Page 83 of Loving Lies (Granton University 3)

She glanced up at him coyly through the veil of her thick eyelashes. “You won’t believe how much I wanted to slide my hand under the hospital sheet that night.”

He couldn’t breathe. He literally—

Jonah looked into her eyes and sucked in air. “You just had to tell me that, didn’t you?”

“Can I…can I do it now?”

When he saw temptation and desire on her face, it dragged him under.

“Anything,” he said. “You can do anything you want, baby.”

She bit her lip, and he lost it. Groaning when she flicked open the top button of his jeans, he closed his eyes, or maybe his lids naturally forced themselves closed because it was just too much to handle with all his senses firing this radically. But his hearing seemed to grow more acute with his vision out of the way, because the lazy rasp of his zipper had to be the most erotic sound he’d ever heard.

His juices flowed, and by the time her fingers touched the bare skin of his abdomen, he jumped from the overwhelming intensity of the contact.

“Jesus. I’m not—” He was going to freaking embarrass himself if he didn’t cool it down. “You feel too good.”

She grinned. “I bet this will feel better, though.” As her warm, soft palm wrapped around his rigid column, his mind turned to liquid. Her touch was so shy and hesitant, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that this was the first time she’d ever felt anyone there. But, damn.

“Oh, Christ,” he breathed. He watched her wide, amazed eyes as her fingers slowly slid their way down. When she paused and bit her lip, he blew out a strained breath. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t—”

“I do want to.” She kissed him, and a split second later, her warm fingers slid back up. He jumped in her hand. She jumped too, as if startled, but then she smiled up at him, her face glowing with womanly accomplishment.

He sank his fingers into her hair and cupped her head, soothing her. “You okay?”

She nodded and looked down at him, though she could barely see the crown of his junk from the opening of his pants. “Wow,” she whispered.

Fuck. He shouldn’t. He really shouldn’t. But he did anyway, easing his hand down so he could cover hers and guide her, showing her how to apply just the right amount of pressure and then move. When she got the hang of it, he let her go at her own pace and closed his eyes, concentrating on nothing but each warm, amazing glide of her palm.

“What does it feel like?” she asked, the awe in her voice making him open his lashes.

Jonah swallowed, trying to think of the right words to describe everything that was going on inside him. But the only word he could come up with was good. It felt good. Really good.

“Why don’t I just show you?” he suggested as he found the waistband of her jeans and slipped open the top button.

Her eyes widened. “Jonah?”

He met her gaze. “Can I touch you there too?”

She gulped. “Okay.”

“Are you sure?” He hesitated, squinting as he studied her. “

If I’m going too fast—”

“No! I mean, yes, I’m sure. And no, you’re not going too fast.”

“Okay. We’ll just…we’ll go one step at a time, though.”

He eased open her pants, and they both lifted up so he could slide the cloth down her legs. She sent him a shy yet excited grin. He wanted to bring her to so much pleasure in that moment, he almost couldn’t control his own libido. Gently squeezing the hand she still had around his penis, he pried her away, saying, “We’ll get back to that later. I want to concentrate on you for a while.”

Tess nodded, absolute trust glimmering in her eyes. In fact, feeling the weight of that trust almost stopped him in his tracks. But he could see the anticipation as well. She wanted to know what this felt like. She was eager and curious.

He couldn’t let her down.

Grasping the waistband of her panties, he eased them away from her. Their gazes met and locked. She bit her lip and pulled in a breath as if to say, Here were go. He couldn’t seem to look away as he removed her underwear and distractedly dropped them over the side of the couch.

“You are so beautiful,” he said. He lowered his gaze to take in the scarlet curls between her legs.

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