Free Didn't You Promise (A Bad for You Novel) by Amber Bardan

the worst moment the two of us ever had. When he’d thought I was a spy and sucked my darkest secrets out of my head.
    “Yes, I remember.” A familiar salty tightness swelled my tongue, a mix of tears and dread.
    His grip went tight behind my ears. “Swear to me that nothing will make you forget.”
    Whatever shit I had left to lose, attacked the gates of my self control like an arc full of rabid animals. But I choked silently. Didn’t let myself gasp or cry out or fall on the floor.
    No .
    I blinked and blinked. He wanted me to promise to be okay if something happened to him. I gripped his shoulders. A blanket of bleakness wrapped around me.
    “There’s nothing that can make me forget.” My chin lifted. My nose bumped his. True, nothing would force me back to the dark place I’d been before. But, that didn’t mean I could take losing him.
    “Tell me again what you are.” He slid his hand to the back of my skull and squeezed my hair just a little.
    No way would I ever let him worry about me when he needed to look out for himself.
    “I’m fucking indestructible .”
    He planted his mouth on mine, smooshing my lips against my teeth. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back. Pulled his hair and plunged my tongue into his mouth. He held my face and kissed the breath out of me. My jaw strained, but my mouth didn’t stop opening, I couldn’t stop breathing off of his exhales. His fingers tightened in my hair. I opened my mouth wider taking more of his tongue.
    He tugged on my hair, breaking the kiss.
    I panted, but didn’t let go of him.
    He ran kisses up my jaw to my temple, then breathed against my hair. “I love you, Angelina.”
    “I love you, too,” I said, my voice only wavering at the end.
    I hugged him with all the strength in my arms.
    He squeezed me back.
    “I need to leave now,” he said against my ear.
    “I know.” I sucked back the tears, clamped down on that pain and pushed it way down into that box of hurt I used to utilize so very well.
    He released me.
    I made my fingers let go. Made my hands fall to my sides. He collected his bag, and I followed him out the door. Held his hand and walked with him down the hallway. Went with him onto the veranda.
    He pulled his car keys out of his pocket. “I have to go.”
    “So you said.” I forced my breaths in evenly.
    For the first time since I’d met him, there was something truly youthful in his face. Something so vulnerable it almost tore my chest open. I held in the agony. I’d had so much practice at juggling suffering it should’ve been easier.
    “Goodbye, Haithem.” I said. “I’ll be waiting for you.”
    His eyes sparkled a vibrant brown.
    “I’ll see you in five days.” He stepped forward and planted one last kiss on my forehead.
    I watched him walk down the steps. Soaked up the sight of him for every moment I had left with him. He slid into the car. The engine started with a hum. The wheels ground against the gravel and he pulled out of the driveway.
    Please come back to me.
    I watched until the car passed the bend in the road visible from the veranda. Then I fell forward, gripped a post for support, breathed against my sobs while they rattled my ribs. When I could stand, when I could get air in my lungs to move, I brushed my face with my hands, dried my eyes and went back to our bedroom.
    Five days.
    What was five days in terms of forever?
    Haithem
    A car pulled up across the street.
    I stared through the crack in the curtain, squinted in the dark at the vehicle. A driver emerged, opened the door. A woman stepped out, cradling a sleeping child in her arms. They walked towards the building across from me. Not that it’d have mattered if it’d been a van full of armed assassins—my own guards patrolled this building. The best guards money could buy. Except for the few I’d employed to watch over Angelina. Those were, in fact, better. The best of the best. I tugged the curtains closed, and turned to the bed.
    The