Promise Nights (The Nights Series Book 2)

by Louise Bay

  I turned back to Luke. “I love you too. You know that, right?” I’d known in my heart for so long that I loved him, that I sort of assumed that he knew, but saying it out loud felt . . . right.

  “I can only hope that you do.”

  “You have nothing to hope for. You have my love. All of it. Forever.” I drew my eyebrows together, trying to convey how serious I was. He needed to understand that I was only ever going to love him.

  “I’m never going to get tired of you telling me.”

  “I love you,” I repeated. I’d loved him for as long as I could remember, but it felt different now. It was deeper, more substantial, almost as if I could reach out and touch whatever it was that was between us.

  Luke grinned and squeezed my hand. “I love you.”

  “Okay, you two. You can stop before I start gagging,” Haven said.

  “You’re okay with this? I need you to be good with this. I won’t lose either of you.” I hoped her smile was an indication that she had come round to the idea.

  “Well, not the PDA, obviously. But I can’t think of anything better than you two being together.”

  I didn’t understand. What had changed for her? “But—”

  “There’s no but,” she interrupted. “However, if you fuck this up, I’m going to kill you both. I’m not having my family break apart.”

  “I can live with that. We’re not going to fuck this up,” Luke replied.

  “So how long have you known, been together?” Beth asked, looking between Luke and me. “You look really together.”

  My skin heated. We looked like a couple? I glanced over at Haven. Shit, I hope she wasn’t mad that she didn’t know straight away.

  “Just a few days, I guess, but it’s been a long time coming,” Luke replied. “I knew since I split with Emma. I just needed to grow up a little, and then convince this one.” He tilted his head in my direction and slid his arm around the back of my chair, leaning into me.

  “And you’re convinced?” Haven asked me.

  “I am. Are you?”

  “She’s worried that you won’t approve,” Luke interjected. I placed my hand on his thigh. Not being with Luke wasn’t an option.

  “You don’t need my approval, and anyway, whatever you do, you’ll always have it. I just wanted to make sure you were all clear about the consequences. No matter what, we have a family to hold together. I didn’t want you two putting that on the line just to get your rocks off.”

  I exhaled, relieved that Haven wasn’t mad. Not even remotely. I wouldn’t have to talk her round, convince her that she wasn’t going to lose either of us. She was cheering for us; I could see it in her smile. By raising concerns, she had only ever been trying to protect us both. I grinned as she pulled me toward her and kissed my cheek.

  The love surrounding me was overwhelming.

  “We know that,” Luke said, but I couldn’t concentrate on the rest of his sentence. I was replaying the word we in my head again and again. It fit. The heat of his body brought me back into the moment. The skate of his fingers across my back every now and then made me feel safe.

  We were a we.

  And we were a family.

  “We have plenty to celebrate,” Jake said.

  “Oh, and I got into business school,” I added. On an ordinary day, it would have been a huge deal. Today it just felt like the cherry on the top of a huge cake.

  The table erupted with congratulations and hugs.

  Life was unfolding in the best possible way.

  Luke

  “So, was I right?” Jake asked as we recovered from our run. The sun was starting to break through the hostile air, thawing the ice that had collected on the edges of buildings and bus stops, but it was still cold, and we needed to keep moving toward the tube station.

  My training had dropped off since Ashleigh and I had become a couple. Understandably, Fiona was no longer so enthusiastic about my participation in the triathlon, but I’d enjoyed the endorphins that almost daily cardio gave me. I also had to make sure I could keep giving Ashleigh what she needed in bed. Sex had been incredible from the beginning, and it kept getting better, and no less frequent.

  “Right about what?”

  “About Emma. And how it was obvious she wasn’t right for you because you didn’t want to marry her.”

  “Oh, about that.” Jake had been convinced that when I found the right woman, my thoughts about marriage would change. I grinned. “Yeah, I’ll give you that. You were right.”

  “So, you bought a ring yet?” We turned left; the tube was up ahead. I could probably walk home from where we were just as quickly.

