Sparring Partners (23 page)

"Loving isn't always easy, Jordon. It's a
lot like karate in that respect. You either do it or you don't.
Anything in the middle, and you're in for a world of hurt."

Jordon cocked his head up at Sensei as he
bent to retrieve his own gear. "Did you get that from a great
Okinawan master?"

"Yep."

"Who?"

"Mr. Miagi. In the first Karate Kid movie.
He says it better, but then he's got that whole 'wax on wax off'
thing going for him." Sensei demonstrated in the air with his
hands. "He's right about both things. 'Wax on...wax off' is solid
technique."

Jordon shook his head and found a small
smile. He still wasn't sure how to take Sensei Schwartz, but there
had to be some pearl of wisdom in there. He'd mull it over with
popcorn and beer. Since he'd never seen The Karate Kid, perhaps it
was time to pick up the DVD.

He could probably talk his stepson and Irma
into watching it with him. He could even ask Charlie and some of
his fru-fru poetry buddies to join them. They could have a 'Potters
Woods movie night'. Some family bonding over snack food, sugar and
beer was definitely in order. It wasn't a clever or complex plan,
but it just might keep him from flying to New York with a net.

Elf hunting wasn't in season yet on the east
coast.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

The new concrete driveway was completed and
cured to the point of drive-ability, with nary a work truck in
sight, as Reed pulled onto the expanse of smooth grayness
glistening in the moonlight. Lantern lights lit the perimeter,
casting a soft amber glow that was relaxing and illuminating at the
same time. The whole thing probably cost more than she earned last
year with her few mediation clients and her candle sales combined.
Who was she kidding? Her income wouldn't have paid for the
lights.

It grated and stung that Jordon and his
family could do something like this on a whim, with little thought
and even less effort, when she and Finn couldn't save enough or do
much more than cover the mortgage. It shouldn't affect her that
way, Reed kept telling herself, but it did. The best she could do
was accept the way she felt and try not to explode over it. Reed
did the imaginary
ohm
sound in her head, in an attempt to
calm herself and bring down her rapidly escalating heart-rate
before she got out of her car. She purposefully parked in the drive
so she wouldn't wake anyone by opening the garage door.

It was late by Potters Woods standards, and
just getting started by New York standard time, which surprisingly
she'd gotten used to quite quickly. No lights were on inside, but
then she didn't expect anyone to still be up. That's why she
decided to come home late. Her mother-in-law accused her of wanting
to 'slink in under the cover of darkness'. Reed had learned over
the past few days that Lily had a flare for the dramatic.

"I don't slink." Reed said out loud to no
one but the night sky.

The crickets seemed to sing louder
contradicting her.

"Oh shut up."

Reed closed her car door as quietly as
possible and made her way to the back of the house. Pushing open
the door, the first thing she noticed was the smell. Buttered
popcorn, beer, and something else, that was definitely not health
food, hung in the air.

The next thing she noticed was the sound.
Two separate and distinct, although equally loud, male snores
coming from the family room. The flicker of a brand new gigantic
T.V. illuminated the room enough for Reed to recognize the culprits
responsible for the syncopation: Lance and Micky from Charlie's
poetry club lay passed out on each of the sofas.

"Could you at least try for harmony?" Reed
whispered. Two loud snores followed.

"Apparently not." Reed moved silently back
through to the kitchen.

Her foot caught something and sent it
barreling across the ceramic kitchen tile floor until it hit the
wall with a thud loud enough to get her pulse rate up again. Reed
slid on the liquid that it left behind, but she didn't fall. It
stunk. Old beer. She wiped it up with paper towels as best as she
could, with only moonlight as her guide. She didn't want to turn on
the lights, and wasn't sure what she'd say to any member of her
household, knowing that they were 'partying' while she was
away.

She put the beer bottle in the sink and
threw away the drenched paper towels. Tomorrow, whoever was
responsible for this was mopping the floor.

By hand.

Twice.

