Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 79440 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79440 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Eventually, I pull out of her heat, despite how badly I want to stay rooted where I am, and move from the bed. Making my way into the bathroom, I wet a washcloth with warm water and clean up, before doing the same to another, taking it back to the bed. I stop to take Jordyn in. Her long brown hair is spread out over the pillow. Her eyes are closed, her chest is rapidly rising with each breath, and her naked body is on full display for me. I realize I’m creeping on her, so I move to the bed and settle on the edge.
Her eyes pop open. “Hey.” A blush sneaks up her neck, coating her cheeks. It’s been so long. She’s shy in front of me. She doesn’t need to be. Every inch of her is perfection.
“Let me take care of you.” Her face is still flushed, but she gives me a tiny nod and opens for me. I clean her up quickly, before tossing the washcloth through the bathroom door, where I hear it land on the tile floor with a splat. “Move over, sweets, I’m coming in.”
She giggles but moves over, and I wrangle the cover so we can slide beneath to ward off the chill of the air conditioning.
“Can we stay here, just like this until I have to meet my family at the airport on Monday?”
“Yes.” I already plan to call my foreman and tell him I need to use a vacation day for Monday. I hardly ever miss work, and over the last two years, I’ve picked up more hours than everyone else. He won’t have a problem with it. “I planned on taking off work Monday so I can be there when you greet them.”
“No. No.” She turns to face me, and her face has gone ghostly white. “No.”
“Hey, it’s all going to be okay. I promise you.”
“No.” She sits up in bed, pulling the sheet around her breasts, and stares down at me. “My mother… she’s not someone you mess with, Ryder.”
There’s something she’s not telling me. “Explain.”
“I can’t. I just—we can’t push her. Promise me.”
“I can’t make that promise, Jordyn. Not when it means that you’re not a part of my life. What am I missing? What has you so scared?”
A tear slides down her cheek, and I pull her into my arms. I hate that this is hurting her, but she told me she loved me. She’s home and in my arms where she belongs. No way am I just walking away because her mother wants to toss out some threats.
No way.
I move us so that we’re lying face-to-face on the bed. My arms are still wrapped around her tightly, letting her know I’m here. I’m here and I’m not going anywhere. I wipe at her cheeks, and she opens her eyes. The pain I see twists like a knife in my chest.
“I had a brother.” Her confession is soft.
The hesitancy in her voice has me on edge. She had told me she was an only child. Why would she have lied to me?
“I know. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” she says, reading my expression. “Jeremy. His name was Jeremy, and he was twelve years older than me. I was an ‘oops' baby.”
“You could never be an ‘oops’ anything,” I assure her.
“Thank you, but it’s true. They never wanted me. They needed a son to carry on the legacy my father and my grandfather built. Someone to pass the law firm down to. They got that with Jeremy. They didn’t need me.”
The tone of her voice tells me she’s just accepted this as her truth. What has happened in her life to make her think she wasn’t wanted?
“Sweets, I’m sure that’s not true.” I’ve met her parents, her father just once, but her mother a few times, and I’m having trouble picturing her as a mother who made her daughter feel as though she was an accident. Not that I don’t believe her, I do, but that’s not the woman I’ve met.
“It is. Anyway, I was ten when it happened. Jeremy graduated college and told my parents he wouldn’t be going to law school. He was in love with a girl; her name was Holly. She was really pretty, and she was always nice to me. Anyway, Holly’s family owned a small accounting firm, and Jeremy wanted to go work for them. He was always good with numbers. He used to help me with my math homework,” she says, a sad smile tugging at her lips. “He told my parents that he was going to ask Holly to marry him, and that they needed to get on board with his plans or consider him no longer their son.” She pauses to collect her thoughts.
“At the time, I didn’t understand why he would say that. They were our parents, and I was his sister. We were family. How could he threaten to leave us like that? I was scared and confused, but I didn’t dare say anything. Instead, I stayed at the top of the stairs, listening to them argue. It was my thing. I was supposed to stay in my room, but I was a part of the family too. I was also nosy and wanted to know what they were saying. They always treated me as an afterthought, and even though I was only ten, I wanted to be in the know. I thought it was a genius plan, but it turned out that there is a reason you shouldn’t eavesdrop. You might hear things you’re not supposed to. Things you can’t unhear.”