by Samara King
She slipped on the mask, put on the face of businesswoman and hostess. She was ready to see that this party was started off on the right foot.
JORDAN COULDN'T BELIEVE his eyes. He openly stared at the beautiful woman standing across the room from him, though he only caught her side profile, the wave of familiarity washed over him like a sucker punch to the gut. Those almond-shaped brown eyes, smooth skin the color of creamy coffee and lush lips made his body rise.
Belinda.
His and Nate's Belinda. What was she doing here? How?
She was looking in the total opposite direction of him and Jordan used the opportunity to gawk at the woman who'd won his heart when he was a mere kid. And now that he was a man?
Nostalgia and emotions he'd wrapped up tightly and buried came busting through his body. He'd never thought he'd see her again. Didn't even know that she was still in L.A. He stepped back, bracing himself against the wall, yet keeping his eyes on Belle.
What would he say? What could he say? After 13 years had lapsed since Nate's death. And she blamed him and would never forgive him. He needed air.
He passed through the newly arriving guests, across the huge ballroom floor and up the stairs to the only place he could sick some solitude. His mind was already replaying the way the clingy dress she wore fit against her curves. Curves his hands had once touched and branded as his own.
Jordan took the stairs two at a time. He couldn't breathe. He had to get some air and now! Never mind that he was still deciding whether or not to find Belinda and bridge the gap she wanted to burn between them.
Chapter Four
BELINDA SMILED UNTIL her face felt like it were detached from her body, she nodded and shook hands with some of the world's famous entertainers, NFL and NBA stars and starlets.
Her feet were killing her. Her eyes wandered up the stairs, she knew if she could get a few moments to herself, she could recover and come back down before the countdown.
When she reached the first step, greeted guests on her way up as they were returning to the ballroom and was thankful when she reached the top. She turned back around to watch the scene.
People were laughing, drinking and dancing. The festivities were going off seamlessly, the music was lively and kept bodies on the dance floor, and the food was wonderfully prepared. She made it a point to talk to her Head Chef for his wonderful job.
Belinda turned and hit a brick wall and felt herself falling backwards before a pair of strong arms reached out to catch her. "Oh my God!" She clutched on the man's shoulders.
"I got you," he said, pulling her against him. "Don't worry."
The smell of his cologne made her eyes jerk to his face at the same time that he looked down at her. The recognition between them could have started a four alarm blaze. She felt her whole body ache and his eyes appeared to be shouting the same thing.
"You!" They both said in unison.
Belinda grinned and suddenly felt like she didn't have the appropriate words; her thoughts were coming a thousand miles per hour. She couldn't believe that he was standing here. She recognized everything about him, his voice, those shoulders, the way his skin smelled earthy and masculine and that smile.
"I-I don't know what to say...ah, thank you, for catching me."
"Me either and you're welcome." His warm hands braced her shoulders. His fingers briefly run over the small butterfly she’d gotten when she eighteen.
They continued to stare at each other. The sexual tension between them as strong as it had been that night a year ago.
"Maybe we should go somewhere a little more private." Belinda said, wishing her voice didn't sound so seductive.
But what did she really care? They had passed that boundary and many others.
His eyes dipped to her bare shoulder and widened. “I-I think that would be a good idea.”
Why did he look like he’d just seen a ghost? She chalked it up to surprise. She definitely was. She’d been hopeful and now he was here. Right behind her. His nearness made her switch her hips just a little bit longer than she normally would.
Grateful for the few seconds she had before they were facing each other again, Belinda took a deep breath. She’d thought of this happening, but was nowhere near prepared to actually say what at one point seemed so natural. She imagined Hav would laugh in disbelief that she was actually lost for words, had lost her cool.
Get it together, Belinda told herself. She wasn’t about to mess this up. She entered the private room and heard his footsteps behind her and then the door closing. She turned around, taking off her mask.
“I wasn’t sure you would show up this year. Especially since...since –“
He stepped forward, his eyes roaming over her and then stopped. “Since we didn’t exactly make arrangements to meet again.”
“Yes, but I’m glad that we have this chance and I know it may sound crazy but I haven’t been able to forget that night we spent together.”
“I couldn’t forget either.” He looked away from her and down at his hands. “I don’t regret that night.”
“I don’t either. I know this may seem bold.”
His eyes found hers. “I think we’ve surpassed that point.”
Belinda smiled. “I suppose you’re right. Yet, there’s so much I don’t know about you.” She took a step closer. “Like your name. Where you’re from? Do you think we could remedy that?”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
“Why?”
EVEN AS HE SAID THE words, Jordan knew that he didn't mean them deep down inside. He wanted Belinda more than he ever wanted any woman. But no one could be more surprised than him at the turn of events. The last woman he'd expected under the lacy mask was Belinda. He had made love to her. Again.
A promise they had both made to never happened after the first time they'd given in to the fierce attraction between them. It had been before Nate had disclosed his feelings for her, but after he had Jordan had backed away. He had never wanted to break up the relationship that seemed to make his friend and Belinda so happy.
