He picked up a sponge and squirted some bath gel onto it. “My parents are fairly cold people.” He started on her shoulders, rubbing the sponge up and down her arms. “They derive pleasure from money. The more they have, the happier they are and the more they want.”
Deanna relaxed against him, her hands drifting up and down his thighs on either side of her body. He wasn’t certain she even knew she was doing it. “They don’t sound like very nice people,” she said in a faraway voice.
“They weren’t cruel.” He worked his way over her chest, paying special attention to each of her breasts. “Just not parent material. My mom told me once that she’d miscalculated and missed taking one of her birth-control pills. That’s how I was conceived. In her mind, she made a mistake and rectified it by raising me instead of aborting me.”
She clutched his thighs in her hands, her short nails digging into his skin. “God, that’s awful, Jonas. Babies are a gift. A blessing.”
He nuzzled the top of her head as he drifted the sponge beneath the water to her belly, and beyond. “I knew you felt that way. I’ve watched the way you are around your little cousins a time or two, Deanna.”
“You have?”
“Yeah. You’re a natural with kids.”
Her exploring hands moved higher, coming precariously close to his cock. “Okay, your parents are robots, but what about cousins, aunts, and uncles?”
Jonas caressed the sponge over her pussy, and he felt her shudder from the gentle abrasion. “I have one uncle on my dad’s side, but he’s single and a workaholic. I’ve seen him a handful of times.”
“So, I guess Wade’s approval when you asked to date me was sort of important because he’s like a brother to you?”
“It’s more than that.” He paused and tried to put his feelings into words, something he seriously sucked at. “When you depend on someone to have your back in a war-torn country like Afghanistan, it forges a bond.”
When her fingers barely grazed his balls, Jonas had to force himself to stay on track. “I always knew I could count on Wade when we went into an op together, and vice versa. I wasn’t about to flip my finger up at that relationship by dating his baby sister. At least, not without talking to him first.”
“And if he’d said no?”
“Then I would’ve figured out a way to get him to say yes.”
“Why?”
Jonas dropped the sponge and cupped her chin. He tugged until she was looking at him. “Are you looking for me to say that I care about you? That you matter to me? Because I do, Deanna.”
Several seconds drifted by as she stared up at him, not speaking. Finally she looked away and said, “Do you know why I was hurt that day at Gracie’s apartment? When you backed down to Wade?”
“Damn it, girl. I told you I was sorry about that. Will you never let it go?”
She swatted at him from beneath the water, and Jonas sucked in a breath at just how close she’d come to smacking his balls. “Shush and listen,” she chided him. “It wasn’t for the reason you think. It wasn’t because you didn’t stand up for me. I know you thought that. It hurt me because it felt like you saw me as Wade’s kid sister. I didn’t want to be that, not to you. I wanted you to see me as a desirable woman. Not an extension of Wade.”
Jonas snorted. “Kitten, I stopped seeing you as Wade’s sweet, little sister the first time I met you. You wore that black one-piece and I about swallowed my damn tongue. I wanted to eat you up that day.”
“I wanted you too. Like crazy.”
“If I’d known that then, I wouldn’t have left, at least not without you. And as much as that thought is appealing, it would’ve damaged my friendship with Wade.”
“I understand. You don’t have to explain. I wouldn’t appreciate it if someone stuck me in the position of choosing between my family. It would be awful.”
“Deanna, you need to know something.”
She went back to rubbing his thighs. “Hmm?”
“Now that we’re here, now that our relationship has moved past friendship, I won’t let anyone keep you from me. Not ever again. Do you understand?”
She tilted her head to look into his eyes. “Are you saying we’re a couple?”
He kissed her forehead and murmured, “Do you want to be?”
“Maybe.” She looked forward again. “It feels rushed, though. I don’t want to jump into anything.”
“No jumping, then.” He dropped the sponge and used his hands to stroke her wet curves. Ah, much better. “But can we at least agree that we’re exclusive?”