When The Stars Align

by Jeanette Grey

  “Oh?”

  He swallowed, and the sound went straight to her clit. “Wrap my hand around myself.” Then his breath hitched. “Think of you.” Oh fuck. She wasn’t ready for this, wasn’t ready at all, but he was still talking. “Think of you on me or under me. Up against a wall.” He sucked on the shell of her ear. “Or sometimes just like this. Touching yourself, and I touch myself, and…”

  “And?”

  “It gets me so hot. So ready to come.”

  He wasn’t the only one.

  Switching the vibrator to her other hand, she pressed the sweet little point of it to her clit and flicked it on.

  Her whole body jolted with the first humming rush as it started to buzz. Adam stifled a noise against her throat, and his hand tightened hard on her tit.

  “Oh, hell, Jo, that’s beautiful. Better than I imagined. You look—”

  She shook her head, cutting him off. Darting her free hand up, she grasped the back of his neck and hauled him in, and fuck.

  She’d never had a problem taking care of her own needs before, but he was here and he felt so good, hot lips and hotter tongue, and she got lost in it, thighs shaking, body straining.

  Empty.

  She tugged on his hair, and he pulled back from her mouth. “You have about thirty seconds to get in me or I swear—”

  He barely even needed ten.

  In a flash, he was up and kneeling between her spread thighs, reaching into the drawer of his bedside table for a condom and rolling it on, and then he was there, all that thick, hard flesh filling her up, exactly how she’d needed. She raked her fingernails down his chest, and he fell over her, mouth open, eyes shut tight.

  “Fuck, Jo, fuck, you feel—”

  “You feel better, I promise.” She reeled him back in to kiss those soft, red lips. Bit down his throat and wrapped her legs around his hips. “Come on.”

  His hips stuttered against hers, but then he was pulling back. The first, fast drive forward hit this tender place inside her. She dug her fingers into the meat of his ass and shifted the toy to a higher setting.

  “Yes, that’s it,” she babbled, “right there.”

  Getting his arms underneath him, he braced himself and pounded in even deeper.

  And fuck him. She’d always been happy enough with just her vibrator before, but this was so much better. This was kissing and teeth and her mouth on his chest, the thick rod of his cock fucking her open and the sound of his breath, all those beautiful, pitchy noises he made as he hurtled toward his peak.

  “Jo, I’m—”

  That was all it took. Orgasm exploded out from her clit and from the depths of her all the way down to her toes. His mouth was on hers, swallowing her moans as he carried her through it, long thrusts that hit her in the best of places, right up until the fog in her mind started to clear, and then he buried his face in the pillow. Another couple of strokes and his whole body tensed.

  And she pulsed around him as he groaned her name, pleasure making her stupid, making her crazy. Even crazier than she’d felt before.

  Because this was too good. This was amazing.

  How had she ever gotten by without it before?

  “Jesus Christ,” Jo moaned as he flopped to the side. She flicked the vibrator off and let her hand fall to the sheets.

  Adam nodded dumbly, staring up at the ceiling. His whole body felt like jelly, his skin slick with sweat. There might be bruises on his hips and ass from how hard she’d dug her fingers in, and there were definitely claw marks.

  It was awesome.

  “Is it actually a million degrees in here? I don’t think we’re in the center of a star, but—”

  “I don’t know.” Adam laughed. Something felt like it had come unstuck in his chest. “I sure as hell saw stars.”

  She swatted vaguely at his chest. “Not the same thing.”

  “Oh.” Some coherency had returned to his brain, and his gross motor skills seemed to be coming back online. He lurched up and swung one leg over the side of the bed to deal with the condom. Once that was taken care of, he turned to Jo.

  She was lying there on her back, naked and fucking gorgeous, hair damp with sweat, breasts glistening. His gaze trailed down—

  “Nope. No. Do not get any ideas.” She held out a hand in protest, arresting his admiration. She dragged the sheet up to cover all the good bits.

