LITMIR.BIZ

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almost every day since it had happened.

      He could still remember every detail of holding her. Kissing her. Her taste. Her scent.

      The wind hit the side of the house hard, the thunder deafening.

      Tessa hated thunder.

      Maybe she needed him. If James thought she was in trouble, or even that she just needed someone close by, he couldn’t turn his back on that. But the senator was right—she’d never allow him to guard her. She had issued an invitation—one he hadn’t intended to respond to, but now things had changed. It gave him an in—cold, sure—but he had a job to do, and this time he would do it right. She’d hate him afterward, but that might be better, anyway.

      Before he could think about it too much, he hit the second number on his speed dial.

      “Tessa?”

      She was so quiet at first, he thought they might have dropped the connection.

      “Jonas?”

      “Yeah, I’m sorry to bother you, but … um, I … I need your help.”

      A SHORT WHILE LATER, Tessa was banging at the front door. “Jonas, are you there? Let me in, I’m getting soaked out here!”

      Through the glass, she saw him limping slightly on his way to the door, which he opened. She hurried in, soaked to the skin. Rain dripped off her coat, puddling on the polished wood floors.

      “The rain is coming down sideways out there,” she said, glad to have an excuse to cover her nerves about showing up.

      When she’d seen his number on her caller ID, she thought maybe he’d had a change of heart—that he wanted to take her up on her invitation from earlier.

      When he’d said he needed her help, she’d been worried sick, imagining every terrible thing possible between her store and the office, but from what she could tell, he looked in one piece, more or less.

      “I’m sorry to drag you out in this, but you were the only person I could reach,” he said.

      His last resort, she thought, her hopes dipping. This wasn’t exactly what she’d counted on. “What happened?”

      “I turned suddenly, and I think I sprained my ankle. I tried to take care of it myself, but couldn’t. If you could help me out with that, and getting me home, I’d appreciate it.”

      “What’s been going on here?”

      “A tree limb broke the window. I managed to get it covered.”

      She walked to the edge of the room on her left, seeing leftover bits of broken glass.

      “You’re going to trip yourself up again.”

      “Why do you say that?”

      “You’re standing here with one bare foot and an Ace bandage twisted around it and trailing behind you.” She couldn’t help but smile as she watched a big cat turn into a kitten as he followed the edge of the strap, chasing it. “Your cat seems to think it’s great fun, though.”

      “Oh. Yeah, he would.”

      “How could your brothers leave you alone in this storm? You shouldn’t have been climbing up on a chair—you could have hit your head.”

      “I’m not completely helpless, you know. I shouldn’t have called you,” he said stiffly.

      Tessa took a breath, and swallowed her disappointment. He obviously hadn’t wanted to ask for help, and in particular, he didn’t like asking her for help. But he had, and she’d do what she had to do.

      Still, she wished it was because he had actually wanted to see her. Her pride kept her from saying as much.

      “I don’t mind helping. Let me find someone to take care of the mess and fix up your ankle. Then I can make sure you get home safely.”

      She led him back to the bathroom and while she worked on his foot, he talked to Ken, their handyman. It gave her a chance to concentrate. Apparently the handyman lived close by and assured Jonas he would come over to take care of the window and everything else.

      “This doesn’t look too bad,” she said, trying not to feel ridiculous that the sight of Jonas’s naked foot was enough to make her pulse jump, but it was a very nice foot, by all estimations.

      “Do you have any liniment?” she asked.

      “Probably,” he responded tightly. “I left the first-aid kit out on the desk.” She pulled her hands back, and he seemed to relax a little. Did he not want her touching him even that much?

      She got up and went to look, coming back a few minutes later. The cat purred around her feet and blinked up at her, clearly flirting.

      “What’s your cat’s name?”

      “Irish.”

      “Interesting.”

      “Fighting Irish, given his battle scars.”

      “Ah, that makes sense,” she said, taking a break to scratch the cat behind the ears. At least one of the Berringer men liked her attentions, she thought.

      “You’re pretty good at this,” he said.

      “I dated an EMT once. I used to ride the ambulance with him when things were slow. I even thought about getting my certification,” she said absently, focusing on the task as a way of resisting the urge to slide her hand up his muscled calf.

      “Isn’t that against the law?”

      She snorted. “We weren’t too worried about that back then. I wish I had known what happened. I have an organic eucalyptus oil that works wonders, and smells a lot better than this stuff.” She hated the stench of the ointment she was applying. Running her hand over the back of his strong calf to steady his leg, a desire shot through her.

      She was supposed to be attending an injury to a blind man, and even that had erotic overtones for her. How pathetic was that?

      “You can probably manage your sock and shoe alone,” she commented, “though I’m not sure the shoe will fit unless you unlace it.”

      “I have a pair of work boots over in the mudroom. Could you grab them for me?” he asked.

      “Sure.”

      She made her way through the classic rooms of the old Victorian, admiring the way they had remodeled and updated it without erasing its original character. The last time she’d been here had been to try to get someone to tell her what was happening with Jonas, how he was. Where he was.

      The brothers had such a strong bond, seemed so loyal to each other that she found it surprising they would have left Jonas here all alone, dealing with the storm. Still, as she’d recalled earlier, he wasn’t a guy who liked accepting help. She was just amazed he had called her instead of hobbling home on his own.

      “Thanks,” he said grudgingly as she handed him the boots.

      “You’re welcome,” she responded in the same tone. “Let me see if I can just reinforce that plastic around the window to keep the rain out, and I’ll call a cab.”

      “You don’t have to do that. Ken will be here soon.”

      “It will only take a few minutes, and it will keep your floors from being ruined.”

      He nodded reluctantly, and resumed trying to get his boots on. So much for him wanting her around—he seemed happy to have any excuse to ignore her.

      Tessa busied herself adding more tape to the plastic around the broken window. When the job was done, she phoned for a cab. It took three calls to find a company who had someone available.

      “Our ride will be here in a bit. Things are getting rough out there,” she said, jumping a little as a crack of thunder sounded as if it was splitting the world in two.

      “You

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