Page 52 of Jordan

“That’s enough,” Jordan bit out. “I don’t give a shit what your situation is. You have people who pay you rent. Therefore, you deliver a living condition that won’t get you fined or have you wind up in a much worse situation. I don’t care that you have someone coming. How many other properties don’t have heat?”

Another pause for begging.

“See to it they’re all taken care of today. If you have to call every repairman in the entire fucking city, you will do so. Get them fucking fixed! As for Mr. Weathers, consider his lease broken. And before you try to spout off to me some sort of bullshit lease agreement, you’re in breach of it now. Shove the agreement up your ass, or if you insist on pressing the issue, I will do it myself. Do I make myself clear? I have a very powerful lawyer who would be more than happy to handle this for me.”

Jordan didn’t let him get the full apology out before he hung up on him.

Reality slammed into me fast. “Did you just… But I live here.” What the hell did he do?

“Not anymore. Grab what you need. I’ll have someone come back within the hour to pack the rest and take it to my home.”

“But… I didn’t… What about… I live here!”

Jordan turned and marched into the room I was just in, where one of his suits was. “Space heaters,” he ground out. I was surprised he didn’t kick them in anger.

“Jordan, stop. You can’t just come in here and tell me I’m moving. That’s not what sane people do.”

He spun on his heel to face me. “When did I ever give you the impression I was sane? A sane man wouldn’t have just poisoned someone and had their suicide staged. A sane man wouldn’t have thought of you immediately after said poisoning and had the overwhelming desire to get to you so I could claim you like I have Vail. A sane man would know when to leave well enough alone because his track record with partners was absolute shit. Yet here I stand in front of you, ready to drag you from this shithole so you can be somewhere more fitting of a man of your talent.” Okay, so he had me there. Still though…

“But I fucking live here!” I hated eating here, sleeping here, doing everything here with the heat of a thousand suns, but I stayed because it was what I could afford.

“Tell me you would rather live here and wait until who the fuck knows when for your heat to be fixed. Convince me this is where you want to be instead of in my warm, safe home, where you won’t ever have to worry about this shit again. Where I can provide you with the space you need and all the materials you could ever want. Hell, I have a building two blocks away from my home I just had to evict a tenant from. You can have your studio there. So would you rather stay here, or come home with me where I’ll drop to my knees and fucking worship you like you deserve?”

“When you say it like that…” He pleaded a good case.

He walked to where I was, in the freezing entryway of my home. “Hartley.” He lifted his hand so he could cup the side of my neck. This man who just confessed to poisoning someone touched me like I was the most precious person out there. “I know I’m bossy.”

I snorted. “You can say that again.”

His teeth clenched, but he said, “And I only want what’s best for you.”

“You’ve proven that while giving in to what you want.”

“I never claimed to be self-sacrificing unless it comes to laying my life on the line for the people I care about.” His thumb stroked over my skin, eliciting a shiver that had nothing to do with the cold. “Tell me you don’t want to move in with me. I’ll find you somewhere else to rent that isn’t in my home.”

The thing was, I couldn’t. Before Jordan got here, I wished I was back in his place. Moving in with him was a huge step though. “We haven’t even slept together and you’re asking me to move in. Well, telling me, but whatever.”

“Is that the prerequisite for you saying yes? Me getting you off?”

“It wouldn’t hurt.” What the hell was I saying? Never mind, I was talking with my dick. How was I even hard right now? Jordan just pushed his way into my home, told me I was moving in with him, and now I was coaxing him to fuck me? Damn, I was desperate. And horny.

Jordan’s fingers went to my waist, but I gripped his wrist to stop him.

“While I really would love to have you buried inside me, now isn’t the time. If I’m telling the truth, I don’t like it here. In fact, I fucking hate it, but I have some pride, Jordan. I can’t just take every handout you give me.”

“I don’t consider them handouts. I think of them as ways to show you I care.”

“For now.” No one stayed around me long enough for me to prove I was long-term relationship material. There was always something they didn’t like about me.

“Who broke your heart?”

I scoffed. “No one. They never gave me the chance to get attached. Except Vail, but he didn’t know I had a crush on him back then.”

“Vail and I slept together.” Well, that was abrupt.

“You alluded to it.” Instead of being jealous, I got a glorious picture in my mind of what it would be like to watch Jordan fuck Vail. Maybe if I hadn’t been there that day when Jordan tried to hump me through the mattress, I would have been jealous. Whatever this dynamic was the three of us had, it included all of us, or so I hoped.

“What do you think about me being with him?”

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