Just One Promise Read online

  Making it downstairs and to the sliding glass door, I’m stopped in my tracks. Heath is standing on the deck, wetsuit half off and hanging loosely around his hips, hip to the railing, with a cup of coffee in his hand.

  I guess I’m going to have to face him now. With one last breath. I walk outside, he hears the door open, and his head whips around.

  “Uh, I’ll um. Just be going now,” I say before he can get a word out.

  “Come here, Audrey,” Heath demands.

  I shuffle my feet slowly to him, worried about what he’s going to say. When I’m within his reach, Heath’s hands wrap around my waist and he pulls me into his body. His back is now against the railing, legs spread, and I’m standing between them.

  One of his hands are kneading the swell of my hip, the other is wrapped around the nape of my neck. Heath’s mouth lands on mine and everything I thought was going to happen this morning obliterates to ashes.

  Every. Single. Thought.

  My mouth opens on a sigh when he nips at my bottom lip, something he did so much last night, I won’t ever forget it. Not for the rest of my years.

  7

  Heath

  The way Audrey tastes, the way she feels, I didn’t want to get up this morning. But after so many years rising early to catch the waves, my body is like a live wire. I knew Audrey was wore out from last night and there was no way I wanted to wake her up. A part of me wanted to take her as she slowly woke up, but after three times last night. I knew she needed a break.

  Hell, she didn’t move a muscle when I slid out of bed, it brought a smile to my face knowing I thoroughly wore her out.

  Breaking apart our kiss, even though I really want to know what she has on beneath her dress, my guess would be nothing, considering I remember her panties being in my way of her pussy, and ripping them to shreds.

  “You sore, Baby,” I murmur once our kiss comes to an end.

  “A little,” she admits. I’d eat her right here and now to soothe her pain, but something tells me we need to talk first, I didn’t like the leeriness she had on her face when she walked out here.

  “Let me get out of this, then we’ll have breakfast and talk,” not wanting to let her go, but needing to. Audrey needs time to process this, she needs time to process us.

  “Okay,” she backs away and I walk to my outside shower, it’s surrounded by fencing to give some privacy. Swinging the door closed and peeling myself out of my wetsuit, I turn the water on to rinse the saltwater off. I grab the towel that’s hanging up, hastily dry myself off, wrap the towel around my waist, and head back to Audrey.

  She’s still standing by the railing, looking at the waves crashing against the surf. I slowly walk back towards her, my hands finding her shoulders, not letting her go, but holding her while she gets her thoughts together.

  Audrey wears her heart on her sleeve, every emotion, every thought. You can see it cycle through. I don’t want her to question this, I want her to know she’s already becoming my everything.

  I let her know my thoughts right away, not wanting her to have to wait and have even more doubts plaguing her. “This wasn’t a one-night stand, Audrey. I know you can feel what we have between us, and I’m not just talking about the sexual chemistry.”

  “But, I’m only here for another week. Then I leave, what happens then? Do we go our separate ways, do we try a long-distance relationship? There are so many what-ifs, Heath,” she blows out a puff of air.

  “Take this week, see where things go. If it’s anything like it has been these past twelve hours, I’ll fight for us, even if you don’t,” I kiss the top of her head, leaving her to go and start breakfast. I’m taking a risk, laying it all out and leaving her out there on her own.

  Audrey could leave and not look back. I’m hoping like fuck she doesn’t.

  8

  Audrey

  Heath laid it all out on the table, so to speak. I wasn’t expecting him to say what he said, I figured we’d go our separate ways and I’d be left with the memories of what we made together.

  Honestly, if I only had one night with him, I wouldn’t have been okay, but I would have cherished those memories for the rest of my life. The way he touched me, the way he tasted me, and the way he looked at me. It was as if I was the only person in his world.

  With one last deep breath, I whisper out, “Life gives you one chance, take it.”

