by Judith Yates
He led her into the house and up the stairs to her bedroom. When they reached the second floor he stood back, not knowing which room was hers. Holly hesitated in opening the door to her room. Her heart was pounding in her ears.
“Having second thoughts?”
She leaned back against her closed door. “It’s just that I haven’t been with anyone since...” She felt her skin redden with embarrassment. “I hadn’t planned, and I—I—”
“Holly.” He touched her face.
“I don’t have any protection.”
His fingers lifted her chin, bringing her eyes level with his. “It’s all right, Holly. I do.”
“You do?”
Her surprise evoked a gentle smile. “After what happened the afternoon we fell into the river, I realized you were afraid of more than just being indiscreet.”
Touched that he had understood, she walked into his arms. “I had no idea you thought about it.”
“I thought about you. All the time.” He held her warm against his chest. “It’s no secret I’ve been wanting you.”
For Holly, Jordan’s concern for her fears, and for her protection, was no small act of caring. After having been left to fend for herself on her wedding day, she’d always had to face any and all consequences alone. This meant more than she could say—yet she could and would show him. She opened the door to her bedroom and drew him inside.
They stood in the middle of the room. The barriers had been banished. Yet she trembled slightly when she saw the fire of her own desire reflected in Jordan’s eyes.
He broke the silence by murmuring her name. But Holly couldn’t find her voice. She felt overwhelmed by the longing that had been intensifying since the day Jordan reappeared in her life.
“Holly.” He held out his hand.
A low, urgent cry rose from deep within her throat. Then she was in his arms again, no longer controlled by anything but the desire flooding her veins. She held on to him tightly, refusing to let even the thinnest of air come between them.
Jordan covered her skin with hungry kisses, his hands roaming down her back to her buttocks and over her hips. Waves of delight rolled through her as his tongue penetrated her mouth, tasting and taunting. She moaned into his lips, her hands never still as they moved over his shoulders and chest. She couldn’t stop touching him. Part of her still couldn’t believe that he was really here, wanting her, caring for her. She was afraid if she opened her eyes, Jordan would vanish like a dream.
She loosened his tie and let it slip to the floor, then slowly unfastened each button on his shirt. Then she slid her hand inside the fabric to glide her palm over taut muscles and feathery tufts of hair. The feel of his hot, silky skin beneath her fingertips reassured her that what was happening was real. Very real.
“I need you, Holly,” he breathed.
His tongue warmed her ear with a moist, tingling caress. Her knees weakened beneath her, but Jordan’s arms held fast. Holly opened her eyes to find his face shadowed with passion, his gaze smoldering like blue-black coal. She had seen desire in Scott’s eyes long ago. It hadn’t been like this; it hadn’t made her ache to satisfy him. Scott, too, had said he needed her. Yet when Jordan spoke these same words, the fervor in his voice told her he needed all of her—her heart, her soul—not just the release her body could give.
She pushed the shirt off his shoulders, then stepped back and lifted his hand to her lips. He closed his eyes when she kissed it. “Come to bed, Jordan.”
Holly felt his eyes on her as she tugged the heavy duvet off the bed, then she felt his arms capturing her again. Lowering her onto the white sheets, he sank down beside her. Between kisses, he undressed her with painstaking care. After he slid her bra off her shoulders, his hands curved over her tender breasts.
“Do you like this?” His voice was a husky whisper.
The sharp breath caught in her throat turned into a languid moan as he cupped his hand over the moist, yearning core between her legs. The sensations were driving her mad and she wanted to swallow him up right then and there. Showing no mercy, Jordan swept his tongue over both her aching nipples and then moved away. She moaned again—this time in disappointment.
Jordan smiled down at her as he tore off the rest of his clothes. Waiting for him to come back to her, she drank in his lean, hard body with her eyes. Just watching him fueled her excitement, and her receptiveness to all this sensual stimulation astonished her. She’d been in love with Scott when she slept with him, yet their encounters had never been quite what she had hoped. But since he had seemed satisfied, she’d always believed something in her was lacking.
