Broken Dreams (Broken Promises Book 1)

by Charlotte Brice

  A daunting feeling gripped her as she stepped up to the gate. The house at the end of the short path was large and impressive, but reality hit her like a sheet wall. Was she really going to go into a strange house with four strange guys?

  “Go ahead and get some lights on for her, Oscar.” Seb wasn’t really the boss, but the others usually turned to him for leadership, and no one disobeyed when he took charge. So Oscar darted away to the house, up the five steps and to the door. And there he stayed, attempting to join the key with the lock, the ultimate drunk man’s puzzle.

  “I’ll help him,” Roken laughed and attempted to climb the fence. With Heather squarely planted in the gateway, there was no way past her. The fence was tall and sturdy, and the anti-climb paint was a testament to Seb's suspicious nature. Roken couldn’t climb it alone, relying on a bunk up from Arlo. He attempted to scale the seven-foot-high barrier, but when Arlo gave him a push, Roken went up and over, hitting the ground with a thud on the other side. Seb couldn't help but laugh.

  “Fuck,” Roken exhaled sharply from somewhere in the garden overgrowth.

  Seb sucked in a deep breath. Why couldn’t any of the drunk fucks just get in the house? “Arlo, get Oscar in the house.” Seb knew that left him to drag Roken out of the dirt. It also left one of them with the task of convincing Heather to unfreeze her butt from the gateway.

  Heather wanted to move forward, she wanted to go with these guys to their house, but she couldn't convince her feet to move. It was like they were trapped, an anchor to the reality that these guys might not be the good Samaritans she hoped. What if they just wanted sex? They didn’t seem dangerous, and their meeting had been spontaneous, nothing premeditated about it for them or her. So why couldn’t she convince her feet to move.

  Seb inhaled and slid up behind her, he planned to use his vampire allure to daze her, but just his closeness surprised her into moving beyond the gate. Finally, Arlo could get past and head to the front door, and now that she had found her feet, Heather followed behind him.

  Seb watched Heather the whole way to the house, where she had more luck with the keys than either Arlo or Oscar. Then he turned to Roken where he lay on his back in a flowerbed of weeds, sprawled out and snoring. Seb would have left either of the others there, but not Roken. He would bring Roken inside, dragging him if he had to. He tried his boot first, embedding it under Roken’s shoulder and lifting to roll him over onto his side. “Get up,” he growled, already tired of the farce.

  “Yep, yep, I’m up.” Roken rolled away and hauled himself to his knees.

  CHAPTER TWO

  H eather unlocked the front door and pushed it back on its old hinges into a large entrance hall. Oscar's hand managed to connect with the light switch, and high on the ceiling, the bulbs in a faded shade flickered to life. Although it smelt clean enough, the place looked like it needed a lot of work, if she didn’t know four men lived there, she would have guessed the house had stood abandoned for a century or so.

  “Make yourself at home,” Oscar said, standing beside her. He had no clue what to do or say, but he couldn’t abandon her.

  She took his words as permission to look around the ground floor and opened a half-closed door to her left, revealing the living room. There was a collection of mismatched sofas and armchairs, the worn condition of some showing their preferences. The four men followed her in, and each fell into their favourite chair.

  “So, you don't remember anything?” Seb asked.

  Sensing this was the first of many questions, Heather perched herself on one of the less worn armchairs. “I don't remember anything about me, but I remember what things are. I know this is a living room, chairs, rugs, photos.”

  Her eyes lingered on the photos resting on the mantle over an unlit fire. The men in the photos looked as they looked next to her, but the black and white photos themselves were tattered and old. These four men were not what they seemed.

  “What do you remember?” It was Seb again, drawing her attention back to the men in the room.

  “Entering the club, I felt funny. I think that was when my memory left, but I don’t know.”

  “We will see what we can find out about you tomorrow, but tonight, make yourself at home,” Seb concluded, his face was tightly drawn into a focused stare. “It’s late. Get yourself sorted and we’ll show you to a guest room.”

