Promise Me (14 page)

He chuckles when he says yes. Definitely relieved, I'm about to ask my original question when I stop and say, "Wait. How come you don't ask me the same question?"

"Because I know you wouldn't even be here to begin with if you weren't," he answers with complete confidence in his answer. He's right. I get the sense that he's been on the wrong side of that answer once or twice before, but I trust him enough to know in my heart that he's not lying to me right now.

"Was that the question you wanted to ask," he says with a raised eyebrow and grabs his beer off the table.

I'm uncertain if I want to ask, but I've been dying to know the answer for years. "That night...," and my voice falters for a second before I go on, "How did you know I was there?"

He's about to answer when the bartender comes up to our table to let us know that the bar will be closing earlier than usual due to the slow crowd tonight and if we'd like to order another round. Tyler looks to me first, I shake my head then tells the bartender we're fine and he leaves us alone again.

"To answer your question, I didn't follow you there, if that's what you were worried about," and I laugh at his attempt to paint himself as a stalker. "I had been inside the party for a little while and decided to just call it a night. I remember walking outside and caught you pulling up in your car." He takes a break from talking to take a sip of his beer before he keeps retelling that night from his memory. "I saw you walk up and dart to the side of the house and I remember thinking that was kind of strange... so I followed you."

"But why did you follow me," I quickly interject.

"I was worried about you," he says just as quickly. "I'll never forget how upset you were. It took all of me not to go back into that party and kick the crap out of Chris, but I wanted to make sure you were okay... so that's what I did instead."

He wanted to make sure I was okay
. I turn the thought over in my head and I'm sure there's more behind it than he's letting on but I don't push him to explain further.

"I still want to kick his ass after what he did to you. He's lucky I didn't go back to that party."

"Where did you go then? I offered you a ride but you wouldn't let me take you anywhere."

He grins and tilts his head slightly to the side. "Home."

"Oh."

"Where did you think I would go?" He asks before grabbing his beer off the table to take a sip.

I laugh shakily because I just assumed he would have gone out somewhere or back to that party, or met up with some random girl. Definitely not home. Back then, he was always with a different girl. To my knowledge, he never had a steady girlfriend, more like a steady stream of them. I hate that I feel a twinge of jealousy for all those girls in his past and for the countless others that I'm sure he's accumulated since then, but I do. I wanted to, or rather, I want to be one of those girls ever since that night.

"I don't know, to be honest. Maybe…"

"Maybe, what?" His sexy grin is on full display now.

I take a sip of my wine before the next sentence comes out rushed. "Maybe you went to see another girl, or something."

It takes Tyler all of a second to fill in the blanks. "I didn't. I went straight home."

Smiling uncomfortably when I tuck some hair behind my ears, he eyes me carefully before he speaks again.

"No girl could have ever compared to you anyway. You were… and still are, way out of my league."

I have no smart retort or even a feeble response to that. Instead, I change the subject completely by asking him how long he's in town for. When he says he's planning on going back home tomorrow, my heart temporarily drops to my stomach and back up again.

He notices the change in me and reaches across the table to take my hand in his. The jolt to my system is immediate with just that one innocent touch. And he thinks I'm out of his league?

"When are you going back to Miami?"

"Thursday," I say to him just before the bartender comes over to let us know it's time to clear out.

When the bartender walks away he leans forward slightly and gently tugs me by my hand so that I'm forced to lean forward as well. His face is a mere inches from mine. So close that I can feel his breath fan across my cheek when he speaks in a low voice that makes me twist in my seat.

"Do you want to leave?"

"No."

"I don't want you to leave either and I'm a selfish bastard for saying this, but I need more time with you."

Tyler's chocolate eyes are so dilated that they look like black discs. He closes and opens them back up quickly as if he's struggling with something.

"Come up to my room with me," he says softly.

My breath hitches since it's not lost on me that he didn't ask. I guess I should be embarrassed by that but I'm not… not even a little. That might be because as much as he's aware that I would follow him anywhere right now, I feel like he would do the same for me. Tyler doesn't wait for my answer. He lets go of my hand and goes to stand. When I slide out of the booth he places his hand on the small of my back and leads me into the lobby, towards the elevator. At first I'm thinking I should be more reluctant but when I look up at his eyes while we wait for the doors to open, they convey something more than the obvious want behind them. Whatever it is, it stamps down my trepidation and I step inside the elevator with him.

As the doors close behind us, I go to lean against the wall to face him and he leans on the opposite side. His eyes rake over me slowly, from my feet all the way back to my eyes, which makes me uncross my legs and pull myself away from the wall when we begin our ascent to his floor.

He tilts his head just a fraction and in a suggestive tone says, "Come here."

I take a step to him, wanting to finally give into the magnetic pull I feel when I'm around him. On my second step, he pulls my clutch from under my arm, drops it on the floor and grabs me by the waist. Turning me around, he pins me against the wall and his mouth finally devours mine.

My hands wrap around his back, pulling him in tighter to me, but it's not close enough. His left hand roams from my waist then up my chest and I moan into his mouth at the brush of his palm against my nipple straining under the fabric, causing a low growl to escape his chest. If there ever was a sound that would make me want to tear off my clothes and offer myself up to him like a virgin at the sacrificial altar, that was it.

