The car stopped, and she frowned, hearing the sound of music playing out in the neighborhood, resisting the urge to argue with him for the moment.
“The electricity is back on,” she said, but saw no evidence of that except for the music. The streetlights were still out, though the dawn was bathing the street in soft, after-storm light.
“Thank you so much, Collins. It was so nice to meet you. Tell Kate I will be in later today to check on her and help her get home,” Tessa said, offering the older man a hug, which surprised him, and which he seemed happy to accept.
Jonas shook Collins’s hand, and they waited as the car left.
“Well, at least the rain has stopped,” he observed. “Where is the music coming from?”
“Looks like Lydia’s having a party,” she said, noting the candles and flashlights visible through the window of the tattoo parlor, and the sign in the window that announced a Blackout Party.
“Hey, where have you been?” a voice behind them asked, and Tessa turned to find her friend and neighbor Scott, who owned the deli across the street, walking toward them carrying a huge cooler.
“My friend Kate had a medical emergency,” Tessa explained as Scott put the cooler down on the sidewalk. She gave him a hug and watched as he shook hands with Jonas. “It’s been quite the adventure getting to her.”
“How did you end up in scrubs?”
“We were soaked, so a nurse took pity on us.”
“Nice. So your friend is okay?”
“Yes, we made it just in time, and she’s fine. What’s happening here?”
“They aren’t predicting the power’ll be back on until sometime tomorrow, so I had to use these cold cuts and salads before they went bad. Lydia had the idea to throw a blackout party for people around the neighborhood.”
“Clever,” Tessa said.
“Good to see you, too, Jonas. Wondered where you had gotten to, and was sorry to hear about your eyesight. Rotten break, but it’s supposed to come back, right?” Scott asked, and Tessa saw Jonas straighten uncomfortably, nodding.
“Yes, that’s what they’re saying,” Jonas confirmed briefly.
Tessa frowned. She should have told her friend Lydia to keep their previous conversation about Jonas private, but it was too late now.
“Come on in and have a sandwich or something. It’s turned into a pretty good time,” Scott said, picking up his cooler again.
“We just came from dinner, so—” Tessa started, but then Lydia appeared in her doorway, clapping excitedly.
“You’re back, and you’re okay! I’m so relieved. I went over to get you for the party, and the place was all closed up. I wondered where you’d got to,” she said, and then smiling, noticed Jonas. “But now I can see you had other things to do.”
Tessa rolled her eyes at her friend’s unrestrained glee at seeing her with Jonas.
“We’re really beat, Lydia,” Tessa tried to beg off, but Lydia wasn’t hearing any of it, and linked her arm through Jonas’s, standing up on tiptoe to kiss his cheek.
She looked at Tessa and made a silent mime that Tessa could not quite decipher. She probably wanted all the details about her night with Jonas, knowing Lydia. Tessa nodded, letting her friend know she would catch up with her later.
Even Jonas’s surly demeanor cracked at Lydia’s happy welcome, and he offered her a kiss back.
Tessa knew he’d always enjoyed Lydia’s visits, the two of them quipping and harassing each other like siblings.
Lydia didn’t have any family, and Jonas didn’t have any sisters. Tessa figured her friend enjoyed the brotherly back-and-forth she had developed with Jonas, and it gave Tessa yet another perspective on him, playing the big brother. She wondered what he was like with his own brothers, and hoped she’d have a chance to see them all together someday soon. If Jonas was interested in seeing her.
“Come on, it’ll be fun.” Scott led the way. “You can take some food for later.”
Tessa laughed at her friend’s insistence on pushing off his extra food and followed. Inside, she was greeted by several other business owners in the neighborhood as well as a few of the residential neighbors as music blasted from a speaker in the corner where someone had set up an iPod and food was set out everywhere.
Never one to miss a business opportunity, Lydia was also offering Blackout Special henna tats until the lights came back on.
