She just gave him a peck on the cheek before heading to the bathroom. A quick glance in the mirror confirmed what she had expected to see: she looked utterly wrecked. And that was even after he had been distracted by the torrent of text messages. He was that good.
Back in the kitchen, Jordan was standing by the table, typing away again on his phone. His lips quietly mouthed his response on the keypad, which Charlotte found adorable, while the phone still beeped as he tried to answer all the incoming texts. He finally gave up and unceremoniously dropped it on table, rolling his eyes and staring up at the ceiling, his hands on his hips.
"Charlotte, you have no idea how much I wish I could take you back to my bed right now."
"I can make a pretty good guess."
The phone dinged again and he broke out of his trance to give it a death glare as if he had committed some heinous crime against him, which, to be fair, it kind of did.
Charlotte walked over to him, her hand slipping into his and holding on to reassure him. "Believe me, I would like nothing better than to pay you back for what you just did to me, but would you rather be down at the arena dealing with all of this?"
Jordan gave her a genuine smile, which was surprising considering the circumstances. "I don't think I've ever met anyone like you, Charlotte."
"I hope that's a good thing."
He planted a passionate kiss on lips. "It's a very good thing," he said, his voice husky and raw.
The look on his face made her forget the world, forget everything around them, and just made her want to forget the damn bedroom and have her way with him right there on the kitchen table.
Then his cell phone rang. Seriously, when this day was over, she was going to take a sledgehammer to that nefarious device. Jordan dropped his head, resting his forehead on hers and giving her a sheepish smile.
She pulled away and lightly tapped his shoulder. "Let's get you to work," she said. "You're not going to be of any use to me here."
He gently kissed her again and then answered the call, his head hanging low as he mumbled into the phone and headed upstairs.
Charlotte found bagels for them, slathered on some cream cheese and wrapped them in paper towels. She grabbed his untouched coffee and found a travel mug in the cupboard to pour it into for him.
But with him upstairs with his phone, she suddenly realized how quiet it was. Too quiet. Quiet enough that the thoughts his hands had distracted her from earlier were starting to push their way back. How was she ever going to tell Jordan about her past relationship with Declan? She definitely figured that now would be the worst time for that. He didn't need the distraction, especially not when he hated Declan already and was dreading the fact that he would have to face him in New York.
Ugh, New York. She was headed there this afternoon on a flight home to see her parents. Jordan was going to have to face off against Declan at Madison Square Garden, and she was going to be there. Charlotte had never really worried about any kind of gossip making its way through this city about them, but it was Detroit and far away from Page Six in theNew York Post.
Jordan's footsteps distracted her from freaking out any further. "You ready to go, Charlie?"
"I would prefer to leave the house with some clothes on." He handed over her jeans and nothing else. "I think you're missing a few things here."
"You can get the rest of your things when you return my jersey," he teased.
"That's fine. I can just buy another gray t-shirt."
His eyes narrowed. "You do realize there's also a black lace—" He strung several swear words together as he was interrupted by his phone.
"How about I just answer your messages for you as you drive me home?" Charlotte said, taking the phone from his hand and replacing it with his travel mug.
"What's this?"
"Your coffee," she explained. "I have your bagel wrapped up and ready to go too."
A smile spread across his face. "You really are amazing," he said, pulling her in to plant a passionate kiss on her lips. And then his phone, now in Charlotte's hands, beeped again. "Get your things, Charlie. It's time to go to work."
Jordan was practically on autopilot as he drove from his place back to the city, distracted by two things in his car. The first was his beeping phone that didn't know when to shut the hell up. The second was Charlotte Stone.
"OK, so Logan wants to know if you can talk to management about getting another defenseman."
He sighed. "I don't make the trades, and I don't know if I would do that even if I could because I don't want any of our guys leaving for another team."
"That's a bit sentimental, don't you think?"
He grabbed his coffee from the cup holder and took a sip, thankful that Charlotte had found the travel mug. "Not sentimental."
