Forget Cinderella (True Loves Fairytale Book 1)

by Tracey Champion

  Jordan

  “Jordan?” I hear Cara. Why do I hear her? I have been a light sleeper since she left my room a week ago.

  “Jordan?” She repeats my name with more urgency, and I sit up. I don’t expect what I see before me. Cara looks panicked. She’s wearing nothing more than a tank top and panties.

  “What’s wrong Cara?” Her eyes look frightened, and she seems to be searching my body for something.

  “I…um…I’m sorry I woke you…” She turns to leave. Oh hell no. I’m not letting her leave. I quickly grab her around the waist and pull her onto my bed.

  “Cara Mia, what happened?” I soften my voice to calm her. She turns in my arms and stares at me. I can see her eyes are pools of unshed tears.

  “I had a nightmare. He…he killed you.” Oh. I can handle this.

  “Hey pretty girl, as you can see I’m fine. Travis can’t hurt me.” She blinks and I watch the tears fall. I take my thumb and brush them away.

  “I’m sorry I woke you. I should go back to my room.” I listen to her say the words, but she doesn’t move. I can see that she’s fighting a battle with herself. Fuck me if I’m going to let her leave.

  “No, stay with me, please.” I move the covers and lay back down inviting her to lay next to me. I won’t force her to stay as much as I would love to do just that. Cara turns, and I think she is leaving me, but instead she slides under the covers. She doesn’t lie directly next to me that is not what I want. She’s close to the end of the bed. I can fix this.

  Cara

  I don’t know why I accepted his offer to stay, but I do. I choose to lie close to the end of the bed. I figured when he laid the cover on me we would just go to sleep. I was semi wrong. Jordan moved, and I felt his arm reach around me then I’m pulled up against him.

  Jordan brushes some stray hairs off of my neck, and I can feel his breath on me. I melt into his arms. My chest starts to feel heavy when I breathe, and I try hard not to cry again. I missed him.

  “Relax, Cara Mia,” Jordan whispers my name in my ear. The tingles are back between my legs. I want him. I know I do, but he’s not mine to have. I take a deep breath and try to relax. I can feel Jordan’s breath and then he kisses me right below my ear. I lose the willpower to fight this anymore and give in. He kisses down my neck. I turn my head when he stops kissing on my neck.

  Jordan is propped up on his arm and is smiling at me. I roll onto my back. I don’t fight him when he leans over and places a kiss on my lips. I sense that he’s testing me because I didn’t respond to his kiss earlier. Jordan’s face is close to mine. I make the decision and run my nose against his. I lift my chin up and kiss him.

  I run my tongue across his lips, and that changes everything. Jordan opens his mouth and deepens the kiss. I feel him shift on the bed. He moves on top of me, and instinctively I open my legs. I welcome him when he presses some of his weight against me. I don’t know how long we kiss. The dance our tongues are doing basically says everything words do not need to say. By the time Jordan pulls away from me, I can feel that my lips are swollen from the kiss.

  “I missed you, pretty girl.” I smile at him.

  “I missed you too,” I sigh when he gets off me. I decide to turn on my side.

  “Arm up, pretty girl.” I lift my arm up, and Jordan wraps his around me. He kisses my cheek, and then we both fall asleep. I get more sleep next to him than any night I had in the other room.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  When I wake up, I’m still wrapped up in Jordan’s arms. I attempt to move with no luck, he’s holding onto me very tightly.

  “Just five more minutes,” Jordan says sleepily. I lay there a few more minutes and then he removes his arm from me.

  “We should get up and get ready to head out to the lake. The drive is a little over an hour.” I listen to Jordan and roll to look at him. He’s still facing me. “Take a shower with me?” I contemplate saying no, but I don’t have it in me to argue.

  We climb out of the bed, and I enter the bathroom. I take notice that Jordan leaves the room for a little while. I stare at myself in the mirror. The coloring on my face is almost gone. I’m starting to look more like me. I hear the bathroom door open, and Jordan enters. He’s caring the majority of the bathroom items I took upstairs. I just watch as he places some on the counter and then some in the shower. Then he leaves again. He comes back not long after with a bottle of water and the last of my medicine that was next to the bed upstairs.

