Midnight Kiss (Virgin River #12)(43)

Within seconds, she found herself surrounded by arms made of iron, snug against a big, warm body that felt like the haven she’d been seeking all of her life.

Will groaned and deepened the kiss, and Jordan followed him into a special, private place she’d never visited…never even imagined. She slid her arms around his neck and pressed closer against him, wondering if she’d ever kissed a man before who’d taken her on such a roller-coaster ride of emotions like this, spanning the spectrum in seconds.

But she knew the answer already. There was only one Will. And she didn’t know what to do with him.

Finally, it was Will who drew away, and Jordan who whimpered and pulled him back. He resisted, though she felt his body’s vivid response to her. He set her back a few inches, both of them breathing hard, and leaned his forehead against hers.

“Now, Will,” she murmured. “Make love to me now.”

Instead, he lifted her and set her on legs that wouldn’t hold her, steadying her with his hands at her waist.

“No, sweetheart. Not in the heat of the moment.”

“You want me. I know it, and you do, too.”

“That’s not enough.”

“It’s enough for tonight.”

He looked at her sadly. “I’m beginning to think I want more than tonight.”

“Do you always get what you want?” she whispered.

“I can’t tell you. I’ve never wanted anything as I want you. I only know that when we make love, it’s not going to be a whim, not one of your flings. You’re still not ready, Jordan. And I can wait. Not easily, but I’ll manage.”

Her body edgy and aching, Jordan’s temper spiked. She’d love nothing better than to stomp off and never see him again—except that wasn’t at all what she craved to do with this excess of energy she was dying to spend in another fashion.

But he stood there looking at her, blue eyes sparking yet resolute, patient and seeing too much. Jordan had a sense that she was fighting a battle for her life. He would change her. This couldn’t last—they were too different—and where would she be then? Who was she if not Jordan the Shark, with hot and cold running men?

“I can’t be a Marly, Will.”

He smiled. “I happen to like Jordan Parrish, saints preserve my black soul.”

She relaxed enough to laugh. “You are certifiably insane, you know that?”

He shrugged. “I’ll make coffee.”

Jordan sighed. “It’s a lousy substitute for sex.”

“Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong, darlin’. Just consider it foreplay.” He picked her up and strode inside with her. “Stay a little longer, would you?”

How could anyone remain angry at this man? She relaxed in his arms, enjoying an odd sense of freedom that the night would not, as all her others were, be about sex. He was the oddest person. He baffled her and enraged her…. “Can I keep my newel posts?”

He glanced down in surprise. “Of course.” He didn’t ask what she would do with them, didn’t make fun of her for wanting them as souvenirs of a day she wouldn’t soon forget. “I’m thinking that with a bit more practice, you could turn one that would fit exactly on my stairs.”

She blinked, absurdly pleased at the notion. “Really?” Then doubt crept in. “I don’t think so.”

“Then I must believe for both of us.” He seemed perfectly serious.

She stared at him and marveled at the kindness that was so integral to his nature. “What am I going to do with you?” she whispered.

He set her down on a bar stool in the beautiful kitchen he’d restored, trapping her between his arms and the counter, his eyes hot and blue and kind.

“Ah, but isn’t that the journey we must take together to find out?” He pressed a kiss to her forehead, then drew away with an obvious reluctance that pleased her enormously.

“I’d best be making that coffee now.”

Jordan swiveled to watch him, her greedy eyes following every move he made.

CHAPTER EIGHT

WILL HAD STAYED AWAY from her deliberately for nearly a week. Thankfully he had a lot of work to complete for David, and he was intent upon finishing the tiling in the master bathroom that was his concession to modernity. The original bath had been the size of a coat closet. He’d taken that space and a large chunk of the adjoining small bedroom and created a bathroom that would scandalize his family when they saw it. Their family of ten had shared one small bath and thought nothing of it.

One day they would understand that Will was here to stay. Surely when he had a family of his own, his mum and da and at least some of his siblings would relent and pay him a visit.

Though, he had to admit, the prospect of a family seemed further away than ever.

Because now there was Jordan.

Blast his black soul, why could he not simply see reason and walk away from her? Yes, there was more softness in her than anyone else recognized, but the distance between that and Jordan as a wife, much less a mother…surely the moon itself was closer.

What was it about her that drew him so? Was it, as his mum declared, only his weakness for the lost, the lonely? Jordan was lonely, of that he was now certain, whatever she might argue, and she did want to make love with him very badly. How much of that, however, was simply her competitive urge? He wondered if any man had ever said no to Jordan Parrish.