Unedited. Thought I would have some time to go over it but, if I don't post this now you'd have to wait a bit. ;)
Chapter 2 - Cause for Concern
"Dinner was nice." Harm thought as he casually draped his arm over the shoulders of the blonde currently occupying his sofa. That little black dress she wore covered entirely too much in his opinion and he was trying to find a way to get her out of it. Maybe if he slid his hand down lower in a nonchalant attempt to brush a finger on the side of her breast she'd get the hint and he would get lucky.
Work had been stressful of late and he needed to release the pent up energy that wasn't letting him sleep well. Sex usually knocked him out and intimacy with Jordan was fun enough to drop him into a deep sleep. "The place was uh… nice." He was trying to find some subject of conversation to engage the woman that barely spoke much during their outing. In fact, he'd done all of the talking or would have but, from time to time his mind wandered off.
It was pathetic in a way, all of the overt things he needed to do in order to keep Jordan satisfied. While she willingly slept with him the same day they met, every other time required work from his part and lots of it unless she was needy. Those were the times she'd happily go to his place in the middle of the night, seduce him despite knowing he needed to sleep in order to function at work.
Jordan reached for the mug resting on the coffee table and took a sip. She had her legs curled up under her and held the cup between her hands so that it gave her something to do. It wasn't that she didn't want Harm, far from it, she was dying for him to take her into his bedroom but, there had been something on her mind since that afternoon. "Yeah, it was great I guess."
"Just great? Huh? Not exactly the description I was expecting with the price tag on some of those plates." He said, sighing at the hard hit his credit card took that evening all in the effort to get laid. The place was entirely too pretentious for his taste, a much better fit for Washington bigwigs, high priced lawyers and some movie stars. Harm dressed in his most expensive suit, an Armani dark blue set his mother gifted him and still he felt out of place.
The food was excellent and he indulged in a 30 year old single malt as well hoping it would loosen him up some. Truth was, ever since her murder trial, Mac's impending article 32 had been weighing him down. Hell, everything about Mac's trial left him feeling oddly bereft and he wasn't sure why it bothered him so much.
Everyone had secrets, skeletons in the closet so to speak and while Mac knew many of his own, he never realized how little he knew about his partner. She confided many of her past transgressions failing to mention one detail that still left him in shock - Mac was married.
Married and apparently had murdered her husband. Married, murdered her husband and lied about it. Married, murdered her husband and lied about it to protect her former lover. The last part still made him seethe although he didn't want to ruminate on the why.
John Farrow. Harm genuinely liked the older man, a Marine who did what he needed to protect his men and get the job done. The man was noble, brave and most of all loyal to those under his command. And each time he walked into court and saw the man sitting next to Mac he felt gutted. This was a man that had intimate knowledge about her and was trusted enough to help the Marine through her most troubled time. She went to Farrow, not to him but then Harm wasn't exactly available either he was busy trying to get into another woman's pants.
If the roles were reversed he would have brooded, pouted and acted like a belligerent jerk. Mac mentioned her displeasure once and after he vowed to take on her case and stand by her side, his moment of weakness was all but ignored. She was better than him that way, a force to pull through even when every single card was stacked against her. But, dammit, why did she have to go to John Farrow when the man was barely in her life? And why did that bother him so damned much?
From the moment he'd first seen Mac and Farrow interact, Harm knew they'd been involved. There was an air of familiarity, a tone of voice that Mac took when that feminine side of her likely recalled a lover's touch. He'd subtly tried to pry but Mac never gave in, never admitted it although he couldn't fault her. She was young, came from a broken home and Farrow was undoubtedly good to her; Mac wouldn't have been so fond of him if he wasn't. Harm tried not to dwell on the carnal thoughts it brought up over his partner, how she would look in the throes of passion - a fantasy he'd indulged in only twice because it shamed him to think of her that way.
But it was her former lover who she went to, the man she trusted for help when her ex-con of a husband came crashing into her neat little life. She'd shot him in self-defense but the whole case had been oddly difficult to defend complied with complications including Brumby's inept interference. Although Harm held a sort of contempt towards John Farrow, some of it had eased when he saw the tact he opted to take, perjuring himself to keep Mac safe. She wasn't guilty, thank God but still had to contend with that Article 32 and each time Harm looked at the file - once or twice daily - he cringed. Thoughts of it during dinner turned one single malt into two.
This would be incredibly difficult to defend, a lawyer who should have known better than to perjure herself and yet, Mac did just that - to protect her former lover. Three single malts were needed to stymie that final thought. In a way, it was good that Jordan seemed preoccupied in her own thoughts as much as he was else she would have demanded driving his car and few people were ever allowed behind that stick. While Harm wasn't inebriated enough to need a cab it was remiss of him to drive after having three drinks even if dinner took forever.
"Harm, it's not exactly romantic to point out that dinner was expensive." Jordan snapped him out of his thoughts and he noticed her hand had dropped to high up on his thigh. She snaked a hand around the back of his neck and pulled him down for a kiss.
Harm indulged her, finally letting his thoughts drift away from Sarah MacKenzie and to the woman who he was currently trying to get naked. His fingers fumbled with the tab of zipper on the back of her dress, not getting it even a quarter of the way down before Jordan stopped him. "Mac was in your office today."
