Sunsets and Seduction
Mine Until Morning
Samantha Hunter
Just for the Night
Tawny Weber
Kept in the Dark
Heather MacAllister

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Mine Until Morning Samantha Hunter

About the Author

SAMANTHA HUNTER lives in Syracuse, New York, where she writes full-time. When she’s not plotting her next story, Sam likes to work in her garden, quilt, cook, read and spend time with her husband and their dogs. Most days you can find Sam chatting on the Blaze® boards at eHarlequin.com, or you can check out what’s new, enter contests or drop her a note at her website, www.samanthahunter.com.

Dear Reader,

Summer is here, my favourite season, and I am thrilled to be part of this collection with Tawny Weber and Heather McAllister. In Mine Until Morning, Jonas and Tessa spend a stormy night in a Philadelphia blackout. Blackouts have a way of bringing people closer, and Jonas and Tessa become very close during their adventure.

Jonas is also suffering his own personal blackout due to his recent blindness, but being in a blackout levels the playing field as he helps Tessa cross the city of Philadelphia in order to help a friend. Jonas also has three gorgeous brothers—all of whom will have their own stories, so keep an eye out for my BERRINGER BODYGUARD books.

Animals are a huge part of my life and often appear in my books, and Mine Until Morning is no exception. I hope you enjoy meeting Irish, the feline partner at the Berringer Bodyguard Agency! To find out more about him, be sure to check out Blazeauthors.com, and learn all about our new Pet Project!

Happy summer,

Samantha Hunter

Thanks to Julie Dutt, for help in understanding

scent, soap-making, how to set up Tessa’s soap

shop, and for the great soaps she makes to go

with my books. Check her out on

Twitter: @latherati.

Many thanks to Diana Holquist and Madeline

Walsh for help with Philadelphia specifics.

Particularly thanks to Diana for info about the

Fletcher St. Urban Riding Club that matches

inner city youth with rescue horses, inspiring

the appearance of one of Philly’s Urban

Cowboys in the book.

Many thanks to Eileen at SEPTA Customer

Service in Philadelphia, for quick, friendly

responses about SEPTA Blackout/Emergency

policies and city route information.

And to Mike, much love and thanks for

everything, as always.

1

1:00 p.m. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

JONAS BERRINGER FLIPPED the Closed sign on the door of the soap shop, Au Naturel. For the ten hours that the shop was open, all he could think about was being alone with the owner, Tessa Rose.

It was a swelteringly hot Philadelphia evening, which was the norm lately. Though it was cool in the storefront, the air-conditioning making it cool where he stood. Plain wood shelves were artfully stacked with every color and scent of soap and lotion he could imagine. Small baskets of samples, lip balms and various other trinkets and testers were placed strategically where customers would find them.

It was classy, elegant and yet still somehow warm and inviting, much like Tessa herself. Aromas of what he now recognized as jasmine, sandalwood, orange and vanilla, among others, filtered through his senses.

The back room wasn’t air-conditioned, and a blast of heat hit him as he walked into the small foundry, the workroom where Tessa made her products.

It was a little bigger than the actual store and twice as pungent. He’d gotten used to it though, and it didn’t seem overwhelming anymore.

Several tubs and two stoves took up almost all of one wall, and there were shelves of wood soap molds and various containers, amber vials and tools there, as well. On the other side of the room, shelves of curing soaps lined a wall next to a refrigerated unit where more perishable supplies were kept. There was a table for cutting and wrapping next to the desk where Tessa did her accounting.

“Jonas,” she said, her pretty blue-grey eyes warming as she looked up before he announced his presence. He knew that she’d been waiting for him, too. They’d been dancing around this, around each other, for several weeks. Now, it was finally going to happen.

He closed the distance between them, oblivious to the slippery coating of lotions and oils slathered on her hands; she’d been working. He didn’t care about the mess as he pulled her up against him.

“Jonas!” she exclaimed with a laugh before he covered her mouth with his in a hot kiss that left no guessing as to how hungry he was for her. He walked her back until she was pinned between him and the table behind her. She moaned, pressing tight against him, returning his passion kiss for kiss.

Jonas buried his face in her neck. “You like driving me crazy, don’t you?” he accused playfully, nipping her earlobe.

Tessa had always been hands off. The boss’s daughter. A woman way out of his league. But being around her 24/7 for the past weeks had pushed his control to the limit, and now all bets were off.

She sighed against his cheek as he nibbled at the soft lines of her throat, and then pulled away.

“I’ve been trying my hardest. I thought you’d never give in,” she said with a sexy smile. “You and that iron control of yours.”

“You have too many clothes on,” he said gruffly.

Continuing to smile at him in that minxlike way she had, she wiped her hands on a nearby cloth and slid the smock from her shoulders that she always wore while making her soaps and lotions.

Underneath, there was a simple yellow sundress with a halter top tied around her very graceful neck. When she reached up to hang the smock on a hook by the worktable, he could see her delectable shape outlined underneath.

He wanted to touch and kiss every inch of her.

“I’ll be right back. I need to lock up,” she said, sliding him a glance, still playing. Tempting him. Making him wait.

“I already did. We’re alone. Come here,” he said.

“You’re so demanding,” she murmured, returning to his arms.

“Desperate for you is more like it,” he whispered against her lips.

“I like the sound of that,” she purred. “And I feel the same way.”

“I can’t get you out of my head,” he confessed, his arms sliding around her.

His hands shook with the effort to slow down, reminding himself that Tessa was a woman to be cherished. A woman he cherished.

He gasped when she nipped at his lower lip with her teeth, apparently rejecting his gentle approach.

“Don’t hold back, Jonas,” she said in clear invitation, linking her arms around his neck.

He swallowed hard, sliding his hands up over her slim arms and shoulders, tugging at the halter tie. Her eyes became smoky, her nipples hardening under the thin fabric.

“I’ll give you whatever you want,” he promised, and he meant it. “Whatever you need.”

“Just you,” she said, sending his pulse racing.

He pushed the dress down until her pretty breasts were bared to his view. His eyes moved over her as if unable to completely absorb how gorgeous she was. Taking a peach-toned nipple between his fingers, he pinched gently, then soothed and pinched again, watching her head fall back, cherry lips parting, the pulse in her throat pounding.

She tugged both his hands up to her breasts and covered them with her own, squeezing. She was so openly sexual, it mesmerized him.

“More, Jonas,” she said, making his cock jerk in response.

Gentleness was forgotten in the wake of desire that took him over. Her apartment was right upstairs, her bed just seconds away, but that was too far, too long to wait. He’d take her here, as he had been fantasizing about for days.

Tugging the rest of her dress away, he pulled her up against him for a deep, hard kiss that made them both breathless, his hands everywhere. Over her shoulder, he perused the shelf of oils and ingredients, breaking the kiss to reach back for a bottle of sweet almond oil.

Dropping a light kiss to her neck as he poured the rich-smelling oil in his hands, and smoothed the slippery-soft substance over her skin. He started with her slim shoulders, strong from the work she did, but still so delicately shaped. Then he worked his hands down over the slope of her back and hips. She leaned back into him with a sigh when he slid around to her front, where he spent long minutes massaging her breasts until her head dropped forward and a small moan delivered from her throat.

She was like a piece of sensual art, a perfectly sculpted woman come to life under his hands.

“Jonas, this all feels good, but I need more,” she said, pulling away as she turned to face him. She stood before him in nothing but slight, yellow satin panties, her skin gleaming where he’d worked the oil over her. “You have no idea how much I want you,” she said, looping her thumbs into the scrap of material and sliding it off until there was nothing between them.

“I think I have some idea,” he whispered, taking off his own jeans and shirt. She walked into his arms and they were skin to skin, finally. The satisfaction of it was mind-boggling.

He ran his hands reverently over her thighs, the rounded globes of her ass, the curve of her hips. His erection jutted against her, eager and needy.

“I want you, Tessa,” he said, his breath catching as he kissed her.

“Then take me,” she invited with a sultry gaze.

He reached for an open jar of honey she had forgotten to put away and dripped golden dollops on her breasts then licked them off. As he finished, she was shuddering and straining toward him, her nails digging into his arms.

His hand slid under her knee to pull her leg up around his hip, his cock brushing against the silky, wet flesh he wanted to bury himself in.

“Jonas, please,” she begged. “Now.”

“Not yet … let’s make it last,” he said. As much as he wanted her, something bothered him. There was something about the light in the room that didn’t seem right. He looked around, making sure they were alone.

A lingering sense of dread held him off for a few more seconds.

What was wrong?

Nothing.

Tessa moved against him, oblivious to any problem.

But it was his job to protect her. That was why he was there in the first place, her hired bodyguard. There had been some threats against Senator Rose and his family, and Jonas had been more than willing to keep an eye on Tessa. In fact, he’d found it difficut to take his eyes off of her.

He glanced around the foundry once more. Nothing was out of place. He was imagining things, and turned his attention back to the woman in his arms.

Words evaporated for long, steamy moments as Jonas gripped her hips, lifting her up completely against him so that he could plunder her mouth as he thrust forward, planting himself deep inside her welcoming body. She was hot, tight, and they fit perfectly, as he knew they would.

She pulled back, watching him as he thrust into her. He could tell when she bit her lip, her eyelids fluttering shut, long lashes brushing her cheeks, that she was close.

He found a steady rhythm and tried to focus on every nuance of her as he held her. Small sounds came from her throat that were sexier than hell, her mouth forming a perfect O as she trembled and started to careen over the edge.

He bent to suckle a breast, flicking his tongue against her hardened nipple. That small touch pushed her over. A soft scream fell from her lips, her body tensing and pulsing around him as she came.

Jonas wanted to join her, but he needed more, thrusting faster, harder, focusing on the heat of her body, how soft her skin was under his hands. Her inner muscles fisted around him tightening and releasing again as she writhed in his arms, and he moved faster.

The satisfaction he’d craved was so close it was almost torture, but he couldn’t quite get there. His body burned as he drove himself into her, precariously hanging on the edge of the orgasm of his life.

Tessa leaned back in his arms, watching him curiously, her expression serene, happy and satisfied, but somehow distant.

“My father is not going to be very happy about this,” she said, sliding her hands up over her ripe breasts, smiling at him. The room around her became hazy and unreal in a way that made him squint.

Then she became transparent, too, the tight heat of her body fading.

“No, wait, please,” he cried out, reaching for her.

The golden light around her was fading. The acute emptiness, the ache of satisfaction denied made him gasp in agony, chilled now, shivering.

He was alone. Only darkness remained.

JONAS SHUDDERED WITH cold as his eyes opened, unseeing, but awake nonetheless. He was sweating and the AC was blasting directly on him. As he rolled to the side, he swore as his foot tangled in a sheet and nearly sent him sprawling on the floor.

He was still hard from the dream, and even the cold blast from the AC didn’t seem to diminish the ache between his legs. His body jerked as he remembered Tessa’s imaginary touch. The emptiness that always followed the dream was an ache in his chest.

Providing his own release wasn’t an attractive option. It wasn’t an orgasm he craved; it was Tessa.

He had to get her out of his mind or he was going to go crazy. He supposed it was his punishment, a special little kind of hell, for letting himself get distracted from his job. He’d been assigned to protect her, not have sex with her.

He should have turned around and walked out the first time he entered the shop. When he saw her, it was like being set on fire. Jonas had had plenty of women in his life, but none that made him want at first sight. Not like Tessa.

Senator Rose was responsible for sending Berringer Security several contracts, particularly after Jonas’s younger brother had successfully prevented a kidnapping attempt on the senator a few years earlier.

James Rose had even become a friend of sorts. When he’d asked them to guard his daughter after receiving threats concerning a bill he was authoring, they couldn’t refuse. The senator had trusted Jonas to keep his daughter safe, and he’d done a rotten job of it. Not one of Jonas’s better moments.

Jonas did the usual background checks, and he knew about Tessa’s reputation going in. The senator’s “wild child,” Tessa was a free spirit, nonconformist. She was also heart-stoppingly beautiful and completely off-limits.

Father and daughter had a tumultuous relationship, to say the least. From what Jonas had seen at a distance, Tessa looked like one more spoiled rich girl who liked to rub her father’s nose in her exploits. He’d known plenty of that particular type over the years.

Tessa had made several questionable choices in relationships, among other things, that seemed more about thwarting her father’s control than anything else.

However, Jonas discovered that the view up close was somewhat different. For one thing, Tessa wasn’t a girl anymore, but a mature woman who ran a successful business. As he got to know her, he couldn’t help but see her in a different light, though he knew her relationship with her father was still troubled.

Getting in between the senator and his daughter was dangerous. Jonas had to pick one side or the other, and he chose the side that paid the bills. Besides, he knew too well how that kind of slip could come back and bite you in the ass.

Guarding Tessa had been a little more intense than his usual assignments. They’d been around each other 24/7 for several weeks, almost constantly together. He didn’t let her out of his sight, day or night, as per the senator’s orders. It made it harder to control the heat that had flared between them.

Tessa wasn’t big on control, and she tempted his from every angle she could. One night, when they’d returned from a party, he’d given in, right in the parking lot behind the store.

He’d watched her all evening, dancing with friends in a dress that had been molded to her, what there was of it, anyway. A few of the friends she’d danced with had been male, and it made Jonas want to claim her as his in a very basic way.

Ridiculous, but true.

Her sharing even an innocent dance with another man had driven him crazy, and by the time they’d returned home, he couldn’t hold back any longer.

He was so distracted that he hadn’t noticed someone watching them from a dark corner of the lot.

The guy had approached from behind while he had her in his arms. A hard slam to the head had knocked him out. Tessa had fought back and, admirably, had taken out the intruder with a bat she kept in the back seat of her car.

Jonas had awakened at the hospital later, completely blind.

The senator’s aide, Howie, was the first voice he heard after the doctors told him about his condition; apparently Rose wasn’t available.

From what Howie said, it was clear Tessa had told them that Jonas had screwed up big time. He was off the job. Worse, she’d made it sound as if he had been pursuing her, and that he had seduced her that evening, instead of keeping his eye on the target.

She’d clearly used him to piss her father off for sending a bodyguard in the first place. He’d known she wasn’t happy about the idea—the senator had warned him—and she hung him out to dry. He should have seen it coming. That he’d fallen for her added insult to injury.

Jonas had never liked Howie Stanton, but Howie was a Washington insider and had been with the senator for years. Jonas had noticed on more than one occasion when the senator had come to Tessa’s shop how Howie’s eyes followed Tessa. His expensive suit and high-profile position didn’t make him any less of a lowlife.

But Howie had made the senator’s wishes clear to Jonas: stay away from Tessa, or there would be consequences. Jonas could hear in his tone that the aide relished delivering the news.

Jonas did as the senator requested.

He hadn’t seen or talked to Tessa for a month since the attack, and he didn’t plan to. He’d played the fool once, and it wasn’t worth the risk to Berringer Security’s reputation. The senator could do them a lot of damage if he wanted to.

Feeling for the edge of his bed stand, from which he knew it was about seven steps to the window, Jonas found the AC unit. After a brief struggle with the curtain and the controls, he managed to turn it down to low.

After getting a cup of cold water from the kitchen, he found his way back to the bed. Traffic was busy down on the street, people going about their normal lives. The apartments on his floor were quiet, everyone gone to work.

He picked up the basic clock that one of his brothers had bought him and removed the glass cover so that he could feel the hand positions.

One o’clock in the afternoon. He’d always been an early riser, but now he slept whenever he could and woke at odd hours.

His brothers, Garrett, Ely and Chance, were running the business without him until his sight came back. Doctors said his sight would return, but it hadn’t.

What if it didn’t? What if they were wrong? The chill that ran over him had nothing to do with the AC.

The hard hit to the back of his head had left him with a concussion and severe bruising to his optic nerve, causing temporary but complete blindness. The duration of “temporary” was unknown. Doctors had no idea when his vision would return. He’d seen four specialists, all offering the same fuzzy explanations of the mysteries of the brain.

Be patient, they’d said.

He shook his head, running a hand through hair that he’d let grow too long. It bugged him, especially in the heat, but he didn’t feel like hearing the questions and sympathetic comments from his barber or anyone else. So he’d holed up here, mostly, waiting for life to return to normal.

Jonas reached to the left, groping to find his cell phone, and he held it in his hand. Thankfully, his was an older model with a hard keyboard that he could still use, though he sometimes hit the wrong button.

He still had the number for Tessa’s shop on speed dial, number two, second only to the office, and he ran his thumb over the button, as if tempting himself. He should erase it, but couldn’t quite do it.

Cursing, he put the phone down and found his way to the shower. As much as he wanted Tessa, he’d get over it eventually. His blindness made things worse, blowing his attraction to her all out of proportion. He was frustrated and bored. When he had his sight back, he’d be able to move on, get his own life back.

Maybe the hit on the head had kept him from making an even bigger mistake. At least the attack had happened before they were both naked, out in the open for anyone to see.

No sooner had he turned on the water when he heard a knock on the front door—soft, but he could still hear it. He’d always had sharp senses, even before he was blind. You didn’t survive in his line of work without them.

Still, there was a noticeable uptick in his perception that would have been kind of cool if it weren’t at the expense of his vision.

“Keep your pants on, I’m getting there,” he said as the knock sounded again, harder this time. He wrapped a towel around his waist and shut the water off. It had to be one of his brothers, come by to pull him out of bed, no doubt. He had another doctor’s appointment that afternoon. It galled him not being able to go anywhere on his own and that he required help for everything.

It had to be Garrett, who had been fussing around him like a mother hen since the attack. Jonas made his way to the door, opening it and turning to walk back into the room.

“I know, I slept late, but the appointment isn’t for another hour. Give me a chance to clean up, then we can go,” he said.

“Jonas?”

He stopped in his tracks, frozen. He wasn’t dreaming now. He didn’t think so, at least.

“Tessa?” he said, his voice choked and not sounding like his at all. He turned toward her voice, knowing this was real as the familiar scents of honey and almond filled the room. His heart slammed in his chest.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“WELL, THAT KIND OF greeting sure makes a girl feel welcome,” Tessa Rose countered with no small bit of sarcasm, hoping to cover her nerves.

She took a deep breath, in part for courage, and in part because seeing Jonas for the first time since the night of the attack had knocked the breath right out of her.

He’d lost some weight, his dark hair grown out from military short to longish, brushing the tops of his shoulders. He was clad only in a very small white towel, slung low on his hips and slipping lower. She found herself licking her lips, and tried to push back the lust that always erupted when she looked into those dark eyes.

Something was off, though.

He’d looked right at her when he’d opened the door and then turned away, talking to her as if he had expected someone else. That told her the worst of it.

“You’re blind,” she whispered, her voice stolen by her surprise.

“Yeah.”

She saw the change in his body language, the way he tensed as he turned his face away from her, his jaw tight. He was wounded and embarrassed about it. Ashamed to be caught this way, exposed and vulnerable.

“I didn’t know.”

“Your dad didn’t tell you? Oh, right, I guess you pissed him off royally, so he’s probably not confiding in you these days.”

She drew back at the bitterness in his tone.

Tessa had resisted the notion of having a bodyguard at first. It was reflex for her to resist her father. He was a great politician, she knew, but a total control freak, and he liked to control her life more than he should. It was an understatement to say they hadn’t gotten along, and they still had their problems, though things had changed a bit since her mother had passed away two years before.

The senator manipulated everything to the benefit of his image, a necessity of his political career, he always claimed. Tessa had grown up resisting his control, and she’d be the first to admit that she hadn’t always done that in positive or productive ways. But then again, her father hadn’t always played fair, either.

As she got older, they had hammered out a truce of sorts, but mostly because she lived in Philadelphia where she ran her business—and her life—the way she wanted to, and he stayed in D.C. They got together on holidays, and it was enough.

When he said he was sending a bodyguard to her shop, they’d argued, but she’d relented when she sensed he was really concerned. He seemed to think this particular threat was very serious—and it had ended up that way.

She’d expected some stiff in a suit, but then Jonas had walked in the store, over six feet of muscle, brooding eyes and sensuality all wrapped in well-worn jeans and a bomber jacket.

Every bad-girl instinct she had surged to the fore.

The feeling she had when she was with him was like that zing of perfect chemistry that she always experienced when she made a new scent.

Scent was the most primal of the senses. Complementary scents attracted or enhanced a relationship, and the wrong scent repelled. It was the most basic principle of natural chemistry, the basis of most elements of survival. She and Jonas were a perfect combination, she could tell from the moment they locked eyes on each other.

Jonas obviously hadn’t agreed. He kept his distance, his treatment of her businesslike to the nth degree, but she saw the desire in his eyes when he thought she wasn’t looking.

That only upped the challenge. Tessa didn’t give up when she saw something she wanted. To that extent, she was very much like the senator. She wanted to make her bodyguard lose that rigid control. It proved to be more of a challenge than she thought, until that night in the parking lot.

She’d met her friends for a birthday celebration—not hers—and she’d worn the sexiest dress she owned. Jonas didn’t think she should go, but she told him that she was going, and if he wanted, he could tag along. In truth, she’d dressed for him. Danced for him. Tempted him in every way she knew how. And she’d almost given up—the man seemed to be oblivious—until they arrived home. He didn’t say a word the entire drive back, but then hauled her against him as she’d stepped out of the car and kissed her until she couldn’t breathe.

When she’d felt the hardness of his chest pressed against hers, she didn’t back away. He didn’t, either.

His wonderful hands had been sliding up underneath the sheer fabric of her gown, holding her backside against his hardness, his masculine scent surrounding and seducing her like a drug, when it had all gone wrong.

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” he’d whispered against her neck as she’d let her hands explore him the way she’d been dying to for weeks. He was a big man, in more ways than one, and her body craved him.

“Maybe that’s why it feels so good,” she’d replied, and she would remember the lust that had burned in his eyes until her dying day.

They were completely wrapped up in each other when the attacker hit Jonas from behind. He’d dropped from her arms to the pavement, leaving her to face her attacker, a political extremist who clearly was willing to cross the line to protest her father’s work. Tessa still could feel the icy fear of that moment, thinking Jonas had been killed and that she was next.

She’d gotten very, very lucky, remembering the bat she had in the back of her car from summer softball games with her friends. Adrenaline served her well in fighting the man off.

She figured at first, when there was no word from or about Jonas, that he was just laying low. Staying out of the limelight, since the story had been all over the news, at least insofar as her and her father were mentioned. The Berringers might not have existed, which is what she supposed made them effective.

From her experience, some protective details, she knew, were all about the flash. They wore Armani and soaked up the media attention that guarding famous or powerful people granted them.

Berringer wasn’t like that. They were serious security who put the client first. When she tried to find out about Jonas on the web, she’d found next to nothing; there were a few news articles from when he was on the police force, and the agency web page, which offered a minimum of information.

The Berringer brothers in the background, keeping their clients quietly safe.

It soon became clear that Jonas wasn’t just laying low. He didn’t want anything to do with her.

