XLIV
“Spill, J! Spill it!”
“Drop it, Carol!”
With flaming red cheeks and neck, Emerald sat completely still on the couch as she shied away from the arguing duo buzzing around the house. Carol had been teasing both Jordan and Emerald to no end after she and Keelan had walked in on their heated session and although, Jordan tried to hide behind his faux anger, from the looks of his red ears, one could tell that he was also inwardly dying from embarrassment.
“Oh, come on, J. It's not as big of an issue as you're making it seem. I just asked if you two already had se—”
“I dare you to complete that sentence of yours, Carolyn,” Jordan gritted out in annoyance as he stood in front of the huge LED television, steps away from his sister. He had been trying to get rid of her for hours now, but she was too much of a persistent pest to let go.
“Fine,” she relented with an eye roll, much to Jordan's relief but that didn't last long as she suddenly spun around to meet Emerald, whose eyes immediately went wide at the shift of attention towards her. “Then, I'll just have to ask Emerald for the juicy details,” she mused with a mischievous smirk.
Emerald subconsciously shrunk back into her seat, trying to pull the skimpy robe to cover up more of her exposed skin. She was acutely aware of the eyes of the other man that had accompanied Carol and the siblings have been too busy bickering to introduce him to her.
“Enough!” Jordan's irate voice thundered round the entire house — if not the whole neighborhood — before he made his way to Emerald's timid figure, grabbing a couch cushion on his way and ruthlessly flinging it at Keelan, whose shameless eyes hadn't left Emerald's profile since he and Carol had arrived.
He picked up Emerald from the couch, holding her up in his arms bridal style as he stood, his stance stiff and defensive. “I won't have you bothering her, Carol,” he glared at her before moving his gaze to Keelan, who had a sheepish expression on his face with his palms held up in surrender. “And I will not,” he emphasised, “tolerate you staring so shamelessly at my woman, Mars.”
If looks could kill, Keelan's disemboweled ruins would have been dining with the devil by now. With one last murderous glare thrown their way, Jordan walked out of the living room and up the stairs, only stopping when he had arrived at his bedroom.
With a little sigh, he gently placed Emerald on his bed before crouching down on one knee in front of her. Holding her palms in his hands, he watched her blank, wide eyed expression with a worried look. Her eyes remained glued to the wall behind Jordan.
“Gem?” he called out, giving her hands a gentle tug to gain her attention. When he was successful in doing so, he asked softly, “are you okay?” while rubbing soothing patterns on the back of her hands.
Emerald looked down at their adjoined hands for a moment before looking up at Jordan again, her movements were stiff and seemingly robotic. She blinked once. Twice. Before suddenly bursting into laughter, shocking Jordan to no end.
She laughed so much, so loud, so hysterical, that all Jordan could do was stare wide eyed; he appeared to be transfixed by her odd behavior. He let her laugh for long minutes before her laughter slowly died down into occasional giggles.
Wiping away the streaks of tears that had trailed down her face from her uncontrolled laughter, Emerald let out a little groan before falling back on the bed, still trying to control her giggles whilst letting out frequent groans. She unclasped one of her hands from Jordan's grip to rub her aching belly. She had indeed laughed too much.
After taking a moment to recover, Emerald suddenly tilted her head to look at Jordan from her position on the huge, cool bed. Noticing his bewildered expression, Emerald passed him a bright smile before tugging his hand, in which he still held firmly onto hers.
Jordan climbed onto the bed — interlocking their fingers together in the process — and laid hovering over her, holding their interlocked hands over her head, all the while still with the bewildered look on his face.
“Hey,” Emerald whispered with a soft chuckle directed at his expression.
Jordan blinked repeatedly before coming back to reality. “What was that?” he whispered back, staring her in the eyes.
“Sorry for the sudden guffaw,” she giggled, her smaragd eyes shining with mirth, “I must have come off as insane.”
“Well. . .” Jordan teased with his eyebrows raised. He let out a chuckle when Emerald pouted and hit him with her thigh since she was unable to use her hands.
