“I can’t remember when Jordan has thrown a party like this.”
Roxanne turned to see Ralph Layette standing next to her, holding a bottle of beer that he had hardly touched, and fingering a cigar in the other hand.
“I don’t think he has as long as I’ve known him,” Roxanne said, cautious that the man who had thought her guilty for so long now appeared genial.
“I owe you an apology, young lady,” Ralph stammered, and Roxanne stared at the older man, noticing that his boxer-like face truly did look a bit humble. “I made an error in judgment, and wish to clear the air with you.”
“It’s okay, Ralph. Please consider the matter closed.” Roxanne smiled, and decided not to admit that she was thrilled to see the burly man ask for her forgiveness.
Ralph nodded, and took her words at face value. He chewed on his cigar for a moment, and glanced around at the group of people, enjoying each other’s company on the large deck.
“I’m not sure what Jordan has shared with you about his past,” he continued after a minute, and Roxanne gave him her attention.
Jordan had told her little about his younger years, and Roxanne couldn’t help feeling curious about what Ralph meant by the comment. The older man studied her with a serious expression.
“I’m not surprised that he hasn’t told you much.” Ralph apparently guessed at the truth, and Roxanne’s curiosity was piqued. “I knew Jordan’s father, as you may know, and just didn’t want to see the same thing happen to Jordan that happened to his father.” Ralph turned and gave Roxanne a sheepish smile. “I see now that I was wrong, and am very glad to admit it.”
The man nodded to her, and then walked away from her, leaving her standing at the edge of the crowd, wondering what had happened in Jordan’s past. She looked over at Jordan, and noticed he had donned an apron, and held a large platter as he pulled steaks from the grill. Roxanne would have to wait until later to find out answers to her questions, and hurried over to help him prepare to feed their guests.
“Roxanne, we have another guest who has just arrived.” Millie caught Roxanne’s attention, as Roxanne helped carry a platter of steaks down to the rows of tables that already had large bowls of salads and potatoes, as well as platters of fruit on them.
Roxanne turned, and then grinned at the pretty young lady who stood next to Millie, looking a bit awkward as she glanced around at the large group of people.
“Emily, I’m so glad that you could make it.” Roxanne placed the steaks on the table, and turned to greet her guest.
Although they’d met under odd circumstances, Roxanne had really enjoyed getting to know Emily. The two of them had several phone conversations since, and Roxanne had hoped she would show up for the party.
“Why would I pass up a chance to party like this?” Emily looked around at the beautiful yard and smiled, but Roxanne guessed her new friend felt uncomfortable at a gathering where she knew no one.
“I’m glad you made it. Did you bring your date?” Roxanne walked with Emily back toward the grill to grab the next platter, and help Millie who seemed to be in her glory as she scurried to prepare the tables for the feast.
“I didn’t have anyone to bring,” Emily confessed, and smiled sheepishly at Roxanne. “I just told you I had a boyfriend so you wouldn’t realize how boring I was and that I had no life.”
“Nothing about you seems boring to me.” Roxanne gave Emily a quick hug, and then the two of them jumped in to help serve the guests.
Roxanne sat in between Joanie and Emily, with Jordan at the head of the long table, and David on the other side of him, facing his new wife. Roxanne enjoyed the quirky looks the two of them gave each other throughout the meal, and guessed that this was the first time in quite a while that they had gone so long without touching each other. True love glowed, Roxanne decided, and she wondered if she and Jordan had that same look about them that her friends did.
Toward the end of the meal, when conversation at the tables had grown to its loudest, and plates had been pushed away as everyone patted contented bellies, Jordan stood and announced that he had something to say.
“I want to thank all of you for making it out here this evening,” he began, after everyone had quieted and turned to give him their attention. “And I would like to take this moment to make an announcement.”
He grew quiet as he looked at his guests, and Roxanne wondered what he would say.
“She doesn’t know it yet, but I would like to present a gift to the woman I love.” Jordan produced a small box that sat on the table next to his plate, and Roxanne wondered when he had put it there.
She sat there stunned when he placed the small box in front of her. Gasps and whispers filled the air, and Roxanne knew everyone stared at her, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the box in front of her.
“Open it.” Jordan spoke so only she, and those right around her, could hear.
