She Belongs to Me (34 page)

Upon reaching the Charlotte border, she realized this wasn’t going to happen. She did locate what she was searching for, but it had taken her more than a half-hour to get there. So it would be a wireless card then, and she’d have to find somewhere comfortable to study. She
was certain Jordan wouldn’t mind, he probably already had the service for his company anyway.

Her cell phone rang, startling her. She peered down at the number and smiled. “Hey,” she said cheerfully, hoping not to worry him.

“Hello, my bride. Did you mi
ss me this morning?” he drawled.
S
he could hear the smile in his voice.

She lowered her guard. “Yes! It was awful. I was so cold without you. But you will be happy to know, I awoke before seven.”

“That’s good. Maybe I won’t have to be so persuasive on the weekends.” His voice dripped with seduction. How did he do that?

She tried to imitate his seductive tone. “Oh, I don’t mind. I rather enjoy your methods of coercion.” Unfortunately, she didn’t have that great southern drawl he did, so she was certain she fell short of sounding alluring.

He sighed into the phone. “You sidetracked me, Jaynee. I called you for a reason.” His voice lost its seductive tone, actually, he sounded anxious, so maybe it worked a little. “Oh, I remember. I just finished work and was wondering if you would like to meet for lunch and then perhaps swing by my office afterward?”

She hadn’t realized the time. She forgot he got off at one o’clock only to report to his construction business. “That would be wonderful. I’m actually exploring the area and was just thinking I needed to eat.”

“Where are you?
” He sounded excited to see her
too.

“Um, I’m not sure,” she mumbled, looking around at her surroundings.

“Jaynee,” he teased, his tone taking on a sarcastic edge. “Just look at your navigation system.”

She glanced down at the monitor. “Oh…right….I’m on Highway 74 approaching Harris Boulevard.”

“Excellent! I’m about five minutes from you. There’s a shopping center on your right with a great Mexican restaurant. I’ll meet you there.” He hung up.

Once again, she thought his decisive, demanding character should irritate her, but somehow she felt awed and strangely comforted by his authoritative nature. He wasn’t overpowering and never seemed severe. He just knew what he wanted and reacted to his wants.

She saw the restaurant he must have been referring to and pulled in the parking lot. She debated whether to go inside or to wait outside until he arrived. Turning off the ignition, she decided to remain inside the car, knowing he wouldn’t want her standing outside.

When she saw his truck approach, she couldn’t help but leap out. She
had
missed him in these few short hours.

Jordan bounded out of his truck, dressed in jeans and a polo shirt, gorgeous as always. He must change out of his uniform at the station. With his long strides, he was in front of her in seconds. He picked her up as if she weighed nothing and pulled her face up to meet his.
“God, how I missed you.”
He kissed her then lowered her feet back down to the pavement. “It was maddening leaving you this morning. I almost called in sick.”

A surge of pleasure soared through her, so it wasn’t just her. She couldn’t contain the smile that spread across her face. “Good. I missed you too.” Her eyebrows shot
up as she took in his face. She reached up and touched the side of his jaw. “What happened? I liked the beard. Not that you don’t look good clean-shaven, but wow…it’s kind of a shocker.”

“I know, right? I was getting used to it. But it’s not permissible as an officer.” He lowered his head toward her, caressing his smooth face up the line of her jaw. “But there are benefits.”

Her heart pounded wildly; she wondered if he would ever cease to affect her like this. He reached for her hand and pulled her gently to the restaurant.

They sat across from each other. His shoulders were too wide to sit next to him in a booth. Besides, she liked looking at him and in return, him looking at her.

He held her hand across the table, stroking the back of it seductively. “So, what did you do today?” His voice was nonchalant, but interested.

“Well, I decided every college in this area is too far to drive. So I did some research and found several distance learning schools that look promising. What do you think?”

“I think that is a great idea;
that’s what I did. I received my undergrad from Liberty University through their external degree program, and I’m still deciding what to do for my graduate degree.”

She cocked her head and smiled at him. “You didn’t tell me you had your Bachelor’s degree?”
Of course, there were plenty of things she didn’t know about him, she realized.

He pointed to himself. “Remember…not a dumb hick?”

“Stop doing that.” She slapped his hand with her free hand. “I told you before, I have never even for a second thought you weren’t intelligent. And I like your southern accent, very much so…it was the first thing I fell for.”

He took hold of her other hand and smiled that crooked grin she loved. “Really…what was the second?”

She guessed he had forgotten the conversation about college.

“Your eyes, but it’s a very close match. Heck, I guess there isn’t much I didn’t fall for. But that was just at first sight. Most of all, I fell for you—your personality, your generous nature” She squeezed his hand.

“My eyes?”
He huffed in disbelief. “They’re boring compared to yours.”

She shook her head wildly in protest. “Oh, no they’re not. They’re strong and compelling like you. And then there are your shoulders and chest—I think I’d better stop. We
are
in a public place.” She giggled. She couldn’t help it. The man drove her wild just looking at him, or rather, the way he looked at her, as though he wanted to gobble her up right here.

“Jaynee, you’re making me blush, and we may not make it to my office if you don’t stop.” His eyes widened with anticipation.

“Is that a threat?” She attempted a seductive tone again. It seemed to work the first time.

“No, darling, it’s a promise,” he retorted. And she couldn’t tell if that meant he wouldn’t go in if she asked him.

“A promise?” she asked in the sweetest voice she could muster.

“If you don’t want me to go, I won’t. They can manage without me another day.”

