Chapter Nine Jordan
Chapter Nine
Jordan
“We need to talk about Clover’s—” Gavin stopped himself mid-sentence and stared at me from the doorway of my office. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Do you know how to knock?”
He walked in, closed the door behind him, and took a seat in front of my desk. “Fuck knocking. Tell me what’s going on with your face.”
I dropped the ice bag I’d been holding to my cheek and stared into my brother’s eyes. “I have lockjaw.”
“What the hell? How did that happen?”
I rubbed the left side, even though they both hurt equally, and focused on the spot right under my temples, the pain still throbbing after an hour of icing and three Tylenol. “I went down on her for three hours.”
He balled his fist and held it in front of his mouth. “Oh shit. I knew you met someone when you showed no interest in the flight attendant—it’s not the flight attendant, is it?”
“Hell no.”
“Who is she?”
“Maya.” I sighed. “A woman I see on my runs every morning.”
I was surprised I’d said her name. Giving him that much made things a little bit more real.
But so did this conversation.
A conversation I never thought I’d have with my brother—not with my track record with women.
“Maya . . .” He smiled. “That explains why you’ve been rushing me off the phone when I call you first thing and why you didn’t want to fly to Chicago to meet with Clover.” He leaned closer to my desk. “But for you to go down on her? For three hours? That’s practically fucking marriage, brother.”
“Stop.”
“When was the last time you went down on a woman?”
I ran my hand through the back of my hair as I thought about it. “I don’t remember.”
“It’s not that you don’t like eating pussy. I know you do. It’s because you don’t go down on one-night stands, and that’s all you ever have.”
“You’re right.”
“Was that the first time you were with Maya?”
I slowly shook my head. “Second.”
“For three goddamn hours?”
I chuckled, immediately regretting it. I picked up the ice and held it to my face. “Don’t make me laugh.”
“It wasn’t a funny statement. It was a serious one.” His blue eyes backed up what he’d just said. “That’s a long time, my man.”
“I couldn’t help it. I can’t stop thinking about her.” I rocked in my chair, my feet anxiously tapping on the floor. “I told myself once I tasted her, it would be enough. I’d be done. I’d move on.”
“And?”
“She left my hotel room this morning, and she’s owned my mind ever since. Gavin . . .” I set the ice down. “This hasn’t ever happened before.”
His brows rose. “Hold on a second. Your hotel room?”
My hand pounded on top of my desk. “Yeah. There’s . . . a problem.”
“With your condo?”
“With Maya.” I flattened my fingers and rubbed my palm over the wood.
There’s me and the life I’ve built that I love so much and I’m so grateful for, and then there’s them.
I hope you’re not one of them, Jordan. “She’s not into rich people.
In fact, she hates them because it sounds like they took away her home when she was a kid, making her homeless. ”
“What does she do for a living?”
“She’s an RN.”
He crossed his legs. “That’s a hell of a job.”
“Which affords her an apartment in South Boston with three other roommates, and they all share one bathroom.”
He laughed, but instead of eventually dying out, the sound got louder.
“You’re killing me,” I admitted.
“No, you’re killing me. You’re a fucking billionaire. We own half the city of Boston and we’re buying more every day. Does she know that?”
“No.”
He froze as though I’d sprayed him with liquid nitrogen. “She has no idea who you are?”
I let out a long breath. “No.”
“Let me guess: You took her to a hotel so she wouldn’t see the penthouse you’ve got a solid twenty million invested in. Or the Porsche collection in the garage. Or the Stanley Cup rings you’ve got displayed in your man cave. Or the million you’ve got in watches alone.”
I rubbed my lips together, grabbing both sides of my jaws. “Something like that.”
“You’re fucked.”
My head dropped, and if my mouth didn’t hurt so badly, I would have ground my teeth. “Don’t say that.”
“You’ve got to tell her.”
“Now?” I looked back up at him.
“You don’t want things to get to a point where feelings are involved and suddenly you throw this on her.” As he stared at me, his eyes narrowed before his head fell back and he groaned, “You already have feelings for her. Shit.”
“I don’t know what the fuck I have.”
“You’re thinking about her nonstop?”
I slowly nodded.
“Yeah, I was right. Jordan, you’re fucked.”
The anger was building each time he said it. “Gavin—”
“You’re not just rich—you’re billionaire-rich. That’s a level she’s not prepared for and a level she doesn’t want to mess around with, given her past. There’s no coming back from that.”
“What are you saying? That the one time I actually like a woman I can’t have her?”