Her father was caught up in business on the Hill when the attack happened, and Tessa kept her distance from Howie, who was holding court in her father’s absence. Tessa didn’t ask Howie anything about Jonas, since she didn’t want to encourage her father’s aide. Howie had come on to her a few times, and she’d made it clear that she wasn’t interested, but the guy didn’t seem to understand the word no.

Jonas’s brothers wouldn’t tell her anything, either. She assumed that they all blamed her for distracting him and almost getting him killed. Rightfully so. She’d tracked him down now, intent on apologizing, but she hadn’t expected this.

“I’m so sorry, Jonas,” she said on a raw whisper as she dragged her attention back to the present.

He looked fierce as he closed the space between them. He might be blind, but Jonas honed in on her with no hesitation, his hands clamping hard over her shoulders.

“Stop it, Tessa. Sympathy is the last thing I want from you, or anyone.”

“What do you want, then?” she asked, her mind trying to grasp the new discovery.

“What I’d really like is for you to go, and don’t come back,” he said harshly.

She lifted hands to frame his face, and he flinched, but she didn’t draw back. No way was she leaving.

“What happened between us that night, Jonas, it—”

“Meant nothing,” he interrupted. “Why are you here? Haven’t you done enough?”

“What do you mean?” she asked, shocked by his tone. “I came here to apologize—”

“Come on, Tessa. Your father made it clear that you didn’t want a bodyguard in the first place. He said you could be … difficult. So, what? Was getting me into bed the easiest way to piss the senator off and get me pulled off the job? Or was it just for fun? Were you bored?”

“None of that is true,” she said, appalled.

“What happened that night shouldn’t have. I take full responsibility for that, but I won’t make the same mistake twice. You should go.”

His obviously low opinion of her hurt more than she imagined it would have. Did he hate himself that much for giving in to her? For wanting her?

“The way I remember it, you wanted me as much as I did you, Jonas.”

He paused a second too long before nodding shortly. “It was a momentary lapse. It happens sometimes when mostly naked women throw themselves at you,” he said unkindly.

“I see,” she said, stepping in and tracing her finger down his chest, feeling his heart slam under the hard wall of muscle, and her own heart thudding even harder. She was angry, hurt and intent on not being so easily dismissed.

He was perfect. His skin was deep brown from the summer sun, taut and warm with a sprinkling of dark hair that provided softness over the hard cords of muscle that flexed under her touch. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on him. Her fingers played over the sculpted muscles she had only fantasized about.

His hands grabbed at the air, seeking and then finding her wrists, holding her away. A pulse throbbed in the base of his throat. He wasn’t unaffected by her at all.

“Stop, Tessa. No more games.”

“No, Jonas,” she said softly, not fighting his hold, but leaning in as she lifted her mouth to take his unsuspecting lips in a warm kiss. “No more games.”

He resisted, standing rigid, his mouth firm and unmoving, until she sighed against him and licked at his lower lip. She inhaled deeply, loving the manly scent of sandalwood, soap and sweat. “You make me crazy. You know it’s true.”

He cursed against her lips. His hands tightened on her wrists, but then let go and his arms banded around her and pulled her in, his mouth opening to hers, taking control, plundering and ravishing her in a hard, punishing kiss.

Tessa gave herself up to him, let him take his fill as she took hers. They parted a few moments later, both breathless.

“Is this what you want, Tessa?” he asked when he pulled back, and she paused before responding.

He was hard, his arousal clear under the towel he wore. Not immune to her, not completely.

Or was it how he said, that any man would respond this way?

“Not like this,” she said, seeing none of the warmth or desire in his face that had been there before.

He shook his head in disgust. “You know the thing that really ticks me off? That you would come here, intent on getting whatever it is you want, with no regard for the consequences to others. You don’t care who gets hurt, do you, as long as you can stick it to your old man.”

“I never did that. My father respects you, or he wouldn’t have sent you to guard me. And he and I don’t have that kind of relationship anymore.”

“Right. As if you couldn’t wait to rub what happened that night in his face. I’m the hired muscle, after all, not the guy he’d want you to end up with. That he sent me must have been icing on the cake.”

“He has no say in the matter, but I didn’t—”

“If you came here for more, forget it. I’d rather you don’t use me as a way to make that point to him.”

“What’s between us has nothing to do with my father,” she said, frustrated.

“There is no us.”

“There could be.”

“Not gonna happen,” he insisted stubbornly.

Tessa stepped back, stinging at his rejection, but refusing to accept that there wasn’t anything between them.

“Well, in case you decide to change your mind, you know where I am. But I wouldn’t wait forever, Jonas.”

She walked out, and he didn’t say another word.

2

3:00 p.m.

THE NURSE IN his ophthalmologist’s office had bumped against Jonas four times while showing him down the hall to the office, and then again in the office itself. She sounded cute and smelled nice, like jasmine and vanilla. She was also stacked, from what he could tell when she leaned past him as she’d opened the door.

As the door opened and the doctor came in, she leaned close and pushed a piece of paper into his hand, whispering, “Call me. Let’s have a drink sometime. I can show you some tips for getting around without your sight.”

“I’ll bet you can,” he’d said with a chuckle, but in truth it left him completely cold. All he could think of was Tessa, and cursed her again for her earlier visit.

He didn’t even know how she’d gotten his address, but he supposed a senator’s daughter had good resources. It paid to know people in powerful places—until you pissed them off.

“Hey, Doc,” he said to Dr. Matt Sanders, his eye specialist, whom he’d known in the Philadelphia business community and their basketball league for some time, though never as a patient.

“Jonas,” Matt acknowledged from somewhere to the right and stepped in closer. “I hope you don’t intend on answering my nurse’s invitation,” he said lightly, lifting one of Jonas’s eyelids to look.

Jonas didn’t pull back anymore, having gotten used to the closeness, as well as the poking and prodding around his eyes.

“Do you see anything? Flickers, shadows, flashes?” Doc Sanders asked.

“Nope, nothing,” Jonas said, trying to keep his voice level. “Why shouldn’t I call her?”

Matt chuckled lightly. “She’s trying to make me jealous. That’s why she waited until I was in here to slip you that note. Probably nothing written on it.”

“I see. You two are—”

“Jury is still out,” Matt said.

“So how does it look?”

“I’ll probably ask her out, see how work mixes with pleasure. I don’t want to lose her as my nurse. She’s very good.”

“I meant my eyes,” Jonas said dryly. “No worries, Matt. About your nurse, I mean. I’m not interested in getting involved with anyone right now,” he said. “She’s all yours.”

“Gee, thanks,” the doctor replied, poking at Jonas some more, going back and forth between shuffling papers and checking his eyes.

“Any headaches? Nausea?”

“Nothing notable.”

“Okay, well, it’s looking much better. The swelling is almost completely gone, but it’s the bruising that’s probably causing the ongoing problem. That can take some time. If there’s no progress in a few weeks, we’ll run more tests, see what’s up.”

Jonas sat perfectly still, but his hands turned cold. Matt’s voice was so neutral, that particular doctor tone that tried not to upset patients, but just made you all the more paranoid. Not that it took much these days.

“Do you mean this could be permanent?”

“No. Really, Jon, if I thought there was a serious possibility of that, I’d tell you straight up,” Matt reassured, and Jonas breathed again when the doctor put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

Jonas wasn’t a particularly touchy-feely sort of guy. He and his brothers all had their ways of sharing physical contact—including fighting—and his family was probably more or less as affectionate as most. But since losing his sight, touch had taken on a completely new meaning. He welcomed it, and at some particularly dark moments, even craved it.

Matt continued, “The nervous system is delicate and unpredictable, and everyone takes their own time to heal. Your brain will let you know when it’s ready to let your eyes work again. Give it a few more weeks, and if you aren’t back to at least partial vision—and it’s very likely you will be—then we’ll figure it out, okay? Be patient. That guy nearly cracked your skull open. This could have been much, much worse.”

Jonas nodded, grabbing on to the “very likely” bit with both hands. He’d always considered himself a patient guy until recently. First Tessa and now his eyesight had proven differently.

“All right, Doc,” he said, standing and running his hand along the wall to the door. “I’ll wait and see.”

“You take care, Jonas. Let me know right away if there are any changes. Make another appointment for a check in two weeks on the way out.”

“Will do.” He found the knob and opened the door. “Doc?”

“Yes?”

“Your nurse. She’s getting impatient.”

“What makes you think that?”

He rubbed his fingers over the paper in his pocket. “There is writing on the paper. I can make out at least three numbers,” he said, handing the doctor the note and leaving Matt to think about that as he made his way out to where his brother Garrett waited for him in the lobby.

“What’s the verdict?” Garrett asked. Jonas could hear the worry riding under his casual tone as they made their way out to the car after Jonas made his follow-up appointment.

“Same. Everything looks fine. It just takes time. Hopefully things will start working again within a few weeks, or they’ll do more tests to see why not.”

“Damn. Well, we have to stay positive. Things could change at any moment.”

“Yeah, no reason to think otherwise, for now.” It was easier to say it than to believe it.

“Smart man.”

“Smarter than you,” Jonas joked, delivering a solid, friendly punch to his brother’s upper arm, nodding in satisfaction as he felt the solid muscle of Garrett’s tricep under his fist.

“Pretty good aim for a blind guy,” Garrett joked.

“Watch it or I’ll aim higher,” Jonas returned.

It was good to laugh about something. What other choice was there? Their family had seen their share of hard times, growing up on the lower end of lower working class, even though his parents had worked like dogs to provide their four boys with everything they needed. There were various crises along the way, always handled together with humor and love.

This was no different. His lack of vision made Jonas feel like an outsider, different, even with his own clan. People treated him differently, and he didn’t like it.

“So she just walked in?” Garrett asked out of the blue.

Garrett had shown up as Tessa was leaving, bumping into her as she left the building. Jonas had been raw and completely unable to discuss the visit at the time, so Garrett had let it go, let him calm down. He still didn’t want to discuss it as his brother led the way out to the car, but he knew Garrett wouldn’t let the matter drop.

“Let’s get some food. I missed breakfast and lunch,” Jonas said, and then blew out a breath before answering the question. “Yeah. She just walked in.”

“I knew I liked her,” Garrett said, and Jonas could hear the smile in his voice. It was a new experience, hearing smiles. “I know you liked her, too,” Garrett added, pulling away from the curb.

Jonas didn’t answer. His brother was a romantic.

Lust had very little to do with liking someone, in his view, but he had to admit, he had seen a lot to like about Tessa while he had worked with her for those few weeks. More than he had expected to. More than he was comfortable with.

She was dedicated to her business, much as he was to his. Her obvious caring for her customers and her friends was clear, and she did seem to truly love her father, in spite of their differences. She was extroverted, sexy and gregarious, but not the reckless, selfish woman he had envisioned. At least, that was what he’d thought until she’d proven him wrong.

There were a lot of reasons to keep a principal—the term they used for the person receiving their protection—at arm’s distance. Women in particular, even married women, had a tendency to fall for their bodyguards—a kind of transference, like falling for their doctors or therapists. Jonas never took the bait. Not before Tessa.

“You know what she did, Gar. She didn’t have to tell anyone what happened between us. It was my bad for falling for it in the first place.”

Garrett couldn’t argue that. Losing a client like the senator was a major blow.

“I think you should give her the benefit of the doubt. She came by the office a few times, looking for you, and I don’t know, Jon. She just didn’t hit me that way. There might be more going on.”

“How else to explain her father warning me off her?”

“I guess you have a point. But you were different when you were around her for those few weeks. I can’t put my finger on it, but I thought she might be good for you.”

“Frankly, after what you’ve been through, I’m surprised you have a romantic bone left in your body, Gar.”

Jonas heard his brother’s silence louder than any reply, and cursed under his breath at his blunder. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have gone there.”

“It’s okay. You’re right. Lainey and I had some wonderful years, and I lost her too soon. But what we had was great. You deserve that with someone. You’re too much on your own all the time.”

Rain was coming down a little harder than when they left, and Jonas remembered that some strong storms had been forcasted for later in the evening.

Jonas didn’t respond, but his brother’s words hit home.

They were different men, even if they were brothers. Garrett had lost his wife in a car accident while he was gone on a job, and it had nearly wrecked him. He’d bounced back, and from what Jonas could see, would be able to find happiness again someday. Jonas hoped he would. Garrett was made for family, being a husband, a father.

Jonas didn’t see that in his future, but he still put family first. The senator’s aide had made Rose’s threat clear—if he went near Tessa, there could be serious repercussions to the agency, to Jonas’s brothers and everything they had worked for. No way would Jonas risk that.

“You should come in the office today, listen up on some of the recent cases,” his brother offered, changing the subject.

“Maybe,” Jonas replied.

He’d like nothing better than to get to work, but he worried about being at the office too often. He figured it was better to keep his condition as hidden as possible. If clients discovered he had messed up or been seriously wounded on the job, it could compromise people’s confidence in the agency, in their ability to do their jobs.

The car stopped, and Jonas detected the rich aroma of cheese steak and onions from their favorite shop just west of Center City.

“This way,” Garrett directed, walking at his side. Jonas negotiated his way along with the cane, hating every minute of it, but he needed it to find his way through more obstacle-ridden environments like streets and crowded public places. As soon as they reached their table, he stashed it away.

“It’s just a cane, Jonas. A tool. People don’t even notice. Most blind people these days live very normal, active lives.”

“I’m not a blind person. This is temporary,” Jonas bit out, and then regretted his tone.

Garrett was right, but Jonas was edgy—an understatement of the emotional mess Tessa had left him in.

It had taken everything he had inside not to take her to bed right there and then. He was that hungry for her, and that fact generated even more self-disgust. How could he be so attracted to a woman who was obviously so manipulative? But if she hadn’t said no, he knew it would have happened.

It was just pent-up lust and frustration, or so he told himself.

His lack of vision certainly hadn’t seemed to put Tessa off any, he thought, remembering how passion and need had practically vibrated off her. Her scent was still on his skin. He didn’t know if she was faking that or not. The senator was out of the country, and maybe she’d decided to finish what they’d started when her father was out of play—something like eating cake and having it, too.

“Well, if not with Tessa, you still need to get out more,” Garrett continued. “You’re blind, not under quarantine. When was the last time you were even on a date?”

“Now, there’s the pot calling the kettle black,” Jonas accused.

“I’ve gone on a few dates, but my situation is different.”

Jonas frowned. “I don’t date. I have plenty of women I know who are available when I want one.”

“Classy.”

“Drop it, Garrett. Can we talk about cases, the weather, anything but this? You’re beginning to make me wish I’d gone deaf, too.”

Garrett laughed and acquiesced as their sandwiches arrived and they dug in. They were delicious as always, though Jonas was getting a little tired of sandwiches, in general. They’d been standard fare since he lost his sight, as he didn’t have to worry about using utensils to find the food on his plate, or embarrassing himself in front of others.

When his sight returned, he was heading for the first Italian restaurant he could get to for some pasta. Ideally, he would meet one of the women he called now and then to join him and kill two birds with one stone. If he could get back to his normal life, he knew his obsession with Tessa would fade.

“We’re supposed to be getting some wicked storms today. It’s already turning gray out there. The news said there were tornadoes down south, and it’s all moving this way,” Garrett commented.

“We could use the rain. Get rid of some of this heat,” Jonas said. He loved summer storms, the power and energy of them. “What are Ely and Chance up to?”

“They’re both in the field. Ely’s finishing up the bank job down in Norfolk, and Chance will be caught up in New York for a while. Ely should be back tonight, depending on how the storm affects his travel. I’ve just been minding the store.”

They always tried to have three in the field, with one in the office. They alternated home duty. They didn’t want a secretary, and Garrett did the books. The fewer additional people in the agency, the tighter the security, and that was what it was about.

Ely was the most serious of the bunch, the second youngest, a Marine and just returned from a lengthy tour in Afghanistan. He’d almost re-upped, but after recovering from a near-fatal injury caused by an IED, he’d decided to come back home.

Jonas had held his breath with the rest of his family for pretty much the entire time Ely was gone, and was never as relieved as when his little brother came home for good and joined their family venture.

Chance, aptly named, was their baby brother—and hated being called that with a vengeance. He was also the risk-taker of the family. If it could launch him over a cliff, speed him around a track or take him thousands of feet over the earth, Chance was up for it.

He was also a crack shot and a martial arts expert. Jonas always told him he was overcompensating for being youngest and two inches shorter, though at a solid six feet, it hardly made a difference. In so many ways, easygoing Chance was more deadly than all of them put together because he seemed to have no fear of anything.

“Another couple of jobs well done,” Jonas murmured, proud of his brothers and wishing he could have felt as happy about his own work recently.

The Norfolk job, in particular, was one that James Rose had recommended them for. A high-profile case at a federal bank, it was a nice feather in their cap.

Not only had Jonas crossed a line almost sleeping with Tessa, but if anything had happened to her, he’d never have been able to forgive himself.

He was quite sure the senator would never forgive him, and Jonas only hoped that in time, they could still do business together.

He and Garrett made their way back out on the street. The air was even thicker than before, the humidity near smothering, though a warm wind blew around them. He could hear thunder in the distance rolling closer as wet drops splashed on his face.

“So what now?” Jonas said.

“I have some paperwork stacked up at the office,” Garrett said, walking along.

Jonas was faced with the paralyzing anxiety he’d had every day since coming home from the hospital. When he couldn’t work, he didn’t know what to do with himself. He used weights, listened to books, listened to TV, which was maddening. There wasn’t much he could do at the office.

He didn’t like being at loose ends, useless to those around him. His thoughts and emotions tangled in the darkness that was his life at the moment as they got in the car and drove slowly down the city street. Heavy raindrops hit hard on the outside of his brother’s car as a heavy gust of wind shook them.

Garrett started to say something when a crack of thunder and lightning boomed around them, and Garrett hit the brakes hard.

“What happened?” Jonas asked as they stopped cold.

“Tree down,” Garrett said, sounding apprehensive. “Just split and blocked the street right in front of us. This is getting bad fast. The office is closer than your apartment, so let’s head that way and hunker down there.”

Jonas murmured agreement, his thoughts still on Tessa, though they shouldn’t be. The humid air made her scent rise from his skin, and he swore he could still taste her from the kiss they’d shared that morning. The electric energy in the air from a nearby lightning strike seemed to exacerbate the memory.

He turned on the radio, listening to the storm warnings, trying to forget her, though he suspected it was going to take a very long time for that to happen.

“I SWEAR, LYDIA, I had no idea. It was such a shock. How could they not tell me that he’s blind?” Tessa asked for the fourth time, pacing the hard tile floor of the foundry, her voice breaking with misery. “And it’s because of me. My father had to know. He could have told me.”

It was starting to rain harder, the drops falling more heavily from a blackening sky; even though it was only midday, it looked like evening. The weather approximated her mood.

Lydia Hamilton, who owned the tattoo shop Body, Inc. next door to Au Naturel, looked on in sympathy as Tessa paced.

“Your dad has been traveling, and you know how he is. It’s not your fault, Tessa. These guys take risks every day,” Lydia said in her usual frank fashion. “It’s part of the work they do. It is a shame though. He was hot.”

“He still is. He’s blind, not maimed or dead,” Tessa said, thanking the universe for that, at least.

It was part of why she always resisted the protection her father pushed on her. She could never stand to think someone died trying to protect her. What made her so special?

“Jonas was so … angry. He has some idea that I was using him to get back at my father.”

“Well, that was your M.O. once,” Lydia said, sliding her a knowing look.

“Yeah, back in my twenties. Not for a long time. Believe me, it didn’t take long to figure out the jerks I dated to annoy my father didn’t make me happy, either. I can’t figure out why Jonas would think that. We got to know each other quite a lot in those few weeks. I thought he was starting to like me.” More than like.

“Well, he’s lost his sight. It’s a trauma. People have strange reactions to things like that. Maybe he just had to strike out at someone, and you were there.”

“I guess. But he was pretty specific about why he was angry with me.”

Never had Tessa imagined the degree of Jonas’s injury from that night. She remembered feeling reassured when she’d heard his voice as he talked to the EMTs when they had loaded him into the ambulance. She’d wanted to go with him, but the police wanted to talk to her about the attack, and then her father had sent Howie to check in on her, and everything was chaos for the rest of the night, with the press and trying to get rid of Howie.

“Are you sure he’s angry with you? Maybe he’s just upset in general?”

“Furious might be a better word.”

“Well, maybe wait it out, see what happens. He might come around.”

“I guess I shouldn’t have pushed the issue by throwing myself at him. If he had a bad opinion of me to start with, that didn’t help. I was just so hurt. By how he kept saying there was nothing between us.”

“So you wanted to prove that there was.”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t know. From what I saw, the way he used to look at you, a fool could tell he was crazy for you,” Lydia said, picking up a lotion sample and rubbing it into her hands, then smiling as she sniffed.

“I like this,” she interjected. “Is it new?”

“Yes. I meant to tell you about it—it’s a combination of gardenia extracts and spices.”

“Nice.”

“Well, I put the ball in his court. I told him if he wants me, he knows where I am. I’ll be damned if I’ll beg or humiliate myself any further.”

“Under the right conditions, I might consider begging if a guy like Jonas was interested in me,” Lydia said mischievously.

“You’re a bad influence, you know that?” Tessa said, smiling at her friend.

Lydia smiled sympathetically, which accentuated the small crescent moon tattooed at the corner of her lips. “So I’ve heard. If he’s smart, he’ll show up at that door and apologize. If he doesn’t, it’s his loss. You have to be able to move on.”

“I know.” Tessa sighed. “I just never really felt with any other man what I felt with him.”

“Then you haven’t been with enough men, my friend.”

“Again, the bad-influence thing.”

“I have to get back to the store,” Lydia said, looking upward as thunder crashed louder outside, offering Tessa a warm smile before she walked to the door. “I do love storms. I know you don’t. If you need company, just text me. I’m closing down early.”

“Okay,” replied Tessa as two other people walked into the store.

She didn’t expect any business in weather like this, and the two women struggled to get their umbrellas folded and left their raincoats on hooks by the door.

“Welcome to Au Naturel, ladies. You are a couple of determined shoppers, to be out in this weather,” Tessa said with a professional smile, helping them set their soaked umbrellas by the front window to dry.

“We had no idea the weather was going to be this bad, but we had to stop here before heading home,” one explained, pushing a handful of thick, auburn curls away from her face, smiling.

“I’m getting married this weekend, and I need to buy some items for my honeymoon. You know, maybe some scents that will drive him a little crazy? A friend of mine was raving about your honey dust?”

Tessa smiled. Her organic honey dust—a body powder made of honey that made women’s skin very soft and that was also very delicious to lick off—was one of her top-selling products.

“I have several new varieties,” she said. “I’m sure I can find something that will work for both of you,” she promised.

She had been working on a line of scents that were specifically for erotic stimulation, but many scents had arousing side effects.

Sage for boosting libido and quelling anxiety. Lavender to create a sense of comfort and safety, perhaps for lovers who were having rough times. Orange for joy and heightened sensitivity, and sandalwood, her favorite, to incite an air of earthy creativity, encouraging lovers to experiment and enjoy each other.