  “Thank you.” He was making her feel uncomfortable, and she couldn’t quite put her finger on why, so she turned her attention to the others. Roken was sleeping across a two-seater sofa, but Arlo and Oscar had their full attention on her. “I could do with a bath. I feel dirty. And I’m hungry.”

  Oscar lead the way to the kitchen and watched Heather from the doorway as she found her way around the large room. “I could make coffee,” he offered.

  “I’m ok, thanks.” Heather was hungry, but she wasn’t sure what she wanted to quash the feeling in the pit of her stomach.

  Oscar nodded. She was wise to reject his offer to make the coffee. They really were too drunk to host a lady. She needed coffee, and they needed sleep. Roken was already getting sleep, passed out across the whole length of the sofa in the living room, but then, he never could hold his drink well.

  Oscar pointed to the pantry. “There’s some food in the cupboard up top there.”

  She opened the door that he gestured to and pulled out a selection of the junk food they kept inside. Most of Oscar’s diet consisted of blood and women, although alcohol quelled his munchies more than his cock. As she turned, coffee and cake in her hands, Oscar tensed his abs, and did his best brooding vampire face. Even wasted, some part of him wanted to impress her, and he wondered if she noticed. Could she feel the same way? Nothing to lose, Oscar thought, knowing she’d be gone in the morning.

  The stairs were next to the kitchen, and their creaking combined with the sound of the heavy footsteps, betrayed someone coming down less than gracefully. Heather glanced curiously across to see Arlo stumble down the last few steps as his legs tried to run away with him, but Oscar’s attention remained devoted to the young woman.

  “I’ve run you a bath,” Arlo called, joining them in the kitchen. “The plumbing can be a bit temperamental. Up the stairs, first door on the left.”

  Oscar felt a pang of something, and he wondered, Could I be jealous? He wanted to call out to Arlo that she was his. He had fed her, and now Arlo got to bathe her? That just wasn’t fair. Yep, he decided, definitely jealous.

  “Thank you,” Heather said, smiling sweetly at Arlo. “Both of you,” she added, glancing back over her shoulder, but Oscar didn’t feel the warmth in her smile he thought he saw in the look she gave Arlo. Oscar clenched his fingers into a fist but stood still, burying the urge to go after her as she followed Arlo out of the room.

  Arlo was oblivious to Oscar’s feelings. His attention was squarely on Heather and the feelings she was stirring inside him. He clenched his fists, resisting the temptation to lead her by the hand, and led the way back to the front door, turning up the stairs. Despite his best efforts not to sound so heavy footed, each step betrayed its age as he trod on it. He cringed with each creak, like the house was somehow embarrassing him in front of the pretty woman.

  Once upstairs, Arlo opened the door to the bathroom and showed Heather in. Like every part of the house, the bathroom was in need of repair, but the water in the tub was hot and bubbly. Arlo had selected the fluffiest towels for her. He’d even pinched one from Roken’s room, but it wasn’t like he was going to need it tonight.

  “I’ll give you some peace,” Arlo began, but had to bite his tongue at his thoughts. Don’t offer to wash her back!

  “Thank you.” Heather walked to the bath and started removing her boots. Arlo knew he shouldn’t stay, but he also couldn’t make himself move.

  “Are you happy with everything?” he questioned. “Without your memory, you know...”

  “Thank you. Yes.”

  “I’ll be outside if you need anything.” Arlo smiled
and turned around to leave but Heather interrupted him.

  “You can stay there, if you don’t peek,” Heather called.

  Arlo looked at her with uncertainty, divided between what he should do and what he wanted to do. The frown on his face seemed to unnerve her, so he smiled. Maybe she just doesn’t want to be alone, he thought. He couldn’t imagine forgetting everything about who he was, everyone he ever known, including himself, and being alone and vulnerable with no idea what kind of danger he was in.

  “Can I grab the chair first?” He fetched the chair from the corner, then spun it around to face the window and sat down. “So, are you up for a bit of small talk?” he questioned.

