Page 116 of Indiscretion

I run my fingers through his hair. In this moment, the last thing I want to do is pressure him or say anything to ruin his mood. He doesn’t get enough moments like these. “You never have to thank me, pet. I love you.”

He smiles again, and today, it reaches those gorgeous blue eyes. “Love you, too, Sir.”

I help him back to his feet, straighten his clothes, then receive one final kiss from him before I unlock his office door and go in search of Jordan.

Our IT manager’s just finishing up with him. He’s got a new phone and I can see he’s back to shell-shocked Jordan.

That’s sexy as hell, too.

This guy’sdeep, man. I can feel it. I have a suspicion I might make some visits to Florida in the near future, once he returns. Maybe spend weekends there on occasion.

Yes, with Jordan.

Here I am over six years later, and I’m still with Elliot, despite all the related bullshit, after falling hard for him the first night we met.

Lightning damn sure can strike twice.

I should know—that’s me standing here, my hair smoldering and body vibrating down to a cellular level from the way Jordan makes me feel.

I know this feeling well.

Time will tell if it’ll burn me or not.

* * * *

Over the next two weeks, Jordan jumps in with both feet and finds his way. Not only is he organizing the design aspect, and putting in all the inventory requests for furniture, he’s also handling the moving of both Shae and Elliot’s things. Some of what he’s using in his plans is already either at the White House or Number One Observatory Circle. The rest of the furniture he’ll need will come from the government inventory.

There won’t be much personal furniture items used for either one of them. What little Elliot has will be stored upstairs in his residence, and since Shae is keeping her townhouse here in DC, most of what will be moved for her and Chris are boxes of small items, like clothing, books, and such.

With Kev using the townhouse as his official residence, he can travel back and forth and bring anything they need that might have been overlooked.

In Jordan, I see a competent and capable man who’s easily adapted to an understandably chaotic situation. He often jumps in to help the social media team with staging photos and graphics for posting. He’s frequently volunteered to help out in other ways, never dropping the ball. He’s tenacious and a self-starter. Once, I had to send him to Elliot’s with a Secret Service detail to pick up a suit for Elliot when he accidentally dumped coffee all over himself at lunch and I had to accompany Shae to an event.

Even my pet had to admit Jordan did well, staying calm under fire, so to speak.

Hmm.

There’s been nonstop low-key flirting between me and Jordan. I should be the cautious one but, time and again, I find myself drawn to him and following his conversational paths that invariably lead to deeper and more emotionally intimate topics.

We manage to eat at least one meal a day together, usually breakfast. I like heading to his hotel and picking him up to take him out. Depending on my schedule with Shae, we’ve had lunch and dinner several times, too. Then there have been plenty of evenings I’ve seen him safely back to his hotel at the end of the night.

Elliot’s staying quiet but I sense my territorial pet feels nervous. He’s never had legit competition for my attention before.

Hey, all he has to do is speak up, ask me not to pursue something with Jordan, and I won’t.

Except…

I want to. I really,reallywant to. Every day, I want to even more.

And at 11:00 Thursday night, two weeks after Jordan’s arrival in DC, he and I are sitting at a table in the bar in his hotel’s lobby, where we’re having a late dinner and drink after having hit the ground running at five that morning. We’re tucked alone in a dark, quiet corner with no one close to overhear.

I’ll put this dinner on my personal credit card because I want to have a conversation about us tonight.

Except he beats me to the topic. I don’t think it has anything to do with the effects of his martini hitting him, either.

“So, is there some sort of big boss fight I have to win to level up personally with Leo Cruz?” He’s wearing a playful smile when he says it.

It’s so close to my own thoughts that it’s spooky.