She was so excited about the new idea. Sex and scent were so closely aligned, more so than people imagined, but there were a lot of myths about scents, as well.

For instance, according to some studies, a woman’s sensitivity to musk scents was almost one thousand times more sensitive than a man’s, being that much more arousing for women than for men, as previously thought. Hence, musk colognes for women didn’t make much sense, depending on your sexual orientation.

Stopping for a moment, she closed her eyes, inhaling and remembering Jonas’s scent. He didn’t wear cologne, but he used a sandalwood soap that she had given him, and he had grudgingly admitted to liking it. She liked it, too. A lot.

She’d worn some scents including cinnamon and lavender around Jonas, the first known to arouse men and increase erections, the second providing comfort and an inviting aura.

People thought that sex happened in the brain, but the brain only processed all the things brought to it by other reaches of the body, like the nose or the mouth. Or the hands, the lips … and all the other parts she would like to share with Jonas.

Jonas had a very strong nose, and a firm, sensual mouth. She loved his hands. How he had closed his long fingers around her wrists earlier, even though he had been trying to stop her, still made a delicious shiver run down her spine.

“Miss?”

Tessa blinked, her cheeks warming as she realized she had completely lost track of the moment, and the two women were standing, gazing at her curiously.

“Oh, so sorry. I was thinking about which scents would be best for a bride on her honeymoon. Tell me a little more about your husband-to-be, his likes and dislikes, and your relationship. We can go from there,” Tessa said, pushing thoughts and worries about Jonas to the back of her mind as she listened and focused on her work.

There was no point in torturing herself with thoughts of him—that was clear from how he’d walked away earlier, rebuffing her concern.

An hour passed, and before she knew it, she was hustling the two women back out the door to the cab she had called for them. It was normally still light outside, but the storm had made it like night. The winds were picking up, the rain coming down harder.

She flipped the sign to Closed and stared out at the wind-whipped rain, wrapping her arms around herself and holding on as a roll of thunder made a ripping sound that had her hugging tight.

She hated storms because when she was a kid, lightning had hit their house outside her bedroom and had started a small fire. It wasn’t a major incident, the fire was put out before it became serious, but all she could remember was being shaken from a sound sleep by the crash of noise and blinding light, being hustled from her bed and then the sirens. Although lightning had started the fire, it was the thunder that always bothered her more.

She wished it was Jonas’s arms she had around her, but that didn’t look as if it was going to happen. When he was around, she hadn’t feared anything. He made her feel safe. But he wasn’t here, and he wouldn’t be. She would be riding this one out alone.

The best solution was work, to keep busy. It was her usual solution to disappointment and heartache.

Maybe she could make some new scents—rosewood, jasmine and lavender for healing a broken heart. Though right now, as her mind rolled over all that had happened, she knew it would take a lot more than aromatherapy to make her feel better.

But it was a beginning.

3

5:00 p.m.

JONAS FOCUSED AS he ran his fingers along the edge of the window frame where he used duct tape to attach plastic sheeting to the edge. His entire right side was soaked from the rain coming in while he worked, and the wind kept pushing the plastic around, but he managed, proving to himself that he wasn’t entirely useless.

A few minutes after they had gotten back to their offices, Garrett went to help a friend whose house was having some serious flooding in her basement.

Jonas smiled to himself. Melissa, the friend in question, was a particularly pretty friend who had been making no bones about her interest in Garrett. Jonas wondered how serious the flooding problem was, or if Garrett was going to have a little fun during the storm.

Good for him, if so. His brother deserved some of that particular variety of fun.

Ever the responsible one, Garrett had insisted Jonas come along with him, but Jonas had made a point of wanting to stay at the office, telling Garrett to go. He said he wanted to listen to some of the most recent recordings of case files, and that he would call a taxi to get home. Garrett seemed happy about Jonas’s apparent interest in work, and had grudgingly agreed but said he would keep his cell phone on.

Jonas didn’t plan to interrupt him.

Jonas also wasn’t exactly alone in the big old Victorian in West Philly that housed their offices, as well as a few other businesses, along with one apartment on the top floor. He’d heard sounds on the other side of the wall and assumed the insurance office that resided there was open if he needed anyone. He also had Irish to keep him company, though the big old tomcat who had adopted them the year before wasn’t being much help. Irish was about six, they figured, and had some nicks and scars from his battles before he’d found his home. In that respect, he fit perfectly with the Berringers, who all had their own set of scars and histories.

Jonas knew Irish was really a lover more than a fighter, though. The big male cat had been caught soothing a sick kitten that lived next door, and wooing the pretty calico upstairs.

Right now, Jonas glanced down when he heard the cat’s inquiring noise.

“I’m fine, Irish. Just getting this window taped up, bud.”

As Jonas sat reviewing cases, a window at the back busted when a small branch had broken off a tree and fell through it.

Right now, Jonas was struggling to adjust the plastic sheeting to keep the rain out. He had asked Rhonda, the insurance company’s secretary, for help finding tape and plastic down in the basement all three businesses shared. She’d been on her way out, but offered to help, in the neighborly spirit of most Philadelphians.

Jonas had heard her saying something about “the kids being all right” on the phone when he had walked into the office, and told her to go, he was fine. Which he was. Mostly.

He’d cut himself once, a minor injury, and had a few bruises from getting up and down on a chair to reach the top of the window, but he’d gotten the job done. He took an odd amount of satisfaction from that fact. It was good to do something, to be competent in spite of his blindness.

When his phone rang, he frowned. He hated not being able to see the caller ID for who was calling, but just answered, since it was his personal line.

“Jonas.”

“Jonas, I was hoping you’d be there,” Senator Rose’s voice boomed across the line.

For the second time that day, Jonas was surprised by one of the Rose family. Not in a good way. He hadn’t talked to the senator since his accident, and had no idea why he’d be calling now.

“Hello, sir. Are you back in the U.S.?” he asked, trying to sound neutral. The guy had a lot of nerve, threatening Jonas’s family business, and then calling out of the blue, sounding as if nothing was wrong.

“No, no. In Italy, now, but I’m heading home early and I’ll be back tomorrow. Has your sight returned yet?”

Jonas paused, wondering at the question. The senator was calling to check on his health? This was getting stranger by the second.

“No, not yet I’m afraid.”

“Sorry to hear that. I need your help with something, Jon,” he said.

Jonas experienced a surge of excitement—had the senator decided to forgive and forget?

“I don’t know how much help I can be with anything right now, sir. But I can refer one of my brothers—”

“It has to be you. I need you to keep an eye on Tessa for me until I get back.”

Jonas paused, quite sure he hadn’t heard right.

“I’m sorry?”

“Tessa. There’s a problem in my office. I can’t say what it is yet. It doesn’t have anything to do with Tessa directly, but I’d feel better knowing she wasn’t alone for a day or so. Oh, and this needs to stay between us.”

“You don’t want her knowing she’s under protection?” He’d done undercover guard duty before, but this time he wasn’t sure that would work, or that he even wanted to do it.

“That would be best. You know how she hates my interference in her life. It’s only until I get back. Then things will be straightened out.”

“Sir, not to put too fine a point on it, but I’m blind. I can’t see how—”

“Jonas, it’s true I was less than happy to find out that you were messing around with my daughter. It could have cost both of you your lives,” Rose said. “I know she can be a handful, and she likes nothing more than to take a shot at her old man now and then. But you two fooling around plays in our favor now. If anyone has a chance of staying close to her and not raising her suspicions, it’s you. Blind or not, you’re probably twice as effective as anyone else. Just don’t let her get to you this time.”

In other words, keep it in your pants, son. Jonas heard the clear subtext.

“But, sir—”

“I need you to do this for me. Don’t let me down, Jon.”

The line went dead.

Muttering a string of curses, Jonas shook his head at the strange call. Tessa was not exactly his biggest fan right now. How could he insert himself into her life without her being suspicious after he’d thrown her out that morning?

The sound of something crashing outside the window made him spin back, and he teetered, falling to the floor, his foot still caught in the chair. The wind knocked out of him, Jonas lay there for a moment, getting his bearings. He grunted as Irish landed on his chest and began licking his face, obviously concerned for him.

Standing, he winced at the twinge in his ankle. Great. Just what he needed.

He made his way to the bathroom and rifled through everything seeking the first-aid kit he knew was there, and found the package of Ace bandages he sought, stripping his sock and shoe off. He could feel some minor swelling, but it wasn’t bad.

Trying, unsuccessfully, to wrap his ankle, he gave up and sought out the familiar feel of the jar of painkillers they kept on hand in the cabinet. It was barely a sprain, more of a twist, and probably didn’t even need wrapping, anyway.

However, it was clear he wasn’t up to doing chores around the office, and he reached for his phone to call for a taxi so he could get home.

And then he paused, thinking about the call from James.

Like it or not—and he didn’t—the request to babysit the boss’s daughter for the next few days was his second chance, his way to make amends for his screwup the first time. If nothing else, he owed it to his brothers to try to make amends for nearly losing their biggest benefactor.

But it was more than that for him, and Jonas knew it. His mind went back to that night with Tessa, to kissing her, as it had almost every day since it had happened.

He could still remember every detail of holding her. Kissing her. Her taste. Her scent.

The wind hit the side of the house hard, the thunder deafening.

Tessa hated thunder.

Maybe she needed him. If James thought she was in trouble, or even that she just needed someone close by, he couldn’t turn his back on that. But the senator was right—she’d never allow him to guard her. She had issued an invitation—one he hadn’t intended to respond to, but now things had changed. It gave him an in—cold, sure—but he had a job to do, and this time he would do it right. She’d hate him afterward, but that might be better, anyway.

Before he could think about it too much, he hit the second number on his speed dial.

“Tessa?”

She was so quiet at first, he thought they might have dropped the connection.

“Jonas?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry to bother you, but … um, I … I need your help.”

A SHORT WHILE LATER, Tessa was banging at the front door. “Jonas, are you there? Let me in, I’m getting soaked out here!”

Through the glass, she saw him limping slightly on his way to the door, which he opened. She hurried in, soaked to the skin. Rain dripped off her coat, puddling on the polished wood floors.

“The rain is coming down sideways out there,” she said, glad to have an excuse to cover her nerves about showing up.

When she’d seen his number on her caller ID, she thought maybe he’d had a change of heart—that he wanted to take her up on her invitation from earlier.

When he’d said he needed her help, she’d been worried sick, imagining every terrible thing possible between her store and the office, but from what she could tell, he looked in one piece, more or less.

“I’m sorry to drag you out in this, but you were the only person I could reach,” he said.

His last resort, she thought, her hopes dipping. This wasn’t exactly what she’d counted on. “What happened?”

“I turned suddenly, and I think I sprained my ankle. I tried to take care of it myself, but couldn’t. If you could help me out with that, and getting me home, I’d appreciate it.”

“What’s been going on here?”

“A tree limb broke the window. I managed to get it covered.”

She walked to the edge of the room on her left, seeing leftover bits of broken glass.

“You’re going to trip yourself up again.”

“Why do you say that?”

“You’re standing here with one bare foot and an Ace bandage twisted around it and trailing behind you.” She couldn’t help but smile as she watched a big cat turn into a kitten as he followed the edge of the strap, chasing it. “Your cat seems to think it’s great fun, though.”

“Oh. Yeah, he would.”

“How could your brothers leave you alone in this storm? You shouldn’t have been climbing up on a chair—you could have hit your head.”

“I’m not completely helpless, you know. I shouldn’t have called you,” he said stiffly.

Tessa took a breath, and swallowed her disappointment. He obviously hadn’t wanted to ask for help, and in particular, he didn’t like asking her for help. But he had, and she’d do what she had to do.

Still, she wished it was because he had actually wanted to see her. Her pride kept her from saying as much.

“I don’t mind helping. Let me find someone to take care of the mess and fix up your ankle. Then I can make sure you get home safely.”

She led him back to the bathroom and while she worked on his foot, he talked to Ken, their handyman. It gave her a chance to concentrate. Apparently the handyman lived close by and assured Jonas he would come over to take care of the window and everything else.

“This doesn’t look too bad,” she said, trying not to feel ridiculous that the sight of Jonas’s naked foot was enough to make her pulse jump, but it was a very nice foot, by all estimations.

“Do you have any liniment?” she asked.

“Probably,” he responded tightly. “I left the first-aid kit out on the desk.” She pulled her hands back, and he seemed to relax a little. Did he not want her touching him even that much?

She got up and went to look, coming back a few minutes later. The cat purred around her feet and blinked up at her, clearly flirting.

“What’s your cat’s name?”

“Irish.”

“Interesting.”

“Fighting Irish, given his battle scars.”

“Ah, that makes sense,” she said, taking a break to scratch the cat behind the ears. At least one of the Berringer men liked her attentions, she thought.

“You’re pretty good at this,” he said.

“I dated an EMT once. I used to ride the ambulance with him when things were slow. I even thought about getting my certification,” she said absently, focusing on the task as a way of resisting the urge to slide her hand up his muscled calf.

“Isn’t that against the law?”

She snorted. “We weren’t too worried about that back then. I wish I had known what happened. I have an organic eucalyptus oil that works wonders, and smells a lot better than this stuff.” She hated the stench of the ointment she was applying. Running her hand over the back of his strong calf to steady his leg, a desire shot through her.

She was supposed to be attending an injury to a blind man, and even that had erotic overtones for her. How pathetic was that?

“You can probably manage your sock and shoe alone,” she commented, “though I’m not sure the shoe will fit unless you unlace it.”

“I have a pair of work boots over in the mudroom. Could you grab them for me?” he asked.

“Sure.”

She made her way through the classic rooms of the old Victorian, admiring the way they had remodeled and updated it without erasing its original character. The last time she’d been here had been to try to get someone to tell her what was happening with Jonas, how he was. Where he was.

The brothers had such a strong bond, seemed so loyal to each other that she found it surprising they would have left Jonas here all alone, dealing with the storm. Still, as she’d recalled earlier, he wasn’t a guy who liked accepting help. She was just amazed he had called her instead of hobbling home on his own.

“Thanks,” he said grudgingly as she handed him the boots.

“You’re welcome,” she responded in the same tone. “Let me see if I can just reinforce that plastic around the window to keep the rain out, and I’ll call a cab.”

“You don’t have to do that. Ken will be here soon.”

“It will only take a few minutes, and it will keep your floors from being ruined.”

He nodded reluctantly, and resumed trying to get his boots on. So much for him wanting her around—he seemed happy to have any excuse to ignore her.

Tessa busied herself adding more tape to the plastic around the broken window. When the job was done, she phoned for a cab. It took three calls to find a company who had someone available.

“Our ride will be here in a bit. Things are getting rough out there,” she said, jumping a little as a crack of thunder sounded as if it was splitting the world in two.

“You shouldn’t have gone out in this,” he said, sounding as if he regretted calling her. “I know you hate storms.”

“Emergency Services has enough on their plate right now, and I didn’t mind. Don’t worry, you’ll be away from me soon enough,” she couldn’t stop herself from adding, hurt and disappointed that he was so obviously displeased by her presence.

She knew he believed the worst of her, but she didn’t deserve it. She also knew from a lifetime of being a politician’s daughter that once people’s minds were made up about you, they rarely changed their views. When she had been bandaging Jonas’s foot, it seemed as if he could barely stand her touch.

“Listen,” he said, running a hand through his already wild hair. “I’m … grateful you came.”

She didn’t say anything, and the silence stretched between them.

“You’re welcome,” she said eventually, and was relieved to hear the honk of a cab outside. She didn’t say anything else, either. What was there to say? She thought that she cared for Jonas; they definitely had chemistry, or so she thought. But she wasn’t going to beg him to be with her. Still, it hurt.

“What about Irish?”

“He’ll be okay. He doesn’t do well being transported, and his food, water and bed are here.”

“Okay. If you’re sure he’s okay.”

“He has a cat door in the back if he needs to get out, but he usually just hunkers down at night.”

“Let’s go, then,” she said, and he pulled back when she took his hand.

“Cripes, Jonas, relax. I’m just helping you out to the cab, not trying to come on to you,” she said, gritting her teeth.

He blew out a breath, seeming as tense as she was. “It’s not you, Tessa. I hate this, my situation and being led around like a poodle all the time,” he admitted.

Her own aggravation softened. He was a protector, a man who wasn’t used to being vulnerable. He stood in front of others who were. She put her own feelings aside, realizing how difficult this was for him. He let her lead him out through the maelstrom to the shelter of the cab.

“Hardly a poodle. More like a rottweiler with a nasty temper,” she muttered under her breath as they climbed inside the cab, and thought she might have seen him smile, just a little.

TESSA ALMOST BOLTED from the cab by the time they reached her store. The silent tension between her and Jonas was intolerable.

“No more fares,” the cabbie said, looking back at them as she started to get out, but Jonas didn’t.

“My friend needs you to take him home,” she said to the driver, who shook his head vehemently.

“No more fares,” he repeated, shifting his light to Out of Service, and staring at Jonas, not that Jonas could notice.

“He says you have to get out here,” she spoke to Jonas.

“Yeah, I got that.” His tone was clipped and short. He was obviously not happy about that option, and she couldn’t help feeling insulted.

It infuriated her, but she held her temper. “You can come into the store and wait for another taxi,” she offered.

She’d call one herself, and make sure she told them to hurry, she thought testily, helping him from the taxi. He insisted on paying the fare, and she let him.

“Careful stepping up,” she cautioned as they ascended

to the shop, and he pulled his hand out of her grasp, taking the railing.

“I’m fine. I have this whole property memorized. It was part of my job,” he said.

She made some faint response, noting that he did seem to move easily up her stairs and inside the door, as if he could see.

Why did it make her heart constrict in an uncomfortable way to think he knew her space so well? That he had committed something about her to memory? It didn’t mean anything, she reminded herself. He’d said as much.

It was just a side effect of his job.

“I’ll call another taxi,” she said.

“Thanks.”

Tessa was on her phone for several minutes, watching Jonas stalk around her shop like a caged tiger. She called one company, and then another, but no one could send a ride for at least an hour, if then.

The city was paralyzed by the storm. The taxis were starting to return to the garage for the night.

As she redialed, she watched Jonas lift one scented bar to his nose and turned his attention to her.

“This is new,” he said, and she blinked in amazement.

He paid that much attention to her products? Most of the time he had acted as if he couldn’t care less.

“Yes,” she answered, while seeking another taxi service.

She didn’t tell him what he had picked up was one of the soaps in her new Erotic Enhancements collection. That particular scent could intensify orgasm. Standing and watching him lift the soap to his nose, inhaling, made her skin warm. Her heart fluttered. From her brief experience in Jonas’s arms, he wouldn’t need any help giving intense orgasms.

“Tessa?” he interrupted her train of thought.

“Oh, what? Sorry,” she responded, shaking her attention away from Jonas and sex. Even when he was being unpleasant, she couldn’t stop picturing him naked.

“Any luck?”

“No, I’m sorry. We can keep trying, but the city is—”

She stopped as everything went dark around her. The store was suddenly pitch-black, no light outside or in.

“Oh no.”

“What?” he asked sharply.

“Blackout. Everything just went dark. Really dark.”

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Um, yeah, but it looks like you might be stuck here for a while.”

He was quiet, and she bit her lip. He certainly couldn’t think she’d orchestrated this.

She stepped down from the register where the phone was, and started to make her way across the store, but couldn’t find anything to focus on, and gasped in pain as she knocked into the corner of a display.

“Where are you? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just having a lot harder time than you making my way around in the dark,” she said grumpily. It seemed the tables had turned.

“You stay put, but keep talking. I’ll find my way to you,” he said, and she thought she heard a slight smile in his tone.

“This isn’t funny.”

“I know.”

“I don’t know what to talk about,” she groused.

“Then sing something,” he offered, sounding closer.

“I don’t sing outside the shower,” she said, and then, a second later, felt his hand on her arm.

“There you are,” he said.

His strong fingers closing around her forearm reminded her of that morning, and memories swamped her.

She had been so frightened by his call, and then so relieved to find him with only a minor injury, that it had been easy to set desire aside. Well, mostly.

Not so now. Here, in the familiar setting of her store, where they had spent so much time together, it was harder to ignore her attraction to him, stupid as it might be. He obviously didn’t feel the same way about her.

His breath warm and close to her cheek in the dark. She had a feeling it wouldn’t take much to turn her face to his and lean in for a kiss.

“I guess we could go upstairs and wait it out. This can’t last for too long. I could get us something to drink,” she suggested.

“Thanks. I—” he started, and then stopped. Then started again. “I know this is awkward.”

“It is. Here, I can use my cell phone to light the way,” she said.

“Don’t use your phone as a light. It’ll kill the battery. I can get us there.”

“Okay.”

He grabbed her hand this time, his grip firm and warm, and she stayed close as he navigated perfectly to the stairs.

“You didn’t change any of the displays,” he commented as they climbed.

“I don’t, typically. I want people to find things easily when they come back for a second or third visit,”

she said. “I have an area for new items, and they know where to find those, too.”

“Makes sense.”

She did use her phone as a light for a quick minute to insert her key into the lock and let them in, finding her apartment as well in total darkness. It felt comfortable talking about the store, something neutral.

“We’re both pretty soaked from the rain,” she said.

It had been coming down so hard even the short walks to and from the cab had been drenching. “My brother left some things here after his last visit. They should fit you well enough, if you’d like to change.”

In spite of being soaking wet, the heat and humidity made the apartment muggy, and she felt a fine sheen of perspiration on her brow. Or maybe it was repressed arousal.

“I’d appreciate that,” he said simply.

“Wait here. I’ll get the clothes and some towels.” She carefully walked into the guest bedroom and found the Levi’s and a silky black T-shirt in a drawer where Tim had left them behind.

Her brother, a criminal defense lawyer in Chicago, wasn’t quite as broad in the shoulders as Jonas, but they were about the same height and weight, she figured.

She shivered in anticipation, in spite of herself. The storm didn’t seem to be letting up. Jonas might be here for the night.

Maybe … No.

There was no way she could sleep with him. He’d just think she was using him again, to get back at her father or for some blue-collar thrill, whatever. He’d memorized her home, her store, but didn’t he get to know her better in those weeks when he’d been guarding her?

Apparently not.

Could she have been imagining the chemistry between them?

She thought back to their encounter in his apartment, earlier in the day. It felt ages ago. He wanted her—he just didn’t want to want her.

Though in all honestly, she was partly to blame for what had happened to him. She wasn’t guilty of the things he accused her of, but she did bear some responsibilty. She’d set her sights on him, flirting, tempting, and did whatever she could to break his control.

That had backfired big-time. She also hadn’t believed in the threat that he was guarding her from, and he had ended up paying the price for that.

So maybe he had good reason to be angry with her. And maybe this was her chance to make amends.

“Well, I have the clothes, but as to skivvies, I don’t have anything like that on hand, unless you would like to try on something of mine,” she teased lightly as she entered the living room.

