Page 57 of Every Broken Promise
Her body had filled out with delicious curves during her time away. If she had a subtle way of attracting attention before, now she was like a siren reeling you in. I closed my eyes, and I could still feel her in my arms. If there was one thing I regretted now, it was listening to EZ and getting scared out of my mind of losing her—because in the end I had lost her anyway.
But now she was here. She was in my house, had come to my room, and I was not going to fuck it up.
Judging by her state and her outfit, she had clearly been out. Had she been at Zeke’s getting the attention of every guy in there? The only reason I could stand her outfit on my birthday—the only reason I could ignore all the eyes that had been on her—was the fact that she had been in my arms. Those two little piercings had been hidden then and they were hidden now, and for that I was grateful. It was like a secret only I was privy to, and I wanted to keep it that way.
Since she came back, I knew no one had approached her other than my brothers and me. There were only two reasons. The first because after our little display at Zeke’s and our shared history, they thought she was mine, and the second because they were embarrassed after all the shit that went down on prom night.
It was a shame she wasn’t in a skirt today. Instead, she was wearing a pair of thigh-highs, high-waisted jeans, and a white long-sleeve shirt that showcased the tops of her breasts.
“Beautiful, are you drunk?”
“Astrid. My name is Astrid.”
Even drunk, she still corrected me, making my lip twitch.
I stepped closer to the window and put my hands on either side of the ledge. Her brows instantly scrunched, and she looked at me, bewildered.
“What are you doing?” she asked cautiously.
“Coming out,” I told her as I jumped out.
She instantly took a step back.
“Do you have someone in your room?” she asked as she rose on her tiptoes, trying to peek past me.
“Why, you jealous?” I teased her, not being able to help myself.
She scrunched her nose. “I don’t care if you have Samantha in there.”
That struck me as odd since Samantha and I hadn’t been a thing for years. Sam had been my last girlfriend. She hated Astrid and blamed her for the fact that I dumped her. When in reality it had been her actions that had disgusted me, and at the end of the day, she would have never been the one I wanted.
“Did you drive here?” I asked, trying to look into the driveway to see if I saw her car.
“No, I walked,” she nonchalantly stated. “I couldn’t sleep because you’re a liar.”
“What?” I barked, annoyed at her recklessness.
“I’ve been told I can hit you and I won’t get a felony.”
At this point, she was babbling random shit. I was still annoyed she had been walking at this hour. The town was safe, and nothing terrible had happened, but I didn’t want her to be the statistic that would challenge those numbers.
“You want to hit me, beautiful?”
It was a rhetorical question because I knew she did. She couldn’t stand being in my presence for long periods of time. I missed going to her parents’ house on Sunday, but I was playing it safe. There was only so much pushing I could do with her. She had already proven once that she could up and leave me, but what would stop her from doing it a second time?
“Yes…no,” she said, starting to lose a bit of the ire she had earlier.
“Come on, beautiful, let’s go inside.”
When I took hold of her hand this time, she let me. I tried to go to the back door when I remembered it was locked and I didn’t bring the key with me.
I could jump inside and open it, but I was scared she would come to her senses and leave. Holding on to her hips, I lifted her so she could go over the window with ease.
“Ty.”She shrieked my name for the first time in four years, and my heart skipped a beat.
Fuck.
I didn’t realize how much I was yearning for her to say my name. It slipped out, and I don’t think she realized she said it, but I was glad she did. Like this, her defenses were down, and maybe I should feel bad for taking advantage, but sober, her defenses were always up, and I needed any advantage I could get.
