Forever Rain (Rain Will Fall Trilogy #1) (13 page)

Jordan’s company Christmas party was held in the magnificent Austin Ballroom. The opulence of the venue spoke of Jordan’s success. At age 28, he was a force to be reckoned with in the world of business. At the party, he announced another successful business acquisition in Hong Kong that solidified his company’s viability and growing success.

The party led to my second meeting with Celia. Jordan was surrounded by some of his junior executives and other employees, so I sat at the table texting Jenna. Mia was supposed to be at the party too, but in true Mia fashion, she cancelled at the last minute due to a date with a hot guy.

Veronica was in Mexico visiting her mother’s family over the holiday. I would not have minded having some company other than Jordan, since I knew he would be busy, but I was delighted to be his date and better yet, his girlfriend.

“What a nice little girl you are to just sit around and wait for Jordan.” I looked over at Celia. She was gorgeous as usual in a long black backless gown with a slit up to mid-thigh. She was leaning on the back of a chair at the table looking bored.

“He doesn’t need me to meddle in his business,” I responded. I texted Jenna that a snake was slivering around me and had her fangs aimed at my jugular.

“Ah, not that you would understand the world of business anyway, and don’t fool yourself thinking that you are the only candy in his jar. Jordan has an insatiable appetite for women and sex.” Her hateful words were like ice water down my spine. I tried not to let her see how her malice affected me. I looked across at Jordan just as a woman whispered something in his ear, her hand running suggestively down his back. He looked down and smiled at her. Celia saw this as well.

“Tata, little girl,” she said in a singsong voice and walked toward the group of people gathered around Jordan.

I so wanted to ask Jenna to come and pick me up, but I was determined to not let Celia affect me that much. I ended the conversation with Jenna and put my phone back in my purse.

The party went on for another two hours, but my feeling of bliss was fast replaced by despondency. I saw Jordan making his way to me, so I stood and slid a smile back in place determined that Celia’s poisonous words would not get to me.

We danced to a couple more songs, then Jordan suggested we leave, which I readily agreed to. I wondered if Jordan’s popularity with women was something I could deal with, or if jealousy and distrust would soon tear us apart.

Chapter 12

Jordan did not speak of his family, but since it was close to Christmas time, I wanted to know what his plans were. On our way back to his penthouse, I asked if he would be in Austin then. He pulled into the parking bay and leaned across the console of the car and nuzzled my neck making me ache and instantly moist between my legs.

“I am not quite sure what I will be doing but I most certainly know who I will be doing.” He nipped my ears and I moaned as his lips traveled down my neck.

“Um, well, you haven’t said if you will be with your family. I don’t even know if they’re from Texas,” I whispered as I tried to keep my thoughts together.

He seemed to sense my curiosity. Jordan sighed and reluctantly pulled his mouth away from my shoulder. I felt that he was tense and would rather not discuss his family.

“I will be visiting my family sometime over the holidays. They live in Colorado. My mother died in a plane crash when I was an infant so my grandparents raised me. They had three children, one son who is the eldest child, then my aunt Vivian. My mom was the baby of the family.

“Unfortunately I don’t get to see my family as much as I would like, but I visit when I can. My grandparents were great with me when I was growing up and tried to fill the void in my life as much as they could.” He spoke kindly of his grandparents. “I’m not as close to my aunt and uncle.”

“I’m sorry to hear about your mom. You probably know that my parents died when I was young as well.”

“Yes. Something else we have in common. Raised by others due to unfortunate circumstances.”

“Come on.” I opened my door and Jordan hopped out to help me out of the car. “It’s the holiday season. Let’s go shopping or something fun.”

He laughed. “I’m not sure many guys would admit that shopping is fun, but I on the other hand, have fun being with you, so shopping it is.”

Jordan spent the rest of the holidays in Austin. I invited him to Jenna’s home for Christmas dinner. We spent most of the holiday season in each other’s company.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After the first of the year I headed back to college and Jordan was gone for a couple weeks to Europe for business. Despite mine and Jordan’s busy schedules, our romance was blooming.

