Page 77 of Wish You Were Her

“Are you jealous of my pen-pal, Allegra?”

Her eyes danced for a moment and then grew serious. “I just want you to be sure, Jonah. About what you want. Aboutwhoyou want.”

Her long hair was loose and wild. Her expression was determined. So Jonah, who had never claimed to read people well or know what they really wanted, finally felt as though he could communicate with someone in a perfect code. Her eyes raked over his bare torso and he reached out to wrap one hand around her wrist. He pulled gently. She moved until they were almost pressed together. Her hand ran down his stomach to the thin line of hair beneath his navel. He groaned and the sound made her back up a little, moving toward the long windows looking out over the lake.

Jonah hated that so many other people’s opinions lived inside her head, making her question everything that she felt. He moved behind her as she shrugged out of her robe. He circled his arms around her middle, pulling her back to his front. Gentle but firm. The noise she made brought his mouth down to her neck.

“You have the most beautiful body.”

She brought her hands up to cover his. “People write stuff every day, saying that’s not true.”

“Those people are losers.”

He kissed her neck again and she moaned. She started to pull his hands further down her stomach.

Then she suddenly stopped.

“You okay?” he asked instantly.

“Sorry,” she murmured. “Thought something moved out there…”

“Maybe a deer?”

“Yeah, maybe.”

She turned and kissed him, making him forget whatever itwas he had been about say. He groaned and pushed her up against the window. She draped her arms around his neck and he lifted her up so she could wrap her legs around his waist.

“Take me upstairs,” she said against his mouth.

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah.”

She led him upstairs, to the warm, darkened room with the rain lightly falling outside. He sat on the bed and she sat on him. He kissed her and tried to tell her through doing so that he wanted all of her. Bodies could only express and inspire so much. The soul she let him glimpse was far more beautiful. The part of her that had ignited that fear in him on their first meeting. The part that had created the spark between them, a spark they had turned into quarreling; a stupid disguise for an obvious attraction. The confident parts, the anxious parts. The parts that were assured, the parts that doubted. The parts that he had yet to meet.

It was the simplest thing—something he had always thought would be messy and complicated. And it was so easy.

Allegra had always felt the world a little more than some. Lights were always brighter, sounds went through her ear and into the backs of her eyes. Smells and tastes and touch were electricity in the nose and mouth and fingertips. So when sitting in Jonah Thorne’s lap and kissing him brought pleasure, it came in a way that was intense and overwhelming.

After about half an hour of kissing without drawing breath, it was only a cough from Grace in the other room that made them both pause. Allegra smiled against his neck and whispered, “I want this… but maybe not in a house with three other people.”

Jonah, who was a little out of oxygen, nodded. “Yes. But please tell me the millisecond you change your mind.”

As they lay side by side, she threw one leg over him and rested her head against his chest.

“This is such a nice house,” she finally whispered.

“It is. The Montgomerys are a big deal in these parts.”

“Small-town royalty?”

“Exactly.”

“So, how did Arthur…?”

“How did he land Jasper?”

“Yeah.”