  Her reflection angled beautifully in the window as she lifted up her dress to remove her boots. Her legs were long and creamy, right up to her lacy blue knickers. She stripped her dress off her shoulders and down until it crumpled on the floor, revealing a narrow waist and a matching bra. Arlo inhaled sharply as she unclipped her bra. She kept her back to him, a blessing and a curse. As much as he wanted a better view of the bra’s contents, he didn’t want her to see him watching. His blue eyes dilated as removing her knickers from her ankles gave him an unexpected peak at her breast and also the delights hidden between her legs. She stepped up into the bath and slowly sunk down into the refreshing water.

  Arlo sighed, his show over, but his mind was finally able to concentrate on the small talk he’d promised. “I guess there isn’t much point asking about you, is there?” he asked, his eyes now on the overgrown garden swaying in the night wind.

  “I wish I knew something to tell you. Maybe it was a spell? Are spells a thing?” Heather sighed. She sounded relaxed enough now that she could wash away the dirt and the worry.

  “What do you know about spells?” he asked, realizing his mistake as soon as the words escaped his lips. “Well, that’s a silly question, you have no idea, do you? Should I tell you we are not human?” Arlo questioned out loud. “Would that scare you?”

  Was it a foolish thing to say? Telling his secrets to a stranger, no matter how attractive she was, seemed unwise, but something made him want to tell her. Maybe it was her vulnerability, having no memory. Exposing his demonic secret gave him some degree of vulnerability to her, and he hoped it gave her a sense of trust, a connection. This woman deserved some sense of security to help her deal with the emotional uncertainty that came with the loss of her memories.

  “No, it doesn’t scare me.” Her leg lifted out of the bath as she rubbed the bubbles up and down with her hands. “I knew when I saw you that you were... different. I thought it was because I knew you, before my memory, but then I saw the photos downstairs, and I knew it had to be something different. But I always felt like I could trust you and that you would protect me.”

  “Do you need protecting?” Arlo asked, watching the bubbles drip from her milky thigh.

  “I don’t know”—Heather’s voice dropped—“but I have a niggling feeling that I might.”

  “Then we will protect you.”

  Heather sunk under the warm water, rubbing her fingernails into her scalp. She was in a rundown house, with four strange men who had already told her they were not human, and yet she felt safe. The fact that she couldn’t remember her own name wasn’t so bad now. Her forgotten past felt like a clean slate, a second chance at happiness, maybe even love. Could it be that she wouldn’t have felt so safe if the four men hadn’t all been so damn hot?

  There was something sad about Seb. He was old, not in his body but in his eyes, though those rippling muscles had seen their fair share of fights. Roken seemed a stark opposite, youthful and almost innocent. He was smaller, and his body lacked the definition of the others, but in every other way he was gorgeous. Arlo and Oscar were more the average hot, toned guy, and slightly more to her tastes.

  She surfaced quickly, gasping a deep breath of air. She had forgotten how long she had been under.

  “You ok?” Arlo questioned. She’d made such a noise surfacing he’d turned and was half raised from the chair. He’d probably also noticed how long she had been under. For a human.

  “Yep.” She reassured him, still drawing in deep breaths. “I sort of forgot myself for a moment.”

  Arlo nodded and turned back to the window, not that it ruined his view. Heather knew he had watched her. Despite her snack, she still felt an emptiness in her lower tummy that no amount of junk food could ease, but something in Arlo’s eyes made her think he could.

  “Pass the towel, would you please?” Heather boldly stood up in the bath as he obeyed her request. What am I thinking? she wondered, but she couldn’t help herself. The knowledge that he had looked already, that he had behaved himself despite it, fuelled the fire deep within her, so she turned to face him, totally naked and covered in bubbles. As he turned to hand her the towel, Arlo's eyes widened in surprise, reflexively taking in the sight of her wet, naked form before he turned his head quickly away.

  “Did you like what you saw?” she cooed, nodding at the window where she caught his eye in the reflection.

  “You saw that?” A blush began to creep across Arlo’s cheeks. “Sorry, I… um..."

  “Don’t be embarrassed,” Heather purred, stepping brazenly from the bath and drying her long hair with the towel.

