Chapter Seven Jordan
Chapter Seven
Jordan
Maya: What time do you want me?
Me: Right now.
Maya: Now? But I thought we discussed I’d be arriving around dinnertime?
Me: You asked me what time I wanted you. I gave you my answer.
Maya: Lol. You’re one insatiable man, you know that?
Me: You’re learning quickly.
Maya: Is 7 okay?
Me: It’ll work. Room 1212.
Maya: See you soon.
Me: Not soon enough.
The room my assistant had booked was at a five-star hotel, one of the highest rated in the city, with a view that overlooked the harbor.
It had been semi-upgraded to a top floor, a downgrade compared to the presidential suite she normally reserved for me.
Still, going this route was risky, but there was just no way I could spread Maya’s naked body across an uncomfortable bed with a scratchy blanket and a pillow that felt like fucking lead.
By bringing her here, was I giving Maya more fuel to believe her life was completely opposite from those kinds of people? Was I showing her that I was one of them, a question I’d avoided during our last run?
What she didn’t know—for now—wouldn’t hurt her.
Or maybe she’d never know. I’d get this ache out of my system by finally getting to taste her, and then I’d be able to move on. That would also mean I’d have to change my morning run so it wouldn’t overlap with hers.
A run I really enjoyed, with its view of an ass I liked even better.
Goddamn it.
The knock at the door pulled me away from my thoughts, and I got up to answer it, knowing it wasn’t room service since they weren’t scheduled to be here for another thirty minutes.
I quickly checked the peephole, confirming it was Maya, and I opened the door, holding the side of it as my stare dipped down her body.
“Hi,” she said softly.
That hold turned into a tight grip as I took her in.
“Jesus,” I groaned. The sweater dress and knee-high boots weren’t just a look—they were a whole fucking mood.
The light-gray material hugged her narrow waist and those delicious hips, and there was a hint of her creamy thighs between the dress and the boots .
. . fuck. I forced my gaze to lift. “You look as gorgeous dressed as you do in workout clothes.”
“You see me before I’ve showered, without any makeup on or my hair done, and I’m a sweaty mess. I’m certainly not as put together as I am now, so I don’t know how the looks can be equal.”
I fucking loved that raw, athletic style on her.
But what this proved was that Maya could wear anything, at any time of day or night, and still be beautiful.
“Most can’t pull off both.” I nodded as I took another dip. “You sure as hell can.”
She adjusted her bag on her shoulder. “Funny. I was thinking the same about you.” When our eyes locked, she was smiling. “Not looking so bad yourself there.”
Jeans and a button-down. I’d kept things simple.
Not her.
Nothing could look simple on that body.
“But if I’m being totally honest, the running shorts and T-shirt will always be my favorite,” she said. “Especially when you wear a backward hat and the wind is blowing just right so your shirt is tight across your chest.”
I gave her a smile. “You’ve been checking me out?”
She held up two fingers with an inch between them. “Little bit.”
I chuckled and moved the door back to give her more space. “Come in.”
She slipped into the opening, grazing against me as she squeezed her way through, stalling in front of me like she knew I was craving the closeness of her perfect body and that breathtaking face. What her placement also did was give me a full inhale of her perfume.
“Mmm, I love that smell.” She was focused on my eyes.
“What smell?”
Her tongue came out just enough to lick the edge of her lip. “Soap. A scent that never comes through when we’re out running.”
I laughed. “You’re saying I smell like ass in the morning?”
“In the morning, all I get is your cologne. It’s a woodsy scent, as if I’m standing in the middle of a forest, surrounded by different kinds of trees, and then that aroma is blended with tea—like black and hibiscus and Earl Grey.
It’s unique. It’s also become my favorite.
” I watched her chest rise. “And it’s there now, but it’s even fresher because I can tell you just put it on after your shower. ”
“Had I known you liked the scents so much, I would have waited to shower with you. You could have rubbed the soap all over my body.” I ground my teeth, letting out a deep exhale as I thought about what I would have done with those bubbles. “And I could have rubbed it all over you.”
“Next time.”
