Elizabeth Finn - Restoring Jordan

She shakes her head slowly. “No, you don’t.” A small, nervous laugh that is anything but amused passes her lips.

“Yeah … I really do, Addy. Really, really do.” My throat is tight with my restrained tears. Hers are not so restrained. She’s crying, and finally nodding, and she looks mildly insane … but beautiful. Convinced.

I grab her and pull her tight to me before she can stop me, and I kiss her. Her tears touch my cheeks as I claim her mouth, and when I pull from her, the same nervous laugh melts my heart. She’s as nervous as I am, but she’s happy. I hold her some more as her tears continue to fall, and after I’ve clutched her body enough to know she won’t disappear if I let her go, I pull from her and run my hand down her tear-streaked cheek. She smiles an emotionally exhausted but content smile, and relief and absolute elation course through me.

“Umm. My dad kind of wants to cut your penis off … just so you know.” She’s grimacing when she says it, and while he may not technically cut my penis off, he most likely does want to.

“Hmm. Well, he’s going to have to get over that if he ever wants grandchildren.” Now her nervous laugh catches in her throat on a loud gasp, and she’s nodding her teary face again. She likes those words … and so do I. “Would he feel better if I married you?” Still nodding away her agreement.

“Is that what you want?” She wants my reassurance. This is a piece of cake.

“Oh, yeah.”

He loves me. When he said the words, I was shocked. I’ve waited, wanted, and prayed for them, but I was still shocked. They’re simple words, really, but they were so damn hard to grasp at that moment. When I imagined him speaking these words, it was never in this way, in this place. It wasn’t what I had in mind, but whatever is? It was perfect. More perfect than any scenario or scene I’ve played out in my fantasies.

The remainder of the week before my graduation was spent with Jordan and my parents. Jordan slept in one bedroom and I in another. He respected their home and didn’t lay more than the occasional secret hand on my skin. It was torture. Complete and utter torture. My father indeed wanted to kill him, but oddly after a walk they took together where Jordan explained what it was he did to put me back in the good graces of my school, my father warmed to him. I’m sure I’m getting the watered-down version of the story, and when I ask, my father looks at him knowingly, and with an unrestrained look of admiration … even if he still wants to cut his penis off.

Jordan received a call Thursday night from a client he’s worked with in the past. Foster referred him and let the man know Jordan was now out on his own and would be the best restorative architect in the field. Jordan will now be headed back to Chicago early Saturday morning, and midafternoon Friday, after my parents leave to run errands, I finally get my hands on him.

“Adeline, I think your father might let me keep my cock if I can keep it out of you until I marry you.” He’s smiling, but there is definitely some truth to his words. When my hands find their way to his rigid shaft, he gives in, but not without one final request. “At least not in their house. Okay?”

We end up on the lawn by the tire swing. It’s hidden from the road, not that many people pass our way, by the thick lilac bushes that tinge the air with their sweet, recognizable scent. And on a blanket, he makes love to me. His eyes don’t leave mine as he watches the effect his penetration has on me, and as he sets a gentle and slow pace I push up to meet his thrusts as he bears down on me. When he rolls me to cover his body, he bites his lip and groans as I sink over his length, taking all of him within my body. We come together, and as he sits to face me and pulls my legs to wrap around him, I give him the same words he finally gave to me; it’s the promise we both need from each other. “I love you, Jordan.”

“I love you too, Adeline.” And he does.

***

The contract signed for Ellinwood Restorations’ very first client, I set in to do some research. It’s Saturday, and I won’t see Adeline until her graduation tomorrow. For some odd reason, I’m suddenly very intent on real estate. My first order of business: buying an apartment building. A fourplex to be exact. It’s a great old place in a good location that has been ill cared for. I know it well. I made love to the most amazing woman I’ve ever met under its roof, and I did terribly inappropriate things with a pestle to her sweet little body while I was there as well. She took her first taste of me during my time there, and I may well have fallen in love with her in that place.

I have no idea if I actually want to be a landlord, but with Adeline moving in with me after graduation, I can’t stand the idea of losing her place completely. It holds too many sweet memories of my sweet Adeline. It’s not for sale, but I’m guessing, given the state of the place, the owner won’t be so attached to the property he’s not willing to sell for a price.

By Sunday afternoon, I’m sitting with Adeline’s parents, her mother separating me from her father, who still occasionally leers at me vindictively. Adeline looks stunning in her cap and gown, and there isn’t even a moment’s hesitation—though I’m sure he still trills with fury on some level—when Dr. Lynch shakes her hand after the dean has handed her the diploma. Her mother cries, her father clears his throat as he fights back his emotion, and I follow his lead, trying to stifle my tears. But I’m not nearly so good at this feat as I’d like to be, and as Adeline’s mother passes me a tissue, I take it while her father eyes me curiously.

After her ceremony, there are hugs aplenty, and when it’s my turn I don’t hesitate to pull her into my arms. Her parents watch, and I take a risk when I kiss her gently on the lips. Her mother smiles, and her father studies me. She’s the love of my life—without any doubt in the world, and he’ll figure it out soon enough.

Before Adeline entered my life, I was content. My life was shallow, empty, and meaningless, and sadly, I was happy that way. It’s odd how you can be happy in your life, only to look back later and realize just how much was missing. When you are poor, you learn to be content with what little you have. I’ve never had love, so I learned to be content without it. She held the mirror and forced me to take a good look at myself. She forced me to see what was missing, and it was her.

After taking her parents to dinner that night, Adeline and I return home, our home. She hands me an envelope and asks me to open it. It’s a résumé.

Adeline Eloise Parker

Interior Designer

Experience

None whatsoever, unless you include making love to a principal architect in the sample room … and in the property I was assigned to design … three times.

Education

BA from Columbia… Though I narrowly escaped being expelled and flunked for sleeping with aforementioned principal.

References

• Vera McBitch—Make no mistake, she loves me.

• Mark Lear—He definitely does not love me anymore.

She’s smirking, and I’m chuckling. I can imagine no better partner in the world—even if she has the worst résumé I’ve ever seen. She’s hired.

“Will you marry me?”

My parents are watching him, and I’m smiling the cheesiest grin I own. I can’t help it; it’s what I do when I’m happy beyond all measure. I’ve done more cheesy grinning over the past two months than ever before in my life. Our business is flourishing, and working with Jordan now is as wonderful as it was working with him at Foster’s. He challenges me and guides me, but only when needed and warranted. We are busy with two projects in progress and two more in the queue.

He’s managed to keep his penis, and my father no longer regards him with hatred. In fact, there are tears in his eyes at the moment, and my mother’s tears are unrestrained entirely. Jordan is holding my grandmother’s wedding ring out to me. It’s old, no diamonds, just a simple silver woven band of filigree in some unknown pattern. It’s not likely worth more than its weight in silver, but it’s what I want; it’s what I hoped for, and while he could afford far more than this, he knows its importance to me. It’s my family, it’s our history, and some day very soon it will be his family too. He deserves that—a family. I will share mine, and with one another, likely sooner rather than later if he has his way, we will build our own family together.

The End

Elizabeth Finn is an Iowa native, where she lives with her husband and son. By day, Elizabeth is a Human Resources Specialist, but by night, she checks her professionalism at the door and immerses herself in the world of writing erotic romance. Look for more to come from Elizabeth Finn.