Page 9 of Stripping Bare
Needless to say, her box wasfull.
And maybe that said it all. She had a box full of trivia about the man, but she didn’t have the manhimself.
“It doesn’t look like his visit made youhappy.”
“He asked me to call hisattorney.”
“What?”
“Do you remember PhilFlynn?”
Her mom’s pretty face went rigid, emphasizing the fine lines around her mouth and eyes. “He isn’t a man I will everforget.”
“I had no idea, but apparently Jonah’s sister has been working for him foryears.”
That seemed to take the starch out of her mom’s spine because she dropped onto the step beside Tessa. “Why? I thought the Steeles were goodpeople.”
“He needs my help because he and his sister are being threatened by Flynn with video footage from the Shaw’s house thatnight.”
“Oh God, Tess…” Her mom’s expression took on the horror Tessa had felt at Jonah’s announcement, and she grasped herhand.
“From the hallway.” Tessa squeezed her hand in reassurance. “But Flynn convinced Jonah’s sister that he could take Jonah down for rape with the proof hehad.”
“That poorboy.”
That made Tessa smile. “Not exactly poor,Mom.”
“Monetary wealth doesn’t have a thing to do with emotionalwealth.”
True. Which made her realize how bankrupt Jonah’s eyes seemed any time he was near her, especially when the conversation edged toward the topic of her sexual assault. “I think it’s painful for him to be around me. Either that or I repelhim.”
He wouldn’t be the only man who couldn’t handle herpast.
Tessa stared at the box of Christmas lights her dad had hauled out of the attic earlier this morning, and they spun her back to the night of Steele Trap’s holidayparty.
After they had sex—hot, amazing, intense sex—on top of his desk, Jonah had pulled away from her and looked at her with the kind of horror that made her blood chill. His expression was a combination of disgust and shame, two emotions Tessa was no stranger toherself.
She’d worked so hard to put them in their proper place after she was raped. Seeing them so clearly displayed on Jonah’s face ripped open a place in her carefully constructed emotionalsanctuary.
So she slipped on her underwear and straightened herclothes.
But when Jonah tried to walk out, she grabbed him by the arm and pushed him into the nearest chair. “Talk,” she ordered. “You owe methat.”
How she hated to guilt him like that, but as many times as she’d dreamed of being in this man’s arms, none of them had ended like this, with him looking at her as if she was someone he didn’tknow.
“I don’t want to be like them,” he said, his eyes glassy with pain. “They paid, but it wasn’tenough.”
“Like who?” she asked. Surely he couldn’t mean… “Jonah, what just happened here was consensual. You understand that,right?”
“That doesn’t make it okay.” And he walkedout.
Tessa blinked, bringing the box of lights and the present back into focus. “He needs me to talk with the authorities to clear him,” she finally said to hermom.
“Is there any reason youwouldn’t?”
Tessa leaned in and rested her head on her mom’s shoulder. “Honestly, I’m afraid I’d do almost anything for thatman.”
