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She’d wanted this from the moment she’d first laid eyes on him. She’d wanted his arms around her, his lips tight against hers. But the reality was so much more than she’d imagined. The taste of him flooded her senses. And all she could think was that it wasn’t enough.
She could only cry out his name. He responded by moving impatient hands along the sides of her body, up higher to her shoulders.
For some reason he tore his lips from hers and she thought the loss would break her.
“Jess? Are you sure, sweetheart?” he asked again, his voice full of longing. He was being touchingly careful with her, making sure to ask yet again if this was what she wanted.
Her answer was to slowly slide the straps of her dress off her shoulders and let it slip off her onto the ground.
Jordan sucked in his breath. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pulled him up against her. Her need for him had reached a near maddening apex. “Now, Jordan. Please.”
He obliged at once.
Jess turned herself over to him completely, let the pleasure of his touch and kiss burn through her from inside and out. The world ceased to turn. Only the two of them existed. All that mattered was the here and now.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
WHEN JESS WALKED into the kitchen the next morning, the world was different. Everything had changed. She’d spent the night in Jordan Paydan’s bed. No matter what happened from here on out, the reality of that was the simple truth. More important, she was beginning to see through the surface to the man he truly was.
Jordan stood in front of the kitchen counter by the coffeepot as if willing it to brew faster.
He finally noticed her presence behind him. “Good morning.”
“Morning,” she responded with a shy smile. She didn’t have much experience with morning-afters. In fact, aside from Gary and that one summer, she didn’t have much experience in general.
“Coffee should be ready in a few minutes,” he informed her then turned back to the pot.
Jess grappled for something appropriate to say. It wasn’t easy. And she blundered it royally. “I wanted to thank you for last night,” she began, before it occurred to her how the statement might be misconstrued. She quickly explained. “I mean for taking me to the roof, that is. Not for—you know.”
Oh, dear. That didn’t sound much better. She was really messing this up.
Jordan simply chuckled but his laugh held no real amusement. The lines of his face were set tight, his jaw clenched.
Taking a deep breath, she tried again. “I won’t soon forget how utterly magical the city looks from up that high. I wanted you to know that.”
He came over to her and rubbed a finger softly down her cheek. She had to suppress a shudder at his touch. Memories of the previous night flooded her mind before she could do anything to stop it.
“You’re welcome, Jess. Maybe I can take you up there again sometime.”
Wow. So that was how they were going to play this next round.
He wasn’t even sure if he would ever bring her back here, to his original home. Would she ever get another opportunity to travel back to New York with him? What did it mean for her heart that she wasn’t sure of the answer? So many questions that had to be answered in this new reality. Well, she was a big girl. One who would have to accept fully the consequences of the decisions she’d made last night.
“Do you have access to the roof because you own the penthouse?” she asked by way of conversation.
Jordan cleared his throat. “Not quite.”
Jess raised her eyebrows in question.
Jordan shrugged in a distracted, casual gesture that belied his next words. “I have access because I own the whole building. Along with several other buildings like it throughout Manhattan and the Upper East Side.”
Jess felt her jaw drop. “You own the entire building? And other similar ones?”
“That’s right. My family’s main source of income is prime New York real estate.” His gaze searched her face. “I guess that never came up.”
No. It certainly had not. She’d known Jordan was well-off. That fact was obvious to the naked eye. But apparently, he was more than just wealthy. Turned out he was a billionaire.
“No. It certainly didn’t come up.” She would have remembered.
