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“Stay next to me. It will be okay,” he said against her hair.
“I can’t see anything,” she said in a hushed whisper, pressing even more tightly against him.
This wasn’t good. Even friendly, good-natured people could be dangerous in a crowded, panicked situation. He noticed that a guy behind him was breathing too hard, starting to push against everyone around him.
“I have to let go of you for a minute, okay? Hug the wall, right behind you,” he said to Tessa, turning to face the man while still protecting Tessa.
Reaching out, he found the man’s arm and grabbed it before the flailing man hurt someone. The guy was shaking, starting to mutter in panic.
Jonas kept his voice casual. “Hey, buddy, you okay? Let’s try to calm down.”
The man pushed at him, but Jonas held firm.
“Let go of me! Who are you? Don’t touch me! I have to get outta here, let me outta here,” the guy started to shout, pushing at everyone near him. Jonas heard a woman gasp in pain, the man’s other fist making contact, Jonas assumed.
People started shouting, and Jonas knew he had to do something before a potentially deadly scenario was set into motion. Sliding his arm up to the man’s neck, he looped it around and felt for the slamming pulse at the side of the guy’s throat. Tightening his grip as he slid his arm around front and pulled his forearm back, Jonas trapped the man in an armlock, trying to hold him still as he struggled to get free.
“Jonas? Jonas, what are you doing?” He heard Tessa’s breathless question.
“Stay put, Tessa,” he said loudly, fighting the man’s huge bulk as he applied pressure.
“Sorry, man, but you need to chill for a few minutes until they get us out of here,” he said, and increased the pressure until the man stopped shouting, the heavy weight of his form going slack.
Everything around them was eerily quiet.
“Someone help get this guy into a seat,” Jonas ordered, propping the man up the best he could, the slack weight almost pulling him down. “He passed out.”
“Yeah, with a little help, I bet,” another guy said approvingly, and Jonas felt the weight lifted as others took him off Jonas’s hands.
“Good job,” someone shouted, and Jonas felt a pat on his shoulder.
“Thank you so much,” someone else whispered in relief.
Slowly, conversation resumed and the tension resolved.
He turned back to Tessa, finding her hand with his and touching her face again to make sure she was okay. He found that she was smiling slightly, and he ran a finger over her lower lip.
“That was pretty cool,” she said.
The driver’s voice over the intercom told them they would be stopped for about twenty minutes, and to please stay calm as people were working on getting them on their way again.
“He was a big guy—couldn’t have him freaking out in here. People could get hurt.”
“I know. And no one else here could have done what you did,” she said, pressing a kiss into his neck. “Way to think on your feet, Berringer.”
Jonas’s heart beat hard in his chest, aware of her again, the two of them pressed tight.
“How dark is it in here, anyway?”
“Almost pitch-black, except for a few safety lights around the edges. I can barely see you, as close as we are,” she said.
Jonas realized that this was the first time since he’d lost his sight that he didn’t feel alone. Maybe because everyone around him was also blind, in a way, or maybe because he was here with Tessa.
“I hope they get us out of here soon. I don’t think people will stand being crammed in together for long.” She sounded nervous.
“I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“I know,” she said softly.
He drew her to him, pressing his arousal close to her again.
“That certainly takes my mind off things,” she said with a husky laugh.
“That was the idea.” He heard the anxiety in her tone dissolve into a gasp as his hand covered her breast, her nipple beading under his palm.
Leaning in, he found and nuzzled the throbbing pulse at the base of her neck, loving how it sped up every time he tweaked or rolled the sensitive nub between his fingers.
Her hand was pressed against the front of his pants, rubbing along the length of him. He shuddered at the touch, pressing in, biting the lobe of her ear a little more sharply before covering her lips in a hot kiss.
“Good thing no one can see,” he whispered.
“Yeah,” she agreed.
He maneuvered them more tightly into the corner, the people behind him caught up in their own conversations. Some guys had started singing, and others were laughing. More than enough noise to cover their own activities.
All he was aware of was Tessa’s scent, the honey-sweet taste of her kiss, and her nimble, satiny fingers as they slid his zipper down and then wrapped around his shaft.
“Tessa, I don’t think—”
“Yes, don’t think. Thinking is way overrated,” she murmured against his lips as she slid her tongue against his in a thrusting rhythm that matched the way she was stroking him.
