“Well, say something,” she demanded. “Why are you staring at me as if I’ve done something wrong?”
Roxanne squealed when Jordan took one long step to get around the table, and then lifted her into the air with little effort. She hit his shoulder just below her rib cage, and felt air blow out of her with a huff. Her hair fell across her face, and she didn’t quite know what to do with her feet, as she hung upside down over Jordan’s shoulder.
“What the hell?” she stammered, staring at her floor as Jordan carried her through the room.
It took Jordan only a few seconds to carry her to her bedroom and then toss her on her bed, where she landed with a bounce.
“I may be staring at you, but it’s you who gives the impression of having done something wrong,” Jordan whispered in a tone that Roxanne wasn’t sure she had ever heard out of him before.
She froze in the middle of her bed and stared at him as he bent over and met her gaze.
“How have I given you that impression?” Roxanne’s voice squeaked and she cursed herself for acting like a scared fool in front of this intimidating brute. She let embarrassment fuel her anger. “I haven’t done anything wrong.”
Jordan straightened, standing in the middle of her bedroom and staring down at her while she sat on her bed. “What were you doing when I called you earlier?”
“What I do when I’m on my own time is none of your business.” She’d never raised her voice to her boss before, but damn it, he was out of line. She stood up quickly, poking her finger into that rock-hard chest of his. “I’m not on the clock, boss.”
“This has nothing to do with work,” Jordan scowled, his black hair and dark eyes giving him the look of a wild animal, on the prowl, ready to pounce. “When I called you, the tone you used implied you didn’t want me to know what you were talking about.”
Roxanne threw her hands up in exasperation. “She’s getting married. We were discussing wedding stuff.”
“And there’s nothing else you want to tell me?” He knew he sounded unreasonable. The news that she’d been with Roger Uphouse had thrown him. But he couldn’t just broach that subject lightly. “You weren’t talking about anything else?”
She should have looked confused. But she didn’t. He was hounding her about her visiting her girlfriend, and there was nothing wrong with her doing that. But he hadn’t expected her expression to suddenly turn contemplative. She’d sounded so hesitant on the phone, but he’d guessed it was simply because she wasn’t expecting him to call her over the weekend. Now however, he wondered what else she hid from him.
“Enough, Jordan. If you want a doormat, go find someone else,” she began, focusing on his chest.
Jordan pulled her to him, wrapping her up in his arms. “And if I want you?” he whispered.
It felt so damned good in his arms.
She needed to answer him. She should tell him then he would respect her, wouldn’t be so demanding, wouldn’t try to control her every action. He needed to show her that he loved her.
Her throat had constricted into a tight knot, his hard body pressing against her making it hard to think, to sort her thoughts into words.
So she said nothing, and focused on his heart beating, matching the throbbing that was growing by the minute between her legs.
Chapter Six
Jordan’s cell phone rang and he took a step backward, releasing Roxanne, then pulled his phone from his pocket.
“Hello,” he said firmly into the phone.
She stood within inches of his broad, muscular chest, and made no attempt to move from him. Roxanne could smell the man in front of her. Jordan smelled of deodorant, a faint touch of cologne and possibly aftershave, as well as laundry soap, the combination of which made up the smell that was his own.
But something sweet mixed in with those scents. Roxanne had worked alongside Jordan long enough to be familiar with how the man smelled every day. Today however, something smelled different about him.
“Once you set up your PIN, you should be able to access any of your accounts from the Internet,” he explained, and then nodded silently, concentrating on the caller.
Roxanne listened as Jordan explained how to access accounts to one of their clients, and absently traced a line down the front of his shirt. He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her to him so that her head tucked under her chin. What an incredible feeling of safety and comfort, Roxanne thought, as he maintained a protective grip on her. She could get real accustomed to Jordan and his control-oriented form of affection.
Her thoughts went to the comments Joanie and David had made before Roxanne left their apartment, that Roxanne might have finally met a man who was strong enough for her. Did that mean that she wanted to be controlled? She pondered this thought and, at the same time, half-listened to Jordan walk the client through a transaction.
Jordan finished the call and snapped his cell phone shut, leaving Roxanne’s whirlwind of thoughts hanging there, unresolved.
“I don’t think I’m asking too much wanting to know what you’re doing with your time.” Jordan’s tone had softened, and he stroked her hair with his fingers.
“You want to know where I am, and who I’m with?” Roxanne asked, looking up at him as his fingers moved to stroke her cheek. She wondered how he would feel if she made the same demands of him.
He didn’t respond, but the slightest movement at the edge of his mouth could have been interpreted as the beginning of a smile.
Roxanne realized she wanted some kind of acknowledgment from him. She wanted Jordan to express how he felt about her. Maybe Joanie had been right, and Roxanne did want to please this man, but in return she wanted Jordan to let her know he was pleased. And she wanted the same respect from him.
Jordan’s silence left her thoughts in turmoil, and she fought for words to tell him what she needed from him. But Jordan seemed satisfied with her understanding of his demands, and lowered his head to brush her lips with his. The man’s scent consumed her, intoxicating her, and she felt desire rise inside her.
