Chapter 16
Jordana’s heart ached as she talked to her father. She felt torn. Duty told her to go home. Her heart told her to stay with Forrest.
“I’m not joking, Jordana,” her father said seriously.
“I want you safe and right now that’s not here.
I love our country, but that doesn’t mean I’m blind to its darker sides.
But, if Forrest isn’t good enough for you, if you don’t like him, or if he’s made you upset, then I will move you to our embassy in Washington. ”
“No! Father, I don’t need to go to the embassy. I already feel as if I’m part of this very strange little town. Forrest is . . . well, he’s wonderful.” Jordana couldn’t hide the sappy smile on her face, which caused her father’s eyebrow to raise.
“You haven’t had that look in a very long time.”
“Why do you look angry about it?” Jordana asked as her father frowned.
“Because I remember when that man didn’t live up to those smiles. It broke your heart.”
“True. But that didn’t mean my heart couldn’t mend. Everyone says relationships are hard, but it’s easy being with Forrest. And I’m saying that as we ran for our lives through the . That’s the only thing that worries me.”
“Oh, Jory. It’s not that relationships are hard, it’s that you’ll face hard times in relationships and only the good ones know to lean on each other instead of away from each other.
If you have the trust, respect, and love I had for your mother with Forrest, then you hang onto it with everything you have.
It will make a great story for my grandchildren someday. ”
Jordana knew how much her father missed her mother and this support meant a lot to her. “I think we just might, Dad.”
“I have to get to a meeting. Stay safe and you can ask Kane to use this network to call in the future. Right now, though, I want you under the radar and safe.”
“Do you think you can follow that same advice?” Jordana challenged, wishing for once her father would step down from his job so he’d be safe.
But that wouldn’t be her father. He didn’t back down when he was doing the right thing.
So, instead of begging him to come to America, she supported him.
“Well, not the lying low, but the staying safe part.”
“I’m doing everything I can to ferret out these miserable assholes. The second I do, though, nothing will keep me away from seeing you. I miss you.”
“I miss you too, Dad. And I love you. Have a good meeting.”
Her father blew her a kiss before the connection went dark.
Jordana took a deep breath and closed the laptop. She glanced behind her and saw Blackbeard getting loved on by everyone except Damon. Apparently, he was still salty over being headbutted in the nuts.
Forrest ended his call and handed the phone over to Damon. She didn’t even make it to the door before Forrest was moving toward her. They always seemed to have that invisible string connecting them.
He opened the door and she was in his arms. “Is your father really okay?”
If she didn’t already love him, she would now. He wasn’t telling her she shouldn’t go to Brazil. Instead, his first comment was checking on her father. “He is. He had to get to a meeting, but he said he’d feel better if I stayed here. Or, if needed, I could go to the embassy.”
She watched as all the men nodded in understanding. “Whatever you need. We’re here for you.”
Jordana blinked up at Damon. He was completely serious in his offer. Kane had already done so much, and now another one of Forrest’s brothers was looking out for her. “Thank you. You’ve all been so kind to me and you have to know it’s much appreciated.”
Kane cleared his throat, looking slightly uncomfortable at the praise. “Waverly wanted me to tell you that if you want to use her laboratory at all while you’re here, there’s plenty of room. Skeeter has also asked me if I thought you’d like him to take you out to study the local plants.”
Jordana’s heart literally soared, especially when she looked over at Forrest and saw him grinning. He knew how happy that made her. “I would love that!”
“And Olivia wanted me to tell you that the women’s group is tomorrow night at the church.
One of them will pick you up at five to take you there,” Granger told her.
“My men will be doing patrols around the neighborhood more, and the church is the safest place for you in the town, so know you’re well looked after. ”
Jordana leaned forward and kissed both of Granger’s cheeks before turning to Kane and Damon and doing the same. “Thank you.”
Damon nodded. “Well, you’re family now. Or whenever you marry our tree-hugging brother.”
“Damon! Could you stop projecting your desire to be married into all of our lives,” Kane said, rolling his eyes. Yet, Jordana noticed no one corrected the fact that she wasn’t engaged to Forrest—even Forrest didn’t. Instead, Forrest stood there with a goofy, happy little smile on his face.
The brothers all teased each other as they headed inside, grabbed their stuff, and left. Finally, the house was quiet. Jordana turned to find Forrest silently laughing at his family. “How about I make you some breakfast? Well, lunch now.”
Jordana shook her head. “No, let me make you breakfast. Now, where are your spices?”
Despite the gravity of the situation, they were able to enjoy lunch.
Forrest insisted on helping her, and it was comfortable and nice to have someone helping in the kitchen.
They continued to laugh and talk. Apparently, there was something sexy about her being in the kitchen because Forrest couldn’t stop touching her.
He’d told her last night he’d fallen in love with her and while he didn’t say it this morning, he showed it in every action.
“Forrest,” Jordana said as she leaned against the kitchen island. Forrest was drying the last pan and looking sexy as hell while doing it. How was a man drying dishes so attractive? His forearms flexed and his ass was on full display.
“Are you okay? You’re flushed,” Forrest said worriedly as he set down the pan and placed the back of his hand on her forehead.