Jonas was normally a highly private person, and he couldn’t believe he was letting her do this in a crowded subway car, but he was also too far gone to care. Too needy, too close to the edge.
If the lights came on, if anyone noticed, he thought, trying to find some way to stay in control. But that offered another surprise—the idea of being discovered increased the urgency and turned him on even more.
Her hands and lips were so soft, her grip just right, and his mind spun with the need to let go even as he still tried to resist. Creature of habit. As much as he wanted her, wanted this, he didn’t want to give in.
“Let go, Jonas,” Tessa whispered in his ear, her other hand sliding up inside his shirt and playing with a nipple, making him shudder and rock slightly into her hand.
“Yeah, like that,” she encouraged.
When she slipped her hand down to caress his sac as she continued to stroke, Jonas sucked in a sharp breath, coming hard and fast with an intensity that made him bite down to keep from shouting her name out loud.
Pressing her back against the wall, the release shook him from head to toe, and he all but collapsed against her as she withdrew her hand. He caught his breath as he sensed her fumbling in her purse for something as he zipped up.
It wasn’t the way he wanted to come with her, but it had been pretty fantastic, he thought, trying to get his composure back.
They righted themselves in the nick of time, as luck would have it; seconds later a cheer went up as the train rolled forward.
“The lights are on?” he asked, his voice still rough.
“Yeah,” she said softly. “Thanks for distracting me.”
He smiled. “I think I should be thanking you.”
Her kiss at the corner of his lips had the heat building again, and he knew he would do what he had to to keep Tessa safe. Whatever game she was playing, he was more than willing to join in. James Rose had put him in this situation, and Jonas didn’t care if the senator spontaneously combusted from finding out what he and Tessa were doing. It would be worth it.
Let her have her fill, and tell anyone she wanted. He’d deal with that later. Jonas wanted nothing more than to get her home, where he planned to drive them both to distraction for the rest of the night.
TESSA’S HANDS WERE shaking, along with her knees and probably everything in between as the others exited the subway car. Anxiety wasn’t the cause; she was still so aroused from sharing close quarters with Jonas, feeling his heat, his passion—his need—that she hadn’t been able to think of anything else but him.
The way he’d leaned into her, giving himself over to her when she’d touched him in the car had been sexier than anything she’d experienced, ever. He was surprising her time and time again. And confusing her.
He didn’t trust her, but he did want her. He was angry with her, but protective of her. Would the real Jonas Berringer please stand up?
She was so glad that she had him with her in the dark confines of the car—especially when things had gotten tense with the blackout. The way he had taken control of the situation and kept her, and everyone, safe, had triggered a well of emotion that touched her deeply. He was an extraordinary man, though she knew he didn’t think of himself that way.
She suspected a large part of his annoyance with her was because he liked her father. She could see it when he’d mentioned the senator, and how much her father had helped their personal security business. She also knew her father wasn’t pleased about how things had ended, but Tessa hadn’t been seducing Jonas to tick off her father.
She’d prefer that he knew nothing about her sex life, with Jonas or anyone else, frankly, but the senator made her life his business far too often. It rankled her to think that Jonas blamed her for her father’s negative reaction, but there was nothing she could do but just try to show him she wasn’t like that. That she genuinely cared for him and was attracted to him.
This was her second chance, and she wasn’t going to blow it. Her father was out of the country and couldn’t interfere.
Hopefully, she and Jonas could get to know each other well enough that her father wouldn’t be able to butt his nose in again. Still, she was taking a risk. Jonas was clearly willing to think the worst of her. She had no guarantee that he wasn’t just scratching an itch and would disappear in the morning.
Jonas obviously desired her, and he had said he would keep her safe—but did that include her heart? Though the sex was incredible, no matter what happened this night, she knew it wouldn’t be enough.
So many emotions were scrambling around inside, she hardly knew what to do with them, especially as reality returned. They stayed in the car with the man Jonas had in effect apprehended. She knew they couldn’t leave him, and that there was an ambulance on its way, but they had less time to make it to Kate now, she thought, looking at her watch.
Thunder still rolled overhead, sounding far away outside the train station. The guy in the seat had come to and was groggy and apologizing. Jonas assured him he was fine, and the EMTs would check him out to make sure.
“Where are we?” he asked.
