Page 34 of Loving Lies (Granton University 3)

When he puckered out his bottom lip and feigned a pout, she rolled her eyes and grinned. “Oh, my God. You look ridiculous.”

“B-B-But, Tess.” He sniffled as if he was going to start bawling any second. “I need you close, right beside me.”

“Oh, all right,” she said, her face about ten shades of scarlet. “If it’ll make you hush and stop looking so pathetic.”

His grin was instantaneous. “It will.”

“You are such a faker.” She grumbled as she set what was left of his French fries on the side cart and gingerly climbed onto the hospital bed with him. But he just smiled and reached out his good hand to assist her up.

Being as large a guy as he was, there really wasn’t room for two people, but he didn’t care. To have her stretched out beside him, he’d make room.

“There,” he murmured once she was crowded in with her body squished right up against his. Oh, yeah. It was perfect. He smiled at her. “Comfy?”

She laughed. “No. Not at all.”

“Here.” Tucking her even closer, he turned and shifted her just enough so that they were facing each other, her cheek was resting against his chest and one of her legs had been wedged between his. “Better?”

Her gulp was so audible, he actually felt it in his own throat. When she lifted her face from his heart and looked up at him, the stiffy she’d given him when he’d first woken to her in his room paled in comparison to what his body experienced this time around. The heat that swirled through him consumed him from head to toe.

“How’s that?” he asked, ignoring how hoarse his voice had gone.

“Jonah.” Her voice wavered with anxiety. “We shouldn’t be doing this.”

“Why?” No way was he letting her off the bed just yet. “Aren’t you comfortable?”

She nodded. “Yeah. A little too comfortable.”

He grinned. “No such thing.” Then he bent his head and kissed her.

Chapter Nine

THE NERVE ENDINGS in Tess’s brain went on overload and fried out. It was impossible for her to process the fact that she was lying face-to-face on a hospital bed with a complete hottie as he kissed her like he meant it.

His hands tangled in her hair and tightened their grip, forcing her to tip her head up and meet his mouth more firmly. Then his tongue swept in, and she was a complete goner.

She knew she should stop him, but she found her fingers curling around the thin material of his hospital gown and urging him closer. He cupped her face, and she arched her body up until she could feel his erection through all the cloth separating them. When he slid his casted arm around her back and applied pressure at the base of her spine to bring them even tighter together, she broke away with a gasp.

“What’re we…this can’t be…I thought…” Whew, it was still hard for her to think. “I thought I was coming up here so we could to get to know each other better.”

He grinned, looking a little too full of himself. “You did. And I’m getting to know you a lot better. You taste really good.”

She groaned and closed her eyes before leaning forward to rest her forehead on his shoulder. Why had she let this get so far out of hand? This was so wrong. He wasn’t her boyfriend; he was a complete stranger, and she was totally deceiving him, completely taking advantage of his lack of memories.

But she felt so safe and warm snuggled up against his chest, as if she did know him and trusted him implicitly. Lord, she’d already trusted him with some of her deepest secrets last night.

“Jonah…” she started, knowing she’d gone way over the line with this whole charade. He wasn’t hers. She wasn’t his. And she was probably worse than his parents for slotting herself into his life when he didn’t know any better. She gulped. “I need to confess something to you.”

Band-Aid quick Bailey had called it, right?

She opened her mouth to spill everything but he whispered, “Don’t.”

Tess’s eyebrows furrowed. “Don’t what?”

His brown eyes flooded with panic as he shook his head. “Don’t confess anything. Please. It’s not like I’ll know any different until I get my memory back, anyway. Right?”

“But—”

He kissed her gently, effectively silencing her. Then, pulling back just enough to catch her gaze, he said, “I don’t like the look in your eyes. It’s telling me I’m not going to like what you have to say. So, don’t say it. If you cheated on me—or whatever—I don’t want to know tonight. Okay? I like how this is going. I don’t—” He squeezed his eyes closed. “You have no idea how much your visits help me. Just…Every time you walk through that door, I feel…” Shaking his head, he opened his lashes. “You don’t even know.”

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