Page 53 of You've Got Male

Over the past decade she’d seen Jonah at his best and worst, his highest and absolute lowest. Terrifyingly, she’d found herself being drawn to both. Because if she felt this way over him when his life was a three-ring circus, how would she feel when he was the ringleader?

That was a situationship she didn’t want to find herself in.

“Help goes both ways and I don’t have any room for more strings. I might trip.”

“Accepting help doesn’t make you indebted. At least not with me. Plus, didn’t you just get me the number for a gardener who came highly recommended? And a part-time daddy’s helper?”

“That reminds me.” She opened her purse and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “I also found you a cleaning lady. She works for one of the regulars at the shop.”

“First, I will have you know that my kitchen counter was clean enough to eat off this morning. Second, that is exactly what I’m talking about.”

“Me finding you a sitter or housekeeper is part of our arrangement, part of me helping you get your life in order.” A fact she needed to remember.

That didn’t mean that her heart didn’t melt when he ran his thumb over the inside of her wrist and said lowly, “You’re doing more than helping me put my life in order. You’re putting it right.”

“I am?”

“Yeah,” he said, and she found herself getting lost in those ocean-blue eyes. “Evie?”

“Yeah,” she whispered back.

He cupped her cheek and angled her head until her lips were a breath from his. “You ready?”

She was nowhere near ready to kiss Jonah, yet she didn’t pull away and he slowly lowered his head. In fact, she met him half way and then—

Then his mouth was on hers, gentle and probing, more of a caress. Nothing to warrant the way her heart was pounding or her blood was surging through her body. By the way her nipples were popping their corks, she’d think they were playing that game of strip Jenga.

He shifted, pulling her lower lip between his. Intentional. Practiced. Perfect. As if he’d been thinking about this moment for months. And if she were being honest with herself, so had she.

They’d both been circling each other since that night a few months back, desperate to see if it really was as incredible as they remembered. Newsflash: it was even better. It was, hands down, the best kiss she’d ever experienced—and yet their mouths were barely moving.

There was a whole lot of movement happening beneath the table, though, as she parted her legs so he could slide one of his between and lock them into place like a missing puzzle piece.

Jonah slowly pulled away and she leaned farther into it, trying to fill the growing space between their lips. She slowly opened her eyes, expecting him to look as dazed as she felt. But he was smiling.

“Do you think they caught that?”

She shook her head to make sure she heard him right. “What?”

“The kiss. The couple behind us was filming.” He ran the pad of his thumb down her cheekbone. “Why, sunshine, were you kissing me just for the sake of kissing?”

“No.” She batted his hand away, her stomach sinking. “We have an agreement. And that was all according to plan.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Jonah

Jonah waited until his mom had picked up Waverly for a girls’ day and walked into the family room to talk things out with his son.

Evie was right the other night to be worried about how their arrangement was affecting the kids. Which was why Jonah had given it a lot of thought and decided he’d provide Ryan with a platform to express his feelings on how things progressed from here.

Man, the other night.

This fake relationship was turning into a problem. Namely, that Jonah was no longer a fake-it-till-you-make-it kind of guy. He’d lost that ability when Amber turned down the medical trial and he knew he was going to lose her. Pretending not to feel his feelings seemed like he was robbing them of the time they did have left.

So faking it with Evie suddenly had lost some of its appeal. He hadn’t kissed her because someone was filming them. Hell,once they’d sat down he couldn’t focus on anything but her. He barely remembered what he ate, he was too engrossed in their conversation, hanging on every word she gifted him. He heard her breathy little moans, felt the kiss, and that made all kinds of feelings rise to the surface that he was not ready to deal with.

He should have told Ryan about him and Evie the moment they made the agreement. Finding out his dad was dating would be hard enough. Finding out through the grapevine must have sucked.

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