Three Broken Promises

Chapter 18

Colin

“No more talking,” I tell her, my hands at her waist, my fingers slipping beneath her tank so I can touch her bare, warm skin. “All I do is fuck it up when we talk.” I remember what Fable told me, how every time Drew opens his mouth when they argue he somehow makes it worse. It appears I’m just like him.

The faintest smile curves her lips and she slowly shakes her head. “You’re so right.” She pauses, worry mixed with desire filling her gaze. “We seem to do our best together when there’s no talking at all, don’t you think?”

“Well, you seem to like it when I talk to you a little bit.” I settle my mouth on hers, keeping it simple, knowing I won’t last like this for long. “Like when I whisper all those dirty words in your ear.” I kiss her hungrily, earning a soft moan from her when I delve my tongue deep inside her mouth. She tastes like toothpaste, fresh and minty and with a hint of her own, unique flavor. A flavor I could drown in, live on for the rest of my life.

“We can’t solve our problems with sex,” she tells me when I break away from her to smother her neck with wet kisses. “They’re still going to be waiting for us later. They always will.”

“Then we’ll deal with them later. I’ve been dying to lose myself inside you since last night,” I murmur against her throat, nibbling it. I love the feel of her skin against my lips, the scent of her, the slightly tangy taste.

She shivers, her hands at my shoulders, trying to push me. Thinking she’s trying to put a stop to what we’re doing, I reluctantly back away, only to watch in disbelief as she strips her tank top off, revealing the pretty pink bra she’s wearing.

“You want to lose yourself inside me, then let’s do it,” she says eagerly, her voice trembling as she reaches behind her and unhooks her bra. “I’m leaving soon, Colin. I don’t want to waste any more time.”

My mouth goes dry when she tosses the bra aside, then pushes her yoga pants and underwear off in one smooth movement. She’s naked, my favorite thing in the whole freaking world, and without a thought I push her to the bed, quickly kicking off my flannel pants before I’m pushing myself inside her without any warning. No foreplay, nothing beyond the hungry kisses we shared just now.

I’m that desperate to be inside her.

She must be just as desperate. She’s wet and hot, opening completely to me, and I move within her easily, rocking against her. Deep. Deeper. Losing myself in her just like I said I wanted to, closing my eyes and letting pure, delicious sensation take over.

“Fuck, you feel so damn good. Tight and hot,” I whisper in her ear, holding her close. A little whispery moan falls from her lips at my words. “I wanna stay right here, deep inside your body and never leave.”

“That’s going to be—awkward when we eventually have to go to work,” she murmurs, her voice hitching with my every thrust. Christ, I love that. Hearing her soft gasps, her sweet moans, those delicious little whimpers I swallow with my mouth. I want to fuck her into oblivion. Hell, I want to be fucked into oblivion, too. No thinking, no talking, no past, no future, nothing but the here and now.

With Jen.

“We’ll never work again. We’ll never leave this bed,” I tell her, my voice earnest, my thoughts earnest too. I would rather stay here with her forever.

Forever.

“Jenny.” I whisper her name against her lips, then kiss her deeply, overwhelmed by my thoughts, by the foreign emotion coursing through my veins, making my chest hurt. I care more for her than any other person in my life, even Danny, even my parents, though that’s not difficult.

The realization is frightening. Powerful. Liberating.

Jesus. I can’t do this now. I can’t feel something for her now, when she’s dead set on leaving me and nothing seems to stop her. We’ve been fooling each other this entire time. Pretending to be indifferent, acting like we don’t matter to each other beyond friendship. The second she moved in, the chemistry between us started to grow. Until it became too overwhelming and we couldn’t ignore it any longer. We’ve become even closer.

I’m falling for her. Completely.

Pushing all thought from my brain, I let my hands wander all over her body as I start to move fast. Faster. Until we’re wrapped tight around each other, both of us crying out as our orgasms take us completely over and we lose ourselves in each other, just like we said we wanted.

But now I realize I want even more.

