I shook my head at him in amusement, then chose two empty seats near the center of the dome. Lying down beside one another in the dark was surprisingly intimate, and I quickly found my mind flooded with vague, tantalizing images of what we could be doing if the room was empty. And locked. Definitely locked.
“There are eight planets in our solar system,” the narrator began as an image of the solar system swirled onto the ceiling.
“Nine,” Blake hissed bitterly. “Pluto’s still my homie.”
“I never will forgive them for disowning him,” I agreed with a chuckle.
“Mercury… Venus…” Planets filled the sky, one after the other, in sync with the narration. It made me feel as if I was falling, and I reached out for something to grasp. His hand, relaxing on my armrest, deftly caught mine as I flinched. Heat washed over my body, evaporating the moisture from my mouth, and I shivered.
“Are you cold?” he whispered.
“No,” I told him honestly. “Just excited. I haven’t been to one of these in years.”
“Me neither,” he confessed. “But I used to come every month when I was a kid. My dad loved astronomy; he wanted to be an astronaut.”
“Did he ever manage it?” I asked.
“Not quite,” Blake chuckled. “He wasn’t really designed for space travel, physically. Smart man, though. He created some of the simulations that NASA uses to train, and he says it’s close enough for this lifetime.”
“He must be a genius,” I murmured, watching Mars spin above my head.
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“Does that bother you?” I asked. “Make you feel pressured, or anything?”
“Nah,” he said with a shrug. “Just gives me something to live up to. My parents were never the pushy types; they always just wanted me to do my best. It was on me to decide what my best was.”
“And what did you decide?” I asked.
“Still working on that,” he breathed on the tail of a contented sigh. “But I’m giving myself five more years to figure it out.”
“How old will you be in five years?”
“Thirty,” he said with a sly grin. “How about you?”
“Younger than thirty,” I teased.
“No, come on, seriously. I gotta make sure I’m not holding the hand of a high-schooler right now.”
That made me burst out laughing, earning me severe shushing from the other observers. I whispered an apology, then turned back to my impromptu date.
“I’ll be twenty-seven,” I told him. “So I guess I’ll give myself eight years to figure my life out.”
“Thirty’s a good milestone, right?”
“It is,” I agreed. “But I really hope I get myself figured out before then.” I was beginning to wonder if I would get the chance to figure at least one of those things out tonight, but quickly shut that train of thought down. I barely knew the guy, after all.
But it didn’t feel that way. The longer we whispered in the dark, staring up at the stars, the more I felt as if I had known him all my life.
“Every object and organism in the universe is made up of these same elements,” the narration continued.
“Every time I hear that, it blows my mind a little bit,” I whispered. “Just knowing that I’m cut from the same cloth as stars…it makes me feel immortal.”
“Me too,” he agreed. “Like everything is connected, and I’m just a stitch in the fabric of everything.”
I sighed blissfully as he stroked my knuckles with his thumb. I couldn’t imagine a better person to get stood up with. The hour we spent flying through the galaxy seemed to last for an instant and a lifetime all at once, and I was floating on air as we rose to leave.
“Want to check out the museum? I wonder if they’ve gotten any new moon rocks since the last time I was here!” Blake was as excited as a child, and his energy boosted my own giddy pleasure.
“What are we waiting for?” I asked, taking his hand. He beamed at me, pleased and surprised, and we hurried out to the museum.
“I almost took an internship here,” he confessed as we examined the various space minerals on display beneath thick glass cases. “But it was my inner child talking, and he isn’t real clear on the concept of bills and living wages.”
“It would be difficult to launch a career in here,” I quipped as I leaned against a scale model of a launch pad. He grinned, which was far more validating than it should have been, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had this much fun with anyone.
“No, but seriously, it’s pretty hard to launch a career anywhere in San Bravado right now,” I added ruefully. “I’m holding out hope that the Cinderella levels of drudgery I’m suffering through at work will eventually pay off.”
“I hear that,” he said emphatically as he spun a model of the solar system, making the little plastic planets fly through their orbits. “I’ve been chipping away at a career for years now, but I swear it feels like I’m trying to walk up an icy slope in skater shoes soaked in grease.”
“Descriptive,” I said with an appreciative grin. “Accurate, as far as analogies go.”
“Eh, we’ll make it,” he said with a confident smile. “We’re young, strong, smart, and attractive. That’s all you need to make it in Cali, right?”
“If we can make it here, we can make it anywhere,” I declared with an open-armed twirl. “Wait, that’s New York.”
