Epilogue:
Happy Holidays. from, Nina.
Woody cupped her face in palms of his hands and kissed her softly. Jordan was thrown back to New Year's Eve. That night he walked away leaving her lonely and frustrated. This time she didn't know if she could let him walk away as easily.
Jordan wasn't naive. She knew there were risks. But standing there with all their cards on the table Jordan's heart couldn't see any bigger risk then letting this moment pass. Expensive gifts weren't the true issue and she, for one, was tired of dancing around it.
She pushed his hands away, wrapped her own arms around his neck and opened her mouth under his, tumbling out of the safety of her emotional walls hoping...praying that even after everything they'd been through , Woody would be there to catch her.
Woody just stood there motionless. Jordan opened her eyes to find his gaze on her, fierce and dark, as if he was thinking the same thoughts. It was now or never.
"You can touch me," she murmured.
"If I do you'll disappear with the rest of my dream," he whispered back.
"But you're not dreaming." she smiled. "Stay with me tonight, Woody. Please."
He answered by wrapping his arms tightly around her and arching his mouth firmly over hers. The gentle touches she expected gave way to something that made her brain blessedly fuzzy.
Fuzzy to the point where she didn't realize his hands had stopped their gentle kneading of her back to skim over her bare shoulders as he brushed her robe aside.
Jordan's voice was surprisingly clear even though her tongue was rebelling. "I need you, Woody. Stay. Please."
Woody looped his arm around her knees lifted her high on his chest. He paused a second to take a completely candid, and utterly masculine, look at the woman in his arms...from the bow of her softly pink lips, past the sparkling stones around her neck, to the fine diamond shaped bones of her knees...and everything in between. In his arms, she was more beautiful then his wildest fantasies.
"Try and make me leave," he answered brushing her lips with his.
Jordan sank slowly into the bed and met his kisses eagerly. She reveled in the slow burn warming her blood, chasing the cold from her extremities, leaving her skin beginning to glow.
He sighed as she tugged at his shirt helping him shrug it aside. Instead of pulling him close to feel that tingle of flesh meeting flesh for the first time, Jordan stopped and gingerly traced the lines of his scars.
"A dent where his heart should be" she murmured to herself.
"What?" he asked breathlessly.
"Nothing," she smiled. "Kiss me."
He did. Bracing his hands on either side of her he leaned over and took her mouth again. Just mouth to mouth, warm and soft, a tender slide of lips and tongue, a clever, gentle scrape of teeth. Jordan shook and it had nothing to do with the leftover chill. Still, she couldn't resist running her icy toes underneath the cuff of his pants.
Woody jumped and laughed at her smug smile. "We need to do something about that."
"So far you're doing nicely. But I could always use some more attention," she said thickly.
He rolled away long enough to finish pulling the rest of his clothes off only to return and ask, "Now where was I?"
"Here..." Jordan said arching her neck, pointing to the hollow spot just below her jaw. Woody took only a heartbeat to comply. His mouth cruised over her earlobe. Her eyes were already half shut as she angled her head to give him farther access to the side of her neck. Then his hand slid over to cup her breast, making her forget how to breathe.
Jordan arched her body against his, shuddered, and slid down again. He followed her down holding her for a moment just for the sheer pleasure of it. A sound of utter contentment hummed in the back of his throat as her hands glided lightly over his back. Jordan took moment to taste the salty tang of his skin. Inhaling his unique smell...God, she wanted this. She wanted him.
"Jordan...are you sure?"
"I've never been more sure of anything in my entire life," she admitted honestly.
Jordan instinctively yielded to him. With JD and most every other man in her life, sex was always a contest of give and take. Each of them searching, grasping...looking for satisfaction. Like prizefighters in the ring, the victor would be the last one standing. Somehow she felt it would be different this time. She just knew her surrender would be the key to his own seduction. As his hands and mouth began to move over her she knew without a shadow of a doubt he wouldn't let her down. Four years of foreplay were leading to an unbelievable summit. There would time later to stake her own claim on him. For now she would just enjoy the ride.
And oh, what a ride it is, she thought to herself with a throaty moan. Need was already kindling, spreading, burning her up from the inside out. Jordan spread her legs making room for him between them.
Woody could see the light in her eyes changing from sweet melted cinnamon to warm brandy...giving them just as much punch. He watched those same eyes take on a totally new smoky hue when he nudged her knees farther apart and swallowed her warm and husky sigh as he slid inside.
