Page 69 of Devil's Kiss
“No. I missedyou,” Jordan said, then sighed. “Why do you always have to be so pigheaded?”
“Me?” Derek asked as he jackknifed up in the bed. His legs now hung over the sides, and he noticed that Jordan had moved from his casual position to sitting on the edge of the couch. “You’re the one who freaks out at the first sign of meeverwanting more than some scandalous affair with you.”
That had Jordan on his feet in a flash. “That’s not true. I was sticking to what we agreed to. To take things one day at a time. You changed the terms. Not me.”
“Yeah, how dare I,” Derek said, as he walked over to where Jordan stood. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, and I think you get off on sneaking around.”
“Fuck you.”
“You know what,” Derek said as he turned around and grabbed his shorts off the floor. He pulled them on and then reached for his tank. Once that was over his head, he stormed back to Jordan and shook his head. “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t even wantthatnow.”
The fiery expression that lit Jordan’s eyes told Derek he was about two seconds away from getting a piece of his mind.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re the one who called me, Derek.”
How Jordan managed to dress someone down in such a snooty tone while stark naked would always be a mystery to Derek. The guy had no shame about his body. He’d once mentioned wanting to be a nudist, and honestly, Derek could totally see it.
“You’re right. I did. My bad.”
Turning on his heel, he marched out of Jordan’s room and headed toward his only means of escape. The elevator.
I’m such an idiot,he thought with disgust.What was I thinking coming to him?But he knew the answer to that—he loved him. He would always want to go to him. The only problem was that Jordan didn’t return the feeling. Or, more likely, he didn’t want toadmitthat he did.
And he has the nerve to callmepigheaded.
Derek jabbed the button of the elevator and stormed inside, ready to get the fuck out of there. But when he turned and saw Jordan, now wrapped in a robe, standing with his arm holding the door back, he sighed.
Here we go,Derek thought.Round two, anyone?
FULLY CLOTHED,DEREK looked just as he had earlier when he’d arrived. Only this time, instead of arousal heating his eyes, rage had taken its place.
Not having a clue what to say but knowing he needed to say something fast, Jordan wondered when their relationship had gone from easy and sexy to complicated and hard.
“Let go of the door, Jordan. I’m done,” Derek announced, his tone defiant and his stance full of conviction, as if daring Jordan to argue. Usually Jordan would respect that and let him go, but not this time. He’d been waiting for two entire months to hear from Derek after he’d dropped his little bombshell, and he’d be damned if he let him go without finding out where the hell he’d vanished to since then.
“Oh,you’redone, are you?” he asked, and took a step in Derek’s direction. Jordan hit the stop button on the interior panel of the elevator and then continued moving forward. “Well, that’s too bad. Because I’m not. You want to hash this out, then we’ll hash it out.”
He could see Derek’s cheek tick and knew he was holding back from saying what he really wanted. Probably something along the lines ofGo fuck yourself. But there was no way he was going to let Derek leave believing the bullshit he’d just spewed out of his mouth. He’d had time to think over these past couple of months too. “I want to talk to you.”
“Tough shit,” Derek fired back. “Time’s up, Jordan. It’s too late.”
“Too late? You’ve beengone,” Jordan shouted, finally losing his temper with a punctuating stomp of his foot. He could feel the blood rushing to his face as he glowered up at the obstinate man,andJesus,he was perfection.
Derek’s blue eyes were locked with his, and he looked like he wanted to strangle Jordan with his bare hands, but never had anyone fit him so damn well. “You have to understand where I was coming from. One day we were?—”
“Fuck buddies?” Derek supplied with an arched brow.
“Yes. And you were fine with that, from what I recall.”
“I was,” Derek agreed, and took a step forward of his own so that they were toe to toe. “But I changed. Maybe I grew up and you didn’t? I don’t fucking know. But I want more, Jordan. And when I told you that, when Itoldyou that I loved you. Do you remember what you said to me?”
Jordan winced, and Derek nodded. “Exactly. You didn’t say a goddamn thing. You looked at me like I’d told you we should get married and have ten kids. So excuse me if I got a little pissed off and didn’t want to see your face.”
“Pissed off?” Jordan said. “You went to a club the next night and hooked up with someone right in front of me.”
“That wasn’t intentional. I didn’t know you were invited. Plus, I asked you once we got inside if anything had changed, and again—nothing. So what the fuck does it matter to you if I hooked up with him or not? Jealous?”
Jordan poked a finger in Derek’s chest as he narrowed his eyes at him. “If I thought for one second you went home with that guy, I wouldn’t have answered my phone today.”