Page 35 of Stripping Bare

He sure wasn’t going to tell her that he knew a whole damn lot about Tessa Imani Martin. Or he thought he had until getting blindsided by her last night. First thing he’d done when he returned home from Charlotte was dig around for her newaddress.

Stalk much,Steele?

How had he missed the tidbits about her having a dog and becoming a self-defense instructor? He wasslipping.

He pulled the car in front of her condo building and cut theengine.

“This is a no-parking zone. Youwillget towed if you leave your car here,” she said. “Besides, I didn’t invite youin.”

He held out his hand. “If you’ll give me your key and tell me what you need, I’ll be back in five minutes. I doubt they’ll tow with you sittinghere.”

“What? No. I’m going inside, pouring myself a glass of wine, and sinking into a hot bubblebath.”

Uh-uh.He would not think about Tessa sliding into the water, white bubbles enveloping her gorgeous skin. “Your car is in Steele Ridge. Tell me what you need and I’ll pack an overnight bag foryou.”

“Even if I were going back to Steele Ridge to pick up my car, I wouldn’t stay thenight.”

“Fine. If you won’t hand over your key,” he said, sliding out of the driver’s seat, “I’ll get a master from the buildingmanager.”

When Tessa hurried into the building behind him, he was chatting up the building manager. She strode toward Jonah as the manager handed over a key to him. She glared at them both with more force than a .68-caliber paintball blasting out of Reid’s new fully automatic guns. “Why did you give this man a key to mycondo?”

“He…he said you were right outsideand—”

“Never hand over my key to a stranger,” she told him before turning on Jonah. “And what do you think you’redoing?”

“Getting yourthings.”

“Go home,Jonah.”

“I thought you wanted to talk about why I asked you to help me today.” At this point, he was willing to give her part of the shelter story if it would make up for how he’d reacted to her request thismorning.

She bit her lip, which meant he was tempting her. “Fine, give the key back to the manager, and you can walk me to my condo, but I’m not going back to Steele Ridge withyou.”

Jonah returned the key to the manager. He walked beside Tessa down the hall and glanced over to find her watching him with a combo confusion-and-death stare. He’d take her confused. He’d take her pissedoff.

Hell, he’d take any way he could gether.

She unlocked the door to number 102, and he followed her inside. That was when everything went toshit.