Jordan returned, enfolding her in a ravenous embrace. He nuzzled her neck and kissed her sensitive ears, his body rigid with desire as it rubbed against her. She reveled in the feel of him, losing herself in the sensations as if she were floating on a cloud of pleasure.
As his mouth roamed over every inch of her, she murmured his name. Snaking her arms around his neck, she curled her fingers in his thick, dark hair. Jordan strained and pressed against her trembling thighs. The intensity was unbearable; both their bodies needed release.
She gasped when Jordan entered her. He held still within her, whispering his desire in her ear. He began moving his hips against her, slowly at first, and then building and thrusting faster until she arched up to him with a moan. Bolts of white heat shimmered through her loins. Jordan’s groans somehow fed the fire spiraling deep in her body and she clutched his shoulders, holding on for dear life as tremor after tremor rolled through her.
Jordan’s eyes flew open as his body shuddered inside her; he whispered her name over and over like a prayerful chant. And when they both were still, he kissed her deeply and completely. In this quiet moment—when everything was alive with feeling, yet nothing said—Holly felt the full emotional force of the love she had acknowledged only hours ago.
He stayed nestled in her warm core, smiling down at her with gleaming eyes. “I love you,” he said softly, as if he’d been reading her mind. “I’ve been loving you for a long time.”
Wonderful as it was to hear the words, Holly knew Jordan loved her. She knew it from the way he had held her when her body trembled in ecstasy, and she knew it by the way he had called her name when he reached his own fulfillment
The afternoon shadows grew long across the room as they made love again and again. Lingering in Jordan’s arms, Holly sensed he was as reluctant to leave the bed as she was. They were like moonstruck teenaged lovers who couldn’t tear themselves away from each other.
Still, even lovers needed nourishment.
The bright digits on her bedside clock said it was fast approaching six o’clock, and her growling stomach reminded her that she hadn’t eaten since breakfast.
“I’m hungry,” she announced, pulling the sheet over her breasts as she sat up in the bed.
“Still?” Jordan’s eyebrows lifted in mock disbelief. “I’m doing the best I can.”
“Hungry for food, wiseguy.” Holly tossed her pillow at his laughing face, although she had to admit his best had been pretty dam magnificent. “I bet you didn’t have any lunch, either.”
“How could I?” he asked, pulling her back down beside him. “I was too busy running around town looking for you.”
“I’m glad you did.” Her fingers brushed the hair from his eyes. “You know what I want to do for you?”
“More of the same, I hope,” Jordan growled, kissing her neck.
She curled away from his playful tempting. “I’d like to cook you a decent meal. I haven’t been able to get those mystery meat sandwiches you’ve been eating out of my mind.”
“Hmm. You mean to tell me that when the only thing I could think about was making love to you, you were fixating on my diet? That’s real romantic, Holly.”
“You just stay here and rest your overworked bones. I’ll call you when dinner’s ready.” Dragging herself out of bed, she kissed him once on the lips. “I’ll show you just how romantic
it can be.”
“You’ll get no argument from me.” Jordan settled back into the pillows. “Go ahead, take care of me. I love it.”
Holly loved it, too. Cooking a meal for the man she’d just spent hours making love with added an extremely exciting dimension to a routine activity. With candlelight and flowers from the front garden, she made the dinner table glow. Selecting music for the CD player and uncorking a bottle of wine, Holly felt almost blissful. Back upstairs, she changed into a long gauzy white dress before leaning over the bed to kiss Jordan awake. For her, this was the most exquisite of moments, capping off a glorious afternoon and beginning what promised to be a wonderful evening. It would be, without a doubt, perfect.
Hours later, Holly leaned against Jordan as they sat on the porch steps. Music from the living-room stereo drifted through the opened windows, and the early-summer night was cool and clear.
