Home is Where the Heart is(39)

Jordan wrapped his arms around her in an affectionate encirclement. “I’m surprised to see you. I wasn’t expecting you to visit me here.”

Brielle and Jordan pulled apart from each other. She peered past him, glancing around at the apartment she was standing in. “I know. I wasn’t expecting to visit you either, but I thought it would be a nice surprise, and I missed you. Now, is your roommate home?” More importantly, her body missed him and the way he did things to her that no other man had come close to doing to her.

Jordan shook his head. “No, he’s working. Why? What did you have in mind?” Jordan was still stunned by her spontaneous visit to Yellow Valley. She certainly hadn’t said anything about visiting him when they spoke on the phone, nor were they an exclusive couple. He did, however, appreciate what they had in the form of being friends with benefits. She had definite sex appeal, and it was very easy to focus his attention on her.

Brielle brought her gaze back to Jordan, giving him a wink as her slender, caramel-colored arms snaked their way around his neck.

“I don’t know. I’m sure we can think of something. We always do when we’re alone together.” She licked her lips and hinted at something almost too dirty for words. She knew how to get what she wanted, and usually Jordan was eager for a quick rendezvous with Brielle, except he wasn’t today. People could call him crazy to turn down the advances of an incredibly sexy woman most men would kill to be with. He just wasn’t feeling the same way he usually was when he received a visit from her.

Brielle tried desperately to entice Jordan into a little bit of fun with her. After all, she had taken time out of her busy schedule as a model to hop a flight out of Miami to come see him in Yellow Valley, the town that looked like the tiniest speck on the map, and he couldn’t even greet her properly. Had she known how much of an unwelcome feeling she would receive, she would have never come in the first place.

Jordan pulled her arms from around his neck, and he knew he wasn’t fooling her. She could probably see right through him. He didn’t want her here—that much was obvious—and for Brielle, it was a strange feeling to know Jordan didn’t want her right now. In the six months she had known Jordan, she had never known him to turn her down for sex. She was hot and she knew it; men practically threw themselves at her, hitting on her every chance they got. Of course, she was flattered by the attention she received, and in most cases, there was no harm in a little casual sex and a date or two with the opposite sex when she was single and unattached, but there was also a tiny piece of her that itched to be closer to Jordan in more ways than just sex. She wanted to know he felt as strongly about her as she did for him. Was that too much to ask for?

“What’s the matter, baby? You’re not happy to see me?”

Brielle stood in the doorway, unsure whether or not she was welcome inside, watching Jordan’s expression and stance as he ran his hands over his head. She would have given anything to know what he was feeling right now.

“It’s not that. You know I’m always happy to see you,” Jordan said with a half-smile, and for a second, Jordan believed his own words, hoping she did too. It wasn’t a complete lie. His body did get turned on by her, begging him to do things he knew they both enjoyed, but after everything that had happened between him and Cassie, he couldn’t find enthusiasm in being with Brielle at this moment. If he let himself get physical with Brielle, a part of him felt as if he would be betraying Cassie, even though she had made it perfectly clear there was nothing between them anymore.

Brielle wasn’t buying his excitement. She hadn’t even gotten past the threshold of the front door as she crossed her arms over her hot pink spaghetti strap top and plastered a frown on her face.

Then her eyes looked past Jordan toward a framed picture sitting on a narrow table near the front entrance. She was a fair distance away from it, but she instantly spotted something familiar about the two people in the picture, which was obviously of a mother and child. Brielle realized she knew the face; it belonged to the woman with the lovely blonde hair she had met at the bakery when she stopped to ask for directions.

“Who’s that?” she asked to get Jordan’s attention. Her question made him follow her gaze to the picture, and he rubbed his chin with one hand.

“Do you know her?” Jordan asked, although he didn’t know how she would have.

“Well, no, not really,” Brielle said, shaking her head, “but I did meet the woman at a shop when I was asking for directions. It’s obvious though that either you or your roommate knows her, so who is she?” Her eyes were wide as she waited for details, and she slipped her slender fingers through her black hair, smoothing out the knots casually.