“It applies,” he laughed. “But we’ll make it, I know it.”
“How can you be so sure? You just met me.” I realized I was flirting, but didn’t stop myself.
“Because I know your vibe,” he said with a grin. “Intimately.”
“Intimately, huh?” I said. “How intimately?”
“As intimately as I know myself,” he said with a wink. “It’s that fire in your eyes, the way you hold your shoulders like you’re ready to take on the world. I see those same things in the mirror every morning.”
“I believe that,” I said with an appraising glance. “Yes, I think you’re right. I think we will make it.”
“And if not, there’s always fast food,” he grinned. “Nothing like delivering pizzas after flipping burgers all day.”
“Speaking from experience?” I asked.
“Hey, that junior programming job didn’t fall in my lap right outta high school, you know.”
“It wouldn’t,” I agreed, my eyes scanning the room as I spoke. “Whoa! When did they put that in?” I grabbed his hand and tugged him toward the little photo booth which stood humbly in one corner.
“I love these things!” he said happily, climbing inside. “Come on!”
He tugged me in with him, and we squished together to fit inside the frame. My pulse raced as he pressed his cheek to mine, but my nerves were quickly washed away in laughter as we made silly faces and posed for the camera. Not satisfied with only five photos, we did the whole thing twice.
“I’ll keep one and you keep one,” he insisted. “You choose.”
“This one,” I said, grabbing the first. I liked the evolution of our expressions in that one, me from nervous to giddy to fun, him from giddy to silly to playful. The other was good too, but one of the pictures caught me blushing, and I didn’t need a visual reminder of my awkward desire.
In unspoken agreement, we walked hand in hand back to the museum. We had circled the whole of the public section now, and I realized with a twinge of panic that I didn’t want the evening to end, and saw my thought reflected in his eyes.
“Hey,” he said suddenly. “I hear there’s this great bar downtown with a nice big dance floor and top-forty remixes all night. I haven’t checked it out myself, so I can’t vouch for it, but I’ve been wanting to go. You interested?”
“How could I turn down top-forty remixes?” I said wryly. “I haven’t been out dancing in a long time, though. I’d love to come!”
“Awesome! I can drive you, unless…?”
“I took the bus here,” I confess
ed. “Internship, remember?”
“Right! Not a whole lot of room for a car payment on serf’s wages.”
“You think you’re kidding, but honestly…”
* * *
We could feel the music through the sidewalk as we approached the bar, and I found myself immediately and irresistibly drawn to the dance floor. Dragging Blake behind me, I pushed through the tipsy crowd, carving out a spot in the very center.
“You like being in the middle, don’t you?” he shouted over the music.
“Only in the dark,” I replied with a grin. “Center of attention’s not really my thing.”
“Want a drink?” he asked.
“Dance first, then drink,” I insisted.
“You got it, darlin’.”
The way he said it sent a thrill of chills cascading over my body, layering pleasure on pleasure as my body connected with the rhythm of the music.
Mating seemed to be what everybody around me had in mind. Dancing devolved all around us into grinding gyrations. Couples pressed toward the center of the floor without a care, and within moments Blake and I were dancing as one, crushed skin-to-skin by the undulating crowd.
He smelled of sweat and musk, a sharply tantalizing scent which struck lightning from my nostrils to my groin, making every nerve tingle where he touched me. I ached in ways I had never ached before, felt suddenly lonesome in my own skin, as if I were missing a layer of him.
Blake met my unspoken need with his body, wrapping me in his strong arms as he moved against me, sparking a wildfire lust which spread from my toes to the tips of my fingers, from my lips to my throat and down my spine. I had never desired anyone more than I desired him in that moment, and it was with lightheaded desperation that I tilted my lips up to meet his.
I had been kissed before, but never like this. His lips were alive, hot and tender and forceful all at once, greedily taking what I was eager to give.
Too eager to give, I realized with a shock as I parted my lips for his demanding tongue; if we continued like this, it would escalate quickly…then I would have to tell him. How could I tell him? Telling guys my deep, dark secret hadn’t worked out so well in the past. But he was determined, I reminded myself. His fire burned as hot as mine, just as dedicated, just as relentless. If any man alive was up for this task, I was sure it would be him.
He broke our molten embrace with a breathless gasp, his eyes and lips darkened with a reflection of the lust that spun through me, making me yearn for more of his touch.
“You want to get some air?” he asked over the music.