I could not quite wrap my head around the fact that this gorgeous man could not wait to be with me. He was burning up our phone lines with calls. To my delight, continued to surprise me with impromptu visits at my college apartment.

The last week in March, Jordan bought me a beautiful Nikon camera. We took a trip Saturday morning out of Austin to a beautiful spot filled with bluebonnets. I practiced my photography skills on the gorgeous flowering field. There was a pasture with cows grazing along the fence line and I got some great shots of that as well.

Soon, Jordan took the camera away from me and turned the lens toward me. I ran into the field of flowers and posed for the camera while laughing and singing out of tune to songs from the movie
The Sound of Music
.

We had a delightful day and basked in each other’s company, momentarily forgetting about the stress of college and money to be made with mergers and acquisitions. Jordan did not miss an opportunity to make love to me when we were together. I craved his touch and his smell, the feel of his skin on mine and his groans of pleasure as he consumed my body with his tongue and his lips.

Even with little experience and being only with Jordan intimately, he was the God of lovemaking, of that I was sure.

That same Saturday night, I went out with Mia, Veronica and some other friends from college, so Jordan headed back to Austin.

I was telling the girls about the camera and photos, but remembered that I left the camera in Jordan’s car.

Sunday morning I texted Jordan about the camera, and since he was leaving for Japan that evening, I wanted to get it from him. Although it was early, I headed to Austin. I thought of spending the day with Jenna and David after leaving Jordon’s. When I arrived, I knocked on his door.

I giggled as I imagined he would be surprised to see me and we could have an early romp in his bed. The door opened and I froze as the smile fell from my face. I tried to take in the scene as nausea overwhelmed me. Hanging on to the door for support, I whispered, “What are you doing here? Where is Jordan?”

“Jordan is in the shower,” said Celia. I took in her appearance. She had on one of Jordan’s T-shirts; clearly there was no other clothing under it.

Oh God. No. No. This can’t be true.

“Should I give him a message, or will you just stand there gaping?”

“No, I…I…. Oh, God.” I could not find words to formulate a coherent sentence as my thoughts were racing, taking in the rumpled looks of Celia in front of me. I was such a fool. I felt so stupid. Dumb, dumb, girl. Oh, God. I turned toward the elevator when I heard Jordan.

“What’s going on?” I heard him ask.

I pushed the elevator button willing it to open. Thankfully, it did and I stepped inside.

“What the fuck!” I heard Jordan yell as the elevator door swooshed closed.

I stumbled out of the building and ran to my car hoping that Jordan would not confront me. I don’t want to see him. Ever! With tears streaming down my face, I jumped in the car and headed to Jenna’s. I didn’t even call her. I just showed up at her front door sobbing, ringing the doorbell. I fell in her arms when she opened it.

Jenna could not make any sense of my blubbering and fractured sentences so I sobbed some more. She led me into the den then ran to the bedroom to get David.

I immediately told them that I did not want to see nor speak with Jordan. Not now. Not ever. I finally calmed down enough to tell them why I went to Jordan’s place and what I saw.

Knowing that David and Jordan were friends as well as business colleagues, I made David promise he would keep Jordan away from me if Jordan came to their home or called for information about me.

David was furious with Jordan. He said he never thought Jordan would do something like that. Much to my dismay, David headed out to see Jordan. I told him I didn’t want him to go but he insisted, saying that’s what a brother should do.

The rest of the day passed in a blur. I was totally devastated, wounded and embarrassed. Jenna called Mia and Veronica, who immediately drove to Jenna’s and surrounded me with love. They vowed to keep Jordan away from me since we expected he would try to see me and lie about his relationship with Celia.

When David came back home from meeting with Jordan, he said I should think about talking to Jordan when I feel like getting some answers. He said it was up to Jordan to tell me what happened but I did not want to listen to lies. I was too broken.