He held the edge of my desk with both hands. “I’m saying if that’s how she really thinks, yes, you’re fucked.”
Maya: How’s the jaw feeling?
Me: The pain wouldn’t stop me from licking you for another three hours tonight.
Maya: Really? Because I could tell you were hurting during our run this morning.
Me: Why don’t you come over and I can prove it to you.
Maya: You want me again? Tonight?
Me: Yes.
Maya: That’s two nights in a row, Jordan. That feels very date-ish to me.
Me: And what if it is?
Maya: I wouldn’t hate it.
Me: Neither would I.
“Uncle J!” my nephew, Ben, shouted after he threw open my office door and came running through the room, stopping to jump on my lap.
He was the only person in the world I wouldn’t berate for not knocking.
“My boy.” I wrapped my arms around him and kissed the top of his head through his dark-brown locks. “I didn’t know you were coming in today. What a nice surprise.”
“Jenny dropped me off after school ’cause Dad wants to go to the field and toss around the football.”
I didn’t know what Gavin would do without that nanny. She’d been a lifesaver from the moment she was hired and the most important person on Gavin’s payroll.
“I wish your dad would have invited me.” I leaned back to look at him. There were no cuter eyes than his large bright-blue ones. I held his shoulders and smiled.
“Daddy says you’re going to be busy with Maya. Whatever that means.”
Of course Gavin would say that, the motherfucker.
Still, I laughed my ass off. “Your dad is one wild man, you know that?”
He exhaled loudly. “I knooow.”
“Let’s hit some balls.”
I carried Ben over to the putting green I’d had installed in the back of my office, handing him a putter. “How was school today? And how’s your girlfriend?”
He stuck his tongue out at me. “Ick.”
I stood at the base of the green and tapped the ball, watching it roll right into the hole. “Come on. There was someone you were just crushing over last week. What was her name? It was a fruit. Apple? Tangerine?”
“Clementine,” he groaned.
“That’s it.”
He shrugged. “I dumped her.”
“Why?” I lined up the ball right in front of his putter and pointed at the hole at the end of the green.
“She was sticky.”
“Sticky?”
“Like glue, Uncle J.” He spread his legs the right distance apart and positioned his arms just the way his father and I had taught him. “Everywhere I went, she was there.”
“It’s some miracle that you’re not my child, I swear.” I laughed again. “So, you’re telling me you’re taking a break from the ladies?”
He putted, lining up the ball two inches from the hole.
“Nice shot,” I told him.
He ran to collect the balls and brought them back, dropping them on the tip of the green. “Dad says I’m too young to fall in love.”
“I agree with him. Love is off-limits until you’re my age, and even then it’s questionable.”
“I guess I’m taking a break, then. No Clementine. No anyone.”
“You mean until next week?” I winked at him. “You take after the Worthington boys, you can’t stay away even if you wanted to.”
He smiled at me and giggled. “I want a sleepover, Uncle J.”
“I’ll talk to your dad, and I’ll make that happen very soon.”
“What about Maya?” He made a face at me. “Are you in love? Are you guys gonna kiss and get married and all that lovey-dovey kinda stuff?”
I huffed. “No.”
I also wasn’t having this conversation with my seven-year-old nephew.
“No?” Gavin asked as he appeared in my office. “It didn’t sound that way when we were talking about her earlier.”
“Jesus,” I moaned. I pointed at my brother. “Enough from you.” I then shifted my finger to my nephew. “And definitely enough from you. Both of you—out. I need to get work done.”
Maya: I just got home from work. I’m going to take a quick shower and head to the hotel. Want me to bring anything?
Me: Don’t shower. I want you to do that here.
Maya: But I smell like a nurse, and I promise, it’s not a pretty scent.
Me: Don’t shower, Maya.
Me: And don’t bring anything. I just want you.
“Are you ready to do this?” Maya asked as we walked out the front of the hotel with our workout clothes on to begin our five-mile run.
I hadn’t gotten much sleep last night. Neither had she.
Although my face had spent a decent amount of time between her legs, things had gone much further than that, starting in the shower, where I’d washed her with bubbles, and moving to the couch, the bar top, the wall in the bedroom, and finally the bed.
My body was stiff. I needed my vitamins and an appointment with my masseuse and an hour in the steam room to loosen up. A run would only strain my muscles more, which wouldn’t do me any good.
“What if I had a better idea?”
She stretched her arms over her head and behind her back. “Like what?”
“Breakfast.”
“Breakfast?” she mocked. “Now?”