The Promise

by Kristen Ashley

  He tilted his head to the envelope on the table and kept talking.

  “But I’ll know, and Frankie will know, and your woman will know, and she’ll live the rest of her life wishin’ she not only never went down on you but never saw your face. You’re willin’ to do that to her, you can live with that, right. But you can, you’re one serious dick, a huge-ass weasel, and a total fuckin’ douche.”

  Ben said his piece and we were gone. He pulled me right out of the booth, the bar, and took me straight to my car.

  He backed me into it and ordered, “You lead home. I’ll follow.”

  “That was awesome,” I replied.

  His lips quirked, but he said, “I’m not out of your rearview.”

  “And you’re awesome,” I kept at it.

  That got me a grin, but he asked, “Frankie, you hear me?”

  “How hungry are you?” I asked back.

  “I worked out after lunch so that’s long gone.”

  This surprised me.

  “Where did you work out?”

  “Is this information you need before you drive home?”

  “No, except for the fact that if you’re really truly hungry, that’ll be a bummer, because if you weren’t, I was so going down on you the minute we got home.”

  “I could wait to eat.”

  I smiled up at him and did it for a long time.

  “But not for three hours while you stand there bein’ a goof because I’m awesome,” he finished.

  “I love you, Benny Bianchi,” I blurted.

  “Fuck,” he muttered, then bent his head, laid a hot, heavy, wet, long one on me that ended with my arms around his shoulders, one hand in his fabulous hair, and one of his hands on my ass before he lifted his head, pulled out of my arms, turned me, smacked my ass, and said, “Get home.”

  He took a step back and stared pointedly at my door.

  I took a deep breath to calm my heart and settle my system before I dug out my key, unlocked my door, and headed home to give my man a blowjob.

  And, after that, feed him.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Fucking Finally

  I woke up when I felt Benny’s hand moving down my belly.

  “Baby,” I whispered drowsily.

  That was when I felt the tips of his fingers sliding into the edge of my panties, his other hand pushing under me, and his body shifting at my back so he could bury his face in my neck.

  When he got it there, he growled, “Quiet, Francesca, and don’t move.”

  I felt my vagina convulse at the same time it got wet.

  Okay, it can be said that waking up with Benny Bianchi was my favorite part of the day. For a variety of reasons.

  One of those reasons became apparent when his middle finger hit my clit at the same time his other hand curled around my breast and his lips slid up my neck. I knew he wasn’t messing around when he put his thumb and finger to my nipple and tugged.

  Hard.

  This felt so good it made me push my hips into his crotch. Feeling him hard, a whimper slid out of me.

  Ben nipped the skin of my neck with his teeth before he said, “Don’t move, baby.”

  “I gotta move.”

  “Don’t,” he ordered roughly, pressing his cock into my ass.

  Oh God. This was hot.

  I quit moving. Ben played. He pulled and twisted. He swirled and pressed. He nipped, licked, sucked, kissed. All while I lay there trying not to move.

  It wasn’t easy, and with each passing second, I got wetter, more turned on, and it got more difficult.

  Finally, it got so difficult, I whispered on a plea, “Benny.”

  “What you want?” he asked.

  “Your cock, baby.”

  “How you want it?”

  “Any way you wanna give it to me.”

  “Pull your panties down, Frankie.”

  I did what he ordered immediately, hooking my thumb into one side of my panties and yanking down. Ben gave me what I needed almost instantly. He thrust inside.

  “God,” I breathed.

  Ben twisted my nipple, circled a finger at my clit, and drove deep.

  “Fuck, you’re wet,” he groaned into my neck, pounding in hard, fast, rough, so much of all three, my body jolted with each thrust.

  “Harder, Benny,” I begged.

  Without delay, he rolled into me, taking me to my stomach, still inside. I had to spread my legs wide and my panties stretched to the limit, biting into my thighs in a way I liked. All this so amazing, I felt a tremor rock through my entire body.

