Page 113 of Stardusted

I didn’t want to prod too much at what that—the fact I was sitting here, contemplating what it’d be like to do the horizontal tango with an actual alien in alien form—said about me.

“…ah,” I said, eloquently. My brain had abandoned me. That old, familiar flustered feeling I’d always gotten around Sky was still going strong and now wasalsoaccompanied by the fact that I knew he was a fantastic kisser. “Sure. Okay.”

“Sure?” Sky watched me cautiously. There was a hesitant note in his voice, too, when he asked, “That doesn’t…bother you?”

“That it…that it works the same?” More redness crept up my neck.

No, it didn’t bother me. No, I wasveryinterested in exploring that little detail. Thoroughly.

He stared at me for a second before a crooked smile tugged up the side of his mouth. I frowned in confusion.

“No, Rae,” he said, grazing a hand over his face like he was erasing the amusement. Lowering it, he fixed me with a narrow-eyed look. “What I meant was, doesn’t it bother you that I’m an alien? That you kissedan alien?”

Oh. That. Funny, I’d been asking myself that question since it’d happened. Possibly before.

And I’d come to some conclusions. If he meant, did it change the fact that I still wanted to see him naked, the answer was no. Firmly. Still fully on board for naked Sky. For some messed up reason, that hadn’t changed at all. But I certainly wasn’t going to tellhimthat.

So I chewed the inside of my lip and settled on, “Define bother.”

He leaned back, lips parting. When I gathered my courage and met his eyes, a flash ofsomething—interestor heat or maybe just surprise—flickered across his face before he lowered his gaze. His rough exhalation filled the tense quiet.

I twisted my braid around my finger and looked everywhere but at him. The box of Chinese takeout waited, but neither of us touched it. The clock on the microwave said we were well past my study time already.

“Sorry,” Sky said, after a moment of strained silence. “That, ah…wasn’t the response I’d expected.”

I glanced at him. He was staring at the floor. What had he expected me to say? It wasn’t like I hadn’t known what he was when I kissed him.

He breathed a faint laugh and finally lifted his head again, though he didn’t quite meet my eyes. “That doesn’t change the fact that we can’t cross that line. I shouldn’t have kissed you. I meant what I said about keeping our distance. We need to work together to fix it, and we—I—can’t afford distractions.”

He said all of it in such a reasonable, composed way. Like it was logical and obvious, and it probably was. It still wasn’t fun hearing it.

“Then why…” Unable to keep looking at him, I took in the sad shrimp count in my takeout box. There were never enough in there. “Why did you? Kiss me, I mean.”

Because hehadkissed me first. I’d definitely initiated that second one, but the first time? Sky had kissedme.

When the silence went on a heartbeat too long, I looked up.

He gave a helpless, full-body shrug. There was something in his eyes when they finally slid my way. Something a little…bashful? That couldn’t be.

“Because I’ve been thinking about it for a long time,” he said so quietly, I leaned forward, sure I’d misheard. “And I wanted…well, I guess I wanted to know what it was like.”

It was my turn to be shocked. My mouth dropped open. I had to have misunderstood what he was saying.

He took in my flabbergasted expression, and his small smile flashed dimple. The rain pounding on the roof was louder than ever.

“Are you telling me…?” I started, but that’s as far as I got. He didn’t look away. I shook my head slowly. “No. That doesn’t make sense. You called me Rachel. Like a week ago.”

He sniffed, running his fingers along his jawline. “I know. It’s dumb. I’ve always called you silly names that start with R. Lame way to flirt, but…” This time, his grin was definitely a little shy. “It got your attention, and you usually ignored me.”

Ignored him?Ignored him?Is that what he’d thought I was doing when I wasshort-circuiting in his presence?

“So you’re trying to say you called me the wrong names on purpose?” I managed an incredulous huff. “You’re joking.”

He wasn’t laughing.

My eyes bulged. “You’re serious.”

“Well.” He averted his gaze, cheeks coloring. “I’m trained for infiltration, not flirtation.”