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“Have energy left to burn?” she asked.
“Something like that.”
“And you thought you might burn some off with me?” she asked, her voice hardening, and she shook her head. “No, thanks, Ely. I’m not interested in being another one of your pit stops.”
She stood, ignoring her drink on the bar, turning to leave.
Ely reached out, grabbing her arm gently, but firmly enough to stop her from walking away.
“Hey. It’s not like that.”
“That’s not how I remember it.”
“I know. I wasn’t ready then. I was just back from Afghanistan, I hadn’t even seen my family in more than two years and when I was in the hospital, I wasn’t sure if I was going to see them again, period. I didn’t know how to get back to normal, whatever that was. You helped. I’m sorry I left like I did. I never meant to hurt you. I just didn’t know what I wanted.”
“And I wanted too much,” she added.
“Yeah.”
Her stance softened a bit, and she looked back over her shoulder at him, but didn’t pull her arm away.
“Looking for a second chance, Ely?”
Was he?
He’d been back in civilian life for three years. When he was in Kandahar, he hadn’t had a chance to think about the future. When he’d gotten back, he couldn’t stop thinking about the past. It had taken him a while to put it all behind him and accept that he even had a future, especially after he’d come close to being blown to bits.
Eventually, he’d looked around him, around his life, at his own family, and realized he wanted more.
Did he want more with Chloe? Is that really why he came here tonight? Hadn’t he been thinking about it for days? Maybe longer? A second chance to find out seemed right.
“Yeah. Maybe, if you think we might have something worth taking a chance on,” he said, letting his hand slide down her arm to find her hand.
She stood still for a minute, as if weighing her decision, and squeezed his hand, nodding.
“Let’s get out of here,” she said.
They walked out into the storm together, making their way to her car. When she opened the backseat door instead of the front, he paused, surprised, but then joined her, the storm surging around them as neither had any interest in waiting.
He hadn’t planned on this, either, but he wasn’t about to turn her down. Hunger took over, and he buried his face in the soft volume of her breasts. It all came rushing back, how sweet, how responsive she was.
She gasped as he pushed her blouse and bra aside, holding his head to her as he sucked a velvety nipple into his mouth, drawing on it as he laid her back on the seat, pulling the top off altogether. No one would see them at the back of the lot, through the fury of the storm.
She pulled at his clothes, too, obviously not interested in anything slow this time, and within seconds, they were both naked.
He covered himself without wasting any time and met her where she sought him, thrusting deep, feeling her clamp down around him, the two of them coming together within a few short, hot minutes.
“Oh, no,” he panted, embarrassed and unable to believe he’d been so quick. “Sorry.”
“For what?” she asked with a slow smile that had him hardening again.
Pulling her up with him, he sat so that she straddled his lap, still planted deeply over him. She ground her hips against him in a circular motion that had her dropping her head back, those marvelous breasts positioned where he could lick, nibble and suck his way to ecstasy as she rode him.
The rhythm picked up, and they were both mindless, as if having waited for each other all this time and not able to devour each other fast enough.
She looked down, framed his face with her hands, and kissed him so deeply that neither of them could breathe. His body bucked beneath her as she cried out, too. He bowed beneath her, jacking his hips upward in hard thrusts as he came with a fierceness that left him trembling.
They were both breathing heavily, held close against each other, wordless as everything calmed around them.
“You should know you’re the first guy I’ve ever done in a backseat,” she said with a smile. “But I knew as soon as I saw you that this was going to happen.”
“Really?” he said, kissing her lovely, full bottom lip.
“Yep.”
“My hotel isn’t all that great. Your place?” he asked, hoping this wasn’t the end of their night together.
“I’ll drive,” she agreed as she pulled her clothes back on and they moved to the front.
Ely could have cared less about the storm, watching her every second of the drive, reviewing everything he was going to do right this time. He hadn’t planned on a second chance, but now that he had one, he wasn’t going to blow it.
“SO HOW DID YOU get to be such good friends with Kate anyway?” Jonas asked as they ran into the train station, finally under cover, soaked through yet again.
“She came into the shop when it first opened, and I made some special items for her. She was always very lively and friendly, and she invited me and Lydia to lunch a few times,” Tessa explained, getting their tickets and leading him to the platform.
“Then her husband died, and I knew that they didn’t have children, or other family close by. Her diabetes was affecting her sight, and just this year she was declared legally blind.”
Tessa peeked up to see Jonas’s expression, which remained stoic as he listened.
“So, I started helping out, visiting her more, and it just became part of my life. I never knew my grandparents, at least not on my mother’s side, and my father’s parents, well, let’s just say they preferred my brother,” she said, laughing shortly.
“So Kate was like a foster grandparent for you?”
“Something like that, I guess, though I really consider her a friend. I like spending time with her, listening to her stories about her and her husband, and she plays a mean hand of canasta.”
Jonas laughed, and she pulled back to look at him in surprise as they boarded their train.
“What?”
“Somehow I have a hard time picturing you sitting with a bunch of octogenarians playing cards on a Friday night.”
“Well, it was usually Sunday afternoon, and I rarely won. Those ladies take no prisoners.”
As they made their way through the passel of people vying for spots, she heard him chuckling.
She tucked herself inside the corner of the car at the end and held on to the railing. Jonas was so handsome
when he laughed, she thought. He was handsome anyway, but when he smiled, he became wickedly so.
Tessa wondered if he was ticklish, eyeing the way the muscles in his side stretched and gathered as he reached to hold on to the rail, as well.
“It’s nice to have lights for a few minutes,” she commented about the train, changing the subject, and then realized he couldn’t know if the lights were on one way or the other. “I mean, shoot, I’m sorry, Jonas, that was thoughtless—”
“It’s not a big deal, Tessa. You can talk about the lights being on, the sun in the sky, the things you see … it doesn’t bother me. I’m not that fragile.”