Something else triggered her attention though. Among the well-known smells that made up this man, Roxanne smelled something sweet, something unfamiliar, and her fogged senses took their time in acknowledging it. When she realized what she smelled, her insides revolted and a taste of bile rose in her throat.
Perfume.
Jordan Hall smelled like another woman’s perfume.
Roxanne placed her hands on his chest and pushed, when he would have deepened their kiss.
“What is that smell?” She asked the first thing that came to mind, surprisingly enough since the rest of her thoughts seemed wrapped in turmoil, unable yet to be voiced.
Jordan simply stared at her, his dark eyes glazed with passion. He didn’t seem to understand her question, and Roxanne felt her heartbeat increase and a small sweat break out underneath her shirt.
“Jordan, why do you smell like a woman’s perfume?”
Again he simply stared at her, although the haze of passion cleared from his eyes. The man was so damned unreadable sometimes. But his silence on this matter was not acceptable.
Roxanne pushed herself free from his arms, took a step backward, and then crossed her arms across her middle. She felt sick to her stomach, and Jordan seemed to take up too much space in her bedroom.
“Well?” she demanded.
“I don’t smell like women’s perfume,” he said flatly.
The air in her bedroom seemed to be disappearing. Roxanne breathed quickly through her mouth as she stared at Jordan. He made no attempt to reach for her, but appeared larger than life as he stood before her. Roxanne could definitely smell the perfume now. It seemed to stand out over all other scents, a sweet, rose-type perfume, and it made her want to gag.
She couldn’t believe his nerve. He had entered her home, full of questions, demanding answers, and he’d just left another woman’s company. Jordan wanted her to voice her loyalty to him, but apparently he didn’t see it as a
two-way street. Anger rose within Roxanne, and she could taste the bile that churned in her stomach.
“How dare you,” she hissed. She clenched her sides with her fists, and pressed her crossed arms against her middle. “How dare you stand there and tell me that you don’t smell like perfume. The smell of that shit is about to make me sick.”
“Then I suggest you calm down.” He’d never seen her get so angry, so quickly. She had quite the temper, but her outburst wasn’t warranted. “I won’t have you implying what I think you’re implying.”
“Calm down?” She wanted to smack him. “You demand that I come home. You want to know who I am with, and where I am but yet you offer no explanation as to your own whereabouts.”
“You know where I was.” Jordan’s calm manner fueled her anger.
“What I want to know now is who you were with.” Roxanne glared at him.
“I went alone. You know that also. And I left alone.” He thought of his brief meeting with Elaine Rothchild, but that was hardly worth mentioning. “If I’d taken a date, you would have known that, too.”
“You’re lying,” Roxanne yelled. She pointed toward her bedroom door. “Out! I want you out of my house.”
Jordan grabbed her hand that pointed to the exit. Roxanne tried to swing at him with her free hand, balling her hand into a fist and aiming for Jordan’s face. The man was taller, faster and stronger than she was, and in the next second he held both of her hands and pulled her to him.
“You don’t tell me what to do,” he whispered into her hair. There was no way he could walk away from her. She was outraged over something, but she wouldn’t push him away. He needed her, and walking away wasn’t an option. “I’m not going to leave you.”
Hot tears seeped from Roxanne’s eyes and burned trails down her cheeks. She felt deflated. Jordan would offer her no explanation, and she knew he was lying to her. She felt confused and humiliated.
“Yes. You are. I want you to leave, Jordan. Please.” She couldn’t stop the tears, and she wouldn’t look at him.
Jordan let go of her hands, and Roxanne stepped backward until she sat on the edge of her bed. “Please go,” she begged, unable to stand for another moment that he could reach inside her and rip her heart out so easily. Yet she swore it felt like it had just split in two.
Jordan turned and left her room, and Roxanne didn’t look up, or move, when she heard her front screen door open, and then close. After the sound of his Porsche faded, Roxanne fell back onto her bed, pulled her knees to her chest then cried until she fell asleep.
* * * * *
Dark shadows spread across Roxanne’s room when she awoke. She glanced at her alarm clock, and blinked at the green glare of the numbers. It was just past five a.m.
Roxanne let out a long, heavy sigh as she watched the bubbles began to foam up under the faucet of her tub. She tested the water with her foot, and then grabbed a washcloth and her razor. What a mess everything had turned in to.
She had no doubts at this point that Jordan had been with another woman before coming to see her. And she’d lost the entire weekend thinking about it.
Roxanne stood from the soapy water, and released the long snakelike hose of the showerhead, then brought it down as she sank back in to her hot, sudsy water.
The pain from the knowledge that Jordan was a player consumed Roxanne and cut deeply. She let out a choked sigh, and sunk deep into the suds-filled water as she rinsed shampoo from her hair.
Jordan had shown up at her house the other day on a mission. She could see that clearly now as she replayed his actions from the moment he had entered her home. It was just like a guilty party to hide their guilt by trying to find some wrong action in their partner. Jordan had begun accusing her of wrongdoing from the first moment they were together. And Roxanne had done nothing wrong. She needed to view the weekend as a blessing. Roxanne rinsed the conditioner, and the soap from her body, then lathered her legs and began shaving.
