Page 37 of Loving Lies (Granton University 3)

Jonah lifted his lashes to smile at her. Then he leaned in toward her so he couch reach for something behind her on his bedside tray. She glanced over her shoulder to see that he’d grabbed the carton of French fries. He pulled one free and held it up to her mouth.

She glanced at the fry and then him.

He rolled his eyes. “I told you I’d give you a French fry for every time you told me a fact about yourself. And the fact that you like to touch me there might be my favorite fact yet. So…have two.” He pulled another one free and held them both to her mouth.

Tess paused before she shrugged and took the fries from his fingers with her teeth. As she chewed, he grinned with pleasure. “Thank God you supersized. I have a lot of fun facts I’d like to draw out of you.”

She swallowed and licked the traces of salt off her lips. “Your turn to share a fact.”

The grin he gave her should’ve warned her what he was going to say next, but it still tugged a blush to her cheeks. “I’d like you touching me there even more if your hand was inside the blanket instead of outside.”

Her fingers paused. Biting her lip, she wondered if she should dare. His suggestion was crazy, but God, she kept on considering it.

His eyes went wide. “Holy shit, you’re tempted. Aren’t you?”

She glanced

toward the doorway, wondering how risky it would be. No one had come to check on him since she’d been here but—

A nurse walked into the room. Tess yelped and jerked her hand off Jonah’s crotch. The nurse stopped in her tracks, her tennis shoes squeaking against the floor because she halted so fast.

“What’re you doing on that bed with him?”

Embarrassment flooded her as she scurried to crawl off the mattress. “I’m sorry. I—”

“Don’t you realize how many staples and stitches and casts are holding that boy together? Haven’t you ever heard of MRSA? If you jostled him too much and opened a healing wound—”

“Hey,” Jonah cut in roughly, glowering at the nurse. “She’s fine. She didn’t hurt me.”

But Tess had already bowed her head in shame. The nurse was absolutely right. She could’ve hurt him badly.

“She needs to know the repercussions,” the nurse hissed right back.

“She did nothing wrong,” Jonah said. “I asked her to come up here and—”

“You know what,” Tess broke in, about to panic herself into tears. Worried Jonah and the nurse might actually come to blows, she waved her hands, surrendering. “It’s okay. I knew I shouldn’t have. And I’m sorry.” She glanced at the nurse and made eye contact to show her sincerity before turning back to Jonah and choking out, “I’m sorry.”

His jaw tensed. “You don’t have to apologize,” he said moodily, shifting his glare to the nurse. “I made you do it.”

When his chest started to heave as if he was about to work himself into a tizzy, Tess reached out and calmly took his hand. His warm fingers immediately clamped around hers and turmoil swirled in his brown eyes as he looked up at her.

“It’s okay,” she assured him with a small smile. After a quick glance at the nurse to make sure her back was turned and she was busy reading the numbers on his monitoring machine and jotting them down in a clipboard, Tess leaned down to Jonah and whispered into his ear. “Next time, we just won’t get caught.”

She straightened quickly when the nurse glanced their way. Face flushed because she was sure the other woman had heard her, Tess offered her a weak, guilty smile. But the nurse turned away and scribbled something else, giving no indication that she’d heard anything. Finally, Tess risked a peek at Jonah.

His face glowed with joy, and a smile spread across his face, making his tired eyes glitter with more life and vitality than she’d ever seen in them before. Then he winked at her and squeezed her hand in a conspiring way.

She rolled her eyes, blushing harder.

Tess stayed another half hour after the nurse’s check-in. But she didn’t get back on the bed with Jonah, no matter how much he tried to cajole.

The boy was proving to be a lot more enticing than she bargained for. After just a few days—mere days—of knowing him, she felt…

Honestly, she had no idea how she truly felt, but it was a lot stronger than she knew she should feel about a virtual stranger. Her emotions didn’t seem to care, though. He needed her, and she was too drawn to him to stay away now.

She didn’t leave until nearly forty-five minutes after visiting hours were over. Not that she really tried all that hard to escape. Every time she’d look at the clock on the wall and mention how she should go, he’d grip her hand and put on the begging eyes, telling her he wanted her to stay.

How was a girl supposed to resist that? Honestly.

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