Reed held her breath as she tossed the
towels. The contents of the garbage stunk to high heaven and didn't
contain the remnants of anything that could remotely pass for
organic. Not even the empty popcorn bags that left an oily
butter-ish goo on the side of her biodegradable garbage bags. Where
in the world was Finn, and why did she let this happen?

Jeeze. I wasn't gone that long. And
obviously I wasn't missed.

'The cat's away', and all that, went through
Reed's head. She'd never been particularly fond of rodents, and
tonight she'd even consider setting out traps. These rats were too
damn big to shoo out with a broom and a shoe box.

Reed washed her hands in the sink and went
up to bed.

...

She'd only been gone for a few days and
already her bed didn't feel like her bed anymore, it had been
usurped by a giant hunk of truth-slayer who slept naked. How could
she think she'd just slip in unnoticed and fall into an exhausted
sleep next to him. It seemed silly now. Reed was exhausted enough,
she just wasn't sleepy anymore.

He'd left the shades open, probably after
consuming too much beer and not enough popcorn. Moonlight streamed
from the windows and the skylight, painting her room in pearlescent
glow that made everything clearly visible yet softer than the harsh
light of day.

Not bothering with one of the ancient
concert t-shirts she usually slept in, Reed slipped under the
sheets. They were the same ones she'd put on the bed the night
before she left. They were less than a week old, but she'd have bet
a Snicker's bar that Jordon would have replaced them with
hundred-thousand thread count Egyptian cotton or hand-dyed silk, or
whatever else it was the astronomically-rich-and-out-of-touch slept
on. She'd gotten these for twenty bucks at T.J. Maxx.

The moment she settled in, Jordon rolled on
top of her.

The first thing she noticed was how hard he
was.

The second, that his hair was still damp
from the shower.

The third, he didn't smell remotely of
beer.

He captured her between his legs as his
hands came up to hold her face. His hands were gentle, his legs
were not. He held her body to him, between the twin beams of steel
that were his thighs and by shifting his weight, so Reed couldn't
squirm away. She couldn't make out the color of his eyes in this
light, but Reed had no trouble reading their intensity. His
silence, and the raw emotion he was draping her with, eclipsed her
sense of being the injured party, and left her feeling only the
need to be near him. That left her feeling less righteous and more
vulnerable than she had when she sought out Lily.

Reed could feel the steady, although
accelerated beat of his heart reaching out to hers through his
chest. The feeling was disconcerting enough that she said the first
thing that popped into her emotion fogged brain.

"You didn't change the sheets...you don't
smell like beer."

"I won't drink in front of Jesse, and the
sheets smell of you." He said matter of fact. Not the least amount
of sentiment, romance, or anger at her disappearance made it's way
into his voice, but his heart rate started a tap dance on her
chest. He was less calm than he wanted her to believe. For some
reason, that didn't make her feel any safer or in control.

His gaze moved to her mouth, but he didn't
move to kiss her. His hands cradled her face, and his thumbs began
gently drawing spiral patterns at her temples, easing some of the
tension she was feeling there and causing it to pool between her
legs. He shifted one thigh so there was no mistaking his
intent.

"Sex doesn't fix everything." Reed said, not
sure she really believed it.

"If all I wanted was sex, I'd be snoring by
now." His tone raw now, less controlled.

"What do you want, Jordon?"

"You're the second person to ask me that
today."

"Does that surprise you?"

"Since before today it hadn't happened since
I left home, yeah, it surprises me. As to what I want..." He let
his words trail off as he moved his gaze from her mouth to her
eyes. His thumbs stilled. He took a deep breath and his erection
pulsed against her inner thigh at the same time. It was like they
were both gearing up for something.

"I want you to kiss me. I want you to wrap
yourself around me and pull me inside. I want to sink inside you so
deeply I can't tell where I end and you begin. I want you to be
with me every second...every heartbeat...I want you to scream into
my mouth everything that made you run. I want you to never want to
run from me again...I want..."

