Sunsets & Seduction: Mine Until Morning / Just for the Night / Kept in the Dark

Jonas held her, but lifted his face into the rain, eager, urgently wanting to see another flash, needing more confirmation that he hadn’t imagined it.

Tessa’s arms were tight around his neck, and he wasn’t sure if it was rain or tears he felt on her skin. In his excitement, he’d forgotten how afraid she was of the storm.

“I’m sorry. I just remembered you don’t like storms. I … can’t believe I might have actually seen something.”

“I don’t care about the storm,” she said. “I’m so happy for you.”

Then she was kissing him as the rain came down harder and the wind picked up around them. He gathered her up close, returning the kiss with everything he had, jubilant in the moment.

Tessa’s not Irena, he thought, and neither were his feelings for the two women at all similar.

Irena had been exotic, different and had appealed to him as a younger man who was easily fooled by beauty and charm.

Jonas wasn’t as easy to fool anymore—was he?

He wasn’t so sure he could walk away, in spite of his temporary resolve to do so. They parted, breathing heavily, as the rain came down harder.

Jonas wished more than anything that he could see her. Maybe if he could see her face, her expression, her eyes, he could know if she was being honest with him. If any of this was real.

Soon, he thought, another bright flash showing up in his field of vision.

“We have to go,” he said.

They ran the rest of the way to the address where Kate lived, and Jonas was relieved to finally be under cover as the weather worsened. On the relative shelter of the porch, Tessa searched for her keys.

“Damn, I left Kate’s keys at home,” she blurted in frustration. “How could I have done that?”

Jonas’s attention was split. His body felt electric, as if the storm was surging through him. He’d seen several more flashes on the way to the house, enough to cement his certainty that his vision had started to return.

One of the flashes had even been very bright, from a relatively close lightning strike that had scared the death out of Tessa, but thrilled him—both because he saw it and because it sent her into his arms.

He couldn’t find any way around his dilemma. There was no way to counter the damage that Senator Rose could do to his family, but he would take every chance he had to taste, touch and experience Tessa while he could.

“Kate will love meeting you, but I warn you, she’s a real pistol,” Tessa said, pressing the doorbell.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said, nipping at her earlobe. “You’re delicious, you know,” he added.

“Behave,” Tessa warned playfully as they stood outside Kate’s door, and she pushed the buzzer one more time.

There was no answer.

“It’s me, Kate. Tessa. I have your medicine,” Tessa called through the door, knocking again as they saw someone pull back a curtain near the window.

“Who? I don’t know you. Go away,” the woman yelled through the door, sounding frightened.

“Kate, it’s me, Tessa,” Tessa said again. “I have your medicine.” She tried to turn the doorknob, but it was no use.

“I don’t take any medicine. You are here to rob me,” the older woman claimed in a high-pitched voice.

“She must have miscalculated for her next dose,” Tessa said worriedly. “Confusion and paranoia can be part of ketoacidosis. We have to get in there.”

“Call 911,” Jonas instructed. “Do you have anything small, like a bobby pin?”

“No—wait,” Tessa said, clearly shaken. “I do, here,” she said, shoving something into his hands, dialing her cell phone to call paramedics.

Jonas focused, finding the door lock. He hadn’t done this in a number of years, and he’d never been great at it, but urgency fueled his movements.

He found that not being able to see actually increased his awareness of the mechanism of the lock. Not using his eyes, he could focus instead on the sense of movement or resistance offered by the pins, and almost as soon as Tessa hung up her call, he had the lock open.

“You are amazing,” Tessa said, opening the door, only to find the chain and a chair propped up against it. Kate really did think they were there to rob her.

“Time for a little brute force, huh?” he guessed.

“I think so,” she agreed, and they both put their shoulders to the door and shoved, breaking the chain and pushing the door inward.

“What do you think you’re doing?” a voice bellowed behind them. “I have called 911!”

Tessa turned to see an older woman on the porch holding a broom up in the air as if to swat at them. She calmed as she squinted, focusing in.

“Tessa, is that you?”

“It is me, Betty. I’m so sorry to worry you, we have to get inside to help Kate—she’s out of insulin.”

