Page 45 of Blue Moon

“Moon,” he groaned, and I kept my gaze fixed on his as he kissed me so thoroughly my toes curled. Up close, his eyes weren’t just green, they had flecks of brown and gold and a tiny little me reflected in them. I shifted for a better angle and…holy heck. Was he carrying some type of weapon in his pocket? I wiggled a bit, trying to work out what it was, and then I realised and gasped.

“Your dick has turned into a baseball bat.”

He smiled against my lips. “Yeah, that happens regularly when you’re around.”

“It didn’t happen in San Gallicano.”

“You never wondered why I spent so much time in the bathroom?”

“I thought you just had a small bladder.”

His smile turned into an actual guffaw, and I poked him in the chest. “Hey, that’s not funny.”

“Oh, it is.”

“It’s not my fault I skipped sex ed. I skipped most of school.”

Ryder turned serious again. “Luna Maara, I’m going to teach you everything.”

“Do I have to call you ‘sir’?”

He rested his forehead against mine. “Promise me you’ll never lose that smart mouth.”

“You like it when I talk back?”

“I love it when you talk back. But I am curious about one thing—why don’t you ever swear?”

Memories made me shudder. I couldn’t help it. But Ryder’s arms tightened, and I spilled another secret.

“Mom used to wash my mouth out with soapy water when I cursed, and it made me puke.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Pageant queens shouldn’t use that kind of language, she said. It only happened a time or two. I got out of the habit real quick.”

His eyes lost their softness. “How old were you when that happened?”

“Seven or eight? It was a long time ago.”

“Moon, that’s child abuse.”

Deep down, I guess I’d always known the way she treated me wasn’t right, but it was easier to clean up my words than to argue with Amethyst Puckett. She was a force of nature. A tsunami that threatened to drown me if I tried standing up to her.

“Can we just stop talking about my past?”

This time, his kiss was softer. Sweeter. It wasn’t my first kiss, but it was the best by a country mile. I’d fake-dated a handful of guys in the past, and one had even seemed nice enough that I’d let him kiss me in a quiet hallway at an upscale hotel in Miami. I’d been listening to some stupid podcast that said I should face my fears. Anyhow, he’d changed in a heartbeat. The charm had vanished, and as I was trying to swallow the vomit welling up in my throat, he’d stuck his hand up my dress and pushed my panties to the side. The strength I’d found had surprised even me, and I’d run before he managed to get back to his feet. A prick-teasing skank, that’s what he’d called me. By text message, obviously, because no way was I ever speaking to him again. Anyhow, I’d run around the corner and puked, which someone filmed, so the press said I was an alcoholic and that was the start of my third stint in rehab.

But this…this was new. Jubilee once told me that if I met the right man, everything would be different, and I’d told her she was a fool. Now I’d have to admit I was wrong, and that sucked, but so did Ryder. In a good way. He teased my bottom lip with his teeth, and the tiny pinch of pain zinged through my belly, straight between my legs. What the heck? How did that happen?

I tunnelled my fingers through his hair and let the sensations take over. Warmth, goosebumps, a weird lightness that spread from the inside out. Then a knock at the door made me jump out of my skin.

“Fuck,” Ryder muttered, and I realised I was leaning against the magic panel on the wall. The glass wasn’t frosted anymore. No, it was crystal clear, and half the people in the office were staring at us. The other half were studiously looking away, but in that stiff way that meant they’d seen everything. Shani had a hand over her mouth as she pushed the door open.

“Uh, so those panels are pretty sensitive,” she said as I wriggled out of Ryder’s arms and put space between us. “I guess that answers the question of whether you’re just a client.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Why? If my boyfriend looked like that, I wouldn’t be able to keep my hands off him either.”

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