Mine Until Morning

by Samantha Hunter

  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—”

  “Horses?” Jonas said incredulously.

  “Yep. Some of the local cowboys and a few of the state police are offering services to get where regular transport can’t go. They can get you there with no stopping, unless the skies open up again.”

  “I love horses, no problem,” said Tessa. “I learned to ride as a kid.”

  Jonas looked less sure.

  “I don’t know, Tessa, maybe you should go, and I can wait—”

  “It will be fine, Jonas. Just trust in the universe. This could even be fun,” she said. “Fun. Right.”

  “Don’t worry. The officer will ride, and all you have to do is hang on.”

  “Right,” he said again, sounding less than convinced. “Well, let’s go, then.”

  The detective led them out through a side exit, and Tessa smiled at the large, handsome quarter horse that stood with his rider under a roof that protected them from the rain, which had lightened considerably, she saw with relief.

  The quarter horse belonged to the state cop, who stood next to a younger man, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. Tessa recognized him as one of Philadelphia’s native urban cowboys.

  The city had developed a program to help inner-city youth avoid crime and learn to ride, caring for their horses and riding them around the city, as long as they stayed out of trouble and did well in sch
ool. The program had some ups and downs over the years, and had had its share of controversies. Struggling to stay afloat in terms of funding, it still was active.

  Tessa supported the program through her business, and knew her father did, as well—it was one of the few things they agreed on. It was a good idea, and she loved seeing the horses being ridden down a Philly side street in the evening, the cowboys appearing like some vision from the Old West. She also liked to think about the kids in the program getting a second chance.

  “Ricardo? Officer Styles?” Rachel greeted them, and introduced herself, as well as Tessa and Jonas.

  “You think you can deliver these two safely to Germantown? They have a friend in need,” the detective explained. “Jonas is a former detective with the force. Tessa owns a store down on South.”

  Jonas spoke up upon hearing the younger man’s voice. “Ricardo? Ricardo Nunez?” he asked.

  “Detective Berringer,” the young man said happily. “I remember you.”

  “Not a detective anymore, but I take it you’re doing well?”

  “Yes. Thanks to you,” he said. “Detective Berringer introduced me to the stables when I was a kid. He got me out of a crack house during a raid when I was ten and got me into a good foster home,” Ricardo explained to the rest.

  “Ricardo is planning to go to the academy,” Officer Styles interjected. “He wants to be in our Mounted Division.”

  Tessa saw the pleasure reflected in Jonas’s expression.

  “Ricardo, that’s great,” Jonas said. “I’m proud of you.”

  The young man crossed to Jonas, who held out his hand for Ricardo to find, shaking it and pulling the young man in for a quick, manly chest bump.

  Tessa’s throat was a little tight with emotion as she looked on. There was so much about Jonas she didn’t know, and she wanted to know it all.

  A roll of thunder was dull in the distance, and they all glanced up at the night sky.

  “We’d better go. We can get you there pretty quickly, but we have to keep the horses out of the worst of this,” Styles added.

  “Okay,” Tessa said, looking at Jonas. “You ready?”

  He blew out a breath, offering a sideways smile that made her heart skip. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

  “REMIND ME NEVER TO do that again,” Jonas said, wincing as he stretched out his legs in front of the counter where Tessa was waiting for the pharmacist who was gathering Kate’s supplies.

  “Oh, it was fun!” she said, smiling and looking as if she really had enjoyed herself.

  It had only been a twenty-or thirty-minute horse ride to the pharmacy, cutting cross-lots, but it had been a bit rough considering he didn’t have anything but his jeans between him and the saddle.

  He hadn’t been too crazy about Tessa riding with the mounted officer, either. Officer Styles had been enjoying her company a little too much, from what he could tell of the way the guy flirted, encouraging her to “hold on.”

  At one point, they had galloped across the park, and he and Nunez had to catch up. Jonas wasn’t sure, but he thought he overheard the guy asking Tessa out.

  Regardless of his confused feelings about her, he didn’t want anyone else touching her or flirting with her.

  Jonas hadn’t been jealous of anyone in a long time, and he’d almost forgotten what it was like to feel this possessive.

  He also reminded himself that he had no ties to Tessa, and didn’t want any. The sexual chemistry between them was combustible. They were willing adults sharing some mutual enjoyment, but that was it.

  In the morning, they would have to accept that nothing had changed.

  Liar, an inner voice accused.

  “It was kind of exciting, don’t you think?” Tessa asked, interrupting his thoughts and sounding more relaxed. Jonas knew she was relieved to be at the pharmacy, and they could walk the rest of the way to Kate’s. Officer Styles was willing to take her as far as she wanted to go, as he’d made clear, but once Jonas was down off that steed, there was no way he was getting back up on it.

  “Exciting. That’s one word for it,” Jonas said dryly, and felt her nudge him.