I nodded, too dazed and breathless to respond verbally. He moved around behind me, leading me by the small of my back. We cut through the crowd effortlessly, and were soon outside, letting the cool night air caress the blazing sheen of wanton lust shimmering on our skin. He touched my face tenderly, his eyes smoldering like hot coals beneath his lowered brow, his lips swollen and bruised and hungry for more.
“What do you say?” he asked huskily. “Should we go for a walk…or do you want to dance some more?”
“I want to dance forever,” I breathed, electrified by his fingertips.
“In there with that crowd,” he asked with a nod at the door, “or back at my place? I’ve got better music, less of a crowd…” He was murmuring in my ear now, his lips a hairsbreadth from the pulse pounding in my throat. My breath caught and shuddered in my chest, and I held tight to his arms to keep from going limp under the warm weight of overwhelming desire.
A wriggle of apprehension in my belly broke the spell, and I reluctantly pulled away from him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, breathing deeply.
“I… I’m nervous,” I said, pressing a hand against my belly to smother the butterflies.
“I’m pushing too hard,” he said, searching my face.
“No! No, it’s not that, it’s, um…”
A gaggle of drunken sorority girls tumbled out of the doors, nearly knocking me into the street. Blake took my hand and pulled me out of their way, wrapping a protective arm around my shoulders. I felt so safe with him, unreasonably safe. His steady heartbeat against my ear bolstered my courage, and, taking a deep breath, I met his eyes directly.
“It’s not you,” I told him. “You haven’t done anything wrong. It’s me, I… I’ve never…”
“Never hooked up with a stranger?” he asked playfully, nuzzling my hair.
“Never…well, I’ve never been with anyone like that, stranger or not,” I finally confessed in a rush. “Ever.”
He froze for less than a second, an almost imperceptible reaction of shock, but I felt it. I had grown sensitive to those reactions over the years. People thought it was cute when I was a teenager, but the older I got, the more people registered my virginity as there being something wrong with me.
“Not even once?” he asked.
“Not even technically,” I confirmed. “I’m completely… Well, you know.”
“Virgin territory,” he said with a small, hesitant smile. “So to speak.”
“Exactly. So while I’m…really, really, very much interested…I’m also really, really, very much nervous.”
“Completely understandable,” he declared with a definitive nod of his head.
“It is?”
“Utterly.” He smiled gently at me. “I don’t want to rush you into anything, and it’s better this way anyway. Now I have an excuse to ask you for a second date.”
“Wouldn’t you have done that if I had gone home with you?” I asked, worried that I’d misjudged his character.
“Oh, of course I would have,” he clarified quickly. “But I was prepared, just in case you were a one-night-stand kind of girl. Had my armor up around my feels and everything.”
That made me laugh, which made the tension between us dissolve. He kissed my cheek, then pulled a business card out of his wallet.
“Ignore the contact info, I stole this from…the bank,” he said, reading the front of the card. “It’s the back of it you’re gonna want to pay attention to.” He winked at me, and my physical reaction to his flirtation made me regret my nerves for a moment.
“My number,” he said, handing me the card after he had scribbled on it.
“Oh! Can I use your pen? I’ll give you mine.” I wrote it down quickly, then tore the business card in half, keeping his number and giving him mine.
“Beautiful,” he said with that enchanting grin. “How’s Friday sound?”
“Sort of like fish fry, but drop the fish and add ‘day’ at the end,” I teased giddily.
“For a second date,” he said with a playful nudge. “You pick the place.”
“Oh! There’s the place that just opened up, all of my coworkers are raving about it, some kind of Chinese-Italian fusion… I know, sounds weird, but I guess it’s amazing… Chow Bello’s!”
“I’ve heard of it,” he said happily. “Want to meet me there at seven on Friday?”
“Absolutely,” I told him with what I’m sure was an absolutely doe-eyed smile. I couldn’t help it. Like a perfect gentleman, he called me a cab and kissed me goodnight.
I floated home on cloud nine, eagerly anticipating Friday night with the sneaking suspicion that it would finally be the night I lost the suffocating label.
“Then I’ll finally be off the ‘available for volcano sacrifices’ roster,” I chuckled to myself as the cab pulled away. “And well on my way to…well, everything else.”
* * *
Take My V-Card is available on Amazon now!
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More Books in this Series
SAN BRAVADO BILLIONAIRES’ CLUB
Second Chance Twins
Nanny For Hire
The Baby Bargain
Accidental Triplets
Take My V-Card
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Bought by the Boss Page 17