Roxanne felt Joanie squeeze her leg, and she couldn’t help grinning as she fumbled with the paper that sealed the box, until she held a velvet ring box in her hand. She looked up at Jordan, not able to hide her surprise, and noticed the confidant, powerful man watching her with a very pleased smile on his face. She opened the box, and gasped along with Joanie and Emily as they all stared at the wonderful ring that sat inside. Roxanne’s fingers shook as she took the delicate gold band, with the very large diamond housed on it, out of the box.
“Roxanne. Marry me,” he said in front of all of their guests.
Then he reached for her, and Roxanne stood next to him on legs that suddenly felt shaky. He took the ring from her, and then slid it on to her ring finger. “Will you marry me?” he whispered, suddenly looking terrified that she might say no.
“Hell yes, I’ll marry you,” she cried out, and the guests cheered and applauded their approval.
Roxanne sat on a stool in Jordan’s kitchen later that evening, staring at her engagement ring, and replaying the events of the evening in her head. It was just like Jordan to be so confident in her decision that he would propose to her in front of all their guests. She loved him even more for that trait in him. He knew what she wanted, and he went out of his way to give it to her. They hadn’t discussed marriage in detail prior to that night, but she knew that she wanted to be with Jordan for the rest of her life, and she relished the fact that he had sensed that in her.
She looked up when he entered the kitchen. He had removed his shirt and shoes, and padded over to her silently. “You like the ring?” he asked, smiling down at her.
“You know that I do,” she said, and grinned when he smirked.
“I make it my first priority to always know what you want, and to give it to you before you can ask.” He took her hand with the ring on it, and placed a kiss over the diamond. “And I took Joanie with me to pick it out,” he confessed with a roguish grin.
Roxanne laughed, and decided not to ask when he had managed to sneak out with her girlfriend without her knowing about it. Jordan would give her a life of surprises and joy, and all she had to do was love and trust him. Her job was the simple one.
“I want to ask you something,” she said, hoping she had chosen the right moment.
Jordan must have noticed the seriousness of her comment, because he pulled up the stool next to hers, and sat down next to her.
“Ralph Layette talked to me briefly this evening,” she began. “He asked me to forgive him, but he made a comment I didn’t understand. He said that he didn’t want to see the same thing happen to you that happened to your father. What did he mean by that?”
Something guarded passed over Jordan’s expression, and she watched him as he stared across the kitchen at the recently wiped down counters.
“My father started his business from scratch just as I did,” Jordan began. “He made his fortune quickly, and moved up the ranks of society here in town.”
Jordan took her two hands in his and squeezed them. “He fell in love with his secretary, and married her. Society didn’t
approve, saying she was a bimbo and gold digger, and it turned out that they were right.”
“You aren’t talking about your mother, are you?” Roxanne asked, trying to imagine a boy growing up thinking such things of his mother.
Jordan nodded. “When I was three, my mother cleaned my father out for everything she could get her hands on, and disappeared. Some say she fled to Europe, I’m not sure.”
“You haven’t talked to her since?” Roxanne couldn’t believe a mother could leave her child like that.
“We were told she was killed in a yachting accident when I was about ten.” Jordan offered the news as if it meant nothing to him, and Roxanne felt for the boy who had never been given the opportunity to have a mother to love. “He never admitted it, but I think Father always hoped she would come back to him. But after that, he seemed to give up on life. He died alone and bitter.”
“How sad,” Roxanne said, not knowing what else to say.
“Yes. And I vowed not to live my life as my father had.”
Roxanne had noticed before that Jordan seemed bitter toward his father, and wondered what had caused that. She couldn’t figure out how to ask the question though, so stood and wrapped her arms around him.
He nuzzled his face into her shirt, and then nipped at her nipple through the material. Roxanne ran her hands through his hair, and her breath caught at the wicked sensation his teeth caused when they brushed her skin through her shirt.
“Well I’m afraid you’re stuck with me for life, mister,” she whispered into his hair, and he lifted his head.
“I’ve never worried about your loyalty to me for a second,” he told her, and she smiled at his cocky nature. “It’s been me that I’ve worried about.”
“I can’t find a thing wrong with you,” she said, and ran her hands over his shoulders and then down his arms, making a show of trying to find a blemish.
“My father never missed an opportunity to remind me that I was my mother’s son.” Jordan’s comment stilled her hands and she stared at the stormy look in his eyes. “He despised her for leaving him, and embarrassing him in front of polite society. And of course there were the rumors that I wasn’t really his son, but a bastard that she saddled him with when she left town.”
“How awful,” Roxanne cried out, wanting to do anything to douse the pain she heard in his words.
