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There’s a moment of silence.

Then Valeria laughs.

“Why did you lie about that?” she asks.

“I thought you wouldn’t want to hang out with me otherwise.”

“Have I said no to anything you’ve suggested?”

I dart my gaze to the table. “I can pay you back for the booze.”

“Please.”

She gives me a firm kiss on the lips. Just when I thought there weren’t any more fireworks to go off.

“This was worth the booze,” she says, pushing a hair out of my face.

She holds my hand until we reach the street.

chapter eighteen

I could’ve stayed in that karaoke room all night, but I still bask in the relief of the world opening up to Valeria and me as we slip out the lounge’s front door. The summer air charges and sparks around us, and a biting breeze rustles my hair. It’s as if Mother Nature herself knows how much I’m aching for Valeria to put her hands back on me.

“Here, I’ll get you an Uber,” she says.

As she glances down at her phone, the heat flows out of my chest. It feels like someone took my hat off in the snow. “Oh. Thank you.”

Valeria glances at me. The corner of her mouth, lipstick kissed off, tips up. “Something else you want, birthday girl?”

My stomach tugs tighter and tighter, winding me up head to toe. All I feel is the tingle on my lips, the words slipping out numb. “This to not end.” My hand twitches to grab hers, but I hold it back. We’re in public. Too many eyes, even if those walking down the street are late-night drifters and people stumbling from bar to bar. “To go somewhere more private.”

Valeria clicks her tongue. “Well, good thing I have this private dwelling not too far from here.”

I inch closer to Valeria, eyes glued to her phone.

I watch her fingers glide across the screen, changing the destination from my apartment to an address in Hollywood Hills…It’s an image that I’ll tuck away in a memento box just to recall the fire it ignites inside me. She’s inviting me back to her house.

We kissed, and she’s inviting me back to her house.

When the Uber arrives, I manage to stay on task for one minute. Just long enough to text Romy that I’m gonna be at Valeria’s. Romy texts a confirmation and a bunch of unintelligible emojis. The Uber driver doesn’t say much beyond confirming Valeria’s name and destination, then he quickly fades into the background. We got an UberX with leather seats, and the material under my thighs is already wet. It’s not even hot in here yet.

Then the seat belt clicks. Valeria slides from the left seat into the middle. Her thigh presses against mine, bare skin to bare skin. More skin touches mine as her dress rides up. She grips my left knee. My heart leaps, sparks and crackles in my stomach as she slides her hand up my thigh. My eyes sting as I hold them open, capturing the image of her hand as clearly as I possibly can.

“This okay?” she whispers.

“Please,” I whisper back. Hopefully we’re being quiet enough that the driver doesn’t hear. Everything’s white-hot. I’m the biggest stickler for rules, and the idea of doing this right now has me dying.

She slides her hand through the section of my overalls between the shorts and the bib. And Jesus, Jesus, fuck, when her fingertips roll over the crotch of my panties, I can’t take it. One touch and I already buck against her.

Valeria presses her whole upper half against me, her mouth in my ear as she strokes. “Eager, aren’t we?” She giggles a little, warm breath against my skin. “Don’t alert the driver.”

We both glance forward; the guy has headphones in. Illegal perhaps, but neither of us cares.

She strokes in wide, light circles. A predator stalking prey. I press my thighs together, constrict around her.

“You know what’s funny?” I say, my voice still low. “I…” I twitch against her touch as she rolls over my clit. “I’ve never come with a partner.”

Valeria’s lips curl into a smile. “Is it unfair to guess they were all boys?”