Page 27 of If the Stars Align
“Thanks,” I say, still embarrassed. Sam hands me back the photo and I take another look at myself in it. I look happy, I know that. But gorgeous? The only time I feel gorgeous is when Dex is looking at me. If only I could see what he sees. I guess growing up alongside him wasn’t exactly great for my self-esteem. He got so much attention that I felt mostly invisible. It’s like he’s divine, and the rest of us, merely human.
I think Sam can tell that my mind is spinning, so she switches gears to lighten the mood. “So, tell me about the sex,” she says, laughing.
“How much time have you got?” I joke as I plop down beside her on the bed.
It’s funny that I can speak so freely with someone I only just met.
Itake a cab home from the Cleveland airport this time. I told Mia that my mom had the day off and was picking me up. I feel awful for lying.
It’s not that I don’t want to see her. I just want to see Dex first. I’ve been waiting for this moment for five fucking months, and I don’t want anything to ruin it. I don’t want to talk to Mia about how hard the distance is, or how I’ll survive another two years of this. I don’t want to hear about her wedding plans, or schedule a time to go look at dresses.
All I want is Dex.
His flight lands two hours after mine, so I have just enough time to shower and change. I’m slipping on a short summer dress over my sexy new underwear when I hear a car honk twice from the driveway.
I run downstairs and, when I open the front door, I see him leaning against the hood of his car like the dreamy heartthrob in some ‘80’s movie, and when he locks eyes with me and smiles, Iswear he’s ten times more handsome than I remember.
“Hey, you,” he says, like he always does. I wrap my arms around his neck and he smells like the exact same soap, but this time mixed with CK One, and it’s everything I can do not to kiss him right here, but I have no idea when my mom will be home.
Dex gives me a soft peck on the cheek, then nods toward the new Volvo parked in the driveway. “Did your mom get a new car?”
I shake my head. “My mom’s at work. That one’s mine.”
He laughs. “You told her you started driving again, and she bought you a car. See? I told you she’d be okay with it.”
I smirk. “She wasnotokay with it. She was worried sick that I’d buy a clunker with my babysitting money and end up dead in a ditch. Those were her exact words.”
Dex half-smiles. “Sounds like her. But you know your mom. She only worries like that because?—”
“I know, I know. Because she loves me,” I tell him.
Dex cups my face in his palms and nods, his smiling eyes sending chills up my spine.God, I want him.But just as my mind starts wandering to thoughts of us naked, his forehead creases.
“How’d you do on your poli sci exam?” he asks me.
I bite my lip and make him sweat for a few seconds. “I aced it,” I say finally.
“Phew,” he sighs with a smile, wiping imaginary sweat from his brow.
I giggle. “You weren’t really that worried, were you?”
“Nah,” he says, pulling me back into him. “You’re the smartest person I know.”
I squeeze him tighter, and the urge to kiss him threatens totake over again, but this time it’s even harder to fight. “Let’s get outta here,” I whisper in his ear.
Dex takes my hand and leads me to the passenger side of his car. “My parents are home, so I was thinking we could drive to the lake,” he says as he opens the door for me.
When we get there, he parks in an empty lot. It’s a perfect summer night, and we’d been driving with the windows down, listening to Radiohead, but now he rolls them up and turns the music low, even though he’s checked several times to make sure there’s no one else around.
We start kissing, our first kisses in five whole months, and they’re soft and slow. He’s taking his time with me. Savoring me. Toying with me, because he knows how desperately I need him inside me. I let out a tortured sigh and he smiles, enjoying the effect he has on me.
“Back seat?” he finally suggests.
“I thought you’d never ask.”
Dex climbs back first, then helps me onto his lap. We kiss and strip off our clothes—everything except my new sheer black bra, which leaves little to the imagination. He leans against the seat and brings one hand to the back of his head as his eyes wash over me.
“You get sexier every time I see you, you know that?” he says, his voice gritty with desire. He pulls the thin straps off my shoulders one at a time, softly kissing every inch of my neck. He kisses my collarbone, then moves down, brushing his lips over the mesh covering my nipples. I reach back to unclasp my bra and let it fall, giving him unfettered access to me. He takes my nipple in his mouth and circles it with his tongue. At thesame time, his fingers find their way between my thighs, and the pleasure is so intense, I arch my back and moan, my hand on the car ceiling.