  “Cover yourself up. You don’t have to do this,” Arlo insisted, turning to face her and attempting to wrap the towel around her body.

  Her hunger was growing, seeping down into her hips, so she pushed the towel away and looked at him like he was the only cure. “I’m not doing this for you.” Heather smiled temptingly. “I may have no memory, but I have needs, and you are the hottest guy I can remember seeing.”

  “How do you know that all guys aren’t like me?” he teased.

  “I’ve only forgotten my own past, not what the world is like.” Heather took his hand and placed it on her breast, and Arlo inhaled sharply as his fingers made contact with her flesh. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. She had no memory of ever wanting anyone so much, but she wanted Arlo, needed him. Her arousal hit her belly like a hunger she couldn’t bear. His guilty peek had lit a fire in her that left her burning to feel his touch. She wanted his hands on her skin, wanted to see what wonder pulsed inside his trousers. She needed to remember the touch of a man, the kiss. She needed to quench the inferno.

  Arlo took a step back and when Heather took a step forward, he stepped back again. His gentlemanly hesitance was like fuel to the flames of her desire. Each dip of his Adam’s apple with every awkward swallow made her skin crawl with waves of longing and need. It made the tops of her thighs grip tightly. How could she want him so badly with no memory of what he could offer? She didn’t know the answer, but she continued to advance on him as he backed away until he thumped into the wall behind him. She stood up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his.

  Even though he saw her coming, Arlo paused reluctantly before responding to her kiss, a final battle in his half-drunk mind to do the ‘right thing’. She wanted him even more for that moment. His hand cupped the back of her head, fingers knotting deep in her matted, wet hair as the final traces of his self-control fell away. His other hand dropped to his trousers, tugging frantically at his belt. Tasting the beer on his tongue reminded her this guy was drunk. He was gonna need help with that belt.

  She pulled away from his face and ducked down to her knees. Two hands made easy work of his belt and soon she tugged down his trousers. His cock was erect and ready, hard and just for her. She took him in her hands rubbing him gently, eliciting a moan as his head hit the wall and his hips thrust forward. She may not have known herself, but she knew what to do with a man. She kissed and nipped along the length of his shaft, the surprise in his groan delighting her. Heather licked him from the tip all the way to his balls, her fingers massaging them lightly.

  Arlo cried out when she drew his cock into her mouth. The taste of his skin, the feel of his thick member seemed familiar and natural. She su
cked hard as she pushed into him, his tip reaching the back of her throat. He filled her mouth nicely as she slid her tongue against the underside of his cock and slid it slowly in and out. Arlo’s moaning spurred her on, right until his moan became a howl.

  CHAPTER THREE

  O scar left the kitchen to head up to his bedroom, but Seb caught sight of him as he passed the living room door.

  “Oscar, give me a hand here!” Seb summoned him from the living room. “Help me get him to bed.” Seb had lifted Roken’s shoulders up. This wasn’t an uncommon occurrence for Roken, many nights out ended with the smaller shifter passed out before reaching his bed. But it was unheard of for Seb to need help moving Roken.

  “What are your thoughts on Heather?” Seb asked, revealing his motive behind requesting assistance. The larger vampire could lift Roken by himself easy enough.

  “There is something about her,” Oscar shrugged.

  “Both you and Arlo wanted to help her,” Seb pondered, his attention not really on Roken. “Did you feel anything? Was Roken the same?”

  “Might have been something. I dunno, just can’t leave a girl in rubbish.” Oscar wondered if he should confess his feelings, but decided it was better to play it cool for the moment. “I wouldn’t mind giving her one, y’know.”

  “I would recommend caution until we know a bit more about her,” Seb warned. “Now help me get this drunk prick to his room.”

  Seb didn’t wait for an answer. He slipped his arms under Roken’s limp shoulders and waited for Oscar. Stupid shifter shouldn’t drink so much, Oscar thought. He knows he can’t handle his drink. He walked over and grabbed at the heels of Roken’s boots. Roken pulled his left leg free. It was nothing deliberate, and though it did make him more awkward to lift, between them, Roken was still light enough to carry.