He did chuckle then, a gravelly, masculine sound that warmed her blood.

“Not necessary,” he said, and that turned her tease into a groan as she thought about Jonas and nothing between her and him but the thin denim.

Her mouth went dry as she put the clothes in his hands, and then the towels.

She licked her lips, impossibly turned on by him being here, so close and about to take his clothes off.

“You can use the bathroom,” she said quickly, turning back to her bedroom to change her own clothes, and promptly slamming her shin into the table leg.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Though I feel stupid for not being able to find my way around my own apartment in the dark,” she admitted.

“It gets easier with practice. Maybe you should use your phone for light before you really hurt yourself.”

She frowned, but did light her way back to her room as he disappeared into the bathroom with no trouble whatsoever.

Stripping out of her wet clothes, she dried off and applied some smoothing sage and lavender lotion to her skin, enjoying the calming scents. Her phone dimmed a bit, and she knew she was losing the charge, so tried to finish her ministrations in the dark.

Peering out the window as she was slipping on a pair of light capris and a tank, she couldn’t see a thing. Rain hit the glass so hard that the entire view was obscured, and everything was pitch-black, including the streetlights.

She wasn’t sure how she was going to make it through this night. She wanted Jonas, but he clearly had no such intentions toward her. They were stuck together, and she’d make the best of it, but she ached inside and wished things could be different.

Making her way back out to the main room, she did as he instructed and walked slowly forward, until she caught the edge of the flip-flop she wore on the throw rug, pitching forward and landing with a thud on the hardwood floor.

A lamp fell from the table beside her and she cursed loudly. That was her favorite lamp, a one-of-a-kind that she had handmade by a glassblower in New York.

“Are you okay? Where are you?” Jonas called, emerging from the bathroom.

“Yeah, I just stumbled over the rug, and I think I broke a lamp.”

“Don’t move, you could cut yourself on broken glass.”

The next thing she knew, he was there, his hands finding her in the dark.

The scent of sweet-smelling lavender and sage lotion on her skin rose between them as he helped her up and over to the sofa. As he sat down with her, he didn’t let go.

She’d dabbed some patchouli oil on her pulse points earlier in the day. The sweet, earthy scent was traditionally one used in erotic ceremony, and connected historically to sensual practice. Right now, combined with the humidity in the room and Jonas’s manly scent, it was a heady mix.

Or maybe it was the way one of his hands lingered on her back, and the other on her wrist. The storm raged outside, but Tessa hardly noticed.

“I shouldn’t be here,” he said.

“And yet here you are.”

She saw the green light in the tense posture of his body, as if he was using every muscle he had to hold himself back.

Time stopped. The world outside the window was invisible, everything was swallowed by the storm. It was only the two of them, here, alone, and suddenly nothing else mattered.

“Jonas,” she whispered, but it was all he allowed her to say before his mouth was on hers, and they fell back to the soft cushions of the sofa, forgetting everything else.

4

7:00 p.m.

JONAS KNEW HE was playing a dangerous game, but when he had Tessa in his arms, her scent intoxicating him, he couldn’t stay away.

He didn’t ask for this. If James hadn’t called, he wouldn’t even be here. But he was, and being this close to Tessa without touching her was proving impossible. It had been a mistake of grand proportions to accept this job from James, but it was too late now.

He wanted her more than he wanted his next breath, and in one move, he slipped off the thin tank she’d put on, and pressed her bare flesh to his. They both groaned as she twined her arms around his neck.

“You’re not dressed,” she said, rubbing her mouth against his collarbone.

“Not completely, no,” he said, absorbing the sensation of her soft skin and pebbled nipples pressing against his chest, almost making him think he was dreaming again. “I was interrupted by you wrecking your apartment.”

“Good timing on my part, then,” she said, offering her mouth to him. His hands drifted up and wove themselves into her hair, but alarms went off in his head.

What did she mean? Did she fall on purpose? Was Tessa playing games again?

He deepened the kiss, realizing he didn’t care.

“You feel good,” he said, though it was a radical understatement.

“You, too,” she whispered.

The kiss went on and on, and he pressed his erection against her belly with a groan. He ran his hands and lips over her everywhere, committing every curve and shallow of her form to memory. Rolling her nipples between his fingers, he liked when she cried out, gasping in pleasure, and he did it again.

Her responses to him, at least, were real, and that’s all that mattered to him right then.

Jonas gently pushed her breasts together and sucked in both tender nubs at once, feeling her entire body tremble under his. He’d always been one to enjoy sex with the lights on, but his blindness made everything more intense, and this was no exception.

She ran her hands down his chest, unzipping his jeans. He sucked in a sharp breath when her hand closed around him, stroking lightly, running her thumb over the broad crown of his cock.

“You’re killing me, Tessa,” he managed to choke out.

“I haven’t even started. There are so many things I’ve thought about doing to you,” she said on a whisper, sliding downward so that she could taste him, taking his length into her mouth. Jonas took a deep breath then released it, letting her do whatever she wanted.

He set his hand gently on the back of her head, holding her there for a long moment as she drew on him. Not sure he’d last much longer, he pulled her back up against him and, quickly, silently, slid the bottoms she wore off, and then the slight, silky panties, as well. He lay over her, his shoulders nudging at the insides of her knees.

Oh, yeah, his body hummed.

Tracing a line down from her navel to the slick, hot flesh of her sex, he spread her wider, and only wished he could see. She arched, wanting more, quivering.

He flicked his tongue lightly against her clit. He relished the hot, womanly taste and abandoned the light touch to go deeper, rolling his tongue around her, parting her folds and seeking the ways to make her cry out. He had no idea how long he stayed there, the intimate kiss pleasing and arousing him as much as it seemed to please and arouse her.

She bucked her hips against him, but he held her in place, one climax triggering another until she was left spent and panting beneath him.

“Jonas,” she said his name on a breath, the satisfaction evident in her voice.

Masculine pride suffused him, inciting the urge to take her and please her even more deeply. For the first time in weeks, he didn’t feel at a disadvantage. He moved up, he planted his hands on either side of her shoulders, holding back.

“I don’t have protection, sweetheart,” he said. “Do you have anything here?”

She paused and then moaned one of frustration.

“No, and I don’t take birth control. I’m healthy, but I don’t want to risk other consequences.”

He agreed, and backed away, though his body tensed in objection. So close. Like his dream coming true, much to his frustration, except that she’d stayed with him this time.

Tessa pushed up, her arm linking around his neck, pulling him in for a kiss.

“There’s a twenty-four-hour drugstore two blocks down. I’ll go. It will just take five minutes,” she said, already scrambling up to grab her clothes.

“Careful where you step,” he warned, remembering the broken glass. “You can’t go out in this storm,” he added, and she chuckled, a low, sexy sound he liked. A lot.

“Jonas, I would walk through fire to make this happen. A little rain is nothing.”

As much as he agreed, he couldn’t let her do it. He was here to keep her safe.

“It’s dark out. There are fallen wires, looters, it’s a blackout,” he elaborated.

“I’m sure it will be—”

Her cell phone rang then, and then again.

“Are you going to answer that?” he asked.

He heard her grab the phone.

“Hello, Kate?” Tessa said, and there was clear concern in her tone as she turned away to talk.

The wind rattled the windows a bit. Jonas sat back, trying to breathe evenly, letting his body relax, if that was possible. He was hard and aching. It seemed he was doomed to never have Tessa.

Served him right, he supposed. He never should have taken this job in the first place, and since he did, he really had to try harder not to cave so easily to his desire. But when he was with Tessa, it was hard to think of anything else, especially when the world was so dark, and they were here all alone.

She came back to where he sat, done with her call. He could sense the change in her mood, and his own heat waned.

“Everything all right?”

“Remember my friend Kate? The pharmacy has canceled deliveries tonight and she’s almost out of insulin. She doesn’t have anyone else. She’s also blind, so can’t go herself, and can’t reach her neighbor. I have to go get the meds and take them to her. I shouldn’t be too long. Maybe an hour. I can get our other … supplies, too.”

“It’s too risky, Tessa. There has to be some other way,” he said. “Call 911.”

“They won’t consider it an emergency. She’s fine now, she just needs another shot by bedtime. And you’re not my bodyguard anymore, Jonas,” she said, obviously bristling at his bossy tone. “You can’t really tell me to stay or go.”

Of course, she had no idea he was actually there to keep close, to keep an eye on her. Which meant he only had one choice.

“I don’t think—” he started to object.

“Listen, I’m going. She needs me. If you want, you can come with me.”

“How? There are no taxis.”

“We’ll take the trains.”

“They may have shut down several routes in the power outage,” he argued.

“I’m sure it will be fine. Even back in 2003, in the big East Coast blackout, only a few train routes were affected. It’s probably our best chance.”

He sighed. Tessa had her mind made up. “Where does Kate live?”

“Lena Street, in Germantown.”

“Okay, we can take the subway north, and figure out how to go from there.”

“That’s how I’ve gone before,” she agreed.

He didn’t see that he had any other choice, though Jonas had a bad feeling about it. This was not a night to be out in the city.

Still, he admired her concern about the elderly woman. Jonas had promised James Rose that he would stick close by Tessa, and he planned to keep that promise. He wasn’t sure how much help he could be to her, a blind man traversing in a city during a blackout, but he guessed he was about to find out.

Norfolk, Virginia

ELY BERRINGER CLICKED his phone off, shoving it in his pocket as he finished his beer in two deep swallows. He pushed his glass forward for a refill. The wind howled outside, but it didn’t seem to bother the bar patrons, most of them from the nearby naval shipyards. They paid the flickering lights little mind as they watched a game on the big screen in the corner, probably having been through far worse out at sea.

Ely had finished his assignment, guarding a bank executive who had been receiving death threats for the last few weeks. The FBI had arrested the perpetrators, a group of thieves who had had significant success getting inside vaults by threatening the lives and families of the employees who had access.

Ely admired the single-mom bank exec who’d had enough spine to finally step up and contact law enforcement. Several others before her had caved to the threats, and one of those had been killed during the resulting heist. Berringer had been brought in on protective detail in collaboration with the feds. It was a first for their small company, and a big step forward.

Now it was over, but he was stuck in Norfolk for tonight, riding out the storm. The bar was a place he used to visit often. He didn’t recognize anyone here now, but there was someone he was looking out for.

She was late tonight. Maybe the storm had her hunkered down elsewhere, but he hoped not. Human beings were tied to their rituals, and Chloe Roberts’s had always been to come to this particular bar on a Thursday night for a drink before heading home.

He hadn’t seen or spoken with her in three years, since she’d interviewed him upon his return from Afghanistan and his award of the Navy Cross. The interview had been a chore—Ely didn’t care for publicizing his accomplishments—but the brass had insisted, said it would be good for recruitment.

The night following the interview, however, had been much more satisfying.

He’d hung out with Chloe for a few weeks, while he was in Norfolk, but realized too late that he’d read her all wrong. She came off as a modern, career-focused woman, the kind of woman you could spend a few nights or a few weeks with, but who had no expectations of more.

In truth, she came from a large family herself, he discovered, and she wanted the whole package: a husband, kids, the white-picket fence. He didn’t realize that she had set her sights on him for the prize.

Ely hadn’t made any promises, and they’d parted ways more or less amicably. More on his side, less on hers.

He straightened as he saw her come in, her trench coat soaked, her umbrella bent all to hell. She struggled with it for a few minutes before throwing it into the corner in frustration.

Looking up, her normally well-styled red hair was wild from the wind, and she froze as her eyes met his. He nodded in acknowledgment, indicating the open seat by his. She didn’t move for a moment, looking unsure. A couple folks called out greetings, and she broke the stare, returning the hellos.

The removal of the traditional trench coat she always wore revealed the same bombshell body he’d enjoyed three years before. She hung her coat on the rack by the door and strolled over, her composure taking the place of her surprise at seeing him.

“Ely,” she said with something that almost approached affection, leaning in to kiss his cheek before taking a seat. “What brings you here?” she asked.

She didn’t need to order, the bartender delivered bourbon on the rocks for her without being asked. Ely knew it was top-of-the-line whiskey, and that on a normal evening she would nurse that one glass for two hours while poring over her notes.

It was the same way she made love, he remembered all too clearly. Slow, thorough and with the utmost attention to detail.

Some things really didn’t change, much like the rise in his blood pressure, and below his beltline, at the sight of her generous breasts underneath the dark blue silk blouse she wore.

Maybe this was ill-advised, but he hadn’t felt like spending tonight with a stranger, even if all they did was have a drink.

He was hoping for more.

“Just finished a job, and any port in a storm,” he said, then winced at his poor choice of words. She didn’t seem to take offense.

“It’s a bad one out there, but not the worst I’ve seen,” she said, holding her glass to full lips that needed no coloring. He’d always loved that she didn’t wear lipstick. He hated the stuff. “So you’re working with your brothers now?”

“Yeah, personal security. How’d you know?”

She smiled at him, her eyes sparkling. Stupid question. She was one of the best news reporters in Hampton Roads, and she knew a lot about everything, and everyone, between here and the District.

“I’d hoped you’d be here tonight,” he said bluntly, meeting her bright blue eyes, and also appreciating the way her damp curls clung to her cheeks.

“Really?” she said, looking away. “Why’s that?”

He smiled and took another sip from his beer, shaking his head. “Just finished a job that reminded me about how crazy stuff can be out there. I don’t know. I guess I wanted to spend some time with a friend,” he replied somewhat truthfully.

“Friends? Is that what we were?” Her tone was somehow humorous, skeptical and suspicious all at the same time.

“I hope so,” he responded, and decided to cut to the heart of it. “When jobs are done, the intense ones, sometimes it’s like …”

“Hitting a wall? Like go-go-go then full stop?” she supplied.

“Yeah,” he said. He knew she’d understand. “You’re on a constant adrenaline trip for weeks, not unlike combat in some ways. Then it just ends, and while that’s good, I—”

“Have energy left to burn?” she asked.

“Something like that.”

“And you thought you might burn some off with me?” she asked, her voice hardening, and she shook her head. “No, thanks, Ely. I’m not interested in being another one of your pit stops.”

She stood, ignoring her drink on the bar, turning to leave.

Ely reached out, grabbing her arm gently, but firmly enough to stop her from walking away.

“Hey. It’s not like that.”

“That’s not how I remember it.”

“I know. I wasn’t ready then. I was just back from Afghanistan, I hadn’t even seen my family in more than two years and when I was in the hospital, I wasn’t sure if I was going to see them again, period. I didn’t know how to get back to normal, whatever that was. You helped. I’m sorry I left like I did. I never meant to hurt you. I just didn’t know what I wanted.”

“And I wanted too much,” she added.

“Yeah.”

Her stance softened a bit, and she looked back over her shoulder at him, but didn’t pull her arm away.

“Looking for a second chance, Ely?”

Was he?

He’d been back in civilian life for three years. When he was in Kandahar, he hadn’t had a chance to think about the future. When he’d gotten back, he couldn’t stop thinking about the past. It had taken him a while to put it all behind him and accept that he even had a future, especially after he’d come close to being blown to bits.

Eventually, he’d looked around him, around his life, at his own family, and realized he wanted more.

Did he want more with Chloe? Is that really why he came here tonight? Hadn’t he been thinking about it for days? Maybe longer? A second chance to find out seemed right.

“Yeah. Maybe, if you think we might have something worth taking a chance on,” he said, letting his hand slide down her arm to find her hand.

She stood still for a minute, as if weighing her decision, and squeezed his hand, nodding.

“Let’s get out of here,” she said.

They walked out into the storm together, making their way to her car. When she opened the backseat door instead of the front, he paused, surprised, but then joined her, the storm surging around them as neither had any interest in waiting.

He hadn’t planned on this, either, but he wasn’t about to turn her down. Hunger took over, and he buried his face in the soft volume of her breasts. It all came rushing back, how sweet, how responsive she was.

She gasped as he pushed her blouse and bra aside, holding his head to her as he sucked a velvety nipple into his mouth, drawing on it as he laid her back on the seat, pulling the top off altogether. No one would see them at the back of the lot, through the fury of the storm.

She pulled at his clothes, too, obviously not interested in anything slow this time, and within seconds, they were both naked.

He covered himself without wasting any time and met her where she sought him, thrusting deep, feeling her clamp down around him, the two of them coming together within a few short, hot minutes.

“Oh, no,” he panted, embarrassed and unable to believe he’d been so quick. “Sorry.”

“For what?” she asked with a slow smile that had him hardening again.

Pulling her up with him, he sat so that she straddled his lap, still planted deeply over him. She ground her hips against him in a circular motion that had her dropping her head back, those marvelous breasts positioned where he could lick, nibble and suck his way to ecstasy as she rode him.

The rhythm picked up, and they were both mindless, as if having waited for each other all this time and not able to devour each other fast enough.

She looked down, framed his face with her hands, and kissed him so deeply that neither of them could breathe. His body bucked beneath her as she cried out, too. He bowed beneath her, jacking his hips upward in hard thrusts as he came with a fierceness that left him trembling.

They were both breathing heavily, held close against each other, wordless as everything calmed around them.

“You should know you’re the first guy I’ve ever done in a backseat,” she said with a smile. “But I knew as soon as I saw you that this was going to happen.”

“Really?” he said, kissing her lovely, full bottom lip.

“Yep.”

“My hotel isn’t all that great. Your place?” he asked, hoping this wasn’t the end of their night together.

“I’ll drive,” she agreed as she pulled her clothes back on and they moved to the front.

Ely could have cared less about the storm, watching her every second of the drive, reviewing everything he was going to do right this time. He hadn’t planned on a second chance, but now that he had one, he wasn’t going to blow it.

“SO HOW DID YOU get to be such good friends with Kate anyway?” Jonas asked as they ran into the train station, finally under cover, soaked through yet again.

“She came into the shop when it first opened, and I made some special items for her. She was always very lively and friendly, and she invited me and Lydia to lunch a few times,” Tessa explained, getting their tickets and leading him to the platform.

“Then her husband died, and I knew that they didn’t have children, or other family close by. Her diabetes was affecting her sight, and just this year she was declared legally blind.”

Tessa peeked up to see Jonas’s expression, which remained stoic as he listened.

“So, I started helping out, visiting her more, and it just became part of my life. I never knew my grandparents, at least not on my mother’s side, and my father’s parents, well, let’s just say they preferred my brother,” she said, laughing shortly.

“So Kate was like a foster grandparent for you?”

“Something like that, I guess, though I really consider her a friend. I like spending time with her, listening to her stories about her and her husband, and she plays a mean hand of canasta.”

Jonas laughed, and she pulled back to look at him in surprise as they boarded their train.

“What?”

“Somehow I have a hard time picturing you sitting with a bunch of octogenarians playing cards on a Friday night.”

“Well, it was usually Sunday afternoon, and I rarely won. Those ladies take no prisoners.”

As they made their way through the passel of people vying for spots, she heard him chuckling.

She tucked herself inside the corner of the car at the end and held on to the railing. Jonas was so handsome

when he laughed, she thought. He was handsome anyway, but when he smiled, he became wickedly so.

Tessa wondered if he was ticklish, eyeing the way the muscles in his side stretched and gathered as he reached to hold on to the rail, as well.

“It’s nice to have lights for a few minutes,” she commented about the train, changing the subject, and then realized he couldn’t know if the lights were on one way or the other. “I mean, shoot, I’m sorry, Jonas, that was thoughtless—”

“It’s not a big deal, Tessa. You can talk about the lights being on, the sun in the sky, the things you see … it doesn’t bother me. I’m not that fragile.”

She pursed her lips. “Well, maybe not, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay to rub it in. I can’t imagine what it would be like not to see.”

“It’s … not fun,” he agreed. “But it’s also temporary.”

“What do your doctors say? Did they tell you when?”

She had such a hard time thinking about Jonas being disabled in any way. Standing here with her now, he still looked undefeatable to her. She felt safe with him, regardless.

“Any time … things appear to be healing, but I just have to be patient,” he said in a tone that told her that patient wasn’t his strong suit.

Jonas was a man who took control, who called the shots. She knew this had to be maddening for him.

“I hope it’s soon for you,” she said, leaning in closer to plant a soft kiss on his cheek.

He frowned, and she wondered why. Did he regret what happened back at the apartment? Was he thinking she was still just messing with him?

“I hope the drugstore stays open,” she said, needing to refocus. “I should make sure they know I’m coming. Kate has to have her injections or we will be calling emergency.”

He nodded grimly while she pulled out her phone to call the pharmacy.

“They are open for a few more hours, so that’s good,” she said in relief.

“We’ll get there, and it will be okay,” he reassured her.

“Thanks. And thanks for coming with me. I know none of this was part of your night.”

“True. If I weren’t here with you, I’d either be limping around the office with a bandage still stuck to my pants, or home sitting in the dark, not that I would even know it,” he joked, and she was so surprised she burst out laughing. A smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

“Why, Jonas, I’ve never known you to tell a joke,” she said.

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Tessa.” He winked, and she thought her knees might have trembled slightly.

Was Jonas flirting with her?

The thought made her heart race. There was a lot she didn’t know about Jonas, but she looked up into his face as he peered, unseeing, around the crowded train car.

She looked forward to having the chance to find out.

5

9:00 p.m.

JONAS WAS SURPRISED that the trains were packed. While some of the peripheral routes were closed down, the main lines were running. He supposed it made sense. The worst of the storm had hit around rush hour, and with the roads such a mess, the trains were many people’s only option to get home.

He could feel the heat and proximity of all the bodies crowded around where he and Tessa were tucked into a corner of the packed subway car. They were soaked from their dash to the closest station, a few blocks away from the shop, even having used umbrellas. It didn’t matter. Though he tried to make casual conversation, all he could think about was how close she was, and what had happened back at the apartment.

He shouldn’t have given in, but when it came to Tessa, he seemed to have a difficult time saying no. This time, hopefully, their indiscretions would stay between them. Senator Rose had said there was no direct threat, that he just needed someone to stick close to Tessa for a few days.

Rose had also been fully aware that Tessa liked to yank his chain, and was clear on the fact that she’d used Jonas to do it. Luckily, it appeared he wasn’t holding Jonas completely responsible for the last time, but Jonas reminded himself not to be so reckless this time, even though he was on fire for her.

She was also confusing the hell out of him. He had her tagged one way, self-indulgent, self-interested. He didn’t trust her motivations, and he still didn’t—not completely. But that didn’t fit the profile of someone who had traveled across town in the rain to help him, and now was doing the same for an elderly friend. Was she just playing a role, being someone she thought would appeal to him?

The air in the train car was humid and moist, though the riders were good-natured and fairly loud, everyone sharing a storm story or visiting with the person they were crunched up against.

He was pressed up against Tessa from stem to stern, and acutely aware of every inch of her. They stood inside a corner area, where she was against the outside of the train. He used his body to shield her.

He was hard again from the close contact, and grateful that it was so crowded, so no one would notice. It had been difficult enough dreaming and thinking about her for weeks, but being this close—especially after being naked with her less than an hour ago—was undermining his promise to the senator.