“Oh, no,” Betty said, dropping the broom and joining them, sizing up Jonas in the process.

“And you are …?” the older woman asked him.

“Friend of Tessa’s.”

“Do you have a name?”

“Jonas, ma’am.”

“Do you knock doors in often?”

“Only for beautiful sounding women,” he said with a smile, and Betty smiled back.

“Emergency is en route, but we have to keep her calm and give her an injection right away, if we can, the 911 operator instructed,” Tessa said.

Jonas nodded. “I can try to hold her still if need be, while you do that.”

“I’ll help keep her calm. She might recognize me,” Betty offered, and came in with them.

Kate was resistant but weak, and still very confused. Jonas felt terrible having to restrain her, even gently, but he spoke quietly in her ear, saying small, nonsensical things until Tessa had administered the shot of insulin. Kate seemed to relax against him moments later.

“She passed out,” Tessa said, sounding panicked just as the sound of the EMT sirens could be heard out on the street.

“The EMTs will take good care of her,” Jonas said just as patiently. “She’ll be fine. You got here in time,” he said to Tessa, putting his hand to her face and feeling hot tears.

He wanted to go to her, to hold her, but he was supporting the unconscious woman and couldn’t move.

“You’re very handsome, you know,” Betty interjected, silencing him and making Tessa laugh as EMTs came in and took over for them.

“I hope she’s going to be okay,” Tessa said, holding Jonas’s hand. “Will you excuse me for a moment? I need to use Kate’s bathroom,” she said to Jonas, and squeezed his hand before she walked away.

Jonas chatted with Betty and a few other neighbors who had come out to see what was going on while the EMTs prepped Kate for transport.

“Tessa is such a special girl,” Betty said. “She’s always so good to Kate, and even brought us homemade soup when my husband was sick last winter. She even cleaned house for me.”

“Really?” Jonas asked.

“You’re blind?” Betty asked curiously.

“Yep.”

“Well, I can tell you that she’s gorgeous, inside and out. I hope you appreciate that,” Betty told him.

“I’m starting to,” he said more to himself than to anyone else.

Jonas thought the older woman might ask about his intentions, next, but was glad when one of the other neighbors engaged Betty in conversation.

He knew Tessa was gorgeous. As for the rest, he was trying to match his earlier assumptions about her with everything else he was learning, and was coming up short. All he had to base his ideas of her on were media reports, her background check and her father’s opinion.

But he had his own opinion, as well.

Could he have been wrong about her motives?

“Hey, what are you doing here, Jon?” Jonas heard a familiar voice ask.

“Brad?” he guessed, not sure he was identifying the voice right.

“Yeah, it’s me, buddy. How are you?”

Brad was a firefighter/EMT that Berringer Security had helped out a while ago. Brad’s sister had been bothered by an old boyfriend, and Chance had helped keep an eye on her and made it clear to the ex that he needed to go away for good.

“I heard you lost your eyesight. Tough break. Job go bad?”

Jonas decided to skip over that, and got to the heart of it, hoping he could use this connection to their advantage.

“Yeah, something like that, but it’s temporary. I think my vision will be back soon,” he said. “Listen, we’re kind of in a bad spot here. I was hoping we could ride along with you. My friend is this woman’s caretaker, and is very concerned, but we don’t have a vehicle.”

“The blonde? She’s your client?”

Jonas could hear the high five in Brad’s tone.

“Yeah. She’s mine,” he said, maybe a little more possessively than he meant to. “I’d appreciate it, though I know it’s not usually allowed.”

“I can make it happen. It would be good for the patient to see someone she knows as she comes out of this, too,” Brad said.

Jonas thanked him and returned to tell Tessa, who hugged him tight, much to the tittering approval of the older women looking on.

“Thank you, Jonas. Thank you so much for your help with Kate,” she said, hugging him again. Her concern and her gratitude were so authentic, he felt like a total jerk for ever doubting her motives about anything, and doubly so for lying to her about why he was with her.

If Tessa knew that her father had ordered him to be with her right now, he had a feeling she wouldn’t be as thrilled with him. But he was also under orders not to tell her. James was right, that if she knew, she would not only be upset, she would reject his protection, and he couldn’t let that happen.