  “Mate, I’m going to scare her off if I start talking about marriage. She’s still a little wary of my change of heart. I think she saw it as something that should have been a gradual process. I guess that’s how it was for her. But for me? I just suddenly woke up and bam, I’m in love with her. I want to have nineteen kids with her, like yesterday. I’d marry her tomorrow if it were up to me. I just don’t want to freak her out. She keeps telling me that it’s only been a few weeks. It just doesn’t feel like that for me. So I’m trying to be patient”

  Jake was grinning at me. “Yup. You got it bad. It was exactly like that for me.”

  “I just don’t know how long I can hold myself back from talking about our future. We’ve lost so much time already—I want to get on with things. She seems happy to stay where we are for now.” We’d exchanged I love yous, so we weren’t standing still, yet I felt way out ahead in terms of where we were in our relationship. I was constantly checking over my shoulder to make sure she was behind me. I wanted her to let go and just roll with it. Get caught up in it as I had.

  “Have you spoken to her about it?”

  “No. Telling Haven was a huge deal for her. She’s happier now that’s done, and so part of me doesn’t want to push. But I’m ready for what’s next. I guess I’ll just have to learn some patience.”

  “And what is next?” Jake asked.

  It was as if I were on an obstacle course, and I’d just successfully conquered telling our family and saying I love you, and now I’d rounded a corner to find moving in together.

  “I want her to live with me. Of course I want her to marry me, but I appreciate that might be too much of a jump.”

  Jake chuckled. “Maybe living together would be a good interim step. She might be more enthusiastic than you think. When Haven finally understood that we were both in it together forever, she didn’t resist at all.”

  Perhaps Ashleigh was ready. I could start dropping hints about moving in now Haven was on board. Ashleigh could rent her place out, which would help her financially. We were spending every night together anyway. It was nearly Christmas, and we could use the time over the holidays to move her stuff in before she got down to her studies in the New Year. The timing was good. It all made sense. If I convinced her of the practicality of the move, perhaps she’d be distracted from what it meant for our relationship.

  I hesitated at the entrance to the tube. “You not going home?” Jake asked.

  “I think I’m going to walk, actually.” I wanted to think things through, formulate my approach.

  He nodded and headed back to Haven. Jake was a good guy. I’d always thought he was a little weak for marrying my sister so quickly after they’d met. I’d felt sorry for him. Before Ashleigh, I’d presumed he’d done it to comfort Haven, to keep her happy. Now I understood that if he felt for Haven half of what I felt for Ashleigh, there just wasn’t an alternative if he wanted to be happy. I wanted to bind myself to Ashleigh in every way that I could.

  I began to jog home, running through the counter arguments Ashleigh might make if I suggested we live together. It was what I did at the beginning of every new case I worked on. I found myself at the edge of the city, not too far away from home. Taking a shortcut, I made a left onto Hatton Garden, and into the heart of London’s jewelry district. Stores lined both sides of the road, their windo
ws full of engagement rings. Burly security guards broke up the throng of couples peering into windows. I was about halfway up before a ring caught my eye, and I dared to stop to take a proper look through the glass. I wasn’t sure I’d really noticed an engagement ring until Haven’s. She’d been ecstatically happy with hers, and had thrust it in my face several times. The ring I’d spotted wasn’t small, but it wasn’t huge—certainly not in the same league as Haven’s. It was blue—a sapphire, probably. It wasn’t a traditional engagement ring, but ours wasn’t a traditional love. It looked beautiful without being showy. Like Ashleigh. It had an antique feel to it with a large central square stone surrounded by a ring of tiny diamonds. I grinned. I could imagine it on her finger, both now and in thirty years as she held our grandchildren. It was timeless. I was sure Ashleigh would love it if she ever got to the point where she would consider marrying me.

  “It’s a beautiful piece, isn’t it?” said an elderly woman. She was carrying flowers and making her way into the store.

  “It really is.”

