Chapter Four

Jordan

Chastity’s breath was even and slow, her head resting on my chest. I stared up at the ceiling, savoring the silence and the stillness around us. I wasn’t a fool, I knew this was only a one-night thing. A woman like Chastity and a guy like me just weren’t cut out for each other. We came from two entirely different worlds and likely had absolutely nothing in common.

Not that I wasn’t interested – I was. Hell, who wouldn’t be? But my life was pretty fucked up. And the last thing an uptown princess like her needed was a guy like me. I doubted she wanted to date down.

The arm I had wrapped around her was going numb, and I adjusted, trying to move slowly to avoid waking her. Chastity moved in her sleep and murmured something I couldn’t understand, rolling her head down to the pillow beside me without waking up. I stared at her for a long time, just watching her sleep.

Women weren’t supposed to be that beautiful. Her skin had a pearlescent sheen to it, and even in the darkness, she seemed to glow. It was almost as if she was lit from within. Even with her lipstick smeared and mostly gone, her lips were bright red and plump. I reached out and gently stroked her face, kissing the tip of her nose. That was my goodbye. It would be easier to slip out while she was sleeping, and would probably be a lot less awkward for the both of us.

But still, I felt like a douchebag for creeping out in the middle of the night all the same.

Douchebag or not, it didn’t stop me from leaving her bed. I moved as quietly as I could, placed my feet on the ground and walked over to the end of the bed. I found my shirt and slipped it on over my head, still watching the sleeping angel amongst the pile of burgundy and gold blankets.

I crossed the room and stopped in the doorway, looking back and contemplating climbing back into bed and curling up with her warm, sexy body.

No, I scolded myself. That’s the last thing she needs. That’s the last thing you need. Besides, a woman like that deserves better than you can ever offer her.

I finished getting dressed in the living room, finding my pants in a pile on the floor. A buzzing sound caught my attention, and I looked for my phone, digging it out of the back pocket of my jeans.

“Fuck,” I said, seeing the time.

My dad had expected me for dinner an hour ago. But, it wasn’t him calling me to chew me out. There were several missed messages and a voicemail, sure, but my phone was silent now. It took me a moment to realize it wasn’t my phone that had been buzzing.

The buzzing noise was coming from her purse which was sitting on the leather sofa. I put my phone away and finished getting dressed, as hers continued to go off. Over and over again, it buzzed.

She was obviously someone important, to get nonstop calls like that. I looked down the hallway and still heard no movement from the bedroom. She was fast asleep. Good. Whoever was calling could wait until the morning. After everything she’d been through, sleep was probably a really good idea.

I slipped out of the room and headed down the hallway, making my way to the private elevator. As I turned around and the doors closed in front of me, I wondered who this woman was. I knew so very little about her. Her name. And that she was fantastic in bed. That was pretty much it. I didn’t know why she was there, in a hotel. I didn’t know who was calling her. There was part of me, I was surprised to find, that was a little disappointed that I’d never know the answers to any of those questions.

For her sake, that was probably for the best. She did deserve better than I could ever offer.

*

“Jordan, how thoughtful of you to join me,” my father said dryly, standing as I approached his table. “And thank you so much for dressing for the occasion.”

I looked down. I was still wearing my work clothes, not having had time to shower, let alone change after my time with Chastity. To be honest, I was surprised to see my father was still at the restaurant. But then, I saw the two empty glasses and the one that was still half-full sitting in front of him and saw that he was drinking his dinner. Gin and tonic. His usual.

“I figured I’d give you until I finished my third drink, just to be sporting” he said, gesturing at the glasses in front of him, “and if you weren’t here by then, I’d find someone who actually valued my time to have dinner with instead. Like maybe the homeless guy out front.”

“Yeah, I got caught up at work,” I said with a shrug. “Sorry, pop.”

“That’s funny,” dad said, a hardening look crossing his face, “because I stopped by the site on my way over here, and imagine my surprise to find that it was empty. Not a soul around.”

“Must have just missed me then,” I said.

“Must have,” dad said, his eyes narrowing, his gaze piercing me.

Some people have told me I looked a lot like my dad. They say I’m a younger version of him. Personally, I never saw it. Except for our hair color – his was the same medium shade of brown as mine. But his had flecks of white these days. Other than the hair though, there was little resemblance between us that I saw.

Now, my brother Nate on the other hand, that I could see. They both had the same square jawline and strong chin. They both had the same deep set eyes. Or rather, Nate had had those features. When he was still alive, anyway.

The waitress came over to the table, a petite brunette. My father’s gaze never left her chest, even as the waitress – who introduced herself as Sophia – walked us through the specials.

“I’ll have the prime rib,” I said, ordering my usual. “On the rare side, please.”

