Where We Promise (Stone Riders MC #3)

by Ashley Munoz

Decision made, Jameson King would like me, and I’d make sure he never stopped.

“You can’t sleep because you don’t feel safe. I’m here now, you’re safe. Go to sleep.”

Natty was gorgeous, but she also had an unruliness to her that reminded me of a wildflower. She was free and seemed to completely understand exactly who she was without fearing it.

Those caramel eyes would land on me and for just a few seconds, I’d feel like a hole had been pierced in my heart, allowing in the first glimpse of sunlight. He was warm and safe. He was what I imagined having a steady home must feel like.

I missed my life. I missed being someone that mattered and had worth.

That deadly concern swirling in his caramel eyes was new and it left me breathless. It wasn’t just worry…it was like someone attempted to touch something that belonged to him. I knew after this moment that look had ruined me for anyone else for the rest of my life.

His eyes seemed to burn as he searched her from head to toe, and then gruffly said, “Ne ingrediaris silvam solum.”

“Let’s be clear. I allowed you to live after meeting with her because Killian was present, but if you ever talk to her alone, I will kill you. She is not available; she is not open property. She is mine.”

Penelope and I had a complicated past. One full of unspoken truths, missed chances, and stolen moments. I’d hurt her. She had hurt me. It was fate’s twisted sense of humor that we were now thrown together in some odd, domesticated role. The irony was cruel.

“Because I watch you. You stare at people who kiss like you wonder what it would be like…you always get this tiny pink flare under your freckles, and then you dip your head like you’re embarrassed just thinking about it. People who have been kissed, don’t stare the way you do.”

“I hate when you do this.” My eyes were back on him. “Do what?” He stepped closer, his thumb still against my chin, but now his fingers were spread out against my jaw. “Lower your face as if you don’t belong to stay in the moment…as if you need to separate yourself from what’s going on. You do it a lot in the club.” I stared up into his eyes, letting his hand remain against my jaw. “I don’t belong there.” His thumb traced my bottom lip. “You do. You’re the only thing there that feels like home.”

“I’ll go with you to the bonfire, Penny. I’ll watch over you, and you can kiss or fuck, do whatever you want but first, you’ll have this.” He stepped so close our faces were merely an inch apart, now both his hands cradled my face. My breathing had become shallow, so not to break this moment or scare him away. “Have what?” I whispered, my eyes still clinging to his. A tiny spark of fire slid against my bottom lip as he moved the pad of his thumb over it again. “Me,” he rasped, just a singular second before leaning in and pressing his lips to mine.

I wanted Jameson to want me. I wanted him to want my heart. I wanted him to crave me the way I did him. Still, I knew he wouldn’t. That moment, stolen in time, would become a wildflower pressed into my journal. A wish and a whispered prayer for someone I knew I could never have for myself.

“Look, I know the idea of being married to me doesn’t hold that much appeal, but it’s only temporary.” “Stop it—” I snapped, “don’t act like I wouldn’t be honored to have you as my husband, Jameson. That was never our issue, and you know it.”

“My concern is you. I can’t stomach you giving up anymore of your life for me, Jamie. I know you promised my mom, but this is going too far. This would mean you couldn't flirt or go anywhere that anyone could see you if you needed to…be with someone. This would mean you’d have to⁠—”

“The truth is…the idea of you settling or sacrificing any more of your life for me is so unacceptable to me that I would literally rather be homeless or throw my hope at the very man who rejected and humiliated me, just to save you the trouble of giving up your freedom for me. I’m not worth it, Jamie. I never have been, why do you think⁠—” I stopped because he really didn’t need to know how pathetic I’d been all this time. “I’m not waiting for Luke. I don’t want Luke, but I also don’t want you to give up your life, and you shouldn’t have to tie yourself to a sinking ship or lose your club just to keep me safe. There has to be another way.”

“You have to just trust that this is what I want, Pen. I’ve never done anything I didn’t want to do. I could hand you off to someone else or find someone to keep you. Hell, I could leave now and just trust the Stone Riders to keep you safe. I want to be here, and I want to do this. Please trust that.”

If you were mine, I’d kill anyone who told me to let another man touch you. I’d burn down the club before letting someone feel what’s mine. Within the club, the only other thing that is sacred is our women, the ones we claim, the ones we choose. If you were mine, I’d tell Tuck to go fuck himself and if he tried to hurt me, then I’d welcome the carnage.”

It was as if time slipped through the cracks and fissures of lies we’d agreed on, and wound together a truth. A promise.

I’d claim a piece of him by the end of this. Some part of that gave me hope. If I could finally find a way inside his heart, then maybe he’d let me stay there.

She smelled like honey wrapped in pine. The scent was smeared into my soul now, like a balm of hope.

I want to be able to help people if they needed it, be my own boss. I want to buy my own house, and one day have a wife and be a dad. I want a life full of laughter and smiles.

“You’re a tragedy in your own way, just hanging around in my chest like a poison, slowly infecting my heart.”

hate when you do that. You’re too beautiful to lower your face, Pen. It’s a shame to hide it in any capacity at any time.” Why did he have to be so sweet? He’d just broken my heart.

You are the hope I always feel when things feel hopeless, and your smile feels like it has a rope tethered from it to my heart.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this. We were supposed to be outside at night, under the stars, and preferably in a field of wildflowers. Your mom was supposed to be there and my dad…and it was supposed to be years ago when I had you all to myself. I take the blame, Penny. I always will, but you’ll have to agree to take my name and give me time to fix all of it. Because I promise I will, Pen. I promise that I’m in this until the end.”

His words were dusted hope clinging to forgotten places. Dried, smashed wildflowers doused in wishes. Love so blinding and hopeful.

“It’s always been you, Jameson. Always in the back of my mind at night, in my chest, expanding with my lungs in the morning, when the sun would warm the earth. You were always in my dreams when I thought of forever. However long you give me, I will happily accept.”

“You taste like you’re finally mine.”

It was a ruined story without a happy ending from the very start. Anything we did now would just confuse us both.

“I had them cut out a third of the lights, so we could see the stars,” Jamie said, ducking his face as if it embarrassed him that he’d thought of something so considerate.

“Surviving.” The scoff that left my chest was all pain. Agony over losing the one person who had become like my best friend. The one who I had always secretly loved, but never felt good enough for. “Surviving what? A life without me, because it sure seemed like you were happy out there on your own, away from me.”

“You’re mine, Penny. For fucking ever. I don’t want to annul anything. I want to keep you. My filthy bride. I want you, for always.”

“You were this beautiful dream that just walked into my life when I was thirteen, too young to know what to do with it. You were as out of reach to me as the stars. I’d watch you and you were imprinted in my mind, running through it at night, claiming every waking moment in the morning. I’d see you in school and I’d miss what the assignment was, or what the club had asked me to do. You were always watching me, and I could feel this pull between us, and I knew…I knew if I gave in to it, then you’d become part of the club. You’d lose that star lust in your eyes, that wonder that made them sparkle. You’d dim, and I couldn’t live in a world where you were any less bright. So I backed off, and watched you from the shadows.”

“It was always you, Jameson. It always will be you forever. I only chose Luke because I had to move on from you. But you’re in here for always.” I pointed at my heart as tears blurred my vision. The gun went off.