“I told you that I came from a different world than this, right?”
“You told me a little,” Jordan said.
“Well, I come from a very wealthy family and one of the ways my parents like to manipulate me and try to convince me to come home is by depositing money into my bank account. They’re trying to control me and make me do what they want me to do because they think I’m completely dependent on them,” I said. “I don’t want anything to do with that, or for them to ever feel like they have influence over my life anymore. So, I always give the money away as soon as it arrives. Usually, I go to crowdsourcing websites or pick a cause and donate online so I can be anonymous. But this time I decided to donate here.”
“Wow.” He looked genuinely surprised. “You are truly amazing for doing that.”
“Thank you,” I said, the fluttering in my stomach now turning to butterflies that swarmed through my belly and around my heart.
Whatever was hanging in the air between us just kept increasing as we cleaned up, and I felt it tingling on my skin when he walked me out to my car.
“This was a great night,” he said. “I hope Ava asks for your input more often.”
I grinned. “I hope so, too.”
I didn’t know if it was the night air or the high from how successful the night had been, but I felt a little breathless and even a bit giddy. Jordan placed a hand on my hip and turned me around so my back was against my car. His head dipped and his mouth brushed across mine. Our lips just barely touched, and then he hovered there, letting our breath mingle for a few seconds before the kiss deepened.
It only lasted a few seconds longer than that before Jordan stepped back and wished me good night.
Still breathless, even more now, I got into my car and drove home.
17
Jordan
It had been days, and I couldn’t stop thinking about our kiss.
I was acting like an idiot. I knew that. She was a friend and an employee, and something had been brewing between us since she first showed up, but I knew it wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real. Not with her history and the need to stay professional. I had to keep myself focused.
I could tell myself that all I wanted, but the tingle on my lips where I kissed her was still there. Inexplicably, days later, I could just about feel her soft red lips against mine. Whispers of her perfume would follow me around, and I would turn suddenly, expecting to see her. She wouldn’t be there. Instead, it was if my memory had conjured her smell. She permeated nearly every thought, and I went to bed at night letting my mind wander back to that moment and fantasize about what could have happened next.
Trying to focus on my day, I went about the usual chores and workout routine. I was notorious for keeping things neat, but that didn’t mean I didn’t religiously pull everything apart and clean it once a month anyway. It was one of the things I hated about the desert. Sand got in everything. Now, if I saw a small bit of dirt, I had to eliminate it with extreme prejudice. They said it was a common aftereffect of coming home from a long time in service, that the edges would smooth over time and I would just end up being an extremely tidy person.
I wasn’t there yet.
Once a week there was a deep clean of one of the rooms, and today’s happened to be the living room. The cushions of the couch had already been steam cleaned and had dried in the sun of the kitchen. Now it was dark, and I was almost done. The television was on the floor, and I was wiping down the walls when her memory popped up again.
It was just the briefest of thoughts, but it was intense and powerful. It felt like she was right there, her lips on mine as I stood on the stepladder. I closed my eyes and shook my head, trying to make the thoughts go away. I didn’t have the time for distractions if I planned on getting things done before bed. It was already late as it was.
“Some people go to a bar on their day off,” I muttered to myself. “I stay home and clean. I am a boring, boring human being.”
The thoughts of Hannah were too strong, and the realization that shutting myself off from the world to focus on cleaning supplies on my day off was rather sad, I pulled out my phone. It was streaming a podcast that I was only halfway listening to, and I paused it to pull open the contacts. I knew it could continue to stream while I typed out a text to Hannah, but I wanted her to have my full attention, even if it was just words on a screen.
It was the second time I had texted her that day, and neither got a response. I went back to cleaning and had finished putting the room back together when I glanced at the clock. It was nearly ten, and Hannah never responded. I tried not to let it get to me, but I was bummed. I guessed I thought even in friendship, with one mishap, she would have texted back.
Moving into the kitchen to grab a beer, I heard a knock on my door. Immediately my senses piqued, and my eyes darted to the stand next to the door. It had my keys in a bowl on top, but inside it had a hammer. It wasn’t my most sophisticated weapon, but experience I’d rather not dwell on told me that it was extremely useful in a pinch.
I walked to the door and very gently opened the drawer. The wooden handle of the hammer stuck out, and I put one hand on it while I peered through the window. When I saw who it was, I shoved the drawer shut and yanked at the lock. Hannah was on my porch, and she was crying.
I swung the door open, and she fell into my arms, sobbing. I pulled her inside, shutting the door and locking it behind her, guiding her to the couch where I sat her down.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay. You’re okay. Let me get you some tissues. And water. Do you want water?” I asked. She nodded, and I ran back to the kitchen. When I came back, her tears had slowed, and she blew her nose into the tissues and took a long gulp of the water. “What’s going on?” I asked.
“Ethan,” she said, and my heart twisted. I knew that name. What could he have done?
“What about Ethan? Did he find you?”
She nodded her head, and a fresh round of sobs came out, though this time they were more controlled. She was shaking, though, and I put the situation together quickly. Something more than Ethan arriving had happened. A sudden overwhelming sense of protection coursed through me.
