Promises You Can't Keep (A Tom Hiddleston/Lee Pace Fan Fic)

Part 1 ~ Chapter 8

Tom's POV

I'd lied to Mallory when I told her I was 20 minutes away. In reality, I was parked right outside of her building, and I had been for the last half hour.

I'd fought with myself internally about whether I should ring her. Would she want to see me? If so, what would we talk about? Would she forgive me for abandoning her? Now that she has a new man in her life, would she even care about me anymore?

I think back to the beginning. Not the beginning of our relationship but of our benefits arrangement. We had been drinking at the pub and ended up back at my place.

"You have terrible taste in women, Hiddleston," she'd said as I was sharing details of my most recent spectacular break up.

"Tell me something I don't know, Weathers," I said as I handed her a Guinness.

"I mean, not only do you manage to date someone that throws your entire fan base into a tizzy, and not in a good way, mind you, but you also tarnished your Internet's Boyfriend crown," she said, clinking the neck of her bottle against mine.

"Well, what about you? That Brian was a real winner!"

"His name was Brent, and he wasn't that bad," she said. I remembered that his name was Brent; I just didn't like him enough to call him by the correct name. He never treated her as I thought she should be: the princess she is in my eyes.

"Why don't you date more?" I asked suddenly, looking at Mallory and realizing not for the first time that she's beautiful, both inside and out.

She shrugged as she took a sip of her beer. "I just don't feel the need."

I raised my eyebrow at her. "You don't feel any need whatsoever?"

"Well, there is that need. But that's what a vibrator is for," she said with a straight face before taking another sip of beer to cover the smile forming on her lips.

I took the beer from her hand and set it on the coffee table beside mine before letting out a war cry and tackling her on the sofa.

"You take that back! Vibrators are not the same as having a man!" I said as I tickled her mercilessly. She laughed and struggled, trying to reach my tickle zones. Luckily for me, I had her arms pinned until she managed to get one free, going for my neck. As I scrunched my head between my shoulders and shifted my body to avoid her attack, I overcompensated and ended up on the floor, lying on my back.

"Are you alright?" she asked while barely suppressing a giggle. I put on my best 'I'm hurt' face to distract her.

"Tom, are you hurt?" she asked with genuine concern. I grabbed her hand and pulled her on top of me, causing her to screech then slap my chest.

"You ass! I thought you were really hurt!"

"I'm sorry," I said as I tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear, thinking how I've always thought her long brown hair was the most luxurious I've ever seen.

This is a bad idea, Mate, I remember thinking. I paid my thought no heed.

"I take it back," she said softly. "Men are better than vibrators."

"How so?" I asked just as softly as I looked from her eyes to her lips.

"They're warm to the touch, and there's a certain chemistry that's palpable when you're with the right one," she said.

That's when I did it. I kissed her.

I'd kissed Mallory before, even on the lips, but this was nothing like any of those kisses. Mallory's lips seemed to fit perfectly with mine, and as I licked her bottom lip with my tongue, she willingly parted her lips so our tongues could caress one another. When we broke the kiss, I dared not open my eyes. Luckily, Mallory seemed just as shy about making eye contact as she nuzzled her face into my neck.