“I have an opening. How about you let me paint you?” Lydia said to Tessa, catching Tessa staring at the sale sign on one of the food tables.
“No, thank you,” she said.
“Jonas, don’t you think Tessa should get a tat? I could do something very personal, and very tasteful…something only special people could see,” Lydia said mischievously, and Tessa felt her cheeks heat.
“Lydia—” she warned.
“I think it could be fun,” he said, surprising both women. “You game?” he asked Tessa.
“It’s only henna,” Lydia cajoled.
Tessa took good care of her skin. It was an important part of her business to show how well her products worked, but also to care for her health. She didn’t sit in the sun for long periods of time and with no disrespect to her friend, had no interest in permanent ink. Still, she was feeling daring, and a temporary henna tat would be fun.
“Okay, why not?” she said. “I’ll pick out yours, and you can tell Lydia what you want for me. We don’t get to see until it’s done.”
Jonas looked slightly apprehensive. “No fair. I’m blind. I could end up walking around with who knows what on my forehead.”
Tessa leaned in, feeling mischievous and whispered in his ear, “It wasn’t your forehead I was thinking about,” she teased, and then added, “I guess you’ll have to trust me.”
“Okay. I can do that,” he said, and she knew they were talking to each other about far more than a tattoo.
“Actually, I think I have the perfect idea for both of you,” Lydia said, and led them to the corner where she proceeded to sit them both down before her in comfortable chairs, and then grabbed a scarf from the shelf.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Tessa objected at first, as Lydia started to tie it around her eyes.
“It’s supposed to be a surprise, right?”
“Lydia…”
“Trust me, Tessa.”
Tessa sighed. It seemed to be the theme of her life at the moment, and she did trust Lydia, who winked at her as she tied the scarf around her face.
“This won’t take long. It’s a simple scroll, but it will work very well.”
They listened to the music and conversations behind them then as Lydia worked, and Tessa laughed a few times, her palm tickling as Lydia painted there, and then turned her hand over, continuing.
“Um. I thought this would be small.”
“It comes off in four to six weeks, Tessa. But you’re going to like it, I promise.”
Then she left Tessa to work on Jonas who was so quiet she thought maybe he had fallen asleep.
“There. Done!” Lydia pronounced, and Tessa wasn’t sure she wanted to open her eyes, but when she did, she caught her breath in pleasure at the delicate scarlet-and-black scrolling that weaved its way around her hand and fingers, to the center of her palm, where it ended in a starburst.
She looked over to see Jonas grimacing. “Tell me she didn’t paint flowers or kittens on my arms, please,” he said.
Lydia snickered.
Tessa took his arm, and knew immediately what Lydia had done, and she glanced up, meeting her friend’s eyes.
Lydia shrugged. “It seemed right. You two fit,” she said, echoing what Tessa had told Jonas earlier.
His was similar, but heavier, more manly, and also worked around his fingers, wrist and palm.
“You, uh, need to hold hands to really see how it comes together. It’s a concept I developed while I was designing. You are the first ones I’ve tried it on. I call this one Completion.”
Jonas shrugged and held out his hand, obviously disappoi
nted that he couldn’t see his. Tessa took it, and caught her breath. As their fingers wove together, their palms merging, so did the design. The scrolls connected into an intricate weave that created an entirely new design.
“Lydia, that’s amazing…” Tessa breathed, and tried to explain it to Jonas, though she felt as if she couldn’t do it justice. She wished so much he could see it, and said as much.
“Well, like I said, they last several weeks. And you said you had some signs your vision was coming back?” she asked Jonas.
“Yes.”
“And you figure you’ll be around in a few weeks?” Lydia asked baldly, to Tessa’s horror.
He smiled. “Yeah, I hope so.”
That made Tessa’s heart stop.