  Turning on my heel, feeling awkward with wearing last night’s dress, and no panties on, my one saving grace with this dress though, the built-in bra. I march my way into Heath’s place, feeling more determined than ever.

  I open the back door and hear, “Babe,” my head whips up. Heath is now dressed in a pair of board shorts sans shirt.

  “Yeah,” I breathe out.

  “I’m not much of a cook, so options are simple, eggs however you want them cooked, a bagel with some fruit?” he asks.

  My stomach growls in response and we both laugh, “That sounds wonderful, can I help?”

  “Sure, if you can cut up some fruit while I get the eggs on. That would be good.”

  “I can do that, point me in the right direction for the knives, a bowl, and a cutting board.” He tells me where everything is, I get started, and he makes the eggs. His tongue is out, as if he’s biting on it to keep his concentration, something tells me Heath was being truthful when he said he wasn’t much of a cook. He doesn’t take his eyes off the eggs the whole time he’s cooking.

  Once he’s done with the eggs and bagels, we get everything plated and move to the couch in the living room.

  I pull my dress to the side, while sitting down, trying not to flash Heath. He saw exactly what I was doing, a smirk plastered on his face when he says, “Audrey, baby, you gotta know I’m going to be taking that dress off you as soon as we’re done. I have something to kiss and make better.”

  “Are you always this forward?” I find my voice, it’s a dumb question, I know it. Hell, Heath knows it, but he doesn’t call me out on it.

  “Pretty sure you like how forward I am,” he croons.

  “I walked right into that,” I grumble and dive into my food to keep my own mouth shut. Heath chuckles and does the same.

  9

  Heath

  I didn’t take Audrey back to bed, as much as I wanted to, I knew she was tender. I noticed it in the way she sat down earlier, but by tonight, I’m hoping she’s feeling better because I need my mouth on every inch of her skin.

  “Ready?” I ask Audrey. We decided I’ll take her back to her hotel, she’d check out, and stay with me for the duration of her vacation. When I asked her to stay with me, she was hesitant at first, but when I mentioned my brothers and their wives live all around us, Audrey’s shoulders eased, and she said yes.

  “Yeah, I just need to slide my shoes on,” Audrey replies, she puts them on. Her height barely coming up to my chin, even with her heels on.

  Once she’s done, we make our way to my truck, I help her up, staying behind her the whole time. When her dress hikes up, once she’s seated, my tongue skates along my lip.

  “Heath!” she admonishes. Audrey caught me red handed. I just shake my head, kiss her lips, and trail my fingertips towards the inside of her thigh. Yeah, I’d love to be in between her legs all day, but I’m also man enough to understand she needs to know this isn’t just about sex.

  Fuck, it’s more than that, it’s more than anything else I’ve ever had in this world.

  With one last tease of my lips along hers, I move around to the driver’s side. My thoughts go to a blast from the past, finding my family on the verge of my teen years was the best thing that could ever happen to me. Sure, we aren’t blood, but the blood that runs through my veins from those that are supposed to love, protect, and cherish you, yeah, well mine did none of that. I was starving half the time, wearing clothes two sizes too small, and we were lucky to have electricity some months. My parents were too busy searching for their next high. My womb donor bringing in johns left and
right at the sperm donors request. If she didn’t, he’d smack her around. Half the time if I didn’t get out of the way fast enough, a fist would hit me.

  I shake my head, to clear the thoughts running through my mind before we head towards Audrey’s hotel.

  She navigates me to where she’s staying. It’s one of the nicer ones we have on the beach side.

  “I’ll just be a few minutes, promise,” she says as I open the door for her.

  “Babe, not letting you go at it alone. I’m especially not letting you carry your own bags,” I grouse. She’s out of her mind. Audrey may not know me all that much right now, but in the next few days she’ll know a real man, her man, won’t let her go at it alone.

  10

  Audrey

  Heath walks me to my hotel room, I’m ashamed to say that I left it a mess. Clothes are everywhere, toiletries laying around, and shoes are scattered throughout the small room.

