“I could install one for you if you want. It’s no big deal.”
Deanna sighed. “We spent one weekend together and you’re already screening my clients and talking about installing an alarm?”
When she put it like that, he felt like a complete ass. “First off, it wasn’t just a weekend. We mean more to each other than that. Don’t reduce it to a meaningless fling.”
She winced. “That’s not what I meant. It’s just that we’ve barely had time to explore this relationship and you’re already bulldozing your way through my life!”
“I’m a PI and an ex-soldier. Safety is more than just my job—it’s who I am. You’re mine and I won’t apologize for taking care of what’s mine.”
Deanna looked at the clock on the wall and stepped away from him. “You need to go. Wade’s waiting.”
Damn it, he didn’t want to leave it like this. “I’m sorry, kitten. I didn’t mean to start issuing orders. I am only thinking of you. I don’t want anything to happen to you.” He grabbed her upper arms and pulled her into a tight embrace meant to soothe. “Let me check out this Valdez character, okay?”
She nodded and pushed out of his arms. “I’ll get my purse. I have his business card in there.” She walked out of the room and came back a few minutes later with a white card in her hand. “Here. It has his address and phone numbers. Will that be enough?”
Jonas had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. Like he’d broken something between them and he had no idea how to fix it. “Yeah, this is fine.”
He tried to take her back into his arms, but she moved out of his reach. “Deanna?”
“You need to stop and consider the fact that I’ve been getting along just fine without you. Believe it or not, I do have a brain in my head, and I’d already decided to wait for you to check Terrance out, but you couldn’t know
that because you jumped to conclusions before I had the chance to say anything.” He started to speak, but she simply leaped right over him. “I know you care, that you worry, but I don’t want another keeper, Jonas. I can’t live my life with someone like that.”
“I know. I’m sorry,” he said in a voice rough with emotion.
Deanna closed the distance between them, then went up on her tiptoes and kissed him. A too-quick peck, but Jonas would take whatever he could get. “Go. Gracie needs your help.”
“Can I come by later?”
She bit her lower lip and looked away. “I think I need some time alone. I need to think.”
Christ, he’d royally screwed up. “Will you call me?”
“Yes. I’ll call.” She looked back up, and he saw tears in her eyes. Tears he’d put there. “Be careful.”
“Always, kitten.”
Leaving Deanna standing in the kitchen alone and upset was the hardest thing Jonas had ever had to do.
17
Deanna didn’t let the tears fall until she heard the front door close. That’s when the dam broke, and once the waterworks started, she couldn’t seem to turn them off. She wanted to believe Jonas only had her safety in mind, but she knew that at least part of the reason behind Jonas’s attitude about Valdez was because he wanted to put her on a shelf, as if she were made of fine china. Being a woman meant she had to have a man make the decisions for her, right? God, she was so sick of that attitude from the men in her life. That’s not what she wanted with Jonas. She wanted him to see her as an equal. A partner.
Deanna swiped away the tears and went up the stairs to her bedroom. She needed to get out of the house, to get her mind off Jonas for five freaking minutes. She slipped into her tennis shoes and coat, then picked up her purse and located her keys inside one of the pockets. She jogged downstairs and grabbed her cell phone from the cradle near the stove, and dialed her mom.
“Hello?” her mom answered.
She sounded sleepy, and Deanna wondered if she’d woken her from a midday nap. “Hey, Mom. Were you sleeping?”
“Nope, just reading. You know how that always makes me drowsy.”
“I was thinking of coming over. Do you want company?”
She heard a rustling sound in the background. “How about we meet in town for coffee. I need to go to the store anyway.”
Deanna thought of their favorite little coffee shop in town. “Java Rush sound good?”
“Yeah, it’s next to the store. Two birds with one stone.” She was quiet a moment. “Is everything okay, dear?”