“I still can’t get used to how close the stars seem around here,” Jordan observed, gazing overhead. “At the pond, it’s sometimes hard to tell where the water ends and the night sky begins. I think that’s what I like best about living way out there. It’s a fantastic show to have right outside the door every night.”
Holly squeezed his hand. “Sounds like our city boy has finally found something good to say about country life.”
Chuckling, he tucked her head beneath his chin. “If I think hard enough, I might be able to think of one or two other things I like about Golden. I know I’ll be thinking about them when I’m back in Boston next week.”
“Back in Boston?” she repeated, not really comprehending. Propelled by a wave of unreasoned panic, she whirled around to face him. “You’re leaving?”
“Just for a day, Holly. That’s all.” He drew her back to his side. “I need to sign off on the last of the CompWare agreements.”
“Oh, Jordan, I don’t know why I’m reacting like this. It’s just that I—” She didn’t know what more to say, she felt so foolish.
“It’s okay. I think I understand.” He kissed the top of her head. “But I love you. Remember? I’m not going to leave you.”
It was exactly what she’d been longing to hear. Still, there was one wary, unrelenting piece of her heart that even Jordan’s declarations couldn’t melt. It would take a little more time for that last stubborn wound to heal, and time was what Jordan had just promised her. Holly intended to give him every chance to keep that promise.
“Will you stay with me tonight?”
“I was hoping you’d ask.” A wry smile twitched his lips. “But I was planning on it anyway.”
Waves of affection washed over her. Strangely enough, these two at-odds remarks summed up the essence of Jordan for her—loving, yet wry; surprisingly gracious at times, yet often confident beyond bounds. His tenderness made her melt. His humorous sense of irony kept her amused and on her toes. When his confidence swelled into arrogance, he made her absolutely crazy. But she loved him madly and wouldn’t have him any other way.
Turning to him again, she slipped her arms around his shoulders and kissed him long and hard and with all the love and passion in her soul.
“Whoa,” he rasped when she finally released him. “Where did that come from?”
“You.”
Puzzled, but undaunted, Jordan reached for her. “Let’s go upstairs.”
This time when they came together, Holly felt freer to express all the emotions Jordan aroused in her. This time she made love to him. Her passion flared like wildfire, intense and without restraint. In love and loved, she had never felt so alive as when she drew him inside her and loved him until he groaned with the ultimate pleasure.
Holly awoke in Jordan’s arms hours later, when a gentle rain began to fall outside. Jordan slept soundly beside her. After all the years alone, being cradled all night in a man’s arms felt heavenly. She turned her head to watch him sleep. His tanned face with its blossoming overnight shadow was a stark contrast against the white cotton pillow slip. His expensive haircut had grown shaggier since he’d moved to Golden, and she rather liked it. Looking at him like this reminded her of all the things they had said and done together on this extraordinary day.
Holly heard the faint chiming of the small mantel clock in Stephanie’s room. It was a delicate chime that had never caused her daughter to stir, and it didn’t disturb Jordan now. Recalling how fondly he’d spoken of Stephanie, she smiled and skimmed her fingers along his muscled forearm. During dinner, he had suggested having a Fourth of July picnic on his freshly sanded beach. Since the swim party he’d promised Stephanie had never happened, he wanted to make it up to her with a holiday gathering of all their friends.
Now, in the quiet and the dark, the secret that could shatter what she and Jordan had weighed heavy on her heart. It had been wrong to put off revealing the truth about Stephanie’s father, no matter how valid the reasons to do so had seemed. Holly had always known that; she’d felt guilty over it from the first day Jordan walked back into her life. Yet if she had told him that she conceived her child with Scott, he wouldn’t have come back to Golden to live. There would be no relationship on the line. They probably wouldn’t have fallen in love at all. The irony of it was too bitter to be believed.
She was not, however, about to surrender all hope. Love—real, deep-in-the-soul love—had to be forgiving. If she sat Jordan down and told him everything, absolutely everything, she believed their new love would prevail. It had to.
