Chapter Nine

All in the Family

Jordan was lost in the feeling of his lips against hers. She would never admit it to him…she was having a hard time admitting it to herself, but the minute their lips met, she forgot everything…where she was, what time it was…there was just Woody…

And as he gently nipped her lower lip to get her to open her mouth for him, she gave up even trying to find her way back to reality. She did what he asked and was instantly rewarded with an entirely new level of sensations…the feel of his tongue against hers…him deepening the kiss…pulling her closer…his thumbs tentatively resting at the base of her t-shirt…at the bare skin above the waistband of her pants.

She did the only thing she knew to do at the time. She wrapped her arms around his neck and hung on until Woody would let her come back to earth. Which he was apparently in no hurry to do. He kept kissing her…keeping her in that dizzying spot between the porch swing in Kentucky and somewhere out in the atmosphere where all her dreams and fantasies about him floated. She was suspended between time and reality…

Until the truth began to slowly dawn on her. This was Woody…the man who, although could be civil to her, had ruthlessly pushed her out of his life and was only needing her to help him solve this case so he could be moved back to homicide. You're only here to help solve the case….Just do your job, Jordan… Garret's words began to haunt her as the cold, hard truth of reality began to grip her once more. She slowed down the kiss, finally breaking it completely.

Woody was breathing heavily, and rested his forehead against hers. "Who'd of thought…" he began again.

"That's just it, Woody. We can't think about this."

The look he gave her cut her to the quick. "What do you mean?"

"I mean…it's easy to get carried away out here in Coldstream. We're hundreds of miles away from Boston…and us…the real us. Here, in Kentucky, we're Mr. and Mrs. Hoyt. But once we're home, that will change. We'll go back to being Jordan and Woody…two people who may have at one time had a shot at a relationship, but chose instead to move on with their lives…without each other."

"Is that what you really think?"

"You're the one that made that decision. You're the one who told me to leave you alone…you didn't want me. You're the one that moved on first …"

"Like Danny has played no role in this decision."

Jordan looked at Woody for a half a beat. "I like Danny. He's a good friend. Do I think we could be more? Possibly. But unlike you, I haven't bedded anyone…yet."

Woody's sharp intake of breath let Jordan know she was in for it now. "So you'll sleep with him and not with me…"

"You never gave me that opportunity. When I decided that you were worth the risk of my heart breaking again, you had put me out of your life and were already seeing other women."

"So this…between us," he motioned with his hand, "means nothing…you felt nothing…"

God help her she couldn't lie to him. She should. She ought to lie to him, get up from that swing, go inside, and go to bed.

And catch the earliest flight out to Boston tomorrow she could find.

But Jordan was tired of lies. She had enough perpetuated in her own life to last a hundred years. She had never lied to Woody…not about their relationship. She wasn't about to start now. "I didn't say that…" she replied softly. "I never said I didn't feel anything…"

"So you're just blowing off a little leftover lust…"

"You kissed me, Farm Boy."

"And you didn't say 'no'."

She'd give him that. She had been a willing participant until her common sense took over. "I know….but I did stop it, too."

"Yeah, I know…just like you've always stopped everything else."

In the days that followed, they were barely civil to each other. They managed to pull things off at the sheriff's department as if nothing was wrong. But the minute they were back at the cabin and alone, the situation reverted back to the way it was when they were in Boston. Woody was cold and aloof. And angry. Very angry.

Jordan avoided him like the plague. This time she was the target of all his rage. She had responded to his advances and then cut him off. Cold.

She sighed as she evaluated the new state of their relationship…or rather lack of it … as she waited at the Louisville morgue for some results that Nigel was going to send her. She tried to stay away from Woody as much as possible now…even if it meant spending fruitless days in the Louisville morgue with nothing new really going on…

Did she regret kissing him? Yes and no. In the past, what few kisses they had experienced with each other had been nothing short of explosive. And now that she knew her heart that she loved him … for her they were now more than that…for her the affection was real…not just a beginning means to an end that amounted to one night of sexual satisfaction.

She had told Danny once that she no longer wanted "cheap, meaningless sex." And Jordan was afraid, given what Woody had told her in the past, that's all his kisses would lead to…cheap, meaningless sex and another broken heart.

And God knows she couldn't handle that again. She wasn't over the last time he broke her heart.

She had done the right thing…the best thing. But kissing him had only increased her ache for his touch…the need to be held by him…and it had put that need on a level that nearly frightened her. Scared her because she not only physically wanted him…she was very ready to surrender herself to him on whatever terms he dictated just to try to get rid of the ache in her soul….

Sometimes doing what is best for you isn't always the easiest thing…sometimes it's the most painful, Jordan admitted around the lump that was always seemed to be in her throat now…and was startled out of revere by her cell phone going off.

"Cavanaugh," she said, out of habit into the device. So much for Mrs. Hoyt.

"Love…got those results for you…" Nigel's welcome voice reached across the miles.

"The Bass boot information?"

"Yeah. There were forty pairs of those shoes that were sold in the stores surrounding Coldstream. Only five of those were in a size fifteen."

"Well, that does narrow the playing field down some. Any of them on the list of suspects we sent you?"

"Nope…not a one."

"Oh." Jordan knew she sounded crestfallen and she didn't mean to. But she had worked so hard on this case…she wanted to catch the murderer and somehow gain Woody enough favor to move back to homicide. Not that the change would gain her anything…she would have the exquisite pain of seeing him everyday and knowing that he couldn't stand the sight of her … while she was ready to cave because all she wanted was his touch.

And that longing was so sharp that the accidental brush of his hand against hers this morning had caused her to startle almost violently…to the point where the coffee cup she had been holding shook and the liquid spilled out on her only pair of pajamas. She had to wash them out by hand and throw them over the shower curtain rod to dry, as the cabin had no washer or dryer and she had no time to go to the laundry mat.

"However, I did find out this interesting tidbit of information. One of the purchasers of said boots has a direct tie to Coldstream…." Nigel rambled on.

"And…"

"His name is Parker Lowell Thomas…"

"Judge Lowell Thomas's …grandson?"

"Nephew."