Tessa’s breath caressed his cheek. She’d edged in closer to him. He lifted a hand, finding her face and rubbing his thumb over her cheek, her skin dewy from the rain and humid air. The touch was to “see” her, to measure her expression, her level of tension, as much as it was to just have an excuse to touch her.

“You okay?”

“Yes, just a little anxious,” she whispered against his ear. “And far too turned on, considering our current location,” she added, shifting her hips against him so that she nestled his hardness in the soft crux of her thighs. He bit back a groan, not that it would have been heard in the busy din of the car.

He leaned in, telling himself he was just playing a part.

She had played him before, right? So turnaround was fair play, as long as he could walk away from the job at the end. Nuzzling her, he found the soft shell of her ear with his lips, and whispered, “Tease.”

“Not a tease,” she responded, turning her lips to his. “I’ll make good later, I promise.”

He swallowed hard, thinking that if he inadvertently rocked a few more times against her as the train took corners and bumps, he wasn’t going to last until later. He was so ready to come he had to do mental exercises to avoid it.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked. “You look so focused.”

“Baseball stats,” he said flatly.

She paused, then laughed against his cheek.

“You mean, like getting to third base, or sliding into home?” she asked suggestively.

He felt the vibration of her chest against his as she chuckled, and he had to smile, too. It felt good—better than good—to be so turned on, to be laughing.

To be with Tessa.

“Yeah, something like that.”

He was actually enjoying himself. In spite of his wet clothes and achingly hard cock, he felt more alive than he had in weeks. Suddenly, Tessa froze, and a collective gasp and sounds of unhappy surprise filled the car as it ground to a standstill, breaks screeching as everyone in the car lurched with the momentum of the train.

“What? What happened?” he asked.

“Power’s out. It’s pitch-black in here except for a few emergency lights,” she said as people started grumbling and shouting around them.

A baby cried from the far end of the car, and the mood changed markedly as tension rose. A tremble worked its way through Tessa’s body. He slipped his arms around her, holding her tighter against him.

“Stay next to me. It will be okay,” he said against her hair.

“I can’t see anything,” she said in a hushed whisper, pressing even more tightly against him.

This wasn’t good. Even friendly, good-natured people could be dangerous in a crowded, panicked situation. He noticed that a guy behind him was breathing too hard, starting to push against everyone around him.

“I have to let go of you for a minute, okay? Hug the wall, right behind you,” he said to Tessa, turning to face the man while still protecting Tessa.

Reaching out, he found the man’s arm and grabbed it before the flailing man hurt someone. The guy was shaking, starting to mutter in panic.

Jonas kept his voice casual. “Hey, buddy, you okay? Let’s try to calm down.”

The man pushed at him, but Jonas held firm.

“Let go of me! Who are you? Don’t touch me! I have to get outta here, let me outta here,” the guy started to shout, pushing at everyone near him. Jonas heard a woman gasp in pain, the man’s other fist making contact, Jonas assumed.

People started shouting, and Jonas knew he had to do something before a potentially deadly scenario was set into motion. Sliding his arm up to the man’s neck, he looped it around and felt for the slamming pulse at the side of the guy’s throat. Tightening his grip as he slid his arm around front and pulled his forearm back, Jonas trapped the man in an armlock, trying to hold him still as he struggled to get free.

“Jonas? Jonas, what are you doing?” He heard Tessa’s breathless question.

“Stay put, Tessa,” he said loudly, fighting the man’s huge bulk as he applied pressure.

“Sorry, man, but you need to chill for a few minutes until they get us out of here,” he said, and increased the pressure until the man stopped shouting, the heavy weight of his form going slack.

Everything around them was eerily quiet.

“Someone help get this guy into a seat,” Jonas ordered, propping the man up the best he could, the slack weight almost pulling him down. “He passed out.”

“Yeah, with a little help, I bet,” another guy said approvingly, and Jonas felt the weight lifted as others took him off Jonas’s hands.

“Good job,” someone shouted, and Jonas felt a pat on his shoulder.

“Thank you so much,” someone else whispered in relief.

Slowly, conversation resumed and the tension resolved.

He turned back to Tessa, finding her hand with his and touching her face again to make sure she was okay. He found that she was smiling slightly, and he ran a finger over her lower lip.

“That was pretty cool,” she said.

The driver’s voice over the intercom told them they would be stopped for about twenty minutes, and to please stay calm as people were working on getting them on their way again.

“He was a big guy—couldn’t have him freaking out in here. People could get hurt.”

“I know. And no one else here could have done what you did,” she said, pressing a kiss into his neck. “Way to think on your feet, Berringer.”

Jonas’s heart beat hard in his chest, aware of her again, the two of them pressed tight.

“How dark is it in here, anyway?”

“Almost pitch-black, except for a few safety lights around the edges. I can barely see you, as close as we are,” she said.

Jonas realized that this was the first time since he’d lost his sight that he didn’t feel alone. Maybe because everyone around him was also blind, in a way, or maybe because he was here with Tessa.

“I hope they get us out of here soon. I don’t think people will stand being crammed in together for long.” She sounded nervous.

“I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“I know,” she said softly.

He drew her to him, pressing his arousal close to her again.

“That certainly takes my mind off things,” she said with a husky laugh.

“That was the idea.” He heard the anxiety in her tone dissolve into a gasp as his hand covered her breast, her nipple beading under his palm.

Leaning in, he found and nuzzled the throbbing pulse at the base of her neck, loving how it sped up every time he tweaked or rolled the sensitive nub between his fingers.

Her hand was pressed against the front of his pants, rubbing along the length of him. He shuddered at the touch, pressing in, biting the lobe of her ear a little more sharply before covering her lips in a hot kiss.

“Good thing no one can see,” he whispered.

“Yeah,” she agreed.

He maneuvered them more tightly into the corner, the people behind him caught up in their own conversations. Some guys had started singing, and others were laughing. More than enough noise to cover their own activities.

All he was aware of was Tessa’s scent, the honey-sweet taste of her kiss, and her nimble, satiny fingers as they slid his zipper down and then wrapped around his shaft.

“Tessa, I don’t think—”

“Yes, don’t think. Thinking is way overrated,” she murmured against his lips as she slid her tongue against his in a thrusting rhythm that matched the way she was stroking him.

Jonas was normally a highly private person, and he couldn’t believe he was letting her do this in a crowded subway car, but he was also too far gone to care. Too needy, too close to the edge.

If the lights came on, if anyone noticed, he thought, trying to find some way to stay in control. But that offered another surprise—the idea of being discovered increased the urgency and turned him on even more.

Her hands and lips were so soft, her grip just right, and his mind spun with the need to let go even as he still tried to resist. Creature of habit. As much as he wanted her, wanted this, he didn’t want to give in.

“Let go, Jonas,” Tessa whispered in his ear, her other hand sliding up inside his shirt and playing with a nipple, making him shudder and rock slightly into her hand.

“Yeah, like that,” she encouraged.

When she slipped her hand down to caress his sac as she continued to stroke, Jonas sucked in a sharp breath, coming hard and fast with an intensity that made him bite down to keep from shouting her name out loud.

Pressing her back against the wall, the release shook him from head to toe, and he all but collapsed against her as she withdrew her hand. He caught his breath as he sensed her fumbling in her purse for something as he zipped up.

It wasn’t the way he wanted to come with her, but it had been pretty fantastic, he thought, trying to get his composure back.

They righted themselves in the nick of time, as luck would have it; seconds later a cheer went up as the train rolled forward.

“The lights are on?” he asked, his voice still rough.

“Yeah,” she said softly. “Thanks for distracting me.”

He smiled. “I think I should be thanking you.”

Her kiss at the corner of his lips had the heat building again, and he knew he would do what he had to to keep Tessa safe. Whatever game she was playing, he was more than willing to join in. James Rose had put him in this situation, and Jonas didn’t care if the senator spontaneously combusted from finding out what he and Tessa were doing. It would be worth it.

Let her have her fill, and tell anyone she wanted. He’d deal with that later. Jonas wanted nothing more than to get her home, where he planned to drive them both to distraction for the rest of the night.

TESSA’S HANDS WERE shaking, along with her knees and probably everything in between as the others exited the subway car. Anxiety wasn’t the cause; she was still so aroused from sharing close quarters with Jonas, feeling his heat, his passion—his need—that she hadn’t been able to think of anything else but him.

The way he’d leaned into her, giving himself over to her when she’d touched him in the car had been sexier than anything she’d experienced, ever. He was surprising her time and time again. And confusing her.

He didn’t trust her, but he did want her. He was angry with her, but protective of her. Would the real Jonas Berringer please stand up?

She was so glad that she had him with her in the dark confines of the car—especially when things had gotten tense with the blackout. The way he had taken control of the situation and kept her, and everyone, safe, had triggered a well of emotion that touched her deeply. He was an extraordinary man, though she knew he didn’t think of himself that way.

She suspected a large part of his annoyance with her was because he liked her father. She could see it when he’d mentioned the senator, and how much her father had helped their personal security business. She also knew her father wasn’t pleased about how things had ended, but Tessa hadn’t been seducing Jonas to tick off her father.

She’d prefer that he knew nothing about her sex life, with Jonas or anyone else, frankly, but the senator made her life his business far too often. It rankled her to think that Jonas blamed her for her father’s negative reaction, but there was nothing she could do but just try to show him she wasn’t like that. That she genuinely cared for him and was attracted to him.

This was her second chance, and she wasn’t going to blow it. Her father was out of the country and couldn’t interfere.

Hopefully, she and Jonas could get to know each other well enough that her father wouldn’t be able to butt his nose in again. Still, she was taking a risk. Jonas was clearly willing to think the worst of her. She had no guarantee that he wasn’t just scratching an itch and would disappear in the morning.

Jonas obviously desired her, and he had said he would keep her safe—but did that include her heart? Though the sex was incredible, no matter what happened this night, she knew it wouldn’t be enough.

So many emotions were scrambling around inside, she hardly knew what to do with them, especially as reality returned. They stayed in the car with the man Jonas had in effect apprehended. She knew they couldn’t leave him, and that there was an ambulance on its way, but they had less time to make it to Kate now, she thought, looking at her watch.

Thunder still rolled overhead, sounding far away outside the train station. The guy in the seat had come to and was groggy and apologizing. Jonas assured him he was fine, and the EMTs would check him out to make sure.

“Where are we?” he asked.

“They diverted us. We’re at the Spring Garden station,” she said, tension winding in her chest.

The trip had taken her in the opposite direction of where she wanted to go.

“We’ll have to find aboveground transport. I heard them say they were shutting down the city train routes until the storm passed.” Again, she thought of Kate, alone.

“They don’t want to risk another stranding,” he said, nodding grimly. “That could have been really bad.”

“There’s a crowd of people looking for taxis and a line at the buses, so that could take forever,” she warned. “Maybe I should try the car rentals.”

Just then, a tall, black-haired woman and another man stepped onto the train, and Tessa saw EMTs filing in not far behind them.

Tessa could tell from her posture and stride that the woman was someone in a position of authority. The badge on her belt, revealed as she put a hand on her hip, cleared that up quickly. Philadelphia P.D.

Her green eyes lit with pleasure on Jonas, and then with curiosity on Tessa.

“Jonas! You’re the guy who prevented a riot on the train car? I should have known,” she said with a wide grin.

“That would be me.”

“Well, that just made my job a whole lot easier.”

Jonas smiled widely, and a twinge of jealousy grabbed at Tessa. He had never smiled like that for her, so openly. How well did these two know each other?

“Rachel,” he said warmly, and accepted the woman’s brief hug as EMTs boarded and took the man out with them.

Tessa stood, too, holding out her hand, meeting the woman’s eyes. “Hi, I’m Tessa Rose.”

The green eyes narrowed as the woman’s head tilted slightly to the side. “Detective Rachel Pankewski. I know you. You’re Senator Rose’s daughter?” she asked.

“Yes, but more importantly, Jonas’s … friend,” Tessa said pleasantly, holding the woman’s stare.

The detective smiled widely, looking at Jonas again, seeming even more amused.

“So what happened here?” she asked.

“He started to panic when the lights went out. He was big, and started hitting, pushing.”

“Yeah, we have someone with a bruised eye where he clipped them.”

“I got him in a choke hold and tried to talk him down, but he got really riled up,” Jonas said. “I know it was risky, but it was getting bad in there.”

Rachel nodded. “He’ll be okay. He’s still kind of groggy and doesn’t know what happened exactly. We’ll explain the situation to him, and as long as the EMTs clear him, there’s no problem that I can see. He was a public danger to himself and others. We owe you one. We’re all doing whatever we have to tonight. It’s nuts. I had an assault close by, so I responded. I’ll write it up and catch up with you over the next few days. Thanks for keeping this from turning into a real problem.” Rachel smiled. “What are you two doing caught in this in the first place?”

“Tessa has an elderly friend in Germantown who needs some help, she’s low on insulin. We were trying to get there, but with the stoppage on the tracks, they rerouted us here,” he explained. “We’re trying to figure out how to get the next leg.”

“You’ll be stuck here for a while, and the streets are a mess. I have to go, but first let me see what I can do.” The detective quickly reached into her jacket for her phone.

Tessa noticed two other things: her gun in its holster and her wedding rings on a chain around her neck.

“Old flame?” she asked Jonas, her voice not as casual as she’d hoped it would be.

“Old friend. We were street cops together, not partners, but had the same shift and we made detective together. She’s a good egg. And very, very married,” he added with another twitch of his lips.

Tessa’s cheeks burned. She knew she was making an idiot of herself over a man who didn’t even necessarily like her very much, except for the explosive sexual chemistry they shared. She thought again about how he had rarely shared the easy humor or banter with her that he had with his old friend, and she realized it was something she wanted with him.

She craved the passion, and the explosive sex, but she was interested in the other stuff, too. The things that real relationships were made from. The shared intimacy of tiny details that all couples experienced in everyday life. Coffee in the morning, holding hands while watching television, finishing each other’s sentences.

She had no idea if Jonas wanted more than sex with her, or with anyone, for that matter. It pinched at her to think that was all they had, and barely that, even.

The detective joined them again. “Well, there’s no way for me to get a unit down here to take you … we’re stretched beyond capacity, as you can imagine. There is one possibility for transport, if you are open to it,” she said.

“Anything you can do would be wonderful,” Tessa said appreciatively, trying to make up for her previous jealousy. “My friend needs her insulin within an hour or so.”

“Well, we’ve recruited some help from mounted details, and I have officers willing to take you where you need to go, if—”

“Horses?” Jonas said incredulously.

“Yep. Some of the local cowboys and a few of the state police are offering services to get where regular transport can’t go. They can get you there with no stopping, unless the skies open up again.”

“I love horses, no problem,” said Tessa. “I learned to ride as a kid.”

Jonas looked less sure.

“I don’t know, Tessa, maybe you should go, and I can wait—”

“It will be fine, Jonas. Just trust in the universe. This could even be fun,” she said.

“Fun. Right.”

“Don’t worry. The officer will ride, and all you have to do is hang on.”

“Right,” he said again, sounding less than convinced. “Well, let’s go, then.”

The detective led them out through a side exit, and Tessa smiled at the large, handsome quarter horse that stood with his rider under a roof that protected them from the rain, which had lightened considerably, she saw with relief.

The quarter horse belonged to the state cop, who stood next to a younger man, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. Tessa recognized him as one of Philadelphia’s native urban cowboys.

The city had developed a program to help inner-city youth avoid crime and learn to ride, caring for their horses and riding them around the city, as long as they stayed out of trouble and did well in school. The program had some ups and downs over the years, and had had its share of controversies. Struggling to stay afloat in terms of funding, it still was active.

Tessa supported the program through her business, and knew her father did, as well—it was one of the few things they agreed on. It was a good idea, and she loved seeing the horses being ridden down a Philly side street in the evening, the cowboys appearing like some vision from the Old West. She also liked to think about the kids in the program getting a second chance.

“Ricardo? Officer Styles?” Rachel greeted them, and introduced herself, as well as Tessa and Jonas.

“You think you can deliver these two safely to Germantown? They have a friend in need,” the detective explained. “Jonas is a former detective with the force. Tessa owns a store down on South.”

Jonas spoke up upon hearing the younger man’s voice. “Ricardo? Ricardo Nunez?” he asked.

“Detective Berringer,” the young man said happily. “I remember you.”

“Not a detective anymore, but I take it you’re doing well?”

“Yes. Thanks to you,” he said. “Detective Berringer introduced me to the stables when I was a kid. He got me out of a crack house during a raid when I was ten and got me into a good foster home,” Ricardo explained to the rest.

“Ricardo is planning to go to the academy,” Officer Styles interjected. “He wants to be in our Mounted Division.”

Tessa saw the pleasure reflected in Jonas’s expression.

“Ricardo, that’s great,” Jonas said. “I’m proud of you.”

The young man crossed to Jonas, who held out his hand for Ricardo to find, shaking it and pulling the young man in for a quick, manly chest bump.

Tessa’s throat was a little tight with emotion as she looked on. There was so much about Jonas she didn’t know, and she wanted to know it all.

A roll of thunder was dull in the distance, and they all glanced up at the night sky.

“We’d better go. We can get you there pretty quickly, but we have to keep the horses out of the worst of this,” Styles added.

“Okay,” Tessa said, looking at Jonas. “You ready?”

He blew out a breath, offering a sideways smile that made her heart skip. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

“REMIND ME NEVER TO do that again,” Jonas said, wincing as he stretched out his legs in front of the counter where Tessa was waiting for the pharmacist who was gathering Kate’s supplies.

“Oh, it was fun!” she said, smiling and looking as if she really had enjoyed herself.

It had only been a twenty- or thirty-minute horse ride to the pharmacy, cutting cross-lots, but it had been a bit rough considering he didn’t have anything but his jeans between him and the saddle.

He hadn’t been too crazy about Tessa riding with the mounted officer, either. Officer Styles had been enjoying her company a little too much, from what he could tell of the way the guy flirted, encouraging her to “hold on.”

At one point, they had galloped across the park, and he and Nunez had to catch up. Jonas wasn’t sure, but he thought he overheard the guy asking Tessa out.

Regardless of his confused feelings about her, he didn’t want anyone else touching her or flirting with her.

Jonas hadn’t been jealous of anyone in a long time, and he’d almost forgotten what it was like to feel this possessive.

He also reminded himself that he had no ties to Tessa, and didn’t want any. The sexual chemistry between them was combustible. They were willing adults sharing some mutual enjoyment, but that was it.

In the morning, they would have to accept that nothing had changed.

Liar, an inner voice accused.

“It was kind of exciting, don’t you think?” Tessa asked, interrupting his thoughts and sounding more relaxed. Jonas knew she was relieved to be at the pharmacy, and they could walk the rest of the way to Kate’s. Officer Styles was willing to take her as far as she wanted to go, as he’d made clear, but once Jonas was down off that steed, there was no way he was getting back up on it.

“Exciting. That’s one word for it,” Jonas said dryly, and felt her nudge him.

“You looked good up there. You should take up riding. I can toally see you in a cowboy hat and boots,” she said, and he wasn’t sure if she was teasing.

“Not likely.” He shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other, recalling the ride. “I do have a bike.”

“A bicycle?”

“A motorcycle,” he corrected. “An eighties Harley that I take out on the road when I’m off duty.”

“Very sexy,” she purred, sliding up close to him.

“So, did the Mountie ask you out?”

“Hold on,” she said, kissing him lightly and avoiding the question. “They just called my number at the counter.”

Jonas sighed in frustration. She wasn’t making this easier. He couldn’t get a fix on her. She was sexy and alluring, flirtatious and open about it. He couldn’t see what had gone on between her and the officer, but he knew that flirty laugh, and figured she’d had a good time. It confirmed his earlier suspicions about her.

She was also a concerned friend and a kind person. A passionate woman who didn’t hide who she was.

If he was really honest, maybe he was as angry at himself as he was at her. No matter how much he could blame Tessa for getting him in a bind with her father, Jonas had been the one placed in a position of authority, sent to protect her. He was also the one who’d caved to temptation.

And still wanted to.

It wasn’t the first time he’d made that mistake. His mind wandered back to his last year on the force. His unit had been working with the Bunko Squad to take down an underground gambling ring.

The bodies of several people associated with the ring had surfaced around town, and Homicide was called in, where Jonas had made detective two years before. When Bunko undercover officers had snagged an inside CI, a confidential informant, to serve as a witness, she’d been given to Homicide to watch while the undercover team closed in.

Jonas, the junior detective at the time, had been on protection detail at the safe house. He still remembered Irena Nadik. Young, lovely and lethal.

The lethal part he’d had no idea about. Jonas had believed she was a victim, and that was how she played it. Forced to comply with a ruthless crime boss’s orders, she’d tearfully relayed a story about her father’s murder by the men who held her now against her will, the constant threats to sell her into the sex trade when they were done with her.

Jonas had fallen for her, let her seduce him, and looked forward to when the case was closed and they could be together. He’d even thought of marriage. Maybe that was how he’d rationalized breaking the rules for love.

He’d had no idea she was playing him the whole time. Slept with him, got him to tell her things he shouldn’t have.

On the night of the raid, she’d drugged him, and used his own phone to try to warn the ring. Luckily, his partner had shown up and caught her before she succeeded.

The ring was taken down, Irena was in jail for a good long time, but Jonas had messed up big-time. He was suspended during an investigation, but eventually cleared for duty with only a light reprimand on his record.

But Jonas knew the truth. He couldn’t look the guys he worked with in the eye each day and expect them to trust him when he had messed up so seriously. For a woman.

He left the force the following year and joined the personal security business Garrett was launching. It had taken him a long time to trust his instincts again, and that’s what bothered him the most. He didn’t know what to think about Tessa.

It was easy to focus on the job.

The senator was out of the country, and he was given a light-duty assignment to keep her company, make sure she was okay. He had no idea what the senator’s agenda was, or Tessa’s, for that matter, but he could focus on the job. That he knew how to do.

“All set. Kate’s house is about six blocks from here, though we had better hurry,” Tessa said briskly, breaking into his brief foray into the past. “The storm is winding up again.”

He didn’t say anything, still caught up in dark thoughts, but let her take his hand.

“I picked up a few things for later,” she said mischievously, putting a bag in his hand, where he felt the corner of what he assumed were several rather large boxes of condoms.

“You’re overestimating my endurance,” he said.

“I just thought we’d like some variety,” she countered.

Feeling cornered, wanting what he couldn’t, and shouldn’t, have, but not knowing how to walk away, he just kept moving.

“Everything okay?” she asked, clearly picking up on his change in mood.

“Let’s get to Kate’s before the storm hits,” he said shortly.

He couldn’t let this go any further.

He had to walk away. He’d get her safely to her friend’s, then back to her place, and try to finish this job without making things worse. The crunching sound of the bag of condoms he carried seemed to mock him.

The wind was picking up, and she linked her elbow in his, picking up the pace.

“Is this storm never going to stop?” Tessa said breathlessly as they hurried down the street.

