The-Spanish-Love-Deception-www.indianpdf

halfway and asking me what the hell had happened. He cared. He cared about
me. And he’d shield me, hold me, or just stand by my side if I so much as
opened my mouth to ask. I knew. Hell, he would even if I didn’t ask.
Honest, genuine concern. Contrary to whatever Daniel had claimed.
Letting myself fall delicately on my chair, I took a moment to plaster a
calm smile on my face. A neutral expression. But my lips probably curled the
wrong way, my features displaying everything still churning inside of me
after my exchange with Daniel because when I turned and faced Aaron, his
eyes flared more intensely.
I willed my lips to inch higher, and a muscle in his jaw twitched.
My sister started chattering about something—what exactly, I couldn’t
tell. My head was somewhere else.
My hands were in my lap when I felt Aaron’s palm fall against them. For
the second time tonight, he interlaced our hands. Our fingers weaved
together, each and every one of them. But this time, he kept our linked hands
right where they were—on the top of my thigh. As if he was trying to tell me,
this way—with them below the table, hidden from everyone else—meant that
this was just for us. Not a part of the charade.
He squeezed my hand with purpose, his fingers tightening around mine,
his palm warm against my skin. Just for us, it seemed to reassure me. To
promise me.
And like the biggest dummy in the universe, I found the greatest comfort
in those five long fingers. In that warm palm. So, I brought our joined hands
closer to my belly, and I squeezed right back.
THERE WAS something lodged right in between my ribs that felt a lot like a
ticking bomb.
“I can hear the gears in your head spinning,” Aaron said as he crossed the
room in that pair of pajama pants, which was doing mad things to my belly
again. Same went for the T-shirt. He was wearing the one he had slept in
yesterday.
At least he was wearing one. I didn’t think I could take shirtless Aaron
right now.
“I’m okay,” I lied, my head throbbing with every replay of my