Of all the things I’d anticipated about meeting Jordan’s friends, this was the most surprising. Jordan spent more time at work than I thought was humanly possible. He was hardly a party animal. The only time I’d seen him out was the time I invited him the night of our one-night stand. Actually, maybe that was why he’d said yes without question. I just thought he wanted to get into my pants.
“No way,” I said with a laugh.
“I thought you said this was your girlfriend, Jor,” Cush said.
Georgia elbowed him in the side. “Shut up, Cush.”
Jordan shook his head and took a seat in the booth. “That’s who I used to be, Cush.”
“Jordan went out every night,” Cush informed me.
“Not every night,” Georgia said with an eye roll. “Could you please let the experts tell this story?”
“Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights,” Tye added. “Minimum.”
“Half the time, it was to see you play,” Jordan countered.
“Well, yeah, but what about the other half of the time?”
Georgia cackled. “The other half was for all of you to chase ass.”
“We were young,” I offered.
Cush arched his eyebrows. “Young? You were still doing this shit in Vancouver up until you left. What happened?”
Jordan shrugged. “There aren’t clubs in Lubbock.”
I laughed. “Yes, there are. You just don’t go to them.”
“You’ve domesticated him,” Georgia said with a wink. “We all do at some point.”
“Not me!” Cush cheered.
Georgia shot me a look. “Even Cush. This isn’t normal for us anymore. We were lucky that these were his days off in surgery.”
It was hard to imagine that this had been Jordan’s life. It didn’t mesh with what I’d seen of him the last three years. But I liked getting a more complete picture of who he was and had been. No wonder Lubbock felt so simple to him and he had so much to get used to. He’d gained a family and lost everything else.
Cush turned away from the group to order drinks from their private bartender and returned a minute later with a shot-laden tray. He passed them out efficiently.
“Cush was a bartender in college,” Jordan said, pulling me down next to him and wrapping an arm around my waist. “He hates having other people pour our drinks, but he endures.”
Cush held the drink aloft. “To friends, old and new!”
We all held our drinks up and yelled, “Cheers!”
I downed the shot, letting the vodka course through my system. It was going to be quite a night indeed.
An hour later, we were all thoroughly tipsy, and Cush was regaling us with stories of their college adventures and all the ways Jordan had apparently gotten out of things by having too much money.
“And there we were,” Cush said dramatically, “about to be arrested because someone had vomited in public.”
“That was you,” Tye drawled.
“Whatever,” Cush said, pushing it aside.
“It was him,” Jordan said to me. His hand was still around me. His face nuzzled into my neck.
“And Jordan started pulling out hundred-dollar bills.”
Jordan shook his head as he kissed my shoulder. “It was twenties, and we were drunk.”
“Hundreds sounds better,” Tye conceded.
“He told the cops that they should just let us go.”
Georgia rolled her eyes. “And they fucking did because you’re white boys.”
“Aww, baby,” Cush said, pulling her against him. “You’re ruining the story.”
“With the truth?”
I snorted. “I think you’d like my friend Cézanne.”
Jordan groaned. “We shouldn’t put them together in the same place.”
“Afraid we’d take over the world?” Georgia countered.
“I’d happily let you take over the world, G,” Jordan said, coming to his feet and pulling me up, too. “You and Cézanne together would burn it down.”
“Then I definitely want to meet her,” Georgia said conclusively.
“Dance with me,” Jordan said with a laugh.
I followed him out onto the dance floor. It was slammed with people now. The music had a heady beat, and we were pulled into the flux instantly.
“Your friends are nice,” I told him.
He slipped his hands around my waist, sliding down to my ass and pressing me against him. “They’re ridiculous.”
“They love you.”
He nodded. “They do. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed them. It’s so easy to be around them.”
“Like with Jen and Sutton.”
“Just like that.”
Jordan took my hand, twirling me in place so that my ass was back against his hips. Then he bent me forward slightly at the waist. I flipped my hair and shook my ass. I could feel every single inch of him press against me as we danced seductively to the music.
