Page 99 of Stripping Bare

22

Tessa’s skinsmelled of the body wash from the apartment’s shower. Tropical—coconut and mango. It made Jonah want to eat her up with a ferocity that shookhim.

Truth was, his feelings for her had always shaken him. At first pity, and then shame. He’d tried to make restitution and stay detached, but that hadn’t beenpossible.

Now, she was in his life under the worst circumstances, and he had fallen in love withher.

Tessa deserved tender care and slow lovemaking. But every time Jonah was around her, every time she touched him, he felt as if the universal clock had been twisted back to the Pleistocene era. His gut told him to grab her and run so that some other knuckle-dragger couldn’t scoop her upfirst.

She lifted her sweet lips from his. “What are you thinkingabout?”

The question every man in the world dreaded. But after all she’d done for him, Tessa had a right to know what his fucked-up mind was chewing on. “That I don’t think I’m good foryou.”

An adorable little line appeared between her eyebrows. “You don’t get to decidethat.”

“You’d decide that for yourself if I told you everything that goes through my mind when I think about you. Tess, I’m not who you think I am. The laid-back me is just a freakin’ paint job. But when I’m around you, it starts to chipaway.”

And that scared the shit out of him because she deserved more. Someone better.Safer.

“That’s an excuse you use to push people away. To push me away. And you are not a man who was made to bealone.”

She would drop his ass if she knew just how dishonest he’d been with her. “How do you know I’m not meant to bealone?”

Because that was what his dad had been saying, right? If you’re not good for your family, for the people you love, then you should just leave them the hellalone.

Tessa’s smile, when it came, was like a beacon. Something Jonah would crawl through fire and broken glass for. “Because God saw to it that you had a big, nosy family. And whether you know it or not, you try to gather people together. You want to make people’s livesbetter.”

How could she say that, much less believeit?

“You don’t agree?” She tapped a finger against her lips as if trying to dig up ways to convince him. “Besides how much you love your family, there’s the fact that you built a company of people you cared about. Cared enough to treat them like people instead of coding machines. You bailed your hometown out of bankruptcy. You built a women’s and children’s shelter—a gathering place for people inneed.”

He glanced away, but she touched his shoulder and asked, “Why did you bring some Steele Trap folks back together the other night? You neversaid.”

“I had an idea for a new app.” Something that could mitigate situations like what happened to Doris’s kids. And likeTessa’s.

“And you wanted to involve people you careabout.”

“It was stupid. I could do the whole thingmyself.”

“Of course you could,” she agreed. “But that’s not the point. The point is I think you miss being part of ateam.”

Was sheright?

Since he’d returned to North Carolina, he’d been happiest when he was in the middle of a project involving other people, most often his brothers andsisters.

“Maybe.” But that wasn’t something for him to figure out tonight. Tonight, the person he needed to connect with was Tessa. He reached out and trailed his fingers down herarm.

“Jonah, yourchest…”

Fuck his chest. He’d strip off pieces of his skin if it meant he could be with her—be inside her—now. “It’sfine.”

Her fingertips brushed one of the bandages, light as a breeze, and the resulting sliver of pain electrified him, made himshudder.

“See,” she said. “That hurtyou.”

“I can honestly say that nothing has ever felt as good as youdo.”

Her gaze fell from his face, telling Jonah all he needed to know about her belief in his words. How could he show her, convince her, he felt more for her than he had any other woman? That he might, just might, be worth her time? Herlove.