  Then he yanked my hips up, even as he kept thrusting deep. He reached over me, his hand went into my hair, fisted and tugged back.

  God.

  Hotter.

  “Up, baby,” he demanded.

  I pushed up to my hands and he gave my hair another tug so I knew he wanted me up.

  I straightened and the minute I was up, he ordered, “Nightie off.”

  I moved my hands to the hem of my nightie and pulled it off.

  I got my reward immediately as Benny’s hands roamed over my skin.

  I knew he was watching his hands move when he muttered into my neck, “Fuckin’ beautiful,” even as he kept taking me.

  “Need your finger, honey,” I told him.

  “Had you last night, babe. Got it in me for this to last awhile. Don’t want to take you there too soon.”

  He might have it in him, but he was driving me the good kind of crazy so I didn’t have it in me.

  “I’m already close,” I shared.

  He drove in, stayed there, but grinded up.

  I liked that, being filled with him, Ben pushing deeper. I liked it so much I moaned.

  His hand slid down and covered my sex as his other one glided up my breastbone to wrap light around my throat.

  “Could fuck you for hours,” he murmured into my skin.

  It was Saturday morning, a weekend. The day after a, thankfully, uneventful Friday, the weekend that might precede work-related Armageddon, and I decided right then on our plans for the day.

  “Okay, then do that now.”

  “Could fall asleep buried inside you.”

  I felt my thighs quiver.

  “Wake up, first thing I do before I even open my eyes, start fuckin’ you,” he went on.

  My hands went to his wrists and held on as my womb spasmed at his words. I figured he didn’t have to move to take me there, he just had to keep talking to me.

  He glided out and slid slowly back in. “Love this pussy.”

  Okay, maybe he needed to move.

  “Ben, baby.”

  His hand trailed from my throat down my body. “Love this body.”

  “Please, Benny, fuck me.”

  He nipped my earlobe with his teeth, moved his mouth to my ear, and whispered, “Love my baby.”

  I did a top-to-toe shiver.

  I was wrong. All he had to do was keep talking to me.

  “Benny,” I breathed.

  “Down, Frankie. I’m gonna give you what you need.”

  I bent double, forearms to the mattress, and Ben bent over me. One hand on the bed for added leverage and power, he gave me what I needed.

  When I found it, my climax pounding through me as Ben kept pounding inside me, he kept giving it to me until I started to come down. Then he pulled out, dropped to his back, yanked me over him, and caught my eyes.

  “Take me there, Frankie.”

  I held his gaze as I quickly slid my panties off, lifted up, and straddled him. I wrapped my hand around his cock, guided him inside, and kept hold of his eyes as I rode him fast.

  “Want it again?” he asked, watching me move on him, the look on his face lazy but heated.

  I loved that look.

  But…

  Was he crazy?

  “Yes,” I gasped on a downward plunge.

  He grinned and moved his hand so his thumb was strategically placed. It took a while, but I found it again. Driving down, ridin
g him through my orgasm, my head thrown back, one hand at my belly and the other one cupping a breast, I felt his hands clamp tight around my hips. He yanked me down, held me down, bucked his hips up, groaned, and I knew he found it.

  I collapsed on top of him, my hair flying everywhere, I knew, but I didn’t care. Two orgasms first thing in the morning, I didn’t care about anything.

  He slid his hands from my hips to wrap his arms around me, one going higher to gather my hair at the side of my neck.

  Turning his head, he whispered, “Love you, Francesca Concetti.”

  I felt my lips tip up and made the Herculean effort to raise my head and look into his eyes.

  It was worth the effort.

  Seeing those beautiful eyes happy and satisfied were worth any effort.

  “Love you back, Benny Bianchi.”

  He kept my hair gathered at my neck, even as he extended a thumb to stroke my jaw and asked, “You want donuts?”

  Oh yes, I loved Benny Bianchi.

