Page 83 of A Summer of Stars

My view was taken away as he pulled my hips in close. I flipped my gaze up, and his eyes sucked me in and kept me bound. He was so close. His hair was in mine, and my breath was between his lips. I didn’t know where I ended and he began. I couldn’t look away. He was so handsome it hurt. It hurt to be stared at this way, knowing that some of it was an act.

Was this his trick to making every woman fall for him?

I was starting to see it. The muscles in his arms as he held on to you. The dip of his gaze to your lips. The sexy smirk with jokes in between that made you laugh with your entire belly. Who wouldn’t want to experience what it was like to be wanted by Kieran? Even if it was only for a second?

The desire, the want, the need. I understood.

God, I couldn’t believe I was looking atKieranlikethat.

You hate a guy for three years, and then he kisses you once, calls you beautiful twice, dances with you thrice, and suddenly you’re a pool of hormones ready to jump.

His lips brushed the shell of my ear. “I have to tell you something.” He pulled away so he could meet my eyes.

What?I mouthed. It was easier than shouting over the music that was beginning to pick up, and safer than leaning into him and finding out what scent his shampoo was laced with.

He leaned in again. The music pounded in my ears but made room for his voice. “You’re better off without the ex.”

Oh.

“You’re too good for him!” he shouted over the music this time.

“You don’t even know him!” I argued, laughter shooting out as a result of his sudden passion.

“I don’t! But I know you,” he responded, and his smile quickly diminished to something more serious. Then his eyes searched my face for… an answer, an explanation, a confirmation?

Didhe know me? It felt easy to say no. But—

My phone began buzzing in my purse. Cecilia. “Hello!” I shouted over the music.

“Luna! Thank God,” Cecilia exhaled. I shoved the phone against my ear, trying to hear her better. “Did you see the—”

I plugged my finger in my other ear. “The what!”

“The ar—”

“Wait, I’m going outside.”

One minute, I mouthed to Kieran, letting go of him and walking out. The night summer air felt cool in comparison to the heat radiating off Kieran’s body inside. I took a deep breath. “What’s up?”

“The article,did you see it!Deidra is freaking out—”

What article? I pulled the phone away from my ear to scroll through my texts—what thehell.

I was being flooded with text messages. I closed them and searched my name. Thousands of articles popped up, but they all used headlines with the same six words.

Jeremiah. Evans. Comments. Ex-Wife. New. Relationship.

“Luna, you there?” Cecilia cut in.

I opened the first article at the top.

“Jeremiah Evans speculates whether ex-wife, Luna Aldridge, is ready for love and if Kieran Alexander is realistically her type. He wonders if this is all a stunt—”

“Hey, are you okay?” Kieran’s voice came from behind me.

I twisted abruptly.

“They’re not going to believe it anymore,” I exhaled, inhaled, inhaled,inhaled.