  He leaned over her, letting his lips hover just above hers. “I have lots of ideas.” Hooking a finger into the top of the sheet, he peered beneath. “Many of them good.” Before she could yell at him to stop it, he gave her a quick peck against the corner of her mouth. “Such as going and getting us both about a gallon of ice water.”

  She actually moaned at that, and it made a bunch of other ideas fight for precedence. She wound her fingers in his hair and dragged him down for a wetter, more open kiss. Then she summarily shoved him away. “I knew I was fucking you for a reason.”

  Something twisted in his chest, hearing her refer to it so flippantly.

  Sure, most of their meetings were after dark. Sure, she still hadn’t spent the night. But you didn’t tell a guy about your dead mom—didn’t let him hold you afterward when it was just fucking.

  They might not have a huge amount of time, but Adam was patient. Sooner or later, he was going to get her to see that.

  Mock-grumbling, he said, “And I thought it was just because of these.” He patted his biceps before peeling his skin from hers and hauling himself from the bed. He dragged on a pair of basketball shorts and turned toward the door. “Back in a sec.”

  As an afterthought, he strode to the window and grabbed the fan he’d had running on high all night and angled it directly at the bed. The stream of air flowed right over Jo, blowing her hair to the side and rustling the sheets. She melted into the mattress, letting out a throaty moan that had him ready to forget his trip to the kitchen in favor of trying to convince her to stay for round two.

  He checked himself. Water. Right.

  No matter how much it killed him, he left her there in his bed. Closing the door behind him just in case, he padded out into the house. With every step, his mind drifted further off into what he wanted to do to her next. How he wanted to have her, how he wanted to take her apart. They had all night; they practically had the house to themselves. He could…

  He made it almost to the kitchen before he realized his mistake.

  The light over the stove was on. And there were people talking. Hushed and laughing and maybe a little bit slurred.

  “Shh, shh,” a male voice hissed, “no, be quiet. Maybe he’s just going to the bathroom—”

  He rounded the corner, his stomach sinking. And there were Jared and Kim and a deck of cards. And what used to be a bottle of rum.

  Oh, hell.

  “Too late,” Kim mumbled, her hand over her mouth, her gaze on Adam.

  Jared snuck an exaggerated, faux-stealthy peek over his shoulder and whispered, “Oh, shit.” Then they let out another round of giggles, and Jared turned around for real, his expression sloppy and his arms wide. Speaking louder now, he addressed Adam as if noticing him for the first time. As if they hadn’t just been talking about him. “Adam! We didn’t know you were up!”

  Like hell they hadn’t. He and Jo hadn’t exactly been quiet. But it was after one in the morning, and on a Thursday night, and he and Jo had been the only ones pulling graveyard shifts with the telescope. Nobody else was supposed to be awake. His heart thundered in his chest. What if they’d heard? What if—

  His stream of thought stopped itself in its tracks as he really took them in.

  He furrowed his brow, quirking his head to the side. “Are you guys wearing… swimsuits?”

  Kim struck a pose. “We’re going to the beach on Saturday!”

  Yes, yes, they were. Well, the group was going. Adam was going. And he really needed to ask Jo if she was, too.

  Still… “But you’re wearing your swimsuits now.”

  “And you ar
e, too,” Jared said.

  “These are my running shorts.” Adam glanced down at himself, ready to point out just how different his bottoms were from swim trunks. Only his gaze caught on his own chest. And his words stuck in his throat.

  He hadn’t been wrong about Jo, back when he’d fantasized that she might be a biter. They’d been good and kept most of their marks to places that would be covered by their shirts, but he wasn’t wearing one right now.

  A misplaced surge of arousal moved through him. He wanted to press his fingers to the line of purpling bruises she’d made with her mouth. There wasn’t any mistaking what they were.

  He swallowed hard. Maybe Jared and Kim were drunk enough they wouldn’t notice. If they did, maybe they’d forget.

  Then, from down the hall, he heard a door open.

  “What’s taking you so long?” Jo whisper-yelled into the night.