  I immediately start picking things up to pack, when I realize most of my clothes are dirty, being on vacation the last thing you really think about is doing laundry. And well, I was going to use the laundromat here. My dirty pile seems to be bigger than what I have to put in my suitcase.

  “Shit,” I whisper out. I leave my clothes in piles on the bed and make my way to the bathroom to collect all of my toiletries. Once I gather all of them in a smaller bag, I go back out to the main room.

  “Do you, uh, mind if I use your washer? I mean I can go to the laundromat if you’d rather.”

  “Audrey, I want you to feel at home with me. Do laundry, leave your clothes laying around. Fuck, baby, make the house look lived in,” his hands find the nape of my neck, arching up to look into his eyes and if my hands weren’t full, I’d be pinching myself to see if I was asleep and this was a dream.

  “As long as you’re sure,” I respond.

  “Positive, now tell me what I can help you with and we’ll get this show on the road,” Heath says.

  He helps me pack my clean clothes in my suitcase, while I put my dirty clothes in a plastic bag. It doesn’t take us long. Once everything is ready, Heath does one last sweep of my room, ensuring I haven’t missed anything.

  I grab my purse, something I left here last night along with my phone. I wanted to just be left alone, no phone calls, no texts, and no social media knocking on my door.

  Heath takes my two bags, not even allowing me the chance to grab one, and we make our way to the front desk to check out.

  A lady with what looks like a permanent smile on her face is working the front desk. I walk up to her and say, “Hi, I’d like to check out early, is that okay?”

  “Sure, let me see if there will be any fees, sometimes with spring break right around the corner they like to tack them on,” she replies.

  If I’m out money, I guess I’m out money. I’m not extremely well off, but my job as a publicist to a recluse isn’t too shabby in the money department. He wanted his identity to stay completely off the grid. He’s so well known a non-disclosure agreement had to be signed.

  He’s also the biggest pain in my ass, it took me months to plan a vacation without him throwing a temper tantrum.

  “Thank you, that would be great, and if there is a cancellation fee, well, that’s okay too.” It’s not her fault Heath and I are diving straight into living together. I swear this is stupid crazy, but I can’t let this chance go.

  “You’re all good to go Ms. Smith, there’s no fee, and I hope you enjoyed your stay,” she tells me.

  “Thank you again,” I turn to leave and run right into Heath. I was so into what I was doing, I didn’t notice him behind me.

  “Hey,” I mumble.

  “Audrey,” hearing the timber in his voice, I know just what that means and how he says my name on a husky moan when he’s coming deep inside me. I didn’t get a chance to take a shower or change yet, something else I need to do as soon as we get back.

  “Heath,” my own voice sounding foreign to me.

  “That’s our cue to go,” he grunts, moving both bags to one hand, he places his other on my waist and guides me through the doors and to his truck. Once again staying behind me, so I won’t flash everyone and God’s creation.

  He places my luggage in the back and then we’re heading back to his place.

  11

  Heath

  When we get back to my place, I show Audrey where the laundry room is and let her get things going, while I make my way around my place opening the windows to let the ocean breeze in today.

  The weather is perfect for this time of year, plus I hate my house feeling all locked up like a dungeon. Too many times in my past before I was adopted there was no light, the windows weren’t allowed to be opened. They didn’t want to wake up from their all-night bender.

  I’m sliding the back door open when Audrey says, “Hey, I’m going to take a shower. Do you need me to do anything beforehand?”

  There’s plenty of things I want her to do. A visualization of Audrey on her knees, as I slowly feed her my cock pops into my head. The water from the shower would be beating down our water slicked skin. My dick has been in a semi-hard state all day, now with the thought of her in the shower, it has it standing up and begging for attention.

  “Nope, just going to turn the television on and look at what the surf report will be tomorrow morning,” I tell her as I plop down on the couch.

