“This happened for long?” He wanted to hurt those boys.
She shook her head. “Not that I am aware of, but it’s possible. When we became friends, she’d already stopped the majority of the attacks and had grown a thick wall around her heart. In time, people stopped looking at her body and focused on her personality and her sassiness. Guys started to like her, and you’d think that was the end of it.”
“But?” This was getting more complicated by the second.
“She never forgot. I know she’s still a little insecure over her size. She won’t say it. Hell, she’d probably dare me to a duel with guns and all if I say it, but I know.” She pressed her lips together and sighed. “You need to get to know her. She’s not going to fall for the whole mate line. You’ll need to get her to want a relationship with you. Then you can bring up the mate mark.”
Frickin’ hell. His relationship with Jordan just got a lot more difficult.
“She’s my best friend, Aric. I love her and I don’t ever want to see her hurt. I know you’ve wanted her for a long time. But she’s a fighter who needs a protector—and it won’t be easy convincing her of that fact.”
He’d be Jordan’s protector now. Hell, he’d fight King Kong if needed to save her.
“Any suggestions on how I get her to accept a relationship with me?” He was clueless about the deeper side of Jordan.
He hadn’t purposely distanced himself from her through the years. Okay, maybe he had. Everyone assumed that since he was in line to lead he was some kind of super-sure-of-himself badass. And that may be true in most cases, but not with Jordan. He’d developed an instant need to seek her attention from the moment he met her, but she’d been a little girl. So he’d kept away from her, hoping that with time she’d grow to like him. What he hadn’t expected was for her to develop into such a sassy, sexy woman. His woman. One he wanted more than any other. A woman he didn’t know how to get close to.
Ellie smiled, her eyes twinkling. “I think you already have this figured out, Aric. Think about it.”
It took him a moment to realize where she was going. She’d given him a way to make Jordan listen to him. A key. And now she’d reminded him to use it. He laughed and hugged her to his side.
“You’re too smart for your own good, little pup.” His best friend Caleb was going to have his hands full with his little sister.
“I know.” She ruffled his hair.
*
Jordan lay on her bed staring at the ceiling. What in the world was she going to do now? She’d had sex with Aric. Oh, but it wasn’t just sex. It was the best fucking sex of her life and she wanted it again so bad she was ready to call and beg him for more.
“Argh!” She threw a pillow over her face.
She lay there, reliving every kiss, every thrust, every pant, and every moan. There had been a point she’d started to beg him to fuck her. Dear God, she was in deep shit. Her body had turned into one giant erogenous zone, and thinking of Aric, and his hands and lips made her nipples tighten and her * slick.
The sound of her doorbell made her lift her head from her bed. She was waiting on the other girls to drop off their flash drives. Now that she thought about it, why the hell had nobody called her yet? By now, they’d have had at least two conference calls to discuss what they’d seen. Not that she was complaining. She was happy she got to go without running into them. Aric had left her alone for a while. Well, enough time that she questioned her sanity in doing all those amazing things with him. Then she got the hell out of dodge. If they’d seen her with her torn up clothes, trying to hide all her girl bits unsuccessfully, they’d have made her the butt of their jokes for the next decade.
Thankfully, they’d all driven their own cars, so she didn’t have to feel bad about leaving the others behind. In fact, she didn’t even worry about her camera or the ceremony at that point. She had been too worked up over the multiple orgasms and having screamed out Aric’s name loud enough to be heard by a few of her friends.
She slipped on a robe and ran to brush her teeth.
“Hi, Ellie.” She let her friend inside and headed for the kitchen to make some coffee.
Ellie sniffed the air. Jordan wondered if she could smell Aric on her still. But that couldn’t be right. Too many hours had passed. She’d been so exhausted by the time she got home, she’d shrugged off the clothes and got into bed.
“Are you okay? You look really tired.” Ellie watched her intensely. Her blue eyes lit with curiosity. Jordan had the urge to fidget so instead she put the coffeemaker to brew.
“I’m fine. Just need some more sleep,” she mumbled.
“I brought the flash cards from the others. They dropped them at my car before they left, and I wanted to make sure you had them all.”
The way Ellie smiled made her a little worried.
“Oh. Great.” Jordan wanted to jump in the shower so bad now.