She guided him flawlessly, alerting him to step down or up, holding him close with her elbow linked in his. “It’s like some bad Armageddon movie out here,” she joked.

The end of the world as we know it.

Jonas twisted his mouth sardonically at his own sense of melodrama.

“Tomorrow the sun will come out, and it will just be a memory,” he said, unsure if he was talking completely about the storm.

She yipped as thunder cracked overhead, and jumped closer to him, moving faster.

Jonas stopped suddenly, wrenching her to a stop as well, the flash of light obliterating any of his previous thoughts.

The flash that he saw.

He pointed. “Was that lightning—over there, this direction,” he asked while pointing, his voice urgent.

“I think so,” Tessa said cautiously. “It’s kind of all around us.”

Then it happened again. A dim flash at the corner of his eye, and he whipped his head in that direction.

“There!”

Tessa sucked in a breath, realizing what he was saying.

“Oh, my God, Jonas, you saw it! You saw the lightning!”

She let out a whoop and flew into his arms as the thunder growled even more loudly above, following the lightning strike.

Jonas held her, but lifted his face into the rain, eager, urgently wanting to see another flash, needing more confirmation that he hadn’t imagined it.

Tessa’s arms were tight around his neck, and he wasn’t sure if it was rain or tears he felt on her skin. In his excitement, he’d forgotten how afraid she was of the storm.

“I’m sorry. I just remembered you don’t like storms. I … can’t believe I might have actually seen something.”

“I don’t care about the storm,” she said. “I’m so happy for you.”

Then she was kissing him as the rain came down harder and the wind picked up around them. He gathered her up close, returning the kiss with everything he had, jubilant in the moment.

Tessa’s not Irena, he thought, and neither were his feelings for the two women at all similar.

Irena had been exotic, different and had appealed to him as a younger man who was easily fooled by beauty and charm.

Jonas wasn’t as easy to fool anymore—was he?

He wasn’t so sure he could walk away, in spite of his temporary resolve to do so. They parted, breathing heavily, as the rain came down harder.

Jonas wished more than anything that he could see her. Maybe if he could see her face, her expression, her eyes, he could know if she was being honest with him. If any of this was real.

Soon, he thought, another bright flash showing up in his field of vision.

“We have to go,” he said.

They ran the rest of the way to the address where Kate lived, and Jonas was relieved to finally be under cover as the weather worsened. On the relative shelter of the porch, Tessa searched for her keys.

“Damn, I left Kate’s keys at home,” she blurted in frustration. “How could I have done that?”

Jonas’s attention was split. His body felt electric, as if the storm was surging through him. He’d seen several more flashes on the way to the house, enough to cement his certainty that his vision had started to return.

One of the flashes had even been very bright, from a relatively close lightning strike that had scared the death out of Tessa, but thrilled him—both because he saw it and because it sent her into his arms.

He couldn’t find any way around his dilemma. There was no way to counter the damage that Senator Rose could do to his family, but he would take every chance he had to taste, touch and experience Tessa while he could.

“Kate will love meeting you, but I warn you, she’s a real pistol,” Tessa said, pressing the doorbell.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said, nipping at her earlobe. “You’re delicious, you know,” he added.

“Behave,” Tessa warned playfully as they stood outside Kate’s door, and she pushed the buzzer one more time.

There was no answer.

“It’s me, Kate. Tessa. I have your medicine,” Tessa called through the door, knocking again as they saw someone pull back a curtain near the window.

“Who? I don’t know you. Go away,” the woman yelled through the door, sounding frightened.

“Kate, it’s me, Tessa,” Tessa said again. “I have your medicine.” She tried to turn the doorknob, but it was no use.

“I don’t take any medicine. You are here to rob me,” the older woman claimed in a high-pitched voice.

“She must have miscalculated for her next dose,” Tessa said worriedly. “Confusion and paranoia can be part of ketoacidosis. We have to get in there.”

“Call 911,” Jonas instructed. “Do you have anything small, like a bobby pin?”

“No—wait,” Tessa said, clearly shaken. “I do, here,” she said, shoving something into his hands, dialing her cell phone to call paramedics.

Jonas focused, finding the door lock. He hadn’t done this in a number of years, and he’d never been great at it, but urgency fueled his movements.

He found that not being able to see actually increased his awareness of the mechanism of the lock. Not using his eyes, he could focus instead on the sense of movement or resistance offered by the pins, and almost as soon as Tessa hung up her call, he had the lock open.

“You are amazing,” Tessa said, opening the door, only to find the chain and a chair propped up against it. Kate really did think they were there to rob her.

“Time for a little brute force, huh?” he guessed.

“I think so,” she agreed, and they both put their shoulders to the door and shoved, breaking the chain and pushing the door inward.

“What do you think you’re doing?” a voice bellowed behind them. “I have called 911!”

Tessa turned to see an older woman on the porch holding a broom up in the air as if to swat at them. She calmed as she squinted, focusing in.

“Tessa, is that you?”

“It is me, Betty. I’m so sorry to worry you, we have to get inside to help Kate—she’s out of insulin.”

“Oh, no,” Betty said, dropping the broom and joining them, sizing up Jonas in the process.

“And you are …?” the older woman asked him.

“Friend of Tessa’s.”

“Do you have a name?”

“Jonas, ma’am.”

“Do you knock doors in often?”

“Only for beautiful sounding women,” he said with a smile, and Betty smiled back.

“Emergency is en route, but we have to keep her calm and give her an injection right away, if we can, the 911 operator instructed,” Tessa said.

Jonas nodded. “I can try to hold her still if need be, while you do that.”

“I’ll help keep her calm. She might recognize me,” Betty offered, and came in with them.

Kate was resistant but weak, and still very confused. Jonas felt terrible having to restrain her, even gently, but he spoke quietly in her ear, saying small, nonsensical things until Tessa had administered the shot of insulin. Kate seemed to relax against him moments later.

“She passed out,” Tessa said, sounding panicked just as the sound of the EMT sirens could be heard out on the street.

“The EMTs will take good care of her,” Jonas said just as patiently. “She’ll be fine. You got here in time,” he said to Tessa, putting his hand to her face and feeling hot tears.

He wanted to go to her, to hold her, but he was supporting the unconscious woman and couldn’t move.

“You’re very handsome, you know,” Betty interjected, silencing him and making Tessa laugh as EMTs came in and took over for them.

“I hope she’s going to be okay,” Tessa said, holding Jonas’s hand. “Will you excuse me for a moment? I need to use Kate’s bathroom,” she said to Jonas, and squeezed his hand before she walked away.

Jonas chatted with Betty and a few other neighbors who had come out to see what was going on while the EMTs prepped Kate for transport.

“Tessa is such a special girl,” Betty said. “She’s always so good to Kate, and even brought us homemade soup when my husband was sick last winter. She even cleaned house for me.”

“Really?” Jonas asked.

“You’re blind?” Betty asked curiously.

“Yep.”

“Well, I can tell you that she’s gorgeous, inside and out. I hope you appreciate that,” Betty told him.

“I’m starting to,” he said more to himself than to anyone else.

Jonas thought the older woman might ask about his intentions, next, but was glad when one of the other neighbors engaged Betty in conversation.

He knew Tessa was gorgeous. As for the rest, he was trying to match his earlier assumptions about her with everything else he was learning, and was coming up short. All he had to base his ideas of her on were media reports, her background check and her father’s opinion.

But he had his own opinion, as well.

Could he have been wrong about her motives?

“Hey, what are you doing here, Jon?” Jonas heard a familiar voice ask.

“Brad?” he guessed, not sure he was identifying the voice right.

“Yeah, it’s me, buddy. How are you?”

Brad was a firefighter/EMT that Berringer Security had helped out a while ago. Brad’s sister had been bothered by an old boyfriend, and Chance had helped keep an eye on her and made it clear to the ex that he needed to go away for good.

“I heard you lost your eyesight. Tough break. Job go bad?”

Jonas decided to skip over that, and got to the heart of it, hoping he could use this connection to their advantage.

“Yeah, something like that, but it’s temporary. I think my vision will be back soon,” he said. “Listen, we’re kind of in a bad spot here. I was hoping we could ride along with you. My friend is this woman’s caretaker, and is very concerned, but we don’t have a vehicle.”

“The blonde? She’s your client?”

Jonas could hear the high five in Brad’s tone.

“Yeah. She’s mine,” he said, maybe a little more possessively than he meant to. “I’d appreciate it, though I know it’s not usually allowed.”

“I can make it happen. It would be good for the patient to see someone she knows as she comes out of this, too,” Brad said.

Jonas thanked him and returned to tell Tessa, who hugged him tight, much to the tittering approval of the older women looking on.

“Thank you, Jonas. Thank you so much for your help with Kate,” she said, hugging him again. Her concern and her gratitude were so authentic, he felt like a total jerk for ever doubting her motives about anything, and doubly so for lying to her about why he was with her.

If Tessa knew that her father had ordered him to be with her right now, he had a feeling she wouldn’t be as thrilled with him. But he was also under orders not to tell her. James was right, that if she knew, she would not only be upset, she would reject his protection, and he couldn’t let that happen.

As they started following the EMTs out as they wheeled Kate along, Jonas heard his name called from behind. Betty, the woman who had thought he was handsome, met him as he turned around.

“Here, handsome, you forgot these,” she said conspiratorially, pushing the small bag he’d dropped out on the porch—the condoms—into his hand. “Being blind is no excuse for not being careful,” she added.

He choked out a thanks, and felt his face turn hot as he turned back to Tessa, who was laughing. Hard.

“Jonas, if you could only see your face,” she said, breathless with laughter.

He smiled, optimistic for the first time in a while. “Soon enough, I think. Soon enough.”

6

11:00 p.m.

TESSA WAS EXHAUSTED, happy, relieved, hopeful and worried all at the same time as she walked out of Kate’s hospital room. Everything was fine, and after being treated, her friend had returned to being her old self in no time.

In fact, Kate had shooed them out of the room after properly interrogating Jonas as to his intentions, and receiving only stuttering replies. Tessa hadn’t minded at all, since she was a little curious about Jonas’s intentions, as well.

He seemed to go in and out of high and low moods all night, as if he was waging some internal struggle he couldn’t tell her about. She assumed it had to do with his sight more than anything to do with her, but she hoped that maybe he was seeing that she wasn’t the conniving manipulator that he thought she was.

That was the worrying part. Jonas had politely excused himself so that she could have a moment alone with Kate before they left. Kate had held her hand tight, looking somewhat worried herself.

“You love him, Tessa?”

The words had hit her like a straight-on lightning strike, and her first impulse was to deny it.

“I care about him. It’s too soon for anything else, Kate.”

“Oh, that’s ridiculous. I knew I loved my Hank within five minutes of seeing him and knew that I’d marry him within ten.”

“Jonas and I have had a rockier start. I’m not sure he even likes me that much.”

“How on earth could you think that? The man is out in a terrible storm, at your side,” Kate said. “Men don’t do that for women they don’t like.”

Tessa sighed, and related the earlier conversation, and how Jonas believed that she had only wanted to use him against her father.

“You were a child when you did those crazy things,” Kate objected. “It has nothing to do with the woman you are now.”

“I hope he realizes that. I think there’s more going on, though I’m not sure what it is.”

Kate squeezed her hand. “Well, I think he has more feelings for you than he realizes, but only time will tell. A woman has to protect her heart.”

“Thanks, though it might be a little late for that,” Tessa said, feeling tears burning hot behind her eyes, but not wanting to upset Kate after her ordeal. “But I’m a big girl.”

“And you deserve a good man. I hope he’s smart enough to figure that out,” Kate said.

“I hope so, too. You be well. I’ll be back tomorrow to help you home,” Tessa said.

“You get some rest. Betty offered to do the same. You focus on your young man and making things work. I’ll be fine.”

“Thank you, Kate. I’m so glad you’re okay. You really scared me.” Tessa hugged her and still planned to be there the next day.

It was what happened between now and then that had her in knots.

Jonas had waited outside the room, quiet and pensive. He didn’t say a word as they turned to the elevator, but then were waylaid by one of Kate’s nurses.

“Hey, I have something for you,” she said, thrusting a pile of blue scrubs at them. “Kate asked. You guys are leaving puddles wherever you walk,” the nurse said with a grin, “and you’re going to get sick. There’s an empty room at the end of the hall, with a bathroom. Feel free to go down there and get clean and dry before you head out.”

Tessa was sure she’d just died and gone to heaven—her skin was clammy, and her hair was dripping down her back. She felt like a drowned rat and was, selfishly, kind of glad that Jonas couldn’t see her.

She knew she looked like hell. Surgical scrubs weren’t exactly fashionable, but they were soft, clean and dry, and she took Jonas’s hand and headed for the room.

“This is awesome,” she said, giddy with relief as she walked in and shut the door.

“I have to admit, it would be great to get out of these soggy jeans, and to wash the horse smell off,” he admitted, stripping off his jacket.

The shower in the bath was only big enough for a single person, so much to Tessa’s disappointment, they cleaned up quickly using what shampoo and soap were available. They weren’t as nice as the things at her shop, but she felt a million times better when she emerged. The scrubs fit just right, and were so comfortable. She sat back on the bed and waited for Jonas as he did the same.

Was this the end of their evening, or just the beginning? Had he changed his mind about wanting to be with her? A few minutes later, he emerged, dressed and smelling completely horse free. She had to admit, it was an improvement.

“You look like McDreamy,” she said with a grin, and wondered if they dared commandeer the room any longer to make use of the bed.

Jonas smiled, but didn’t go to her. Had he changed his mind?

“We’d better be on our way,” he suggested, and she agreed, trying to hide her disappointment as they made their way to the main entrance.

Awkward tension settled between them as they stood beneath the fluorescent hospital lights.

“Crazy night,” she said, hating small talk, but unsure what else to say.

“Trains, taxis, horses and ambulances,” he agreed with a short chuckle. “What next?”

Their answer came as they stepped out to the main entrance, and looked for their cab.

“Not here yet,” Tessa said, feeling increasingly tense. “Things are so overwhelming tonight for everyone.”

“It might take some time.”

Were they still talking about the storm? she wondered.

He seemed preoccupied and distant, and she wasn’t sure what to do.

A stretch limo pulled up and parked in front of them. Tessa watched the driver get out, an older man clad in a long raincoat and hat, who held two huge umbrellas as he made his way to the main entrance.

Looking at her and then Jonas, he approached them with a smile. Tessa figured he was seeking shelter himself or thought they were his clients.

No such luck.

“Tessa Rose?”

She paused in surprise. “Yes, that’s me.”

“I’m your driver, Collins. This way, please,” the driver said, and held the two umbrellas out to them.

“Wait, there’s some mistake,” she sputtered, and then halted. “Did Senator Rose send you?” she asked cautiously.

The driver seemed surprised. “No. I received a call from Ms. Masters to come pick you up here. At your service, miss,” the driver said again, guiding a shocked Tessa to the passenger door, and then helping to guide Jonas to the other side.

Kate sent them a limo?

Only then did she note the name of the transport company embossed on the inside of the rich leather door.

Masters’s Luxury Transport.

“Kate owns the limo service?” Tessa said in shock, catching Collins’s smile in the rearview mirror.

“Yes, ma’am. It’s a small company with only five vehicles, but we do a steady business. Her husband started it many years ago, and left the majority of it to her when he died, with a small share going to me, as well, for my retirement, but I enjoy the work. Hank Masters hired me twenty-five years ago. He was a good man.”

Tessa sat back in the luxurious seat, shocked. She never would have guessed. Kate lived so conservatively, and even took the bus and train to get around town, at least as far as Tessa knew.

Collins leaned in, his arm on the door. “Kate told me what you did for her tonight. She tried to contact me earlier in the evening, to pick up her medicine for her, but I was in Baltimore dropping off a couple to their wedding and couldn’t get back in time. Thank you, ma’am and sir,” Collins said expressively, obviously very fond of his employer.

“I would do anything for Kate,” Tessa said truthfully, taking Jonas’s hand. “And thank goodness Jonas could get that door open,” she said. “I could never have done it by myself.”

“You let me know if you need anything,” Collins said. “I am at your disposal for as long as you need me.”

Kate was obviously trying to help her and Jonas along a little, Tessa guessed. A compartment opened on the other side, sliding out to reveal a champagne bar, strawberries and pretty, foil-wrapped chocolates.

“Some privacy, perhaps?” Collins asked with a twinkle in his eye.

Tessa, still stunned, nodded.

“Enjoy,” was all Collins said as he closed the door and slid into the driver’s seat, which seemed yards away from where they sat. A solid, and probably soundproof, barrier rose between them. A minute later, the car pulled smoothly away from the hospital.

The vehicle seemed to cut through the wind and rain like butter, the dark windows lit only now and then by a flash of lightning.

“I can’t get over this,” she said. “In all the time I’ve known Kate, she never said a word about owning a business.”

“It sounds like it was her husband’s venture, and maybe Collins runs it now,” Jonas agreed.

“I’m so relieved. I always worry about her being comfortable, or paying her bills.”

“People of their generation don’t make an issue out of wealth like some do,” Jonas said. “It’s good to have friends who care about you. Kate obviously values that,” he said.

“I do, too,” Tessa responded, hoping he knew how much she meant it.

A buzzer sounded. Tessa pressed the button that lit up on the console.

“Yes?”

“I have your addresses, ma’am, but Ms. Masters wondered if you would like a late meal, since you may have missed dinner while getting to her apartment. There’s no hurry.”

“Now that you mention it, I am hungry,” Tessa said. “And please call me Tessa. But we’re not really dressed for dinner,” she said. They looked like a couple of surgeons coming home from work.

The idea triggered a fun idea for role play—she would love to play doctor with Jonas, she thought mischievously, but then returned her attention to Collins.

“If you have any preference, let me know. I’m sure your attire won’t be an issue.”

An idea sparked immediately, and Tessa put down the divider, climbing forward to whisper something in Collins’s ear. She knew the perfect place.

Putting the divider back, she eyed the champagne. “Okay then. I guess we’re riding in style,” she said to Jonas as she poured two glasses of champagne and went back to sit by his side, handing him one.

“I’m so glad it wasn’t my dad who sent this car,” she said honestly.

“Why?” Jonas asked, and she wasn’t sure if she detected a note of suspicion in his tone.

“I don’t like owing him anything, or having him monitor my movements. He says he doesn’t, or that he’s just trying to keep me safe, but I know old habits are hard to break.”

“He’s just looking out for you. Dads are usually protective of their daughters.”

“Protective is one thing. Dad takes it to a whole other level.”

“How so?” Jonas asked.

“When I was young, we were close,” Tessa said, remembering.

Her father had been the sun, moon and stars back then. He’d taught her to ride a bike, played tea party with her and had sent her first flowers, delivered by a florist on her thirteenth birthday.

“But he confuses protection with control. I don’t like to be controlled,” she said, remembering less pleasant teenage years when her father had made her life miserable more than once. “As I got older, I realized he wanted me to be who he wanted, not who I am.”

“Isn’t that typical with teenagers and parents? My brothers and I gave my parents a few tough moments, as well. All teenagers rebel.”

“It was more than that. I couldn’t have a normal social life, even more so than what happens with other politicians’ kids. He wanted to approve my friends, my activities, my boyfriends. It seemed like I only mattered so far as I was a reflection on him.”

“I’m sure he didn’t think that,” Jonas said. “Your father has always seemed to genuinely care for you. He’s proud of you.”

Tessa snorted. “That’s the image he shows to everyone else. He was furious when I dropped out of college.”

“Seems like most parents would be.”

“Yeah, probably, but I was only studying law because he wanted me to. I’d gotten into soap-making as a hobby, but I loved it. I was good at it. I was selling soaps online and to classmates out of my dorm room,” she said with a laugh.

“You couldn’t do both?”

“I didn’t want to. Maybe if he had let me do something more creative, more … me, I would have stuck it out, but I hated what I was doing, and I knew I wanted to open a shop. He thought that it was frivolous, the shop, the soap-making. He forbade me to do it. He tried to stop me, at first.”

“How?”

“He blocked the business loans I applied for, and did anything else he could to thwart me,” she said, remembering how ugly that had gotten.

A woman who had been buying her products for a while, who also happened to work in credit services, told Tessa why her bank loans weren’t getting approval.

She’d been furious and felt betrayed by her father in the most hurtful way.

“He really did that?” Jonas said, sitting up, his blind gaze focused on her as she spoke.

She knew he only saw the facade her father provided, the solid politician who cared about country and family. The man who put up with a wayward daughter who was selfish and ungrateful. It was what everyone saw.

James believed his own press, and she figured he really thought he did the things he did for her own good.

“Yeah, he really did that, and more.”

“Like?”

“Well, the worst offense, other than the store, was paying off a guy I was crazy about in college. He was in the music program, wanted to be a guitar player. We were so in love … and suddenly he received a paid scholarship to Juilliard.”

“That’s a huge break,” Jonas said, frowning.

“Yeah. One that my father funded, I found out later. He would have had a heart attack if I had married a rock guitarist.”

“Oh,” Jonas said, frowning deeper. “So what happened with the store?”

“I proved to him that I can play hardball just as well as he can. I knew a city reporter, a guy who was dating a friend of mine, and I told Dad if he didn’t get his nose out of my business, I would leak the story to the press, about how a city councilman, which was his job then, was using his clout with local banks to block small-business loans. If I went on record, it would have been a nasty political blow,” she said. “And I had the paperwork to prove it.”

“That sounds … bad.”

“It was. He backed off and let the loan go through. It didn’t matter. If he hadn’t, I would have just used my trust fund left to me by my grandfather. He couldn’t touch that, but I didn’t want to use it if I didn’t have to.”

She sighed. “We didn’t speak to or see each other for two years after that. Then my mom got sick, and when we were trying to be there for her, and after she was gone, it brought us together again. He had to admit I was doing well, and things got better. He even came to the shop, and we have lunch now and then. But I’m always wary of him.”

“I had no idea,” Jonas said quietly.

“No one does. My exploits, as you know, were fairly well noted in the media. I know I was wrong to act out like I did back then, but I couldn’t help it. He was smothering. He says it’s all out of love, and I think he believes that sometimes, but it’s hard for him to let me be who I am.”

“You’re probably more like him than you think,” Jonas said.

Tessa drew back. “Why would you say that?”

“I’m sorry. It didn’t come out how I meant it. Just that … you’d have to be a strong personality not to let someone like him, with his own strong presence, completely obliterate you.”

She took a deep breath, and released it, relieved. “Yeah. I never thought about it that way, but I suppose that’s probably why we came at each other so hard over the years.”

Jonas was quiet then, his face pensive, and she watched him closely.

“What are you thinking about?”

He blinked, as if not realizing he had mentally wandered off.

“Oh, sorry. I just can’t imagine growing up with all that pressure.”

“Different families have different dynamics.”

“Yeah.”

She noticed he hadn’t taken even one sip of his champagne. “You don’t like your drink?”

“Not thirsty.”

