Promised Nights

by Louise Bay

  “I hope the food’s good,” Haven said. “I can’t be arsed cooking at Christmas. If I can’t drink, there’s got to be some upside to the day.”

  “I’ve said I don’t mind being chef for the day,” Beth said.

  “No, Haven’s right. Going out will be great. It’s good to make new traditions,” Luke said.

  My heart sped up. Was he going to say something now? I wasn’t sure I was ready.

  “You’ve totally got to bake something,” I said. “That’s our new Christmas law. We all have enough baked goods from Beth to incite a diabetic coma.” There was a chuckle around the table.

  “Well, funny you should say that, that’s going to be the tagline to my video clips. Beth’s Baked Goods—A Diabetic Coma in the Making.”

  “Sounds like a winner. How are they going? I saw you had a gazillion hits on the one I looked at over the weekend.” I was pretty sure Beth was going to be a YouTube phenomenon sooner rather than later. She looked like a young Elizabeth Taylor and dressed like one, in vintage fifties dresses. She was the kind of girl Haven and I would joke about going gay for.

  “You’re so sweet to be checking them out. I’m not sure it’s quite a gazillion, and I’m positive most of them are just from the people around this table.”

  “I saw loads of comments. Some pervs, it has to be said. It must be every guy’s wet dream to have a woman like you in their kitchen,” I said. “Mostly they were from people who loved you and your baking.”

  Beth blushed. “I just do it for fun, but actually, I got a call yesterday from a guy who wants to talk about me doing a five-minute slot on a Saturday breakfast show in Chicago.”

  “Are you serious?” Jake asked. “That’s amazing. You’re going to be a superstar.”

  Beth pushed Jake off as he tried to grab her for a kiss. “It’s only a local TV thing. And it will probably come to nothing, but it’s fun. Right?”

  “It’s bloody fantastic,” Luke said. “We’re surrounded by incredible women, Jake,” he said, shaking his head as if in awe. My need to kiss him was almost too strong to resist.

  “I know, right?” Jake replied.

  A sommelier busied himself, pouring fizzy courage into flutes. I dreaded to think how much this evening would cost. I’d lined up a second mortgage to pay for the part of my business school fees that the hospital wasn’t covering, and I’d applied for several scholarships, but things would be tight for the next few years.

  When the waiter had filled all our glasses, Luke pushed back his chair and stood. My heart began to thump so loud I was surprised someone didn’t call an ambulance.

  “I’d like to say something,” he said as everyone stared up at him.

  This was it. Excitement built beneath my skin.

  “I’m in love with Ashleigh Franklin,” he announced.

  He looked at me as he spoke, and I couldn’t do anything but gaze at him.

  He loved me?

  Of course he did.

  How could I have ever doubted it?

  “I’m obsessed to the point of madness. Devoted, besotted, totally and completely in love with her. I hope she feels for me just a tiny fraction of what I feel for her. I intend to spend the rest of my life trying to earn her love and respect. That is all.”

  In all my years of loving him, I’d never felt more for him than as I did in that moment. He was describing how I felt about him. Our feelings were mutual. I never thought that could be possible.

  He scraped my cheekbone with his thumb and placed a soft kiss on my lips. “Breathe,” he whispered.

  “I’m good. We got this,” I replied.

  I finally pulled my gaze away from him and scanned the three faces staring at me, focusing on Haven. She grinned like a Cheshire cat and rolled her eyes at me. Jake raised his glass, and Beth had her hands clasped in front of her, a smile on her face.

  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.

  Twenty-Seven

  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 incre
dible 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 windows 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 gli
stening 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.