Page 2 of Star-Crossed
Since she’d doubled down on Bazaar Girls, taken up with her live-in boyfriend, Gabe, and truly begun trusting herself to make her dream come to life.
Gemmabelongedto their hometown, and everyone here fiercely fought for her to make her life and her business a success.
Where do I belong?
The question choked off Lyra’s next breath as she watched her twin settle the bag on the counter and unpack the glass ball, two books on—bwark—Tantric sex, and an amethyst dildo.
“Two of these things make sense…” Lyra griped to her sister. “But what do they need with the glass ball?”
Gemma blinked. “It’s a crystal ball, not a glass ball.”
“False,” Lyra said. “Any glass with less than one percent of lead content is not considered crystal. Technically, the application of the term ‘crystal’ to glass is super inaccurate, as glass is an amorphous solid.”
Gemma held her hands up. “Okay, the prosecution rests, Lyra, geez. Besides, I don’t think it matters how much lead is in something for it to divine the future for these guys.”
Lyra put her hand to the side of her mouth to whisper, “What future, Gemma? Spoiler alert, they’re giving Methuselah a run for his money, and I bet they don’t have longer to live than—”
Gemma slammed her hand over Lyra’s mouth. “Psst. Fffft. Shhhhhhhhht,” were the urgent sounds that escaped her. “Don’t you dare speak a number, Lyra—you don’t want to be responsible for their early deaths!”
Early? That ship had sailed two decades ago.
Lyra bit down on her sister’s palm and freed herself using the same slap-fight kung fu they’d employed as kids. “For the last time, Gemma, I had nothing to do with predicting that fortune-teller’s tent fire at the festival. It was coincidence. Hell, it wasinevitablethat someone with a million superfluous scarves and fringy whatnots hanging from her tent would fall victim to her million open-flame candles.” Slapping the magazine closed, Lyra shoved it back in the slot, giving up on her idle curiosity about what sort of homegrown herbs helped to stimulate female orgasms.
Orgasms just weren’t her thing.
Especially not after getting an eyeful (and handful) of whatthosetwo slippery-fingered olds were going to be doing later…
If they paid for their shit.
Gemma fiddled with the starched collar of Lyra’s blouse under her fitted navy blazer. “Um…you doing okay?”
“Why wouldn’t I be okay?” was Lyra’s automatic answer.
“For all the reasons you just said when you told off Matilda Crenshaw just now.”
“Heard that, did you?” Lyra plopped her chin into her palm again.
“Like you said, these walls aren’t the best at muffling noise.” Gemma patted her arm. “Also, I don’t think Liz would like you swearing at the customers.”
“That’s why I saideffing,” Lyra said. “Also, Matilda saidbitchfirst.” God, sometimes family turned you back into your teenaged self… She really needed to get out of here.
Again.
“You can really hear Gabe and I through the walls?” Gemma blushed through the question, fondling a necklace with a tiger’s-eye pendant hanging on its rack.
“Well, mostly you,” Lyra muttered. Which…fucking irkedthe most, because Gemma was having more orgasms in one week than Harrison Lynch had given Lyra in a lifetime.
By kind of a huge margin.
“Sorry.” Gemma adjusted the adorable knitted beret above her corona of dark hair as she matched the peachy hue with a blush. “Gabe isn’t loud because he likes to bite when he— Um—Well, I’ll just be careful to be quieter.”
Lyra sighed, releasing a bit of her bitchiness through her tight throat. “Don’t you dare. You guys have that new relationship smell. If you weren’t nice enough to take me in, you’d be fornicating in every room of the house and spending your entire weekends naked.” It was what she would do if she had a piece of man meat like Gabe “the babe” Kelly following her around like a puppy.
If that puppy was a tattooed Rottweiler with a spiked collar who liked to bite when he…
Lyra bit her own lip for new reasons.
Notthat she was checking out her sister’s man or anything, even though the Southie mechanic had prison muscles and some sort of aversion to shirts. It was just that he was in possession of magic talents in the bedroom that Lyra had heretofore never found in the opposite sex.
