Page 57 of Pretty Broken Promises

“On the ride down here, Tracy and I were in my Honda. I held it together pretty well, until we were about a few miles north of here. I started hyperventilating. I wasn’t the one driving at the time, but Tracy knew I needed a break, so she pulled over. We found this campground and walked around for a while. I ended up in this spot, and I just sat here for over an hour while I tried to get my head together.”

“That doesn’t sound like a very good memory. Why would you want to bring me back here?” I ask her.

She shrugs one shoulder. “Because I’m learning that letting someone in means the good and the bad. I can’t pretend that every memory I have of us is a happy one. A lot of the time when I look back at our relationship, it hurts.”

Tessa turns her head to stare off at the trees with the mountains looming beyond them. “We’re riding off together. After all the shit we’ve been through we’ve come through the other side, but this doesn’t feel like a happily ever after.”

My heart skips a beat, and for a second my chest is so tight I’m afraid I won’t be able to breathe. “What are you saying?” I croak.

She turns around, and I’m sure she sees the look of panic on my face. Her hands come up and hold my face. “No. I’m so sorry.” She crawls onto my lap and straddles me. “I’m saying, it feels like we still have a ways to go, doesn’t it? Normally, if this were a book or a movie, this would be the end. Roll credits. Boy gets the girl, everything will be rainbows and unicorns from here on out.”

I exhale, and wrap my arms around her back. “You scared the shit out of me, Vixen. Yeah, I got the girl, but I have not yet come close to making up for all the shit I’ve put you through. I don’t know if I can ever make up for all of it, but I think every day it’ll get a bit better.”

She smiles a sad looking smile. “You don’t really believe that, do you? We’re going to have bad days. I guess, it’s that we’ve only been having good days since we got back together, I’m afraid of what will happen when a bad one comes along.”

What would I do, she means. Would I push her away? Punish her for things she doesn’t know about, understand, or even have anything to do with? I’d like to think I’ve grown up enough to leave that childish behavior behind.

“I can tell you it’s going to be different, but I’m afraid my words don’t hold much weight when it comes to this,” I begin.

“You make it sound like I don’t trust you. I do—” I place my finger over her lips.

“I know you do, but I also have to face the fact that I’ve hurt you too many times for you to take my word for it. I’m going to have to prove myself to you. I understand and I’m up for proving to you that you can depend on me this time. Is this why you brought me back here?” Not that this spot isn’t beautiful, but we could have had this conversation in the truck.

She scrunches up her nose. “Not exactly.”

“Then what is going on?” I’m genuinely confused about why she’d want to stop at a campground this early into the trip. The plan is to try and make it to her mom’s house by tonight.

Tessa rolls her hips over where she’s straddling me. I grab her hips to hold her steady, but I only manage to pull her down harder against my suddenly very interested dick.

“Baby, unless you want to get fucked in the forest, you need to stop,” I warn her.

She leans forward and licks the shell of my ear before whispering, “That’s exactly what I was hoping you’d say.”

To demonstrate her determination, she grabs the hem of her T-shirt and pulls it over her head. The chilly air makes her skin break out in goosebumps, and I can see her nipples tighten to tight points through the lace of her bra.

I uselessly rub my hands up and down her back as if that will warm up her entire body. “You’re going to catch a cold.”

“So warm me up,” she says in a raspy whisper.

I’m only so strong. Taking fistfuls of her hair, I take her mouth in an almost brutal kiss. I let go of all the fear I felt thinking she took me out here to break up with me, and give into my bottomless well of desire for her.

Her hands claw at my shirt, and I stop kissing her long enough to let her pull it over my head. Then I can feel her skin against mine. She reaches behind her back and unhooks her bra, removing the final barrier between us. Nothing else exists for me when I’m holding her. I’m not even sure I’m capable of thought.

If I were, I probably wouldn’t lean forward and pin her underneath me. Tessa’s nails bite into my shoulders, and I nearly leap off of her, but she wraps her legs around my waist keeping me close.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking?—”

This time it’s her turn to interrupt. She leans forward and presses her lips against mine. “I’m okay. You just startled me.”

“Are you sure? We don’t have to do this,” I argue.

“Oh yes we do,” she blurts out. “My mom is back in the States and at home. She’s going to be waiting up for us when we get there. By the time she finally lets us go to bed, I’ll be too tired to even think about sex.”

“Then what do you want?” I ask. I do like to take control, but I really got off seeing her own her sexuality. Maybe I like to mix it up more than I thought.

Tessa pushes on my shoulder, and I take the hint and roll onto my back. She takes her time kissing down my body. Her hands move to the fly of my jeans and start working on the button. Once she gets to my navel, she’s lowering the zipper. It’s like a striptease, only I’m the one being stripped. She’s still doing all of the teasing though.

I toe off my shoes and help her as she pushes my jeans down, over my ass, leaving me in nothing except for an overly tight pair of boxer briefs. They fit when she hasn’t enticed all of the blood in my body to settle into my cock.

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