Page 46 of Loving Lies (Granton University 3)

She laughed. “Of course you could stop. We’re in a hospital, for God’s sake. Like we actually would’ve—” When she caught sight of his face, she must’ve seen exactly what he was thinking. She gulped. “Oh.”

Yeah. Oh.

Nothing would’ve stopped him if he’d gone too far. Not any of his wounds or pins or casts. Not their location or the fact they could’ve gotten caught at any moment. If Tess was willing, he would’ve continued with no concern for the future. And the future might be very concerning. For both of them.

“I don’t want to go too far until—” He stopped talking with a regretful wince.

Tess touched his shoulder, her brow puckered with worry. “Until what?”

God, she always looked so worried about him, always paid attention to everything he said, as if he really mattered to her.

He looked down at his hands. “It’s just…I know you now. More than you know about me. And I want to wait until the amnesia thing is over, and you can get to know the real me before we…do anything.”

She looked stunned before something flickered across her face. “But if…I already know the real you, Jonah. I’m your girlfriend, remember?”

He just looked at her. After a slight nod, he said, “Yeah. I guess you’re right. In which case, I guess I want to get to know who the real me is before we do too much.”

Tess nodded immediately. “That’s fine. I didn’t mean to pressure you. You don’t have to—”

He touched her lips and grinned. “You’re definitely not pressuring me. In fact, any type of pressure you want to put on me would be entirely welcome. I just want…I want to do this right. I don’t think I could lose you, so we’re going to wait until…We’re just going to wait a little while, all right?”

“All right.” Biting her lip, she gave a single nod. When her attention fell to his throat, she let out a long sigh. “I never did get to tell you what I was supposed to tell you today.”

A ripple of apprehension stole through him. “Well, it’s already tomorrow, so that was actually yesterday you were supposed to tell me.” He gave a small, helpless shrug. “I guess you lost your chance.”

She rolled her eyes. “Jonah.”

“Besides, aren’t we supposed to be ridiculous and fun for the rest of the night? How the heck did we get so serious?”

“I really should tell you—”

He placed his fingers over her lips. “Tomorrow.”

“You said that yesterday.”

With a grin, he kissed her nose. “You the mean the day before yesterday?”

“Oh my God. You’re seriously trying to confuse me, aren’t you?”

He chuckled and kissed her again. When she went with it and kissed him back, he deepened it just a little more, until they were right back where they’d been before, his hand up her shirt and her back arched in sublime offering.

“Damn, I really need to stop getting us worked back up to this point.” He kissed his way down her throat, and she mewled out a sound that drove him crazy. “Maybe it’s because I really, really like this point.”

“I do too,” she panted back.

“Do you want to touch me, too?” he blurted before he could think through what he was going to say. Then he internally cursed himself. “Never mind. I shouldn’t have asked that.” He really didn’t want to go that far, and besides, only a jackass asked a girl to pleasure him. Right? “Just wipe that question from your—”

“Here?” Tess asked, gingerly placing her fingers on his warm abdomen and making the skin jump from the unexpected contact.

Umm…not quite. But he was glad she misunderstood and didn’t touch him a few inches lower. Besides, it wasn’t like her soft touch didn’t feel like heaven right where it was.

He sighed out his pleasure. “Yeah. Right there.”

Her gaze followed the path of her hand as she barely grazed her fingernails over every dip and groove on his stomach. “You are so…beautiful.”

He wanted to wince, or maybe crack a joke to gainsay her. Guys weren’t beautiful. But the awe in her voice and the captivated gleam in her blue eyes made him feel beautiful. Like a beautiful person.

Leaning in to press his forehead to hers, he closed his eyes and soaked in the beauty of the moment.

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