As they started following the EMTs out as they wheeled Kate along, Jonas heard his name called from behind. Betty, the woman who had thought he was handsome, met him as he turned around.

“Here, handsome, you forgot these,” she said conspiratorially, pushing the small bag he’d dropped out on the porch—the condoms—into his hand. “Being blind is no excuse for not being careful,” she added.

He choked out a thanks, and felt his face turn hot as he turned back to Tessa, who was laughing. Hard.

“Jonas, if you could only see your face,” she said, breathless with laughter.

He smiled, optimistic for the first time in a while. “Soon enough, I think. Soon enough.”

6

11:00 p.m.

TESSA WAS EXHAUSTED, happy, relieved, hopeful and worried all at the same time as she walked out of Kate’s hospital room. Everything was fine, and after being treated, her friend had returned to being her old self in no time.

In fact, Kate had shooed them out of the room after properly interrogating Jonas as to his intentions, and receiving only stuttering replies. Tessa hadn’t minded at all, since she was a little curious about Jonas’s intentions, as well.

He seemed to go in and out of high and low moods all night, as if he was waging some internal struggle he couldn’t tell her about. She assumed it had to do with his sight more than anything to do with her, but she hoped that maybe he was seeing that she wasn’t the conniving manipulator that he thought she was.

That was the worrying part. Jonas had politely excused himself so that she could have a moment alone with Kate before they left. Kate had held her hand tight, looking somewhat worried herself.

“You love him, Tessa?”

The words had hit her like a straight-on lightning strike, and her first impulse was to deny it.

“I care about him. It’s too soon for anything else, Kate.”

“Oh, that’s ridiculous. I knew I loved my Hank within five minutes of seeing him and knew that I’d marry him within ten.”

“Jonas and I have had a rockier start. I’m not sure he even likes me that much.”

“How on earth could you think that? The man is out in a terrible storm, at your side,” Kate said. “Men don’t do that for women they don’t like.”

Tessa sighed, and related the earlier conversation, and how Jonas believed that she had only wanted to use him against her father.

“You were a child when you did those crazy things,” Kate objected. “It has nothing to do with the woman you are now.”

“I hope he realizes that. I think there’s more going on, though I’m not sure what it is.”

Kate squeezed her hand. “Well, I think he has more feelings for you than he realizes, but only time will tell. A woman has to protect her heart.”

“Thanks, though it might be a little late for that,” Tessa said, feeling tears burning hot behind her eyes, but not wanting to upset Kate after her ordeal. “But I’m a big girl.”

“And you deserve a good man. I hope he’s smart enough to figure that out,” Kate said.

“I hope so, too. You be well. I’ll be back tomorrow to help you home,” Tessa said.

“You get some rest. Betty offered to do the same. You focus on your young man and making things work. I’ll be fine.”

“Thank you, Kate. I’m so glad you’re okay. You really scared me.” Tessa hugged her and still planned to be there the next day.

It was what happened between now and then that had her in knots.

Jonas had waited outside the room, quiet and pensive. He didn’t say a word as they turned to the elevator, but then were waylaid by one of Kate’s nurses.

“Hey, I have something for you,” she said, thrusting a pile of blue scrubs at them. “Kate asked. You guys are leaving puddles wherever you walk,” the nurse said with a grin, “and you’re going to get sick. There’s an empty room at the end of the hall, with a bathroom. Feel free to go down there and get clean and dry before you head out.”

Tessa was sure she’d just died and gone to heaven—her skin was clammy, and her hair was dripping down her back. She felt like a drowned rat and was, selfishly, kind of glad that Jonas couldn’t see her.

She knew she looked like hell. Surgical scrubs weren’t exactly fashionable, but they were soft, clean and dry, and she took Jonas’s hand and headed for the room.

“This is awesome,” she said, giddy with relief as she walked in and shut the door.

“I have to admit, it would be great to get out of these soggy jeans, and to wash the horse smell off,” he admitted, stripping off his jacket.