“They diverted us. We’re at the Spring Garden station,” she said, tension winding in her chest.
The trip had taken her in the opposite direction of where she wanted to go.
“We’ll have to find aboveground transport. I heard them say they were shutting down the city train routes until the storm passed.” Again, she thought of Kate, alone.
“They don’t want to risk another stranding,” he said, nodding grimly. “That could have been really bad.”
“There’s a crowd of people looking for taxis and a line at the buses, so that could take forever,” she warned. “Maybe I should try the car rentals.”
Just then, a tall, black-haired woman and another man stepped onto the train, and Tessa saw EMTs filing in not far behind them.
Tessa could tell from her posture and stride that the woman was someone in a position of authority. The badge on her belt, revealed as she put a hand on her hip, cleared that up quickly. Philadelphia P.D.
Her green eyes lit with pleasure on Jonas, and then with curiosity on Tessa.
“Jonas! You’re the guy who prevented a riot on the train car? I should have known,” she said with a wide grin.
“That would be me.”
“Well, that just made my job a whole lot easier.”
Jonas smiled widely, and a twinge of jealousy grabbed at Tessa. He had never smiled like that for her, so openly. How well did these two know each other?
“Rachel,” he said warmly, and accepted the woman’s brief hug as EMTs boarded and took the man out with them.
Tessa stood, too, holding out her hand, meeting the woman’s eyes. “Hi, I’m Tessa Rose.”
The green eyes narrowed as the woman’s head tilted slightly to the side. “Detective Rachel Pankewski. I know you. You’re Senator Rose’s daughter?” she asked.
“Yes, but more importantly, Jonas’s … friend,” Tessa said pleasantly, holding the woman’s stare.
The detective smiled widely, looking at Jonas again, seeming even more amused.
“So what happened here?” she asked.
“He started to panic when the lights went out. He was big, and started hitting, pushing.”
“Yeah, we have someone with a bruised eye where he clipped them.”
“I got him in a choke hold and tried to talk him down, but he got really riled up,” Jonas said. “I know it was risky, but it was getting bad in there.”
Rachel nodded. “He’ll be okay. He’s still kind of groggy and doesn’t know what happened exactly. We’ll explain the situation to him, and as long as the EMTs clear him, there’s no problem that I can see. He was a public danger to himself and others. We owe you one. We’re all doing whatever we have to tonight. It’s nuts. I had an assault close by, so I responded. I’ll write it up and catch up with you over the next few days. Thanks for keeping this from turning into a real problem.” Rachel smiled. “What are you two doing caught in this in the first place?”
“Tessa has an elderly friend in Germantown who needs some help, she’s low on insulin. We were trying to get there, but with the stoppage on the tracks, they rerouted us here,” he explained. “We’re trying to figure out how to get the next leg.”
“You’ll be stuck here for a while, and the streets are a mess. I have to go, but first let me see what I can do.” The detective quickly reached into her jacket for her phone.
Tessa noticed two other things: her gun in its holster and her wedding rings on a chain around her neck.
“Old flame?” she asked Jonas, her voice not as casual as she’d hoped it would be.
“Old friend. We were street cops together, not partners, but had the same shift and we made detective together. She’s a good egg. And very, very married,” he added with another twitch of his lips.
Tessa’s cheeks burned. She knew she was making an idiot of herself over a man who didn’t even necessarily like her very much, except for the explosive sexual chemistry they shared. She thought again about how he had rarely shared the easy humor or banter with her that he had with his old friend, and she realized it was something she wanted with him.
She craved the passion, and the explosive sex, but she was interested in the other stuff, too. The things that real relationships were made from. The shared intimacy of tiny details that all couples experienced in everyday life. Coffee in the morning, holding hands while watching television, finishing each other’s sentences.
She had no idea if Jonas wanted more than sex with her, or with anyone, for that matter. It pinched at her to think that was all they had, and barely that, even.
The detective joined them again. “Well, there’s no way for me to get a unit down here to take you … we’re stretched beyond capacity, as you can imagine. There is one possibility for transport, if you are open to it,” she said.
“Anything you can do would be wonderful,” Tessa said appreciatively, trying to make up for her previous jealousy. “My friend needs her insulin within an hour or so.”
“Well, we’ve recruited some help from mounted details, and I have officers willing to take you where you need to go, if—”
