Chapter 12 Shit’s starting to get real #3
“I’ll sleep on the couch,” he clarified quickly.
But he caught it too late. The tables were already turning.
She was going to make him uncomfortable so he would give in and let her leave.
Usually he played along, but entertaining her antics wasn’t very high on his priority list today.
He was grumpy and tired and literally itching with lust. It was an all-round bad day.
“You sure about that?” she asked.
So it starts.
She placed her elbows on the other side of the island counter and lowered herself until their eyes met.
“Do you really want to sleep on the couch? It’s your house and I don’t want to impose.
Maybe if we put our heads together, we can think of some kind of arrangement that would please both of us.
You have a really big…bed, Tyler.” She leaned close enough for him to breathe in her cinnamon-vanilla scent.
“Decisions, decisions,” she whispered, that sadistic smile curving on her lips.
She took his almost-empty plate and walked to the sink. “It must be so frustrating.”
Even knowing her intent didn’t stop his body from reacting to what she said. It was that suggestive tone, that sexual innuendo she’d been using to rile him up for the last three weeks and he was pretty sick of it now.
She would use her words to arouse him because she knew he wouldn’t act on it.
It was a test, a challenge for her. She was trying to tempt him to go back on what he’d said.
He didn’t know if she was as willing as she implied, or if she was just toying with him.
He was feeling a little volatile at the moment, definitely not in mood to be toyed with.
This was three weeks of sleepless nights.
Three weeks of her playing these games. Three weeks of gritting his teeth beneath a forced smile just to make her believe she had the upper-hand and he’d had about enough.
Generally, he let Jordan have her way. She didn’t need to be managed.
She got things done without him having to ask, so for the past two years, he let her say what she wanted, do whatever the hell she liked because, frankly, there had never been a need to assert authority.
Ninety percent of the time, he allowed her to walk all over him, but every now and then, she needed to be reminded who was boss.
She had just placed his plate in the draining rack when he caught her around the waist and spun her around to face him.
“Let’s make one thing very clear.” Keeping his hands firmly on her waist, he lifted her up onto the counter.
“I really try to be a nice guy…but I’m still a guy.
You keep toying with me and I’ve reached a point where I’m finding it really hard to be nice.
You’re needling me with these little comments, pushing me for a reaction…
so I’m reacting.” He pressed his palms up her soft thighs, dragging her skirt up with it.
He forcefully spread her legs and shoved his hips between them.
Her breath caught and her eyes grew wide, filled with surprise and anticipation.
“If I really wanted to, I could tear off every stitch of your clothing and take you right here. And I make you so hot, you wouldn’t be able to stop me.
I could have you begging for me, because I know I have the same effect on you.
” His hands moved higher, slipping under skirt.
He caught the thin seam of her panties on the side of her hip, twisting it around his forefinger and pulling so hard, he was on the verge of ripping it off her body.
She gasped and his breathing became unsteady.
“You feel this, Jordan?” he asked through gritted teeth.
“This is how frustrated I am.” Both hands slid beneath her underwear to cup her ass.
He pulled her to the edge of the counter until she was pressed flush against him and he could feel her heat through his track pants.
A throaty groan escaped her lips and her nails sank into his shoulder as she felt his hard length throb between her legs.
“You feel that, Jordan?” he whispered roughly, grinding against her until she whimpered. One hand moved up and fisted in her thick hair. He leaned closer, so close their lips lightly touched when he spoke. “That’s how bad I want you right now.”
His eyes zeroed in on her mouth. The urge to kiss her was manic.
He wanted to catch her lip between his teeth, feel her tongue playing with his, but he resisted.
One kiss would send him over the edge. One kiss would get him so wrapped up in Jordan he wouldn’t be able stop.
“You want me to say it?” he asked, his breaths heavy on her skin.
“I’m saying it. I want you…and you know it, so stop messing with my head just to prove a point. ”
He was about to walk away when her legs wrapped around his waist and kept him in place.
