Page 13 of Stripping Bare

So he went on the offensive, herding her toward her car. When her back was against the side, he lowered his face to her ear. “Stay out of my head. That wasn’t your job when I hired you, and it isn’t your jobnow.”

“I’m just being afriend.”

He couldn’t afford for her to have any active role in his life. He’d left Seattle because a city of half a million people was still too small to hide that he wanted her with an intensity that wasn’t in any way nice. Or easy. Or decent. “I don’t want you to be my friend, Iwant…”

“You want what?” Her hand came to his waist and her lips moved, their glossy red sheen making a haze come over hisvision.

“This.” He put his arms on either side of her, caging her against the car, and covered her mouth with his. God, she tasted of expensive wine, hot woman, and somehow like cinnamon, just as she had the last time he’d kissedher.

For a few sweet seconds she responded, her lips nimble and mobile under his. But soon—too damn soon—she was pushing against his shoulder. “Stop. Jonah,stop!”

Her panic pulled him out of his moment of insanity, and he yanked his mouth away from hers and stood there staring down at her, both of them breathing heavily, their chests brushing with each harsh inhale andexhale.

They were standing on a sidewalk in view of tons of people, and he would’ve gladly done Tessa against thiscar.

He had to accept that he’d never be able to control himself around this woman. If anything spoke of the shadows inside him, it was this, his complete disregard for what was right when it came to her. She clouded what little good judgment he had and turned it into a swirling vortex of confused lust. “God, Tessa, I’m sorry. I didn’tmean—”

“It’s not you.” She let her hands drop from his body and turned her faceaway.

How could itnotbe him? He’d caged her against the car and would’ve fucked her right here. No secondthoughts.

“It’s thebeer.”

“What?”

“I can’t… I can’t…beer…” She fumbled through her purse and held out a tin of breathmints.

He stepped back so quickly, his heel caught on the sidewalk seam and he had to do some fancy footwork to stay upright. He took the mints from her, popped a half dozen into his mouth, and crunched them violently between his teeth. Of course she couldn’t stand the smell of beer on a man’s breath. He should’ve realized that. “I didn’t… This shouldn’t have happened. It won’t happenagain.”

“I wanted you to kiss me. It’s just that certainthings…”

Make you remember.“Iunderstand.”

“I don’t think you do,” she said softly. “Jonah, when are you going to stop denying that we want one another? Won’t you at least give us a chance to see what this is? What it couldbe?”

He couldn’t, and he was managing that by knowing she lived over twenty-six hundred miles away. “When do you fly back toSeattle?”

“I’m not. I’ve moved to Asheville to start my own corporate coaching company.” Her lips curved in a small smile. “I’m back home tostay.”

Looked like Santa had just taken a big ol’ piss in Jonah’sstocking.