The Promise (The 'Burg, #5)

by Kristen Ashley

So you got a bright idea, cara, get rid of it. ’Cause your ass is in that bed until you have a sit-down with Ma, let Pop say his words to make amends, and you and me got a meetin’ of the minds about the future.”

“No,” he returned immediately. “I’m thirty-five and single because I am not gonna settle for somethin’ that doesn’t feel right, doesn’t feel good, doesn’t bring me joy, doesn’t have my back, doesn’t know how to cook, keep house, listen, laugh, make me laugh, give great head, or ask me why I do shit.”

At this point, Ben looked at me. “And there it is, tesorina—a woman askin’ a man ‘why’ when the answer doesn’t mean shit.” I couldn’t hold it back. I grinned at him. The instant I did, I wished I’d held it back because his face changed in a way I wanted to remember for the rest of my life. “The s-word is not much better, Benito Bianchi,” his mother snapped, but Benny didn’t look from me. Instead, he came at me, bent in, grabbed me behind my head, and pulled me gently to him until I felt his lips on my hair. He let me back and I tipped my head to catch his eyes. “I’ll get to the restaurant so I can be back quick,” he said quietly. “All right,” I agreed.

“You were mine, even when you were his.” He was right. It was whacked. It didn’t even make sense. But I’d always loved Benny. We were tight. We got along. Of all Vinnie’s family, I was closest with Benny. It made me happy being around him.

It was at this inopportune moment that all that I’d just done hit me in the way of the sane, rational person I wanted always to be (but rarely was) rather than the insane, crazy slut I’d just acted like, which seemed to happen a lot around Benny.

Why is she a slut for following her heart and taking what she wants from the man she loves??

This was because Benny Bianchi was always going to be a promise at the same time Benny Bianchi was the prize at the end of a crazy life.

“I’m not dead, either, babe. And I might see a pretty woman, but even if I do, I’m not doin’ my job if you don’t know down to your gut there’s nothin’ I see that’s as beautiful as what I see in you.”

“Never loved another woman. Not in my life,” he said quietly, and my breath went funny. “Waited until I got it right,” he went on. His hand squeezed mine, he moved so the tip of his nose skimmed mine, and he finished, “I got it right.”