“He showed up on my doorstep. I told him he had to leave, but he wouldn’t go. He tried to block my path, but I pushed past him. Thank God I locked the door,” she said. It all came out almost in one dump of words.
I reached forward and pulled her into me, and she sunk into my chest as we sat back into the couch. I held her, and she clasped my shirt, balling it up in one hand as her tears dried on the fabric. Slowly, her breathing began to return to something resembling normalcy, and she curled her legs up onto the couch, turning her head so she was looking up at me. One teardrop still hung in the corner of her eye, and I used my thumb to wipe it away.
Time froze. For a moment there were infinite possibilities, and I had no idea what I should do next. Leaning into my instincts and the fact that I would never be able to live with myself if I didn’t try, I leaned my face down closer to hers. She didn’t move away, didn’t flinch. Instead, her eyes closed and her lips rose, and I met them with my own.
The kiss was tender and sweet, much like our first. But this time there was a hunger behind it that hadn’t been there before. From her. A desire, a need for more. Slowly, she sat up, our lips never parting more than for a second so we could take in a breath. The kiss turned into a passionate embrace, and suddenly our hands were everywhere, ripping at clothes. My shirt was pulled over my head in a hurry and tossed away. Normally it would bother me to have clothes lying around, but for once, I found myself not caring at all.
Her shirt was next, and as it was torn off her body, I broke our embrace for just a moment to marvel at her exquisite body. Heaving, perfect breasts were held aloft by her pink bra, and I reached for the clip in the center of her chest. Our eyes locked as I opened it and it fell away. Her round, heavy breasts tumbled out, and I felt my stomach tighten and my cock harden even more than it already was. The bra sl
ipped off her shoulders, and she held it out to fall off the edge of the couch.
“Where is your bedroom?” she asked.
Silently, I held out my hand, and she took it, and giddily we jumped off the couch, heading down the hall. She went inside before me, and I shut the door behind us. The lights were off except for the bathroom night-light, and it cast the entire room in a dark blue glow that took a moment to adjust to. When my eyes finally did adjust, I could see the outline of Hannah’s body sitting on my bed. The skin of her shoulder glowed white from the light behind it, and the outline of her breast was barely visible.
I had only worn running pants to clean in, so there wasn’t a lot of wasted motion to remove them as I walked toward her. I reached where she sat and leaned down to kiss her as I pulled my boxers down. Her hand reached up to grab my shaft in one hand and began to stroke me as I pushed her back and onto the bed.
Trailing my lips down her cheek, I let my tongue slide out and trace her collarbone. She stroked my cock against her stomach as I worked my way to her breasts, licking one nipple until it was taut and perky and filling my palms with her soft skin, kneading them. She gasped when my lips touched her stomach, and she let go of me so I could slide my tongue down until I reached the line of her panties.
Hooking my thumbs in the thin fabric around her hips, I peeled them off her and tossed them away. Gently, slowly, I moved my tongue through her folds, brushing her lips and then finding the pearl in the center. I licked at it and she moaned as I worshiped her core. I slid one finger deep inside her, and she cried out, her fingers curling through my hair. Her hips began to rock with my motion, and suddenly she inhaled sharply, and her body bucked underneath me. I pressed my tongue into her clit while she came and then removed my finger, pulling her to the edge of the bed.
Her eyes locked on mine as I positioned myself at her opening. Exploring her with my finger told me she was tight, but as I pressed my head into her, she relaxed into it. Her gasps and cries filled the room as I slowly penetrated deep inside her, my throbbing, hard shaft aching to increase the speed. But I took my time. I wanted her to know how much I wanted her.
I let her adjust to my size, and soon I was rocking slowly back and forth, eliciting cries of passion with each time I thrust deeper into her wet, hot pussy. It didn’t take long before her fingers clenched onto my arms as I pounded into her with increased, frantic need. I wanted the release, but even more, I wanted it with her.
Gripping her hips with my hands, I pulled her into me with each thrust, and her hands slid to my chest. My head fell back as I felt the tension building. I knew it wouldn’t be long. My mind was wild with passion, and the groans came deep from inside me. I leaned down to kiss her and lost myself in the moment. As our tongues curled around each other and my arm wrapped around her, pulling her down onto me hard with each pump, I felt control slipping away.
Our voices rose together, mixing in one loud cry of ecstasy. I exploded into her, and my body went rigid. I roared until my voice failed me, and she screamed with delight and passion as she came with me. Her pussy pulsed around my throbbing cock, and I emptied myself into her in wave after wave. Our lips found one another again as her body milked me dry, and finally, I crawled onto the bed beside her and we wrapped up in the blankets together. Sleep came easily, my head buried in her neck and her lips occasionally pressing kisses into my chest, and the sleep was blissfully dreamless.
18
Hannah
I felt Jordan’s arms around me and his warm breath on the side of my neck before I even opened my eyes the next morning. Not wanting to ruin the moment, I snuggled in closer to him and took a deep breath. It felt so peaceful lying there with him, feeling the rise and fall of his chest and stomach against my back as he breathed contentedly in his sleep.
