A sudden question arising from Jordan, however, had her eyes snapping open and bringing her emerald orbs into view. “Wanna play twenty questions?” he had asked.
“Really?” Emerald asked, staring up at him with her eyebrows raised. He reciprocated with a small nod and a little smile which mirrored the feelings of uncertainty that swirled torturously in his guts.
“Yeah?” he muttered unsurely, warily eyeing Emerald’s expression. “If you want to.”
“Of course, I do.”
“Alright, then.” Jordan pulled Emerald’s body closer to his, adjusting her so she could lie in-between his legs with her back to his chest and the thick duvet cast over their half naked bodies.
A blush creeped up on Emerald’s face when Jordan’s hands went down her torso, coming together to wrap around her waist, his palms resting on her lower belly and only inches away from her genitals, which were by the way, very exposed from her lack of underwear or pants.
But before she could fully turn the colour of a beetroot, Jordan spoke, successfully drawing her attention. “So do you want to go first or should I?”
From his completely oblivious or innocent tone, Emerald couldn’t help but think that maybe it was just an unconscious act, that maybe he really wasn’t aware of how close his hands were to her core – even as he proceeded to spread his palms flat against her lower stomach, his fingers inching even closer to her area.
Biting her lower lip, Emerald tipped her head back to look behind at Jordan. A smile, seemingly sinless, was already stretched across his lips when she turned to face him and when he caught her gaze, he raised his eyebrows – an act that made him appear even more innocent.
“Well?” he prompted.
Slightly confused and with furrowed eyebrows, Emerald looked away from him, making up her mind that she had probably read too much into his clearly mindless act.
She responded. “You go first.”
“Okay. . .” he trailed off, falling into silence for a moment as he seemed to think of his question or perhaps, he was stalling because when the question finally escaped his lips, Emerald couldn’t stop the surge of surprise that washed through her.
“Who was your first kiss?” he had asked, appearing to want to go straight to the point this time.
Once again, Emerald looked at him, quirking a questioning brow. “Are you sure you want to know?” she asked him, noticing the slight tick in his jaw at her question.
He took a moment to reply, clearing his throat before doing so. “Yes, I am.”
Emerald narrowed her eyes at him. “You asked the question so you cannot get jealous, okay?” she asked again, to which Jordan responded with a stiff nod.
“It was Logan,” she let her answer slip, rolling her eyes when Jordan’s hold around her waist tightened. ‘Jealous much?’ But other than that primitive reaction of his, he made no sound whatsoever and Emerald rewarded him with a kiss on his jaw.
“But I assure you, it was as good as nothing compared to our first kiss,” she mumbled, flushing pink as she tried to reassure him whilst also speaking nothing but the truth. Their first kiss together had been out of this universe.
Immediately, her words had its intended effect when Jordan’s grim expression eased into a wide smile as he stared down at Emerald. Leaning towards her, he moulded her lips with his in a momentary, passionate, inverted interlock before pulling away.
“What about you?” Emerald asked. “Who was your first kiss?”
“You,” Jordan answered, making Emerald’s head snap up to him immediately – it was only by pure luck that she didn’t get a whiplash.
Her eyes were wide and lips parted as she stared at him with a tinge of disbelief mixed with confusion. In the next second, she frowned before lightly hitting Jordan on the arm. “Stop joking,” she reprimanded.
Quirking an eyebrow, Jordan gave her forehead a thump, earning a glare from her as she rubbed on the spot. “Who says I’m joking?” he asked, pulling her hand off her forehead and replacing it with his lips.
He peppered kisses on the spot as Emerald assessed his words, letting it sink in. Starting to feel a slight ache in her neck due to her head being positioned to look at Jordan in an upside-down fashion, Emerald turned her body completely to face him, a completely serious look in her eyes as she straddled him.
“Are you being serious?” she inquired again, looking into his eyes.
Releasing a sigh, Jordan nodded before wrapping his arms around her shoulders and pulling her body flush against him. “I am. You were my first kiss,” he muttered, his chest vibrating against Emerald’s ear as the words flew out of his mouth.
Gently raising her head, Emerald snuck a look at him to see that his chocolate eyes held a faraway look as they stared ahead. Worry raked through her when she saw his jaw clench almost unnoticeably and she began gliding her palms softly over his chest to calm him.
