Page 28 of Lavender Moon

11

KALEB

The wry, half smile Luna is giving me, her brown eyes alight with the golden ambers that have always lived within, is making a dormant lust thrive to life inside me. The kind of lust I’ve never felt for anyone else I’ve been with. The kind that makes me want to pull her close and breathe her in while we take each other to ecstasy.

“Truth,” she finally decides, shaking her head.

I’m not surprised, but I’m also not disappointed.

“Is there someone waiting for you that would be upset that you’re here with me tonight?” I ask her. I want to know right now if tonight comes with any restrictions or boundaries – not because I’m planning anything, but because I don’t want to do anything to overstep and ruin this thrilling reunion. I don’t know how she feels about the term these days, so I don’t bring it up, but if Luna is still the good girl I always knew, then she’ll appreciate that. And now I find myself holding my breath, hoping to hear the word no.

My whole body seems to lighten when she shakes her head.

“No,” she affirms and I nod in appreciation.

“Surprising.” I feel my eyebrows lift and a flirty smile try to tug at the corners of my mouth. I’m trying to behave, but I am surprised and can’t seem to refrain from letting her know how alluring she is. She’s fucking radiant, like she’s found her place in this. And now that we seem to have fallen back into our old dynamic, she’s relaxing into it more by the minute, and it’s a thing of beauty.

“I mean,” she lifts a shoulder, like she’s playing off what she’s about to say as casually as possible. “I had a not-great experience with that, and I guess you could say I’ve been fiercely independent ever since. Love yourself first and all that.” She wobbles her head facetiously before taking hold of her root beer and bringing the straw to her lips.

Alright, where is this guy so I can pound him? I don’t need to know what he did to give her a not-great experience, as she puts it.

“What about you?” she asks on an exhale, setting her drink back down and looking at me. “Should someone know you’re here with me?”

I shake my head. “No, there’s no one. I promise.”

“Good,” she concludes with a sneaky grin. “Truth or dare?”

Oh shit, we’re still playing that. Never mind that I started it too.

“Dare,” I blurt out without giving it much thought. Hopefully she doesn’t dare me to do a full-Monty striptease on top of the bar.

She sits up high in her stool, glancing at something over my shoulder. A smile pulls at her parted lips and I chance a look behind me to see what she’s got in store. All I see is a rooftop patio behind the glass door where I can hear muted music coming through, and there seems to be people idly dancing - wait…

“I dare you…” she gives me a knowing look.

“No.”

“To dance,” she finishes, a triumphant smile on her face as she reaches for her stupid root beer again.

“Come on,” I plead.

“Dance,” she volleys over her straw.

“No, you’re supposed to dare me to go base jumping with my ass on fire or something,” I lecture.

“Then it looks like I win.” She smugly switches her crossed legs – which doesn’t give me a semi at all – rolls her shoulders back and bites teasingly down on her straw.

“What?” I retort after mentally shaking myself out of the arousing stupor she put me in for a minute there.

“I win our eleven-year-long game of Truth or Dare,” she announces on a satisfied exhale.

“No, you don’t.”

“Then do the dare.”

“No.”

“Then I win. This is why I pick truth,” she whispers smugly as she leans in.

---