He leaned close, inhaling her floral scent. Lilacs. She always smelled like lilacs. Delicate and gentle. Two things Jonas didn’t know shit about. If he had any decency at all, he’d leave.
“A visit, Deanna.” He stepped back and let her pass. “I’m not allowed to visit?”
She pulled open the screen door and shoved her key into the dead bolt. “No, you aren’t. Now go away. I’m tired.”
Her voice had lowered to a quiet, husky tone. It snaked up Jonas’s chest like a caress. It pissed him off that she could get to him so easily. “Is that why you sent your date home? Because you’re tired?”
She pushed her door open, then turned to him. “That’s none of your business.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Go home, Jonas.”
Jonas closed the distance separating them. “Let me come inside, Deanna. We need to talk.”
“No, we don’t,” she gritted out, her voice not quite as steady as before. “You need to go home and I need to sleep.”
His temper flared. “Why won’t you give me the time of day?”
Deanna shook her head and looked away.
Jonas cupped her cheek and forced her back around. He wouldn’t let her hide from him. Not ever. “This isn’t all one-sided,” he whispered. “This desire, you feel it too. I know you do.”
On a sigh, Deanna closed her eyes tight. “Just because there’s an itch doesn’t mean we should scratch it.”
Damn, her skin was as soft as flower petals. He stroked his thumb over her lower lip and found it plump, inviting. His dick hardened beneath his jeans as he imagined those full pink lips wrapped snug around his cock.
“An itch, huh?” he growled. “Is that the way you see it?”
She opened her eyes and stared up at him. The angry glare she shot him wasn’t at all what he expected. “You had your chance once. You blew it.”
Genuinely confused, Jonas dropped his hand. “Chance? You’ve shot me down at every turn, Deanna.”
She squinted and pointed her finger at his chest. “You took my brother’s side.”
He shoved a hand through his hair and prayed for patience. “Wade?”
“Yes. At Gracie’s apartment. When we were there helping clean up the mess that freak left behind. You sided with Wade. Some stupid nonsense about the sister code. Remember?”
Ah, it was all coming together finally. Gracie had been a client of his and Wade’s investigation business, but she’d quickly become the love of Wade’s life. Unfortunately, she’d been having trouble with a deranged stalker. When the creep had broken into Gracie’s apartment and torn it all to hell, they’d all rallied together to help Gracie put things back in order. Once again, Jonas had seen a chance to ask Deanna out, but she’d shot him down. Then Dean and Wade, her two overprotective brothers, had gotten involved. Jonas and Wade were not only business partners but also friends—an annoying little fact that forced Jonas to back off in his pursuit.
“Wade is like a brother to me,” he explained, “and he reminded me of that. It’s not cool to chase after your friend’s baby sister, Deanna.”
She quirked a brow at him. “And yet here you are.”
“Yes, smart-ass, here I am,” he said softly. “I talked to Wade. He’s still not crazy about the fact that I’m hot for you, but he’s not going to stand in my way either.”
If anything, her frown turned darker. “You asked for his blessing?”
“Uh, something like that, yeah.”
“He’s not my father, Jonas. I’m a grown woman. Wade has no right to interfere in my personal life.”
“Right or wrong, Deanna, Wade will always look out for you. Dean, too, for that matter.”
She sighed. “And let me guess, Wade threatened to castrate you if you hurt me. Is that it?”
Jonas propped a fist against the doorjamb, then wrapped his other hand around her waist to keep her from bolting through the open door. “The last thing I want is to hurt you, Deanna.”
Deanna’s slender fingers gripped onto his forearm. “No,” she whispered, “you just want to get me into bed.”
He let his hand move lower, until he was mere inches from the sweet curve of her ass. “I want you like hell. Just looking at you makes my dick hard. But there’s more than that between us.”