By the time we escaped my room and started getting ready for work, hours had gone by. My father disappeared, leaving me a vague text that he was out scouting the area, whatever the hell that meant. Jen and I had fallen asleep, the two of us exhausted after everything that happened last night, our fight earlier today, and my dad showing up.

It’s been an emotional roller coaster the last twenty-four hours. One we’re both still trying to recuperate from.

Nothing is said in regard to our earlier fight and I’m thankful she doesn’t bring it up. She finally called the bank and canceled her card, and they’ll issue her a new one when she goes into the branch tomorrow. Fortunately, the jackass who stole her purse hadn’t used her card.

She’s lucky. It could have been so much worse. He could have cleaned out her account. Or taken his rage out on her when he had her lying there on the ground. Just thinking about what could have happened sends me into a quiet, seething rage.

So it’s best I don’t think about it at all.

I let her work her shift because she argues with me that she’s perfectly fine to go in and besides, she doesn’t want to be alone with her thoughts. Not quite sure what she means by that, I give in because when it comes to Jen, I always want to give in. I can’t help myself.

We’re halfway through the night and I’m going over paperwork for the new location when I realize I never did talk to her about the job idea that came to me yesterday. The one that would keep her near me. Now it has even more appeal since I’ve realized I want more. Despite my lingering guilt, I want her in my life. I want a relationship with her.

And I think she still wants that from me too, if I can convince her that I mean what I say.

Eager to see her, I go search Jen out in the restaurant, finding her working in the bar, and I call her over. She approaches me with a questioning expression. I let my gaze rake over her as I’m prone to do, taking in her bandaged knees with a smile. The sight of them reminds me of Jenny the nine-year-old, always falling and scraping up her legs and arms. Always trying to keep up with Danny and me.

“Is everything okay?” she asks, her delicate brows furrowed.

“I want to talk to you,” I answer, grabbing her by the crook of her arm and glancing about the room. No one’s paying us any mind. “Can you come into my office for a few minutes?”

“Um, it’s slow, so sure.” She shrugs, letting me lead her out of the bar and down the hall toward my office. “If this is your discreet way of getting me alone again, then that was sort of obvious.”

“No one was watching us, I checked.” Chuckling, I shake my head. “And I really do want to talk to you. Come on.”

Leading her into my office, I wave my hand toward a chair, indicating for her to sit. I leave the door open on purpose, knowing it will both prevent me from jumping her and keep my curious employees from thinking I’m banging Jen on top of my desk.

I would really love to bang her on my desk, but not right now.

“What’s up?” she asks the moment I sit. She looks agitated, nervous, her knee bouncing up and down in quick, rhythmic succession.

“I have a proposition for you.” I lean my forearms on top of my desk and study her, thinking for about the millionth time how damn beautiful she is. “And I’m hoping you’ll say yes.”

She lifts her brows. “What sort of proposition are you talking about?”

“Well, you know how I’m opening the Redding location, right?” It’s only about ninety minutes north of here, a city of about one hundred thousand residents who love their chain restaurants. I know The District will do great there.

“Right.”

“I need someone to help me run it. And I’d like that person to be you.” I pause, letting my words sink in.

Jen stares at me, her mouth dropping open, her eyes going wide. “You’re serious.”

“Absolutely. This keeps you nearby. Actually brings you closer to your parents, though I’m not sure if you care about that part or not.”

She’s quiet for a moment, her head bent, as if absorbing what I’ve asked her. Blowing out a harsh breath, she glances up, her gaze meeting mine. “Colin, I really appreciate the offer, but . . .”

“Don’t say no,” I interrupt, my heart racing at the realization that she’s going to turn me down. I know she is. I can feel it in my bones. “I know you refused my earlier offer of helping out in the office here and I get it. You want to get away from me.”

She doesn’t confirm or deny my statement, which hurts. And makes me feel like a pussy. Instead of dwelling on my feelings, I forge on.

