Free Forgotten Promises (The Promises Series Book 2) by Elle Brooks Page A

give myself a ‘man the hell up and find your balls’ pep talk. I hit send. Sans kisses. Obsess over it like a teenage girl at a Bieber concert and then send another text.
     
    To: Princess
    X
     
    She’s already in the lobby by the time I’ve located my scrotum and made my way into the hotel.
    “Hey you, how does it feel to be a free man?” she asks with a grin as I quicken my pace and stride towards her.
    “Pretty good, actually.”
    I come to a halt just inches from her, completely invading her personal space, but I don’t care about that at the moment. She’s wearing yoga pants and a white tank, her hair’s falling loose and wild across her shoulders and I’m close enough to smell the strawberry scent of what I’m guessing is her shampoo. It almost feels familiar. The reality of how close I’m standing dawns on me. My stance suggests that I’m about to greet her with a kiss, which I REALLY want to do, but I feel awkward. She’s staring at me expectantly and I’m frozen. I don’t know how to act in this situation. I know what I want to do, but as much as I want to grab and touch and kiss her until our lips are numb, I’m painfully aware of the fact that she knows I don’t remember her, and I somehow feel like it would be taking advantage. I don’t want her to think that I expect I can do whatever the hell I want to her because she’s my girlfriend.
    “Don’t overthink it, Ethan,” she smirks and I narrow my gaze.
    “Overthink what?”
    “If you should kiss me or not. You definitely should.”
    “Um, I wasn’t thinking about kissing you.” I wrinkle my nose and watch the color flood her creamy cheeks. The asshole in me loves that I can make her blush. Her eyes widen and she begins to stutter something before taking a step away and I lunge forward catching her around the waist.
    “Where do you think you’re going? It was a joke, Princess.” My mouth cuts short any plans she had to form a retort.
    My lips glide against hers, and my hands travel slowly from her waist up the full length of her torso before I move them to cup her face. She sighs, moving to press her stomach and chest closer to me. I’m acutely aware that we are standing in the middle of a busy hotel lobby, but kissing her is more important than acting in a socially acceptable manner. I’m not usually one for PDA but right now it’s my new favorite thing. Someone coughs a little too loudly for it to be anything other than a cue that we need to move the floorshow to the room, except Blair and her mom are here together and I haven’t booked a room. I’m fairly certain seeing us kiss passionately in the lobby isn’t something her mom is going to be happy witnessing. I’m fighting a losing battle with myself to pull away when she solves my dilemma and breaks the kiss. Her face is still flushed as she breaks into a huge grin. It sends my pulse into a frenzy and I can feel my heart slam painfully against my ribs.
    “That’s how you should greet me from now on, by the way.”
    “That can be arranged, Princess.”
    “Good. Oh, and Ethan?”
    “Yeah?”
    “You might want to take your jacket off and reposition it somewhere else.”
    Wait, what? I look at her confused, and she glances down to my junk quickly, before meeting my eyes again. I feel my own cheeks flush with the realization that my jeans feel a hell of a lot tighter than they did before I kissed her.
    “That’s your fault,” I tell her while moving my jacket to shield myself.
    “Lead the way to your room. I need to use the restroom.” I wink and follow as she walks ahead of me laughing.

 

     

     
     
    I’M SITTING ON the floor Indian-style as Mom lectures me on being safe, stopping when we need to, and not driving when we’re tired. Ethan is in the bathroom and Mom has pounced on the opportunity to go over the same details that she’s already drilled into me before Ethan arrived. To say she’s not entirely on board with letting me travel home with him is