Page 24 of The Naughty List

Unless I’m in my underwear.

I sigh and my breath clouds in the cold.

This shouldn’t matter.

Addi’s words come back to me.

If this is just a way to get closer to a man who will eventually shatter your sweet little heart and soul, I think you should stick to dog walking.

Even Addi knows Jonah is lightyears out of my league.

As if my thoughts conjure him, the back door opens slowly and Jonah steps out from behind the dumpsters.

“Is it safe for you to be out here all alone?”

The only person I see capable of causing me pain is him so I shrug. “I’ve made it this far.”

He walks toward me, stopping just inches away from reaching distance. He leans on the building with his hands in his jacket pockets. “So your brother seems less interested in choking me with his bare hands than I expected.”

“Awesome,” I say without looking at him. “Mission accomplished then.”

“That wasn’t the only reason I came here tonight,” he admits.

I turn and lock eyes with him. “So what’s the other reason?”

His breath mingles with mine in the frigid air between us.

“I thought about what you said. And I wanted to explain.”

I glance up briefly at the darkened sky wishing I could see the stars. “What did I say? I say a lot of things.”

His lips twitch because we both know I’m the one who does most of the talking.

“I’m not afraid of intimacy, Hollis. It’s the consequences that concern me—what would happen after. The kind of women I’m intimate with know the score straight out of the gate. They only want one thing and so do I. They want a piece of me—but only a small piece.” He frowns. “Wait. Fuck. I mean, it’s a big piece, but only for a short amount of time and no like, commitment, or whatever.”

“I saw your dick, Jonah. I know it’s not small,” I say with an eye roll. “But I get what you mean.”

“Do you? Because today…that was…”

“A little over the top?” I finish for him.

He nods. “Yeah. I mean, don’t get me wrong, you know you’re beautiful and you looked like something straight out my darkest forbidden fantasies in that—whatever it was. Part of me, the large part we just referred to, reacted to you stronger than I ever have anyone else. I almost lost control and I do not lose control. Ever. But I think we both know where this would go if I’d acted on that impulse.”

To a nearby bedroom?

My head spins from the onslaught of information.

He just told Mikeyit will never be like that.

Now he’s telling me I’m beautiful and straight out of his fantasies.

Make up your mind, man!

I try to organize my thoughts into a coherent list but they won’t cooperate.

“Where do you think it would go, Jonah? You think if we hooked up I’d fall madly in love with you and quit my job when you didn’t love me back?”

Clearly he was underestimating how badly I wanted that condo.