Page 35 of Once Bitten
“Jordyn!” he yelled, following her.
"Leave me alone!" Jordyn took off at a sprint, and almost slipped on the landing after taking the first flight of stairs too fast, but she kept moving, her keys clutched tightly in her hand. She had just landed at the bottom of the stairs when she heard the roar of an approaching motorcycle.
“Oh, please let it be him,” she breathed, looking over her shoulder and seeing Alex in the stairwell. The “backup” he had brought peered over the railing from the floor of her apartment. Turning back, she let out a sigh of relief when she saw Steve pulling into the parking lot. He jerked his helmet off, barely coming to a stop when he saw her standing in the middle of the parking lot. His eyes didn’t miss the backpack over her shoulder.
“Jordyn? What happened?” he asked, seeing the look on her face. “What’s wrong?”
"I just— I gotta get out of here," Jordyn said, her voice breaking up from being out of breath from her run downstairs. She jerked a thumb over her shoulder at where Alex and the rest were still standing. "They just showed up."
Steve followed her gesture and looked past her to the apartment complex. A moment later his face settled into a cold glare when he saw Alex on the second-floor landing, staring at them. “Get on,” he told her, handing her the helmet he had just taken off, his eyes never leaving Alex's.
“Thank you,” Jordyn breathed, kissing his cheek and hopping onto the bike behind him. His hands tightened on the handles of the motorcycle while he waited for her to put her arms around him.
Once she was settled behind him, he touched her knee. “Ready?”
“Yes. Just go, please.” Jordyn tightened her arms around him, letting out a sigh of relief when he pushed the bike back into motion, leaving behind the train wreck at her apartment. It was only when they were down the street and around the corner, her apartment and Alex behind her, that she relaxed into Steve’s back.
Chapter Nineteen
“It’s not much,but it’s home,” Steve told Jordyn as he helped her off his bike after their getaway bike ride. They had just pulled into his driveway and for some reason, Steve felt nervous about Jordyn seeing where he lived. When it came to homes, he had never really given it much thought. A roof and a bed were all he was really concerned with and as long as he and Jamie were together everything else seemed small, but now with an unfamiliar pang of nervousness sitting heavy in his stomach he wondered if maybe he should have paid more attention to what kind of place he’d signed a lease on. He glanced her way to see her pulling the motorcycle helmet off and glancing curiously toward his place.
He swallowed hard knowing what they would find when they went inside. It was definitely a space inhabited by two men, two bachelors, and was a space devoid of all the homey and comfortable touches Jordyn’s apartment had. There were no comfortable pillows, or fluffy blankets in their living room, and their curtains weren't a cheery shade of yellow like Jordyn's where. It wasn’t a dump, not by any means but it was...cold, but even so it was still a nice place to live, or at least Steve thought so.
“I don’t care about that.” Jordyn pushed him lightly on the shoulder. She turned and gave the brick building next to them a curious look. It didn't look like it had always been a house, it was two stories, but there seemed something not so residential about its form. “It’s just it doesn't look like a house, or an apartment really.”
He nodded stepping up beside her and fiddled with the motorcycle keys in his hand. "This place actually used to be a grocery store in the 20's,” he told her. “We got a pretty good deal on it because its unusual history.”
"Oh really?" Jordyn cocked her head to the side and nodded. If you looked hard enough you could see how the brick front with the matching large bay windows on either side of an elaborate door could have functioned as a grocery store. Despite its beginnings there was still a small, but neat yard. Brightly colored flowers lined the driveway and short walkway to the front of the building.
“Yeah, seems the golden real estate market isn’t really one for unconventional flipped homes.”
"I like it. It's got character."
"Just wait till you see the inside then. This place has loads of character," Steve joked, with a sense of relief. He led her towards the front door and opened it with a quick push, turning so that he could see her reaction at entering the apartment. The old vestiges of the grocery store had mostly been replaced, only the concrete floors and high ceilings gave away the commercial nature of the apartment. There was the random formica counter that ran the length of the back wall that he and Jamie and he thought must have been an old deli. There was an odd cutout into the next room, the laundry room they could have seen as a pick up window for customers.
"Did you plant those flowers, Stevie?" Jordyn asked, with a jerk of her head behind them, as she followed him inside.
“Stevie, hmm?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow. He leaned against the door watching her face, a pretty blush appeared on her cheeks and she grinned ducking her head to the side.
“Unless you don’t like it?”
He bumped the door shut and reached out and hooked a finger through her belt loop, pulling her against him. “I like it,” he bent his head and kissed her, “but only because you’re the one saying it.”
“Good.” She smiled and adjusted the bag on her shoulder. She leaned up and kissed his cheek, relaxing against him with a happy sigh. Jordyn looked content and relaxed, not all like she had when Steve had pulled up to her apartment building. Steve reached out tucking a lock of hair behind her ear and rubbed a thumb across her cheek.
“What is it?” she asked.
Steve swiped his thumb across her cheek again and grinned at her. “You look happy. Relaxed.”
“That’s because I am.”
“You look good like this.
She blushed and leaned into him, turning her face to kiss his hand that was still against her cheek. “It’s because I’m with you, you know,” she said. Steve felt his chest tighten, but he said nothing, instead managing a quick nod. He pulled her further into the apartment and flipped the light on and took her bag, putting it over his shoulder and nudging her with his leg on his way past her.
“Take a seat. I'll get us something to drink? A beer ok?"
"A beer would be great." She sank down onto a stool at the half bar that separated the kitchen from the living room. Steve watched her spin in her stool taking in the apartment. “I like your place, it’s not like a lot of the other apartments in Golden.”
