Page 39 of Promise Me Never

Maybe it’s a little bit romanticized, but I really do enjoy the variety of tasks. It’s what has saved my sanity countless times over the years. There’s always something different to do or see, even if the tasks themselves are generally monotonous.

She slides the bread into the oven and then leans back against the counter opposite of me. “I never thought of it that way, but it makes a lot of sense.”

As we wait for dinner our conversation moves to her life in Los Angeles. She shows me some of the apartments she and her roommate are thinking about leasing. One of them was a ground unit with bars on the windows. I’ve never bitten my tongue so hard in my life. Her life there is none of my business.

She lights the citronella candles on the table out back while I plate up our food. The golden hour light bounces off the mountain peaks around us, setting the ranch aglow with warmth. I take a sip of my beer as I watch her cut into her steak and take the first bite. Her eyes close as she moans around the bite. My cock jerks to attention again as I continue watching her eat.

It’s better than watching porn. She does a happy little shimmy as she takes a bite of potato. It blows my mind at how fucking adorably cute she can be while simultaneously being drop dead sexy.

“Are you going to eat?” she asks, finally looking up from her plate to me.

“I’m saving room for dessert,” I say right before taking a bite.

“I’m hoping that’s me. I’m dessert.”

I give her a slow smile and a wink as I pick up my beer. The blush I love so much spreads from her chest and moves up her neck. I have to remind myself that we need to talk first. A serious conversation before my fantasies can take root.

“Before we go there, I think we need to talk about a few things.” I set my beer down and look into her eyes. “Set our boundaries.”

“Okay,” she says with a bit of uncertainty. “You first.”

“First and foremost, you have to remember your promise to me.”

“Don’t worry.” She rolls her eyes. “I won’t fall in love just because you think you have a magical dick.”

“It’s not magical. I haven’t been with anyone since—” the words catch in my throat. “I haven’t slept with anyone aside from Amy.”

“What?” she asks, leaning forward. “She passed so long ago.” Her hand reaches across the table and covers mine.

“I know. It doesn’t always feel that long ago, though.” I turn my hand over and link our fingers. “Maybe because I haven’t lived much since then.” I balk internally at the vulnerability in that admission. I’m going off the rails here. “Back to the subject. It’s not that I think I’m so good at sex you’ll fall for me. It’s more just the science between sex and the reactions to hormones. You have to stay level-headed and realize it’s all just chemicals between us.”

“Right. I can stay detached.”

For some reason that statement makes my hackles rise. A part of me deeply buried wants to come crawling out and demand that she take that statement back. But I can’t confuse her like that.

“Good. The other thing is that you have to tell me if you don’t like something or if it hurts. Just say the word and everything will stop. I don’t care if I am buried to my balls inside you, if you say stop, I’ll stop.”

“Same.” She holds my gaze steadily, the candlelight flicking in the stormy gray of her eyes.

Fifteen

ELI

* * *

The tension between us mounts with each passing moment. I’m at the sink clearing dishes and loading them into the dishwasher when I feel Luke at my back. He takes the plate from my hand and sets it down gently. I hear Charlie happily working on the bone he dropped in her bowl earlier, but other than that the house is silent around us.

“Leave these for the morning.” His hand splays over my stomach as his lips brush my neck.

I lean back into his embrace, tilting my neck to give him better access to my throat. He works my shirt up enough to slide his fingers underneath it. I feel his firm length pressed between us, and suddenly it all becomes so real.

This is happening.

I turn and lift my hands to his broad shoulders. He stoops down and lifts me by the back of my thighs. My legs tighten around his waist as he continues to kiss me while walking us out of the kitchen and up the stairs. If it weren’t for the layers of clothing between us, I feel like I could slide right down his cock.

My pussy is already wet. Embarrassingly wet because just being near him ignites a deep longing inside me. I don’t understand. Maybe it’s the forbidden aspect, the taboo of our age gap or the forbidden aspect of him working for my family. The way we’re forced to sneak around, but tonight and the next few, it’s just us. We can lose ourselves to this electric connection.

He closes my bedroom door behind him with a flick of his foot before setting me down. He kisses me once, twice, and then withdraws. The full moon shines brightly into the room, giving everything an ethereal silver luminescence.

---