I could have just stayed there all day. I could have pretended the rest of the world didn’t exist and I had nothing else to fill my time but enjoy him wrapped around me. For those few moments, I forgot what led me there. I didn’t want to think about how I ended up in bed with Jordan or why he was cradling me against him.
But then it hit me. The whole unnerving scene from the night before replayed through my mind, and my heart started racing. I didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t want to have Ethan’s face in my mind or his voice in my head. Leaving my hometown and coming all the way out here to Astoria was about putting him and everything else behind me. That meant never having to deal with him again.
There was a reason I didn’t talk with him on the phone or accept his messages. Why I got so angry to find out he knew my number and was able to email me. I wanted nothing to do with him. It took so much strength just to pry myself out of that toxic relationship and reclaim my own life. I had absolutely no intention of going backward.
And yet, there he was. Forcing his way back into my thoughts. Pushing back into my reality.
But it brought me here. It brought me into Jordan’s arms, and when he pulled me closer and nuzzled his face into the curve of my neck, I pushed all those thoughts out of my head. I wouldn’t let them matter.
We stayed there for a while longer before Jordan rose up on his elbow and kissed my cheek.
“How’d you sleep?” he asked.
I could feel his lips brushing against my ear, and it made a shiver ripple through my body.
“Really well,” I said.
“Good. Are you hungry?”
He kissed my cheek again, and I almost giggled. I nodded instead.
“Starving.”
“Okay. Let’s go get some breakfast.”
I would really rather just stay there in bed with him, but my stomach was rumbling, and I realized I hadn’t eaten the night before.
We got up, and I dropped Jordan’s shirt over my head rather than getting dressed. I wanted to keep feeling surrounded by him, and this felt like a way to do it on the move.
Jordan moved around his kitchen scavenging for ingredients he could turn into breakfast. Eventually, I got up and helped him start organizing what he had spread out on the counter.
“I spend so much time at the bar that I don’t end up doing a lot of cooking here,” he said.
“I can see that,” I teased. “But you’ve got some good stuff here. We can work with this.”
He smiled at me, and we went to work piecing together the ingredients he had and making them into a spread of breakfast dishes. They might not have all been the most cohesive options, but it was something.
We laughed and joked our way through making breakfast, then spread it all out on his table so we could eat. As we ate, we talked about the safe kinds of topics that kept us away from acknowledging what happened the night before. But that couldn’t last forever.
As we finished up washing the dishes after breakfast, Jordan looked over at me.
“You can stay with me for a little while if you need to,” he said. “If it would make you feel safer to not go back home for a bit until you know he’s not in town anymore.”
The offer made my heart swell. I smiled at him, so grateful in that moment just to have found all the amazing people I had here in Astoria. Especially him.
“Thank you,” I said. “Truthfully, I might have to take you up on that. I’m not sure right now, but I’ll let you know.”
Jordan reached over and ran his hand down the side of my face, pausing for just a second to look into my eyes in a way that made me melt.
“Anything you need is yours,” he said.
I was about to lean in to kiss him when my phone rang in the bedroom. I let out a little groan, and Jordan laughed, kissing me on the tip of my nose before taking the last of the plates from my hand so he could dry it and put it away. I went into the bedroom and searched around on the floor, trying to find where my phone ended up. By the time I found it, it had stopped ringing.
Swiping my finger across the screen, I brought up the missed call log and saw it was from Samantha. Before I was even able to call her back, the phone rang again. I an
swered it on the first ring.
“Hey, Samantha. I’m sorry I missed your call,” I said.
“Are you okay?” she asked before I could even get the words all the way out of my mouth.
“What?”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said.
“Good. I need you to keep your eyes open and be ready. I don’t mean to scare you, but I just found out that Ethan took off. Nobody knows where he is or where he was going. I’m afraid he’s headed there to you.”
“He was,” I said.
“What?” The word sounded choked in her throat. “Is he there?”
“He’s not here right now,” I said. “But he showed up at my house last night. It was pretty nasty, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Nothing serious happened.”
“Oh, my God. I can’t believe he came all the way out there just to chase you. What did he say? What did he do? Is he still in town?” Samantha asked.
She was right on the edge of completely freaking out, and it felt like I needed to calm her down. I was safe there with Jordan.
“It’s okay,” I said. “It was scary at the moment, but I got through it and I’m fine. I’m staying at a friend’s house for a while, and he doesn’t know I’m here. I’ll be okay. I’ll just lay low until Ethan gets tired of hanging around here without getting to me and leaves.”
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“Absolutely. He won’t be able to hold out his patience for long. You know that about him. He’ll get tired of not getting what he wants, and hopefully he’ll just slink away without incident.”
“I hope so,” Samantha said. “But be careful. Make sure you’re watching out.”
“I will be,” I said. “I promise. Don’t worry about me.”
I got off the phone, and Jordan stepped into the room.
Boss Daddy: A Secret Baby Romance Page 10