Chapter Fourteen
It happened thatnight.
By it, I mean something that shifted our relationship completely and in an unexpected way.
When we arrived back at my townhouse after brunch, Jordan grabbed me. “Now I can show you how I feel about this dress,” he whispered in my ear.
I shivered as he carried me to the couch.
From his words, I expected him to be demanding, raw, and maybe even a little wild. Instead, his hands moved over me with deliberate slowness, his touch sure but nearly reverent.
Jordan laid me back on the couch, his palms cupping the nape of my neck and his thumbs running down the sides of my throat from my jaw to my collarbones. I stared up at him as he knelt at my feet, his hands moving over my torso, down to my hips, thighs, and finally stopping at my knees.
He unzipped the gray suede boots I wore and set them on the floor, each motion efficient and with intent. Then his hands returned to my legs, sliding up my calves to my thighs until his fingers hooked around the lacy edge of my thigh highs.
I watched as he rolled the sheer material down my leg, his eyes following the movement of his hands and the skin revealed. When he tossed both thigh highs on the coffee table, I wanted to sit up, to reach for him, but I was entranced by the look in his eyes as they drifted over me.
As it had been two years ago, our passion for each other burned bright and hot, so we came together frequently and often urgently. Other times, we were languid, exploring each other’s bodies leisurely.
But this was different.
I sensed that Jordan was revealing something important to me, using his body to share his emotions. Though he could wield words as weapons, with both wit and acid, I was discovering that Jordan Hawke was at his most eloquent when he allowed his actions to speak for him.
I lay still as he unfastened the waist of the wrap dress, drawing each side apart to reveal my body. With the palm of one hand, he traced a line from my sternum, down between my breasts, over my belly, to the top edge of my panties. Once again, his eyes followed the motion of his hand closely. Beneath the heat and weight of his palm, my heart began to pound, my body responding to the statement he made with his touch.
Jordan stripped me bare, removing far more than my clothes. He broke down the last of the barriers I’d erected around my heart and soul. He began to remove his own clothes and I sat up, reaching out to touch and taste each part he revealed.
Without urgency, he pulled me into him, our bodies pressed together from shoulder to knee and kissed me. As one kiss blended into the next, his hands brought my body to life, finding every erogenous zone I possessed, even a few that surprised me.
When we were both naked and moving together, I tucked my face into his throat, pressing my lips to his skin. Each thrust, every stroke, reached a part of me I’d long since buried. As I came, our gazes locked, his blue eyes burning beneath the heavy lids. Neither of us looked away, even when it was over and we were both breathing heavily and damp with sweat.
I understood then what he was telling me, what he was giving me. This beautiful, complex man feared being vulnerable as much as I did. Probably more so. It was one of the many traits we shared, but also the one that could most easily tear us apart if we let it.
It was time to stop letting fear hobble me. It didn’t matter if things worked out or not because what we had right now was worth fighting for.
Combing my fingers through his dark hair, I whispered, “I love you.”
Jordan’s forehead touched mine and he closed his eyes, his body relaxing into mine. “I love you too,” he replied, his arms wrapping around me as he rolled onto his side. I could feel his heart beating hard against mine and understood that saying those words hadn’t been easy for him, just as they hadn’t been easy for me.
To my surprise, he admitted as much. “It will get easier to say if we practice,” he stated quietly, tucking my face against his chest.
“Probably,” I agreed. “You go first this time.”
I felt and heard his laughter against my ear. “You’re never going to make things easy for me, are you?”
Tilting my head back so I could meet his gaze, I declared, “You’d be bored stiff if I made things easy for you.”
“That’s true,” he admitted. Then he released me, rolled off the couch, and tugged me to my feet. “We’re both hot and sweaty, let’s take a bath.”
The gleam in his eye said bathing would be the last thing on the agenda since my bathtub was big enough for two and jetted. Curious as to how creative he could get in the water, I grinned and asked, “Care to wash my back?”
Laughing he pulled me toward the hall. “At your service.”
Later that night,Jordan and I lay in bed, naked and replete. My cheek rested on his shoulder and my hand lay over his heart so I could feel and see the steady thump of his heart.
Two years ago, I never would have let myself imagine that Jordan would love me in return, but today he’d said the words. I still couldn’t believe I’d had the courage to speak them first. I hadn’t told a man I loved him since my early twenties. It was more difficult than I remembered. Three one syllable words shouldn’t be so hard to say aloud.
But they were three words with the power to change a person’s life.
