Chapter Thirteen

Hold Me Until Tomorrow

Jordan stretched and tried to roll over, but couldn't. There was a weight that kept her in one place, snuggled up to a warmth she had nearly given up dreaming about. Gently trailing her index finger along the arm that kept her in this position, she felt his muscles flex in protest. "Tell me it's not time to get up," Woody whispered softly in her ear.

"I'm afraid so, Farm Boy," she whispered back, managing to turn her head and catch his lips in a soft, early morning kiss.

"Thank God it's at least Friday," he said against her mouth as his arm left her side and proceeded to let his hand trail slowly up her ribs to cup her breast, all the while still kissing her, moving his mouth from her lips to the column of her neck.

"Umm…yeah, thank God for small blessings," she managed to get out. When Woody held her like this she swore she couldn't manage to string together two coherent thoughts, much less a complete sentence. "Woody," she gasped as his lips found the peak of her breast and drew it into his mouth, "We'll be late for work…"

"Not if we shower together…" he murmured against her, turning his attention to her other breast now, and his other hand sliding up between her thighs.

"If we do that we'll definitely be late for work…and if I'm late again this week, Garret swore he'd dock my pay…"

Woody chuckled against her, but swooped down and gave her one more hard, quick kiss on the lips. "Then I suggest we both go in early, get off early…come back home and pick up where we just left off?"

"That sounds like a wonderful idea," she replied, reaching for her housecoat. "Do you want to shower first or should I?"

"Go ahead…I don't have to be in until 9:30 anyway," he answered, reaching for his cell phone that was buzzing in its cradle beside the bed.

Jordan pulled the garment around her and flashed him a smile as she headed for the shower. The last three months had been more wonderful than she ever could imagined with Woody…his presence had dispelled most of her fears and their new-found love had driven out the shadows of any other demons from the past that had been plaguing either one of them. She sighed with contentment as the hot water sprayed down her back and legs…Thank God this was Friday and they had the weekend together…it didn't happen often, but sometimes the stars aligned themselves just right and they had the same time off. And now was one of those times.

She toweled herself dry and went back into the bedroom to get ready for work. Woody was still on his cell phone, but had moved into the living room. It was strange…Jordan always thought that if she was at least serious enough to the point where a guy was spending an inordinate amount of time in her apartment, she might go crazy with him invading her personal space all the time.

Not so with Woody. It was warm…comforting….home. She wondered again for the zillionth time why it took her so long to realize that they belonged together. Moving from the bedroom to the kitchen to flip on the coffeemaker, she heard him tell the caller bye and flip his phone shut. "Need to go in early?" she questioned him, pulling down the coffee cups from the cabinet at the same time.

"No….not at all." He was smiling at her in a different way than he was a while ago. Gone was the seductive hint in his eyes…this time they held a glint of something she couldn't put her finger on. "Are you going to be in your office all day?" he asked, taking his cup from her.

"Unless Garret has me out on the field…I'm scheduled for a round of trace with Nigel and two autopsies later this afternoon."

"Sounds like fun….I'll be by around lunch time….say, one-ish?"

She nodded absent-mindedly as she put on her coat and got ready to go out the door. "Be careful?" she admonished.

Woody gave her one more quick kiss. "You, too."

As the day progressed and Jordan moved from trace to autopsy, one o'clock rolled by with no sight of Woody. Not too alarmed, she figured by two, she'd definitely see him. Then two came and went. She called his cell phone. He didn't answer. But given the strange variations of his job as a detective, she tried not to worry too much. Then three o'clock passed. Finally the doors to the elevator slid open and Woody came to her office. "Sorry I'm late…" he said apologetically, propping himself against her door.

"It's okay…but I was worried…"

He shut her door, came around to where she was sitting at her desk and pulled her up into his arms. "I think you'll forgive me when you find out why I was late…"

"I'll forgive you anyway…but why are you late?"

"That call I got this morning before you left for work…"

Jordan nodded. She remembered. He had been pretty engrossed in it.

"It was the Oregon State Police…they caught John."

Jordan felt as if Woody had sucked all the air out of her lungs at one time. Since she and Woody had been together, they hadn't spoken the man's name often, but Woody was keenly aware that Jordan still held a deep-seated fear that the man would come back for her…even though the odds of that were extremely small. Although with Howard's help and Woody's love she was working through her ordeal, the fact that John remained loose on society bothered Jordan more than she ever let on.

It was on the nights that the man would show up in her dreams that she managed to snuggle up even closer in Woody's arms and let him hold her as tightly as he would… "John can't get you…I've got you," he would always say.

And the fear would vanish for a while…as long as Woody would hold her.

The possibility that the man was now caught and her fears could be put at rest forever was a prospect she hardly dared to even dream about. "They're sure?" she asked hesitantly, not wanting to fully embrace her good luck until she knew for certain.

"Absolutely. That's one reason I'm late…I've been on the phone, fax, e-mail, and everything in between with Oregon. He's caught. It's over, Jordan." Woody smoothed her hair behind her ear and traced his knuckles down the side of her face, taking in her wide, disbelieving eyes. "It's over…" he repeated.

"It's really over," she repeated. "Over…."

"Feel like celebrating?"

Oddly enough, Jordan didn't. The thought of going out to a restaurant with lights and music and dancing didn't appeal to her right now at all. She thought that if John was ever caught, she'd be ready to shout it from the mountain tops that she was finally free from the ordeal.

Instead, all she could think about was the twenty-one women who had lost their lives at the hands of this lunatic.

That and the man in front of her who had helped her dispel her fears and move on with life. "Tell you what," she countered, rising up on her tiptoes to lightly kiss him on his lips. "I'll make you a deal…"

"Okay…" Woody's voice trailed off and one eyebrow rose in suspicion as he wondered just what Jordan's "deal" entailed.

"I'll order the pizzas…you bring the beer….and we'll have a nice, quiet celebration of our own at home…"

"Ohhhhh Dr. Cavanaugh. I like your deal very much….very, very much….but what's the catch?" The second eyebrow joined the first at his hairline.

"The catch is that….after dinner…and maybe a movie….we pick back up where we left off this morning…"

"Which, if I remember correctly was right about here," Woody replied, his hands resuming their naughty positions that time had interrupted that earlier.

"Seems to be the place," Jordan replied breathlessly…"and afterwards…"

"Afterwards…." Woody's lips found the soft hollow at the base of her throat.

"You get to hold me until tomorrow…."