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I’d been wrong.
His lips parted slightly, and his tongue danced around my lips, begging entrance. A swoop of excitement rushed through my stomach, and I opened my mouth, deepening our kiss.
It had been a long time since I’d just made out with a guy so patiently with no end goal in mind, but Jonas was in no hurry. Tasting my kiss, feeling my hair, my lips, my tongue. His hand slid down my shoulder to my waist, pulling me closer, and my hands instinctively linked behind his muscled shoulders.
His body shifted in response, his chest pressing against mine. My heart beat quicker, heat already pooling between my legs. But he slowly retracted his tongue, pressing his lips to mine once more before pulling back.
He was only inches from me now, his dark eyes heated and his lips slightly parted. “Do you think that will convince them?” he asked.
Still dazed, I asked, “Convince who?”
The crease between his brows deepened slightly. “The media?”
Right. This kiss had been an experiment. Practice. I needed to remember that. “I think it’ll be fine. Thanks, Jonas.”
Before he could say anything more, I had my key in the door and said goodbye.
Inside, I pressed my back to the door, closing my eyes. What had just happened?
Jonas had kissed me. Not like a chore. Not like a boring accountant. But like... someone who knew what he was doing.
The sound of his car turning on reached my ears, and headlights panned through the curtains as he drove away. I smiled, biting my bottom lip.
Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.
9
Jonas
At half past seven the next morning, I pulled up to my parents’ house to pick Mom up for dialysis. As soon as I parked, Dad was walking her out the door, one hand gripping hers. They held hands often, something I didn’t notice most couples doing.
When he reached my car, he pulled open the door and said, “Take good care of my woman, will you?”
Mom chuckled at him. “Get out of here.”
I shook my head at the pair. “Have a good day at work, Dad. Tell Hank I said hi.”
Dad nodded. “Will do.”
He walked toward his truck he’d been driving for the last twenty years while Mom and I pulled away from the house. It took her less than two seconds to bring up Mara.
“Everyone around here’s quite taken with Mara,” she said.
I smiled. “I’m glad you think that, because she’s up to start being with you at the house when you do dialysis.”
Mom clasped her hands together as if in prayer, shaking them at the sky. “Thank you, God.”
I laughed. “That’s what I was thinking.”
“So when were you planning on telling me your relationship with her is fake?” Mom asked. “After I got all attached to her or before?”
I flinched. “Wh-what are you talking about?”
She scoffed, adjusting her books in her lap. “You think I don’t know how to use Google?”
“I—”
“You’ve never mentioned the girl and all of a sudden you bring her over the day after she’s in hot water over that interview.”