Promise to Keep (Vow To Protect 2)

I let her pop her fingers from my mouth. “Why? No one will interrupt us because I told them not to come back until I say. Trust me, they want the tip they are going to get better than checking in on us every five minutes.”

She pressed into my chest, mashing her breasts against me. “In that case…” Her mouth tips down again, taking mine slowly, teasing me with each renewed brush and heavy breath.

When we break apart again, I’m hard and rocking up against her panties. At this rate, I’ll come in my pants from just the dry fucking. “Let’s finish things up so I can take you home and make love to you properly.”

Her lips glisten in the overhead light, begging me to drag them between my teeth, but I don’t. Instead, I carefully ease her off my lap so she can get dressed while I stack our purchases and send a text message to Tricia.

We don’t stay for the check out. I give Tricia the information she needs and drag Valentina to the car by the hand. Once we are inside, I settle her across my lap again, keeping her thighs spread wide over my own, enjoying how she arches her hips into me even though layers of clothing separate our naked skin.

“Soon, Angel,” I say, cupping her face in my hands to control her mouth while I kiss her deeply.

She tastes like salvation, and lord knows I need the deliverance more than anything else.

“Is it always going to be like this?” she whispers against my lips.

While I don’t have much experience with healthy relationships, I hope it is. So I shrug. “I don’t know, Angel. But I can tell you that I’ll never stop wanting you. Not while I have breath left in my body. Even if you curse me, hate me, fight me…I’ll always want you. You’re mine.”

She swallows loud between us and drags my face closer to hers. “You’re mine too.”

27

VALENTINA

Only a few days are left until the society's deadline. I feel each one slipping through my fingers, my chances to defuse the situation and save all of us going along with it.

I've tried everything I could think of. Talking to Sal's family was the worst kind of torture, but I still did it in hopes that it might save him. Of course, they took pleasure in mocking me and no doubt will continue to do so until the day we all stand on even ground.

I poke at my breakfast, oatmeal today, and I don’t mind. After most of the staff left in favor of safety, I was surprised when Adrian whipped around the kitchen as if he’d been cooking all his life. It occurred to me then, and still does today, how little I know about him. Especially his past. I know who his family is and how painful things have been for him, but I don’t know his hobbies or what he likes to do when he has free time. Not that I’ve seen him have any such things since I’ve moved in with him. It’s always been about me or us, so I haven’t been able to have any real downtime with him.

He eats his breakfast while he reads his emails, and I watch him, my heart in my throat. Every second closer to the summons is one less second I have with him.

I set my spoon on the table and clear my throat. Subtle.

He glances over his bowl at me. “You okay?”

“What if instead of answering the summons, we just run away instead?” It’s a question I’ve been asking myself for days. We would both be safe, selfish to think of ourselves only, but I’d be able to keep him for longer, and our child would remain safe in the process.

With a swipe of his finger, he closes his phone and lets it clatter to the table. “Excuse me?”

I try to explain what I mean. “What if you don’t answer, and we just run…we have enough money and resources. Both of us could disappear and start over with very little effort.”

“This is…Why are we having this conversation? What got this idea in your head?”

I shrug and consider picking my spoon back up to get out from under the intensity of his gaze. “It’s just something I’ve been thinking about. I don’t want to lose you.”

“Angel,” he snaps. “Look at me.”

When I drag my eyes to his he gives me one slow deliberate headshake. “Nothing is going to happen to me, first of all, second…tell me why both of us making a run for it hasn’t been an option on the table so far?”

I lick my lips and rack my brain. “I don’t know.”

“No matter how far we tried to run, the council would send people after us, and the more they have to chase you, the worse your punishment is for defying them.”