The shower in the bath was only big enough for a single person, so much to Tessa’s disappointment, they cleaned up quickly using what shampoo and soap were available. They weren’t as nice as the things at her shop, but she felt a million times better when she emerged. The scrubs fit just right, and were so comfortable. She sat back on the bed and waited for Jonas as he did the same.

Was this the end of their evening, or just the beginning? Had he changed his mind about wanting to be with her? A few minutes later, he emerged, dressed and smelling completely horse free. She had to admit, it was an improvement.

“You look like McDreamy,” she said with a grin, and wondered if they dared commandeer the room any longer to make use of the bed.

Jonas smiled, but didn’t go to her. Had he changed his mind?

“We’d better be on our way,” he suggested, and she agreed, trying to hide her disappointment as they made their way to the main entrance.

Awkward tension settled between them as they stood beneath the fluorescent hospital lights.

“Crazy night,” she said, hating small talk, but unsure what else to say.

“Trains, taxis, horses and ambulances,” he agreed with a short chuckle. “What next?”

Their answer came as they stepped out to the main entrance, and looked for their cab.

“Not here yet,” Tessa said, feeling increasingly tense. “Things are so overwhelming tonight for everyone.”

“It might take some time.”

Were they still talking about the storm? she wondered.

He seemed preoccupied and distant, and she wasn’t sure what to do.

A stretch limo pulled up and parked in front of them. Tessa watched the driver get out, an older man clad in a long raincoat and hat, who held two huge umbrellas as he made his way to the main entrance.

Looking at her and then Jonas, he approached them with a smile. Tessa figured he was seeking shelter himself or thought they were his clients.

No such luck.

“Tessa Rose?”

She paused in surprise. “Yes, that’s me.”

“I’m your driver, Collins. This way, please,” the driver said, and held the two umbrellas out to them.

“Wait, there’s some mistake,” she sputtered, and then halted. “Did Senator Rose send you?” she asked cautiously.

The driver seemed surprised. “No. I received a call from Ms. Masters to come pick you up here. At your service, miss,” the driver said again, guiding a shocked Tessa to the passenger door, and then helping to guide Jonas to the other side.

Kate sent them a limo?

Only then did she note the name of the transport company embossed on the inside of the rich leather door.

Masters’s Luxury Transport.

“Kate owns the limo service?” Tessa said in shock, catching Collins’s smile in the rearview mirror.

“Yes, ma’am. It’s a small company with only five vehicles, but we do a steady business. Her husband started it many years ago, and left the majority of it to her when he died, with a small share going to me, as well, for my retirement, but I enjoy the work. Hank Masters hired me twenty-five years ago. He was a good man.”

Tessa sat back in the luxurious seat, shocked. She never would have guessed. Kate lived so conservatively, and even took the bus and train to get around town, at least as far as Tessa knew.

Collins leaned in, his arm on the door. “Kate told me what you did for her tonight. She tried to contact me earlier in the evening, to pick up her medicine for her, but I was in Baltimore dropping off a couple to their wedding and couldn’t get back in time. Thank you, ma’am and sir,” Collins said expressively, obviously very fond of his employer.

“I would do anything for Kate,” Tessa said truthfully, taking Jonas’s hand. “And thank goodness Jonas could get that door open,” she said. “I could never have done it by myself.”

“You let me know if you need anything,” Collins said. “I am at your disposal for as long as you need me.”

Kate was obviously trying to help her and Jonas along a little, Tessa guessed. A compartment opened on the other side, sliding out to reveal a champagne bar, strawberries and pretty, foil-wrapped chocolates.

“Some privacy, perhaps?” Collins asked with a twinkle in his eye.

Tessa, still stunned, nodded.

“Enjoy,” was all Collins said as he closed the door and slid into the driver’s seat, which seemed yards away from where they sat. A solid, and probably soundproof, barrier rose between them. A minute later, the car pulled smoothly away from the hospital.

The vehicle seemed to cut through the wind and rain like butter, the dark windows lit only now and then by a flash of lightning.

“I can’t get over this,” she said. “In all the time I’ve known Kate, she never said a word about owning a business.”

“It sounds like it was her husband’s venture, and maybe Collins runs it now,” Jonas agreed.

“I’m so relieved. I always worry about her being comfortable, or paying her bills.”

