“She did. Repeatedly,” Steve growled, yanking Alex back and frog marching him toward the door. Alex threw his arms out, trying to grab hold of something, anything to stop his ungraceful exit, but it was all for nothing because Steve would not be stopped in his drive to put Alex out of her apartment.
"Hey!" Jordyn yelled, waving a finger at Alex, “He is not a criminal!” she told him, but then paused and quietly added, “I think,” before following after them. She decided not to think too much on that because even if Steve were a criminal, Alex had no right to act like he had a leg to stand on in this scenario. “And even if he is one, who are you to say anything about it? I can have sex with whoever I want!”
“Get your hands off of me,” Alex sputtered, swinging a fist wildly at Steve, but the other man just sidestepped him and twisted the fist up behind Alex’s back with an almost tired expression. They were in front of her still open door now and Alex cried out, looking to Jordyn. “Get him off me,” he pleaded.
“Steve, just make him go,” she groaned, her face in her hands. How had she been in love with this man? He hadn’t always been like this, had he?
“You got it,” Steve grunted and a second later, he threw Alex out into the hallway. She walked up to the doorway where Steve was barring Alex’s re-entry and her ex-boyfriend drew himself up from an undignified heap on the ground to scramble back a good ten feet or so. Only then did he speak, or rather yell.
“I’m coming back here to talk to you later, Jordyn!” He was still backing up, halfway down the breeze way, and edging closer to the stairs with every passing second. A door opened, and when a head popped out, Jordyn bit her lip and shot an apologetic look at her elderly neighbor, who’d poked her head out to take in the scene. The old woman didn’t look angry. In fact, she was grinning and watching the whole thing like it was her favorite soap opera. Jordyn half expected her to pull out a bag of popcorn as she watched them argue.
“No, you’re not! We are through,” Jordyn snapped at Alex.
“Sonofabitch. The key. He still has your key,” Steve told her and charged down the hall after her ex, but Jordyn grabbed him by the arm stopping him.
“You want it? Come and get it!” Alex taunted, holding the key out, his eyes locked with Steve’s. Jordyn tensed because she could almost see the gears working in Alex’s brain. He was planning something, she knew it.
“Asshole,” Steve grumbled, pushed away from the door to follow Alex, but she moved in front of him and stopped him again.
“No, don’t! He’s just trying to bait you. I—I look I know that’s what he wants, and I don’t want you to get in trouble, Steve.” She was unsure if he'd listen to her, so she wrapped her arms around his waist. Thankfully, he stopped and looked down at her.
Jordyn tightened her arms around him, cheek pressed to his chest and looked up at him. “Please? Who cares? He’s out of the apartment. That’s all that matters,” she whispered.
Steve sighed and looked up at Alex, who was watching them intently from a safe distance. Then he begrudgingly nodded. “Okay.”
Jordyn breathed out a sigh of relief and had started to pull Steve back into the apartment with her when Alex spoke again. “We will talk, Jordyn. And you will make up for this,” he said with a jab of his finger, the key still firmly in his hand.
Jordyn only rolled her eyes, but Steve stiffened under her hands. He pinned Alex with a cold stare. “If I catch you here again…” his voice trailed off and his jaw clenched.
“What do you mean again? You’re just some loser she fucked because she was hurt,” Alex scoffed. “What is she going to want with you again after last night?” he added with a sneer.
Jordyn felt like she had been slapped when Steve’s body locked, frozen right up under her hands, and not in the about-to-beat-up-her-ex kind of way, but in the kind of way that told her Alex’s words had had an effect on him. She hated that.
“Don’t you dare talk to Steve like that!” Jordyn turned around and, pantless or not, she was going to give Alex a piece of her mind. But this time it was Steve who hooked an arm around her waist and pulled her back against him, moving them back into the apartment. Even as he pulled her back, Jordyn angled towards Alex.
She wasn’t done. Not by a long shot.
“You don’t get to talk to him like that. Shut the fuck up, Alex!” she screamed, and before the door shut, she saw Alex’s eyes widen. He was unaccustomed to Jordyn speaking to him in anger. She had, until the day before, always looked at him with nothing but love and spoke to him with nothing short of adoration. To hear her yelling at him, let alone cursing, was shocking.
With the door shut, Jordyn sagged against it and latched the chain in place with a shaky sigh. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled, her forehead falling forward against the door.
“For what?” Steve asked, glaring at the door that was now between them and Alex.
“For putting you in that situation. He was such an asshole, talking to you like that.” She closed her eyes and let out a sigh. Steve stepped up and put a hand on her back, rubbing it gently. He leaned against the door, looking at her. Jordyn relaxed slightly under his touch and turned to him with a weak smile. “You’re a much nicer person than he is,” she said, and he shook his head at her.
“What?” she asked in confusion at the look on his face, at the look she saw in Steve's eyes. Jordyn swallowed hard as she tried to decipher his expression. Steve, whose eyes seemed to see too much of her, was looking at her the way she had always wanted Alex to look at her.
Steve was looking at her like he needed her. Like he wanted her.
“You,” he said, and slid his hand up, gently rubbing the back of her neck. “You’re this fucking sweet girl. What were you doing with him? What the hell are you doing with me?”
“I’m not as sweet as you seem to think, and he was a really good liar.” Jordyn furrowed her brow and then blurted out, “And besides I like you. Or I mean, I like what we, ah did, last night.”
Steve laughed. “Yeah, I liked that too.” He turned his head to eye the deadbolt with a raised eyebrow before she could say anything. “You’re going to need new locks, Jordyn.”
She sighed and pushed her hands through her hair. “I know. I’ll call the handyman. He’ll probably get to it later this week, or something.”
Steve closed his eyes at her unconcerned tone. “Later this week?” he asked, clearly not liking the idea of her ex being able to make good on his promise to come back later.
