The Kissing Stars by Geralyn Dawson Read Free Book Online Page B

done more than catnap for the past two days. He said he wanted to discuss the past and she would certainly need all her defenses. For that I’m not ready .
    Tess all but dove for the bed.

    FOR THE second time that day, Gabe found Tess sleeping. Fear slithered up his spine and he hurried to lay his hand against her forehead. Cool.
    He breathed a sigh of relief.
    Tenderly he brushed straggling strands of hair away from her forehead, then, with a will of their own, his fingers slid into the thick, silken luster of her hair. So soft. So beautiful. Warm, flowing honey that glinted with hints of fire.
    Without conscious thought, he gently pulled the hairpins free. Her tresses tumbled in a shimmering waterfall some of which he caught and lifted to his face. He knew the scent. Lavender and innocence. It swept him back to a time and place where the fragrance surrounded him by day. And by night.

    THEY LAY side by side on a quilt spread across a mattress of spring green grass in a meadow bordered by fragrant pines. Above them, the moonless sky displayed the stars in frosty splendor. Today was Tess Rawlins’ fifteenth birthday and Gabe’s universe had just been sent reeling with a dismaying discovery.
    His best friend Billy’s little sister made him horny.
    Thank God it was dark.
    He never dreamed anything this shocking would happen when he accepted Billy’s invitation to supper earlier this evening. He was going mainly for the birthday cake. Lila Mae Wilson cooked for the Rawlins, and she baked one mean devil’s food cake. Billy had promised Gabe an extra big slice.
    The trouble started when Tess began opening her presents. Gabe was full as a tick on fried chicken and chocolate cake and feeling guilty that he hadn’t brought a gift. So he had tossed out an offer to teach her some star lore, and Tess had taken him up on the idea. Billy had come along with them—it wouldn’t be proper for Tess to meet Gabe alone—but he was propped up against a pine tree some ten feet away, sound asleep and sawing logs.
    So here they were, he and the birthday girl, practically alone, her hair spilling against his shoulder and smelling like lavender. And him with a cock hard enough to drive a railroad spike.
    Billy would kill him.
    “I know the Big and Little Dippers,” Tess said, gesturing toward the sky. “Where’s Gemini the Twins? That’s my astrological sign, is it not?”
    Gabe cleared his throat. “Yeah.”
    “When is your birthday, Gabe? What’s your sign?”
    He closed his eyes. “I just turned seventeen, myself. On May second. I’m Taurus, Taurus the Bull.”
    And he knew he’d best find a distraction and get his pecker under control or he’d be one bull seeing red—red from his own bloody nose once Billy got through with him.
    Stargazing. That’s what he needed to think about. Hadn’t the sky distracted him dang near every day of his life?
    “You want me to show you Gemini. All right, Tess. Can you see my arm well enough to follow my finger?”
    “I think so.”
    He helped her locate the constellation she sought, then said, “The brighter of the twins is Pollux. The orange one, see it?”
    “Yes. I do.”
    “Pollux is also one end of the necklace of jewels the sky is sporting tonight. Look. It arcs from west-northwest and ends in the southeast. Five bright jewels.” He pointed to the stars as he named than. “Pollux, then Regulus, the blue-white star that’s the heart of Leo the lion. Then Mars, the middle jewel of the necklace. It’s the brightest.”
    “Do you mean that yellowish orange star?”
    Dang, but she had a sweet little voice. How come he’d never noticed it before? “Planet. That’s why it doesn’t twinkle.”
    He sensed her inquiring stare. “If that’s Mars, why isn’t it red? I thought Mars was the red planet.”
    “It appears more red when it’s closer to the earth.”
    “Oh.”
    “The fourth jewel is—”
    “Let me guess,” she interrupted, catching his hand in one of hers while