Falling Hard

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  www.ylva-publishing.com

  Other Books by Jae

  Standalone Romances:

  Heart Trouble

  Under a Falling Star

  Something in the Wine

  Shaken to the Core

  The Hollywood Series:

  Departure from the Script

  Damage Control

  Just Physical

  Portland Police Bureau Series:

  Conflict of Interest

  Next of Kin

  The Vampire Diet Series:

  Good Enough to Eat

  The Oregon Series:

  Backwards to Oregon

  Beyond the Trail

  Hidden Truths

  The Shape-Shifter Series:

  Second Nature

  Natural Family Disasters

  Manhattan Moon

  True Nature

  Acknowledgments

  It’s hard to believe, but this is the fifteenth novel I have published. You’d think that would make the writing process a breeze, right? Well, some aspects of it have become easier, but I still occasionally struggle with plot problems.

  When that happens, my wonderful team of beta readers is there to offer feedback and encouragement.

  A heartfelt thank-you to Melanie, Tricia, Erin, Danielle, Anne-France, Christiane, Alisha, Louisa, Colleen, Helen, Nattalie, and RJ Nolan.

  Thanks also to Michelle Aguilar, my editor, and to all the people at Ylva Publishing who work hard every day to make our books the best they can possibly be.

  Chapter 1

  A warm arm startled Jordan awake when it wrapped around her from behind like a boa constrictor suffocating its prey. Grunting, she opened her eyes.

  Bright morning light illuminated a bedroom that wasn’t hers and fell onto a string of clothes leading from the door to the bed. The gleaming red numbers of an alarm clock next to her read 8:11 a.m.

  Damn. She needed to get going if she wanted to make it home to feed Tuna before heading to the airport to pick up Simone. She pushed back the covers and tried to slip from the bed, but the woman behind her had other ideas and wouldn’t let go.

  Jordan glanced over her shoulder.

  The redhead from last night was snuggled up to her, still asleep, a smile on her face.

  Jordan grinned. She loved putting that blissful expression on women’s faces. Carefully, she lifted the arm from around her hip and snuck out of bed. Picking up her clothes led her to the door, but leaving without a word wasn’t her style. Colleen was still sleeping as she tiptoed past the bed to the bathroom. Guess I wore her out.

  A shower would have to wait until she made it home. She slipped into yesterday’s clothes. Since she didn’t want to root through Colleen’s bathroom cabinet to see if she had a spare toothbrush, she just squeezed a dollop of toothpaste onto her finger and rubbed it over her teeth.

  Just as she was rinsing her mouth, the door opened and Colleen entered, wearing not a stitch of clothing. “Good morning,” she said, her voice still raspy from sleep.

  “Morning. I hope you don’t mind that I helped myself to some of your toothpaste.”

  “I don’t mind at all. I could even offer you my shower…” Colleen stepped closer and wrapped her arms around Jordan, pressing her naked body against her. “And some company.”

  A shiver went through Jordan. She let out a groan. “I hate saying no to a beautiful woman, but I can’t. I have to pick up a friend from the airport, so I really have to go.”

  Sighing, Colleen withdrew her arms. “Will you call me?”

  It would have been easy to just say yes so she could leave without a long discussion, but she never made false promises. She’d already made it perfectly clear last night that she wasn’t looking for anything beyond hot, casual sex. But it seemed Colleen needed a reminder of the rules. “Listen, Colleen. I really wouldn’t mind a repeat performance, but like I told you last night, I don’t do relationships.”

  Colleen folded her arms across her bare chest as if Jordan hadn’t seen every inch of her already. “Never ever? Not even when you meet a woman you really click with?”

  Was that what she thought was going on between the two of them? Yeah, they had steamed up the bedroom, but beyond that, Jordan couldn’t see herself with Colleen—or with any other woman—for the rest of the month, much less the rest of her life.