She grabbed his hands and pushed them back up her thighs.
“I do it to make you feel the same way I feel. Overpowered and helpless.” Her hands moved up his bare chest, soft caresses that were pushing him to breaking point.
“I hate what you do to me. Always with the mixed messages. I kissed you and then you refused to talk to me. You come back with your charm and your cute little smile and I can’t even find the will to tell you to go to hell.
That’s the power you have over me.” She pulled him closer, her warm lips slowly moving up his neck, and he groaned.
“I hate it,” she whispered in his ear. “You touch me the way you do and I’m about ready to strip down and let you fuck me any way you want. ”
His breath hitched. Those words did something to him, something primal, something that had him shutting his eyes and savagely gripping her thighs.
She lightly kissed the corner of his mouth and he turned his head the other way, refusing to give in.
He didn’t know what he wanted anymore. He was supposed to be thinking of a way to get Trisha back and yet Jordan was the woman who seemed to occupy his thoughts every damn second of the day.
Just a few minutes alone with this woman and his hands were all over her.
He wasn’t ready for this. He wasn’t ready to pull her into this emotional mess he’d created for himself.
She leaned back to look at him. “What’s happening between us, Tyler?
Are we friends? Are we work colleagues? Or are we just two people who rub against each other from time to time?
One minute you’re awkward and distant and the next you’re back to being charismatic.
You say you don’t want to lead me on, but you can’t keep your eyes off me.
You tell me you want me and then you back away.
Your hands are up my skirt and yet you won’t even kiss me.
So how about you stop messing with my head and tell me what the hell is going on? ”
Frustration caused his jaw to clench. “I don’t know, Jordan!
And you’re not giving me a chance to figure it out.
” He lifted his hand to her face, brushing his thumb against her lips.
“We’re on the verge of something. On one side it’s safe and the other side could be something great or something catastrophic.
Strength or weakness will determine which way we tilt, but I want you to know something.
If I decide to give into this…you…us…it wouldn’t be a sign of weakness.
Just give me some time to figure out where my head’s at. ”
She dropped her legs and he stepped back. “Okay,” she agreed softly.
“Okay. So now that we’ve both said what we needed to say,” he said, tugging her skirt back down, “let’s get some sleep.”
She hopped off the counter as he walked out of the kitchen. “You still wanna sleep on the couch?” she taunted behind him.
He spun around and saw her biting her lower lip to stop a smile, naughtiness flickering in her blue-gray eyes. It shattered every ounce of tension in the room. She looked so cute that a snicker escaped him before he could stop it and that was all it took to release her giggles.
“You’re gonna drive me crazy, Jordan.” He’d probably regret doing this. It was probably a huge mistake, but he held out his hand and nodded his head to the staircase. “C’mon.”
The staircase still seemed to scare her a bit because she clutched his hand as he led her up to his bedroom. Rummaging through his cupboard, he gave her a T-shirt and pair of boxers.
“This isn’t going to fit me,” she said, handing him back the shorts. She took the T-shirt and made her way to the bathroom.
He was really going to do this, share a bed with Jordan.
Innocent yet intimate. It felt wrong and right at the same time.
One part of him wanted to distance himself from her, yet the other part of him wanted to get closer…
any way he could. He wanted more than what they had, but he felt trapped between an unresolved past with Trisha and an uncertain future with Jordan.
Confusion was too mild a word to describe what he was feeling.
“Tyler?” she whispered from the doorway of the bathroom.
“Yeah.”
“In business, you’re not afraid to take risks, but in your personal life, you’re reluctant to try anything new. I understand the predicament you’re in and maybe at this moment you’re not ready to see it, but we are on the verge of something great.”
She was right. He knew she was right. But her being right only complicated the situation even more. Jordan was just supposed to be a means to an end and yet somehow she’d ended up meaning so much more.
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