“Ribeye for me,” dad said, flashing a white smile up at the waitress. “Also rare.”

Sophia walked away, but my dad still focused on the girl, watching her ass as she walked to the back to put our orders in.

“Jesus, dad, she’s like fifteen,” I said.

“She’s twenty. We’ve had plenty of time to talk while I waited for you and I learned quite a bit about her,” he said, leaning back in his seat. “And you still haven’t given me a satisfactory answer yet, son.”

“A satisfactory answer to what?”

“Where you were,” he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “And why you were over an hour late meeting me?”

I shrugged. There was no answer I could give that would satisfy him, and he was going to be pissed off no matter what. So, why bother trying? Instead, I changed the subject to something equally vexing.

“I heard back from that school I’m interested in,” I said, watching my dad closely. “I’d start next fall, take classes online after work.”

His eyebrows were furrowed, and his mouth was compressed into a tight line – standard expressions for him. As he listened to me, his face gave away nothing about his feelings. He just stared for a long time, his gaze boring into me, as if waiting for me to continue.

I didn’t, leaving him with little choice but to jump in.

“You’re still having delusions of going to college, Jordan?” he asked, shaking his head. “I thought we’d been through this already. The company needs you, and anything you can learn about construction, I can teach you myself –”

“I don’t want to work construction my entire life, Dad.”

We’d been through this before. We had this conversation at least a thousand times, and when I say conversation, what I mean is that it usually devolved into a screaming match. But, this wasn’t news to him. Nothing I told him was news. If you were to judge by the exasperated look on his face, you’d have thought this was the first time I’d brought it up.

“I want to –”

My dad’s fists slammed into the table, cutting me off and making Sophia, who was standing at the next table, squeal with fear and look over at us with wide, frightened eyes. The glasses on the table rattled as it continued to shake.

“You’re not going to work construction for the rest of your life, Jordan,” my father said. “You’re going to own the company one day. Big difference. To do it well though, you’re going to have to learn the business.”

“Sorry, but I’m not Nate,” I said, sarcasm dripping from my tongue. “I have no interest in owning the family business, Dad. I’ve told you a million times already, that’s just not me. That’s not my thing. And it’s not something I’d be any good at.”

“Nate has nothing to do with this,” my dad hissed. “Don’t you dare bring your brother up.”

“Why not?” I asked, throwing my hands in the air. “Let’s face it, if he were still alive, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation right now. You wouldn’t even be pretending to tolerate me.”

My dad took a long pull from his drink, draining his glass and then slammed it down on the table with so much force, that it sounded like a hollow explosion had gone off and other diners around the restaurant were openly gawking at us, apparently looking for a fight or bloodshed. Fucking ghouls.

This time though, when my father made a loud noise, Sophia didn’t jump, but she watched us from the safety of behind the bar. The bartender and another man were looking at us too.

“You know that’s not true –”

“Isn’t it, dad?” I said. “Because if Nate, the Golden Child, the perfect son you always wanted, was still alive, he’d take over the family business and I’d be left to do whatever I wanted.”

“You mean you would have ended up in prison,” my father scoffed. “I’m sorry I want a better life for my son. I didn’t know it was such a crime.”

“Not prison,” I growled, “College. For engineering. What I’ve wanted to do since I was a little boy. What I’ve told you about a million times already.”

My father looked at me with open hostility on his face. He opened his mouth to speak and then closed it again without saying anything. I especially took note of the fact that he didn’t even try to refute a single thing I said about Nate.

“You know what?” I hissed. “Fuck this. I don’t need this shit.”

I pushed my chair back and stood up, throwing my napkin on the table, looking at my dad and feeling nothing but disgust. Everyone in the restaurant was staring at us by that point, listening to our family’s issues as we went ahead and aired them out in public.

I’d had enough of that shit. Most parents would be proud of their kid going to college, would encourage him to excel. But, nope. Not my dad.

“You can wish for me to be Nate all you want, Dad,” I said, keeping my voice low as I leaned over the table and hovered over my dad, “but it’s not going to bring him back. I’m sorry it wasn’t me in the car instead of him. I’m sure your life would be a lot simpler and happier right now if it had been.”

My father’s chair squeaked as it moved across the floor. Like me, my dad was a tall man. Stocky build, both of us clocking in at six-three or so. But his size no longer intimidated me. Not like it had when I was a boy. I was just as big as he was, in better shape, and had a mean streak in me that my dad couldn’t hope to contend with.

My dad’s brown eyes stared back at me, a hollow look to them. He cringed, looking for all the world like I’d just slapped him. I was going for the cheap shots, of course. I was pissed. But was surprised to find that my words hurt him in ways I’d probably never understand.

“Son, I’d never – ”

I didn’t wait to hear what he had to say. I turned and walked out of the restaurant.