“I’m fine.” Jordana smiled to get him to relax. “I’m just a little nervous, that’s all.”
“Because of the contract on our lives?”
Jordana shook her head. “No. Because we need to talk about last night.”
Forrest’s shoulders tensed. “It’s okay if you don’t love me yet. I don’t want you to feel as if you have to say it.”
“That’s not it, Forrest.” Jordana took a deep breath.
“My last relationship ended over a year ago. I was so in love, but it was a slow burn. We dated for six months before we told each other we were in love. It was a three-year relationship that I thought was it. Marriage, babies, all of it. But it turned out his political ambition was much more important to him than I was. Something I figured out when he broke up with me and immediately started dating the vice president’s daughter after my father helped get him a job in his own department.
My heart was shattered. I thought he was going to propose that night and instead he broke up with me in the middle of the most romantic restaurant in our town.
All of that one day before our three-year anniversary. ”
“I’m not that asshole, Jordana. I would never spring a break-up on you.
I would talk about any changes in feelings I was having.
Jordana, I’m not sorry it happened, though.
It allowed for this. For you and me. I’m only sorry you had to have your heart broken.
But it makes perfect sense why you’re not ready to say those words to me. I understand your hesitation.”
“That’s not it,” Jordana said quickly before she lost her nerve.
“I do love you. I love you so much I can’t imagine not being with you every single day forever.
And it terrifies me because it’s been only a handful of days and we didn’t meet under normal circumstances.
I’m afraid I’ve fallen too hard, and too fast.”
Forrest stepped up to her and cupped her cheeks in his big hands. Jordana leaned into them as she stared at his chest, too embarrassed to look him in the eyes after her confession.
“First, look at me, Jordana. You never have to hide your feelings from me.” Jordana forced herself to look into his eyes and held her breath.
She was waiting for that hammer to fall and shatter whatever this was that had quickly turned into a serious relationship.
“Second, I don’t care how many days it has been or even how many years or decades it will be.
I love you and I know myself. This is real and deep and life-changing.
It’s also scary as hell holding out my heart like this, but I trust you not to break it. ”
“It feels so very real, Forrest. So real that I can reach out and feel my happily ever after. I just feel as if it’s happened all wrong. We fell in love while we were running for our lives through the .”
“Just think what a great story it’ll be to tell our children someday.
” Forrest leaned down and kissed her cheek.
It was so gentle and loving that her body melted into his.
He was her rock and she was his. Maybe time didn’t matter.
Maybe what they went through magnified regular dating.
They sure as hell skipped all the first date awkwardness and dove right into the heart of who they really were.
Jordana looked up at Forrest, she knew her eyes were shining with unshed tears and she immediately saw the worry for her on his face.
“My father and mother used to tell me bedtime stories of how they fell in love at first sight. My father told me before we hung up that our story would be a great story for his grandchildren.”
“I can’t wait to meet your father,” Forrest told her with a smile that felt genuine and neither intimidated nor scheming.
“Me too. Forrest, I love you. I don’t know how or why something so horrible turned into something so wonderful, but I’ll never regret meeting you.
” Jordana rose up on her toes and kissed him.
All those stories her father and mother told her of how they fell in love made sense now.
She might have loved before but she’d never fallen in love.
The kind where you fall so completely that there is no stopping it.
You simply love hard, fast, and with every fiber of your being.
Forrest leaned into her kiss, backing her up until he trapped her between him and the counter.
Not that she was running from him. No, she was rocking her hips against him, fusing her lips to his, and holding on to him with her hands as the world around them faded away until it was simply Forrest and Jordana and nothing else existed.
It wasn’t frantic. It was perfect. Forrest swept her off her feet and into his arms, never breaking their kiss.
Jordana raked her nails through his hair and kissed him back as he walked them to the bedroom.
Forrest finally broke their kiss as he set her gently on the edge of the bed.
They didn’t talk as he bent to his knee and took off one of her slippers followed by the next.
He kissed his way up her leg, behind the knee and to the inside of her thigh before reaching for the waistband of her shorts.
Jordana pushed her hips up so he could pull the shorts down her legs.
Jordana’s heart was pounding, but it was different.
This time she was so confident going into making love for the first time.
Before, she’d been nervous and sometimes a little embarrassed.
Not this time. She felt cocooned in love as Forrest kissed her again while his hands clasped the hem of her shirt.
He broke the kiss long enough to pull it off and then she was naked.
Jordana reached forward and with one pull had his athletic shorts off. Forrest ran his knuckles over her cheek before placing an achingly sweet kiss on her lips. “I love you, Jordana. Let me show you how much.”
Jordana nodded, and lay down on the bed.
Forrest didn’t lie next to her though. No, he started at her ankles, kissing them, before spreading her legs so his shoulders could fit between them as he kissed his way up her leg.
This time he didn’t stop until she was grabbing his hair and screaming his name.
And that was before he finally made it the rest of the way up her body.
Jordana knew the moment he began to move inside of her, stoking them both higher and higher, that they’d be joined for life. In that moment their hearts connected and as she clung to his broad shoulders, moaning as her body exploded beneath his. She knew that her life would never be the same again.