  “Absolutely,” I answered.

  He grinned. “Good, babe. Kiss me. Climb off me. We’ll walk Gus and then we’ll go to Hilligoss.”

  “Can you walk Gus, then go get donuts while I stay here and make coffee?” I requested, using these words to mean Can you walk Gus, then go get donuts while I stay here, bask in my orgasms, and maybe have a short snooze?

  I suspected Benny knew my translation, but he still asked, “You want that?”

  “Yeah,” I answered.

  “You got it, but I get the kissing part.”

  I smiled at him because I got to kiss him, and also because he was Benny. He was awesome. And he was demonstrating his awesomeness this time by giving me my way, hauling himself out of bed, taking care of our dog, and getting donuts while I got to be lazy.

  I was bending my head to give him the kissing part when my phone on the nightstand started ringing.

  I turned my head that way as Ben ordered, “Ignore it.”

  Since I liked that idea better, I did as ordered.

  Mid-kiss, my phone stopped ringing. Then Ben took over the kiss and it became a make out session, where I found myself on my back with Benny mostly on me. This lasted a happy while until my phone rang again.

  Ben broke the kiss, and this time, it was him that looked to my phone.

  “Ignore it,” I repeated his order.

  He looked down at me. “Two calls in five minutes on a Saturday morning?”

  “I’m indisposed,” I replied. “That being I’ve got panty marks around my thighs. My panties are fubarred since they were stretched so tight, the elastic is probably broken. You’re leaking out of me. And you have our dog to walk and powdered sugar, chocolate-cream-filled donuts, three of them at least, to go out and buy for me. All that being the definition of indisposed.”

  My phone stopped ringing as Benny’s brows rose, his eyes lighting with humor, giving me that, and fulfilling promise-part-three of the day and we hadn’t even been awake an hour.

  He did all this asking, “Fubarred?”

  “Fucked up beyond recognition,” I explained.

  “I know what it means, honey,” he replied. “I just didn’t know anyone outside Tango and Cash said it.”

  I felt my eyes get squinty. “Don’t make fun of me when I’m post-orgasm. I’m happy-drained when I’m post-orgasm and I don’t have any good fight in me.”

  Ben grinned. “You should never have given me that, baby. Knowin’ that shit, from now on, I’m totally fuckin’ with you post-orgasm.”

  My eyes got squintier before I informed him of something he should know by now, “I recover quickly.”

  His hand glided over my hip, back, and in to cup my ass as his face got closer to mine. “Bet I can set you back.”

  He so totally could.

  “Gus? Donuts?” I prompted.

  “Is your detail on which donuts you want me to buy your order?” he asked.

  “Yep,” I answered.

  “They run out of those quick, Frankie.”

  “Wait for them to make more.”

  He didn’t grin that time. He smiled.

  Then he said, “I might be pussy-whipped, honey, but I’m not that far gone.”

  I felt my brows shoot up. “You’re pussy-whipped?”

  “Babe, I’m makin’ deals with Sal, away from my home, my restaurant, watchin’ your ass while you go about something undoubtedly worthwhile but makes me all kinds of uneasy, and you’re surprised I’m pussy-whipped?”

  He had a point, and although his words gave me a heady feeling of power, they also bothered me.

  So I wrapped my arms around him and reminded him, “We’re doin’ this with Wyler because it’s the right thing to do.”

  “We are. We’re also doin’ it because I like to fuck you, eat you, and watch you ride me, and I can get all that, and often, I keep you happy.”

  Suddenly, I didn’t feel bothered.

  I felt annoyed.

  “That’s it?”

  “There’s also the fact I like lookin’ at you, seein’ you smile, and doin’ what I can to make you happy. It’s insane, but I’ve learned to own the insanity because you’re you. You’re crazy. Fearless. Willin’ to put yourself out there doin’ something you know is dangerous because it’s the right thing to do. And I love all of you. The insane part is that I love all of you, including that.”

