in life. Which I’m sure you happened to have witnessed last night.”

Smiling, I turned back to the photos. “Well . . . I might have forgotten. Do you care to refresh my memory?”

All too soon, he came up behind me and put his arms around my waist. His breath tickled my neck as he leaned down and kissed me, his cock hard against my back. “I’d be more than happy to. I’m sorry I wasn’t in bed this morning. I couldn’t sleep.”

“Why not?”

His hands lifted to my breasts and he squeezed, massaging them. “Because I couldn’t be beside you without wanting to fuck you. It was like I took a whole bottle of fucking Viagra.”

“Oh my God, why didn’t you wake me up?”

His lips touched my shoulder and worked their way up to my cheek. “You needed your rest. Besides, I know you were sore last night after we got done. I’m sorry if I hurt you.”

“Pax, you have nothing to—” Something on his wall caught my undivided attention. It was the last frame and there inside was a picture of my brother’s old Ford Bronco. The first picture was of it with the faded blue paint, busted wheels, and raggedy convertible top. Matt drove that thing until it was falling apart.

However, the second picture was of it fully restored to what it was today. The metallic blue paint was shiny, not dull. The top was a crisp white, instead of dingy yellow, and the wheels were a lot larger now with a set of bad ass custom made chrome rims.
How is this possible?

Furrowing my brows, I turned around in his arms. “Why do you have pictures of my brother’s car? I rode around in that thing for years. He had it fixed up years ago. I’d know it from anywhere.”

“Yes, I know. For the longest time, I thought you would remember me when I started going to Carter’s gym, but you never did.”

“I don’t understand. What are you talking about? I thought you hated my brother?” Paxton was a part of Kyle’s crowd and everyone in that group hated my brother, Tyler, and all of their friends. It was just the way it was.

Taking my hand, Paxton walked me back to the desk and I sat down while he finished up with what he was doing. “Gabby, I’ve never hated your brother. Every time I tried to tell you the truth you basically slammed a door in my face. You automatically assumed I was just like Kyle.”

“But you were,” I blurted out. “You’ve gotten in so much trouble over the years, Pax. You had a reputation and it wasn’t a good one.”

He sighed. “Yes, I know, but it was never for things like Kyle did. A few drunken brawls and whatnot, yes, but never the stuff that bastard did. I met your brother before all of that happened. It was before I really got into the whole fighting scene.”

“Was that when you were dating Kacey?”

“No, we had already split ways at that time. I remember you though. You were in high school. I came by your house to talk to Matt about ideas I had for his car, when I saw you on the track, racing your go kart. Your brother and I talked the whole time you were out there and I couldn’t take my eyes off of you. If you weren’t still in high school I would’ve asked you out.”

I tried to think back to those days but I couldn’t place him at all. “Damn, grandpa. How much older than me are you?” I was only twenty-three, but my birthday was in December, a little over three months away.

“I’m twenty-eight,” he replied, lifting a brow daring me to comment.

“How come I don’t remember you? Did we meet?”

He snorted. “Yes. You were with a group of your friends so it doesn’t surprise me you didn’t notice me. Judging by the guys you were around, I wasn’t your type.”

To be honest, it wasn’t the type of guys I would’ve chosen for myself, but I wanted to be a part of the crowd and those were the people I needed to be around. The girls were stuck up bitches, but I tolerated them just to be part of the group.

“Besides,” Paxton continued, “I didn’t exactly look like I do now. Back then, I had blond hair and I wasn’t as built. I guess the muscles and the tattoos got your attention.”

There was a greasy rag on his desk so I picked it up and threw it at him. “Actually, smart ass, it was your sexy green eyes that got me. The tattoos and muscles were only a bonus.”

He looked back at me and winked. “So anyway, back to the main part of the story. Your brother came into the garage wanting someone to restore his car. Since it was my area of expertise, I took on the project.”

“How did you get the knowledge to do that? Was it from your uncle who owns the race track?”

His lip titled up in a sad smile, but kept his focus on the engine as he worked. “Yeah, I kind of grew up around cars and racing. The whole fighting thing came later. So with that being said, at this point in time I was friends with Kyle, but it was before I got into all my trouble. That all came later, and even then I never did anything to your brother. He knows this. I was out of Kyle’s group before all of that took place.”