It seemed to work when he let out a breath before speaking again. “My childhood wasn’t a happy one and it continued up until my adolescent days, even going farther than that. Unlike other kids, I didn’t have the luxury of frolicking around and even as a teenager, I couldn’t do what normal teenagers did.
I couldn’t hang out with friends, I couldn’t attend high school parties and I couldn’t even date, not to mention kissing. Believe it or not, I was the nerdy type back then. With my current reputation, I would seem to have upheld the bad boy or the notorious kid’s title back in high school but I was rather withdrawn from everyone else.
I had no friends, just classmates, well until Keelan’s annoying ass managed to sneak through my walls somehow,” Emerald smiled at the fond tone and little chuckle that escaped Jordan at the mention of his best friend.
“I was more into books and stuff. Your typical nerd, I just didn’t wear glasses until. . .” he trailed off, all amusement draining from his eyes as his body stiffened and his arms tightened around Emerald.
A small tick sounded from his jaw – an obvious evidence of how tight he had clenched it – and Emerald took it as her cue to talk, to distract him from his memories somehow, so she did.
“You and I are quite alike, then. After I moved from Australia and relocated to Boston with Mom, we had a bit of a trouble settling in after all we had been through. I was homeschooled for a while since I had to visit my therapist. Having to battle trauma, I couldn’t face the outside world; I didn’t want to.”
Jordan listened intently to her, hugging her even tighter when she exhaled a shaky breath. “I had to spend the entirety of my middle school days at home, alternating between my therapy sessions and my home lessons. It continued like that until I joined high school.” Jordan continued to rub up and down her back, giving her some sort of moral support.
“That was where I met Logan and God knows how darn hard he had to try before I gave him any bit of acknowledgement,” she gave a little chuckle. “I will forever be grateful to him and even if I could turn back time, I still would choose to have him and Oriana in my life over and over again.”
With her words, Jordan felt every ounce of ill intent he could’ve had towards Logan fade into nothingness. The teensy feeling of jealousy still lingered in him but his heart of gratitude outweighed such feelings; he was extremely grateful to Logan, and Oriana, for being there for his Gem.
Emerald snuck a look at Jordan when he made no move to disturb the silence surrounding them. “I’m so sorry I interrupted you or anything. I didn’t-”
“It’s fine, Gem,” he cut her off, lifting his hand to brush back wild strands of her hair behind her ear. “Whose turn is it?”
“Well, since you didn’t particularly ask me anything earlier, I guess it’s your turn to ask,” she stared into his eyes, giving him a little smile, to which he also gave one of his.
Although she tried to hide it, Jordan could see that she was uncomfortable. He had felt her tense up against him when she had said that it was his turn to ask her a question. Maybe it would ease her if they threaded lightly for a bit.
So instead of asking her the question that had been on the forefront of his mind since she had blurted out the fact that she had been raped as a child, he decided to ask, “What’s your favorite color?”
Emerald blinked, surprised at the spontaneous question as well as the sudden change of topic, however, she smiled, her eyes oozing appreciation as her body subconsciously sagged in relief.
“Hmm,” she hummed, playfully tapping her chin as she mulled over the question. “I am beginning to lighten up a bit – according to Ori – but I still love my monochromes, so to your question, I love the colours white, black and dark red.”
Jordan pouted, showing his dissatisfaction with her answer. “What?” she asked, seeing his expression.
“I was hoping you would say chocolate brown. You know, since a particular man you love,” he stressed, “has those beautiful, colored set of eyes.”
Emerald rolled her eyes with a chuckle. “I love that colour on you, but I don’t know if I would like to see chocolate brown on anything else other than maybe, chocolate?” Jordan grumbled, earning a laughter from her before she leaned forward to place a soft kiss on his lips.
“Fine, fine. My new favourite colour is chocolate brown and I’d love to see it on everything and anything,” she coaxed, drawing a satisfied grin from Jordan. “Now what’s your favourite colour?”
“Emerald green,” he answered without hesitation and once again, Emerald rolled her eyes and laughed at his ridiculously smug expression.
“As expected.”