The Third Kiss (Love's Mortal Coil #1)

Chapter 5 - Jonas

Jonas

The late morning sun burned down on my back as I worked to fit the last of the empty pizza boxes into the overflowing garbage bin. It was only after ten, and already the steadily climbing temperature had the flies circling last night's decomposing leftovers. I did my best to ignore the smell as I shoved at the flattened cardboard, trying to make space where there was none, while mulling over Cora's words.

A deviant impulse? She made it sound like kissing me went against all laws of nature. I punched the topmost pizza box, much like Cora's words had done my ego. It didn't escape me that this was the exact outcome I'd been after; I didn't need my only female friend developing some stupid infatuation with me.

I swiped at a fly buzzing about my face. So why did Cora's explanation sting so much? Sure, no guy wanted to be told he'd been kissed as a result of a fricking "deviant impulse"—what the hell was that, even? But the real burn lay in the fact that she'd been desperately trying to wipe the memory of the event from her mind, like the experience had scarred her for life, never to be repeated. Her exact words? "Never in a million years."

Which is exactly what you wanted, you asshat! Yeah. So why the hell was I beating the shit out of my garbage?

I scrubbed a hand over my face—I knew why.

Because no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get the memory of the event out of my mind.

A mind that knew without a doubt that kissing Cora was all kinds of wrong. In all the years we'd been friends I'd never even considered the option. She was off-limits, too important to me to pull a stunt like that and risk screwing up our friendship. She was the girl I went to when I needed a sympathetic sounding board, an honest opinion, or when I wanted to hang, be myself. She wasn't a girl I locked lips with.

But did I remember any of this that night a year ago? No. Instead, as she cried in my arms, a desperate need consumed me to take away her pain in any way possible. I wanted to wrap myself around her, shield her, slay all her demons so she wouldn't have to face them ever again. Hell, if she'd asked me to, I would have stormed next door and kicked her father's sorry ass for caring more about some kids out in the fricking bush than his own daughter.

So when her lips sought mine, it didn't occur to me how wrong it was to kiss Cora; it was all about infusing that kiss with comfort and soothing, all about taking her ache and making it mine. The fear and panic only set in when it dawned on me how right it felt to be kissing Cora, how damn good it felt to hold her in that way. I'd give a kidney to wipe the memory of all that from my mind—because it scared the shit out of me.

And if Beth ever found out, she'd make a matching set of egg warmers out of my balls.

I whacked the near-pulverized cardboard one last time for good measure.

"What'd the trash can do to you?"

I turned to find Leo walking up the drive, bright orange T-shirt blinding in the sun, the words I code while you sleep a cursive black smear across his chest. The guy really was a nerd. But to some people—like those who looked to connect on an "inner nerd level"—cheesy coder T-shirts might be a turn-on.

Shit, Jonas, what do you care?

"Bin. It's a garbage bin," I said through clenched teeth.

Leo grinned, not in the slightest put off by my foul mood. "Hungover or not enough sleep?"

I banged the bin lid with enough force to scatter the flies. The slap of sound snapped me out of my misdirected anger. I took a calming breath. "Neither. Just acting on a deviant impulse."