  Adam dug his thumb into his eye, pulling it away just in time to catch her coming down the hall. Wrapped in a sheet.

  It all happened in slow motion. He needed to stop her, tell her to stay put, but even that would be evidence she was here. She came into view, and everything went silent.

  He knew her well enough now. The tick in her jaw and the way her fingers tightened in the fabric. He steeled himself for the worst.

  But she didn’t freak out. She looked at him with an expression he couldn’t decipher, and then at their two friends slumped over the table. “You both look ridiculous,” she said, neutral as anything.

  She crossed the room to the cabinet to pull down two glasses, then got them filled without dropping the sheet. As they all gawked, she handed one of the glasses to Adam and then marched down the hall toward his room.

  Adam locked gazes with Jared and Kim in turn. Without another word, he turned on his heel, following after Jo, his heart in his throat.

  Sure enough, back in his room, she’d flung the sheet off and was stepping into her underwear.

  He held up his hands in front of him. “I swear, I had no idea they were up.”

  “Their light was on when I came in. I should have remembered.” She let out a dry echo of a laugh and a bitten-off, “Stupid.”

  She hadn’t so much as paused in her efforts to get redressed, and something in his chest went cold.

  He reached out and grabbed her shirt off the floor as she dragged on her shorts. When she recognized he had her top, she moved for it, but he held it out of reach. Because he was an asshole with a death wish. “Jo. I’m sorry.”

  She rocked on her heels, deflating. Then sagged to sit on the edge of the bed, dragging her hand through her hair and pushing it off her face. Her voice didn’t sound so guarded this time, so jagged. “I know. It’s fine.”

  He… didn’t know what to do with that. Because she didn’t sound like she was lying. “It is?”

  “Honestly?” She looked up at him, dropping her hand and bracing her elbows on her knees. “Kim guessed we were fucking even back before we were.”

  Oh. Oh.

  He stood there speechless for a second. Kim had known. Had everyone known?

  Something inside him twisted. Then why had Jo been so opposed to the idea of staying here with him?

  She held out her hand for her shirt, and this time he forked it over. He didn’t know what to do with his hands. With his whole body.

  “Christ,” Jo said, shaking her head. “Come here.”

  Dumbly, he joined her on the bed.

  She covered his hand with hers and repeated, “Seriously, it’s fine.”

  “I thought you didn’t want anyone to know.”

  “I said we’d never be able to keep it a secret. I just didn’t want to be treated like everyone knew. Like I was… that girl.”

  “Oh.” He’d understood that, he really had. But all that secrecy hadn’t exactly been real, had it? Now their relationship—arrangement, whatever it was—was even more out in the open than it had been. And her response to that had been to put on her clothes. Intertwining their fingers, he gazed down at where his thumb stroked over her knuckles and tried not to let his disappointment show. “You’re still not staying over, though, are you? Even now that they really know.”

  “Adam…”

  It was his turn to say, “It’s fine. I was just wondering. That’s all.”

  After a moment, she touched his face. “You’re a terrible liar.” She said it fondly, like it was something she recognized about him and didn’t mind.

  “Don’t have a lot of practice, I suppose.”

  She leaned in and pressed a kiss to his cheek, just a hair from the corner of his mouth. “Another night.”

  “Sure.”

  With that, she pulled away and got her shirt on. Rose to grab her socks and boots, too.

  When she was dressed to go, he nodded at the door. “They’re still out there, you know?”

  “Yeah. I know.” She laughed. The sound made the tension shiver in the air, parting just a little. “What the hell were they wearing anyway?”

  “Swimsuits. They were, uh, getting ready for the beach trip this weekend. I think.” He considered for a second, then shrugged. “That or just being drunk. It was kind of hard to tell.”

  “Yeah…” She glanced down, trailing off.

  “Are you going?” They were heading to the southern coast of the island, just an hour and a half or so by car. It wouldn’t keep her from the lab for too long.

  And he wanted to see her. Out in the sand and sun, swimming in the ocean. He wanted to kiss the salt from her skin.

  In front of everyone.

