Okay this chapter probably should have bumped the rating up a degree but I'm too lazy to change it.
By his tone, she could tell where this conversation was heading. She waited for that inevitable strong urge to run. As edgy as she felt she was mildly surprised to realize it wasn't there. She gave him a token denial. She didn't want to sound too agreeable. She didn't want him getting to confident.
"We never talked well Woody." She said taking the plate to the sink.
"We have to try periodically...if only to keep my ego in check."
"I'm listening, "
"Then turn around and look at me."
"I can't," she said as unemotionally as she could after the day she's had.
"Can't or won't Jordan?"
"...Maybe a little of both."
Woody couldn't help but smile at her stiff back. Any other time she would have said 'can't'. She might argue the point with him, but Jordan always had the choice to turn to him. He had a feeling she was finally beginning to believe it.
"...let me help."
Silently, he stood up and reached for her cupping her shoulders in his palms and turning her into his embrace. It was quiet moments like this that kept Woody coming back for more. If he were a smart man he would have given up a long time ago. But nobody ever considered him the brightest crayon in the box. He placed his lips on the side of her head drawing in the last fate traces of the perfume she sprayed on hours ago. He couldn't count how many times he woke up in the middle of the night swearing he could smell her.
Jordan knew with out a doubt the jig was up. She couldn't run any more. She was tired of running. Tired of fighting herself. And it felt good. The resolve she felt earlier in the evening wasn't a lark. She smiled into his shoulder.
"If you knew what was good for you you'd run out of here as fast as you can."
"I'd just run back anyway. I think I'll save the trip this time."
She palmed his chin and looked into his eyes...really looked, probably for the first time ever and what she saw made her heart skip. "Don't say I didn't warn you."
"I was never one to take the easy way Jordan."
He waited for her rebuff.
"Good." she huskily.
Meaning to take things slowly, he buried one hand in her hair, enjoying the silky feel of the strands against his fingers.
When she still didn't run, he lowered his head, she raised hers, and he kissed her. Gently at first, testing waters that he hadn't in a very long time. It wasn't a kiss that would be immortalized. It took a few fumbling awkward moments for it to deepen. Then, just like a bicycle, it didn't take long to remember how well they could fit. Only this time the kiss was different. Slow, deep, wet. The kind of kiss a man gives a woman he wants to take her to bed...and way it would be returned if the feeling was mutual.
"Woody..." she sighed against his lips.
So used to be so close but yet so far Woody dropped one arm. He wasn't quite ready to surrender the one around her waist yet. With the blood pooled in places other than his brain, his words came out mumbled. "I probably should go."
"Hypocrite." The grin on her face tempered the word.
"What?"
"Isn't it you that is always telling me to take a leap of faith?"
"And you're the one who answers back saying: 'If you leap without looking, you could get flattened by a bus."
"Maybe I've changed. Maybe we both have." She wrapped a hand around his neck bringing his lips to hers softly. "Being with Louis made me realize that I could take that leap and believe that somebody would be there to catch me. It just took me awhile to believe that person could be you."
Woody swallowed at the sudden thickness in his throat, half afraid to accept what stared him in his face. At the same time he wanted to believe it as much as he wanted to take his next breath.
"You're telling the truth aren't you? he asked in awe.
Her smirk broke the tension of the moment. She reached for his other arm and tucked it around her waist. "Yes, and if you didn't get with the program and kiss me I could change my mind about you."
His mouth was so close to hers she could feel his smile against her lips. "Yes ma'am."
When she pulled the shirt over his head and smoothed her hands over the contours of his chest she knew after that there would be no turning back.
They left a trail of clothes to the bed and came together in a fast, furious explosion of feeling in the shadowed darkness.
He leaned his forehead weakly against hers as their heartbeats slowed and they caught their breath. He whispered that he loved her.
Jordan knew it was a start... one that had no guarantees past the morning's light and for the first time in her life she knew she could live with that.
"I love you too."
The End-
