Tawny Weber - Sunsets & Seduction - Mine Until Morning / Just for the Night / Kept in the Dark

“Anything you can do would be wonderful,” Tessa said appreciatively, trying to make up for her previous jealousy. “My friend needs her insulin within an hour or so.”

“Well, we’ve recruited some help from mounted details, and I have officers willing to take you where you need to go, if—”

“Horses?” Jonas said incredulously.

“Yep. Some of the local cowboys and a few of the state police are offering services to get where regular transport can’t go. They can get you there with no stopping, unless the skies open up again.”

“I love horses, no problem,” said Tessa. “I learned to ride as a kid.”

Jonas looked less sure.

“I don’t know, Tessa, maybe you should go, and I can wait—”

“It will be fine, Jonas. Just trust in the universe. This could even be fun,” she said.

“Fun. Right.”

“Don’t worry. The officer will ride, and all you have to do is hang on.”

“Right,” he said again, sounding less than convinced. “Well, let’s go, then.”

The detective led them out through a side exit, and Tessa smiled at the large, handsome quarter horse that stood with his rider under a roof that protected them from the rain, which had lightened considerably, she saw with relief.

The quarter horse belonged to the state cop, who stood next to a younger man, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. Tessa recognized him as one of Philadelphia’s native urban cowboys.

The city had developed a program to help inner-city youth avoid crime and learn to ride, caring for their horses and riding them around the city, as long as they stayed out of trouble and did well in school. The program had some ups and downs over the years, and had had its share of controversies. Struggling to stay afloat in terms of funding, it still was active.

Tessa supported the program through her business, and knew her father did, as well—it was one of the few things they agreed on. It was a good idea, and she loved seeing the horses being ridden down a Philly side street in the evening, the cowboys appearing like some vision from the Old West. She also liked to think about the kids in the program getting a second chance.

“Ricardo? Officer Styles?” Rachel greeted them, and introduced herself, as well as Tessa and Jonas.

“You think you can deliver these two safely to Germantown? They have a friend in need,” the detective explained. “Jonas is a former detective with the force. Tessa owns a store down on South.”

Jonas spoke up upon hearing the younger man’s voice. “Ricardo? Ricardo Nunez?” he asked.

“Detective Berringer,” the young man said happily. “I remember you.”

“Not a detective anymore, but I take it you’re doing well?”

“Yes. Thanks to you,” he said. “Detective Berringer introduced me to the stables when I was a kid. He got me out of a crack house during a raid when I was ten and got me into a good foster home,” Ricardo explained to the rest.

“Ricardo is planning to go to the academy,” Officer Styles interjected. “He wants to be in our Mounted Division.”

Tessa saw the pleasure reflected in Jonas’s expression.

“Ricardo, that’s great,” Jonas said. “I’m proud of you.”

The young man crossed to Jonas, who held out his hand for Ricardo to find, shaking it and pulling the young man in for a quick, manly chest bump.

Tessa’s throat was a little tight with emotion as she looked on. There was so much about Jonas she didn’t know, and she wanted to know it all.

A roll of thunder was dull in the distance, and they all glanced up at the night sky.

“We’d better go. We can get you there pretty quickly, but we have to keep the horses out of the worst of this,” Styles added.

“Okay,” Tessa said, looking at Jonas. “You ready?”

He blew out a breath, offering a sideways smile that made her heart skip. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

“REMIND ME NEVER TO do that again,” Jonas said, wincing as he stretched out his legs in front of the counter where Tessa was waiting for the pharmacist who was gathering Kate’s supplies.

“Oh, it was fun!” she said, smiling and looking as if she really had enjoyed herself.

It had only been a twenty- or thirty-minute horse ride to the pharmacy, cutting cross-lots, but it had been a bit rough considering he didn’t have anything but his jeans between him and the saddle.

He hadn’t been too crazy about Tessa riding with the mounted officer, either. Officer Styles had been enjoying her company a little too much, from what he could tell of the way the guy flirted, encouraging her to “hold on.”

At one point, they had galloped across the park, and he and Nunez had to catch up. Jonas wasn’t sure, but he thought he overheard the guy asking Tessa out.

Regardless of his confused feelings about her, he didn’t want anyone else touching her or flirting with her.

Jonas hadn’t been jealous of anyone in a long time, and he’d almost forgotten what it was like to feel this possessive.

He also reminded himself that he had no ties to Tessa, and didn’t want any. The sexual chemistry between them was combustible. They were willing adults sharing some mutual enjoyment, but that was it.

In the morning, they would have to accept that nothing had changed.

Liar, an inner voice accused.

“It was kind of exciting, don’t you think?” Tessa asked, interrupting his thoughts and sounding more relaxed. Jonas knew she was relieved to be at the pharmacy, and they could walk the rest of the way to Kate’s. Officer Styles was willing to take her as far as she wanted to go, as he’d made clear, but once Jonas was down off that steed, there was no way he was getting back up on it.

“Exciting. That’s one word for it,” Jonas said dryly, and felt her nudge him.

“You looked good up there. You should take up riding. I can toally see you in a cowboy hat and boots,” she said, and he wasn’t sure if she was teasing.

“Not likely.” He shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other, recalling the ride. “I do have a bike.”

“A bicycle?”

“A motorcycle,” he corrected. “An eighties Harley that I take out on the road when I’m off duty.”

“Very sexy,” she purred, sliding up close to him.

“So, did the Mountie ask you out?”

“Hold on,” she said, kissing him lightly and avoiding the question. “They just called my number at the counter.”

Jonas sighed in frustration. She wasn’t making this easier. He couldn’t get a fix on her. She was sexy and alluring, flirtatious and open about it. He couldn’t see what had gone on between her and the officer, but he knew that flirty laugh, and figured she’d had a good time. It confirmed his earlier suspicions about her.

She was also a concerned friend and a kind person. A passionate woman who didn’t hide who she was.

If he was really honest, maybe he was as angry at himself as he was at her. No matter how much he could blame Tessa for getting him in a bind with her father, Jonas had been the one placed in a position of authority, sent to protect her. He was also the one who’d caved to temptation.

And still wanted to.

It wasn’t the first time he’d made that mistake. His mind wandered back to his last year on the force. His unit had been working with the Bunko Squad to take down an underground gambling ring.

The bodies of several people associated with the ring had surfaced around town, and Homicide was called in, where Jonas had made detective two years before. When Bunko undercover officers had snagged an inside CI, a confidential informant, to serve as a witness, she’d been given to Homicide to watch while the undercover team closed in.

Jonas, the junior detective at the time, had been on protection detail at the safe house. He still remembered Irena Nadik. Young, lovely and lethal.