Page 76 of Promise Me

Fuck. I don’t know what it is about that night, but I cannot get her out of my mind. Having her there with me for a big moment like that felt right.

Too right.

She opens one of the glass coolers between us and pulls out a frosted pint glass. “Let’s start here. I can pour a beer just fine from a can to a glass for anyone who loves extra foam.”

I let out a howl of laughter. “So, what you’re saying is, start from the very beginning?”

“Precisely.”

I grab a glass just like hers and walk to the tap.

“Okay, so first, you’ll start by pulling the tap back just slightly and keeping the glass a little sideways, like this,” I say as I show her. “Let it pour into the glass slowly, and as you near the top, you’ll steadily straighten the glass.”

As soon as I’m finished, I hold a perfectly poured beer between us.

“Oh, that can’t be too hard.”

She steps in front of me to take her turn.

I know I should move back.

At least take one step.

Instead, I close my eyes and inhale the smell of her hair. It’s lavender, a scent that should soothe me, but all it does it make my heart race even more and my blood turn hot.

I swallow, set the glass in my hand down, and clench my fists.

Don’t touch her.

Don’t do it.

A vision of me caging her between my arms and then pressing my lips to hers plays in my mind. What I wouldn’t give to finally taste her. To hear the noises she makes when our bodies connect. To feel how soft her skin is against my fingers. God, going there with Sadie would be?—

“Am I doing it right?” she asks, her sweet tone pulling me out of the tortuous daydream and into a reality that’s equally teasing.

She spins quickly to show me, but I’m right in her space. I hadn’t noticed how much I gravitated toward her while she was pouring something as mundane as a fucking beer.

My sudden movement to back up shocks her, so she backs up, too, but then hits her hip on the counter, and the glass in her hand slips to the floor and shatters next to her shoes.

“Oh shit. I’m sorry, Hudson,” she says, bending quickly to clean it up.

My hand jerks between us quickly, my palm covering the corner before she hits her head on it.

She pauses, her forehead barely hitting my knuckles as her eyes focus on my hand.

My breathing increases. In a matter of seconds, she could have hit her head again, and it terrifies me. How quickly whatever this is between us could have just vanished.

Hell, I’ve smacked my head dozens of times, but Sadie can’t risk that.

Iwon't risk it.

Sadie stands slowly, the broken glass forgotten.

I should say something, anything, but words can’t express how I feel at this moment.

Electric and ready to combust.

My hand drops to her hip as I back her up to the bar top.

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