Lynda's Lace (12 page)

“Fuck yes!” Jordan yelled through gritted teeth, and slammed into her with powerful strokes that meant he was coming as well.

All three of them rode it out together, their amazing triple orgasm, pumping and thrusting and moaning for all they were worth.

When they’d all finally stilled, the room went quiet, and for the first time ever during such a liaison, Lynda wondered—what now? Because
what now
didn’t usually
matter
—but this time it did. Would Jordan have regrets? Think of her differently? Suddenly be filled with repulsion?

When he eased out of her, she missed his presence in her body immediately. Turning to look at him, she said, “I love you, and this was the most amazing sex I’ve ever had.” It wasn’t a lie. Experiencing what she liked to think of as her “extremes” with someone she loved was brand new, and it made it better than ever, transformed the entire encounter into something overwhelmingly intense and special to her.

Her heartbeat slowed a bit when she saw love still gleaming in his eyes. “I love you, too, precious. So very much.” It dripped from his voice and shone is his expression, and she knew everything was okay.

Better than okay, actually—because she had everything she wanted now. Jordan—and the hot, hedonistic sex she relished.

“So, you two are the real thing, huh?”

They both turned to Ginger, who remained resting on the couch in a post-climactic lull. She wore a peculiar smile, as if maybe she hadn’t quite believed you could combine love and lust this way—until now.

“Definitely,” Lynda replied, casting Jordan a look brimming with all the warmth she felt for him.

Ginger reached for her panties and put them on, then walked to the easy chair where she’d lain her clothes over one arm. Jordan and Lynda fell easily onto the sofa in the spot she’d vacated, in a loose but sweet embrace. After Ginger dressed, she bent to give each of them a light kiss on the mouth. “This was fun. Thanks for inviting me, Jordan.” Then she switched her gaze to Lynda. “And thank
you
for being so welcoming.”

With that, she grabbed up her purse and walked out the door, leaving them alone.

Silence fell over the room like a blanket as Jordan peered deeply into Lynda’s eyes. “So, you don’t hate me?” he asked with a suddenly sheepish grin.

She lifted one hand to cup his strong jaw. “Hate you, baby? No, this is…this is…” There was no reason to hold anything back now. “This is my dream come true, Jordan. Everything about it.”

He raised his eyebrows. “You’ve fantasized about doing something like this?”

Gently, she shook her head. “Not exactly.”

And he looked confused. “Then…”

Time to come completely clean. “Before I met you, I…actually
did
things like this. A lot. Because life is short and sex is amazing and I wanted all of it I could get.” She was on one of her rolls now, so she decided to just keep going. “And so ever since we met, I’ve
longed
to do something this wild with you. The whole time we’ve been together, I’ve wanted to let you see this side of me. I’ve wanted to show you how bad I can be. And now…well, you don’t know how happy it made me to discover tonight that you want the same thing. And now we can have it all! Leather and whips! Handcuffs and vibrators!” She was laughing, still amazed by it all.

Next to her, though, Jordan ran his hand through his hair, looking taken aback. The realization stilled her laughter.

Shit, she should have known. She’d spewed too much at once. She’d been too honest. “You’re upset to find out about my sex life before we met,” she said.

“No,” he replied quietly, shaking his head. “Surprised, but not upset. Although, seeing you tonight, I guess I
shouldn’t
be surprised. Because you were incredible.”

“Then…what’s wrong?”

He lifted his gaze to hers. “I guess I’m just wondering…why you didn’t tell me. Because we’ve had a lot of sex, Lynda, and we’ve talked a lot about it.” He let out a breath of what sounded like disgust. “And I
knew
you were holding something back, and I tried to get you to tell me. Remember, I asked you about your sexual fantasies and I said you could tell me anything? But still, you didn’t.”

Lynda sighed, bit her lower lip. “I was afraid. Afraid you’d hate me. Afraid I’d lose you.”

“Lynda, we’re not a couple of college kids. Of course we’ve both had lovers. And maybe you’ve done things I haven’t—but I don’t know what I’ve
ever
done that would make you think I’d break up with you over something in your past.”

She swallowed nervously. This wasn’t going well. “I didn’t want to tell you because…I didn’t want it to be only in my past. I wanted to do things like that, things like what we just did tonight, with you—
now
. And when you took me in that alley, I loved it. I wanted more. I wanted to experience every kind of sex with you.” Her voice had grown breathy with passion, and fear.

Only he was shaking his head now, looking angry. “And yet you didn’t tell me that. I tried to get you to open up, I tried to let you know I was open-minded. You arouse me more than any lover I’ve ever had, driven me to do things I’ve never done before—and you
know
that, yet you
still
wouldn’t tell me what you wanted, what I could do to make you happy.”

She let out a another long, heavy sigh. “I’m sorry, baby. But…you figured it out on your own, and you gave me this sizzling gift tonight, and it was
wonderful
. I love you so much!” Wrapping her arms around his neck, she kissed him, trying to make this all right, but he seemed wooden.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, confused.

“I feel like an idiot,
that’s
what’s wrong. Here I think I’m pleasing you, pleasuring you, all this time, only to find out it wasn’t enough.”

“It
was
enough, Jordan—I promise, it
was
.” Only, in truth, there
were
moments when it
hadn’t
been enough, and only now did she realize how unfair it had been not to tell him the things she wanted, not to give him the opportunity to deliver them.

“And I guess I’m hurt that no matter how much attention I lavished on you, no matter what I did or what I said, you didn’t trust our love enough to be honest. Which kind of makes me feel like I was the only one of us really
in
this relationship, the only one of us stupid enough to fall in love.”

Lynda was aghast. “Oh my God, Jordan—that’s not true! I love you
so
much! And I’m
so
sorry I wasn’t honest. I was just afraid.”

