Page 137 of Jonas

“You’re right,” I lamely said.

“I know I am.”

Well, that was definitive and right.

I don’t know how long we stood there in the lukewarm water that was cooling off faster than it was staying warm, but it was long enough for me to memorize the flecks of gray in Jonas’s eyes, how long his lashes were, and the small scar in his left brow that was barely noticeable unless you knew it was there. Long enough for me to savor the feel of his strong arms wrapped around me, holding me steady. Long enough to fully come to the understanding I was alive, and starting now I got to live a life knowing what it felt like being loved by Jonas.

“I need to get you out of this shower,” he said, breaking the spell.

There wasn’t much space between us, still I pressed forward, fusing us together, and held on.

“One more minute.”

Jonas did what he’d always done and gave me what I wanted—no, what I needed.

It wasn’t until I felt the icy water splashing over Jonas’s big body that I reached around him and turned off the spigot.

“You should’ve told me how cold the water is.”

“Baby, that was nowhere near Navy SEAL cold.”

I pulled back and tipped my chin up so I could look at him.

“Is that a thing?” I asked.

“Is what a thing?”

“Navy SEAL cold.”

“Hell yeah, it’s a thing.”

My face must’ve telegraphed my disbelief because he continued, “When you’ve laid in the surf for hours while freezing your balls off and ocean water pounds your face and your body goes numb, and your teeth are jackhammering so hard you’re courting a chipped tooth, when you live through it, you’ve earned Navy SEAL cold.”

None of that sounded like fun.

Actually, it sounded like torture.

“I don’t have balls, so if it were me lying in the surf for hours, I think I’d be less concerned about freezing and more concerned about how I was going to remove all that sand from my vagina.”

Jonas’s laugh bounced and echoed around the small bathroom. Another boon, something else to savor—I was alive to hear his laugh. But ever better, I was alive to feel it.

I was in Jonas’s t-shirt, with my unbruised cheek resting on his chest, and our legs tangled together.

This or some variation of this was how I wanted to fall asleep every night.

“How’d you become an investigator?”

Crazily enough, I’d never told anyone this story, and for some silly reason I loved that Jonas would be the first person who knew.

“You know I dropped out. I got my GED because I thought I wanted to be a paralegal. I was taking classes at a community college while working in a grocery store as a checker and in a small law office as a file clerk.”

“Two jobs and school, that had to be rough.”

“I had nothing better to do with my time,” I sheepishly admitted. “I needed the money and had no friends. Especially in the beginning when I was renting a room from this creepy dude. I wanted out, so I worked as many hours as I could.”

“Creep how?” he growled.

Damn, but I totally loved this man.