“So there you go then.” Lydia cleared her throat as they stood there, holding hands. “Okay, I’m going to go check on the party, and you guys can show off your tats, if you would, so it could drum up some business for me. You know, before you head upstairs to—”
“Lydia!” Tessa cut her friend off, laughing, and Lydia laughed, as well.
Gone, Tessa didn’t let go of Jonas’s hand as she went into his arms.
“I think you’ll like it. It’s very badass. Promise.”
“Yeah, sounds like it,” he said doubtfully, but found her lips and didn’t seem overly concerned about the tattoo.
“I probably have soap that would remove it sooner than normal, if you like.”
He squeezed her hand, and kissed her lightly. “I’m good with it. You want to mingle for a few minutes and then go upstairs?”
“Yeah. I’d like that.”
Tessa wasn’t sure she’d ever been this happy. Jonas seemed to have accepted that she wasn’t his enemy, and more than that, he’d said he planned to be around. His sight was coming back, and he wanted to be with her.
Her father had tried to separate them, but fate had a different idea. Tessa was supposed to be with Jonas, she thought, looking down at how the designs on their hands merged into a perfect image that they showed off to guests who were suitably impressed.
They were together now, and she wouldn’t let anything hurt them, least of all her father, she thought as they finally left the party and went back to her apartment, where she could have Jonas all to herself.
9
Norfolk, 6:00 a.m.
ELY STRETCHED ON the bed, twisted in sheets and slowly waking up to note he was alone in the bed. Then the sound of the shower filtered through his consciousness. He smiled, feeling satisfied and well used in the way only a night of great sex could offer.
Though it was more than sex this time, he acknowledged. He may not have been ready for more back when he first knew Chloe, but he was now.
He wanted something meaningful, something right, and he was amazed that it had been there all the while. He’d always imagined that he’d like to have a marriage, a home, just as his parents had. He’d just never found the woman he could imagine it with.
Or he had, and he’d almost lost her.
Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, he thought about joining Chloe in the shower.
Maybe in a minute.
Checking the clock, he realized he should probably touch base with his brothers. They’d been expecting him home the night before, but he could catch a flight back this morning, and be there by noon. After he talked with Chloe.
Finding his jeans pockets empty, he frowned, then smiled at the memory of the night before. His cell must have fallen in her car when they’d been fooling around.
Her landline was on the desk, and before calling his brothers, Ely decided to make reservations at a nice place down the road that served brunch. That way they could talk and make some plans. For the future.
He whistled as he opened drawers searching for a phone directory, only to find a diamond winking up at him. There was a flat card with writing under it—he looked, his hands cold. Picking it up, he read the delicate scroll, and then let it fall from his hands.
It was a wedding invitation.
Chloe was getting married. In four weeks.
He slammed the drawer shut, cursing under his breath. Clenching his fists in anger, he fought to gain control as the shower shut off.
He was a fool.
Opening the drawer again, he took out the ring to examine it more closely. Definitely an engagement ring. He set it on the dresser, carefully. Some poor slob had spent several months’ pay on that rock.
Chloe came out from the shower, a towel wrapped loosely around her luscious form, her cheeks rosy. She was gorgeous as sin, but she wasn’t the woman he thought she was. Not by a long shot.
“Beautiful ring your fiancé bought you—is that what you were stashing last night when we came back here?”
The color drained from her face, and her eyes darkened so quickly he thought she might pass out, but then he recognized it was anger. At being caught.
“You went through my things?” she accused, her hands gripping the towel more tightly around herself.
“Not intentionally. I was going to make breakfast reservations, and had to use your phone since I dropped mine in the car last night while we were…well, you know what we were doing,” he confessed. “Somehow I don’t think it’s my ethics that are in question here.”
“You don’t understand,” she said, approaching him. “It was always you, but you didn’t want anything permanent, you walked away. And I met him, Lance…and he reminded me of you. He’s also a Marine. A good man.”
“Then he deserves better than this,” Ely said angrily. “How could you do this? So you used him because you couldn’t have me, but then you screw around with me behind his back?”
