Page 24 of In the Light of the Moon
At that point, our entrees arrived, and we took some time to situate with our meals. Orion’s green curry did smell divine, and my pad see ew was spicy and flavorful. “I worked under a master carpenter for a while, then decided to go to graduate school a few years later.” A pink flush started on Orion’s cheeks and went all the way to his ears, but I didn’t understand why he would beembarrassed by that path. The way his lips thinned after he said it made me too reluctant to find out.
So instead, I asked him about the carpentry. I’d noticed that his hands looked stronger and more callused than someone who spent all their time reading books or typing up papers. They were long and sculpted in their own way, but there was a roughness there.
“My father was self-taught and built his home during my childhood. I suppose my interest came from helping when I would stay with him. I got a job at the college after he died and just finished fixing up the cabin a few months ago.”
“A cabin?” My plate was only half-gone, but my stomach was beginning to protest any more bites of food.
Orion, on the other hand, had nearly licked his bowl clean and finished off the last of our appetizer when I made no move to eat more. He took another pull from his drink, and I noticed one of the designs on the inside of his forearm was what looked like an animal woven into elements of delicately curving lines. “Yeah, it’s about fifteen minutes outside of town.”
While my food was boxed up and Orion paid the bill—he’d flinched incredulously when I volunteered to pay—he told me more of his home that was surrounded by the Antler Pointe forest on all sides. Where he’d frolicked and explored as a boy, then wandered and relaxed as a man.
And he asked me about my writing and settling into town, how I was managing school while working and taking care of Granna.
After Orion opened the door for me and got into the driver’s seat, I amended, “Well, it’s not like she needs a whole lot of assistance. It’s more her teaching and me lending an extra pair of hands around the house.” I decided to leave out Granna’s slips, which hadn’t occurred in a few weeks. Afraid that speakingof them would cause a new one, I tried to banish the worry from my mind.
“What’s she teaching you? Are you training to be a florist?” I’d mentioned earlier Granna’s business and felt another wave of warmth toward him when he frowned in recollection, stating that his father used to buy his grandmother flowers from Granna’s shop.
I chuckled, “In a way. Though, I’m hopeless at taking care of most of Granna’s flowers. She’s teaching me our family’s traditions, which is a bigger task than I anticipated. I’m understanding more and how much I don’t know. But she’s patient with me.”
Orion hummed and tapped his finger on the steering wheel.
Far sooner than I wanted, we were pulling back up at the house. Though I’d only had one cocktail, I felt drunk on Orion’s presence.
He put the car in park, unbuckled his seatbelt, but didn’t make to open his door just yet. I heard him shift in his seat, and I turned to find him looking at me steadily. “I had a very nice time with you, Sylvie. Thank you for allowing me to take you out.”
I smiled at his formal words and unbuckled my seatbelt, too. My dress slid easily against the leather seat as I faced him beside me. “I had a great time, too. Thank you for dinner.”
His skin and hair were still very pale in the low light of the evening, but I remarked at how it just fit him so well. Like the light in the darkness, like the moon and stars in the sky.
Orion’s brow knitted for a long moment, and I sat patiently, knowing now that he got this expression when he was trying to choose his words carefully. “May I take you out again? Sometime soon.”
My heart skipped, and I realized how much my anxiety had started to creep up as our date was drawing to a close. To not have to go through the usual ‘will he text me first’ or ‘should Iand how long should I wait’ that often came after first dates was a sharp relief. “Sure!” And for once, I didn’t feel ashamed for my eagerness. “I have another day off on Saturday, if that works for you?”
His shoulders relaxed a fraction, “Yes. That’s perfect.” That wrinkle in his forehead was still present, and I gave him some more time. Eventually, he opened his mouth again and met my gaze, “I’d like to kiss you.”
And without another word, he leaned over the console, lips stopping just before meeting mine, and I didn’t even think about pulling away.
A warm, callused hand met my jaw the same time he eliminated the last inch between us. My fingers rested on his chest, letting his body heat seep into my skin while his kiss was like fire. Want and need grew rapidly within me like a swarm of butterflies. The wet glide of our tongues together drew a small moan from my throat, but it sounded so loud in the quiet of the car.
Orion’s hand tightened around my face, the kiss growing harder, more passionate.
The flare of desire was taking me over, and by the time I was crawling over to his side of the car, I was lost to it. The hand on my face drew away just before his seat pushed back to give us room.
Though Orion’s car wasn’t large, I was able to fit on his lap, especially as he reclined the seat to a nearly horizontal position.
Making out with him like a teenager hadn’t been expected, necessarily, but his large hands holding me closer felt right. My dress was hiked up to my thighs to give me enough slack to straddle Orion’s lap, and I could feel that his cock was a steel bar between us.
He palmed my ass, encouraging me to keep pressing into him, and I caught his bottom lip gently between my teeth. Oriongave an honest-to-goddess growl and moved his mouth to my neck. His nose tickled my skin while he inhaled, and my eyes rolled back when he dragged the flat of his tongue over the curve under my jaw.
“Oh shit,” I cried, and the sound of it was like a smack to my senses. My pulse leapt under Orion’s tongue while he gave more kisses and licks, his body sturdy and warm underneath me. The anxiety of if this was too fast, of Granna just a few feet and certainly still awake inside the house, and of unknown uncertainties that made my body start to stiffen crept over like clouds rolling in over a bright, blue sky.
Orion’s body stilled, and his mouth stopped moving. He pulled back, resting his head on the seat to look up at me. “Do you want to stop, Sylvie?”
Hot, embarrassed tears prickled in my eyes, and I wavered on the edge of giving in to the lust that was still coursing through my body or succumbing to the wall I had erected around myself. It wasn’t that Ididn’twant this. But it was…
“Hey,” Orion’s low, husky voice sounded above the racing of my breaths that’d started to quicken without my notice. His thumb caressed my bottom lip with a tenderness that made one of my tears spill down my hot cheek. “We’ll stop. I’m in no rush, Sylvie.”
I clenched my eyes closed, trying my best to not let the familiar voice of self-loathing make its way to the forefront. My mascara was no doubt running down my face, and with our kissing, my hair and dress were a certain mess. But when I peeked my eyes open, Orion was staring up at me with a soft patience. Like he understood the overwhelm that left me feeling paralyzed.
