Jordan
The tension in my shoulders dissolved as I pulled out of Natalie’s driveway with her safely in the passenger seat. She hadn’t changed her mind, and no one had stopped me. I was one step closer to making her mine, permanently. It took every ounce of self-control I had not to make her mine when she said she was ready, but I was so locked onto doing the right thing by her I’d refused to be swayed. Besides, I knew soon we’d be as connected as two people could be.
And once we started, I knew we were never stopping.
“Tell me about your mom,” I instructed as I guided the car toward the freeway. “What does she do that she’s gone for such an extended period?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her smile as she turned in her seat to look at me. Having her close made me feel settled in a way I never had before. I loved it.
“Mom’s a sound tech,” she began. “She works on different movies and television shows, and she’s often on location. Right now she’s doing an action movie that’s filming in China.”
“And you live alone while she’s gone?” I asked stiffly.
I understood that Robert and Eric were downstairs, but fuck. It was California, not small town Utah or some other safe as fuck place.
“It’s not as if she left me alone when I was twelve,” she replied. “I went to online school until this year. I forced the issue of going to school for my senior year, and she caved in because Robert and Eric live in the unit downstairs, and they’re always around. She isn’t a bad mother or anything.”
“Are you close?”
She nodded as she turned her head and looked out the windshield.
“We’re very close, but she was hurt that I wanted to stay home for school this last year. I stuck to my guns no matter how hard she tried to change my mind. Too bad high school wasn’t what I thought it would be.”
“Why?” I asked as I glanced over at her before putting my attention back on the freeway.
“Because of the life I’ve lived, I’m not a typical teenager,” she answered quietly. “I get along better with adults, and I always have. I don’t care about drinking; I don’t gossip, and I avoid drama. The girls thought I was boring and the boys… let’s just say I was written off as being an uptight prude. High school turned out to be exactly as lame as my mom warned me it would be.”
It bothered me to know she hadn’t been accepted.
“I’m sorry. That had to have sucked.”
She shrugged. “Not really. It was a good learning experience, and if I hadn’t done it, I would always have wondered.”
I liked that in addition to being sweet and smart, Natalie was pragmatic and thoughtful.
“You haven’t mentioned your father. Can I assume he’s not in the picture?”
She shook her head. “I have no father,” she answered. “My mom went the artificial insemination route to have me.”
I was glad to know there wasn’t some deadbeat fuck I needed to take care of. My own father was an asshole of the first order who had bounced when I was fourteen. That was the year my Mom found out in a Dear John letter hanging on the fridge after Dad had packed his shit and moved out on his lunch break.
He’d moved in with another family across town. To add insult to injury his mistress was my Mom’s co-worker, a woman with two kids. I got dropped right along with my Mother, nothing more than an inconvenience. The asshole didn’t even send me birthday cards. He was too busy playing father of the year for his new family.
My Mom was devastated and turned to booze. She choked on her own vomit two years after I graduated college. By then I’d had a shitload of money, but it hadn’t changed a thing for her, in spite of how hard I tried.
I never spoke to my father, not that he hadn’t tried to “repair” our relationship once he realized how rich I was. I’d been loyal to my mother even in death, so I never let him in.
I was happy for Natalie that she had one parent who loved her and was there for her, even if it wasn’t in a way I totally understood.
“So she wanted to be a mom,” I commented.
“Very much so,” she agreed. “She’s so sad that I don’t want to work in the business. She’s been trying to gear me toward that direction for years, hoping I’d pursue set design or something. That’s not at all what I want to do with my life, though.”
If she’d chosen to stay with her mother and had decided to work in the business, we’d never have met. The idea was abhorrent to me. She turned and looked out the windshield as I processed all she’d told me. Going back over what I’d seen at her house, I grinned. I was pretty sure I could guess why being on film sets wasn’t the life Natalie wanted.
“Because of the travel, right? You're a nester.”
She brought her attention wholly back to me.
“Exactly,” she laughed. “I don’t mind travel if it’s for a vacation or a short work trip, but being away from home for more than a few weeks at a time is just… not for me.”
God, she was fucking perfect. It was like my girl had been made just for me. She wanted a family and she loved being at home.
“You’re a homebody,” I teased.
“Guilty,” she giggled.
“Me too,” I confessed. “I love my house. When I walk through the door, I’m always calmer. It’s a good feeling.”
“I can only imagine,” she laughed. “I’m sure your house is five thousand percent nicer than what I’m used to.”
My brow furrowed as I looked over at her. “Bigger, yes. Better decorated? No.”
She didn’t know it yet, but she had her work cut out for her to make it a home. My house was a showpiece, aesthetically pleasing but bland.
Her snort of disbelief made me grin.
“You’re sweet to pretend,” she teased.
“Who’s pretending? I love my house, but even I know it needs stuff. I live alone and until now, I haven’t given a damn about making it feel a certain way. The vibe of my house is all about luxury. Looking at your room clarified something for me. I want this to be a home that's inviting and warm. I’m sure you’ll have a ton of ideas.”