His hands slid up my bare thighs, hiking my skirt higher and higher up until it was nearly around my hips. I shivered as his hand slipped under my dress and ran along the seam of my thong. I gasped, but it was lost to the music and the press of bodies around us.
He didn’t go any further. Just danced and teased and worked me up into a frenzy. I supposed I deserved it after teasing the shit out of him earlier in the hotel room, but damn! If it wasn’t rude, I’d ditch all of his friends and head straight back to the hotel.
I turned back into his arms, letting my skirt fall back into place. “Tease!” I accused.
He laughed, as carefree as I’d ever seen him. “From the queen of tease, that’s a compliment.”
“Was this really your life?” I asked into his ear as we swayed to the music.
“Yeah. It’s strange to look back now, but I was always the one pushing everyone to go out.”
“Doesn’t seem like the Jordan I know.”
“I think I was looking for something,” he admitted. “I was chasing the high I get every day with you.”
My heart constricted around the words. “Jordan.”
“I kept coming out, dancing, drinking, sex. But it never filled me up, so I did it over and over again. Relationships fell through my fingers like sand in a sieve. I thought that was just me, just who I was. But here, with you, I don’t feel like that at all.” His hands tightened around me. “I don’t feel like you’re set to slip away from me.”
It was a dangerous thing to say, considering that I had every intention of leaving Lubbock and going away for residency. But right now, it felt like we could make anything happen. That we could survive anything. And I didn’t want to crush that thought by bringing in reality.
“I’m not slipping away,” I told him.
After a few songs, we headed back to the booth, staying until close, drinking and reminiscing. If we were going to be in Seattle longer, I would have been happy to go to one of Tye’s shows and meet his husband, Logan. To see the new art opening that Georgia’s sister, Tosh, was having next week. To talk doctor to doctor with Cush about what it was really like in surgery. But we didn’t have more time. We only had tonight.
So, we made the most of it and then pulled each of them in for a hug before leaving.
“We’ll come back, I promise,” I insisted as I hugged Georgia.
“You’d better,” she said. “Pick Seattle, so we can see you all the time.”
I grinned. “That’s the dream.”
Jordan hugged Georgia one more time, punched Cush on the arm, and nodded at Tye before piling us both into the car and returning to the hotel. I leaned my head on his shoulder as we drove back. I was little bit past tipsy and straight into drunk, but it was a happy, lazy drunk. A great-night drunk.
Jordan kissed the top of my head.
“I’m glad you invited yourself to my interview.”
He chuckled. “I’m glad, too.”
“Would you ever want to move back to Vancouver?”
He ran his fingers in circles around my knee. “It’d depend.”
“On what?”
“Where you were.”
I looked up at him and pressed my lips to his. He drew me in deeper, his tongue opening the seam of my lips and massaging my own. I groaned into his embrace. I wanted nothing more than to climb into his lap and fuck him right then and there. But even drunk, I restrained myself until we climbed out of the car and hurried up to our penthouse suite.
Jordan slammed me back against the door of our room, kissing me breathless as he fiddled with the lock to let us inside. Finally, the lock released, and we all but tumbled backward into the room. I teetered on my heels, and Jordan wrapped his arms around me to keep me upright.
“Easy there, love.” He toed the door closed.
He slipped his hands to my thighs and hoisted me into the air. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he carried us into the bedroom. His lips still pressed against mine.
My feet hit the floor as my hands went to the buttons on his shirt. When I reached the bottom, I flicked the button open on his pants and slid the zipper down. Meanwhile, his hands were roaming all over my body, slinking under the hem of my dress.
He growled in the back of his throat as I ran a finger down the length of him through his boxers. “Annie,” he groaned.
Then he flipped me around and pushed me face-first into the bed. My heels were still on, my dress riding up to show my ass and the lacy black of my thong. He hooked a finger under the lace and dragged it down my legs and pushed my dress up higher, so it was around my waist.
“Jordan, please,” I moaned into the comforter.
