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