Sunsets & Seduction. Tawny Weber
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