“Meanie,” she sulked childishly, her lips puckered ever so adorably yet quite seductively.
Jordan groaned, feeling his pants strain in reaction to the sight of her perfect Cupid's bow-shaped lips, coupled with the warmth her body seemed to cocoon him in; it was undoubtedly welcoming and soothing, almost like her body called out to me, not wanting him to detach from her.
Jordan's ears suddenly turned pink when he remembered that she was naked underneath the sleazy robe she wore. She was perhaps wearing panties but after what had happened earlier in the kitchen, he was a hundred percent sure she wasn't wearing any bras.
That discovery made his not-so-little, little man twitch in anticipation, but Jordan knew she wasn't ready yet; they both weren't ready yet and he didn't want her to feel obligated to doing anything. So with great effort, Jordan pushed his overwhelming desire for her out of his mind.
Emerald blushed, suddenly aware of their proximity. He was still half naked and with no shirt on and with their current position, she could feel all of him and by all, she could also feel his growing bulge against her lower stomach area. Biting her lower lip to stifle any sound that threatened to rip through her, Emerald lowered her eyes and subconsciously, they landed on his full, luscious lips.
She turned beetroot red, immediately moving her eyes away from the sight of his lips and towards his strong neck, unable to look into his desire-filled eyes. He was tensed as he hovered over her and his entire body appeared stiff. Emerald could feel his hands, which were holding hers, shaking ever so slightly and she appreciated the amount of restraint he was putting himself through, just for her.
Emerald wasn't ready. She wasn't ready for what she knew he wanted, but that didn't stop her from wanting it as much as he did. They needed to know more about each other. She wanted to know more of him — his pasts, what made him happy, what made him tick — and she wanted him to know more of her as well.
Emerald wanted to bare herself completely to him, but she was afraid of the consequences. She was afraid of what his reaction would be if he found out about her ugly secrets. Would he begin to look at her differently? Would he call her disgusting? Worse, would he ever want to have anything to do with someone as broken as her?
Emerald's thoughts terrified her and she wanted a distraction, she needed one, but with the violently crackling sexual tension between them at the moment, Emerald knew she couldn't kiss him to distract herself like she did earlier. She was already aware of how much he was holding himself back for her; she didn't want to make it worse by seemingly indulging him, so instead, Emerald let her eyes wander from his neck and down his tatted arms.
Both of his entire arms — from his knuckles and wrists to his shoulders — were covered in tattoos but his torso didn't appear to have any — or so she thought. Sighting a smidgen of black ink somewhere below his left breast, Emerald squinted her eyes so she could see better.
There was a tattoo on his torso after all, but unlike the rest of his markings which were all drawings, this particular tattoo was different. It was in writing, maybe a name, but Emerald couldn't see it clearly due to their position with Jordan on top of her, holding her hands and restraining her movements.
She looked up at him to find him still staring at her but the desire he had been battling with was nowhere to be seen again and Emerald could feel that he wasn't tensed anymore. His chocolate orbs were blank as they stared at her and Emerald could only regard his expression with one of confusion before realization struck her.
He had seen her looking at his chest tattoo, but why did it seem to affect him so much?
“May I?” Emerald whispered softly, making a gesture at the inked writing. She wondered why she hadn't taken notice of it while taking care of him months ago when he had been shot.
Jordan hesitated for a few seconds before slowly lifting himself off her. He sat on the edge of the bed before carefully pulling her into a sitting position close to him.
Emerald only stared at him, not making any moves as she conversed with him with her eyes, putatively seeking permission from him. She didn't want to make him uncomfortable by prying, since it seemed like whatever was written there was a touchy subject for him.
With a tiny smile, Jordan gave a nod as he held her hand and brought it to his chest, just on the inked writing. Emerald slowly dragged her eyes away from Jordan's before looking at the little yet assumably, important marking.
Her fingers tenderly glided over the area, her touch almost non-existent as she took in what was written there. It was a name drawn in a little butterfly.
‘Yvonne,’ it read.
