Page 53 of Jordan

“Do you still want me?”

“More than you know. I did just say you’re moving in with me and offer you a studio.”

“There are other ways to show you care.” There was seriously something wrong with me. Did I expect Jordan to confess his feelings?

“I don’t say what I should. Instead, I show it. Living with me won’t be easy. I’m a difficult man. I won’t be able to tell you everything I do. It’s more for your safety than my lack of trust. But I wouldn’t ever put you in jeopardy.”

“Tell me something. Not about your business but how you feel. I don’t just want to be shown.” I desired the action to go along with the words.

His hand, still on my neck, squeezed gently. “I want you, Hartley. You and Vail. Live with me. Work down the street from me. Whatever you want, it’s yours. Just stay close. I can’t handle you being far away any longer.”

“In your bed?”

He growled. “Beneath me.”

“What about Vail?”

“He doesn’t live with me… yet… but I’m working on it.”

“We’re going about this all wrong.”

“I make the rules, not follow the ones others put in place.”

24

JORDAN

If I wouldn’t have brought Hartley home with me, I would have had nightmares of him freezing to death while he slept. What kind of asshole didn’t take care of their tenants? While I wasn’t a good man by any stretch of the imagination, the people who paid me to live or work in my buildings were taken care of. They didn’t have to worry about heat or air-conditioning. They didn’t have to wonder if there was asbestos or lead paint in the old buildings they were in. Before they moved in, I had professionals go over every inch. They made certain there were no hidden dangers or problems waiting to appear.

Yet, a man I cared about was living and working in a building with fucking space heaters. A growl worked its way up my throat, but I swallowed it down. I must not have done it fast enough because Hartley reached for my hand, causing me to startle. When I glanced at him, his eyes were wide, but he didn’t pull his hand back. That said a lot about him, about the potential for there to be an us. There already was an us as far as I was concerned. Hartley needed more than my possessive declarations of him living with me and being under me in bed.

He tried again. This time, I didn’t jump or move away when his hand slid my way. I turned mine over so our fingers could interlace. It was a foreign thing and far too intimate. That was what I wanted though. More than fucking. More than getting off. I craved the other parts of a relationship I hadn’t had in so long. Those parts were dangerous. Both Hartley and Vail knew that, and they still wanted to be in my life as more than someone who worked for me or who I fucked. They couldn’t be fucked like I’d done with the other nameless people I forgot once my cock slipped free of them. They weren’t worth my time or energy. Hartley and Vail were.

Hartley grinned. “You’ll get used to it.” He gave my hand a squeeze.

“Just like you’ll get used to having everything you want. And having fucking heat.” My teeth clenched. I should find that man and kill him. Hopefully, I scared him enough where he didn’t think of fucking over his tenants again.

“Growling again, sir?” Albert asked from the front seat.

My eyes met his in the rearview. He wasn’t scared of me. I couldn’t hurt him unless he did the same to someone I cared about. Albert never would. He’d die for my family. “Not the time for commentary,” I bit out.

“He sounds like a bear. Doesn’t he, Mr. Weathers?”

Hartley tried hard to hold his chuckle at bay by rolling his lips in. It didn’t work. I saw his chest shake. Albert must have too.

“You can laugh, Mr. Weathers. Once you know how Mr. Altair works, you’ll be able to decipher his irritation from genuine anger from when he’s about to go on a murderous rampage.” He spoke so calmly, like he was discussing the way someone cleaned a house.

That time Hartley chuckled. While I still thought of ways to punish Albert, I couldn’t help but be drawn to the smile that curved Hartley’s gorgeous lips. It was so enticing I dove forward until my lips pressed to his, catching him off guard. He gasped against me, before sinking into the kiss and the seat, fully relaxing as I pressed closer.

A sudden jerk in the car from Albert applying the brakes hard had me nearly slamming into the back of the passenger side front seat.

“I will kill you while you sleep,” I growled to Albert.

“There was a squirrel crossing the road. I didn’t want to squish the furred fucker.” He smoothly maneuvered around a car going too slowly, like he didn’t almost send me flying into the front with him.

“It’s winter. The squirrels aren’t out.”

“That’s not true. Squirrels don’t hibernate. Yes, they spend more time in their dens, but they do appear. If you’d like, we can discuss squirrel activity based on the season.”

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