“People of their generation don’t make an issue out of wealth like some do,” Jonas said. “It’s good to have friends who care about you. Kate obviously values that,” he said.

“I do, too,” Tessa responded, hoping he knew how much she meant it.

A buzzer sounded. Tessa pressed the button that lit up on the console.

“Yes?”

“I have your addresses, ma’am, but Ms. Masters wondered if you would like a late meal, since you may have missed dinner while getting to her apartment. There’s no hurry.”

“Now that you mention it, I am hungry,” Tessa said. “And please call me Tessa. But we’re not really dressed for dinner,” she said. They looked like a couple of surgeons coming home from work.

The idea triggered a fun idea for role play—she would love to play doctor with Jonas, she thought mischievously, but then returned her attention to Collins.

“If you have any preference, let me know. I’m sure your attire won’t be an issue.”

An idea sparked immediately, and Tessa put down the divider, climbing forward to whisper something in Collins’s ear. She knew the perfect place.

Putting the divider back, she eyed the champagne. “Okay then. I guess we’re riding in style,” she said to Jonas as she poured two glasses of champagne and went back to sit by his side, handing him one.

“I’m so glad it wasn’t my dad who sent this car,” she said honestly.

“Why?” Jonas asked, and she wasn’t sure if she detected a note of suspicion in his tone.

“I don’t like owing him anything, or having him monitor my movements. He says he doesn’t, or that he’s just trying to keep me safe, but I know old habits are hard to break.”

“He’s just looking out for you. Dads are usually protective of their daughters.”

“Protective is one thing. Dad takes it to a whole other level.”

“How so?” Jonas asked.

“When I was young, we were close,” Tessa said, remembering.

Her father had been the sun, moon and stars back then. He’d taught her to ride a bike, played tea party with her and had sent her first flowers, delivered by a florist on her thirteenth birthday.

“But he confuses protection with control. I don’t like to be controlled,” she said, remembering less pleasant teenage years when her father had made her life miserable more than once. “As I got older, I realized he wanted me to be who he wanted, not who I am.”

“Isn’t that typical with teenagers and parents? My brothers and I gave my parents a few tough moments, as well. All teenagers rebel.”

“It was more than that. I couldn’t have a normal social life, even more so than what happens with other politicians’ kids. He wanted to approve my friends, my activities, my boyfriends. It seemed like I only mattered so far as I was a reflection on him.”

“I’m sure he didn’t think that,” Jonas said. “Your father has always seemed to genuinely care for you. He’s proud of you.”

Tessa snorted. “That’s the image he shows to everyone else. He was furious when I dropped out of college.”

“Seems like most parents would be.”

“Yeah, probably, but I was only studying law because he wanted me to. I’d gotten into soap-making as a hobby, but I loved it. I was good at it. I was selling soaps online and to classmates out of my dorm room,” she said with a laugh.

“You couldn’t do both?”

“I didn’t want to. Maybe if he had let me do something more creative, more … me, I would have stuck it out, but I hated what I was doing, and I knew I wanted to open a shop. He thought that it was frivolous, the shop, the soap-making. He forbade me to do it. He tried to stop me, at first.”

“How?”

“He blocked the business loans I applied for, and did anything else he could to thwart me,” she said, remembering how ugly that had gotten.

A woman who had been buying her products for a while, who also happened to work in credit services, told Tessa why her bank loans weren’t getting approval.

She’d been furious and felt betrayed by her father in the most hurtful way.

“He really did that?” Jonas said, sitting up, his blind gaze focused on her as she spoke.

She knew he only saw the facade her father provided, the solid politician who cared about country and family. The man who put up with a wayward daughter who was selfish and ungrateful. It was what everyone saw.

James believed his own press, and she figured he really thought he did the things he did for her own good.

“Yeah, he really did that, and more.”

“Like?”

“Well, the worst offense, other than the store, was paying off a guy I was crazy about in college. He was in the music program, wanted to be a guitar player. We were so in love … and suddenly he received a paid scholarship to Juilliard.”

“That’s a huge break,” Jonas said, frowning.

“Yeah. One that my father funded, I found out later. He would have had a heart attack if I had married a rock guitarist.”