She had never brought up their night together until they'd kissed. Right before t all hell b had broken lose, Nate had died and he'd been sent to prison - losing 10 years of his life. He gripped his hands into fists.
He imagined the damn irony of having the woman - the only woman he'd ever love stripped away from him again. The first time he'd sacrificed for the sake of Nate and now, he'd had have to sacrifice for the sake of Belinda's hate for him and who he really was.
"I don't think you'll feel that way if you got to know me."
"You're not an ax murderer, are you?" Belinda stepped closer. Jordan sighed.
"No.”
“I’m so glad to hear that." She said, watching him. "Why don't you take off your mask? You've seem me."
"You're more beautiful than I remember."
"Thank you. Well?" Jordan hesitated, He couldn’t lie to her. He couldn't pretend to be the stranger she envisioned rather than the man she loathed. He couldn't pretend that he didn't want to bury himself between her legs and forget about the past and start all over again either. He'd never stopped wanting Belinda. If things could be de different, he'd surely make them so.
"You may be shocked.”
She walked over to him, lifting her hands to his mask. "Oh how shocked could I be." She lifted the mask over his eyes and completely removed it. She stepped back. Her eyes moved over him.
Jordan felt anger slice through him and fear, "Do you know who I am?"
Belinda looked for a moment and then stepped back, almost stumbling. She placed her head hand to her mouth. No sound erupted. "Jordan! It can't be. Is this some kind of joke?"
"I assure you it wasn't one I planned. Belinda, I'm ...I'm sorry."
"Sorry? How the hell could this happen?" She turned from him, and paced back and forth. "You're supposed to be in jail!" Her eyes forged into him, looking at him with those cold eyes he remembered at Nate's funeral. Full of c
ontent and anger and more like he was a murderer.
"I got out over three years ago."
"I can’t believe this."
"Yes, Belinda! I never intended for anything like this to happen. I never expected to see you again."
She chuckled bitterly. "It really doesn't matter what you intended now does it, Jordan. You made love to me, here, and last year."
Jordan angled his head at her. "Yes, we made love here."
"It wouldn't have happened if I'd known who the hell you were. What the hell you were doing here?"
"Doing here?" Jordan gestured with his hands. "I never knew you would be here, I didn't even think you'd be here tonight."
"Then why are you here? To get another easy lay?" Jordan gritted his teeth. “You know that’s not the case, Belinda. We wanted each other. Still ...want each other."
"NO!"
"Why did you come to night then?"
She shook her head. "I own Club Reign or didn't you know that either?" Jordan nodded. "No, but I can see fate is having its way with you and I."
"Fate has nothing to do with this. You come back into my life and rock my world all over again. Just like you did when Nate died."
"I didn't ...."
She waved off his words. "I know, I know. You didn’t intend for any of this to happen. But it did and now, I'm standing here wondering how in the hell I'm supposed to feel about making love to the man were responsible for my fiancé’s death."
Jordan didn't respond. "I didn't kill Nate."
"You might as well have." Belinda walked over to him, her finger pointing at him. "You could have stopped it. You could have changed everything instead you left it all happened."
"I did not. Don't you think that if I could have stopped Nate from doing going that night that I would have," she narrowed her eyes. "So you ended up there anyway in the alley. And still Nate died."
"And you wished it had been me. Don't you?" I wish you had stopped them from killing Nate. Instead you fought with them, with Nate and they killed him. "
Jordan felt his anger rise. "Don't you think I think of the night every day of my life? I don't y need you or anyone telling me what I should have done. Nate was the closer thing I’ve ever had to a brother. I loved him. He loved you and I loved you... I still do."
Tears fell from Belinda's eyes. He longed to take her in his arms, hold her and wake them away. He wanted everything to be ok. He wanted her to be with him. And love him, b not the anger and pain in he witnessed in her eyes. He wanted her to fog forgive him for not being able to save Nate from doing something so incredible dangerous that he'd died.
"Don't you dare talk about love to me, Jordan Harris!"
"Why? Because even after all this time you can't deny that you love him and me. That you wanted to make Nate happy but you wanted to be in my arms, my bed."
Belinda's hand contacted against his cheek. Her breathing was uneven; her hair was now rushing down her shoulders.
Jordan felt the sting to his eve very soul. She had just made him remember that day in the cemetery to the fullest. Flashes of the cold winter day, the wooden casket, the black dresses and suits in the f crowd as they'd lowered his friend's body into the ground. The disbelief in Belinda's eyes...it all came back to him.
The 10 years of his life he'd never get back for a crime he'd had nothing to do with: the burglary at the jewelry store. The sound of the guns had gone off in his head repeated again and again. Tears shined in Jordan's eyes when he faced Belinda. "I would have given my life for Nate, for you. Nate loved you, but I always wanted you to be my wife, Belinda. In my heart, you will always be that to me."
She vehemently shook her head.
"I know you wanted me to save Nate. But we both know that Nate had a reckless side in him. He always went for the grandest idea."
"Don't you dare talk about him like that, you didn't know Nate." Jordan forced her around to face him, holding her by the shoulders. "He was like a brother to me, Belinda. You have this unrealistic ideal of who you wanted Nate to be. You never wanted to look deeper into the darker side."
