Page 66 of Elora and the Crow

“Shit, sorry.” He rolled off of her and removed the condom, tying it off and dropping it into a small trash can beside the bed before lying on his back beside her.

She curled into him, and he put his arm around her, stroking her hair. “You okay?”

“Are you? How’s your back?” Elora asked.

“It’s fine.” He grinned at her. “I feel fucking fantastic, in fact.”

She laughed and rested her head on his chest. “Me too.”

“Good.” They lay silently for a while, his palm warm against her back as he smoothed it across her skin.

She was getting sleepy, and while she knew they needed to talk about what had happened, her eyelids kept slipping shut.

Jonah pulled the covers over them, and she said, “Jonah, we need to talk.”

“Later, Elora,” he said softly. “Get some sleep, baby.”

CHAPTER21

“We could try not putting the paste on my back tonight,” Jonah said when Elora joined him in the bathroom. He stuck his toothbrush back into the holder and rinsed his mouth as Elora opened the jar of healing paste and set it on the counter.

Elora shook her head. “Nope. You need it one more night.”

He made a disgruntled snort, and she laughed. “What is with your obsession with being clean?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I’ve been this way my entire life. I shower twice a day, usually. Does that bother you?”

“No,” she said.

He closed the toilet seat and sat down on it. Elora scooped out some paste and smeared it onto Jonah’s back.

“Did you get enough to eat?” he asked. He shifted on the closed toilet seat, willing himself not to get another erection as Elora’s soft fingers stroked his back.

“I did. We could have cooked something, though. You didn’t have to order pizza.”

“One, we’re too tired to cook, and two, I love pizza,” he said. “I’vemissedpizza. I’m gonna eat pizza every day.”

She laughed again. “You do you, Jonah.”

They lapsed into silence for about a minute before she said, “We need to talk about what this is between us.”

The pizza in his stomach threatened to come up, and his half-hard cock immediately wilted. Hating himself for what he was about to do, he said, “I don’t do relationships, Elora.”

“I know. I’m not asking you for one.”

Shock reverberated through him, and he looked over his shoulder. “You’re not?”

“No,” she said. “You know that. You heard me say that in the store, remember?”

“Yeah,” he said.

Silence lapsed between them before he said, “Why aren’t you asking for one?”

She laughed. “Does it matter? Even if I wanted to date you, you’d say no, right?”

“Yeah,” he said, his guilt returning like a flash flood.

“Hey, it’s fine,” she said. “I was well aware that you don’t do relationships before I slept with you.”

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