But he just brushed his hand across back reassuringly and then sank to his knees behind me. The first touch of his tongue against my clit sent me jerking against the bed. My hands clenched the comforter for dear life.
A finger slicked through my core. “You’re so wet.”
“You were practically fingering me in public.”
He chuckled. “And why would I stop when you seemed to like it so much?”
Truth was that I didn’t want him to stop. Not in public. Not right now.
Any resistance I’d built up against Jordan Wright had evaporated.
I was his. All his.
One finger pushed forward into me and then a second until I squirmed, wanting more, more, more. Wanting his cock inside of me, filling me. He was making me wait because I’d made him wait, and I couldn’t even regret it. Because it was always better between us when he took control.
He nudged my legs further apart, opening me wider as he flicked his tongue against my clit. I buried my head into the covers. Between his tongue and the slow swirl of his fingers reaching up to my G-spot, I was going to explode already. All that waiting had primed me, and now, I was beyond sensitive.
“Come for me, love,” he commanded.
His thumb ran in tight circles around my clit, and suddenly, I came completely undone, coming on his fingers as he held me bent over. He kept swirling past the point, and I squirmed harder underneath him.
“Se-sensitive,” I stuttered.
“Just how I like you.”
Then he withdrew his fingers and stood. I collapsed forward against the bed, glad for the short reprieve to recover. My legs shook uncontrollably, and I was breathing hard.
Then, I heard the whoosh of his pants hitting the ground, and he settled himself between my legs. His hands spread my ass cheeks as he positioned his cock at my entrance.
“Oh fuck,” was all I got out before he thrust forward inside of me.
My eyes rolled into the back of my head. He was so big, kept me so full. At this angle, I could barely resist feeling as if he’d impaled me, and God, did I fucking love it.
“I wanted to do this all night.”
“Fuck me?”
He collected all of my messy red hair and then moved it to one hand, giving it an experimental tug.
“Oh,” I gasped as my head dipped backward, the leverage he needed to drive into me again and again and again.
My back arched, my neck stretched, my hair pulled and pulled and pulled. And I loved every fucking minute of it. I was on fire. Every thrust a hard hit, bouncing my ass and jerking my head back a little further. I was thankful for all those years of flexibility training.
“Fuck,” he groaned. “Annie”—smack—“you feel”—smack—“so fucking”—smack—“good.”
“Please, Jordan,” I gasped. “Please, I’m so close.”
He released my hair, letting it fall like a waterfall to frame my face. Then he grasped my hips and pounded deeper into me. My orgasm held tight and ready at the surface, as if waiting for the chance to unleash.
Sis thumb slicked through the wetness at my pussy before slipping up to my asshole. I saw black as he pushed down, breaching my hole. Everything inside of me tightened and then exploded.
I came hard and fast, rocking back against him and crying out into the night. He removed his finger as I tightened around him. Then he jerked into me one more time as he unloaded with a primal growl.
We both collapsed at the same time. All the fight leaving our bodies and pure satisfaction taking over. After a few seconds, Jordan withdrew, and I stumbled to the bathroom on shaky legs to clean up. Then I crawled into the huge bed and felt him come in after me, pulling me close.
He kissed my cheek. “You’re amazing.”
“I don’t think I did much, honestly,” I said around a laugh.
“No, I just mean…you, as you are, you’re amazing.”
I snuggled in tighter. “You’re pretty amazing yourself.”
He held me close, and I could feel myself drifting off. The past two days catching up with me.
Then Jordan spoke softly, “I could be happy here.”
I blinked awake again, unsure what he meant. “Yeah?”
He waited another second, as if he didn’t know whether or not to respond. “If you picked Seattle, I could be happy here, too.”
My eyes widened in the bed, and I looked up into his perfectly sincere face. “What are you saying?”
“I think you know.”
“You’d move here with me?” I asked.
He nodded once. “If this was what you wanted.”
And I didn’t have words for that gift, so I kissed him and let my body say everything I couldn’t bring myself to say.