Relentless (4 page)

Sunlight peeked through the curtains covering the bay window as Michaela’s eyes slowly opened. She was hit with the force of her headache, which brought an immediate memory of too much champagne. She was about to groan when she heard the snoring, turning her head she saw Jordan lying naked in her bed. She had known she was going to regret this in the morning. She had known it down to her toes, but she had thrown herself at him anyway. She vividly remembered leaning forward and initiating that first kiss. That kiss had led to this, the two of them lying naked in her bed after a very wild night of tearing up her sheets. What had she been thinking kissing him like that? They had both been drinking a bit too much so she should have known she was playing with fire. Okay, so last night it had seemed like a good idea, but this morning she was sick at the thought of seeing an uncomfortable look in Jordan’s blue eyes or experiencing one of those awkward silences while he figured out how to say last night was a mistake. She was in no mood to experience that kind of humiliation; frankly she’d had a lifetime full of humiliation when she had found Joyce and Noah together. What was she going to do? Had one simple kiss led to the end of their friendship? All right, so it had been what followed the kiss that was the problem, but it was that stupid kiss that had started the whole ball rolling, so to speak. Since she was responsible for this disaster, she had better take control and fix it quick. She couldn’t sneak out and pretend it never happened since they were at her place, although
that
idea had its merits. So how was she going to get out of this gracefully when the two of them were lying here naked? Pre-emptive strike, it was the only solution! She would tell him it was just one of those drunken anomalies and that they never had to talk about it again. That way she wouldn’t be embarrassed and humiliated by his inevitable rejection and they could remain friends. After all she was going to get over this crush eventually. Since she was sure he only wanted her as a friend he would probably be relieved, what else could he possibly feel after all? Michaela took a steadying breath, she had a plan, and now all she had to do was wait until he woke up and immediately follow through with its execution. Wait, maybe it would be better if she got up and put on a robe. Telling someone you were still
just friends
when you were naked wouldn’t hold very much credibility would it? Not to mention she wouldn’t mind a couple of aspirin as long as she was getting up. She quietly slipped out of the bed, padding over to the closet she grabbed her robe, and put it on while she made her way to the ensuite bathroom. Opening the medicine cabinet, she pulled out the bottle of aspirin, and began fighting with the childproof cap. She thought she had managed to spring it open when the bottle and the contents flew out of her hands loudly scattering over white ceramic tiled floor.

Jordan’s eyes opened at the sound of the crash. The first thing he saw was the box of condoms on the nightstand; the second thing he saw was the expiry date on the box of condoms. They had expired last year. He smiled at the thought that Michaela had obviously not been entertaining very many guests, if any, since she had broken up with Noah. Then it occurred to him that expired condoms could possibly be a mood killer. He wouldn’t mind a baby on the way, but Michaela might want to wait awhile before they went down that particular road together. He doubted he was going to be able to talk Michaela into any morning fun if he imparted that news to her so maybe he would wait awhile before mentioning it.
A warm smile broke across his face as he remembered the previous evening. It had been everything he’d been fantasizing about for the last six months and much more. He rolled over in the bed intending to reach for Michaela and discovered to his disappointment that she was gone. Lifting himself up on his elbows, he raised his head and searched the room for her. He saw her on her knees in the bathroom scrambling to pick up the aspirin that had scattered all over the floor. “Drop something?” he asked, slightly amused at her position.

She looked up with a rueful smile. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you. I was just trying to grab a couple of aspirin. I seem to have a bit of a headache this morning.”

As Jordan rolled to his side the sheet dropped to his waist clearly revealing his naked chest and abdomen and his morning erection prodded eagerly against the sheet seeking attention. Propping his head in his hand he noted with a great deal of satisfaction that Michaela couldn’t help herself from staring. Treating her to a devilish grin, his blue eyes gleaming, he said, “I’ll just bet you do. Didn’t I warn you about that last night?”

“I seem to recall you telling me it was okay as long as I didn’t pass out,” she muttered as she finished gathering the last of the aspirin.