She sucked in a breath. “But would that disrupt Saturday?” She could hear the defeat in her voice. She sounded pathetic. What would he think of her?

He shook his head at her in disbelief. “Jaynee, I
own
the business.”

She decided to change the subject. She wouldn’t push him to make any decisions he didn’t want to, and she didn’t want him to think she was needy. “So, tell me about your degree. What did you major in?”

He turned her hand in his and played with her wedding ring.
“Criminal justice.
The police department doesn’t mind me taking time off, and they even paid for my courses, because it’s the same field. But I’m probably going to get my Masters in business
,
since it looks
as though
that is the best move at this point in my career.” He shrugged his shoulders as though it weren’t important. “I like being a cop, but it’s getting old.” He had been staring down at her hand, but he looked up, and his eyes were bright. “What I really want is to be a detective, maybe even enter SWAT.”

She broke his gaze and looked around the room. She didn’t like the sound of that. All she could imagine were those shows on TV, where some unknown rookie detective died every week. Suddenly, the thought of losing Jordan overwhelmed her again. She’d have to get over this; he wouldn’t want her to worry.

Jordan tapped her hand as if he recognized her preoccupation. “So, I love the idea of you enrolling in a distance learning program. I didn’t like the idea of you
driving so far every day and then walking around a large campus. College campuses aren’t always the safest place for beautiful women.”

A twinge of annoyance surged through her. “You drive forty-five minutes to work and deal with criminals
every day
,” she snapped back. His eyes dropped, and she regretted the comment as soon as she said it.

He pulled out his cell phone. “I’ll call Bobby and let him know I’m not coming in today. I think I’d rather spend the evening with you. It sounds as if we have to talk over a few things anyway.” He pushed the number on his phone.
“Hey, Bobby.
I won’t be in today.”

Jaynee could hear her brother-in-law’s guffaws through the phone after he obviously made some ill-mannered remark. Jordan disconnected the phone, no comment.

63

Chapter
Twenty-Six

The rest of their weekdays went much like the first. After a while though, they only met for lunch once a week, usually on Friday.

And
Jaynee mostly kept her snide comments to herself. Jordan loved his job, and it wasn’t right for her to give him a hard time about it.

The weekends were the best. Jordan would go in early on Saturday morning, have a meeting discussing what he expected of his employees the following week, do some paperwork and then come home—often before noon.

Jaynee managed to experience more of North Carolina than most natives. Every Saturday, Jordan whisked her away to visit one mountain or another when the weather was nice. The first place he took her was Linville Gorge, which was spectacular, known as The Grand Canyon of the East.

The first set of falls was beautiful. It wound around a bend in an S-shape and then disappeared into the rocks below, cutting a deep gorge through the valley. Since they were located just about a half-mile off the road, there was no lack of tourists.

But Jordan, being an avid hiker, led her up several more paths to view the opposite side of the falls where
they cascaded to the river below. Several spots along the trail opened up to a field of wild ferns, barely touched by the sunlight beneath the tall pines. It looked like a scene from a fairytale. Jordan then proceeded to descend a path to the bottom of the gorge, which ended up being an all-day adventure. The trees closest to the river were already giving up their green, replaced by magnificent colors ranging from yellow to orange and deep red. And the scents were incredible, a mixture of moss and soil and rotting leaves gave off an unexpected sweet aroma.

Month after month, they spent their weekends exploring North Carolina and as a result each other. They spent hours hiking and talking. She had never known there were so many waterfalls and mountains, and that one man could have so much depth. They talked about God and politics, their views thank goodness were the same. The only instances even close to arguments were when they discussed children and his job as an officer.

Jordan wanted children something awful and didn’t want to wait. Jaynee wanted kids as well but wanted to finish college first, which didn’t make any sense to Jordan.
If she studied at home and planned to work out of the house anyway, what difference did it make when they had children?
he’d
constantly ask.

On their first anniversary, Jordan took Jaynee on a cruise.

It was a perfect opportunity to escape; everything was slow in September, especially the construction business. Kids were back in school after summer
vacations, families were broke and weren’t moving into new houses or having major repairs done. Things picked up again in late October or November as preparations for Christmas started Jordan had explained to her.

Jaynee made the mistake of mentioning over dinner if they had children, they wouldn’t be able to get away at any
time of the year. That was all it took to ruin a perfectly good evening. It was a weeklong cruise to the Eastern Caribbean, it was only the first evening and she’d managed to introduce something stupid. She could have kicked herself.

Jordan didn’t say anything over dinner. But later, when they walked to the top deck, to look out over the waves, he broached the subject again.

He furrowed his brow as he always did when he was upset or didn’t understand something. “Jaynee, I just don’t understand why you would say something like that.”

She tried to feign ignorance as if she didn’t know what he was referring to, since it had been over an hour since the conversation, but they were good at this game. They would simply start talking about something they discussed hours or even days before, and the other would continue as if there had been no downtime.

He raised one eyebrow skeptically as if he wasn’t buying her ignorance. “If you don’t want children, why don’t you say so instead of making up excuses?”

Jaynee had to watch herself. She had a terrible temper, one she tried to never let escape, because she would end up throwing things like an adolescent or end up hitting something and break her hand. “I never
implied I didn’t want children. I merely suggested that if we had kids, we wouldn’t have been able to escape like this. I adore children. I babysat my cousins’ children since I was twelve years old. Honestly, I just believe we should wait. We’ve only been married a year.” She pleaded with her eyes for him to drop this discussion.