Sunday evening, Jenna said Jordan was parked in the driveway. David went out and spoke with him, but I begged them not to let Jordan come in while I was there. I don’t know how long he stayed in the driveway. I shut off my phone as well. I wanted to sever all contact from Jordan.

Monday afternoon I left Jenna’s and went back to my apartment. I also got a new phone and changed my phone number. For the first time since starting college, I missed a day of class. Clinicals were important and I knew I would need to make up the hours missed on another day or on a weekend, but I could not think that far. Just one hour at a time.

Mia and Veronica hung out with me in my bedroom as they helped me study for the upcoming exam and filled me in on the missed day of class. Jordan came to the apartment but they would not let him in. He finally left after sitting outside for a couple of hours.

The rest of the week passed in a blur and Jordan made more attempts to contact me, but I made up my mind that he cheated on me once and he would probably do it again. I just needed time to get over him.

Friday night the girls went to a study group but I stayed in my room with a made up excuse of a headache. It was not entirely a lie since I’d had a dull ache in my heart and my head for the past few days, but I just wanted to be by myself. I was lying on my bed with a textbook, but must have fallen asleep.

I came to a start as someone was squeezing the life out of me. I tried to pull away but there was a death grip on my arms when I realized it was Jordan.

I yelled at him to leave, but he said he would not until I listened to him. Somehow I got to my phone and threatened to call 911 if he did not leave, but he refused to go and I refused to listen. We were yelling back and forth at each other and were getting nowhere, so I did call 911.

Jordan got arrested that night, but he did not care nor did he stop his harassing behavior, so I filed a restraining order against him. We went back and forth for another week before he would back off from trying to speak to me.

By the end of my semester in May, I was overwhelmed and exhausted. I was not quite sure how I passed all my exams, but Mia and Veronica helped cram information in my head until I thought it would explode. I could hardly retain any more information.

Thankfully, Jordan stayed away.

That summer I did not go to Austin to see Jenna and David and I did not work my summer Job. Veronica invited me to visit her family in Monterrey, Mexico. It was just what I needed. Her family lived in the suburbs of Monterrey where the mountains meet the sky or stayed shrouded in clouds.

I basked in the warm sun and enjoyed great food. Her family was very friendly and accommodating. Some of her cousins even tried to teach me a few sentences in Spanish.

We stayed there for a month then headed back to Houston. My family and friends were concerned about me, but they honored my one request that we would not speak of Jordan.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The fall semester of my junior year in college, Veronica told me that Jordan moved his headquarters to Europe and would not be in Austin very often.

As the months and years went on, I built a wall around my heart about Jordan. I avoided reading sections of the newspapers he would be in and avoided listening to gossip about his latest love conquest. It was not easy to forget him. As a matter of fact, he made it impossible for me to do so.

Despite not wanting to see or hear from him, Jordan continued to send me flowers and gifts. He never missed an occasion in my life, and much to my chagrin, most of the gifts were expensive. It felt too wasteful throwing them away, so I kept them hidden, most of them unopened, in a box. Gifts were sent for my graduation from college and when I started the nursing agency, along with birthdays. Every Christmas was yet another reminder of Jordan.

Try as I might, I could not get away from him. He always knew where to find me and have his gifts delivered. There was never a return address and most of the gifts were left in my living room or in my office.

I could have made a huge fuss about his invasion of my privacy, but that would lead to me contacting him, so I accepted that he was going to forever feel guilty, and his unopened gifts were to ease his conscience.

Chapter 13

Present Day

Now that I’d relived the memories between Jordan and me, I realized that there is a chance, a possibility, that I may still have feelings for him. That thought scared the hell out of me. Ten years was a long time and I’ve changed. I was no longer the 20-year-old naive girl, but an accomplished business woman.

I’d kept the opposite sex far and away from my body and my heart. Although I have several male friends, they were just that, friends. I did try dating a few times during the past 10 years, but they soon lost interest due to my reluctance to engage in sexual intimacy with them and they moved on. Except for Robert, who was not crossing the line of intimacy any time soon with me, which is why I was in such a comfortable relationship with him.