Jordan would have helped her with her task if he hadn’t been admiring the enticing view of her cleavage the robe afforded while she was bent picking up the aspirin. He felt himself responding and thought he was ready for some morning fun deciding to tell her about the expired condoms later, much later. He wanted to call her back to the bed now, or better yet he thought, he would go get her. Acting on his decision he started to rise out the bed. “Michaela …,” he began, his voice was husky.

Michaela appeared panicked causing Jordan to pause in his actions. She got up quickly from the bathroom floor immediately putting her hand out in front of her to halt him. “Stop! Look Jordan before you get up, I have a few things to say.”

Jordan was a little stunned by her reaction. He’d intended to bring her back to the bed for some hot sex and Michaela was acting as if he was intent on assault. He arched a brow at her inquiringly. “Okay, go ahead,” he said slowly, completely perplexed by her mood.

Taking a deep breath she began speaking as fast as she could. “About last night, I think we’ll both agree that we were drinking and things just sort of got out of hand. I’m sure you don’t want to put our friendship at risk any more than I do so I think it would be best if we just pretended this never happened. After all we’re both mature adults and there is no reason for one stupid night to ruin a great friendship, right?” She gave him a hopeful look as she finished her long-winded speech.

Jordan hadn’t known what to expect when Michaela began talking, but it certainly wasn’t that she wanted them to be
just
friends. How he could he possibly be lying here naked in her bed after sharing not one but several very intimate lovemaking sessions and then be informed that he had been relegated to the friend zone once again? He had been so sure that he had left it behind, never to be revisited. “You want us to be friends?” he asked slowly, positive he must have misunderstood the intent of her little diatribe.

She nodded her head smiling reassuringly. “Yeah, we’re friends, just like always.”

Jordan watched those cute little chestnut curls bounce while she nodded her head. The thought drifted through his mind that he was in love with a lunatic. She wanted to be friends after the incredible evening they had just shared; it didn’t make sense. What could possibly be going through that curly topped head of hers? Was she really not interested in him in
that
way? She had seemed extremely interested last night, but then again she had been under the influence. No fucking way was he returning to the friend zone.

She watched a number of expressions cross his face as he absorbed what she had to say. Then a hard look she had never before seen appeared. “No!” His voice was hard, uncompromising.

Startled by both the tone of his voice and his monosyllabic response she could only respond in a stunned voice. “No?”

“No,” he said, as he got off the bed oblivious to his nudity. He bent down and began picking up the discarded condom wrappers. He walked over to her and held them up to her face. “What are these?”

She could feel the restrained fury vibrating through his body and shit, he was sporting a very big erection. To say she felt intimidated was an understatement. This was a side of Jordan she had never seen before. Where was her relaxed, easy going friend? “Mmmm…condom wrappers?”

His voice was tight as he said, “That’s right, and how many are there?”

Okay so he was really pissed. She felt her anxiety go up one more notch. “Four?”

He threw the wrappers down on the floor in obvious frustration. “That’s right, four. We didn’t have one quick and dirty session of drunken sex that we can’t remember. We had sex all night long. Not once, but four times, and let’s not forget that I went down on you in your living room before we even made it to the bedroom. So do you remember all of those times?”

She cringed inwardly. Okay so this was getting awkward. “Well, yes of course I do.”

“So you really weren’t that drunk that you can say you didn’t know what you were doing, were you?” he asked in an aggressive tone.

Was she on trial? Cause it was beginning to feel that way. “Okay, so I guess I wasn’t that drunk, but really do you want to ruin a friendship because of little too much champagne?”

His patience was at the end and his irritation was growing by the minute. He looked directly into her eyes and said, “
I
did not have too much champagne.
Do you really think the only reason I slept with you was because I was drunk?”

Okay so who was this guy anyway? “Well, I guess I sort of did.”

He grabbed her chin firmly between his fingers. “Let’s get this straight, I’ve wanted you since the first time I saw you. I’ve been waiting for you to get over your breakup with Noah. It wasn’t accidental sex, Michaela.”

“Really? I mean, we’ve been friends for a while and nothing has ever happened, so I just thought nothing ever would.”

“We’re not friends. We’re lovers now. Deal.” His voice was resolute.