She pursed her lips. “Well, maybe not, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay to rub it in. I can’t imagine what it would be like not to see.”
“It’s … not fun,” he agreed. “But it’s also temporary.”
“What do your doctors say? Did they tell you when?”
She had such a hard time thinking about Jonas being disabled in any way. Standing here with her now, he still looked undefeatable to her. She felt safe with him, regardless.
“Any time … things appear to be healing, but I just have to be patient,” he said in a tone that told her that patient wasn’t his strong suit.
Jonas was a man who took control, who called the shots. She knew this had to be maddening for him.
“I hope it’s soon for you,” she said, leaning in closer to plant a soft kiss on his cheek.
He frowned, and she wondered why. Did he regret what happened back at the apartment? Was he thinking she was still just messing with him?
“I hope the drugstore stays open,” she said, needing to refocus. “I should make sure they know I’m coming. Kate has to have her injections or we will be calling emergency.”
He nodded grimly while she pulled out her phone to call the pharmacy.
“They are open for a few more hours, so that’s good,” she said in relief.
“We’ll get there, and it will be okay,” he reassured her.
“Thanks. And thanks for coming with me. I know none of this was part of your night.”
“True. If I weren’t here with you, I’d either be limping around the office with a bandage still stuck to my pants, or home sitting in the dark, not that I would even know it,” he joked, and she was so surprised she burst out laughing. A smile tugged at the corners of his lips.
“Why, Jonas, I’ve never known you to tell a joke,” she said.
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Tessa.” He winked, and she thought her knees might have trembled slightly.
Was Jonas flirting with her?
The thought made her heart race. There was a lot she didn’t know about Jonas, but she looked up into his face as he peered, unseeing, around the crowded train car.
She looked forward to having the chance to find out.
5
9:00 p.m.
JONAS WAS SURPRISED that the trains were packed. While some of the peripheral routes were closed down, the main lines were running. He supposed it made sense. The worst of the storm had hit around rush hour, and with the roads such a mess, the trains were many people’s only option to get home.
He could feel the heat and proximity of all the bodies crowded around where he and Tessa were tucked into a corner of the packed subway car. They were soaked from their dash to the closest station, a few blocks away from the shop, even having used umbrellas. It didn’t matter. Though he tried to make casual conversation, all he could think about was how close she was, and what had happened back at the apartment.
He shouldn’t have given in, but when it came to Tessa, he seemed to have a difficult time saying no. This time, hopefully, their indiscretions would stay between them. Senator Rose had said there was no direct threat, that he just needed someone to stick close to Tessa for a few days.
Rose had also been fully aware that Tessa liked to yank his chain, and was clear on the fact that she’d used Jonas to do it. Luckily, it appeared he wasn’t holding Jonas completely responsible for the last time, but Jonas reminded himself not to be so reckless this time, even though he was on fire for her.
She was also confusing the hell out of him. He had her tagged one way, self-indulgent, self-interested. He didn’t trust her motivations, and he still didn’t—not completely. But that didn’t fit the profile of someone who had traveled across town in the rain to help him, and now was doing the same for an elderly friend. Was she just playing a role, being someone she thought would appeal to him?
The air in the train car was humid and moist, though the riders were good-natured and fairly loud, everyone sharing a storm story or visiting with the person they were crunched up against.
He was pressed up against Tessa from stem to stern, and acutely aware of every inch of her. They stood inside a corner area, where she was against the outside of the train. He used his body to shield her.
He was hard again from the close contact, and grateful that it was so crowded, so no one would notice. It had been difficult enough dreaming and thinking about her for weeks, but being this close—especially after being naked with her less than an hour ago—was undermining his promise to the senator.
Tessa’s breath caressed his cheek. She’d edged in closer to him. He lifted a hand, finding her face and rubbing his thumb over her cheek, her skin dewy from the rain and humid air. The touch was to “see” her, to measure her expression, her level of tension, as much as it was to just have an excuse to touch her.
“You okay?”
“Yes, just a little anxious,” she whispered against his ear. “And far too turned on, considering our current location,” she added, shifting her hips against him so that she nestled his hardness in the soft crux of her thighs. He bit back a groan, not that it would have been heard in the busy din of the car.
He leaned in, telling himself he was just playing a part.
She had played him before, right? So turnaround was fair play, as long as he could walk away from the job at the end. Nuzzling her, he found the soft shell of her ear with his lips, and whispered, “Tease.”
“Not a tease,” she responded, turning her lips to his. “I’ll make good later, I promise.”
He swallowed hard, thinking that if he inadvertently rocked a few more times against her as the train took corners and bumps, he wasn’t going to last until later. He was so ready to come he had to do mental exercises to avoid it.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked. “You look so focused.”
“Baseball stats,” he said flatly.
She paused, then laughed against his cheek.
“You mean, like getting to third base, or sliding into home?” she asked suggestively.
He felt the vibration of her chest against his as she chuckled, and he had to smile, too. It felt good—better than good—to be so turned on, to be laughing.
To be with Tessa.
“Yeah, something like that.”
He was actually enjoying himself. In spite of his wet clothes and achingly hard cock, he felt more alive than he had in weeks. Suddenly, Tessa froze, and a collective gasp and sounds of unhappy surprise filled the car as it ground to a standstill, breaks screeching as everyone in the car lurched with the momentum of the train.
“What? What happened?” he asked.
“Power’s out. It’s pitch-black in here except for a few emergency lights,” she said as people started grumbling and shouting around them.
A baby cried from the far end of the car, and the mood changed markedly as tension rose. A tremble worked its way through Tessa’s body. He slipped his arms around her, holding her tighter against him.