  “Never ever,” she said firmly. With a playful grin, she added, “I’m too gorgeous and too good in bed to tie myself to just one woman and deny the rest of the female population the pleasure of my company.”

  Colleen shook her head. “God, you’re unbelievable.”

  “That’s what you said last night,” Jordan quipped.

  A light slap hit her in the arm, but then Colleen laughed, and the frown on her face smoothed out.

  Jordan smiled. She went back into the bedroom and put on her ankle-high leather shoes before straightening. “It doesn’t have anything to do with you, really. You’re beautiful and funny and smart.” As far as she could tell, at least. They hadn’t exactly spent a lot of time discussing politics, science, or literature—or anything else for that matter. She looked deeply into Colleen’s eyes, not wanting to leave her with a bad feeling about the entire experience. “Any woman would be lucky to date you.”

  “But not you,” Colleen said.

  “Not me. It’s just the way I am. A commitment is the one thing I can’t promise, but for everything else, you can call me any time.” She pressed her card into Colleen’s hand.

  Colleen read it and wolf-whistled. “You’re a surgeon? I should have known.”

  Jordan grinned and waggled her fingers. “What can I say? We’re good with our hands.”

  They walked to the front door, and Colleen kissed her with a heat that told Jordan that she would call. With a spring in her step, she strode toward her Mercedes coupe.

  In the dense rush hour traffic on the 101 Freeway, it took her more than an hour to make it from Colleen’s posh condo in West Hollywood to her quiet neighborhood in South Pasadena.

  Finally, she steered the coupe along the tree-lined cul-de-sac on which she lived.

  A large, white moving van was parked at an angle in front of her duplex. It was blocking the driveway, its rear door open and the ramp extended in the direction of the house. Two movers in blue overalls were currently carrying a sofa toward the unit on the right.

  After having the house to herself for a couple of weeks, she was apparently getting new neighbors.

  She eased the convertible to a stop at the curb, grateful that there was plenty of street parking available, and climbed out.

  Her neighbor Barbara was in the front yard, removing dead branches from her azalea bushes. When she saw Jordan, she grabbed her cane and walked over. “Good morning. Looks like your carefree bachelorette days are over.” She nodded at the moving van.

  “Nah.” She’d just have to be a little more careful about entertaining her “lady friends,” as Barbara called them, in the fenced-in backyard she shared with the people in the other half of the duplex. Making out in the hammock required too many acrobatics anyway. “Who knows? Maybe the new neighbor is a single woman and a total babe.”

  Barbara swatted her as if she were a misbehaving child. “Maybe it’s an eighty-year-old geezer who’ll want you to take a look at his bad hip and keep you up at night because he’s snoring loud enough for you to hear through the common wall.”

  “I’ll set him up with you, then.” Jordan plucked a leaf from her friend’s silver hair.

&n
bsp; Something thumped inside the van, and they both turned toward it, waiting for the new neighbor to emerge from the vehicle.

  The first thing Jordan saw was a floor lamp, then a worn sneaker. As its owner walked down the moving van’s ramp, Jordan’s gaze traveled up a gorgeous pair of legs. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the new neighbor’s shapely hips, and if she kept Jordan up at night, it wouldn’t be because of her snoring.

  Her jeans were worn to a soft-looking pale blue and molded to her curvy body. God, she loved a woman in jeans, especially if the woman in question had such a perfect butt.

  The stranger entered her part of the house and reappeared a minute later, probably to get another piece of furniture out of the moving van. Now Jordan was able to catch a glimpse of her face too. Wow. Her new neighbor looked as fine from the front as from the back.

  Her quiet neighborhood had just gotten a whole lot more interesting.

  Jordan admired the easy way she moved, graceful but without any pretenses. “I think I’ll go over and introduce myself.”

  Barbara shook her head at her. “You’re unbelievable.”

  It wasn’t even ten o’clock in the morning, and she’d already heard it twice today. That had to be a record, even for her. “What?” she asked as Barb continued to give her a disapproving look.