  “I know you still need to finish what you have,” he says as he hands me the pills and the water bottle. My eyes follow Jordan as he turns on the shower and then strips out of the boxers he had been wearing in bed. I’m a little shocked he wore anything to bed. My breath catches in my throat. Holy hell. I know I haven’t seen him naked in a little while, and I can’t help but let my eyes take in his body.

  “Cara Mia are you going to get undressed, or eye-fuck me.” I feel my cheeks flush. I slowly bring my eyes to meet his and lick my lips. I can hear Jordan growl. I decided to play with him.

  “Undress me.” That’s all he needs. Jordan’s in front of me, and I raise my hands. He takes off my top, and I don’t stop him from taking off my panties. Jordan leans towards me and kisses me lightly on the lips. I frown at the small kiss he gave me.

  “Cara Mia, you’re going to be the death of me. Get your sexy ass in the shower.” I oblige him and climb into the warm water. Jordan follows behind me. Nothing happens in the shower. Jordan washes my hair and my body. There was no extra playing. I miss the playing, but I understand, I think. He won’t let me return the favor so I believe that we should probably not continue the foreplay. Luckily, Jordan doesn’t stop me from at least washing him. When we are all cleaned up Jordan’s nice to help me semi-dry my hair. Jordan reaches for the hair tie I pulled out earlier.

  “No thank you. I have had my hair pulled up all week. Since my hair is finally clean, I want to leave it down.” I smile in the mirror when Jordan places the hair tie on the counter. I watch as he leaves the bathroom again. When he returns, he has the products that I use in my hair. I can’t help but laugh.

  “Tell me what to do?” I explain to Jordan how I take care of my hair with each product. The idea of this man fixing my hair for me is hilarious. I know better. What he’s doing happens to be the one thing that goes directly to my heart. I love him for this.

  When he’s done, I’m left to get dressed. I throw on my new bathing suit. I had to ask Jordan to tie the top of the black and pink bikini. I pair the outfit with shorts and a tank top. Jordan’s waiting for me when I grab my flip-flops. We leave and start our drive to the lake. On the way, we grab breakfast.

  I’m ready to spend time with friends.

  There are a lot of people already at the lake by the time we arrive. I see Jessica and Nate gathering items from their car. Amber is setting up chairs with Ryan and Tyler. There are a few more people that arrive. We spend more time just hanging around.

  I’m just standing around watching everyone. I can smell him before he is upon me. Jordan wraps his arms around me. I melt into his embrace. I need to ask him what exactly we are.

  “Cara, I’m glad to see you out and happy. You need to get into the water.” I look at Amber as if she is crazy. I stuck my toes in the water. The fact that I cannot see the bottom creeps me out.

  “I don’t think so.” We decide to just hang out in the chairs and watch the guys throw a football around. We all turn to the sound of screeching tires. I watch and my eyes go wide. Hanna has arrived and when she spots me, the look on her face is not a happy one. I immediately pull out of Jordan’s arms. How could I forget? He’s not mine. Jordan let’s out a frustrated sigh.

  I turn to look at him. His expression is a cross between anger and frustration. I shrug my shoulders. I turn back to see Hanna walking toward us. She seems very determined and is not even looking at me. Why did I forget that Jordan once belonged at her.

  “Jordan, I was wondering if we could talk
, please. Alone.” Hanna’s eyes are glaring at me. I look to Jordan to see what he plans to do.

  “You can talk to me here. I have nothing to hide.” Well, I didn’t expect that response. Hanna looks from Jordan to me.

  “Jordan, I really want to talk to just you.” Her voice has changed. She’s pleading with him. I can’t stand to listen to her, nor do I want to hear whatever she has to say. Jordan needs to talk to her alone.

  “Why don’t you just talk to her.” Jordan looks stunned at my words. I mean my words that he needs to talk to her.

  “Please Jordan, walk with me.” I let Hanna continue to talk and walk away. I go and take a seat next to Jessica. Amber and Maria are talking. They stop when I sit down.

  I can see from where I’m sitting where Jordan and Hanna are. I don’t like that I can see them. I turn my focus onto Amber.

