“The German space ones?” He pulled one out and looked over it in almost as much detail as Penn had.
I nodded. “Yep, the German space shirts. I showed Penn a sample.”
He stood there staring as I finished my bagel. “Well, what did he say?”
“He said yes!” I grinned, and received another smack of his lips on mine. “But it wasn’t like he was going to say anything else. He wants the edge, and he doesn’t want the Yankees or the Mets to have it.”
“Oh, babe,” he squeezed me tighter, “that’s amazing. I’m so proud of you. You’re doing an awesome job.”
I grinned up at him. Two months ago I had no clue what I was going to do, or how I was going to do it. I planned to stay a year and then leave. But now, I could honestly say I was enjoying myself, in no small part due to the enormous man wrapped around me.
I watched his smile soften, and he pulled me in another fraction, enough so the flats of his palms could run up and down my back. “Where were you? I missed you this morning.”
I tried not to stare but his eyes were so blue, so hypnotizing, and when he smiled, the little golden flecks sparkled like sunbeams hitting the ocean.
“I’m sorry; I thought you deserved to sleep.” I curled my fingers around the strands of hair at the base of his neck. The sun had been lightening it so much they were turning the color of melted toffee. “We got in late last night.”
“We both got in late,” he countered as he rubbed his nose against mine, “and you look tired. You should have stayed in bed. You’ve been working so hard.”
“And we’d have got so much sleep?” I pinned him with a look.
“I am capable of cuddling you know!” he protested, but as if to prove himself wrong, his hands inched downward and under the band of elastic on my yoga pants. Then under my panties, and we both felt my body melt; I had no control.
I’d lost that badge weeks ago.
Somehow his lips found my neck, something I was making easier for him with the way my head automatically lolled to the side. “I missed this when I woke up.”
“Next time I’ll make sure that I wake you up.” My voice had turned raspy, and my legs were struggling to hold themselves up against the strength of the deep, primal throbbing between them.
Because this is what happened; Jupiter only had to touch me and my body lit up like the Empire State building. My vagina, though, she could detect him the second he was within a hundred yards, like a silent alarm. I know we’d been kids back then, but the sex was better than I remembered; explosive, mind-blowing, and I couldn’t get enough of him, just like he couldn’t get enough of me.
Just like I hadn’t got enough last night, and we’d finally collapsed, exhausted, before falling into the deepest sleep.
Or he had.
His comment about me being tired was right on the money. I’d caught sight of myself this morning and I couldn’t image that I looked any better right now, so I wasn’t going to bother checking.
Iwastired. Drained, almost. But it was more than sex, more than the fact we couldn’t keep our hands off each other. It was a lack of sleep due to not sleeping.
Or to be factually correct, not being able to sleep.
Jupiter Reeves, my first love. The man I knew for certain was my only real love; my true love.
My love, who knew me better than I knew myself; knew what I needed, what I liked. How to make my body respond in a way it never had in anyone else’s hands. Or mine.
There was no question I’d never find anyone or anything better than him.
Which was the problem.
For every single night since our first night, over the past few weeks, I’d stay awake after he’d fallen asleep. I’d stay awake and watch him sleep, watch him dream; sometimes listen to his soft snoring, and other nights listen to the conversations he’d have with himself.
But I wouldbe awake.
I would sync our breaths to rise and fall.
I would trace the constellations over his shoulders, and watch the stars shoot across his chest.
I would run my lips across his biceps, link our fingers together, and relish in his thick arms slung across my belly.
