Chapter Sixteen

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Starlet

I had sex with Milo in the back of my Jeep.

Oh my goodness, I had sex with Milo in the back of my Jeep!

And I didn’t regret it. I had a tug in my gut telling me that I should’ve regretted the act that happened between us, but I couldn’t bring myself to do so. It felt so good, so right, being in his lap, feeling him inside me.

Once we made it back to our hometown, I knew I’d overthink every single thing that happened between us that weekend, but for the time being, I would allow myself to be wild. To be untamed.

We drove back to the boutique hotel, and Milo carried all of our bags to the room. Before I could even mention that I was starving, a knock sounded on our door.

I walked over to open it and found a beautiful older woman with stunning silky gray hair down her back smiling from ear to ear. “Hi, Ms. Evans. We noticed your return, and I wanted to stop by to say hello. I’m Emily Turner, the owner of the boutique.”

“Oh, it’s nice to meet you.”

“You too. I was informed about the mix-up with overbooking, and I wanted to express my utmost apologies. We would love to offer you one of our igloos facing Lake Superior for a romantic dinner for you and your partner. On the house, of course.”

“Oh, he’s not my…” My words faded as I raised an eyebrow. “On the house?”

“Completely. We can book the reservation for you now, and you can come down and enjoy the views. The igloo itself is heated, too, so you don’t have to worry about being cold.”

“That would be amazing, actually. How about at eight?”

“We can make that work. Thank you, Ms. Evans. We hope you’re enjoying your stay.”

Emily left, and I shut the door right after her.

As I turned around, I saw Milo standing there with a smirk on his face.

“What?” I asked.

“Your partner? It seems you didn’t argue that much.”

I shrugged. “You’d be shocked by what I’d do for a free meal.”

“Dare I ask what you’d do for a Klondike bar?” he joked.

“You, Mr. Corti. I’d do you for a Klondike bar.”

He eyed me up and down with a devilish grin. “Seems you’d do me for even less than that.”

I felt my cheeks heat from his comment because he wasn’t wrong.

“I’m going to take a shower before dinner,” he told me as he pulled his shirt over his head in one quick movement. He unbuckled his jeans and walked past me straight into the bathroom. I listened as the water turned on, and I watched as his silhouette stepped into the water. My body reacted as I watched him step under the stream of water.

Without much thought, I undressed and joined him.

***

“Are you hungry?” Milo asked as he pulled out the chair for me inside our little igloo table setting.

“Famished,” I replied, taking my seat. That was not shocking based on the number of times we found ourselves entangled with one another that evening. One would think we’d be completely exhausted after spending the day hiking, yet somehow, we’d found a way to go round after round with one another. Maybe it was simply because we both knew that what we did up north couldn’t happen when we returned home.

Maybe, just maybe, we were trying to get it all in before our fantasy of the story of us came to an end.

Milo took his seat and smiled my way. “You look beautiful tonight.”

A chill raced over me. “I’m not used to you complimenting me like that.”

“If it makes it easier, I’ve thought about it every single day that I’ve seen you. I’ve thought about how stunning you are. I didn’t say it.”

“It’s nice to hear.”

“Secret friendship is really working out for us.”

I laughed. “I don’t think this is what a secret friendship would look like. This feels more like a secret…” My words faded off, but Milo was there to finish it.

“Relationship,” he said. “It feels like a secret relationship.”

I bit my bottom lip. “This is bad, isn’t it?”

“Awful.”

“We’re going to regret this.”

“Totally.”

“So we should stop it.”

“Absolutely,” he agreed. “But…”

“But?”

“We won’t.”

“We won’t?”

He shook his head and reached his hand across the table. “Do you know why?”

“Do tell.”

“Because it feels too good being bad with you.”

I smiled even though I shouldn’t have because he was right.

We were the greatest mistake that felt so right.

“We’re going to crash.” I laughed, shaking my head at how irresponsible we were becoming. Whitney would’ve been shocked by the girl I’d been over the past day.

“And burn, maybe,” Milo agreed. “But no regrets.”

I bit my bottom lip. “Promise?”

“Yes.” He held his pinky out toward me, and I wrapped my finger around his. “Promise,” he said. “Now, let’s eat our dinner so I can eat my dessert later tonight.”

“I like how you do that,” I confessed.

“Do what?”

“Dirty talk. When we’re hooking up…” I felt my cheeks heating up as shyness crept up on me. “I wish I could do it, too.”

He arched his eyebrow. “You’re more than allowed to join in,” he swore.

“I know, but I get shy. I can’t just do it randomly. I’ll feel too silly.”

“What if I close my eyes while you’re doing it?”

I laughed. “Still too shy.”

“We can start with phone sex. Then you won’t see me, and I won’t see you.”