“You’re right, I know, I just…I planned to break it off with him, Ely. From the minute I saw you last night. That’s why I took the ring off. So we can be together. I know I should have told you, but—”
“If you had told me, I never would have laid a hand on you,” he said, feeling dirty, ashamed that he had been a part of this.
“I know. I’m sorry. But can’t we just go from here? What we have together is so good. We’re right together,” she said, looking up into his eyes. She put a hand on his chest, and he stepped back, breaking the contact.
Ely stared at her as if he’d never really seen her before, and admitted that he didn’t know her. Not really. He had only imposed his own perfect image of the woman he wanted, not the real woman she was.
“No, Chloe, nothing about this is right. It was a fantasy I had, but that’s over now. Whatever you do, have a nice life.” He strode to the door, shaking his head at himself that he had even considered a future with her or with anyone.
“Ely, no—” she called after him desperately, but he was dressed and already gone.
BACK IN HER APARTMENT, Tessa was joyfully preparing to experience a fantasy she’d been harboring about Jonas for weeks. She turned on the hot water and sprinkled something in the tub that immediately infused the air around them with a sultry, spicy scent.
“What is that?” he asked, kissing and nuzzling as he pulled her scrubs off as she undressed him, too.
“Gardenia musk bath oil. It’s part of my new erotic collection.”
“I can’t say I’m one for scented baths, but I don’t think I care so long as it’s you and me in there,” he said with a chuckle, letting his hands drift over every curve of her body.
“Here, let me help you in. Be careful,” she said, stepping into the deep bath and helping him get in safely, as well.
Her tub was huge. He’d always teased her about it, why one small woman needed such a large tub, but it made sense for someone in her line of business, he supposed.
He had also secretly fantasized about sharing it with her.
He sank back into the hot water with a groan.
“Feels good?”
“Everything with you feels good.”
They relaxed into the heat, and she wanted to keep hearing him talk, liking the sound of his voice.
“You met Garrett?”
“Definitely,” she said, unable to repress a sigh.
Jonas laughed. “I take it he was a brick wall?”
“That’s putting it mildly. I don’t think he approves of me,” she said, the dark and the tenor of the conversation drawing out a need to confess. “I feel awful that I distracted you, Jonas. I know you might not have lost your sight if it weren’t for me.”
“He doesn’t think that. Hell, I don’t think that. I was the one who lost focus. I can’t blame you for that,” he said.
“I still feel responsible, at least in part. I didn’t take my father’s concerns seriously enough. We put up with that kind of thing all the time growing up, and it never came to anything. I guess I never really thought anything would actually happen.”
“That’s why I was there. You weren’t supposed to worry about it. I let you down, Tessa. You and your father,” he said insistently.
She didn’t comment. She never felt as if he’d let her down until that morning, when he told her he thought she’d used him.
“Gare does like you, actually,” Jonas said, though she wasn’t sure if he was just being polite. “But, in order, from youngest to oldest, it’s Chance, Ely, me and then Garrett. Chance is the only one who inherited my mom’s light coloring. The rest of us are dark, like Dad. Chance is the risk-taker. When we were kids, we thought we were picking on him by hiding his favorite stuff in the tree out in our backyard and making him climb up to get it, but he loved it. He was never afraid of anything,” Jonas said with clear affection in his voice.
“And Ely?”
“He’s the ex-Marine—though every time I say that, he’ll say, ‘There are no ex-Marines,’” Jonas mimicked. “Ely is the quiet one, the strategist. Garrett is the prototypical big brother. He thinks it’s his job to watch over us all.”
“And which are you? How do you place yourself in that lineup?”
“I’ve never really thought about it.”
“Can I take a stab at it?”
“Sure.”
“I think you’re the loner. You may not be the oldest, but you’re the one who takes the heaviest load on yourself, and you don’t like to bother anyone to help you carry it.”
Mine Until Morning Page 13