Slowly, surely, they began to move.
He reached for her hands, lacing her fingers with his, and raising their arms over her head...forcing her body to naturally arch into his. Jordan matched him long, slow stroke for long, slow torturous stroke. Her breathing grew heavy with his as their hips rose and fell in time to a dance as old as time. Whatever chill she had from outside had long been replaced and a fine film of moisture that covered her body. Her mouth moved with his, drowning out the little moans of pleasure that were coming from deep inside him.
Some coherent corner of her psyche realized there were no soft whispers of instruction or preference that naturally passed between new lovers. His touch was sure and confident making her feel like they had made love a thousand times. Like somehow they knew each other before...almost as if they were lovers in a former life. Soulmates, Lily would call it. When two souls enviably find each other life after life. Of course Jordan didn't know if she believed in such concepts but if she didn't know better Jordan would think somewhere in time their souls were once deeply in...
"I love you."
Jordan was so lost in her thoughts and what he was doing to her body that his whisper came out of nowhere. She must have reacted because he stopped moving and untangled his hands from hers, cradled her face in his hands. Jordan was dimly aware of the feeling of moisture. When he rubbed his thumbs over her temples she realized that his fingers were wet from her tears. He kissed her. Not the mind-numbing lip-locks they had been sharing, but a caress that was softer then a heartbeat and more potent then a shot of Irish whiskey. It was all it took for Jordan to begin to feel the first tingles of her orgasm. Blindly, she reached out for his hips, digging her fingers into the taunt flesh, gasping, begging for him to move again.
Woody smiled smugly and flexed his hips drawing himself out only to drive back in with a force that drove her a full two inches closer to the headboard.
"Yyyyessss..." she sighed.
Gradually his movements grew slower, more intimate. Over and over Woody rocked taking her one step higher and leaving her hovering with every stroke.
"Say it Jordan," he whispered hotly against her ear. "Tell me...I need to hear it... Please..."
"I love you."
It was a phrase that never came easy for her. To her amazement...and his...the words bubbled out her like water from a spring. Natural and easy because she had sighed them in her dreams for years.
There was a catch in her throat as her orgasm took her breath away. Woody inhaled the gasp greedily and stayed with her pushing her to yet another plane.
"More, Jordan...more" he demanded, his voice as rough as raw silk.
No. How could he? She never...oh!
Jordan swallowed, fighting her way through the waves of pleasure. Higher and higher she flew, until she screamed with release.
The primal sound of her cry snapped the thin thread of his control shooting him to that magical place with her.
Jordan was the first to move. Her hands slid lazily over the curve of his hip, to the small of his back, to the wings of his shoulder blades. He was still deep inside her; all warm, satisfied male...
...and he was all hers.
As his heart slowly floated back to earth, Woody lifted his head and looked in her eyes. "Wow."
She almost purred with pleasure and agreed with a breathless chuckle. "Oh yeah."
He traced her plumb lip with the pad of his thumb. To Jordan's amazement the simple gesture made her body shiver with aftershocks...a fact that Woody was well aware of in his intimate position by the slow, warm curl of his mouth. He continued his gentle post coital inspection by grazing his fingertips down her neck and traced the fine gold links of the necklace chain before settling the palm of his hand over the steady beat of her heart.
"Here. This is what I want," he said solemnly. "After tonight I won't settle for anything less. I can't. Ever since we met, I've only wanted to be with..."
She put her finger to his lips. There would be time for confession later. The past was the past. She wanted to look forward. "You already have it Woody," she answered covering her hand with his. "You didn't even have to ask."
There was a light in his eyes that was so sincere that her heart skipped a beat. "I love you now...and every day"
Instead of a feeling of entrapment, Jordan could hear music in her head. She kissed him softly. "I love you, too, Woody."
Woody rolled off of her to pull the covers up tight. Once they were tucked in, he snuggled her close and ran his toes over hers, satisfied they were toasty and warm. Then he closed his eyes. The gentle touch said so much and it didn't escape Jordan's warmly sated brain. She smiled against his neck. She knew he loved her and would protect her even from herself. They still had a long road ahead of them. She had no doubts that trust would come. They were more then halfway there already. He was so relaxed next to her that she assumed he was asleep. She kissed his collar bone, ready to join him when his open hand stealthily moved against her hip and slid between her legs, finding the perfect way to make her brain do that blank thing again.
Yes, it was going to be a very Happy New Year's.