Joanie and David had observed that she needed a strong man to match her personality. And maybe they were right. Roxanne had learned something about herself, and in the future, she would look for that trait when considering a man as a potential boyfriend. She had learned, too, that Jordan was not that man. Roxanne wouldn’t be manipulated by a cheater—or a player.
She’d enjoyed an alternative sexual lifestyle with Jeffrey, her previous boyfriend. There was nothing wrong with bringing someone else into the bedroom as long as both parties agreed to it. But being with another woman behind her back was completely unacceptable.
If Jordan had another woman, and had asked her to join them, at least he would have been honest about it. Roxanne wasn’t sure she was ready for something like that. She’d had some sexual fun with Joanie and David when she’d been with Jeffrey, but that had been different. Joanie was her best friend. And Joanie loved David. She’d never worried that Jeffrey fucking Joanie would make Jeffrey want to leave her.
In the end, she’d lost Jeffrey anyway. But it had been to work, not another woman. She still missed him. But that was another world. And Jeffrey wasn’t coming back. So she’d moved on, dug into her work, took on life with a new energy.
And Jordan had always been there. Maybe he’d been watching, waiting. She doubted he knew anything about her sexual adventures in the past, but then she didn’t know a lot about his previous sexual experiences either.
That was the problem. Jordan hadn’t appeared the least bit guilty. A woman had been close enough to him, more than likely rubbing herself all over him, to leave the scent of her perfume so strongly on him. Yet he’d been inclined to deny it.
“It would have been better if he’d just been honest,” she said to herself, watching the suds run off her arm.
She let out a heavy sigh. “Oh well. I guess it’s best that I found out now, as opposed to later.”
With new resolve, Roxanne once again rinsed and then stood as she let the bathwater out. Today she would take on life without Jordan in her personal space. The man would remain her boss, and she would continue to give Hall Enterprises her best show. But she would not date Jordan, and she would never, ever have sex with the man again.
Roxanne toweled dry, and walked to her bedroom to find clothes for the day. She didn’t like the painful emptiness that seemed to consume her, and although she tried to tell herself she simply needed to eat since she’d fallen asleep without supper the night before, Roxanne knew that the pain inside her stemmed from loss.
She dressed, applied makeup, and did her hair, then left the house without eating breakfast and headed for her office two hours before she was required to be there.
* * * * *
“How long have you been here?” Roxanne poured herself a cup of coffee she didn’t want, and turned to give Aaron Tipley her attention.
The man appeared freshly shaved, with a crisp white shirt and tie that knotted just under his Adam’s apple. His expression showed worry, Roxanne observed, and dark shadows that weren’t usually under his eyes seemed prominent this morning.
“I got here about thirty minutes ago.” Aaron stood in the doorway to his office, having moved there when Roxanne had unlocked the two glass doors to Hall Enterprises. He waited until she had her coffee, and started to move through the secretarial pool toward him, before he turned to reenter his office. “I didn’t sleep well last night.”
“I never heard the response from the bank,” Roxanne said, and now took the position that Aaron had just held, standing in the doorway to his office. “Did you find out who made those undocumented withdrawals?”
Aaron sifted through the neat stacks of paper on his desk until he found what he searched for, and handed a piece of paper to Roxanne. She entered his office and took it from him.
“The bank shows three small withdrawals from a source in Nebraska.” Roxanne frowned at the printout of recent withdrawals from their client’s account. “Who would be making withdrawals in Nebraska? Isn’t this client based out of New York?”
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br /> “Yes.” Aaron ran his fingers over the top of his crew cut, and glanced at his desk. “I woke up this morning wondering about my other account that shows a discrepancy.”
“How so?” Roxanne looked up from the printout, and focused on the young man who stood staring at his desk. “Do you think maybe the balances being off in the different accounts might be related?”
Aaron met her gaze, and bit his lower lip. “I figured I’d come in early this morning to see if I could find out.”
Roxanne placed the printout she’d just studied back on Aaron’s desk. “I’ll help you. You check your other account, and I’m going to take a look at the other files that aren’t balancing.”
Adrenaline surged through Roxanne as she turned to leave Aaron’s office. She turned down the hallway toward Jordan’s office, and flipped the light on as she entered the large room. If they found a connection between all the files that had money missing, then someone had managed to tap into Hall Enterprises’ client base and was stealing money out from under them. It wouldn’t take long before clients grew aware that the money in their accounts didn’t match the printouts Hall Enterprises sent them. That would mean scandal for Hall Enterprises, and could ruin Jordan. Roxanne would not let that happen if she could help it.
The clock on the wall showed just a bit past seven. Some of the other brokers could be showing up soon and Roxanne decided it best to keep a low profile on her actions for the moment. She had no idea who could be stealing from these accounts, if in fact there was a connection. But she didn’t want to give someone the time to cover their tracks if they found out she was on to them. Best to compare notes now on the files she supervised and look into the other files later.
Although the workday hadn’t started, the London banks were well into the afternoon, and Roxanne opened her first file and flipped through pages until she found the bank number that held the accounts she had marked incorrect for Uphouse.
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