  “Made for a beautiful woman. It’s a platinum setting with an untreated medium-dark stone that’s just under five carats. It’s one of my favorites. It won’t be around long. We only get that design once every few years, and it always sells out within days. Getting a stone like that isn’t easy.”

  “It’s expensive.” I sucked in a slice of air as my eyes focused on the price tag. It wasn’t a spur of the moment purchase. This wasn’t just underwear.

  “It is. Is she worth it?”

  I peeled my gaze away from the ring and looked at the woman. “She really is. I need to . . . think.”

  The woman smiled at me. “Don’t leave it long.”

  When I got home, I found Ashleigh at the breakfast bar in just her underwear and a camisole, poring over her laptop. I’d left her asleep to join Jake on our run.

  “You look good enough to eat,” I said as she swiveled on the stool to face me.

  She uncrossed her legs and parted her thighs, skimming her hands down her milky white skin.

  “Yeah?” She tilted her head and took in a breath. Fuck, she was amazing. I couldn’t resist what was between those perfect legs.

  I moved toward her and skimmed my fingers up her arms. “Yeah,” I whispered into her neck.

  “How was your run? How was Jake?”

  “Good. Interesting.” I’d found the ring I wanted to propose with. I just needed to figure out next steps—a strategy to get it on her finger.

  “Interesting?”

  “Yeah. We were talking about our girls.”

  “You were? That’s cute. What was interesting about it?” She sounded intrigued.

  “Well, I was telling him how I wanted us to move in together.”

  The corners of her mouth turned up, and her eyebrows lifted. I saw surprise, but not horror. “You were? What did Jake say?”

  “That when all the pieces are there, it doesn’t take long to fit them together.” I loved how she looked at me—open and trusting. “Tell me what you’re thinking.” I traced her collarbone with my fingers, enjoying her shivers as I did so.

  “You know what I’m thinking.”

  She was right. “That it’s too soon? That I’ll change my mind?”

  “It’s fast, Luke.” Her words were light and soft as if she were easily persuadable.

  “It’s not that fast. And we’re spending most nights together anyway. You could rent your place out. Paying for business school would be easier.”

  “It feels fast,” she whispered.

  Slowly, I backed away. “Take your underwear off.” I fixated on my prize, staring at the juncture between her thighs. She hesitated, then hooked her thumbs into her panties and peeled the fabric from her skin. Instinctively, her legs closed, and I looked up at her face. “Show me,” I said.

  “Luke . . .”

  “Show me.”

  She parted her thighs, revealing her sweet pussy. I knelt down in front of her and pushed her knees wider. She leaned back, her elbows against the breakfast bar. She was already wet enough that I could see the moisture glistening around her slit. Had she been sitting here thinking about me? Waiting for me to come back and do this to her? The thought made me groan.

  I dragged my thumbs along the juncture of her thighs, holding off delving my tongue right into the core of her. I hadn’t recovered fully from my sprint home, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to catch my breath while Ashleigh was naked. She was everything I’d never realized I needed.

  She took my breath away.

  I blew across her folds.

  “Luke.” She grabbed my head with one hand. “Please.”

  “Please what?” I loved hearing her dirty words. They were more evidence that the Ashleigh spread out in front of me was not the Ash that I’d know my whole life.

  “Please. Lick me, suck me, fuck me. I need it.”

  Her words had the effect they always did, and I got a little dizzy as blood rushed to my cock. I grunted and pushed her legs wider.

  “Move in with me.” It was an unfair question—I was holding her to ransom, but I didn’t care how I got my way, just that I did. I grazed my teeth up her inner thigh, torturing her, needing to get her to the point where she was so desperate for my tongue, my cock, my fingers that she’d agree to anything.

  “What?”

  “You heard me. Move in with me.”

  “Luke.” She shifted on the stool, pushing her hips forward. I pulled back, withholding what she needed.

  “Say you’ll move in.”

  “Jesus, this isn’t fair. I want to feel you.” Her voice was breathy and desperate.

  “I want to taste you,” I replied, my words humming against her skin.