  “You looked good up there. You should take up riding. I can toally see you in a cowboy hat and boots,” she said, and he wasn’t sure if she was teasing.

  “Not likely.” He shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other, recalling the ride. “I do have a bike.”

  “A bicycle?”

  “A motorcycle,” he corrected. “An eighties Harley that I take out on the road when I’m off duty.”

  “Very sexy,” she purred, sliding up close to him.

  “So, did the Mountie ask you out?”

  “Hold on,” she said, kissing him lightly and avoiding the question. “They just called my number at the counter.”

  Jonas sighed in frustration. She wasn’t making this easier. He couldn’t get a fix on her. She was sexy and alluring, flirtatious and open about it. He couldn’t see what had gone on between her and the officer, but he knew that flirty laugh, and figured she’d had a good time. It confirmed his earlier suspicions about her.

  She was also a concerned friend and a kind person. A passionate woman who didn’t hide who she was.

  If he was really honest, maybe he was as angry at himself as he was at her. No matter how much he could blame Tessa for getting him in a bind with her father, Jonas had been the one placed in a position of authority, sent to protect her. He was also the one who’d caved to temptation.

  And still wanted to.

  It wasn’t the first time he’d made that mistake. His mind wandered back to his last year on the force. His unit had been working with the Bunko Squad to take down an underground gambling ring.

  The bodies of several people associated with the ring had surfaced around town, and Homicide was called in, where Jonas had made detective two years before. When Bunko undercover officers had snagged an inside CI, a confidential informant, to serve as a witness, she’d been given to Homicide to watch while the undercover team closed in.

  Jonas, the junior detective at the time, had been on protection detail at the safe house. He still remembered Irena Nadik. Young, lovely and lethal.

  The lethal part he’d had no idea about. Jonas had believed she was a victim, and that was how she played it. Forced to comply with a ruthless crime boss’s orders, she’d tearfully relayed a story about her father’s murder by the men who held her now against her will, the constant threats to sell her into the sex trade when they were done with her.

  Jonas had fallen for her, let her seduce him, and looked forward to when the case was closed and they could be together. He’d even thought of marriage. Maybe that was how he’d rationalized breaking the rules for love.

  He’d had no idea she was playing him the whole time. Slept with him, got him to tell her things he shouldn’t have.

  On the night of the raid, she’d drugged him, and used his own phone to try to warn the ring. Luckily, his partner had shown up and caught her before she succeeded.

  The ring was taken down, Irena was in jail for a good long time, but Jonas had messed up big-time. He was suspended during an investigation, but eventually cleared for duty with only a light reprimand on his record.

  But Jonas knew the truth. He couldn’t look the guys he worked with in the eye each day and expect them to trust him when he had messed up so seriously. For a woman.

  He left the force the following year and joined the personal security business Garrett was launching. It had taken him a long time to trust his instincts again, and that’s what bothered him the most. He didn’t know what to think about Tessa.

  It was easy to focus on the job.

  The senator was out of the country, and he was given a light-duty assignment to keep her company, make sure she was okay. He had no idea what the senator’s agenda was, or Tessa’s, for that matter, but he could focus on the job. That he knew how to do.

  “All set. Kate’s house is about six blocks from here, though we
had better hurry,” Tessa said briskly, breaking into his brief foray into the past. “The storm is winding up again.”

  He didn’t say anything, still caught up in dark thoughts, but let her take his hand.

  “I picked up a few things for later,” she said mischievously, putting a bag in his hand, where he felt the corner of what he assumed were several rather large boxes of condoms.

  “You’re overestimating my endurance,” he said.

  “I just thought we’d like some variety,” she countered.

  Feeling cornered, wanting what he couldn’t, and shouldn’t, have, but not knowing how to walk away, he just kept moving.

  “Everything okay?” she asked, clearly picking up on his change in mood.

  “Let’s get to Kate’s before the storm hits,” he said shortly.

  He couldn’t let this go any further.

  He had to walk away. He’d get her safely to her friend’s, then back to her place, and try to finish this job without making things worse. The crunching sound of the bag of condoms he carried seemed to mock him.

  The wind was picking up, and she linked her elbow in his, picking up the pace.

  “Is this storm never going to stop?” Tessa said breathlessly as they hurried down the street.

  She guided him flawlessly, alerting him to step down or up, holding him close with her elbow linked in his. “It’s like some bad Armageddon movie out here,” she joked.

  The end of the world as we know it.

  Jonas twisted his mouth sardonically at his own sense of melodrama.

  “Tomorrow the sun will come out, and it will just be a memory,” he said, unsure if he was talking completely about the storm.

  She yipped as thunder cracked overhead, and jumped closer to him, moving faster.

  Jonas stopped suddenly, wrenching her to a stop as well, the flash of light obliterating any of his previous thoughts.

  The flash that he saw.

  He pointed. “Was that lightning—over there, this direction,” he asked while pointing, his voice urgent.