Why was my brain already there? Mentally planning for what that would look like?
And feel like?
When only a few minutes ago, I’d told myself once I ate her pussy, I’d be satisfied.
“Yes, Maya. Next time.” I wrapped a hand around the back of her neck and moved our faces together, positioning my lips in front of hers but not touching them. “Do you want to know what I smell?”
“Tell me.”
My nose went to her neck, and I dragged the tip all the way to her ear. I felt her draw a breath and hold it in. I felt her pulse pound away. I felt her body arch into mine. “Desire.” I pulled her earlobe into my mouth, giving it a nibble before I released it. “I can even taste it on you.”
“Fitting, since it’s exactly how I’m feeling,” she confessed.
I held her face, staring into her eyes. “I know. But dinner first.” I nodded toward the room behind me since we still hadn’t moved from the doorway. “Come in.”
“You got us dinner?”
“Aren’t you hungry?”
She grinned. “Well, sure, but since this isn’t a date, I just assumed . . .”
“That I would lick your pussy the second you walked through the door? Yes, I’d like nothing more. But I’m going to feed you something aside from my tongue.”
She flattened her hand against my chest. She didn’t push, just held it there. “Look at you being romantic.” She tapped her thumb over my heart. “I didn’t expect that from you, Jordan.”
“I do have it in me.”
“You do?”
“With you. Apparently.”
Her smile changed. It turned even more seductive, and she left me in the doorway. I watched her ass as she went inside, stopping in the center, where she turned toward me. “Nice room.” She pointed toward the windows. “And that view—wow. This must have cost you a fortune.”
I didn’t want to tell her that I’d gotten the view for her; that wouldn’t back up the story I’d given her earlier about my apartment being sprayed. But I needed to say something even if it wasn’t the truth.
“My insurance is picking up the tab.”
Her brows lifted. “You have renters insurance?”
“Everyone in this city should.” An honest reply, it just didn’t apply to me.
“Should, yes. But then there’s people like me who don’t and just hope for the best.”
Maya, you never make these situations easy on me.
“Maybe after spending the night here, you’ll change your mind.”
She headed for the windows and looked at me over her shoulder. “Staying the night, you say?” She winked and dropped her bag onto a chair, freeing her hands to press them against the glass. “It is beautiful up here. I suppose I could be persuaded.”
Her view didn’t even compare to mine.
A body that I stood back to admire, until I walked over to join her, pulling her back against my front.
“How long will you be staying at this hotel?”
“I’m not sure.”
If I felt the need to taste her again, I couldn’t come up with another reason to not take her to my condo. I needed to milk this situation for as long as I could.
But how long could I really keep up this lie?
Didn’t she deserve the truth?
And if I gave it to her, would she stay, or would she walk right out that door?
“My apartment is over there.” She pointed at a cluster of several high-rises. “Right behind that glass building.”
“Did you just move there? Or did you change up your running time?”
My hands were on her waist, and she turned around to face me, her back now against the window. “Why do you ask?”
“I would have seen you before. I’ve been running that path for years.”
“What if I just went unnoticed?”
“Impossible.” I chuckled. “All I notice on that sidewalk is you.”
She combed her hand through the side of my hair. “You’re flattering, you know that?” Her cheeks were turning red. “I recently moved in.” She mashed her lips together, her breathing coming even faster. “You haven’t kissed me yet.”
“Once I start, I won’t be able to stop.”
“Who says you have to?”
“The food is getting delivered in”—I glanced at my watch, hoping she wouldn’t recognize the designer if she caught a glimpse of it—“twenty minutes.”
“You’re saying you need more time than that to do”—she traced my lips with her finger—“what you have planned?”
I changed my grip, giving her a bit of my strength. “I’m saying you need more time than that. This isn’t like eating a burger in the car, Maya. This is fucking dining.”
She studied my eyes. “You’re not really talking about dinner, are you?”
“No.”
“You’re saying—”
“I’m saying I want to spend hours with my face between your legs.
Teasing you with my fingers and my tongue.