“Our blood types matched.” Jordan shrugged. “I think it was just the gossip that annoyed him. Either way, we were never close.”
“Well, I think you would make a good father.” Roxanne watched the clouds leave his expression, and a smile crossed his face. She smiled too.
“I think I would too.” She watched the wicked glint return in his smirk, and knew he had let the past return to that remote corner where he buried such demons. He had some painful memories that might take him many years to work through, but he had shared it with her, and that was enough for the moment.
“Maybe if we practice enough, someday we can experience parenthood.” She teased him with her breasts as she rubbed then again up against his face.
Jordan gripped her rib cage with either hand, and stilled her motions, then clamped down on a nipple with his teeth. Roxanne felt the sting of her nipple being bitten soar through her clear to the depths of her womb, and groaned as she grabbed his hair.
Jordan lifted her and placed her on the island in the middle of the kitchen, then spread her legs as his hands worked their way up the inside of her miniskirt. He smiled down at her shaven, moist center that appeared as the material of her skirt scrunched around her waist.
“Do you see something you want?” she teased.
“Oh yes.” Jordan slid a finger down her moist outer lips, and Roxanne tossed her head back and groaned. “But there is still a question you haven’t answered.”
Jordan slid a finger inside her, and then pulled it out and teased the smooth entrance.
Roxanne couldn’t lift her head. “What’s that?” she groaned.
“Who do you belong to?” he asked.
Roxanne smiled before slowly lifting her head to stare at him. He thrust two fingers inside her this time, and she felt them move back and forth once inside her. She bit her lip, loving the sensations that rippled through her. His dark eyes watched her like a predator who has captured his feast, and deciding where to indulge himself first.
“I belong to you, Jordan.” She smiled as she watched satisfaction spread across his face. She slid forward, thrusting his fingers inside her further.
Roxanne grabbed his silky black hair on either side of his head, and pulled his face toward her pulsing heat. “And, my love, you belong to me.”
She knew she couldn’t force him to eat her if he decided not to, but he lowered his head willingly, and pressed his open mouth over her moist entrance. Roxanne sucked in air, and let her head fall back again, as she spread her legs as far apart as she could to allow him more room.
“What if one of our guests decides to come down for a midnight snack?” he asked, and rested his chin on her shaved mound.
Roxanne brought her head up and met his gaze as she smiled mischievously. She had almost forgotten that they had David and Joanie in the guest bedroom so that the four of them could wake in the morning and spend the day together. Emily had tried to leave and Roxanne had insisted she stay the night as well. The large house had plenty of unused bedrooms, and Millie had done a wonderful job of keeping all the rooms in tidy order.
“What will you offer them? Something out of the refrigerator? Or something here on the counter?” Roxanne asked, and ran her fingers through his raven black hair.
Jordan’s laugh was filled with desire. “Maybe one day I’ll consider sharing you with another, but first I want to get my fill of you.”
He scooped her into his arms, and headed for the staircase.
“That is just fine with me,” she said, and wrapped her arms around his shoulders as he carried her to their bedroom.
About the author:
All my life, I’ve wondered at how people fall into the routines of life. The paths we travel seemed to be well-trodden by society. We go to school, fall in love, find a line of work (and hope and pray it is one we like), have children and do our best to mold them into good people who will travel the same path. This is the path so commonly referred to as the “real world”.
The characters in my books are destined to stray down a different path other than the one society suggests. Each story leads the reader into a world altered slightly from the one they know. For me, this is what good fiction is about, an opportunity to escape from the daily grind and wander down someone else’s path.
Lorie O’Clare lives in Kansas with her three sons.
Lorie welcomes mail from readers. You can write to her c/o Ellora’s Cave Publishing at 1337 Commerce Drive, #13, Stow, Ohio 44224.
Also available Lorie O’Clare:
Fallen Gods: Jaded Prey
Fallen Gods: Tainted Purity
Full Moon Rising
Lunewulf 1: Pack Law
Lunewulf 2: In Her Blood
Lunewulf 3: In Her Dreams
Lunewulf 4: In Her Nature
Lunewulf 5: In Her Soul
Sex Slaves 1: Sex Traders
Sex Slaves 2: Waiting For Yesterday
Sex Slaves 3: Waiting For Dawn
The First Time
Things That Go Bump in the Night 2004 anthology
Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer e-books or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you breathless.
www.ellorascave.com
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Torrid Love - Caught! Page 26