“Me, neither,” she agreed, and set the glasses down. She quickly stripped off her scrubs and returned to the seat, straddling his lap. His arm grazed her bare skin, his hand finding its way down her arm to her waist, hip and leg, his pulse slamming in the base of his throat.

“You’re naked.”

“You noticed.”

She leaned in to kiss him. “I hope Collins takes the long way,” she said, bringing both his hands up to cover her breasts.

“Where are we going?”

The way his voice lowered and caught ever so slightly as he massaged her made her happy. She wanted him to be affected by her.

“It’s a surprise,” she said.

He didn’t say anything, and seemed to be holding his breath, as if deciding something.

That internal war again, whatever it was, she knew.

So she decided for him, leaning forward and kissing him until she had his complete attention. If he still thought she was seducing him for her own purposes, he was right.

Maybe he had the intentions wrong, but this was definitely selfish. She wanted him, and she knew he wanted her. She was willing to deal with any backlash later to have him now.

But he seemed to come around to her way of thinking rather easily, taking her into his arms and easing her down to her back. She stretched out on the sumptuous leather, and he followed, covering her with his own body.

She pushed his shirt up over his head, and he kicked his pants off. Then they were skin to skin, head to toe, and she almost purred when the strong, muscular legs wedged in between her thighs in a very erotic way. He didn’t rush to get inside her, but lay there, covering her, touching her and whispering sweet things she’d never forget.

Tessa closed her eyes in the bliss of Jonas’s body against her. As they settled into each other, nestled in the soft leather of the seat, Tessa had a sense of rightness she hadn’t ever felt before. She knew she was meant to be with this man. She had the rest of the night to convince him of that.

JONAS WAS A GONER as soon as he’d realized Tessa was naked.

Though their discussion had created more questions than answers for him, at the moment he had had five feet seven inches of delectable, delicious woman spread out beneath him.

He sighed softly against the skin just below her ear.

“This is nice,” she said breathlessly.

“Nice is a weak word,” he said lightly, nipping her earlobe, then sucking on it, swirling his tongue around the delicate inner shell. “Awesome. Fantastic. Mind-bending,” he offered, punctuating each word with a kiss, then a bite, then another kiss to soothe the sting.

Jonas was so hungry for her he didn’t know where to start. His hands explored lower, sliding down the smooth lines of her back to cup her firm ass and pull her up against him. He groaned as his erection rubbed against a soft patch of curls and slick flesh.

Being so close with Tessa shook him to his core. He took his time, moving his shaft slowly along her sex, driving them both crazy. He was gratified when her nails dug into his back and she pushed up against him, seeking him, a wordless sigh and whole-body tremor releasing yet another wash of heat from her body.

She made the prettiest sounds, her body cradling his perfectly. Drawing a lush, erect nipple in between his lips, he let the sensations of touch and taste roll over him.

“I wish I could see you,” he said, rising to find her lips for a kiss. “I’ve only ever touched you in the dark.”

“You’re right,” she said softly. “I hadn’t realized that. It will come back, Jonas.” She moved against him. “And when it does, I’ll still be here, if you want me to be.”

Her words made him ache. He was starting to want that more than just about anything, and that was dangerous, he knew. What she’d told him about her father had explained a lot. Jonas had made a hell of a leap based on partial information.

And he was keeping a secret that would tear her from his arms, he knew.

“I guess until then touching and tasting every inch of you will have to suffice,” he teased, injecting lightness into his voice, though his heart was heavy.

“I can live with that,” she said, sliding her hand down his chest to his lower stomach, finally caressing his cock and making him suck in a sharp breath.

As she left fluttering kisses all over his face, neck and shoulders, he moved to accommodate her as she worked her way lower and took him into her mouth.

He dived his hands into her hair, enjoying the multitude of sensations her mouth was creating as she licked and sucked, her warm mouth and soft lips nearly driving him over the edge. Pulling her around, he slid his hand between her legs and found her soaked, hot. He slid a finger inside, then two, and loved how her moans made her mouth vibrate around his cock.

“Condom. Now,” he demanded raggedly.

The next thing he heard was the ripping of the packet. He held his breath, waiting, hoping … and hissed out a sigh as she deftly covered him, kissing and teasing while she did.

Jonas eased her back on the seat, sliding his hand down to her ankle and pulling it up to rest against his shoulder.

“I’ve dreamed of this,” he confessed.

“Me, too.”

Turning his mouth to find the soft skin of her inner leg, he moved his fingers down to the crux of her body, seeking the hard, pebbled nub of her clit and stroking in slow, rhythmic motions.

Tessa’s whole body twisted toward him on the seat as she sought more, writhing under his touch, her gasps and moans increasingly urgent.

“Jonas, please, I want you inside me when I come,” she panted.

He pushed her a little more, turned on by her restraint, how she held back even as her body trembled with the effort.

When Jonas was sure she was as close to the edge as he was, he guided himself into her welcoming body, the very act drawing the breath out of him. She closed around him like a fist as he filled her with one, deep, purposeful thrust that made them both groan in ecstasy.

He’d never felt anything quite so perfect, he was sure of it. He paused, fighting the impulse to move, soaking up the sensation of her hot, inner muscles pulsing around his cock.

“Please, Jonas,” she begged, arching up under him.

He granted her request, withdrawing slowly and then thrusting forward again, his hand caressing her calf as he tried to create the image of what she must look like in his mind’s eye.

He nipped and kissed the flesh beneath her knee, opening her farther to his thrusts as he moved faster, letting need set the pace. She drove him on with hot, raw descriptions as she joined in, touching herself, telling him what she was feeling, what she wanted him to do to her.

He wanted to do all of it, over and over again.

He was sure he’d died and gone to heaven when he felt her hand down between them, her fingers circling the root of him as he thrust inside her.

“So. Good. Jonas,” she moaned, alternating touching him and herself.

Pulling her other leg up over his other shoulder, Jonas pumped into her without restraint, all the pent-up desire, need and anticipation he had for this woman driving him.

The orgasm was like nothing he had ever experienced. Release created a splash of color behind his eyelids as it shook his body. He kept thrusting, and amazingly, when normally the sensation would start to fade, it was instead followed by a second wave of pleasure that had him gasping as she clenched him tight, her nails scraping his chest as she cried out her own release.

Finally the urgency eased and he lowered her legs, withdrawing from her body reluctantly and pulling her up against him. Jonas had never been what he would call a snuggly kind of guy, but he needed the contact as if to reassure himself that this was real, that Tessa was really here with him.

Her skin was damp with perspiration, which intensified the scents of soap and sex. Her body was pliant and he stroked her wherever he could touch.

“Keep that up,” she said on a sigh, “and we’ll be reaching for the box again soon.”

“Sounds good to me,” he said.

He sought her lips for another kiss, the heat actually growing again between them, when a buzzer sounded somewhere close. Collins’s voice followed on the intercom.

“We’re close to our destination, unless you’d like me to drive around more. If so, hit the intercom button twice.”

Jonas and Tessa laughed at their driver’s discretion in not asking for a verbal response.

“He drove all the way from Baltimore already tonight. I think we can get dressed and give the guy a break,” Tessa said, extricating herself from Jonas’s embrace, though slowly.

“We can,” he agreed, but didn’t let her go before he pulled her in for another heart-stopping, promising kiss.

The next few moments were filled with the sounds of them righting themselves, dressing and hoping they were presentable before they gave the okay to Collins.

The car stopped, and a door opened on Tessa’s side. While making love to Tessa, Jonas hadn’t even noticed that the pounding rain on the outside of the car had lightened to a drizzle. The winds had calmed and he heard thunder rolling gently off in the distance.

As Collins opened his door, Jonas looked skyward, though he couldn’t see anything. The reflex to look was automatic, especially now that he had some hope that his vision was returning.

“It appears the worst of the storm has passed, sir,” Collins confirmed. “But the blackout is quite widespread and has not been rectified.”

“Where are we?” he asked.

“It’s a restaurant called Noir,” Tessa said.

“I’ve heard of it,” Jonas said. “They serve meals in complete darkness. The waitstaff is blind, as is the owner,” he said, unsure how he felt about that. “But how can they be open during a blackout?”

“A lot of the businesses have back-up generators, especially restaurants, since they need to keep food cold,” Tessa elaborated. “Though I imagine they might have a limited menu tonight.”

“That makes sense.”

He guessed Tessa was trying to make him feel more comfortable, which wasn’t at all necessary. He’d be just as happy going back to her place and finding something to eat there—preferably naked.

She stepped up close to him, and he could still detect the scents of sex on her skin, his soap mixing with her flowery scent. It was so sensual, he didn’t want anything to break the mood.

“I’ve heard such great things about it, I thought it would be … interesting,” she said, sounding unsure. “One of the things about Noir is being able to understand what it’s like to be blind. I want to understand how you’re experiencing the world right now, Jonas, but if it bothers you, we can go somewhere else.”

Taking his hand in hers, she absently rubbed her thumb over his knuckles, waiting for his answer.

“I’ve eaten all my meals in the dark for the last month, but I’m still curious about the place,” he said. “It’ll be fun,” he offered gamely.

They walked in and followed their server’s instructions to follow the handrail along the wall of the dark hallway to the back dining room, where a private table had been reserved for them.

“You are two brave souls to venture out tonight. We had dozens of cancellations, understandably,” the server said.

Jonas heard Tessa’s surprised gasp, and felt her stop beside him.

“Tessa?”

“Sorry. There’s not so much as a slant of light in here. It’s so black … it feels like it swallows you,” she said, and her fingers closed around his a little more tightly.

“We don’t have to stay,” he said.

“No, I’m fine. I was just thrown by how dark it is, stupid as that sounds, especially since we’ve spent all night in the dark.”

“Not stupid at all,” the server interrupted. “People often have that initial response to complete dark. Though you may turn off the lights at night, most places still have degrees of light twenty-four hours a day, whether from the moon, streetlights, night-lights, et cetera. So the experience of complete darkness can be quite startling,” he explained kindly.

“You’re right. I never thought about it that way,” Tessa confessed, sounding more relaxed.

“But you learn to use your other senses, and you learn to trust the people around you. You’ll see,” he said, and led them to a table, seating them next to each other.

“Being in the dark can be a revelation. You start to know each other in a new way, to find out things even about people you thought you knew well.”

As they settled into their seats, the waiter offered a short history of the restaurant.

“Dinners in total darkness started, as far as we know, as early as the nineteenth century. In the 1990s, Europeans began experimenting with dark dining, dark bars and similar events. The Paul Guinot Foundation, a French organization for the blind, came up with the idea of dinners in total darkness called Le gout du noir or ‘Taste of darkness.’”

“That’s fascinating,” Tessa responded. “But how is the food prepared?”

Jonas admitted that he, too, had initially thought it was only a marketing angle, and had no idea of the history of the place.

“Our cooks are able to see, along with minimal other staff,” the waiter assured them before asking if they had any questions. He also cautioned them to stay at their tables, to keep the area where he walked clear before he left.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Jonas asked, leaning in close to find her neck, nuzzling it.

He was concerned about how disoriented and fearful she’d sounded when they’d walked into the room, so he made sure he kept touching as they sat in the dark. Though it was not all for her benefit, he had to admit.

Now that he’d had her, he was even more needful to be with her again. Soon.

“I’m okay now. It’s very … shocking. I walked into this room and it hit me how awful it must be to live in complete darkness all the time,” she said.

He squeezed her hand. “Well, this has been a good reminder that I’ve spent a lot of time feeling sorry for myself when other people have spent every day without their sight and go on with their lives just fine.”

“That wasn’t my intention, not at all,” she rushed to say, and he shushed her.

“I know it wasn’t. But I think when I lost my sight, my first reaction was to feel like this was only happening to me. The waiter, and being here, reminded me otherwise,” he said with a sigh, regretting his own attitude over the last month.

He, at least, had the return of his vision to look forward to. Others never would have that. It was humbling.

“I’m sure my brothers would confirm I’ve been a huge pain in the ass,” he said with a smile, but then turned serious.

“I think you’re being too hard on yourself,” she chastised.

She leaned in, intending to kiss his cheek, but ended up kissing his shoulder instead, making them both laugh.

“Obviously my coordination in the dark needs some work,” she said ruefully, finding his face with her hands and offering another kiss.

“You were doing just fine in the subway car,” he said huskily as the door opened again, their waiter returning with drinks and appetizers.

“Maybe later we can find a blindfold,” she said in a suggestive tone. “One thing is for sure, your other senses really do take over when you don’t rely on your sight. Everything is so … intense.”

Jonas agreed. If there was one word for what was happening between him and Tessa, it was intense.

7

1:00 a.m.

“OHHH … THAT’S WONDERFUL,” Tessa said with a sigh as Jonas found her lips with his fingers, letting her nibble a piece of the rich cheese that the waiter had delivered to their table. This had very possibly been the best meal of her life.

Though at first it was awkward, the waiter’s prediction had come true: as each course was served, they became more proficient at handling their food using their other senses, and even trusted each other’s coordination enough to feed each other.

Tessa knew that she trusted Jonas with her life. She had, literally, on several occasions. She hoped their experiences together were helping him to trust her more, too. He seemed to have relaxed toward her since their conversation in the car, and since making love.

A shiver ran over her skin. She couldn’t wait to get him alone again.

Tessa absorbed the experience of dark eating full-on. This was definitely something she wanted to do again. After she let go of her sense of disorientation and fear of the complete dark, she found she could manage more easily.

She wondered if Jonas would want to come back here after his sight returned. She wasn’t sure how she would feel about that in his shoes.

What she was finding entertaining and enlightening might be a bad reminder of what he went through. There was still a huge difference between spending a few hours in the dark and being blind. She knew she could walk out of the room and have her sight back. Jonas, and others who had lost their vision, didn’t have that luxury.

Though another part of her wondered if people who relied on their vision weren’t the ones who missed out. Being in the dark demanded such focus that it enriched as much as it denied.

“So tell me something that you could only tell me in the dark,” he said.

She paused. “I can’t think of anything.”

“Really? A secret that you never told, a fantasy that you are too shy to share in the light of day? Isn’t that what blackouts, airplanes and dark restaurants are for?” he joked, but she knew he was serious, too.

Her heart beat a little faster at the idea, and the seductive tone of his voice.

“Maybe,” she said, unsure.

“Tell me.”

Tessa couldn’t believe she was so nervous. She wasn’t shy, in fact, she was often the one who initiated sex with her partners. But there was one thing … she had never told anyone. She didn’t know if Jonas would be okay with it. What if he thought she was demented?

“The problem with sharing secrets in the dark is that we have to go out into the light at some point,” she said, thinking twice.

“Tell me, Tessa,” he said again, stroking her hand with his thumb.

Sparks lit along her skin and she almost expected to see them light up in the dark.

“Okay. There is one fantasy I’ve often had …”

“Mmm-hmm.” His hand was on her thigh, rubbing lightly there now, and she had a hard time focusing.

“I’d like to have someone watch me have sex.”

His hand stopped. “What do you mean exactly?”

“I’d like to perform for a lover. You know, just have you, for instance, sit back and watch. Maybe I could use a vibrator, my hand or some other toys, but I’d love to feel free enough with someone to do that, to know that they could enjoy just staying back and watching me pleasure myself,” she said, her voice catching. She was getting turned on just talking about it, but also felt embarrassed admitting it.

“I can’t imagine anyone saying no to that,” he said, his own voice a little rough.

“Men don’t want to think women can find pleasure without them. It’s a dent to their egos, I guess,” she said.

“Not mine. I could do that. If you want, I want to do that,” he said, his hand rubbing her leg again, moving higher. “When I have my eyes back, I mean. Just say the word.”

She was incredibly turned on by sharing that with him, and by the prospect of being able to do it. But as he buried his face in her neck, she pushed him back.

“Your turn.”

He took a breath. “Right. I don’t suppose I can get away with the standard guy fantasy of two women, right?”

She laughed. “I know you can be more creative than that.”

“I don’t know. I have always been a pretty traditional kind of guy in bed. What you did to me on the train … that was about as kinky as I have ever gotten.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah.”

“So is there anything you’ve ever thought you’d like to do? You know, the thing you can only share in the dark?”

She put her hand on his thigh now, mimicking his motion on hers earlier.

“You are evil,” he said.

“Tell me.”

“Okay. I’ve never done it, but I think I’d like to try …”

Tessa realized she was actually holding her breath.

“Maybe being tied up,” he said. “and tying up my partner in return.”

“Bondage?”

“Yeah,” he said softly. “I’ve never trusted anyone enough to allow myself to be completely at their whim. To let them do whatever they wanted to me. For them to be completely in control. No pain or anything like that … or maybe just a little,” he said in a tone that tantalized her. “And hopefully they could trust me in the same way.”

Tessa took a deep breath to try to slow down her speeding heart.

“I could so do that,” she said, enjoying the image of Jonas bound to her bed. “I mean, if you ever thought, you know, if you wanted me to—”

She stopped, realizing she had dug her nails into his thigh. When she pulled her hand away, her fingers brushed his cock, hard and testing the looseness of the scrubs.

“I’ll go find our waiter to see if he can bring a check,” she said quickly.

He got up, too, and as she turned on her heel, she bumped into the chair and stumbled forward.

Amazingly, Jonas was there, his strong hands closing on her upper arms, steadying her and then pulling her in to hold her close.

“Hey, careful.”

“Good catch,” she said, linking her arms around his neck.

“Mmm,” he said, kissing her.

“We all go through life stumbling around in the dark, Jonas, looking for something to grab on to that makes sense. You and I, we seem to keep bumping into each other. We fit.”

He pulled her against him, fitting her to him tightly as he deepened the kiss. She didn’t resist, letting him take his fill, and getting hers in return. But for all the desire and passion between them, she couldn’t help but think there was something else Jonas hadn’t told her. Some other secret that stayed between them in the dark.

ELY SNUCK THE KEYS out of Chloe’s pocket as he pressed her against the doorjamb, her arms locked around his neck, their kisses even hungrier after their backseat encounter.

She was gorgeous, he thought, sliding the key effortlessly into the lock and opening the door without missing a beat, getting them inside where they could dispose of soaking-wet clothes and he could take his time with her.

“You have great hand-eye coordination,” she said against his mouth.

“I was very motivated to get that door open and get us inside,” he responded as he deftly undid the buttons on her wet blouse.

“I wasn’t talking about opening the door,” she rejoined, nibbling at his bottom lip, making him laugh and groan at the same time.

She tried the light switch on the wall, but apparently the power was still out.

He felt … light. For the first time in recent memory.

“I’m glad you stuck to your old habits,” he said, thankful he’d gone to the bar and that she had walked in.

“Me, too,” she whispered, lifting a hand to his face, running her fingers over the stubble of his jaw. “Let me get out of these clothes—”

“My thinking exactly,” he interrupted.

She laughed, and he liked how it infused her entire expression with warmth. Her laugh reverberated through her entire body, the cool, distant reporter erased, a vibrant, passionate woman revealed.

He’d known there was magic between them before, but he’d been too raw then, too fresh from his return to be good for anyone. He hadn’t been ready for more then, but he was now.

“How about we get dry, have a glass of wine … take our time,” she said, leaning in to kiss him again. “No need to rush.”

He nodded, sighing. “You’re right. There’s time,” he agreed.

It was a luxury he was still getting used to. Time had seemed to stop in Afghanistan, and since then, it was punctuated by the start and stop of various jobs where he’d experienced things that often made him acutely aware of how time often ran out.

He didn’t want to waste any more of his.

They walked into her bedroom, and he watched as she moved around the room, lighting several candles set on dressers and tables. The warm light revealed ultrafeminine decor that he only vaguely remembered, taking in the thick, old-fashioned quilt of cream and roses, the ornate, Victorian lamps and lacy curtains. It spoke to the old-fashioned, traditional woman who lived beneath the image of the hardened career woman.

The space was so feminine it made him feel too big and cumbersome, like if he moved, he’d break something. Classic bull in a china shop. At the same time, he liked it very much. She was different than the other women he knew in a way that spoke to him.

“You’re quiet,” she said, stripping down to the black bra and panties that took his attention away from the room altogether.

She had an amazing body, all legs, curves and delectable soft spots he loved to explore and hadn’t gotten nearly enough of. The soft, flickering candlelight completed the fantasy.

He grinned, shucking his shirt, liking the way she looked at him when he did so. “Just taking in the room, and you,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows at her and making her laugh.

“You’re different now,” she said, watching him closely.

He shrugged. “Not really.”

“You were so closed off back then. I know that interview was torture for you,” she said.

“I was still adjusting. It’s disorienting, being in the desert one day and back here the next, surrounded by people who all want something from you.”

“You never said much, even during our night together.”

He didn’t remember that. He remembered touching her and losing himself in what she’d offered him. But now he realized how selfish he’d been.

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t myself then. I should have walked away when you asked me back to your place, but—”

He’d needed the comfort, but more than that, something about her had beckoned him. Something about Chloe had given him what he needed, which was way more than sex, even though he didn’t recognize it at the time.

“I’m glad you didn’t. I only wish you hadn’t walked away after,” she said. “Are you going to walk away again now? Am I going to wake up in the morning to find you gone again?”

“No,” he said simply, the word his promise.

“Okay,” she said, accepting it.

She put on her robe, and then grabbed another one from the closet, handing it to him.

He took the garment, staring at it for a moment. It was definitely a guy’s, and that bothered him for a second. He looked up to see her staring at him, one eyebrow arched.

“What? Did you think that I didn’t sleep with anyone for three years, just waiting for you to come back?” she asked, smiling, though there was no barb in the question.

He took a breath. “No, not that. Hell, I didn’t even really know I was looking for you again until tonight … or maybe I knew it all along, since I got down here in Norfolk. I was reading your articles … you’re still an amazing journalist,” he said, and saw pleasure bloom in her expression. “An amazing woman.”

“I kept track of you, too,” she admitted, turning to the dresser and fussing with something, opening a drawer where she put some items, and closed it again. “I often thought of contacting you, but I don’t go begging. Though you were the first man who made me consider it,” she said, walking up close and sliding her hands over his chest.

“I don’t imagine you were a saint either.”

He frowned. No, he hadn’t been a saint. There had been some women, several, in fact, but none that really mattered. None he ever saw again or sought out.

“Let’s not talk about the past. It’s done,” he said. “The present—and the future—are much more promising.”

“I like the sound of that,” she agreed.

She seemed smaller here, more fragile and feminine, her hair undone and curling from the rain, falling down over her shoulders. He slid his hands through it, feeling possessive and lucky—why did he wait so long?

Her mouth was like velvet, and he let his robe drop to the floor as he dived the other hand into her hair, kissing her until she was trembling with need. Possessing her.

His, he thought.

“Ely,” she said his name on a breath when he released her lips. He was sure he couldn’t hear it enough, wanted to make her scream it.

Falling to his knees, he undid her robe, slid his hands up her legs, parting her slim, silky thighs. Parting the soft folds of her sex with his fingers, he tasted her lightly at first, but as she heated up, becoming slick, he lost himself in kissing her, sucking the hard, aroused pearl of her clit between his lips.