Mouth gaping open, I stared at him in horror. I’d never asked my brother about Paxton because I always assumed he was one of the bad guys. I didn’t have a reason to think otherwise. All this time, I treated Paxton like shit when he had nothing to do with Kyle’s deceitful attempts to fuck over my brother.

“And you tried to tell me numerous times,” I stated sadly.

Paxton shrugged and backed away from the car, wiping his hands on his towel. “It’s not like it mattered anyway. You were too busy with college and your dickwad boyfriend to notice me.”

“Oh, let’s be clear. I noticed you,” I confessed. “I hated myself for it, but I wanted you bad. I just assumed you were part of the plot to sabotage my brother, so I had to hate you. I felt like a traitor being attracted to you.”

“And now?” he asked, peering over at me.

Getting to my feet, I slowly walked over to him and put my arms around his shoulders. “Now I just feel like a coldhearted bitch. I thought you pursued me just to get a rise out of my brother. That’s why Tyler came after you so hard because I told him that’s probably what you were doing.”

He put his arms around my waist and chuckled. “Yeah, Tyler and I are never going to be besties—there’s too much history. And, your brother might not like us together, but I know he doesn’t hate me. We actually talked that night while you were helping Kacey bind up her wrists.”

“I’m sorry,” I murmured. “Ashleigh told me to stop pushing you away and when you basically stopped caring if I came or went, I thought I was too late.”

A sly smile spread across his face. “I had to do something to get your attention. Besides, I needed you to come to me. I wasn’t going to ask for anything you didn’t want to give.”

Smacking him in the arm, I narrowed my eyes. “So it was just to pay me back? Well I gotta tell you, it worked. I was so pissed at you, especially when you left me in the pool.” And we still hadn’t talked about what happened with Cliff. He hadn’t brought it up, but he needed to know that nothing was going on other than wanting his help.

Paxton leaned down and kissed me, holding me close to his body. I didn’t want to break the contact, but I had no choice. “Pax,” I whispered, breaking the trance. “I need to talk to you about last night. About Cliff.”

Clenching his teeth, he huffed and tilted his head back. “Why do we have to talk about that barnacle now? It’s obvious the dude’s hard up for you. And what’s worse, he’s your fucking neighbor.”

“A barnacle?”

“He’s one of those guys who’s going to attach himself to you. Wait and see. He’s a creep, I know it.”

Laughing, I rolled my eyes. “Not to give you a guilt trip, but he’s kind of helping me out with something. I wanted to talk to you about it, but we weren’t necessarily talking at the time. I didn’t know what else to do.”

Paxton furrowed his brows and stepped back. “What’s going on?”

Sighing, I leaned against his desk and crossed my arms across my chest while he waited, concern etched in his gaze. “Okay, first, let me explain something to you. Cliff is my neighbor. He’s ex military and he’s about to be a cop with the LAPD.”

“Great, give the boy a fucking medal,” he grumbled.

Ignoring his comment, I sighed and kept going. “Anyway, when I went to my apartment at the beginning of the week, I had a flower by my doorstep.”

Paxton’s gaze grew dark. “Who was it from? Him?”

“No,” I blurted. “It wasn’t him. At first, I wondered if it could be Bradley, but then when I got a closer look I realized there was no way.”

“Why is that?”

“It was black, Pax. The rose was
black
. I’ve never known a guy to send a black rose to a girl. And the note was kind of cryptic. Well, both of the notes were.”

“You got more than one? What did they say?” he questioned, eyes wide.

I told him and he didn’t like it at all. At first, I thought he would be flippant about it and brush it off as some kind of joke, but he took it the way I did. It was a little creepy and I wasn’t going to lie, it kind of scared me.

“So where does Cliff come into all of this?”

“He took the letters to see if they can get prints off of them. Plus, he’s going to call me if I have any more deliveries. All of this happened this week, so I’m assuming it’s going to happen again soon. I just don’t know how far this person is willing to go.”

Paxton reached for me and pulled me into his arms. “Whatever you do, don’t go to your apartment by yourself. Whoever this person is, they know where you live. Do not go there unless someone else is with you.”

Breathing him in, I laid my head on his chest and closed my eyes. “I won’t.”

“I’ll do what I have to do to keep you safe. I can promise you that.”

“And you always keep your promises, right?” I teased.