  She frowned, and his shoulders sank. “I don’t know. I don’t have a swimsuit. And all that sun.” She made a face. “I’ll burn.”

  He latched on to that not-quite-no. “I have an extra pair of trunks. Tie the drawstring tight and I bet they’d fit you.”

  “Only half the issue.”

  “I’ve seen you go swimming in a sports bra before.”

  She gave a little shiver. Because, right, she hadn’t meant for him to see that. She hadn’t meant for him to pull her out of the water she’d gotten herself into. “I’d still burn.”

  “I’ll loan you sunscreen. Rub it on your back for you and everything.” He was pressing. He’d always said he wouldn’t press with her.

  Still, he found himself rising to his feet. With every step he took toward her, she took a half step away until she was flush against the door and staring up at him. She didn’t look cornered, though.

  He grazed his finger down her cheek, his voice going husky as he stood before her. “Come to the beach. With me.” And this was the real killer. “Let me kiss you in the ocean.” In front of our friends.

  They already knew. Everyone knew.

  He wanted them to know.

  “Maybe?”

  “Maybe you’ll come, or maybe you’ll let me kiss you?”

  “Which do you care about more?”

  He didn’t know. Closing the last of the distance between them, he bent down, got in her space. Let his forehead brush hers, his lips hovering close enough to feel her breath. With one hand on the door and one at her side, he asked, “Will you?”

  She closed her eyes. But when she opened them again, she said, “Okay.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Well. The one thing Jo could say about Adam’s spare set of swimming trunks was that they probably looked worse on him than they did on her.

  They were bright red, and they came to just below the knee on her, so they must have been unflatteringly short on him. And she knew his waist was trim—she’d had her hands around it as she pushed him into a mattress before. But she didn’t realize it was this trim.

  She tugged at the draw cord all the same. She’d tied it plenty tight and didn’t really think the things were going anywhere. But she couldn’t help worrying. She couldn’t stop worrying about a lot of things.

  She shouldn’t have come.

  The soles of her boots dug into her thighs as she tucked them underneath
herself, trying to find a comfortable way to sit on the sand. Even under the shade of the umbrella one of their escorts had had the foresight to bring, it was scorching hot. Stifling enough she almost wanted to take off her shirt.

  But Adam had talked her into the whole sports bra and swimming trunks thing. And she looked ridiculous.

  Face burning from more than just the heat, she cast her gaze out across the glittering white expanse of beach before her. A couple of the other girls had lingered away from the water as well, but they were wearing bikinis and luxuriating in the sun. Out in the water, looking deliciously cool and comfortable, Adam and Jared were horsing around, tossing a beach ball back and forth. Pretty much everyone else was out there, too.

  Letting go of the drawstring of her trunks, she fiddled with the zipper of her bag. Adam hadn’t said anything about her bringing a book with her; he’d even stayed quiet about her sneaking in her binder, too. But even she knew it was crazy to spend a day at the beach like that. It was simple instinct, though. How many lunches had she spent with her nose buried in a set of calculations? Pretending she wasn’t watching everybody else letting go and having fun?

  “You know, ‘sand between your toes’ is an expression for a reason.”

  Jo let go of her bag and jerked her head up. Heather of all people plunked herself down beside her, and Jo sucked in a breath. Sure, some people socialized with their advisors, but Jo wasn’t some people. Hadn’t she proven that yet enough?

  It was just her luck that Heather and Lisa had volunteered to be chauffeurs/chaperones for this particular field trip. Roberto had the day off, and Dr. Galloway was busy getting things ready for some hotshot visiting scientists. And so both her and Adam’s bosses had decided to tag along.

  She hadn’t even been able to let herself sit next to Adam in the van. Not with the two of them looking.

  “Sounds overrated to me,” Jo said, before casting her gaze out across the water.

  Heather bumped her shoulder against Jo’s, and Jo just about went out of her skin. The touch was so casual, like it was nothing to press past the bubble of space she projected out around herself, and something inside Jo felt like it was crumbling. “Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.”