Chloe knew how to take charge—one of the things he loved about her—and her hands held his head, directing him, pressing and urging until he gave her everything she wanted, which he was more than happy to do.

She did scream his name when she came, and he didn’t let it end there, making her crest one more time. She sagged against him as he stood and took her in his arms.

Her cheeks were flushed with satisfaction, her pupils dilated, mouth soft as he kissed her fully. He wanted her again, but also wanted to wait. He needed her to know that he could be there for her, not always satisfying his own needs, oblivious to others as he had been before, when he left her.

They had time. He’d make it up to her.

“How about that glass of wine?” he asked. “Maybe something to eat to go with it?”

She nodded against his shoulder.

“I have to wait for my knees to feel solid again,” she said, gazing at him with eyes he thought he might like to see staring at him every morning. Eyes he might like to see on smaller versions of both of them.

Whoa, Marine, he cautioned himself. Slow down a little there.

But Ely had always led the charge, committed to the mission, focused on the target. He didn’t see the point in second thoughts or delaying action.

“I can help with that,” he said huskily, bending down and scooping her up, smiling at her gasp of surprise as she linked her hands around his neck and held on.

“Ely, this is hardly necessary,” she said, laughing as he carried her out to the living room.

“But it is fun,” he said, kissing her nose as he deposited her on the sofa.

“Matches?” he asked, noting more candles on the fireplace mantel.

“Up by the picture of my father,” she directed, pointing.

He saw the picture, and grabbed the box of stick matches, lighting one, taking in the portrait.

“Navy officer,” he observed, sliding her a glance. Her father was a highly decorated submariner.

“Yes. Retired now.”

“You never mentioned him.”

“You never asked.”

It was true, he hadn’t. Besides the interview, where she had focused on his life, they hadn’t talked much at all.

He lit the candles, and then walked to the kitchen, telling her to stay put. He had a lot of making up to do.

Coming back with a tray of cheese, fruit and crackers and a bottle of wine, he joined her on the sofa.

“Well, now I am feeling very spoiled,” she said, taking a glass of wine from him. “I could get used to that.”

“All part of my evil plan,” he agreed, taking some cheese and crackers, and settling back with his own glass.

“So where are your parents? Norfolk?” he asked, intent on learning as much as he could about her.

“The house is in Annapolis, but they aren’t there much. My dad has his sailboat there, and they live on the water for most of the year, sailing to vacation spots. They fly back from wherever they are for holidays, and seem to be enjoying life.”

“Sounds like the perfect retirement.”

“I don’t know that I’d want to spend that much time on the water, but my mother loves it. And for so many years they were apart when he was at sea.”

“Squid are a species unto their own,” he said, shaking his head. “The idea of spending that much time under water gives me the heebies,” he admitted.

“Seriously? I thought big tough Marines weren’t afraid of anything?”

“I didn’t say I was afraid,” he corrected, puffing out his chest. “Just that I’m not particularly fond of the idea of being under several hundred feet of water.”

“Ah, okay, I see the distinction,” she said.

“Thank you.”

She grinned and threw a grape at him, which he caught in his mouth.

“So what about your brothers? I was sorry to read about Garrett losing his wife—how tragic,” she said, more serious.

“It was beyond tragic. We weren’t sure he was going to make it through for a while,” Ely said, still feeling punched in the chest when he thought about his older brother’s loss. He’d liked Lainey a lot, too. It had been a loss for all of them.

“And Jonas, Chance? They’re well? Married?”

“Chance is Chance. I don’t think he’ll ever settle down, or find a woman who can put up with his need to jump off high things every other day,” he said, laughing. “But Jonas has been in tough shape.”

Ely related the story of Jonas’s protection detail, and about the loss of his sight.

“That’s terrible!” Chloe commiserated. “But he’ll get it back?”

“So they say. No word yet.”

“And you said he’s involved with Tessa Rose, James Rose’s daughter?” she asked in a tone that alerted Ely’s radar.

“Well, it seemed that way, until he backed off big-time after the accident. But she keeps coming around. That’s like one determined lady,” he admitted. “Why?”

He liked Tessa, actually, and thought it was high time his older brother found a steady woman, but Jonas was even more of a lone wolf than Ely had ever been.

Even with his own brothers, Jonas had always held himself separate to some degree. When they were kids, Jonas was the one who spent more time doing his own thing rather than playing in a group, who spent more time in his room, reading or studying, than out partying in college.

He’d become even more isolated after he left the police department, or so Garrett and Chance reported. Ely had been off to basic training back then, and had only heard of what happened to his brother.

Jonas didn’t talk about what went down when he’d been caught in an undercover mess, but Ely knew it wasn’t the way the papers had painted it. After being in a war, he knew exactly how the media could spin things.

Chloe shifted uncomfortably, taking another sip of her wine before she replied, and then he felt her reporter persona slip back in place, the distance reasserting itself.

He was willing to bet she knew something about James Rose that she didn’t want to share.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked.

“There’s a huge story breaking in a few hours,” she said. “Rose’s office is one of the ones that will be implicated.”

“For what?”

“There’s an embezzlement ring on the Hill. Several aides have been using their resources to siphon off funds from campaign coffers, using it for all manner of criminal business. I was clued in, and it’s going to be a huge scandal,” she said, her eyes lighting up.

“And Rose is in the middle of this?”

“Not him directly—but his aide, yes. You can’t say anything about this, Ely, not until the story breaks. The arrests won’t happen until morning, right before.”

Ely smiled at how her color rose and her eyes brightened at the prospect of a hot story. She was passionate about her work. It was one of the things he loved about her.

“I won’t say a word, I promise.”

Still, his mind went to his brother and Tessa. They weren’t together, but he hoped none of this would hurt the reputation of their agency.

“I can’t say I’m surprised, and not even a little glad,” he said. “That guy, the aide, Howie Stanton, is a slug. He came to the hospital the night Jonas was admitted and told him if he went near Tessa again, there would be bad consequences for the business.”

“You’re kidding. Well, the only bad consequences I see are ones coming down on him.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Ely said, smiling.

Chloe was the kind of woman men dreamed about. Beautiful, smart and sexy, she knew how to do her job. It was one of the things he found sexiest about her.

Setting down her wine and reaching to take his glass, her eyes told him she didn’t want to talk anymore. Loosening the tie of his robe, she trailed kisses down his chest, obviously intent on ending the conversation and returning the pleasure he’d provided her earlier.

Ely was determined to be a better man this time, to not be as selfish and self-involved as he was when he’d first been with Chloe.

He also loved how she took control and pushed him back to the cushions, focused on her task.

She stroked his erection, looking at him with sheer pleasure and mischievous intent as her tongue darted out, tasting him, making him catch his breath.

“You stay put, Marine, and don’t come until I tell you to. That’s an order,” she commanded with mock seriousness as she closed her mouth around him, sending his heart rate through the roof.

Ely gladly submitted. He was trained to take orders, and knew he wouldn’t disobey this one if his life depended on it.

8

3:00 a.m.

TESSA WAS EXHAUSTED and had actually nodded off for a few minutes curled up on the seat, her head cradled on Jonas’s shoulder as Collins took them back to the store. The intimacy of the night and the dark in the restaurant was giving way to morning, allowing her some light to study him.

He was dozing, too, the manly lines of his face softened in sleep. She stared at the fullness of his mouth, which she couldn’t get enough of. He looked peaceful, which was rare for him, she thought. They’d turned a corner of sorts, leaving the restaurant with the connection between them stronger.

Still, she worried. She hadn’t asked Jonas the question she was dying to: why he had thought so badly about her after the accident. What had Howie said to him? Was her father up to his old tricks, controlling her life, and her love life?

Jonas was clearly under the impression that she had used him to get back at her father, or that her father had not thought he was “suitable” enough for her. There were things going on beneath the surface, and Tessa planned to find out what they were.

One thing she knew for sure was that Howie was a snake. She’d never liked him. Her father had suggested once that Howie had an interest in her, and that they would make a “solid match.” The thought made her gag. Her father occasionally pushed one of his plastic political harpies in her direction, even though she never showed any interest.

Jonas said she didn’t care about the cost to others. What costs? Could her father have threatened his business? She wouldn’t put it past him.

Jonas didn’t deserve any negative flak for what happened that night they’d been attacked. He stepped up to protect others, but leaned on no one. There was a loneliness at his core that made her ache to change it, to make him see how much she cared for him.

How much she loved him.

She wasn’t afraid of the word. She’d often wondered if she would find anyone that she’d truly fall in love with. Then Jonas had walked into her shop, and she knew she had found the other half of her perfect combination.

She leaned in, snuggling into his shoulder again and loving how his arm came back around her so naturally. Turning her face into his chest, she inhaled, enjoying his natural scent, how it mingled with hers. Their bodies loved each other, but how could she convince him it was more than that?

Tessa had been fighting for what she wanted in life since she could remember, against her father, mainly. But also against the world in general or at least it always felt that way. Everyone always assumed the worst of her, and so she had once decided to walk the talk.

Even friends had often thought that as the daughter of a wealthy politician, she would never have to work for anything in her life. That it all would be handed to her.

It could have gone that way, had she made other decisions. She’d taken a very different path, and was glad for it. She hoped Jonas was coming to see who she really was, too.

“I can see you thinking,” Jonas said sleepily, and she looked up to find he was watching her. “What about?”

“Just about you. Us.”

“How so?”

“When I said, back at the restaurant, that we fit … I don’t know. It just seemed like you were holding back. I was wondering why. And what you aren’t telling me.”

“We do fit. In some ways. And in others—we don’t.”

“Like?”

“Like physically. Otherwise, we come from very different worlds. You wouldn’t be happy in mine, not for long. And vice versa.”

“You hardly know me, Jonas. How do you know what would make me happy?”

“I’ve been through this before. My job is dangerous.”

“I know that.”

“And it’s not great for relationships, let me tell you. If you and I were together, I might have to go on a job where I would be protecting someone, another woman, and living at her side for weeks—how would you deal with that? If the tables were turned, I wouldn’t like it one bit.”

“I agree, that would be hard. But there are four of you, and you can divide the jobs accordingly, right? But if you had to do that, well, I guess I would just have to trust you. That’s what we’re talking about, right? It’s not about different worlds, or your job or mine—it’s about the fact that down deep, for whatever reason, you don’t trust me. I’d like to know why. Do you really think I am so superficial that I would use you or anyone just to get at my father?”

Silence loomed between them, and the hurt spread from her heart to encompass her entirely, the same way the dark restaurant had done.

“I guess that’s my answer,” she said, twisting away.

“Tess, stop. Listen. I want to trust you, but I don’t understand why you did what you did.”

“Which was?”

He took a deep breath, and let it out. “Why you told your father’s aide about our … kiss that night. Why you made it sound like I had initiated it, but more than that, I wonder why you told them at all? That was private, between us. I could only assume that—”

“That I had seduced you, and then run to tell my father about it as fast as I could and blamed it on you as a way to get out of having a bodyguard, and to shove it back in my father’s face.”

“Well, yeah.”

“Here’s a news flash, Jonas,” she said. “I’m all grown up now, and I don’t play those games anymore. I’m not my father. What you see is what you get.”

“Well, your father was pretty pissed. He took me off the job, and his aide suggested that there could be trouble for me and my brothers if I got anywhere near you.”

Tessa’s mind went still. So she was right in her intuition. Her father had found a way to come between her and a man she wanted. Or had she done that all on her own? She hadn’t been entirely forthright with Jonas from the start—he may have made the first move that night, but only because she had been pushing him to.

“Listen, I remember showing them where we were standing when the attack happened. Howie was there. Where you had fallen back, and how I had grabbed the bat, but I didn’t say anything about us kissing. I guess they could have assumed, but I swear, I didn’t tell them what was going on,” she said. “And if anyone is playing games here, it’s the senator. I told you what he did before, with my college boyfriend. He may like you working for him, but—”

“He wouldn’t think I was good enough for his daughter,” Jonas finished flatly, and she nodded.

“It’s possible. He sees everything as reflecting on him, his career. But I don’t think that. I never thought that. I never would use you. Not like you thought I did.”

She wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly feeling cold. Then Jonas was there, pulling her in, holding her tight.

“I’m sorry, too. I was such a mess at the time, but I should have told you about my sight. I should have asked you before I assumed what had happened. I believe you, Tessa,” he said, kissing her cheek gently and taking her arms from around her middle, twining them around his back.

She held on tight, seeking a deeper kiss, as if trying to let him know with her whole body how much she cared, and how much she never would cause him any pain, not if she could help it.

Heat rose between them, but this wasn’t the place to pursue their newfound intimacy.

“I want to talk to my father as soon as possible about what happened that night, and set it right. I absolutely will not let him blame you for something that was not your fault at all,” she said vehemently.

“Well, I wasn’t exactly blameless, Tessa. And I would rather you didn’t talk to your father, if that’s okay. I can handle it. Let’s set it aside for now, okay?”

“Okay,” she said reluctantly. She wasn’t surprised that he would want to handle it on his own, but still felt that she should do something to make it right.

The car stopped, and she frowned, hearing the sound of music playing out in the neighborhood, resisting the urge to argue with him for the moment.

“The electricity is back on,” she said, but saw no evidence of that except for the music. The streetlights were still out, though the dawn was bathing the street in soft, after-storm light.

“Thank you so much, Collins. It was so nice to meet you. Tell Kate I will be in later today to check on her and help her get home,” Tessa said, offering the older man a hug, which surprised him, and which he seemed happy to accept.

Jonas shook Collins’s hand, and they waited as the car left.

“Well, at least the rain has stopped,” he observed. “Where is the music coming from?”

“Looks like Lydia’s having a party,” she said, noting the candles and flashlights visible through the window of the tattoo parlor, and the sign in the window that announced a Blackout Party.

“Hey, where have you been?” a voice behind them asked, and Tessa turned to find her friend and neighbor Scott, who owned the deli across the street, walking toward them carrying a huge cooler.

“My friend Kate had a medical emergency,” Tessa explained as Scott put the cooler down on the sidewalk. She gave him a hug and watched as he shook hands with Jonas. “It’s been quite the adventure getting to her.”

“How did you end up in scrubs?”

“We were soaked, so a nurse took pity on us.”

“Nice. So your friend is okay?”

“Yes, we made it just in time, and she’s fine. What’s happening here?”

“They aren’t predicting the power’ll be back on until sometime tomorrow, so I had to use these cold cuts and salads before they went bad. Lydia had the idea to throw a blackout party for people around the neighborhood.”

“Clever,” Tessa said.

“Good to see you, too, Jonas. Wondered where you had gotten to, and was sorry to hear about your eyesight. Rotten break, but it’s supposed to come back, right?” Scott asked, and Tessa saw Jonas straighten uncomfortably, nodding.

“Yes, that’s what they’re saying,” Jonas confirmed briefly.

Tessa frowned. She should have told her friend Lydia to keep their previous conversation about Jonas private, but it was too late now.

“Come on in and have a sandwich or something. It’s turned into a pretty good time,” Scott said, picking up his cooler again.

“We just came from dinner, so—” Tessa started, but then Lydia appeared in her doorway, clapping excitedly.

“You’re back, and you’re okay! I’m so relieved. I went over to get you for the party, and the place was all closed up. I wondered where you’d got to,” she said, and then smiling, noticed Jonas. “But now I can see you had other things to do.”

Tessa rolled her eyes at her friend’s unrestrained glee at seeing her with Jonas.

“We’re really beat, Lydia,” Tessa tried to beg off, but Lydia wasn’t hearing any of it, and linked her arm through Jonas’s, standing up on tiptoe to kiss his cheek.

She looked at Tessa and made a silent mime that Tessa could not quite decipher. She probably wanted all the details about her night with Jonas, knowing Lydia. Tessa nodded, letting her friend know she would catch up with her later.

Even Jonas’s surly demeanor cracked at Lydia’s happy welcome, and he offered her a kiss back.

Tessa knew he’d always enjoyed Lydia’s visits, the two of them quipping and harassing each other like siblings.

Lydia didn’t have any family, and Jonas didn’t have any sisters. Tessa figured her friend enjoyed the brotherly back-and-forth she had developed with Jonas, and it gave Tessa yet another perspective on him, playing the big brother. She wondered what he was like with his own brothers, and hoped she’d have a chance to see them all together someday soon. If Jonas was interested in seeing her.

“Come on, it’ll be fun.” Scott led the way. “You can take some food for later.”

Tessa laughed at her friend’s insistence on pushing off his extra food and followed. Inside, she was greeted by several other business owners in the neighborhood as well as a few of the residential neighbors as music blasted from a speaker in the corner where someone had set up an iPod and food was set out everywhere.

Never one to miss a business opportunity, Lydia was also offering Blackout Special henna tats until the lights came back on.

“I have an opening. How about you let me paint you?” Lydia said to Tessa, catching Tessa staring at the sale sign on one of the food tables.

“No, thank you,” she said.

“Jonas, don’t you think Tessa should get a tat? I could do something very personal, and very tasteful … something only special people could see,” Lydia said mischievously, and Tessa felt her cheeks heat.

“Lydia—” she warned.

“I think it could be fun,” he said, surprising both women. “You game?” he asked Tessa.

“It’s only henna,” Lydia cajoled.

Tessa took good care of her skin. It was an important part of her business to show how well her products worked, but also to care for her health. She didn’t sit in the sun for long periods of time and with no disrespect to her friend, had no interest in permanent ink. Still, she was feeling daring, and a temporary henna tat would be fun.

“Okay, why not?” she said. “I’ll pick out yours, and you can tell Lydia what you want for me. We don’t get to see until it’s done.”

Jonas looked slightly apprehensive. “No fair. I’m blind. I could end up walking around with who knows what on my forehead.”

Tessa leaned in, feeling mischievous and whispered in his ear, “It wasn’t your forehead I was thinking about,” she teased, and then added, “I guess you’ll have to trust me.”

“Okay. I can do that,” he said, and she knew they were talking to each other about far more than a tattoo.

“Actually, I think I have the perfect idea for both of you,” Lydia said, and led them to the corner where she proceeded to sit them both down before her in comfortable chairs, and then grabbed a scarf from the shelf.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Tessa objected at first, as Lydia started to tie it around her eyes.

“It’s supposed to be a surprise, right?”

“Lydia …”

“Trust me, Tessa.”

Tessa sighed. It seemed to be the theme of her life at the moment, and she did trust Lydia, who winked at her as she tied the scarf around her face.

“This won’t take long. It’s a simple scroll, but it will work very well.”

They listened to the music and conversations behind them then as Lydia worked, and Tessa laughed a few times, her palm tickling as Lydia painted there, and then turned her hand over, continuing.

“Um. I thought this would be small.”

“It comes off in four to six weeks, Tessa. But you’re going to like it, I promise.”

Then she left Tessa to work on Jonas who was so quiet she thought maybe he had fallen asleep.

“There. Done!” Lydia pronounced, and Tessa wasn’t sure she wanted to open her eyes, but when she did, she caught her breath in pleasure at the delicate scarlet-and-black scrolling that weaved its way around her hand and fingers, to the center of her palm, where it ended in a starburst.

She looked over to see Jonas grimacing. “Tell me she didn’t paint flowers or kittens on my arms, please,” he said.

Lydia snickered.

Tessa took his arm, and knew immediately what Lydia had done, and she glanced up, meeting her friend’s eyes.

Lydia shrugged. “It seemed right. You two fit,” she said, echoing what Tessa had told Jonas earlier.

His was similar, but heavier, more manly, and also worked around his fingers, wrist and palm.

“You, uh, need to hold hands to really see how it comes together. It’s a concept I developed while I was designing. You are the first ones I’ve tried it on. I call this one Completion.”

Jonas shrugged and held out his hand, obviously disappointed that he couldn’t see his. Tessa took it, and caught her breath. As their fingers wove together, their palms merging, so did the design. The scrolls connected into an intricate weave that created an entirely new design.

“Lydia, that’s amazing …” Tessa breathed, and tried to explain it to Jonas, though she felt as if she couldn’t do it justice. She wished so much he could see it, and said as much.

“Well, like I said, they last several weeks. And you said you had some signs your vision was coming back?” she asked Jonas.

“Yes.”

“And you figure you’ll be around in a few weeks?” Lydia asked baldly, to Tessa’s horror.

He smiled. “Yeah, I hope so.”

That made Tessa’s heart stop.

“So there you go then.” Lydia cleared her throat as they stood there, holding hands. “Okay, I’m going to go check on the party, and you guys can show off your tats, if you would, so it could drum up some business for me. You know, before you head upstairs to—”

“Lydia!” Tessa cut her friend off, laughing, and Lydia laughed, as well.

Gone, Tessa didn’t let go of Jonas’s hand as she went into his arms.

“I think you’ll like it. It’s very badass. Promise.”

“Yeah, sounds like it,” he said doubtfully, but found her lips and didn’t seem overly concerned about the tattoo.

“I probably have soap that would remove it sooner than normal, if you like.”

He squeezed her hand, and kissed her lightly. “I’m good with it. You want to mingle for a few minutes and then go upstairs?”

“Yeah. I’d like that.”

Tessa wasn’t sure she’d ever been this happy. Jonas seemed to have accepted that she wasn’t his enemy, and more than that, he’d said he planned to be around. His sight was coming back, and he wanted to be with her.

Her father had tried to separate them, but fate had a different idea. Tessa was supposed to be with Jonas, she thought, looking down at how the designs on their hands merged into a perfect image that they showed off to guests who were suitably impressed.

They were together now, and she wouldn’t let anything hurt them, least of all her father, she thought as they finally left the party and went back to her apartment, where she could have Jonas all to herself.

9

Norfolk, 6:00 a.m.

ELY STRETCHED ON the bed, twisted in sheets and slowly waking up to note he was alone in the bed. Then the sound of the shower filtered through his consciousness. He smiled, feeling satisfied and well used in the way only a night of great sex could offer.

Though it was more than sex this time, he acknowledged. He may not have been ready for more back when he first knew Chloe, but he was now.

He wanted something meaningful, something right, and he was amazed that it had been there all the while. He’d always imagined that he’d like to have a marriage, a home, just as his parents had. He’d just never found the woman he could imagine it with.

Or he had, and he’d almost lost her.

Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, he thought about joining Chloe in the shower.

Maybe in a minute.

Checking the clock, he realized he should probably touch base with his brothers. They’d been expecting him home the night before, but he could catch a flight back this morning, and be there by noon. After he talked with Chloe.

Finding his jeans pockets empty, he frowned, then smiled at the memory of the night before. His cell must have fallen in her car when they’d been fooling around.

Her landline was on the desk, and before calling his brothers, Ely decided to make reservations at a nice place down the road that served brunch. That way they could talk and make some plans. For the future.

He whistled as he opened drawers searching for a phone directory, only to find a diamond winking up at him. There was a flat card with writing under it—he looked, his hands cold. Picking it up, he read the delicate scroll, and then let it fall from his hands.

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