Reed didn't want to know what else he might
have to say so she wound both hands into the long hair at his nape
and pulled him closer to her. He resisted for a second, maybe just
to show her he could, something hot and dangerous flashed in his
eyes and then was gone as fast as it came. He groaned low in his
throat, more animal than man and allowed her to bring him to
her.

Surrender. The way the lion must have
surrendered its paw to the mouse.

Hesitant.

Wary.

With a need that obliterated sense.

Reed's grip eased on the back of his neck
when she no longer had to lift herself off the pillow to reach him.
Jordon lowered her slowly, not breaking contact with her mouth, not
kissing her back either. Reed tilted her head to draw more deeply
from him, pouring her heart, what was left of her anger and her
fear that somehow she wasn't enough for a man like him into her
exploration of his mouth. She didn't stop until he took it all,
including the air from her lungs.

She broke away then panting, writhing
against him like some wild thing. She was beyond caring now how
transparent her responses were to him. She was running on pure need
and something else she didn't want to define. Even to herself.

"Open your eyes."

"Why." Reed asked, wanting no sensation
other that touch and taste to interfere with the intensity of what
he was making her feel.

"Open your eyes, Reed. Look at me." When she
did he continued, "I want you to see what you do to me. I want you
to see
me
."

Reed wasn't sure what he meant by that and
she didn't care when he reached down and grabbed himself, probing
her entrance. She was tight, but not unpleasantly so, and more than
ready for him. She wondered now if she'd been ready for him
forever.

After the first painfully slow inch Reed
couldn't wait. She did exactly what he demanded earlier. She
wrapped herself around him and pulled him in tight. The effort cost
her. Five days without him, and she'd forgotten taking all of him
too fast bruised her. Jordon eased off a centimeter so he was no
longer touching her cervix and held her there, unmoving, except for
the pulsing inside her he couldn't control. When she tried to move
he held her so tightly she could barely breathe.

"Don't move."

His breath was warm, teasing the rim of her
ear. His tone, rough, like each syllable was ground out of him and
burning like hot whisky with just enough honey to make you want to
take another sip.

She didn't move. He was holding her so tight
she couldn't.

Finally his grip eased and his lips found
hers. She wanted to devour him, he only wanted to taste and explore
her. He sucked her breath into him every time he kissed her, like
he was trying to absorb her essence. He did it unconsciously, even
when his lips brushed hers and moved on to her jaw line, behind her
ear, to her neck.

He drew back enough for Reed to slam her
hips up to him. Something inside him seemed to snap and he was no
longer holding back but pounding into her with an urgency they both
needed. It was hard to say who was riding who as Reed's world
crashed into a kaleidoscope of sensation.

The emotion would come later.

Jordon followed right after with a guttural
groan and a rhythmic spasm that took his breath away. He gave her
his weight for a second before rolling to his side and pulling her
back against him. Reed snuggled into him allowing him to pull her
even closer.

Jordon held her pressed against him all
night long. Every time she tried to roll away he reeled her back in
until finally she gave up the fight. She matched her breathing to
his, feeling the exhaustion creeping upon her again. This time she
let it sweep her away into oblivion.

Her last thought before she drifted off to
sleep...

Sleeping with Jordon was so much better than
sleeping alone.

CHAPTER THIRTY

"I don't like sleeping with men."

Henry chuckled and rolled over on his back.
There wasn't much room in Finn's bed, and if he stayed here any
longer he was going to have to spring for a new one. If she let him
stay in her room in the house it wouldn't be an issue. She slept in
a king-sized bed there, but she insisted on the pretense that no
one in the house knew they were having sex - so they couldn't do it
in the house.

'Having sex' was her phrase, not his. She
made him so angry with her constant attempts to pigeonhole what
they shared as 'physical exercise and nothing more', that he'd
reverted to his college vernacular and started asking her if she
wanted to fuck every time she said sex. It wasn't getting him
anywhere though. Half the time she was locking the door before he
could even finish the word.