Sunsets & Seduction. Tawny Weber
nipples pressing against his chest, almost making him think he was dreaming again. “I was interrupted by you wrecking your apartment.”
“Good timing on my part, then,” she said, offering her mouth to him. His hands drifted up and wove themselves into her hair, but alarms went off in his head.
What did she mean? Did she fall on purpose? Was Tessa playing games again?
He deepened the kiss, realizing he didn’t care.
“You feel good,” he said, though it was a radical understatement.
“You, too,” she whispered.
The kiss went on and on, and he pressed his erection against her belly with a groan. He ran his hands and lips over her everywhere, committing every curve and shallow of her form to memory. Rolling her nipples between his fingers, he liked when she cried out, gasping in pleasure, and he did it again.
Her responses to him, at least, were real, and that’s all that mattered to him right then.
Jonas gently pushed her breasts together and sucked in both tender nubs at once, feeling her entire body tremble under his. He’d always been one to enjoy sex with the lights on, but his blindness made everything more intense, and this was no exception.
She ran her hands down his chest, unzipping his jeans. He sucked in a sharp breath when her hand closed around him, stroking lightly, running her thumb over the broad crown of his cock.
“You’re killing me, Tessa,” he managed to choke out.
“I haven’t even started. There are so many things I’ve thought about doing to you,” she said on a whisper, sliding downward so that she could taste him, taking his length into her mouth. Jonas took a deep breath then released it, letting her do whatever she wanted.
He set his hand gently on the back of her head, holding her there for a long moment as she drew on him. Not sure he’d last much longer, he pulled her back up against him and, quickly, silently, slid the bottoms she wore off, and then the slight, silky panties, as well. He lay over her, his shoulders nudging at the insides of her knees.
Oh, yeah, his body hummed.
Tracing a line down from her navel to the slick, hot flesh of her sex, he spread her wider, and only wished he could see. She arched, wanting more, quivering.
He flicked his tongue lightly against her clit. He relished the hot, womanly taste and abandoned the light touch to go deeper, rolling his tongue around her, parting her folds and seeking the ways to make her cry out. He had no idea how long he stayed there, the intimate kiss pleasing and arousing him as much as it seemed to please and arouse her.
She bucked her hips against him, but he held her in place, one climax triggering another until she was left spent and panting beneath him.
“Jonas,” she said his name on a breath, the satisfaction evident in her voice.
Masculine pride suffused him, inciting the urge to take her and please her even more deeply. For the first time in weeks, he didn’t feel at a disadvantage. He moved up, he planted his hands on either side of her shoulders, holding back.
“I don’t have protection, sweetheart,” he said. “Do you have anything here?”
She paused and then moaned one of frustration.
“No, and I don’t take birth control. I’m healthy, but I don’t want to risk other consequences.”
He agreed, and backed away, though his body tensed in objection. So close. Like his dream coming true, much to his frustration, except that she’d stayed with him this time.
Tessa pushed up, her arm linking around his neck, pulling him in for a kiss.
“There’s a twenty-four-hour drugstore two blocks down. I’ll go. It will just take five minutes,” she said, already scrambling up to grab her clothes.
“Careful where you step,” he warned, remembering the broken glass. “You can’t go out in this storm,” he added, and she chuckled, a low, sexy sound he liked. A lot.
“Jonas, I would walk through fire to make this happen. A little rain is nothing.”
As much as he agreed, he couldn’t let her do it. He was here to keep her safe.
“It’s dark out. There are fallen wires, looters, it’s a blackout,” he elaborated.
“I’m sure it will be—”
Her cell phone rang then, and then again.
“Are you going to answer that?” he asked.
He heard her grab the phone.
“Hello, Kate?” Tessa said, and there was clear concern in her tone as she turned away to talk.
The wind rattled the windows a bit. Jonas sat back, trying to breathe evenly, letting his body relax, if that was possible. He was hard and aching. It seemed he was doomed to never have Tessa.
Served him right, he supposed. He never should have taken this job in the first place, and since he did, he really had to try harder not to cave so easily to his desire. But when he was with Tessa, it was hard to think of anything else, especially when the world was so dark, and they were here all alone.
She came back to where he sat, done with her call. He could sense the change in her mood, and his own heat waned.
“Everything all right?”
“Remember my friend Kate? The pharmacy has canceled deliveries tonight and she’s almost out of insulin. She doesn’t have anyone else. She’s also blind, so can’t go herself, and can’t reach her neighbor. I have to go get the meds and take them to her. I shouldn’t be too long. Maybe an hour. I can get our other … supplies, too.”
“It’s too risky, Tessa. There has to be some other way,” he said. “Call 911.”
“They won’t consider it an emergency. She’s fine now, she just needs another shot by bedtime. And you’re not my bodyguard anymore, Jonas,” she said, obviously bristling at his bossy tone. “You can’t really tell me to stay or go.”
Of course, she had no idea he was actually there to keep close, to keep an eye on her. Which meant he only had one choice.
“I don’t think—” he started to object.
“Listen, I’m going. She needs me. If you want, you can come with me.”
“How? There are no taxis.”
“We’ll take the trains.”
“They may have shut down several routes in the power outage,” he argued.
“I’m sure it will be fine. Even back in 2003, in the big East Coast blackout, only a few train routes were affected. It’s probably our best chance.”
He sighed. Tessa had her mind made up. “Where does Kate live?”
“Lena Street, in Germantown.”
“Okay, we can take the subway north, and figure out how to go from there.”
“That’s how I’ve gone before,” she agreed.
He didn’t see that he had any other choice, though Jonas had a bad feeling about it. This was not a night to be out in the city.
Still, he admired her concern about the elderly woman. Jonas had promised James Rose that he would stick close by Tessa, and he planned to keep that promise. He wasn’t sure how much help he could be to her, a blind man traversing in a city during a blackout, but he guessed he was about to find out.
Norfolk, Virginia
ELY BERRINGER CLICKED his phone off, shoving it in his pocket as he finished his beer in two deep swallows. He pushed his glass forward for a refill. The wind howled outside, but it didn’t seem to bother the bar patrons, most of them from the