Licking you. Swallowing you. Getting you off so many times, you can’t come any more.
That’s what I want. That’s what I’ve been thinking about.
So I’m going to keep my mouth to myself until I can put it right here.
” I rubbed a finger on the inside of her thigh.
Not high enough that I could feel any wetness from her panties, but enough that I could feel her heat.
And, fuck, it felt so good.
“I’m trying to think of a smart-ass comment to say.”
“Hit me with it.”
“I can’t . . . because I can’t breathe. That’s what you do to me.”
“My lips haven’t even touched you yet.”
“They don’t have to. Your words alone are enough.
Because that mouth”—she shook her head—“is nice and dirty.” She set her hands on my wrists and raised them up my forearms and biceps, stopping at my shoulders.
“I’ve been dying to see what’s under these clothes.
Your body has been too hidden from me. Feeling it just isn’t enough. ”
Tattoos. That was what she’d see. Symbolism of my time on the ice on both my arms, beginning an inch above a T-shirt sleeve and covering my whole chest.
But what Maya was talking about were my muscles. “You can see it. Touch it. But tonight is about you. It isn’t about me—not in that kind of way, I mean.”
“What if I want it to be?”
I hissed out an exhale. “You’re making demands now?”
“Again, what if I want to?”
“I’ll consider it.” I linked her fingers with mine. “Come here.” I brought her over to the couch, where I had her sit, and I went to the fridge, took out a Sam Adams, twisted off the cap, and gave it to her.
“A detail you heard—for someone who isn’t a listener. Interesting.” She smiled as she took the bottle from me.
I poured myself a scotch from a bottle I’d had room service deliver and sat beside her. “The bathtub conversation. I couldn’t forget it.”
“But you could have . . . and you didn’t.” She held her beer out to me. “To our first non-date.”
“And dinner.”
Her eyes narrowed. “This time, you’re talking about food, right?”
I clinked my glass against hers. “If that’s what you want, then yes, it’s about food.”
“So what you’re saying is that it’s really not.”
I took a sip. “I’d take your pussy over any meal.”
“I was just joking when I called you insatiable earlier, but I wasn’t wrong. You really are . . . obsessed.”
“Not in general. But with you, yes.”
“Why?”
I slowly filled my lungs, casting my eyes across the entire picture of her. “I don’t have an answer to that. All I can say is that you’re addictive and every bit I get to experience isn’t enough. I want more.”
“I’m the exception.”
In ways I didn’t understand.
I nodded. “It appears you are.”
There was a knock at the door, and I checked my watch. “Looks like they’re early.”
I got up and opened the door for room service, a crew of two hotel employees pushing in two carts of food. Once they’d made up the table, covering it in linens and silverware, they put as many plates as they could fit between the place settings, and the rest went on the bar.
Since I didn’t want to pull out my wallet and have Maya see the wad of cash inside, I added their tip to the bill and signed it to the room, thanking them on their way out.
As soon as we were alone, Maya said, “What the hell is all of that?” She laughed. “Are you having ten other people for dinner?”
“I didn’t know what you liked.”
“So you ordered the entire menu?”
No, my assistant had spoken to the chef at the hotel’s only restaurant and had chosen a menu that included an array of appetizers, a main course of seafood and meat, multiple sides, and several different desserts.
“I ordered enough to ensure you’ll be full.”
“Half of a burger and some fries could have done that.”
I walked to the couch and gave her my hand. “But that wouldn’t have been as fun as seeing the expression that’s on your face right now.” I pulled her to her feet. “Besides, I think you’re going to like some of this.”
I went to lead her toward the table, and she stopped me, her hand sliding away from mine to wrap her arms around my neck.
“If I forgot to say this because I’m too caught up in the dinner”—she smiled, hinting that she wasn’t talking about food—“I want you to know I appreciate all of this and everything you’ve put together. ”
I held her face with both hands, tempted to kiss her, but I didn’t. “You’re welcome.”
“You’re a sweet guy, Jordan.”
“No one’s ever said that to me before.”
“What do they call you instead?”
I laughed. “Names you don’t want to know.”