LITMIR.BIZ

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particularly after Jonas’s younger brother had successfully prevented a kidnapping attempt on the senator a few years earlier.

      James Rose had even become a friend of sorts. When he’d asked them to guard his daughter after receiving threats concerning a bill he was authoring, they couldn’t refuse. The senator had trusted Jonas to keep his daughter safe, and he’d done a rotten job of it. Not one of Jonas’s better moments.

      Jonas did the usual background checks, and he knew about Tessa’s reputation going in. The senator’s “wild child,” Tessa was a free spirit, nonconformist. She was also heart-stoppingly beautiful and completely off-limits.

      Father and daughter had a tumultuous relationship, to say the least. From what Jonas had seen at a distance, Tessa looked like one more spoiled rich girl who liked to rub her father’s nose in her exploits. He’d known plenty of that particular type over the years.

      Tessa had made several questionable choices in relationships, among other things, that seemed more about thwarting her father’s control than anything else.

      However, Jonas discovered that the view up close was somewhat different. For one thing, Tessa wasn’t a girl anymore, but a mature woman who ran a successful business. As he got to know her, he couldn’t help but see her in a different light, though he knew her relationship with her father was still troubled.

      Getting in between the senator and his daughter was dangerous. Jonas had to pick one side or the other, and he chose the side that paid the bills. Besides, he knew too well how that kind of slip could come back and bite you in the ass.

      Guarding Tessa had been a little more intense than his usual assignments. They’d been around each other 24/7 for several weeks, almost constantly together. He didn’t let her out of his sight, day or night, as per the senator’s orders. It made it harder to control the heat that had flared between them.

      Tessa wasn’t big on control, and she tempted his from every angle she could. One night, when they’d returned from a party, he’d given in, right in the parking lot behind the store.

      He’d watched her all evening, dancing with friends in a dress that had been molded to her, what there was of it, anyway. A few of the friends she’d danced with had been male, and it made Jonas want to claim her as his in a very basic way.

      Ridiculous, but true.

      Her sharing even an innocent dance with another man had driven him crazy, and by the time they’d returned home, he couldn’t hold back any longer.

      He was so distracted that he hadn’t noticed someone watching them from a dark corner of the lot.

      The guy had approached from behind while he had her in his arms. A hard slam to the head had knocked him out. Tessa had fought back and, admirably, had taken out the intruder with a bat she kept in the back seat of her car.

      Jonas had awakened at the hospital later, completely blind.

      The senator’s aide, Howie, was the first voice he heard after the doctors told him about his condition; apparently Rose wasn’t available.

      From what Howie said, it was clear Tessa had told them that Jonas had screwed up big time. He was off the job. Worse, she’d made it sound as if he had been pursuing her, and that he had seduced her that evening, instead of keeping his eye on the target.

      She’d clearly used him to piss her father off for sending a bodyguard in the first place. He’d known she wasn’t happy about the idea—the senator had warned him—and she hung him out to dry. He should have seen it coming. That he’d fallen for her added insult to injury.

      Jonas had never liked Howie Stanton, but Howie was a Washington insider and had been with the senator for years. Jonas had noticed on more than one occasion when the senator had come to Tessa’s shop how Howie’s eyes followed Tessa. His expensive suit and high-profile position didn’t make him any less of a lowlife.

      But Howie had made the senator’s wishes clear to Jonas: stay away from Tessa, or there would be consequences. Jonas could hear in his tone that the aide relished delivering the news.

      Jonas did as the senator requested.

      He hadn’t seen or talked to Tessa for a month since the attack, and he didn’t plan to. He’d played the fool once, and it wasn’t worth the risk to Berringer Security’s reputation. The senator could do them a lot of damage if he wanted to.

      Feeling for the edge of his bed stand, from which he knew it was about seven steps to the window, Jonas found the AC unit. After a brief struggle with the curtain and the controls, he managed to turn it down to low.

      After getting a cup of cold water from the kitchen, he found his way back to the bed. Traffic was busy down on the street, people going about their normal lives. The apartments on his floor were quiet, everyone gone to work.

      He picked up the basic clock that one of his brothers had bought him and removed the glass cover so that he could feel the hand positions.

      One o’clock in the afternoon. He’d always been an early riser, but now he slept whenever he could and woke at odd hours.

      His brothers, Garrett, Ely and Chance, were running the business without him until his sight came back. Doctors said his sight would return, but it hadn’t.

      What if it didn’t? What if they were wrong? The chill that ran over him had nothing to do with the AC.

      The hard hit to the back of his head had left him with a concussion and severe bruising to his optic nerve, causing temporary but complete blindness. The duration of “temporary” was unknown. Doctors had no idea when his vision would return. He’d seen four specialists, all offering the same fuzzy explanations of the mysteries of the brain.

      Be patient, they’d said.

      He shook his head, running a hand through hair that he’d let grow too long. It bugged him, especially in the heat, but he didn’t feel like hearing the questions and sympathetic comments from his barber or anyone else. So he’d holed up here, mostly, waiting for life to return to normal.

      Jonas reached to the left, groping to find his cell phone, and he held it in his hand. Thankfully, his was an older model with a hard keyboard that he could still use, though he sometimes hit the wrong button.

      He still had the number for Tessa’s shop on speed dial, number two, second only to the office, and he ran his thumb over the button, as if tempting himself. He should erase it, but couldn’t quite do it.

      Cursing, he put the phone down and found his way to the shower. As much as he wanted Tessa, he’d get over it eventually. His blindness made things worse, blowing his attraction to her all out of proportion. He was frustrated and bored. When he had his sight back, he’d be able to move on, get his own life back.

      Maybe the hit on the head had kept him from making an even bigger mistake. At least the attack had happened before they were both naked, out in the open for anyone to see.

      No sooner had he turned on the water when he heard a knock on the front door—soft, but he could still hear it. He’d always had sharp senses, even before he was blind. You didn’t survive in his line of work without them.

      Still, there was a noticeable uptick in his perception that would have been kind of cool if it weren’t at the expense of his vision.

      “Keep your pants on, I’m getting there,” he said as the knock sounded again, harder this time. He wrapped a towel around his waist and shut the water off. It had to be one of his brothers, come by to pull him out of bed, no doubt. He had another doctor’s appointment that afternoon. It galled him not being able to go anywhere on his own and that he required help for everything.

      It had to be Garrett, who had been fussing around him like a mother hen since the attack. Jonas made his way to the door, opening it and turning to walk back into the room.

      “I know, I slept late, but the appointment isn’t for another hour. Give me a chance to clean up, then we can go,” he said.

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