Sweet Liar (Candy #2)(67)

“If you don’t reconcile with him, you’re throwing away your career.”

He brushed the back of his hand lightly over my cheek. “Yeah, but it was never what I thought it was anyway. He said I wasn’t cut out for it, and maybe he was right.”

I looked at Jonah’s heavy expression and could see that he cared more than he was letting on. “I’m sorry for how this is turning out for you.”

“Don’t feel sorry for me, Candy. I’m going to be fine.” He released my hand and brushed his fingers across my cheek. My eyes slowly closed because his touch felt so good. His thumb rubbed over my lips, and he said my name. When I looked at him again, I could see that he wanted to kiss me, but he wasn’t moving.

Reaching my hand up, I brushed it over his rough cheek, slowly and gently, the way he’d done to me. I was giving him my answer, and I knew he understood when he brought his lips to mine.

I leaned into him, realizing how much I’d missed having him close. We opened our mouths together and deepened the kiss. My pulse raced, sending the blood speeding through my veins. Jonah was kissing me again, finally, but this was the first honest kiss we’d shared, and I felt it everywhere, seeping inside me. It was addictive, this feeling, better than the sunniest day and the richest chocolate. Jonah and I weren’t only physically close; I felt close to him in every sense. He wasn’t just another person in my life, he was something more.

When his warm hand spread over the bare skin beneath my sweater, I arched my back and sighed. The next thing I knew, I was moving through the air as he picked me up and set me down on the mattress beneath him.

We kissed until we were both breathing hard, our limbs tangled together, our hands all over each other. Just when things were starting to feel too desperate, Jonah stilled above me.

“I want to touch you,” he said, his voice a low rasp.

I nodded and continued to kiss him. He stopped me, holding my face to get my attention. “I want to touch you, Candy.”

I blinked, bringing him into focus. When I nodded, he grinned and I smiled back, but gasped the next moment when his fingers slipped beneath my bra. As his warm hand covered me, I tilted my head back. This wasn’t the first time I’d been touched there, but it had never been Jonah doing the touching. There was a world of difference in the way he made me feel compared to anyone else.

His hands felt incredible on my body, and his lips followed each touch. He kissed me everywhere, and the deep sounds he made told me he liked it as much as I did. Every sensation he coaxed from me was beyond anything I’d felt before. I’d heard how much better it could be when you were with someone you cared about, and I knew I cared about Jonah because no boy had ever made me feel as beautiful and purposeful as he had. Jonah called me beautiful so many times, I’d lost count.

He also knew when it was time to stop.

“When the time is right, I want you to be mine, Candy. And I want to be yours.”

I bit down on my lip as my chest filled with flutters. He’d said something similar before in the hallway at school.

“I don’t want to lose you, Candy. I already feel like you’re mine.”

At the time, I didn’t know if I could believe him. I knew better now.

As we lay side by side on the mattress, Jonah’s long muscled body stretched out next to mine, I skimmed my fingers over his arm and watched the goose bumps form on his skin, liking that my touch could do that to him.

“Hey, Candy,” he whispered.

I looked from his skin up to his glittering eyes.

“I was falling in love with you before everything went wrong. And I’m still falling.”

My fingers stopped moving.

Jonah smiled gently. “Even though there’s a good chance you’re going to break my heart, I want you to know it’s yours.”

His words hit me harder than I could have imagined, even though I had some idea he felt this way. “Jonah,” I whispered his name, blinking against the tears in my eyes.

“It’s okay,” he said as if he expected my reaction. “You don’t have to say anything back.”

No one had ever said such sweet things to me, and he was being so selfless about it, not expecting anything in return. My mind blanked out and my throat closed up, preventing me from saying anything at all. Guilt washed over me because he’d already been hurt so much; I didn’t want to be the one who hurt him more.

“Candy, it’s okay.” He took my hand to get my attention. My conflict must have been apparent and affecting him, even though he acted like it didn’t.

I couldn’t help but think of the Jonah I first met months ago. He was surly and arrogant, and he could act like such an ass sometimes. That Jonah was so different from the man in front of me now. I’d thought I was falling for a boy in school, but that wasn’t who Jonah was. He was so much more, and he could mean so much more to me if I let him.

Why was it so hard to let him?

We both heard the lock on the front door click open at the same time. Jonah sat up, looking alert. When he saw it was Lorraine, he relaxed and stood up to help her, leaving me lying there to think about everything he’d said.

He was falling in love with me, and those words made me feel as tall as a mountain and as small as a pebble, because I couldn’t say the words back to him.

***