"I don't want to hear this." She moved to step away and Jordan tightened his grip. "No, you listen to me."
"Let go of me."
"Belinda, Nate was into things that you had no idea about, things that were bound to get him killed one day.
"Stop it! You don't know what you're talking about."
"Yes, I do and you know it’s true." "Let go of me, right now!" Jordan released her, stepping to the side. "I wouldn't lie about this. I wouldn't lie about what Nate was getting into back then. I warned him but he wouldn't listen."
SHE FELT THE TEARS and was angrier that she'd let Jordan get to her. She could barely keep the vile down in her stomach as she thought about the very man she'd hungered for his touch was the same man who'd helped in Nate's murder. She heard his words but wouldn't - couldn't believe them. Nate was a good man. He wouldn't do the things that Jordan was suggesting. He was just trying to get her to believe him, to stop hating him for Nate's death.
"I want you out of here."
"Belinda?"
"Now! I want you to forget that you ever saw me again, forget that you even know anything about me, Jordan. This thing is over. And I wish it had never happened."
"I don't believe you.”
“I don't care what you believe. I thought you were a stranger. I couldn’t have known that it was you under the mask and now that I do, there's no need in pretending or believing that anything else can happen between us." 'So you're going to go on, pretending that you don't love me" Belinda jerked her head up at him. "I don't have to pretend. That's the way it is." She walked out the room without looking back at him.
How could it be that Jordan Harris was back in her life? He'd been her mystery lover. The man she'd dreamt about for the last year?
She felt sick as if her world was falling. He had been adamant that he hadn't known that she'd owned the club, but she wasn't sure? She walked into her office and slammed the door. She couldn't believe this was happening to her. For the second time, she'd made love to Jordan. How could she not know? How could she forget the earth-shattering way he'd made her feel the first time they'd ever made love?
Her mind wandered to Nate. Nathaniel Edwards had come into her life so unexpectedly. Her fling with Jordan had been a one-night intense occurrence that even then, had made her wonder at the possibility of more. She'd wanted more than but Jordan and was not the type to settle.
Nate had offered her the love she so desperately sought. She was young and naive and didn't want to wait forever for love to happen to her. In her world, she'd learned that you had to be ready to take what life presented you and run with it. It's how she'd become so successful. Belinda sunk down in her chair, her mind a muddled with so many emotions, she could barely name one.
Jordan.
She could still feel his eyes searching hers. Could feel his hands on her skin as he'd tried to tell her about Nate and his dealings. She couldn't believe that he had the nerve to talk badly about him. After all that had happened.
One of the hardest things she'd ever done was being in love with two men at once. Nate was tall and athletic build, while Jordan was the color of a burnished penny and muscular, his body lean from working out and working a construction job back in the day. From the start, Jordan had been the one to capture her attention. The one that she had been so enamored with. Her body seemed to heat up every time he came into distance. As if sensing his presence. She couldn't explain it. It was as if they were meant to be.
Their lives appeared to be on some parallel line that refused to vaporize. All of that had ended when she'd met and started dating Nate, but in the back of her mind, she remembered, Jordan's touch. He'd never tried to pursue her or tried to get over on their attraction behind Nate's back.
Belinda shook her ha head. Jordan had called it fate. She called it a cruel joke. She'd never expected to see him again. The anger she'd kept at bay for so long was bac
k and bubbling over inside of her. She did blame him for Nate's death. That night had been one of the darkest of her life. And now, he was here, bringing back memories she'd tried to so hard to forget and make peace with.
He had no idea what seeing him had done. And knowing that that'd they'd slept d together. Been so intimately intertwined that she could still feel the force of his thrusts inside of her.
She placed her hands over her eyes and sobbed. How could it be the one man she wanted was the one she could never have? Again?
Chapter Five
NATE'S DEATH HADN'T just been the end of life as Jordan' had known it. It had been the beginning of the end of what fantasy he'd ever had about having Belinda in his life permanently.
He'd pretended that he didn't want anything serious but he'd always wanted her. He'd not He hadn't been ready then to tell her, to take on the responsibility of what a serious relationship would mean. And when things between Nate and Belinda had gotten serious, he'd backed off. But he remembered the kiss. The night of Nate's death. It was what Belinda didn't know.
What he hadn't said. Nate had seen his best friend and his girl kissing and had confronted him shortly before the heist. It had just happened. Jordan hadn't meant for it too. But they'd been laughing and one look into her beautiful brown eyes and he'd been lost as he was always was.
Jordan slammed the palm of his head against the wall. His head hung low as he felt the pain he caused Belinda, again. He couldn't just walk away this time. He couldn't just sacrifice his feelings. The anger in her eyes was only part of the problem, the fact that she thought him a criminal was another. The jewelry store robbery had almost gone without a problem. Until Jordan had learned a of Nate's plan with a neighborhood thug. Raymond Jerome.
Even now the name brought up anger and a need to slam his fist against something. Ray had been in to all sort s of things. Drugs, prostitution and of course, pulling Nate along with him. They were cousins. Nate never seemed to be able to tell Ray "no.”