  “What about Simone?”

  “Simone? What about her? We’re just friends. Besides, I’m just being neighborly.”

  “Mmhm. That wasn’t what people called it back in my day.” Despite her protests, Barbara followed her up the driveway, carrying her cane more than actually using it.

  Jordan lightly gripped her elbow and helped her circle around a two-wheeled dolly and a stack of moving boxes that were piled up next to the van, waiting to be transported inside.

  When the new neighbor saw them, she paused halfway up the ramp, which brought her chest even with Jordan’s eye level. It was hard not to stare at so much God-given perfection, but she managed to keep her gaze on the woman’s face. Not a hardship either, really.

  She didn’t look like one of the models or actresses Jordan often had on her arm and in her bed. The light dusting of freckles across her nose put her into the cute instead of the beautiful category. By Hollywood standards, she could probably stand to lose a few pounds. She wasn’t wearing any makeup, and her blonde hair was pulled back into a slightly messy ponytail, but she was still a very attractive woman—if you went for the girl-next-door look.

  Jordan didn’t. At least not usually. But something about her new neighbor made it hard to stop staring at her.

  Barbara elbowed her in the ribs.

  “Good morning,” Jordan said belatedly.

  “Hi,” the blonde answered. “I hope we’re not disturbing the entire neighborhood with all the noise we’re making.”

  We, Jordan mentally repeated. Was there a boyfriend or a husband and maybe a gaggle of kids, or was she talking about the two movers helping her? Other than the two men in blue overalls, Jordan couldn’t see anyone.

  The woman stepped down from the ramp to let the movers unload another piece of furniture.

  Compared to Jordan’s five-foot-eleven frame, she was petite.

  Barbara nudged her again, making her realize she was still staring.

  “Oh no, don’t worry about it, dear,” Barbara said.

  Jordan looked back up into the woman’s eyes. Now up close, she could make out their color. They were a light green, with copper flecks circling the pupils. With a smile, she offered her hand. “I don’t mind noise at all,” she said. “I’m Jordan Williams, your better half.”

  A cute wrinkle formed on the woman’s forehead. “Excuse me?”

  “I live in the other half of the duplex,” Jordan said, pointing at the unit to the left. The duplex had been designed like two individual homes that sat side by side, sharing just one common wall.

  “Oh.” The new neighbor chuckled, took off the work gloves she wore, and reached for the offered hand. “I’m Emma Larson.”

  Emma. Jordan had always liked that name. She shook her hand, surprised at the firm grip, and used the moment to check out Emma’s fingers. No wedding band or other rings on either hand, and she kept her nails short. That earned her a tick on Jordan’s is-she-or-isn’t-she-a-lesbian checklist. “Beautiful name for a beautiful woman,” she said with a soft smile.

  Emma let go of Jordan’s hand and tilted her head in a way that made it appear as if she were looking down at her, even though she was several inches shorter. “Do lines like that actually work for you?”

  For a moment, Jordan was taken aback. Few women called her on her flirting within seconds of meeting her. But she always enjoyed a challenge. “That’s not a line,” she said with an unwavering smile. “It’s a fact.”

  “Ignore her.” Barbara nudged her aside and shook Emma’s hand. “I’m Barbara Mosley. Welcome to the neighborhood. I’m sure you’ll like it here.”

  “Thank you. I know I will.”

  “So, what brings you to the area?” Jordan asked. Relocating for work or to be with a boyfriend…or a girlfriend? She didn’t ask the last part out loud, sensing that she needed to tone it down a little. Apparently, her new neighbor wasn’t in the mood for flirting with a woman this early in the morning…or at all.

  “What makes you think I’m not from around here?” Emma asked. A grin crept onto her face, making the copper sparks in her eyes dance with mischief. “Did my decidedly un-Californian tan give me away?” She glanced down at her skin that was as white as Barbara’s beloved Iceberg roses and looked as soft as the petals.

