Chapter 26 #2
It took several minutes for him to calm down enough for me to even pull out of him, but I was content to spend the time lying there with him as I held him in my arms. The floor was cold, and the rug was abrasive on oversensitive skin, but there was no place I’d rather be in that moment.
Even once he’d calmed down, he still lacked the strength to move for a while. I took the opportunity to fetch a wet cloth from the bathroom to clean us both up, then covered him with a spare blanket so he wouldn’t get cold while I tidied up our scattered clothing.
When I returned a few minutes later, I found him no longer lying insensate on the floor. Instead, he stood by the large bedroom window, a blanket draped around his shoulders like a cloak as he looked out over the city that was soon to become his new home.
“Hey, Kitt,” he said, as I stepped up behind him and wrapped my arms around his shoulders. “You meant it, right? You really want me to live with you?”
I pressed a kiss against his neck, admiring the bruise I’d left there during our lovemaking.
“I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t mean it.”
With a delightful sound, Jordy buried his laughter in the blanket. “Well, you didn’t really ask. You just kinda shoved me at an empty closet.”
Luckily, our position meant he couldn’t see my face, so I was able to hide the embarrassed flush of my cheeks. “In my defense, I’ve never done this before, although that wasn’t how I planned to ask you.”
“Did you really have a whole proposal planned out?”
Jordy’s blue eyes sparkled with mirth, and he was clearly joking, but his question reminded me of something important. Asking him to wait there, I headed for my office to retrieve my briefcase from its place locked away in my safe.
When I returned, as soon as Jordy saw the metal briefcase in my hand, the humor in his eyes disappeared and his expression instantly turned serious.
“Kitt?”
“It’s not a bad thing,” I promised him as I laid the briefcase on the bed to open it. “At least, I don’t think it is. But there’s something else you need to see. I was planning to tell you about this earlier before asking you to stay here, but... well, you know how that turned out.”
Taking out a file from the briefcase, I handed it over to him.
He looked at it for a moment, the furrow in his brow only deepening the longer he stared at the pages.
“Who’s Sean Emerson?”
There was no easy way to say it, so I figured it was best to be blunt.
“You are.”
The file slipped from Jordy’s hands, and I had to catch it before it hit the floor. He didn’t even seem to notice, staring at me with eyes so wide the whites were completely visible around the blue.
“Me?”
“Yes.” I rearranged the pages that had slipped out of place when the file fell.
“It’s taken us a while to process all of the information we got from the bell ringers.
Well, we finally managed to find some info about you.
I remembered that you told me that you had no idea what your original name was.
Jordy was what you’d always been called, so you kept it, but you just had to come up with a last name when they were making your paperwork.
You said you picked Emerson because you liked the look of it.
Well, apparently there was a reason for that. Emerson was your original surname.”
I handed him back the carefully arranged file.
His fingers shook as he accepted it this time.
There, on the first page, was the name Sean Emerson in big black text. He traced the letters a few times, as if memorizing them by touch.
“Do you—”
His voice cracked. After clearing his throat, he tried again.
“Do you know—”
He still couldn’t say the question out loud, but it wasn’t hard to figure out what he was asking.
“Your parents died in a car crash when you were one year old. Apparently, you were in the car with them, so the bell ringers just had someone forge the paperwork at the hospital and say that you died in the crash as well.”
Jordy tried flipping through the file, but he couldn’t get past the first page before he clutched the whole thing to his chest tight enough to crease the paper.
“And... my family?”
Figuring that the file probably wasn’t going to do any good right now, I eased it out of his grip and placed it back in my briefcase where it would be safe for him to look at later.
“As far as we can tell, you don’t have any immediate family. Both of your parents were only children, and their parents are already dead. However, now that we have a name, we can probably hunt down any distant relatives that you have, if you’d like to find them.”
Jordy clasped his hands over his mouth, but he still couldn’t stifle the sound of his sobs as tears rolled down his cheeks.
I reached out to him, but before my hand even came close to making contact, he turned away to face the window, letting his forehead rest against the smooth glass.
“Jordy,” I started to say, then stopped.
Should I even call him that?
Now that he knew his original name would he want to start going by Sean instead?
I tried to imagine it. I’d known him as Jordy for so long that associating him with any other name felt strange, almost as if a stranger had suddenly slipped into my bed. However, whatever name Jordy—or Sean?—preferred, then I would just have to find a way to get used to it and adjust.
My hesitation must have caught his attention, because Jordy reached behind himself to grab my hand and pulled me closer until I was pressed up right against his back, encircling him within the shield of my arms.
“It’s still just Jordy. That’s the name I’ve always gone by. Changing it now would be... strange.”
I let my lips linger near his temple, listening to his breathing, which was still a little too fast for my liking. “I’m sorry if this is sudden. Maybe I should have found a better way to tell you.”
At that, Jordy actually laughed. I expected him to be upset and was surprised when his joy sounded genuine.
“I don’t think there’s any good way to deliver this kind of news. But Kitt, it doesn’t matter. You gave me my identity back. No, even better. A name. A home. Maybe even a family. You’ve given me a whole new start.”
Gently gripping his chin with just the tips of my fingers, I tipped his face toward me so I could kiss him.
“No,” I said after the soft brush of lips. “I didn’t give you anything. You earned your new start. I just helped.”
I used to think I needed to be stronger so that I could become the hero who could save people. Now, I’d come to realize that wasn’t my role. I’d never be the valiant white knight who rode in on a strong steed to save the day.
No. Instead, I was destined to provide support and help victims as they learned to save themselves.
And as Jordy pulled me down into another kiss, this one filled with more heat, I had to admit that a supporting role could be pretty satisfying, too.
Watch for more Federal Protection Agency books to come in 2026!