  “Yes, please, Luke, yes. I’ll move in. Just please . . .” Her words were sharp and desperate, and the sounds caused a surge of blood to my dick. I couldn’t hold back any longer.

  Ashleigh

  I was a slave to Luke’s touch. The things I would do for it. I was going to have to find a way of backtracking. We couldn’t move too fast, couldn’t move in together. With my arms wrapped around his back and my body still limp with the aftershocks of my orgasm, Luke carried me into the bedroom.

  “I need to shower,” I said.

  “Afterward. I have to get you dirtier first. I need to be inside you without any distractions.”

  He let go of me, and I slid down his body, backing up onto the bed. “Turn over. On all fours. I just . . . I’ll try to . . . Jesus, I’m going to lose it.”

  I loved that he wanted me so much he couldn’t control himself. “Don’t try to do anything. Just have me as you want me.”

  “I don’t want—”

  “You’re not going to hurt me. I want you to show me how much you need me.” I turned around, positioned myself on all fours and looked back at him. I was desperate to be fucked by him, to feel the length of him inside me, thickening, hardening. It was a powerful feeling that created a weakness in me at the same time.

  “Fuck.” He grabbed my hips, pushed into me immediately and stopped. I gasped at the feel of him. Each time it was unexpected how he filled me, as if I were made only for him.

  His breath was hot on my skin as he ran his nose along my spine, gathering his strength and sliding his hands from my waist to my shoulders.

  “I’m addicted to how you smell. It reminds me of . . . home.” He bit down on my shoulder and sucked until it hurt and I was begging him to fuck me. “And I love to taste you.”

  I was sure he’d left a mark. I shuddered at having a semi-permanent reminder of him on my skin.

  “Please. I want it.”

  “Tell me,” he whispered in my ear. He liked me to talk to him, said he wanted to hear my dirty words. I couldn’t stop them from falling from my mouth even if I’d wanted to.

  “I want you to fuck me so hard I can’t walk for the rest of the day.”

  He groaned, and I pushed back, urging him to begin his rhythm.

&nbs
p; “What else?” he asked.

  “I want you to slide inside me and feel how wet you make me. How desperate I am for your cock. How I’d do anything just to have you fuck me—” He extracted truths when he fucked me. I couldn’t hide anything when we were together like this.

  My words had the desired effect, and he started to pump in and out. I arched my back in relief as he pulled his tacky fingers down my spine, tracing his thumb lower and brushing over the puckered flesh of my anus. I wanted it all; I wanted to feel him in every possible way.

  He reached around over my hips, down to my clit and circled the bundle of nerves. My words came more rapidly. “Yes. More. Harder. Just. Like. That.”

  The skin across my body buzzed and seemed to weaken me. My arms collapsed, and I fell forward, changing the angle of his penetration. I gasped and clenched, eliciting groans from Luke that became louder and louder. He betrayed his desperation, interrupting his rhythm as he tried to get deeper and deeper, grasping my hips, and then at my shoulders, pulling me toward him. I let him take over my body, offering no resistance as he pushed and pulled as he needed. It was too much, too good, too perfect.

  His hands were all over me, alternating between rounding my clit, pulling at my painfully hard nipples and grazing my ass. “Yes,” I gasped finally as I felt his slick-coated thumb begin to press. He didn’t need to hold back. “More.”

  “Jesus, you’re so fucking perfect,” he groaned, maintaining his rhythm perfectly as his thumb pushed inside, past the bunched ring of muscles. The sensation was too much. My blood drummed in my ears, and I closed my eyes as my orgasm caught up with me, as if it were breaking out of my core and running along my limbs.

  Luke let out an unintelligible cry from behind me, and the pads of his fingers pressed so deep I thought he was climbing inside me. My legs buckled under the force of his thrusts, and I lay flat on the bed as he chased his orgasm. Seconds later, he released himself into me.

  He collapsed on top of me then rolled to my side. “What are you doing to me?” His voice was thick with exertion as he pulled my limp body so I was strewn across him. “You’re amazing. I love you.”