“You’re perfect for the position—you just need a little training, and I can do that. You’ve worked in the restaurant industry for years and you like to take charge. You’re efficient, organized, and everyone looks up to you here as a sort of peacekeeper. You manage the floor without me even asking you to and you do it so naturally.”

Her eyes widen with surprise. Did she not realize I notice everything about her? How strong she is, what a tremendous asset she is to my business? I not only care about this woman, I admire the hell out of her.

“I need you, Jen. I need you to help me run that location and it has nothing to do with our personal relationship. I swear it.”

She’s slowly shaking her head, disbelief written all over her pretty face. “I have zero experience running an entire restaurant. You know this. The idea . . . scares the crap out of me.”

I wave my hand. “Whatever you need to know, I can teach you. You learn quickly. You’re meticulous and you care. I know you won’t screw me over or let the place fail. You’re loyal to a fault, and that’s hard to find in an employee.”

“I—I don’t know how to manage people, Colin.” She’s in denial. It’s her best skill in the place. “It would be such a huge responsibility . . . and I feel like you’re offering it to me only so you can keep me close.” Her gaze goes hard, as if she just figured me all out and doesn’t like what she sees. “And Redding is even farther north—and farther away from Sacramento.”

“It’s close to here,” I point out.

“Close to you,” she corrects. “That’s it, right? You’re trying to keep me close to you? Why?”

This is my chance. I can tell her how I feel about her. I realized after she was attacked last night how much I care for her. How much I don’t want her to leave. This is the moment when I can completely change my life forever.

Nerves jump in my gut like little fish jumping in the middle of an otherwise calm lake and I open my mouth, ready to launch into the speech I’ve been preparing since late last night. “Jen, I need to tell you—”

A rapid knock sounds on my open office door and I glance up to see my goddamn dad standing in the doorway. “Hey,” I say irritably, pissed that he’s interrupted us.

“Hey, son, got a minute to talk?” He strides into the room as if he owns it, flashing a brief smile in Jen’s direction. “You understand, don’t you, honey?”

“Sure. Of course.” She stands, tugging on the hem of her dress self-consciously, her surprised, slightly irritated gaze going to mine briefly before looking away.

“We’ll talk about this later,” I tell her as she starts toward the door, but she doesn’t look back once. Her shoulders are stiff, her back ramrod straight. She looks . . . mad.

I wonder what the hell I could have done to offend her. I make her an amazing offer and she’s pissed? I don’t get it.

My dad rushes to the door the second Jen exits the room and shuts it, turning the lock with a loud click. He turns to look at me, his hands on his hips. “What the hell are you doing?”

I’m taken aback by the hostile tone of his voice. “What do you mean?”

“Offering that little floozy waitress of yours a manager position? Are you crazy? How old is she? Nineteen?”

“She’s twenty-two, not that it’s any of your business. And you gave me a fucking restaurant when I was only nineteen,” I point out. He’d done so out of guilt, and maybe I was doing the same, but damn it, I know Jen is capable. I wish she could see how amazing she is.

“That was different. You’re my son.” He settles into the very chair Jen just vacated, crossing his leg over his opposite knee. “This is just some little girl you’re messing around with. She doesn’t know the first thing about running a restaurant.”

“Don’t call her that,” I bite out. “She means something to me. I know you don’t understand that sort of thing what with your lack of a heart and all, but I care about her.”

“What do you mean, my lack of a heart? Oh, I get it.” He chuckles, shaking his head. “I’m sure your mom goes on and on about what a heartless bastard I am, right?”

I ignore what he says. This isn’t about my parents. I don’t want to talk about my mom. “How the hell do you know anything about Jen anyway? You’ve never spent any time with her, let alone worked with her.”

“I know because I’ve done a little research.” The smirk on his face is aggravating as fuck. Smug and knowing, all at once. “I found out your Jennifer Cade has a little secret.”

Dread settles over me, my gut sinking. “What are you talking about?”

“You were wrong, son. She wasn’t just a stripper at that shitty little club. A real popular one, too, not that I’m surprised.” He smiles, looking again like the very shark that he is. “She’s also a dirty little whore.”