Page 29 of To Love the Stars too Fondly

“Genuinely, I’d have never guessed.”

“That’s because you’ve never shopped at a store with a clearance bin, Alex.”

She mimed sliding a knife into her heart. “Damn, just read me to filth, why don’t you.”

I laughed. She joined in, and I thought we made a lovely duet. “I have a question,” I dared to say, having mulled it over all night and day. “Yesterday you said you’d wanted me for…I think it was ‘so long’. So why did you wait?”

“Aside from the obvious social taboo of asking out a service worker, I kind of thought you hated me.”

I cringed as I held up my thumb and forefinger mere millimeters apart.

“Goddammit,” Alex said, but she maintained a bright countenance.

“Not in like a real way,” I clarified, though this grave was well and truly dug. “But you give off fuckboy vibes, and those are my mortal foes.”

“It’s not an inaccurate assessment of my character. That said…” Alex glanced away from the road, daring to catch my eye. “You also said you’d wanted me for so long.”

Dammit. My horny alter-ego had betrayed me. “Maybe a little, yeah.”

“Only a little?”

“Look, I couldn’t admit to myself that I liked you, and that only made you taboo, which made me…” I winced, bracing myself for teasing. “…want you more.”

Alex chuckled. “Why couldn’t you admit it?”

The question came like a slap. “Just…the fuckboy thing. Liam kept teasing me, you know?”

Better than admitting I’d had nightmares of Alex dead on the pavement.

“Let me be clear though,” I continued, “that I very much, with no hesitation or ambiguity, look forward to having sex with you and challenge you to make it as dirty and degrading as possible, okay?”

Something darkened in Alex’s gaze, a shift from infuriatingly respectful date to huntress. “Careful with that challenge.”

Damn my blush.

“Well, unrelated,” Alex said, as she took a turn into Kraken Coffee and Cafe, “hopefully the coffee execs don’t snipe you for perusing a rival shop.”

“You’ll protect me, right?” I grinned as she put the car into park in the lot.

Her reply left me utterly sober. “You know I always will.”

The car shut off. But as Alex put her hand on the door handle, my mind zoomed back to the present, and a question at hand. “Wait.”

Alex obeyed. “Yes, Princess?”

The nickname was becoming a sleeper phrase, crafted to get me, specifically, hot and bothered. I shook that off, along with all my other complex emotions. “…so, packing?”

Alex’s lip twitched into a grin. “Yeah?”

“How does that work?”

Alex glanced at her crotch, then back to me, and shrugged.

I bit my lip, my confidence rapidly returning. “Can I touch it? Is that weird?”

“Totally weird, but sure.”

I held eye contact, curiosity driving me above all else as I reached between her legs and touched something firm beneath her slacks. “Huh. So, is it tiny? Or are you just really good at tucking it in? Not trying to question your manhood or anything—just curious.” I winked, but Alex was already chuckling.