Page 129 of Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail

“You keep saying that.”

“Because it’s true. I want to make sure you know that.”

“I do,” Jordan said, pressing her forehead to Astrid’s again, her throat going tight with emotion. “I finally do.”

Astrid tipped her chin up and had just set her mouth on Jordan’s when the Lapis Room door slammed shut.

Both women startled, clinging to each other and watching as the door... creaked open again.

Astrid just laughed. “It looks like Alice Everwood agrees.”

Chapter Thirty-six

AFTER JORDAN PACKEDa bag and left a note for her brother and grandmother on the kitchen counter, Astrid took her home.

She’d barely locked the door behind them before they were tearing off each other’s clothes. They didn’t make it to the bedroom either. Instead, Astrid pulled them to the couch, bras and underwear falling to the floor. She didn’t want tongues or fingers. She needed to feel Jordan’s skin on hers, Jordan’s mouth against her mouth, breathing each other’s air and words.

So she laid Jordan down and straddled her, aligning every part of their bodies.

“Fuck,” Jordan gasped when their pussies met. She sank her hand in Astrid’s hair, tugged the already messy strands to the point that Astrid cried out too, the mix of that gentle sting with pleasure like nothing Astrid had ever felt before. She pumped her hips against Jordan’s, desperate for contact, for sensation, rubbing their clits together until they both came in a string of swears, fingernails digging into skin, mouths dragging over throats and shoulders.

She collapsed against Jordan’s chest, her own lungs heaving, her limbs filled with that perfect, postorgasmic weight.

“Shit,” Jordan said, her breath ragged.

“Yeah,” Astrid said.

Jordan lifted Astrid’s chin and met her eyes, gazing at her for so long, Astrid started to squirm.

“Are you okay?” Astrid asked.

Jordan nodded, smiled. “I love you too. I didn’t say it back at the inn.”

“You don’t have to—”

“It’s true.”

Astrid let those words wrap around her heart. She let them be true. She let themfeeltrue. Then she kissed the woman she loved. The woman who loved her.She kissed her on that couch, then she kissed her in the bedroom, in the shower, on the back porch. She kissed her until the sun started to peek through the curtains, and they finally fell asleep.

“HEY, I HAVEsomething for you,” Jordan said late the next morning.

They were sitting at the kitchen table while rain sluiced down the window, a fresh batch of apple cider muffins cooling between them, as they’d slept right through breakfast.

Astrid looked at Jordan over her coffee cup. “What’s that?”

Jordan wrinkled her nose, like she did when she was feeling shy about something. It was so damn cute, Astrid very nearly swiped everything off the table and took her again right there.

“It’s... well, I ordered it for you before...”

Astrid nodded. She knew whatbeforewas. They’d spent half the night, in between sex and more sex, hashing out what had happened with the inn, how they both felt about it. Astrid shared with Jordan everything she’d done since then—quitting her job, essentiallybreaking up with her mother, at least for the time being. She told Jordan about her lists, about how she wanted to try baking for a living.

And Jordan told Astrid about Natasha’s phone call, her offer regardingOrchid, the network. Finally hearing the news for herself from Jordan, Astrid searched herself for any jealousy or bitterness, but it still wasn’t there. She just felt happy. Proud. And she told Jordan so with her words... and then with a few actions that left Jordan gasping her name.

Now, Jordan got up and walked into the living room, which was as far as her bag had made it last night. She rifled through the contents before finally bringing out a small white box. She made her way back over to Astrid, scooting her chair closer. She placed the box in front of her.

Astrid’s eyes went wide. “Um, what—”

“It’s not a ring,” Jordan said, her expression completely serious. “I know the joke about lesbians bringing a U-Haul to the second date, and that’s not what this is.”