She took a deep breath before saying, “You’re certain this is what you want?”

He shook his head in disbelief. How could she possibly be so oblivious? “Certain? I’ve been planning this for months.”

Planning, he had been planning this? “Are you kidding me? What do you mean you have been planning this?”

He leaned down and kissed her lips. Lifting his head slowly from her mouth he said, “When I don’t have something I want, I figure out what I have to do to get it. I always get what I want.”

Oh wow, the bottom dropped out of her stomach. She didn’t know if that statement excited or terrified her. She thought it might be doing a little of both. “So let me get this straight, the whole time we’ve been friends you’ve been plotting to get me into bed?”

“Pretty much,” he said his tone matter of fact and with no trace of remorse.

For some reason that irritated her. “What if I don’t want to be more than friends?”

As if he was going to let her get away with that idiocy. “Don’t be ridiculous. I know you don’t do casual sex so please stop trying to say this was a onetime thing. I told you, we’re lovers now. We go from here. Deal and get used to it. This is the new us.” He insisted in a firm voice.

“You just can’t force me into a relationship.” Easy going Jordan seemed to have turned into controlling Jordan and it was freaking her out. “I think I need some time to catch up with you. I’m not sure I have my head there yet.”

He laughed. “Honey, you caught up when you were on the couch with your legs spread while I lapped away at your pussy.”

Michaela felt hot and excited at the memory his blunt words evoked not to mention she noticed that he was still hard. Blushing slightly she said in a dry tone, “Really, you should be more blunt.”

He laughed in appreciation at her tone. “I’ll work on that.”

“Jordan?”

“Yeah, Honey?”

“Don’t you think you should put some clothes on?”

“Well, actually I thought we could go back to bed,” he said grabbing her shoulders and pulling her close, his erection pressing up against her stomach. Her stomach growled. Laughing he said, “But it sounds like you need to eat so I’ll put some clothes on. Can I talk you into making me one of your amazing omelets?” He also wondered if he could talk her into moving in with him over breakfast.
Really there was no point in them living separately now.

Reluctantly she pulled away from him all the while avoiding looking at his very hot body and very erect penis. “I guess I can manage that. I’ll go down stairs and make breakfast while you get dressed.” Michaela decided to take this cue to escape downstairs before she made the colossal mistake of jumping him again, and before she had time to digest everything he had just said. Dashing from the room like it was on fire, she made a less than graceful exit and headed toward the kitchen. The conversation with Jordan, as far as she was concerned, had reached bizarre levels. He seemed to be following some sort of well thought out methodical plan while, until just a few minutes ago, she had thought they had fallen into bed because of too much champagne. His planning bothered her, seemed too calculated. She was having trouble reconciling Jordan’s actions with the Jordan she thought she knew. Now all she had to do was make him an omelet while trying not to think about mind blowing sex they had mere hours before, and then maybe she could figure out where she wanted this relationship to go. What could be simpler, really?

Jordan ruefully watched Michaela flee downstairs like a scared rabbit. He had obviously scared the hell out of her. He looked around the room searching for his clothes. He found them scattered about in various locations across the floor. He didn’t relish the idea of putting on his clothes from the night before, although he certainly didn’t have any choice. As he pulled on his tuxedo pants he pondered his current situation, wondering how he was going to convince Michaela that they had a future ahead of them and that friendship was behind them. He wasn’t sure why she was pushing him away, but he was certain her feelings for him were stronger than friendship or she wouldn’t have spent last night with him tearing up the sheets. It wasn’t just that they had sex, it was the intensity of it that assured him of the depth of her feelings for him, and he wasn’t about to overlook the irrefutable evidence of the expired condoms attesting to the fact she obviously didn’t have sex causally. As the condoms rose to the front of his mind again, he realized he never had the chance to bring up the possible consequences of their expiration to Michaela having become distracted by her little rejection recital. As far as he was concerned, he would be happy if she were pregnant, the idea of having a child with her was something he had anticipated when he had realized how much he loved her. Although he didn’t think there was much of a chance. Those expiry dates tended to be conservative on the part of the manufacturer, didn’t they? Regardless, it was something he better bring up at breakfast.