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“I don’t consider getting to know you or spending time with you a waste of my time at all. I very much enjoyed today.”
She stepped back outside, closing the door behind her, her brows were pinched and she was scowling up at him in a ridiculously adorable way. She reminded him of a very angry, very cheeky squirrel. Maybe it was her little nose or the fact that she had these beautiful high cheekbones and long caramel brown hair, but whatever it was, she reminded him of a cute little squirrel ready to tear a strip off a chipmunk for stealing her acorns.
“So when is the next date?” she asked, so full of sass he had to resist the urge to grab her ponytail and claim her mouth.
“I’m on four days off now. So depends when you’re free.”
“Does tomorrow make me sound too eager for dick?”
He tossed his head back and laughed, this time unable to keep his grin from growing from ear to ear. He took a couple of steps forward, boxing her body in against the door, his hands on either side of her. But he wasn’t touching her. He brought his mouth next to her ear and gently, softly, pressed his lips to her cheek. She sucked in a sharp breath.
“I like you, Rayma. I’ll pick you up tomorrow at nine o’clock. It’s supposed to be a nice day, let’s go for a hike.” He stepped away from her, loving how big her pupils had grown with her arousal, and the way her nostrils flared as her eyes scanned his body from top to toe. She licked her lips.
“A-a … hike?” she stammered.
He nodded. “Yes, a hike. I’ll pack us a lunch. Bring some gloves, it’s supposed to be chilly.” Then before his resolve to do things differently crumbled and he found himself between her thighs and swallowing her groans, he shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and headed back up the path to his truck.
There was just something special about Rayma. He didn’t like the whole, “she’s not like other girls” saying. Because, well, he’d dated women similar to her, but none that he’d found himself so undeniably drawn to. None with the confidence or complete lack of a filter that Rayma had. She was right, she was wise beyond her years. An old soul.
He climbed into his truck and adjusted his erection in his jeans.
The discomfort and agony of the wait would be worth it. Rayma Young was the woman he was meant to be with, he could just feel it, and fuck if he wasn’t going to do everything he could not to screw things up with her.
***
Present day …
“You didn’t need to accompany me home,” Rayma said, as the cab meandered its way out of the downtown core and up toward suburbia and Gordon Head which was where Rayma lived. She was still in the same place she’d been three years ago.
Jordan shook his head. “I want to make sure you get home okay. Just because you weren’t the one beat up doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to be rattled.” He gave her a poignant look, saying the words without speaking them.
He was worried about her PTSD and dreams. But he didn’t want to be a dick and talk about it within earshot of the cab driver.
She seemed to pick up on what he was putting down, rolled her eyes, and glanced out the window. “I’ll be fine, but thank you.”
“No problem.” His brows bunched in thought for a second.
“What?” she asked with an exasperated sigh.
He shook his head. “Nothing.”
“Ugh, WHAT, Jordan?”
“I just … you know better, Rayma. We bothknowyou know better. Why did you go with them? You’ve also had self-defense training, can take down guys bigger than you. I’ve seen it. So I just …” He shoved his fingers into his hair and made a low growl in his chest. “I’m just trying to understandwhyyou went with them and how you ended up almost getting raped, Peyton ended up drugged and beaten. I just … I just don’t get it.”
She shot him a sideways look. “Really? After our awkward as fuck interaction earlier, where I met yourgirlfriend, and found out you’ve been back in the city for months, are you really surprised that I would do something stupid and reckless to get you the fuck out of my head?” She shook her head. “And yeah, Icantake down a guy bigger than me, but there were two of them, Peyton doesnothave self-defense training, and we’re both under the influence. I shoved my survival mode aside to make sure my friend was okay.Shewas my main concern. Not me. Her.”
Heat wormed its way up from his chest into his neck and face. Of course, Rayma would think about Peyton’s safety before she’d think about her own. That was just the kind of tender-hearted person that Rayma was. Even though she might have a bit of an abrasive exterior, Jordan knew better than most that was mostly just a thin shell of armor. When you got to know her, she was the sweetest, gentlest soul with an enormous heart. She still lacked a filter, but that was one of the things Jordan loved most about her.
She shook her head again. “Sorry if Idisappointedyou, Officer Lassiter. But seeing my ex-boyfriend, the man I thought I was going to spend my life with, at the bar with another woman, kind of fucked with my head.”
Jordan pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut.
Why did he have to open up this can of worms? Was he really that much of a glutton for punishment? He’d never considered himself much of a masochist. And yet, this was fucking torture and of his own making no-less.
He didn’t say anything else for a while. What could he say?
“Laura seems nice,” Rayma said after several minutes of painfully awkward silence that had been filled with a lot of mental flagellation in Jordan’s head.
