Page 20 of Stripping Bare
“Hey,” hesaid.
Hand to her chest, she whirled around. “Oh my God, you scared me. Where did you comefrom?”
“Out there.” He waved toward the trees. “Look, if this is about last night, I’m sorrythat—”
“No, not about that,” she said, her words barely audible as her gaze arrowed in on his bare chest, which gave him a raging case of mannip.
Self-consciously, he brushed at them with the shirt in his hand, pretending to wipe away sweat. His body couldn’t handle her showing up places unannounced. Even the chill in the air couldn’t cool him down right now. “Thenwhat?”
“Can we…could we go inside andtalk?”
“Sure.” He leaned his bike against the house and reached past Tessa to open the front door. She slipped by him, her scent trailing after her and making him squeeze his eyes closed in pleasurablemisery.
He kicked off his shoes on the porch and shrugged back into his shirt, the material clinging to his sweaty torso. He stepped inside behind Tessa to see her soaking in the great room. The ceiling soared three stories and one wall was constructed of massive glass panes. The view of prime North Carolina mountain landscape grabbed him by the heart and squeezed every time he gazed out atit.
Home.
The fireplace, an altar of river stones bisecting planks the color of wild honey, stretched the height of the walls. Rust-colored sofas were accented with some fluffy woolly pillows Evie had pickedout.
“Your house isgorgeous.”
“Thanks. Want something to drink?” he asked, then made for the kitchen without waiting for her answer. He needed to do something safe with his hands.Now.
She trailed him into the kitchen, another wide-open space with light-colored cabinets and open shelving above the countertops. “I don’t drink much coff…” She trailed off as he bypassed the one-shot coffeemaker and reached for a kettle to heat water for hertea.
While the kettle did its thing atop his gas cooktop, he rummaged in a drawer and pulled out a pouch of loose leaf tea. He kept his hands moving—measuring out tea, finding the honey, grabbing a cup. Tessa settled on an acrylic and chrome bar stool and watchedhim.
When he finally placed the cup in front of her and poured her tea through a strainer, her beautiful mouth was open. Just slightly, but her surprise was clear. “Youremembered.”
Yeah. She’d kept some in Steele Trap’s break room. When he moved in here, he’d special-ordered some without a clue as to why he was stocking Tessa’s favorite type when he wasn’t a tea drinker himself. And he sure never offered it to anyoneelse.
Once, Reid had been looking for a bottle opener and had come across the tea. One sniff and he raised a smart-ass eyebrow at Jonah. “You drink this shit or bathe init?”
With restless fingers, Tessa fiddled with the cup’s handle, pushing it first right, then left, then back again. Finally, she said, “I need yourhelp.”
And that was the one thing Jonah had never been strong enough to deny this woman, regardless of what it cost him personally. But being this close to her, wanting to touch her but knowing he shouldn’t, made him want to reach for something stronger than caffeine, like one of those fancy-ass imported beers Grif stocked in hisfridge.
No. No beer around Tessaever.
He stayed on his side of the counter, keeping an expanse of cold stone between Tessa andhimself.
As if that would somehow block his feelings for thiswoman.
“What’s up?” He propped a hip against the cabinet and sipped his now cold coffee, trying to project a casual don’t-give-two-shitsattitude.
“I got a call from Carson Grimes lastnight.”
For the first time since he’d spotted Tessa in front of his house, Jonah began to relax for real. “That guy is a damn good developer. Few people can spot a bad line of code faster than hecan.”
Tessa’s mouth gave a little quirk. “Those few people being you,right?”
“We all have our talents. Now what’s with the call fromCarson?”
She took a quick sip of her tea and frowned. “He thinks I’m blackmailinghim.”
Of all the things he’d expected Tessa to say, that came in about number four hundred thousand. “What?”
With distress in her dark eyes, Tessa met his gaze. Then she reached into a side pocket on her tote and pulled out a couple sheets of printer paper and handed them to him. The first was a news story from theSeattle Timesdetailing the death of a bridge jumper. Jonah quickly scanned the text and froze when he came to the person’s name. DavidSinchilla.