“I doubt we’ll find a time to have phone sex.”

Milo leaned in toward me. “Trust me. I’ll make time to have you whisper dirty things to me through the phone receiver, Star.”

I didn’t doubt that at all.

We’d laughed so much that night that my cheeks hurt from all the smiling. At one point, after our laughter, Milo sat back in his chair and shook his head in disbelief.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I just didn’t think I’d be able to feel happy again.”

And just like that, my heart slowly began to become his.

We talked more about our moms and our dads. I told him about the pink bike with yellow daisies painted all over it that my mom built for me, with a white wicker basket and purple handlebars. “It was amazing. It fell apart a few years back, but man, I used to ride that thing everywhere.”

“I could imagine little Starlet riding that bike around town.”

“I had a matching helmet, too.” I beamed with joy.

We talked about the heavy things, too.

“What are the hardest days for you?” Milo asked me.

“There’s only one, really. My mom’s birthday used to be hard, but now it’s just a celebration. My dad and I always get together and make her favorite cake. The hardest one for me is Mother’s Day. It’s like a constant reminder each year of what I don’t physically have anymore.”

“Yeah, that’s a hard one for me, too. They are all still hard for me.”

“Some will get easier, and that’s okay. Some might not, and that’s okay, too.”

After an incredible meal, we walked outside and stared at the stars that littered the darkened sky. Milo wrapped his arms around my waist, and I looked up in amazement.

“Look at the constellations!” I remarked, pointing up at the sky.

“I don’t see them,” he said.

I laughed slightly. “You’re joking, right?”

He shook his head. “Not seeing them.”

For a moment, I thought he was pulling my chain and trying to tease me. Yet when I saw the serious look on his face, I grew a bit confused. I pointed once more. “Right there. There are dozens of stars.”

Still nothing from Milo.

I turned around to face him, placed my hands against his chest, and stood on my tiptoes to give him a kiss. “I think you need glasses, Mr. Corti.”

His lips turned into a smirk. “I think I need you more right now.” With his finger, he traced the outline of my lips. “And trust me when I say I don’t need glasses to explore you.”

“Then by all means…” My cheeks flushed a little before I took his hands in mine. “Explore.”

***

Everything felt a little different that night compared to the previous times we’d hooked up. The first time at the party was void of emotional connections. The second time, in the back of the car, was quick and packed with so much adrenaline that it happened so wildly.

That night, though, we took our time. A part of us knew we were moving closer and closer to the end of whatever it was we’d been doing with one another, far away from our reality. When we returned to our town, we wouldn’t be able to find ourselves intertwined as we’d been for the past twenty-four hours.

I knew I should’ve been worried about what we’d be when we went home, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. I allowed myself to live in the moment. To be there with Milo and not worry about the tomorrows that would soon ruin our awakened dreams.

Milo undressed me slowly, taking off my clothes to reveal my black bra and panties. His mouth found mine as his hands moved to the back of my bra and unhooked it with two flicks of his fingers. It fell to the floor within seconds. I moved to begin taking off his clothes, but he stopped me.

“Let me have you first,” he whispered, trailing kisses down my neck. Shivers of wants and desires filled me as I watched his eyes dilate and his mouth began to taste every inch of me. I didn’t know it was possible to be turned on by the simple way that another studied you, touched you, and explored you. Milo laid me against the bed and worshipped me as if I were a goddess. His hands roamed over my body as he took his time kissing every single inch of me. And when I said every inch, I meant he did not miss a single spot. His mouth connected to my skin as if he were famished and in need of my existence so he could survive for another day. He pulled me to the edge of the bed. My legs dangled over the side, and he lowered himself to a kneeling position in front of me.

His mouth kissed the silk fabric of my panties as his thumb began to rub my clit through the fabric of the panties.

I moaned in pleasure as the slight touch sent a wave of excitement through my system.

His fingers wrapped around the edges of my panties, and he began moving them down slowly. Once he removed them, he kissed my inner thighs, making my hips arch up in need.

“Part your legs, Star,” he ordered. “I want to see all of you.”

My legs widened, and he moved right between them. His mouth found my clit, and he sucked it slowly before flicking his tongue against it a few times. I cried out, wanting more and more of his explorations. He pressed the palms of his hands against my thighs, opening me up wider. “I wish you could see how beautiful you look,” he whispered before he slid a finger inside me.

Every step of the night felt as if it were moving in slow motion yet moving too quickly at the same time. I savored every second of Milo as he took me in.

What was it we were doing that night?

It wasn’t just sex like the first night we’d met. I knew that for a fact. Yet I wasn’t sure if it was love yet either. What was the thing between those two realms?

Falling.

That was what we were doing that night.

We were falling for one another.

Falling, falling, falling…