  Audrey comes over to me, my eyes never leaving her body. She’s bolder than she has been today, climbing on my lap and straddling me. “Thank you, Heath,” her lips come down on mine. It’s slow, sweet, and soulful. It’s simply Audrey. My hands glide up the outside of her thighs, trailing up to her bare ass, pulling her in closer.

  “It’s me that should be thanking you,” I reply when we pull apart, my lips trailing a path down her neck until it meets the base of her shoulder.

  My hands slowly leave her skin, even though I don’t want to. Not when all I want to do is pull her in closer and let her see how much she affects me.

  “Well how about we’re both thankful for each other?” she questions.

  “I can get down with that,” I wink, she slides off my lap, leaving me to take the shower I know she wants.

  My head falls back on the couch and I know what I have to do. I pull out my phone from my pocket and text my brothers. I already know I’m going to be in a ration of shit, but hey, I would have told them everything that happened if their lazy asses weren’t in bed all morning while I was out surfing.

  Me: Fuck me running, it happened.

  Mason: Wait. What happened?

  Rome: My eyes, I can’t believe my eyes. Did the “I’m Heath, and I’m never settling down” meet his match?

  I roll my eyes before responding.

  Me: Yeah, hit me from out of nowhere. Surf tomorrow?

  Mason: Quinn is gonna say “I told you so” and yeah, I’ll be sure to be there.

  Rome: Count me in.

  I toss my phone on the coffee table and prop my feet up while Audrey’s in the shower. If there’s one thing I know from watching my brothers with their wives, they knew instantly Summer and Quinn were made for them, just like I know Audrey is made for me.

  12

  Audrey

  When I walked out of the bathroom after finally showering and washing my hair, Heath was in the bedroom. Making room in his dresser for my clothes, I was perfectly okay with living out of my suitcase, but he wasn’t having that, stating, “I want you to feel comfortable here.”

  With only a towel wrapped around my body, I went up to Heath and hugged him. This man, he’s more than what meets the eye. I’ve seen how he laughs a few things off, but his eyes, they hold so much depth and emotion. He tries to hide it, but I see small glimpses every now and then, as if he's got the weight of the world on his shoulders.

  “Thank you,” telling him that, it put him at ease. I have no idea how two little words can relax his shoulders, but it did.

  We held each other, it wasn’t sexual in an
y way shape or form, it was two people who were leaning on one another in a moment of time needed.

  Heath pulls apart first, asking, “I’m going to switch your laundry over, anything that can’t be tossed in the dryer?”

  “Uh, yeah. I can get them though,” I respond, not really thinking he’ll want to pick apart my laundry.

  “Babe, my mom raised me. Us boys did laundry when she was at work. It’s not a big deal,” he replied.

  My heart melts a little more, this man, he’s indescribable, “There’s a few bras in there, if you can hang them or lay them flat to dry, that would be great.”

  “You got it,” he kisses me, turning to head out of the bedroom, and I go to my suitcase he brought up to the room.

  “Hey Heath,” I say as he’s walking down the hall.

  He backtracks, “Yeah, Audrey?”

  “I can’t wait to see what this week brings,” I tell him. He visibly swallows, I see every single emotion play out in his eyes alone.

  “Fuck, me too. Me, fucking too,” he grunts, then heads back out.

  Grabbing what I have in the way of clean clothes isn’t much. A bra, panties, some linen shorts that are wrinkled beyond reason, and a graphic tee that says “Beach Please.” A friend of mine sent it to me when I called her screaming and jumping that I was taking a two week vacation for the first time in five years. I’m twenty-five and a damn hard worker, but I will never go five years without a vacation again.

  I get dressed, walk out to help Heath when I hear him say, “This woman, I knew she was going to be stubborn, but if I have it my way she won’t leave.” I don’t see him on his phone or talking to anyone in particular. As much as I want to question him I don’t. I silently go back to his room and straighten things up before I head back towards Heath.