“We’ll see,” she murmured.
I smirked as I accelerated and changed lanes. She didn’t realize yet what was happening between us and what it meant long term, but she would soon.
* * *
Turning the car onto my street, I hit the button to open the gate. The long driveway ended in a central courtyard area where my house sat dead center. To the left, there was a six-car garage, to the right a pathway to an outdoor basketball court. On the other side of the court was a three-bedroom guesthouse.
Natalie’s eyes went wide as she took it all in. Hopping out of the car, I hurried around to her side and opened the door. She kept looking around as she unbuckled her seatbelt and turned to get out of the car.
“This place is huge,” she murmured. “I’m talking massive, like behemoth size. Who else lives here with you?”
Taking her hand, I started walking her toward the front door.
“Until now, until you,” I said huskily, “absolutely no one.”
She gasped as she turned my way. “Are you for real right now?”
I shrugged. “Yeah. Why?”
“It’s so big I assumed you must have a live-in maid or a butler,” she admitted.
I choked out a laugh. “No butler, but I have Faye. She comes three days a week to do the laundry, keep the kitchen clean, do the food shopping and cook dinner. Then I have a cleaning crew come every Friday to clean the whole house deep. On Mondays, the gardeners and grounds crew come and on Tuesdays and Thursdays the pool people come and do their thing. There’s really no need to have any one live in.”
“Don’t you ever get lonely when it’s just you in there all alone?”
If someone had asked me the very same question four hours before, I’d have said no, and it would’ve been the truth.
Only when she arrived did I understand I had been lonely— for her. I just hadn’t realized.
“Not until today,” I admitted.
At the front door, I typed in the code and flung it open. Natalie moved to step forward and walk in, but I stopped her. Without explanation, I hoisted her up into my arms. She let out a little shriek of laughter, and I grinned like a fucking idiot as I carried her over the threshold.
“Jordan!”
“Natalie,” I answered with a smirk.
“Why are you carrying me?”
“Because I need you close,” I replied.
The happy sounding sigh she let out as she set her head on my shoulder made my heart feel full, and everything was right in the world. I carried her past the foyer and through the living room, setting her down in front of the wall of glass that looked out to the yard and the sea.
“Welcome home, Angel.”
She gasped as she looked out at the view. “It's incredible!”
I grinned as I walked over to the coffee table and lifted up the iPad that all of the house things were programmed in. With the touch of a button, the windows began to slide open. Natalie squeaked excitedly as I set the control down and grabbed her hand before pulling her outside.
We stepped out to the covered outdoor patio, a large space that had a big sitting area on one side and a huge table with seating for twelve on the other. The ceiling fans whirring above us moved the air around, so the area was always cool. We didn’t stop and relax on the patio. Instead, we continued forward, out across the grass and past the pool and spa to the end of the lawn. The house was at the top of a bluff overlooking the ocean, and the view was astounding. Natalie lit up as she stared out at the sea.
“This is incredible,” she raved. “I could stay right in this spot all day long.”
I gestured to another small seating area with a few recliners and a four-person table to our right. “You can. I spend as much of my time out here as possible. I do a lot of work right at this table,” I explained.
“I’m so in,” she said with a big smile. “This is heaven on earth.”
I made a sound of agreement, but I wasn’t talking about the yard or the view of the ocean. I was talking about Natalie. She was my heaven. Her enjoyment of our surroundings settled me because it was another sign that she would settle in well to what I now considered our home. Linking our hands together, I guided her toward a large round lounger so we could sit down. She sat first, and when I followed, I pulled her right into my arms. We stayed like that for a few minutes—her snuggled up to me watching the view, and me watching her.
“When did you move here?” she asked.
“I bought the land five years ago, and it took three years to build the house. I’ve been here a little bit less than two years.”
We talked for a few minutes about the process of choosing the land and building the house, and then her stomach let out a little growl.
“Sorry,” she chuckled. “I haven’t eaten since the bagel I had before I went to school earlier.”
Rising from the lounger, I pulled her up and started to walk back to the house. When we got into the kitchen, I sat her down at the island and then went to the fridge.
“Faye made lasagna for dinner last night, so there're leftovers of that,” I said over my shoulder. “I also have a thing of California sushi rolls, tuna salad and all kinds of deli meat. I make a mean grilled cheese and avocado sandwich if that appeals. Are you hungry for anything specific?”
“I love anything cheese and the addition of avocado sounds delicious. Can I help with anything?”
“Yeah,” I said with a grin, “you can sit right there and inspire me.”
As I was gathering things I needed to make the sandwich, I saw her looking around the room.
“This kitchen is the size of my entire house,” she mused.
“Not quite. It’s big but not that big.”
She shook her head and gestured around with her hand. “I’m guessing this is more than a thousand square feet. My house is eleven hundred square feet in total.”
“Alright,” I conceded. “It’s the size of your house. If you add the pantry area in, it’s just over thirteen hundred square feet.”
