Page 99 of A Summer of Stars

His eyes darted to my lips. “I want you.”

His words shot through me like an arrow, satisfyingly hitting a piece of my heart that I didn’t know was still pumping blood. It was a breath of air in what seemed like years of barren cobwebbed corners. So I plunged it deeper by crashing my lips against his.

“Sources Say That Kieran Alexander Is in Love with Luna Aldridge ‘to the Moon and Back’”

—M Magazine

STARS SHINED BEHINDmy closed eyes as she feverishly pressed her lips against mine. Each muscle, tendon,bonefell to her will as if it were accepting this as fact. As if we were two pieces meant to be paired. A worshipper and a prayer. The sun and its flowers. Neptune and its moons. My moon.Luna.

I pulled away abruptly, trying to stand up straight.

“You’re drunk.” I squeezed my eyes shut.

Her dark eyes shifted from a look of surprise to understanding.

She opened her mouth, and I almost fell to my knees when she responded in Spanish.If I was drunk, then how can I remember that there is a permanent scuff on the back of those shoes I caused two years ago?

My jaw went slack. She was definitely not drunk.

“Did I say that correctly? I don’t get much time off in Madrid to practice my Spanish. And seeing as I’m only there once a—”

I reached for the back of her neck, taking her lips in mine. They were warm and soft and kneading at mine in a game of catch and release.

She tasted like cherries. I’d never had a liking for cherries. But when they tasted like this, against her lips, I could have had them every day.

“Kieran,” she whispered against my lips. I hummed against her mouth. I wanted her to say it again. “Kieran.”Mierda, was she reading my mind?

“I… don’t… want… this… to… be… fake,” she muttered in between kisses, catching breaths of air.

My heart pounded against my sternum in relief. Pure, heavy relief.

“Nothing,” I whispered, capturing her bottom lip. “About this.” I cupped the side of her face. “Has ever been fake to me.” And I kissed her as if she were being ripped away.

The groan of her response resonated against my mouth. I couldn’t help but shudder. Each kiss was faster, needier, harsher than the one before. I pressed my thumbs into the muscles in her waist, needing her closer. I needed every surface of her skin against me.

She pushed her hands under my jacket and ran them over my chest. I couldn’t imagine how fast my heart was beating under her fingers. It felt as if it were being catapulted from my body. My pulse was racing like an ocean wave in a storm.

She grabbed the collar of my jacket and began to pull it off.

“Luna, if we don’t leave now, I’m going to have to stand in the cold water of that ridiculous fountain to get ahold of myself,” I whispered, my voice coming out hoarse.

“Hotel, now.” She looked up at me from under dark lashes.

“Yes, ma’am,” I breathed, pressing one more chaste kiss against her lips before racing with her to the main street to grab a cab back to the hotel.

Her hand ran up my leg in the taxi. That stupid, incredibly cutelaugh fell from her lips as I stalled it, my teeth biting down on the inside of my cheek.

The trip past the concierge desk, to the elevator, and up to her room was clouded. The only thing I could focus on was her. When the elevator chimed open, we were pulling apart to get to her room, only to collide again once I closed the door behind us.

I captured her lips in relief, pressing her against the door.

“My shoes,” she muttered.

“How much do you like them?”

“Not enough.”

My hand fell to her thigh, urging her leg up. She obliged, her right knee now straddling my hip. I ran my hand down her leg until it hit the strap of her heel, where I messed with the string until it fell to the floor with athump. Her breath turned ragged as she returned her bare foot to the floor. I made quick work of her other shoe, trying not to let my hand idle anywhere too long.