"She had files to go over." Harm's mouth left her lips and went to Jordan's neck, at touch she didn't seem to acknowledge. In fact, she seemed annoyed by it and stopped his hand which was traveling towards her breast.
"I really don't understand why she had to be sitting behind your desk."
He doubled his efforts swirling his tongue behind the shell of her ear and letting his fingers move over the warm skin he'd partially exposed. "She was probably signing off on a few documents."
"On your desk?"
The accusatory tone made him freeze as did the fact that it was practically yelled out so that it echoed through his loft. Harm knew where this was going, it was the same story from the moment he'd been partnered with Mac - the assumptions, the talking behind their backs of impropriety. "So?"
"Doesn't she have an office?" She reached behind and zipped up the dress and then shifted so that Harm's hand that was still on her shoulder dropped off.
This is what had her quiet all during dinner, he knew and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Are you jealous of Mac?"
"Jealous? No. Just… concerned."
Harm sighed and the semi-tightness in his slacks completely deflated. The evening was definitely not going how he planned it out earlier this morning. He cleared his throat, "Why are you concerned? Did she say something to you?"
Jordan bit her lower lip knowing that she likely sounded like a whining child but, all the same - Harm was her boyfriend, he belonged to her and she was damned if another woman was going to take him away. It was bad enough that Harm spoke of Mac often and with such admiration she was hard pressed to find anyone who could live up to emulate Sarah MacKenzie. What annoyed her the most was the feeling of insecurity, something a psychiatrist shouldn't be experiencing. "Harm? You can't tell me you haven't seen what she looks like. Even in that stupid Marine uniform men notice her."
It was impossible not to notice her. Few women commanded a room like she did, took the oxygen right out and then swept it back in. Even in that drab Marine uniform, Mac was a knockout, the form fitting, waist hugging jacket giving a taste of the sexy curves he knew were trapped within.
"You're all a little bit in love with her." Brumby's accusation lingered in his mind and he shook his head to rid himself of it. "Mac's pretty. She's not the only good looking woman we have at JAG, you know."
Jordan gave out an unladylike snort and moved even farther away from him to the point that she was at the edge of his sofa. "Pretty? Harm, she's gorgeous and has every man in that office hanging on her every word. Including you." Especially him, she thought and glared at him accusingly as if she were privy to secret information she had no business of knowing.
"She's my best friend. Mac's got me through some dicey situations and saved my life."
"And you're in love with her." She let that drop like a live grenade and pointedly stared at him waiting for the rebuttal which took too long to come. Harm's browns furled and his irritation manifested itself as he stood and began to pace. "Are you in love with her?"
"I'm really getting damned tired of everyone assuming that Mac and me are involved."
She winced at the tone of his voice and the manic pacing that effectively took whatever romantic possibilities out of the equation. Jordan just wanted a straight answer, a gauge to know exactly what cards she'd been dealt. It would aid her in getting under his skin and permanently getting herself there beginning with ridding Harm of anything he felt for Sarah MacKenzie. "I said in love not involved." Jordan tilted her head, quizzically trying to unravel whatever had been eating him all night. "So you're not involved but, you want to be, don't you? What exactly is she to you, Harm? Clearly more than a friend. Did something happen to…"
"Stop it!" He spun on her and spoke with a steely irritation that sent a clear message - she was not to discuss his whatever with Mac. "I don't need you psychoanalyzing my friendship with Mac. She's my partner. We work well together and that is where it begins and ends."
"Okay." She had acquiesced with her head hung low and another concern that needed to be vocalized. Harm sighed and finally came back to the sofa sitting down with a heavy sigh. "There's just this...look that you get every time you talk about her."
"Look? What look?"
"Desire."
The word actually made him laugh. "Desire to kill her half of the time, you mean? We fight like cats and dogs."
"And that often makes for a heated, passionate romance." She quirked a mischievous grin wondering if this little heated chat would improve their bedroom activities that evening. "She gets that look too you know."
Harm didn't realize he was being led the same way he did those he interviewed on the stand. She dangled a carrot and he reached for it because despite wanting Jordan, his mind was often occupied by Mac. "She does? When?"
To Jordan, his tone was all the answer she needed. "You have slept with her, of course you have."
"Woah, woah. No, I haven't."
"Then you want to."
What red blooded, heterosexual man wouldn't want to sleep with Mac? He thought. "Jordan, listen. She's my partner, my friend. I haven't been with her and I'm not gonna be with her." Because Mac didn't want him that way, he was convinced and if she did the hurdles would be too high to jump, too difficult given the nature of their jobs. He'd already gone down that road with Kate and wouldn't implode his relationship with Mac that way. "I'm with you. I want to be with you and if we're gonna be together, you need to stop worrying about Mac."
His hand had traveled back to the zipper this time pushing it all the way down. Jordan's breath caught as his hand traveled between the open back feeling the naked skin beneath until he released her bra with a snap of his fingers. "Does this feel like I want Mac?" Harm roughly pulled her to him, taking her mouth with his in a punishing kiss.
He would carry her to bed, cover her body with his and sink inside her warm depths without even considering foreplay. He would also keep his eyes closed, moving deliberately because at that moment it wasn't Jordan Parker he was with - it was Sarah MacKenzie.