  Jordan laughed. “No, actually, it was the truck.” She pointed at the side of the moving van, which advertised the services of a moving company in Portland, Oregon.

  “Ah,” Emma said.

  She didn’t answer Jordan’s initial question about what had brought her to South Pasadena. Well, maybe she didn’t like revealing too much about herself. Jordan could respect that. Besides, the mystique only added to her neighbor’s attractiveness.

  “Let us know if you need anything.” Barbara pointed at her house. “I live right next door.”

  “Yeah. We’d be happy to help you feel at home here. I know all the best places in town, and I don’t mind playing tour guide,” Jordan added. Mentally, she reviewed tomorrow’s operating schedule. “In fact, if you’re an early riser, I could introduce you to the best coffee shop in town tomorrow morning.”

  “No, thanks,” Emma said. “I’ll be up to my neck in moving boxes all day tomorrow, so I won’t have time for coffee.”

  The no had come so quickly it was as if she hadn’t been tempted for even a second. I must be losing my edge. “Maybe another time, then.”

  Emma gave a noncommittal nod. “Maybe. If you’ll excuse me, I have to show them where that goes.” She hurried after the movers, who were lugging a chest of drawers toward the house.

  Jordan’s gaze followed her until Barbara’s chuckle interrupted her enjoyment of her neighbor’s perfect butt. She turned toward her. “What’s so funny?”

  “You getting rejected. That’s a first.”

  “Nah,” Jordan said. “It’s happened before. For some inexplicable reason, there are a few misguided women who are immune to my charm.”

  Barbara patted her arm. “They don’t know what they’re missing.”

  “That’s what I tell them.”

  They grinned at each other.

  “I know it’s not the same, but do you want to come over and have that cup of coffee with me?” Barbara asked.

  Jordan took her hand and squeezed it. Her husband had died nearly three years ago, and her children didn’t live in the area, so Barbara sometimes got lonely. Not that she’d ever admit it, but Jordan sensed it, so she made a point of dropping by regularly for a cup of coffee or to help her in the garden. “Normally, I’d
love to, but I’m already running late. I’m supposed to pick up Simone from the airport.”

  “Oh, she’s back in town?”

  “Yeah, just for a few days. She’s got a client in LA who wants to expand, so she’s here to take a look at his product line.”

  “Tell her to come over and say hi. She’s such a nice girl. I really don’t understand why you don’t date her.”

  Jordan shook her head. “Like I keep telling you, neither of us is in the market for a relationship. We’re just friends.” Friends with occasional benefits, but she didn’t add that, knowing Barb might not understand.

  “Friends who I caught making out like a couple of teenagers in that sports car of yours the last time she visited.”

  Oops. “You saw that?”

  “I see everything, young lady.” Barbara stomped her cane onto the driveway. “So why aren’t you two together?”

  “That’s… It’s just not what we want. We…”

  A loud meow interrupted her. Her calico, Tuna, stood at the other end of the driveway, giving her a demanding look.

  Saved by the cat. “Sorry, Barb. I have to go. My mistress is calling. Do you need help getting back over to your house?”

  Barbara snorted. “I’m seventy-four, not ninety-four. I can walk the few steps to my house just fine.” Then her expression softened. “But thanks for asking, dear. Now go and take care of the many females in your life.” Again stubbornly carrying the cane instead of using it, she marched back to her house.

  Jordan watched her for a moment and then glanced over at the other side of the duplex, hoping for another glimpse of the new neighbor.

  Another demanding cry made her tear her gaze away.

  “Hold your horses. I’m coming.” She hurried up the driveway. “Jeez, if I wanted to get chewed out for not coming home until the morning, I would have gotten a girlfriend!”

  Chapter 2

  Moving really wasn’t for sissies. Emma’s back was already aching from lugging around the heavy moving boxes, and she was glad she had arranged a babysitter for Molly ahead of time via Vettedsitters.com.