“I can’t get over you living here alone. I haven’t minded living by myself when my mom is gone for work, but in a house this big I’d be looking under every bed before I could sleep. I’d have heart palpitations over every sound I heard because I’d be convinced there was an intruder.”
I grimaced at the reminder of her living alone. I still thought it had been a shit decision on her mother’s part.
After flipping the sandwiches to the other side with the spatula, I turned and looked back at her. She had her chin resting on her hand while she watched me cook.
“No need to worry about that here,” I assured her. “The security system is state of the art. There are sensors and cameras all over the place, including out on the lawn. If there’s even the hint of something being off, the security company and the cops are here within five minutes. I know because I set the alarm off by accident the first week I was here.”
“That must’ve been a fun time,” she teased.
“It made me look and feel like a total idiot,” I admitted. “I’d just come home from an award show after party so I was pretty hammered and I hadn’t memorized all the information I needed to. Malibu’s finest were not amused, and I wound up with a five hundred dollar bill from my security company for the false alarm. Speaking of security, I need to go through all the codes and stuff with you.”
“Since I’ll always be with you when we’re coming or going you don’t need to. It would just be a hassle for you to have to change it all when I leave.”
Even the thought of her leaving made me sick. I didn’t immediately respond because I wanted to be face to face with her when I did. After plating our lunch, I took it over to the island and set it down. Then, I turned her on the swiveling stool, so she was facing me.
“This is your home now, Angel. What’s happening with us doesn’t have an expiration date.”
“We’ve only known each other for a few hours,” she reminded me. “In a few days you might be bored with and sick of me.”
“Never,” I vowed as I shook my head emphatically.
And then I gripped the back of her neck to hold her in place as I swooped in and kissed the ever-loving fuck out of her.
She parted her lips with a breathy sigh that I felt in my bones. With every passing second, I was more and more certain of what I’d been thinking from the start. Natalie was my entire world, and that was never going to change.
When our tongues touched for the first time, my heart almost galloped out of my chest. I was so hungry for her, and she tasted so fucking good it only made me want her more. She started out tentative but as the minutes passed she got more and more into it. And the more enthusiastic she got, the more I wanted her. It caused me physical pain to pull back and end the kiss. When her eyes fluttered open, and she looked up at me dreamily, I almost lost the will to care about anything other than fucking her. Fortunately, the sound of her stomach growling again pulled me out of the trance.
* * *
After lunch I brought her stuff in from the car and put her in the room across the hall from mine. I’d agonized over the decision and wasn’t at all happy about it, but I couldn’t ignore that we’d just met. Being an asshole and putting her in my room seemed like the absolute wrong thing to do.
“My bedroom is right back there,” I said as I gestured over my shoulder.
She didn’t respond as I set both of her suitcases on the bed. When I turned and looked at her, I found her fidgeting nervously and biting her lip.
“Angel?”
“I thought…”
Her cheeks went flame red as she looked away.
“Never mind,” she said with obvious fake enthusiasm. “This room is beautiful. Thank you, Jordan.”
“I never want there to be things unsaid between us. Tell me what’s bothering you.”
“It’s nothing,” she assured me. “I'm an idiot.”
“Don’t talk about yourself that way. Tell me what’s going on in your head, Angel.”
“IthoughtIwasgoingtosleepwithyou,” she said in a breathless rush.
My heart sped up faster than it was before as I stared down at her.
“I don’t want to push you. How fucked is it for me to expect you to sleep in my bed?”
“It isn’t bad if I want it, too,” she answered.
“I never want you to look back and feel like I took advantage of you,” I said. “I need you to be as sure as I am and even though our age difference means fuck all to me, I can’t deny that it’s a big gap. I’m a lot older than you, Angel. Like, old enough to be your father.”
“Not quite,” she said sweetly. “But if you want me to, I’ll call you Daddy.”
Pretty damn sure my heart stopped beating for God only knows how many seconds.
When I could breathe again, I answered.
“I’ll be anything you want me to be,” I growled. “Your daddy, your lover, your best friend, your savior, your hero, your provider. Anything you desire, I’m going to give you. Anything you need, I’m going to make it happen. Just tell me what you want.”
She stepped in close and slid her hands into mine.
“I just want you,” she said. “I don’t feel like you’re rushing me. If anything, I feel like I’m rushing you. That’s the only worry that I have here—that I’m imagining things or pushing you too fast. I don’t want to be an idiot or some annoying girl you can’t get rid of.”
I squeezed her hands as I stared down at her adoringly. “You don’t get it yet but you will, soon. I never want to get rid of you, Natalie. You never have to hide anything from me or worry about telling me what you want or need. I want to give you the fucking world.”
“I don’t need the world,” she murmured. “I just need you.”
“Be sure, Angel. Because once I take your stuff into that room across the hall, it isn’t my bedroom anymore—it’s ours. This is your home now.”
She smiled softly as she stared up at me. “I’d like to go see our bedroom now.”
I grabbed her bags and hauled ass across the hall into the master bedroom. The second she confirmed she wanted to sleep with me I committed to going full steam ahead.