He let out a sigh. “Well, now
I’m
afraid. Afraid this relationship isn’t what I thought it was.”

* * * * *

The next couple of days were torture for Lynda. She kept reliving the horrible moment when she’d realized Jordan was angry. So angry that he’d soon gotten up, put on his clothes, and departed. He hadn’t stormed out or anything—that wasn’t Jordan’s style—but he’d simply continued seeming hurt, upset, adrift. And none of her repeated apologies or pleas had made any difference.

They’d left things painfully uncertain.

“Are we…are we over?” she’d asked, still stunned by the change in his
demeanor
.

He’d let out a tired sigh. “I’m not sure, Lynda. I’m just not sure. I…don’t know if I can be with a woman who doesn’t trust me.”

They’d been over that already by then, of course, so she didn’t bother telling him—again—that she
did
trust him. Because the truth was—she
hadn’t
. She hadn’t trusted him to love her no matter what.

And now that she’d had two days to mull it over, she felt his pain. She knew Jordan didn’t fall in love easily—she didn’t either. She knew their relationship had recently started sailing into serious waters, and that such a change in course was rare for both of them. And now they were both hurting for it—her because she hadn’t been brave enough and truly
hadn’t
trusted their love enough, and him because she’d hurt him, probably made him sorry he’d ever allowed himself to get that close to her.

She looked out the window of The Cajun Lady toward Spy Games, but didn’t see any movement. She knew he was right across the street from her, same as he had been for the last two days, yet they hadn’t seen each other, and neither had picked up the phone. Lynda had hoped he would call, but he hadn’t. She’d hoped he would forgive.

Yet as Friday afternoon turned to Friday evening, she wasn’t sure she could survive the weekend like this. Because one thing had become shockingly clear. She
did
love the man.
Great
sex or
no
sex—she no longer cared.

Well, that was a lie—she cared, but this was about so much more than sex. This was about a man she truly
did
trust now, with anything and everything, and she wanted to make a life with him. Maybe forever.

Flipping the
Open
sign to
Closed
, she stepped outside, locked up the shop, then headed up the exterior stairs to the apartment, suddenly on a mission. A mission to get her man back.

As soon as she gave him time to close up and drive home, she was going to get in her car and head out to St. Charles Avenue herself, to his house, not far from her own. But first, she went to the chest of drawers in her bedroom and dug out the yellow baby doll
nightie
with the lace cups and matching panties. Because there was one more thing that had become very clear—she really did feel lovely in lace now, after the other night. And she was going to show him just how deeply he moved her.

Chapter Eight

Jordan stood in Liz and Jack’s apartment, kind of glad Jack wasn’t home.

“So, be honest,” he said to Liz. “Can I pull this off?”

“Uh,
yeah
,” she said as if it were a silly question. He wore black leather pants, a fitted black t-shirt, and a black leather jacket. “Don’t tell Jack I said this, but Jordan, you look
hot
.”

He grinned, getting a little of his confidence back. “Yeah?”

She nodded.

The truth was, he hadn’t the first idea what he was doing, but he knew he had to get Lynda back and make up for acting like a jerk the other night. He also had to show her that he was the man she needed him to be, a man who could keep her satisfied in every way.

As luck had it, he’d bumped into Liz on Royal Street on Thursday and had ended up telling her that he and Lynda were having problems. Before he knew it, they’d decided to grab a drink at Pat O’Brien’s, where he’d opened up to her about why—and she’d helped him see the light, made him understand that Lynda loved him so much that she simply hadn’t wanted to risk losing him. She’d also explained Lynda’s desire not to mar his vision of her, no matter what it cost, which had touched a place deep inside him. Before it was over, he’d felt like a heel for walking out on her.

By that evening, he’d had a chance to mull over the things Lynda had mentioned liking in bed. Whips. Handcuffs. Items he didn’t know much about, but he was willing to learn, so he’d called Jack to go out for a drink with him. An hour later at Lafitte’s, he’d asked his friend’s advice on exactly how a strait-laced guy like him could go about showing Lynda he could give her what she wanted.

“Uh, the three-way was definitely a good start,” Jack had laughed with his Cajun drawl. Jordan had filled him in on that particular event as they’d talked.

“Maybe, but…I’m not sure I’ll be into the multiple partner thing on a regular basis.”

Jack had nodded knowingly. “I hear
ya
,
ami
. Liz and I played that fun little game once upon a time ourselves, and even though we had a night or two we’ll never forget, after that, I just wanted to play one-on-one.”

That captured Jordan’s feelings exactly. He found himself not really wanting to share Lynda, yet still confident he could satisfy her—he just needed to be pointed in the right direction. After talking to Jack, he’d picked up a few accessories he thought his precious lady would enjoy now that he was starting to understand her tastes a little better. And today he’d bought this outfit because he just didn’t think his usual carefully pressed khakis were
gonna
cut it tonight.

“Wish me luck,” he said to Liz as he headed toward the door.

She gave him a conspiratorial smile. “Go get her, Jordan.”

* * * * *

Lynda had just slipped on the
strappy
white heels she knew Jordan liked and was tying her trench coat shut when someone banged on the apartment door. Who the hell could it be, right when she was on her way to seduce her man back into her arms?

Marching over, she checked the peephole and—oh my God!—found Jordan.

Stunned, she opened the door to see him standing before her dressed in black leather from head to toe. Whoa. Who
was
this masked man? And if he looked this good in leather, why hadn’t he worn it before now?

He looked her up and down, too. “Going out?”

She nodded, still a little numbed by his appearance. “Going to see
you
.”

“We’re staying here,” he said so forcefully her pussy trembled.

Her reply came soft, with continued shock. “Okay.”

“Tonight you’re going to do exactly what I say.”

She simply stared in awe.