Page 16 of All Bets Are Off
“Dartmouth,” I say, smiling up at him.
He does a double take. “Dartmouth? That’s a great school.”
“Surprised?”
“No,” he admits, honestly. “I’m not. What are you studying?”
I tilt my head back a little further and sigh over the beauty of the stars. “Astronomy.”
“What?” he half laughs, half breathes. “You’re full of surprises, Vida. Why astronomy?”
When I talk, it’s like he’s trying to memorize my words, he’s so focused. “My aunt brought me to the planetarium in Boston when I was nine and I got really fascinated by the Milky Way. Why were all those stars bunched together like that?” I reach up and trace the Little Dipper with my fingertips. “The answer is, all those stars are held together by dark matter. It’s like a glue that stops all the space dust and debris and stars from scatteringapart.” I lower my hand to his shoulder again. “Both my parents passed in a car accident when I was ten and on the days when I wanted to break apart, I imagined the dark matter holding me together. That’s the part of space I want to study.”
I can hear his heavy swallow over the rushing surf. “I’m sorry about your parents, angel.”
I blink back the moisture in my eyes. “Thank you.”
Tripp shakes his head. “Christ, I’ve never met anyone like you, Vida.” He stoops down and bands an arm around the backs of my thighs, lifting me off the ground, my legs wrapping eagerly around his waist. Wanting to feel him. Our mouths seek one another, rubbing wetly. “You’re going to be someone’s dark matter someday. The glue that holds some poor fuck together.” A line forms between his brows. “I think I’m going to need it to be me.”
Again, I know he’s just being sweet in this achingly romantic setting, but I’m eating it right up, enjoying him while I can. We consume each other as he walks us up the beach, his tongue urgent inside my mouth. I spear my fingers into his abundance of hair and pour every ounce of feeling into our kiss, mewling when he draws up the rear hem of my dress and molds my bare ass cheeks roughly.
“Mmm.”
“You like that, angel?”
“Yes,” I manage, marveling over the skill of his hands.
“You don’t know it yet…” He slaps my left cheek with just enough bite to make me feel hot and anxious. “…but you’ve got an ass that begs to be taken from behind.”
Does he mean…the position I’ve overheard men calldoggy style? “I do?”
He gives another pained laugh. “Goddammit, yes.”
“Why does that make you upset?”
“I’m not upset, Vida. I’m horny.” We arrive at the lifeguard tower, and he sets me down, groaning as I slide down the front of his body, encountering his protruding sex on the way, the full length of it dragging inch by inch against the seam of my flesh. “Fuuuuuck,” he says, voice guttural. “Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference.”
“You’re not what I expected my sex education teacher to look like.” It comes out breathy.
He flashes me a grin, even while attacking my neck with noisy kisses. “Oh, am I hotter? More suave, perhaps, than you were expecting?”
I wiggle away from his advances, dancing my way beneath the lifeguard tower. “Definitely more arrogant.”
He follows me onto the cool sand under the tower, chuckling at me when I leap up and curl my hands around the metal bar overhead. I hang there for a few seconds, enjoying the way his gaze runs down the front of my body, and I’m glad I wore this dress, even though I’d worried it was too short. He definitely appreciates the brief hemline because his eyes darken drastically as I hang from the bar. Whereas a moment ago, he was playful, he’s losing that charming and flirtatious demeanor.
His expression reminds me of our first encounter.
When he incorrectly assumed I was a call girl and asked me to run away.
There’s a strain appearing around his mouth, his body tense. Muscles coiled.
His hands are shaking as he dries sweaty palms on his thighs.
Is there something about my position that’s turning him on?
Even more than he already was?
“Do you like me like this?” I ask quietly, my voice carried gently on the breeze.