  I screwed up my face and declared, “You’re being sweet again when I’m annoyed.”

  He lowered his lips to mine, eyes still smiling. “You gotta learn to get over it, baby. It’s gonna happen a lot.”

  I got over it right then because I had the happy feeling he was going to kiss me again, but he didn’t because my phone rang.

  This time, we both turned our heads to it.

  “Fuck,” Ben muttered, reaching across the bed and tagging it. He looked to the display, then to me, his face unreadable when he said, “Cat.”

  That could mean anything from the happy news she was carrying Art’s baby to the news that she fell off the wagon, got arrested for doing something stupid, and needed someone to bail her out.

  Ben knew this and that was why his face was unreadable.

  I slid my phone from his hand and took the call.

  When I had the cell at my ear, I said, “Love you, but you’re delaying donuts.”

  “Frankie,” she whispered.

  Oh God.

  At the tone of her voice, my eyes flew to Benny as I pushed up to sitting. He rolled off to let me do that, and I didn’t tear my eyes away from him as I sat on a hip, pulling the covers to my chest and holding the phone tight to my ear.

  “What?” I asked.

  There was a moment of silence before she said, “Okay, last night was a bad night.”

  Hoping her bad night did not include downing shots of vodka and committing felonies, my hand snaked out and pressed into Ben’s chest. The second it did, he sat up and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into his warmth, trapping my hand between us.

  “What?” I whispered, my eyes now to Ben’s throat.

  “Okay, the, um…slightly-better-but-still-bad news first.”

  Slightly better but still bad?

  “Cat…”

  “Davey found out that Nat was cheating on him again. They fought…really bad, Frankie. Really bad. He said he was done, and I guess he did it in a way where he meant it this time because she lost it. Started beating on him. He hit her back. She called the cops. He’s all messed up. Even has a concussion ’cause she hit him in the head with a plate or something. He took a lot from her, Frankie, before he lost it. He hit her once to get her off him, but he’s the one in jail.”

  I closed my eyes.

  “He didn’t press charges,” she continued, “but she did. His mom called me. That’s how I know all this. She’s pissed, Frankie. She knows Davey’s been eatin’ shit for years and she’s seriously pissed. And making matters worse, Ma’s there.”

  Oh no.

  I opened my eye
s, saw Benny’s face, and for the first time in a long time, seeing it didn’t soothe me.

  “She was out carousin’, not there for the fight, got there after the police got there. She texted me a few days ago, said I was dead to her because I wasn’t pickin’ up her calls to help her in her hour of need. Guess that’s why she’s with Nat and Davey. But according to Davey’s mom, she’s all up in his and Nat’s shit, talkin’ smack about Davey. Davey’s mom wants the charges dropped and Nat and Ninette outta the house, and she wants that yesterday.”

  “Cat, I—” I started, but she cut me off, talking quietly.

  “I can’t get dragged into this, Frankie. I’m late.”

  My heart thumped and she kept talking.

  “Just a couple of days, but I’m always regular. Art and me were gonna spend our Saturday getting a pregnancy test and hopefully celebrating. All this…” She stopped speaking and I actually heard her take in a huge breath before she went on, “And there’s more that happened last night so all I wanna do is skip the pregnancy test and get a bottle of vodka.”

  Shit.

  No.

  “Don’t do that, honey,” I urged.

  “I know, but it’s hard.”

  “Get the pregnancy test,” I said, then took my own deep breath and finished, “I’ll call Nat.”

  Ben’s arms tightening around me brought my eyes to his face. He was worried. But hearing Nat’s name, he was already pissed.

  I shook my head.

  He shook his back.

  “I haven’t told you the more,” Cat said in my ear.

  Goddammit.

  I looked to Ben’s ear and invited, “Sock it to me.”

  “Chrissy kicked Dad out last night.”

  “Fuck,” I whispered.