Kitabı oku: «Sunsets & Seduction: Mine Until Morning / Just for the Night / Kept in the Dark»

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.