Holly counted the days until the holiday. Four short days for Jordan to take a business trip to Boston and to organize the big beach party he was determined to have for Stephanie on the Fourth. She’d wait until after the party to tell him, but that was all. After what had happened today, she couldn’t bear to hide the truth from Jordan any longer.
“Jordan? Gracie, look! It’s Jordan!”
A towheaded whirlwind with pigtails flying jumped off the porch of the modest three-family house and into his arms. He swung her around, loving the sound of her infectious giggles. “Am I ever glad to see you, sweetheart.”
“Look, Mommy, Jordan’s back,” she cried over his shoulder as Holly came up behind them.
“I know.” Hooking her arm around his waist, Holly leaned into him. The apricot-and-honey scent of her hair filled his head with instant memories of hot kisses and slow, intense lovemaking. Just thinking about it made him want to carry her home and do it all over again.
Which was the very thing that had made them a half hour late in picking up Steph. As eager as both he and Holly were to see her, one more chance at making love, followed by a rushed but sizzling shower together, was way too much to resist. Besides, finding time alone together was going to be a tricky proposition in the coming days, and they both knew it.
But now that he’d finally linked up with his other lady, Jordan couldn’t be happier. With Holly on one arm and Stephanie curled up in his other, the picture was complete. It felt so natural, so right, he could hardly believe it.
“Well, well, look who’s back,” Gracie said in her usual deadpan tone when she emerged from the ground-floor apartment. Other than her dry greeting, she gave no hint of how she felt about his return to Holly’s good graces.
As Holly apologized for being late, Jordan noticed Gracie giving them both a good once-over. Although Holly looked great in long-legged jeans and a lacy white T-shirt, her hair was still wet from their recent shower. And he was wearing yesterday’s clothes. He felt sure his slightly rumpled state didn’t escape Gracie’s eagle eye.
“I missed you, Jordan.” Stephanie wrapped her pudgy arms around his neck. “Are you not going to be busy with that meeting anymore?”
The trusting innocence behind her question tugged at his heart. Now he understood the anger behind Holly’s accusations when she had come to his house last week. Before then, he hadn’t really realized how much of a factor he’d become in Stephanie’s life.
“That meeting’s history, kid,” he told her, hugging her close. “From now on, I’m going
to spend as much time with you and your mom as I can.”
“You are?” Her brown eyes widened, reminding him, as always, of the little Holly West he’d known a lifetime ago.
“Do you remember that beach I told you I was thinking of fixing up? Well, it’s ready and waiting for some swimmers.” He gave her middle a tickle.
Giggling helplessly, Steph turned to Holly. “Can we go to Jordan’s beach, Mommy?”
“I’ve got your bathing suit in the car.”
Stephanie wiggled out of his arms. “Gracie, did you hear? Jordan’s got a new beach and we’re going swimming there.”
Gracie patted her on the head. “Sounds lovely, darlin’.”
Caught up in Steph’s enthusiasm, Jordan found himself blurting out his plans for a Fourth of July picnic. Little did he know his announcement would raise the kid’s excitement level more than a few notches.
“And I can really invite all my friends?” she squealed. “Tommy and Sean? Miss Karin? Jenny and Matt and Dr. Gabe?”
“Sweetheart, you can ask them all. Except Dr. Gabe, that is. He’s getting my personal invitation.” He winked at Holly.
She shot him one of those dazzling knowing smiles of hers, the kind that never failed to take his breath away. Then she scooted Steph into the apartment to get her belongings.
Left alone with Gracie, Jordan took pains to extend a heartfelt invitation to the picnic. “I would really like you to come join us,” he added. “It wouldn’t feel like a family gathering to Holly and Steph without you.”
“I know it wouldn’t.”
Something in her flat, emotionless response made him want to try again. After all, Gracie had seemed to be softening toward him on the night of the preschool dance.
“I’ll hope you’ll come and relax. Have a good time,” he continued, trying to gauge where he stood with her. “And Holly and I will do everything. You don’t have to lift a finger.”
“I don’t mind doing my share,” she snapped.
