Page 42 of Home Tears

“I can’t.”

Dani tried to shove him away, but he grasped her other arm and leaned against her, trapping her.

He murmured next to her ear, “I’m really sorry to do this. This is against my character, but letting you drive out of here in this state is worse. I can’t let you do that, not until you talk to me. What happened in there? What did you see that the rest of us didn’t?”

Didn’t he know?

Dani tried to slide out the side, but Jonah trapped her again. He settled his legs on either side of her. Every inch of his body was plastered against her now.

Dani’s chest rose up in short breaths. “You know.” She tried to shove him back. He didn’t budge.

“I don’t. I was at a different table. Remember?” His breath teased her ear, and Dani couldn’t suppress the full-body shiver. “What happened back there?”

Her voice hitched on a sob. “Let me go.”

She was crumbling. She was under the water again, sinking deeper and deeper.

“You’re going to run.” He was soothing her. His thumbs began running up and down her arms. “I don’t want you to run. Tell me what happened in there.”

“I’m fine.”

“Dani.” His hands slid down, landing with hers. His fingers slid down hers and intertwined them. “Tell me what happened.”

“Really.” She pulled her hands from his, and tried to push him back again. “I’m fine.”

Even she didn’t believe herself.

Jonah cursed. He tipped his head back and met her gaze. Then his eyes slid to her lips, and Dani was hot all over. She felt the cut of his jeans, his hands as he caught her hands on his chest, his abdominal muscles. She watched him, her body responding on its own. Jonah slid one of his hands up her arm and curved against her back, moving its way underneath her shirt against her naked skin.

Dani glanced from his eyes to his lips and back.

His eyes never moved, they were steady on her lips. His other hand had started a slow pattern on her back, and Dani closed her eyes, feeling his hand brush against her shoulders and back down to circle her waist. It moved to the front and rested atop her stomach.

He leaned in.

She sucked in her breath. This… This wasn’t what she expected to happen.

Jonah touched his lips to hers. Gently, they tasted each other. A slight nip and then another. Dani tasted back and felt her arms move of their own volition. They wrapped around his shoulders. He deepened the kiss, and she felt his tongue slide inside.

Her insides were melting, but a sudden burst of laughter drenched them like a bucket of cold water. They were both brought back to reality.

Jonah moved back. Dani let go, her hands falling back to her sides.

She raised her fingers to her lips. “Oh God.” Her voice ripped from her throat. She had forgotten about Boone.

“Not really, but close.”

“Not that.” Dani flushed. “It’s—my fiancé is in there.”

“What?”

“My ex-fiancé is in there. He just walked in with another woman.” How? Why? Who—so many questions ricocheted in her head. “I don’t know how he knows I’m here. We never talked about our histories.”

The memories were slamming back to her, all at once. Her last night in the hospital, when Boone whispered his love. “Dani.” He held her hand, cradling it like it was the most precious thing against his chest.

He asked her to marry him.

She said yes.

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