Page 23 of The Pinkie Pact

"Wow." I was truly awed by the magnitude and scope of the history surrounding us.

Kieran pointed out everything to me, going into detail, but I had to admit, I didn't take it all in because I was a bit shocked at how sweet he was being. And he was acting just like a little boy all excited about airplanes. In fact, there were little boys running around near us who weren't nearly as excited as Kieran was right now.

Whenever I glanced at Kara, she had a funny smirk on her face, and I couldn't figure out what she was thinking.

After a few minutes, Kieran reached back and almost grabbed my hand, but he suddenly stopped himself. "Come on," he said. "There's so much more."

Kieran led us through the museum, explaining exhibit after exhibit but not in too much detail. I was sure he was holding himself back and trying not to bore us, giving us just little bits of information, and I definitely sensed Kara wasn't as into it. But I was fascinated.

Seeing Kieran this way was absolutely blowing my mind. Gone was the stress. Gone was the tension. He was one-hundred percent boyish charm, and I couldn't even believe it.

Between all the exhibits, we bought tickets for an upcoming show at the planetarium. It was almost overwhelming—the sheer size of everything, the amount of people, and all the history. So when it was time to enter the cool, dark planetarium, I was more than ready.

Just like the rest of the museum, the theater was huge, with comfy-looking seats. Kieran headed into a row, and I stood aside so Kara could follow. She'd want to sit in the middle I assumed, but she gestured for me to go ahead.

"I don't want to sit by my stinky brother," she mumbled as I gave her a puzzled look.

Laughing, I shook my head. God, these two. It was definitely weird for me to sit between them, but I entered the row and took my seat anyway. And Kieran didn't say anything. Maybe he didn't want to be near Kara either.

And as far as stinky goes? Kieran was in no way stinky. Actually, sitting this close to him, I was extremely conscious of everything about him, the way he crossed his long legs in front of himandthe delicious way he smelled.

I put my elbow on the armrest, ready to play my favorite little control game. Men had a hard time giving up armrests, so I always put mine there first and took it over. Then when they'd inevitably put their own arm there, they'd bump into me and reluctantly move theirs away.

Just a little something I did to amuse myself and to take men down a notch. It was annoying enough that they spread their legs out and invaded my space, but that was harder to fix.

The lights dimmed, and a hush fell over the crowded room as a person began to welcome us and introduce the presentation. And right when the lights went out completely and the opening title showed up on screen, I felt a movement on the armrest between us.

Kieran set his arm there, flush up against my own. I kept expecting him to pull away, like most men did. But he didn't, and the sensations going through me as our bodies touched were un-fucking-believable.

Come on, you idiot, it's only a freaking arm.

Plus, we both had on long sleeves. But still, something about it felt so amazing. And strange. And forbidden.

As the narrator spoke about Earth in her soothing, calm voice, my mind went wild. Why didn't he move his arm? Should I move mine? And why the hell did it feel so earth-shattering? I felt like I was back in the olden days when the slightest touch was such a big deal.

But we were in modern times, and I'd done a hell of a lot more with guys than touch our arms together. Uh, yeah. But somehow, this felt so much more intimate. Maybe because it seemed to mean something. Or I was going completely insane over nothing.

I tried to focus on the fantastical worlds flying around in front of my eyes, and the beautiful images of stars, planets, black holes, and far-off galaxies definitely kept my attention. But the whole time, I had that hyper-awareness of Kieran sitting right next to me, touching me, breathing near me, invading all my senses like a freaking hurricane.

When the narrator said something about the planet Uranus, quite a few people in the audience laughed, and I heard a sound next to me from Kieran. Was he laughing too?

Who the hell was this guy?

Still in shock about who Kieran actually was turning out to be, the show ended. It had been absolutely stunning to see. So maybe the words had escaped me for the most part because I'd been so focused on the arm action going on, but still, something about seeing the universe like that had been humbling.

As the lights went up, I glanced first to Kara who grinned at me, then to Kieran who slowly moved his arm away.

"So what'd you think?" he asked, his eyes thoughtful.

"Honestly? That was amazing. It just makes us seem so small and insignificant..." I wasn't even sure how to complete my thought.

"Right? It makes all our little earthly problems seem so trivial."

"Exactly. We're just tiny dots in this vast universe." I shook my head. "It's mind-blowing, really, and hard to completely digest."

"And there's so much we don't even know. So much mystery out there."

A few people clambered over our legs to get past us.

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