Jordan stared at Emerald's concentrated face, watching as she tentatively ran her fingers over the name. Truthfully, when he had placed Emerald's hand over his chest, he had expected to feel the usual pain he always felt whenever he touched or looked at the tattoo.
It was an emotional pain that made his heart throb and ache physically and the pain only seemed to grow to fill his entire chest and consume him the more he approached the date of her death — which unfortunately happened to be the day of his seventeenth birthday. The same pain had struck him the day before, when Emerald had asked him when his birthday was.
The birthdays of most humans in this world was always a day of joy and happiness, but his own birthday was the total opposite. His own birthday was the day his life took such a drastic turn. A turn that led him towards hell and made him the devil he was today, but it was probably also the day that weaved his fate with Emerald's.
When Emerald had touched it, however, he had felt immense relief, instead of pain and it had seemed as though a huge burden had been lifted off his chest. She filled his entire lungs and soul with breaths of fresh air and he felt like he could breathe well once again.
His heart thudded erratically in his chest, but no longer from the pains of his past, yet rather from the immense love he had for the woman entirely focused on the marking on his chest. Jordan grinned — besides himself — loving the slight look of jealousy that appeared momentarily on her face. Her lips were slightly formed in a pout and she suddenly withdrew her hand, almost as if she had just come to a conclusion about something.
She blinked and looked up at him, trying to mask her obvious jealousy but failing so woefully. Jordan kept his amusement at bay, preparing himself for the very predictable question that was about to come.
He didn't have to wait for long.
“Who is she?” Even her voice was coated in the jealousy she felt, but she wasn't done yet. “A past lover?” she stared Jordan in the eyes, daring him to lie or look away from her.
Jordan pursed his lips, struggling to hold in his impending laughter. Her expression was classic. But Emerald seemed to take his silence the wrong way.
She looked away from him and grumbled, “fine, you don't have to tell me about her. I just thought that since we're now a cou—” she gave him a side glance before correcting herself, “since we're now dating, you'd be more open to me, but seems like I was wrong.”
Jordan noticed her slip up but now wasn't the time to address their relationship status. He panicked a bit when he saw her make a move to leave the bed and he hurriedly held on to her wrist before blurting out the answer to her question.
“My mother. That was my mother's name.” Returning to the topic of his mother, Jordan sobered up a bit to notice Emerald's frozen body and wide-eyed expression. His amusement returned mildly when his eyes moved to her slightly parted lips.
She suddenly gasped, snapping out of her trance. “I'm so sorry, Jordan. I-I shouldn't have coerced you into blurting that out. Ugh, I'm so stupid,” she ranted, hitting herself on the head.
“Hey, hey,” Jordan chuckled, grabbing her hands and stopping her from hitting herself. Her entire face was clouded by remorse as she looked at him. “Gem, you didn't coerce me into saying anything. I was the one teasing you and honestly, I enjoyed seeing you look so jealous,” he smirked at her, passing her a wink.
Emerald blinked repeatedly before looking away, her cheeks were already turning pink. “J-jealous?” she stuttered with a scoff. “You must have been hallucinating. I wasn't jealous.”
“Mhmm,” Jordan hummed, moving closer to kiss her cheeks, “let's say I believe you,” he teased.
Emerald gave him a light hit on his arm before looking at the tattoo of his mother's name again. “She had a beautiful name,” she murmured, passing Jordan a weary look.
A tiny smile graced his face as he looked down at his chest. “Yeah, she did. A name as beautiful as she was.”
Emerald sighed before moving back on the bed to rest her back against the headboard. Jordan silently watched her adjust herself so she could settle in a comfortable position before gesturing for him to come closer.
Jordan obliged and a few seconds later, he found himself with his head resting on her full bosoms, her arms were wrapped around him but not fully going round his broad body. He wrapped his own arms around her in return and snuggled against her, reveling in the warmth she provided, alongside her soothing and hypnotic scent.
She kept one arm around him while the other ventured into his hair, giving him a head massage. In complete bliss, Jordan's eyes fell shut and they remained in silence before he heard Emerald's small voice mutter, “mind telling me about her?”
