Page 43 of Once Bitten
And Steve was officially head over heels for her.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Havinga girlfriend was new to Steve.
He liked it.
Okay, that was downplaying it.
Helovedit.
In the world of having a girlfriend, there were more than a few things no one had told him about. Steve was a quick study, though, and one of the key things that came with having a girlfriend was tokeep her fed.He had figured that one out when he’d watched Jordyn swing from pleasant to hangry with nothing more than a twenty minute heads up. There had been a few minutes of intense staring in silence before she’d turned toward him with a frown and declared that she needed a break from walking. They had been out in town, enjoying the sunshine and downtown, when he’d noticed she had started slowing down.
“I skipped breakfast. I was helping Dora with some art stuff she was doing and then it was time for us to meet up,” she’d said when he’d asked if she was hungry. He would have asked her more if not for the pinched look on her face, along with the glare she almost sent his way. They had reservations for dinner that evening, and she kept swearing she didn’t want to ruin dinner at what Jordyn claimed to be herfavorite restaurant in the whole world. It was a fancier place Steve had never even noticed—mostly because he was working so much, and the establishments he frequented weren’t exactly 5 star. But he wanted to impress her so he’d made the reservation.
He wasn’t so sure he would have made it if he knew it meant Jordyn was going to veer into hangry territory. He’d seen this before with Jamie, and that wasn’t pretty. He’d given her shoulder a squeeze, a gesture she’d barely registered as she threw herself down on a park bench, and made for the pizza place across the street.
When he got back with the slice it took all of two seconds for Jordyn to give in and take it from him. The speed at which she devoured it was amazing. He knew he’d most likely only been saved from her hangry because they were in early days, and she was trying to keep it lose to her. He made a note not to let that happen again.
After food, there was need to make sure she didn’t steal all of his sweatshirts, which he wasn’t the best at, and wasn’t really sure he would ever be any good at, since she looked so damn hot in them. The shop was doing good. He had money. That meant he could afford to spring for spare sweatshirts, even if it wasn’t ideal, because when Jordyn was happy he was happy.
Steve was learning to like what she liked and to pay attention when she brought up the little things because it was those little things that made it worth it with her. Made a relationship worth it. Steve liked that he knew a side of her that others didn’t, it was those details Steve relished. He knew that Jordyn preferred soy milk to almond, that she refused to jay walk, when she was exhausted she snored, even if she denied it, her favorite books to read were the romances, books that she always had on hand, and that her favorite color was deep plum.
Yeah, there was a lot that came with having a girlfriend and all of it was pretty great. And that wasn’t even getting into the amazing sex. It had never been like this for Steve, but that was probably because there was more to it than just sex. There was a closeness with Jordyn that he hadn’t experienced with anyone else. It was comforting, the way she was learning his body, how she offered her own up to him and god he loved to see her face when she came. It was beautiful. It was also one of the sexiest things he’d seen—he knew she had never ignited like that for anyone else, and it woke up something primal in him.
He wasn’t used to this side of him. It was something possessive and needy.
It was a feeling Steve had never entertained and had tamped down when he’d felt it stir in the past but with Jordyn? With Jordyn he let it grow and live, let it feed him and urge him forward in his relationship with Jordyn.
And now there was another thing that he had counted on in front of him: Dinner with Jordyn’s parents.
She’d looked at him with a lazy smile early Saturday morning and had propped her head up, chin in hand before she asked, “Do you want to meet my parents?”
Steve blinked feeling the sleep slide away from him at her question. “What?”
“My parents,” Jordyn continued, reaching out a hand to stroke his face, “would you want to come to dinner?”
The answer had been as easy as everything else with Jordyn. “yes,” he said. “Of course, I mean, when?”
“Well, if you’re free on Tuesday my mom was saying we could come over for dinner.”
He ‘d leaned in close and kissed her cheek. “Tuesday’s perfect, doll.”
The smile Jordyn had given him was bright and warm, and Steve knew he would agree to any and everything to keep that look on her.
But now that he was standing with Jordyn in front of her parent’s house, a nice two story affair with a wrap around porch, and a, no shit, white picket fence, Steve didn’t feel as confident as when he’d agreed to it. He pulled at the collar of the button up he was wearing and swallowed hard.
“Are you sure they’ll like me?” he asked.
Jordyn came up beside him and took his hand, giving it a squeeze. “What?” she asked and then shook her head, leaning close to him and hugged his side. “They are going to love you, Steve. I promise.”
He opened his mouth to say more but it was then that the front door opened, and a woman stepped out, waving a hand at them. She had the same dark hair as Jordyn, but she was shorter. She smiled warmly and then shouted out to them.
“Get up here you two, your dad’s been driving me crazy asking when you’d get here!”
“In a second, Mom!” Jordyn looked up at Steve and smiled. “See? They are already excited about you. Let’s go on in, yeah?”
Steve wavered, but the smile on Jordyn’s face was so reassuring, so sure of the situation and herself that the tension melted right out of Steve and he nodded, a smile of his own spread over his face.