He moves his hand further up until it's cupping the back of my neck while his other hand moves down my back, all the while consuming my mouth with the deft strokes of his tongue, taking possession of me from the inside out. Even while he is finally doing things to me that I've dreamt about for years, I want more… I
need
more. So I take my hands from around his waist and roughly grab onto his hair hoping that I get my silent message across. He responds instantly by pressing his body against me with slightly more pressure. My right leg automatically starts to rise up his calf and I can feel his hand on the back of my neck tightening in its grip as a result. His other hand slides down the back of my thigh until he hooks it behind my knee to lift it and wrap it around him, causing the hem of my dress to shift higher.

My body tightens at the sensation of his full on assault when he tears himself away from my lips. I pull his face back down to my mouth but instead of kissing me, he licks and sucks on my bottom lip as his fingers clench down onto my outer thigh. I feel like I'm about to combust when the ding of the elevator goes off alerting us that we are about to reach his floor.

He helps me put my leg back down on the elevator floor and adjusts the hem of my dress swiftly so that I'm decent.

"Thank you," I say completely flustered.

Tyler's index finger traces from my eyebrow down to my chin while his lust filled eyes stay locked on mine.

"My pleasure," he says too seriously for my own sanity. "I've been wanting to do that for ten years."

When the door finally opens, he takes a step back and bends down to pick up my clutch from the floor while I run my hands quickly through my hair.

"After you," he says while clearing his throat and motions to the empty hallway before us.

I glance over at him to catch him smiling back at me. I tear my gaze away from him and try to steady my breathing as we get to his door. He holds it open for me and the first thing I see is the TV unit and a small desk with a chair against the left wall that I drop my clutch on. Inching in a little further, to my right is a large bed that is still made with an open duffel bag lying on top of it.

Being in a closed space with him again after what just happened is making me second guess myself, more than I thought it would, and when he brushes past me to throw his wallet and cell phone onto the desk my heart starts to race. My body wants to finish what we started but my heart... I don't know if I can take it. My nervousness is getting the better of me now, and he notices right away when I take a few steps backwards. It only takes him a couple of strides before he's standing within inches of me again.

"Please, don't be nervous," he says softly, "I'd never hurt you."

"Okay."

"I need to tell you something," he hesitates, and for the briefest moment I see a hint of the nervousness in his eyes that he was making light of earlier. It's in such complete odds to the man I just spent the hottest minute of my life with that I just nod when he goes on to say things that make my pulse race faster than I thought possible.

"That night, it wasn't the first time I noticed you... or the last. I can't begin to tell you how hard it was for me to walk away from you back then, but…"

"But what?"

I'm literally on the edge of my seat as to what else will tumble out of his beautiful mouth that I can't help but lick my lips in anticipation. His eyes follow the movement and stays on my lips before dragging his line of vision back up to mine.

"Sabrina, we both know at that point in our lives it wouldn't have been a very smart idea," he says reluctantly.

"Why not?"

His smile doesn't reach his eyes when he says, "Well, for starters, I wasn't a very good guy back then in case you forgot. You were… you
are
different. I couldn't have given you what you needed and deserved."

I can't help myself, I have to know. "And what did I deserve exactly, Tyler?"

"Someone who would treat you right, take care of you... cherish you."

Does that mean he's ready now? I'm not sure I want to know the answer to that question so I mentally wave it away.

"When I got the invite for this, I only thought of you and swore to myself that if I saw you again I would do everything I could to make sure that this," he stops abruptly, takes a step and puts his hands on the door on each side of my face, trapping me in place. "Whatever this is between us would finally happen. So please, trust me, because I have no intention of disappearing on you."

He brings himself even closer so that there's barely any space between us. I can't keep from looking into his hooded eyes as he drops his hands and lightly runs his fingertips up my bare arms until he's cradling my face. His head bends down slowly and he brings his lips to place a feather light kiss on my forehead.

"You feel it too, don't you," he says easily.

Before I can respond, he kisses both my cheeks and pulls back an inch to look into my eyes. In a seductive voice that makes my head spin, he goes on, "You have no idea how much I wanted to kiss you that night."

I know the feeling all too well, since all these years later all I've ever obsessed about when I think about him is how much I wished he had. I try to catch my breath as it's becoming increasingly difficult with him being so close after the elevator ride and his confession, but somehow I manage to finally admit it, "I wanted you to."

He smiles while his thumbs are tenderly rubbing my cheeks then he bends his head again and brushes his lips against mine. I can tell his heart is racing as fast as mine when I slowly run my hands up his chest and back down again until they wrap around his muscular broad back. He presses his body completely against mine and kisses me again until his tongue flicks lightly on my bottom lip. As my lips barely part to taste him again he angles his mouth over mine and I give in to him completely.

While the elevator ride with him was frenzied, this is beyond anything I could have ever imagined. He's so perfect and I find myself not being able to control a whimper that escapes my lips when he takes one of his hands and wraps it around my back while his other hand slides up the nape of my neck and into my hair. My hands, on a discovery mission of their own, make their way back up his chest and neck until they reach his thick beautiful hair again so I can run my fingers through it. All the while, we continue to kiss each other desperately as if our lives depended on it.

It's not until I feel his hand lightly tug my hair that he breaks the kiss and drags his lips down my jaw to start raining kisses on my neck and collarbone. I arch my back just so to give him better access as he takes his time tasting every inch of exposed flesh.

"Tyler," I say between my labored breathing and I feel his lips curl into a smile on my neck when he murmurs a yes against my skin. The vibration of his deep voice from just that one word on my neck almost makes me lose my balance. He drags his lips back up to mine at the same time my hands release his hair and rest atop his shoulders. He smoothly moves his hand down from the nape of my neck to caress my bare back, causing the goose bumps to return. He chuckles softly across my lips at my body's reaction to him before he pulls back to look at me.