AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Jordan pressed his lips into a thin line. She wondered if he was holding back words. “Never,” he then said. “You couldn’t be bad if you tried.”
She swallowed. His gaze was warm, but there was something in the way he said it that made her feel there was another layer of meaning to his words. Maybe he preferred people who could be a little bad.
“I hope you have time for coffee,” she said, turning toward the gurgling machine and throwing her gum into the sink. “Or I could prepare it in a takeaway cup. I have all sorts …” She trailed off when he reached her and slipped his arms around her waist, drawing her to him, pressing her back against his chest.
He kissed the crown of her head. “You never asked why I kissed you that time or why I didn’t get in touch after,” he said, his lips on her hair.
“You never asked why I kissed you last night, either,” she said.
“True.” He huffed a chuckle.
“I wanted to.” She pivoted in his arms and looked up into his face. Their eyes connected.
Jordan dipped his head and kissed her, soft and gentle. He smelled of sex, and toothpaste, and remnants of aftershave, and she inhaled his neck over the edge of his Henley when she leaned her cheek against his chest.
“I wish I could stay. If Luke was on shift, I could stall some more.” As an air marshal, Luke could help him through a rapid security check.
She nodded against his chest.
“I know this wasn’t the plan yesterday when you ran into me, but I’m happy this happened,” he added, and she could hear his voice reverberating in his chest. “Can I call you when I’m there and see you when I’m back here, and we could …” His voice faded.
She pulled herself back a bit. “Yes.”
“You still haven’t asked why I didn’t—”
“You didn’t know what to do with it, and neither did I.”
He huffed a dry chuckle. “Something like that, just more complicated. Can we talk about it when I’m back? Because, Hope, I want to uncomplicate it.”
“We can.” She smiled. “I’ll make coffee.” Reaching for a regular mug and a plastic travel one with The Mean Bean logo on it, Hope tried to stifle the happy dance her heart was doing. There was a lot to analyze.
Jordan leaned against the counter as she handed him the travel mug.
“I’ll return it when I’m back,” he said, raising it in cheers.
She raised hers, too, and they both sipped. Hope felt almost like she had when she had tried the cocktails—needing to continue sipping because she didn’t know what to say and worried that, if her mouth was free, it would reveal too much of her heart. Her feelings for him had first snuck in then raided her heart.
She hadn’t meant or wanted to fall in love with him, but she had. So. Fucking. Much. And it was too late to fight, ignore, deny, or defy. While the promises they had just made were enough for now, she was risking more than she had planned. More than she had thought possible.
She then saw him to the door, where they stopped and kissed again. It was slow, and deep, and searing. But they let go, and then she opened the door, glad the neighborhood was still asleep and not witnessing former town local, Jordan Delaney, coming out of a Riviera View’s school teacher’s house at this ungodly hour on a Sunday.
Jordan turned to look at her once from the lane and once again before he drove away. Hope closed the front door and leaned against it, her heart bursting in her chest as she rushed to the bedroom and flung herself onto the disarray of sheets that still smelled of Jordan and her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“This suite is too tidy. I could use some mess on the dining table.”
Hope looked at the text and smiled to herself, remembering the pile of papers, uneaten sandwiches, and the sweatshirt that had been shoved together to the far end of her dining table the night before while she was getting the third orgasm of the night.
She sat in her bed, the bedding changed, her left hand caressing Naomi’s hair, while the right held the phone. Hannah was sound asleep to her right. Both had been exhausted and so happy, spreading their gifts as she had helped them unpack. They wanted to sleep in her bed that night, and she had agreed.
“What about the bed? Because mine is crowded,” she texted back. She wasn’t good at flirting, and it took her longer than it probably should have to respond.
“This one’s too cold.Everyone’s back? Did they like the gifts from the fair?”
She bit her bottom lip and shook her head in disbelief. He remembered the little details. She wasn’t used to being noticed like that.
“Loved them!” she texted back. The girls had been thrilled at the things she had gotten for them, and she had smiled at how big the pink paper bag looked in their excited little hands versus how small it had looked in Jordan’s.
