“I wish I could help,” Jonas said. “But I’m afraid I haven’t seen anything. I’ll ask my son, Sean, see if he’s noticed a car like that. Give me your number, and I’ll call and let you know.” He was a very good-looking man, confident and self-assured. Given no choice, Ellie told him her cell number, and he punched it into his phone.

She should have been paying attention, should have noticed he had moved closer.

“Maria is cooking these days,” he said, “so you’re doing . . . what? Aside from being Kade Logan’s bedmate.”

She bristled. “What I’m doing is none of your business, Jonas.”

“Maybe not, but the day we met, I thought we made some kind of connection. I thought you felt it too.”

A noise in the backroom distracted her, and the next thing she knew, his hand was beneath her hair at the nape of her neck, and his mouth came down over hers.

Stunned, Ellie jerked away just as the door swung open. The hard set of Kade’s jaw said he had seen them through the window.

“It’s not what you think,” she said as he strode toward her.

Kade ignored her. One hand shot out and grabbed the front of Jonas’s pristine white shirt while the other drew back and Kade threw a punch that sent the store owner flying backward onto the checkout counter, sliding across the top, and landing on the floor.

“You fucked one of my women,” Kade said. “You touch this one, and you won’t live through it.”

Ellie gasped as Kade propelled her out the door and slammed it solidly behind him. He didn’t slow down and didn’t let go until they had reached the truck. He opened the passenger door and shoved her in, rounded the front, and climbed in behind the wheel.

“Dammit, Kade, he just surprised me. I had no idea he was going to kiss me, and I didn’t kiss him back. I’m not interested in Jonas Murray. I told you that before.”

Kade started the engine. Ellie reached over and turned it off. “Your jealousy is getting old, Kade. And it’s completely misplaced. I’m not like Heather. Not in any way. If you can’t understand that, this isn’t going to work.”

Kade leaned back, took off his hat and tossed it on the dash, raked a hand through his hair. “Goddammit!”

“Jonas Murray isn’t even my type. He’s smug and arrogant, and he thinks he’s God’s gift to women.”

Those golden eyes found hers across the distance between them. “I can’t apologize for hitting some sonofabitch who’s poaching on my territory.”

“That’s what he was doing? Poaching?”

“He was doing his best. I don’t think he’ll try it again.”

“He can try all he wants. He isn’t going to succeed.”

Kade said nothing.