  “Why is my brother talking to Hanna and why are you letting him?” Amber sounded confused. What do I tell her?

  “He has to talk to her.”

  “No, he doesn’t.” I tried very hard not to turn and look at them. I couldn’t believe the tears pooling in my eyes. Without thinking I said the words. I thought I said them to myself. “He’s not mine.”

  Amber just studied me. She opened her mouth a few times to say something, but just closed it. I don’t think much needed to be said.

  “Cara Mia!” I startled when I heard Jordan. Why was he not talking to Hanna?

  I hadn’t been expecting him to walk away from the conversation with Hanna. I understood what had to be done. This was to finalize their relationship or whatever, maybe. I wasn’t expecting him to be paying attention to my conversation with his sister. I shouldn’t be a distraction to him, I’m not that important.

  I had sworn Amber wouldn’t know I was upset. I was afraid if I said my true feelings they would mess everything up. However, I said "he's not mine." The truth was, I was infatuated with everything about Jordan.

  When he pulled me away from the group to talk, not only was I trying to hide my tears, I was trying to hide my feelings. He makes every nerve in my body go on the fritz when he’s around and the time apart was hurting me.

  "What did you say to my sister that upset you?" Jordan’s voice was calm as he stared at me. I was looking at my feet knowing if I looked up a bad case of tears and word vomit would happen. Embarrassing myself was not in the cards today. How could he know I said something that upset me? He shouldn’t have been paying attention to me? But since he had he gave me no real choice, but to say something to him.

  "We were talking about how I had let you go talk to Hanna. I know the talk is needed and I don't want to be in the way..." I was now fidgeting with my fingers, trying to calm myself. I knew better than to mess with my fingers. I knew I kind of told him a lie, but that doesn’t work so easily with Jordan around.

  I was missing him and hating myself for our time apart. What made this worse was I could smell his soap from earlier and that male scent that was just Jordan. I could almost feel the heat from his body, he was so close to mine that it was intoxicating to my system.

  "You’re lying to me," Jordan said as he took my chin and forced me to look up at him. "What was the last thing you said to my sister?"

  I could not help the tear that slipped from my eye, or the hiccup when I spoke. "I....I told Amber that you’re not mine."

  "Is that why you’re upset? Cara, then make me yours. I know I already am, but if you feel you need to make me yours, do it. I don't care how you do it, either. I have been yours from the first day we met. All I’m doing is talking to Hanna, you have me, not her. Stop this silliness about a damn girl code." He smiled and gave me a sweet, little kiss as he wiped away the tears.

  I knew he wasn't going to tell me something that wasn’t true. I put myself into this situation. We finished up and walked back towards the group. Jordan held my hand in his with our fingers laced together.

  I was still trying to figure out what he said "make me yours." How do I do that? I was lost in thought, and he surprised me when he stopped suddenly.

  "Oh fuck this." Jordan turned and tugged me closer before his big, muscular body and bent down. "Better hold on, Cara Mia." I was in complete shock. He used my full first name in front of everyone. Before I could register everything he was picking me up. He had my legs wrapped around him in front of all our friends. I had no time to be embarrassed.

  "You want to make me yours, Cara Mia? Kiss me," he said in a commanding whisper that sent an electric shock to my system. My eyes had to be wide and my heart was about to just jump straight out of my chest. Kiss him, in front of everyone. Oh dear lord!

  "Cara Mia stop thinking and kiss me!" I obliged because how could I say no to him? I brought my hands up to cup his face. Then lightly brushed my nose against his and placed a sweet simple kiss against Jordan's lips. I was lucky with all the shaking he didn’t drop me.

  "Cara Mia...my beloved...I asked you to kiss me, try one more time." Jordan was smiling, and I could hear the hint of laughter in his voice. He knew I was nervous, who wouldn’t be in this position with everyone watching.

  I again went in for a little kiss, but this time he lightly tapped me on the ass making me gasp. That was enough for me to open my mouth and for him to deepen the kiss. We held that position for what seemed like a long time. His scent taking any thoughts from my mind, while my legs wrapped tighter around his back, his tongue dancing with mine. All I could do was enjoy it.

  After what seemed like way too long for a public display of kissing, Jordan carefully let me down. On trembling legs, I felt like I was about to become a puddle in the sand. Now how was I going to go back to the girls and explain this? Let alone he still has to finish his talk with Hanna.

  Jordan took me by the hand and pulled me closer to his body. Close enough that he could whisper in my ear. "Cara if you have any doubts about me being yours I think that kiss proved enough. More importantly, I just made you, MINE." He growled the last word as he kissed my cheek and walked away with a little laugh.

  When I got back to the group, all the girls were laughing. I just frowned and crossed my arms.

  “Cara, sit. What the hell was that?” Jessica’s entire face was red. I could hear the sincerity in her voice.

  “When I figure it out, I will let you know.”

  “Oh please. Cara, you know exactly what that was. My brother is claiming you as his girlfriend. Shit, I think my brother might be falling in love.” I was shocked to hear the admission coming from Amber.

  “Now why the hell can’t I get Nate to kiss me like that?” Jessica turned to stare at Nate playing catch with Tyler.

  “He doesn’t kiss you like that because you two have been together for about forever. Just saying.” Amber was now teasing Jessica, and I started laughing. I liked when we all can just laugh about things. I decided to take my seat next to Amber.

  “Cara, why did Jordan call you Cara Mia?” Maria asked as she captured everyones attention. I guess I needed to explain my name.

  Jordan

  “All right Hanna, talk.” I hated that I had to even talk to Hanna. She should know I have nothing to say to her.

  “I wanted to talk to you about us, but now I don’t know. Is Cara Mia your girlfriend now?” Really? What the fuck? She knows better than anyone how done we are I thought I made that clear in the hospital.

  “Hanna to answer your question if you didn’t understand from what you just witnessed, yes.” She crosses her arms trying desperately to get my attention on her very fake assets. I wish I didn’t know her as well as I do. She chose the skimpy bikini in an attempt to get some attention.

  Thankfully, I don’t care. Month’s ago maybe, if I was drunk, but now I still can’t help to put my focus on Cara. I chance a glance over in her direction and see her laughing. I relax and try to focus on what Hanna needs to say. This shit is stupid.

  Hanna takes a step closer to me. I pull my arm back as she attempts to run her fake nails down my arm. Really, s
he still thinks this crap turns me on? I cock my head to the side and look at her in disgust.

  “What the fuck Hanna? You saw me kiss Cara. You know Cara, beautiful brunette sitting next to my sister. The same Cara that happens to now be your cousin?” What more do I need to say?

  “I want you Jordan, come on she can’t be satisfying you like I can. Plus, she should know better than to be stepping on my men. You just don’t do that.” I thought she was dumb, but now I really believe that the bleach for her blond hair has fried her brain.

  “I am not talking about my sex life with you Hanna. I told you once that Cara meant something to me, and you want to pull this shit. We are done, and so is this conversation.” I leave her standing there with her mouth open. I should care and I would have nine months ago.

  “Cara Mia.” I’m starting to like how easy it is to startle her. “Up pretty girl.” I watch her as she stands up. I grab onto her right hand and pull her forward a little and then take her chair. She looks fucking sexy when she turns to look at me. I lean forward and grab her hips, and pull her down on my lap.

  I’m not the least bit surprised when she gets comfortable on my lap. Cara then acts almost as if I’m not there and continues her conversation. I just sit there with my arms around her. The peaceful moment only lasts a few minutes.

  “Cara! What the fuck do you think you are doing with MY man? You’re my cousin. Just because you live with him and are fucking him doesn’t give you...” I watch as Cara quickly moves off my lap. FUCK! I’m not going to lose her all over again. I want her back in my arms.

  “First off Hanna, I’m your cousin. Next, I gave you a week. A week you never deserved.” I watch Cara bite back at Hanna. Well, shit, I never expected this. I’m definitely turned on by the fierce look Cara gives me. “He gave you months from what I can tell, you didn’t deserve. You chose to be with Travis. I can thank you for that. Would you like to see the scar healing on my fingers?”