We Are Made of Stardust - Peaches Monroe #1 by Mimi Strong Read Free Book Online Page A

quietly to her feet, and everyone turned to stare at me.
    “You are one bad ass girl,” Dalton said.
    “Thanks.” I attempted to smooth down my hair and look demure.
    The door of my house opened and my roommate and best friend, Shayla, burst out in a sleeveless T-shirt and boxer shorts. “What the fuck are you all doing on my lawn?” She spotted me and her expression became more confused. “Peaches! You look so good in that dress. I don't know what those other girls were complaining about.”
    Cold water blasted me. I yelped and started running for cover. Everyone was yelling and colliding with me, and I basically ran blindly in a circle until somebody tackled me. We fell to the ground, and the hose-blasting stopped.
    Wiping the water from my eyes, I said, “That was refreshing.”
    The sound of shoes slapping against the pavement echoed through the night air as Alexis made her getaway down the street.
    I couldn't get up from the muddy lawn, pinned as I was by a body. At least it wasn’t the driver with the ponytail, but Dalton.
    I’d wanted to get him on top of me, but not like this. Not in the mud on my front lawn. Or maybe in the mud, sure, but not with all my neighbors watching.
    Dalton got up and helped me to my feet. “I am so sorry about all of this. That Alexis!” He shook his head, and in the dim light, I couldn't tell if he looked guilty, or embarrassed.
    Shayla stepped down from the porch and stood on the round, cement paving stones, staring at us. Unlike the older generation at the wedding, she knew exactly who Dalton Deangelo was.
    I looked up at his gorgeous face. So much for sneaking him into my place, unnoticed, for the one-night tryst of a lifetime—the type you hint about to your children after a couple of drinks, much to their horror.
    “I apologize for all this,” he said.
    “This kerfuffle?” I looked down at my muddy bridesmaid dress. “So much for wearing this dress again.”
    “I’ll pay to have it cleaned. No, I’ll buy you a new dress. Unfortunately, if you hang out with me, this is the sort of thing that happens.”
    “Your life must be very interesting,” I said.
    He pursed his lips, his eyes twinkling at me. “Let's trade lives. Give me the keys and I'll go open the bookstore tomorrow.”
    As I stared up at Dalton, the rest of the world disappeared. I was dimly aware of Mr. Galloway calling his cat and going back into his house, and of the driver apologizing to Shayla and explaining what was happening, but all that chaos was happening outside of a world-dampening bubble surrounding the two of us.
    “You would muck everything up,” I said. “In the bookstore. I have everything just how I like it.”
    He brushed his warm hands along my upper arms, sweeping away the beads of water on my skin. I shivered at his touch.
    “Is that a metaphor?” he murmured. “Are you afraid I'm going to muck up your life?” He kept running his warm hands up and down my arms, heating me up in more ways than one. Apparently getting sprayed with a garden hose doesn’t put you out of the mood for sex, which explains why it rarely works with stray cats.
    He continued, “Is your life too perfect without me?”
    “Thank you for being my date for the wedding, and for the ride in your car.” I bit my lower lip, embarrassed at the memory of him touching me so deliciously in the back seat, just moments earlier.
    “You say that like we're saying goodbye.” He reached behind my back, pressing the chilly, soaked fabric of my bridesmaid dress as he pulled me to him. “If this is goodbye, give me a kiss to remember.”
    He didn't have to ask twice. I stood up on my tiptoes in the wet grass, mud on my feet, and kissed him with all the pent-up passion I had in me, from all the guys I should have kissed but didn't. I should have kissed tall, scrawny Adrian Storm in twelfth grade, when we were working on the yearbook together. He owned an obnoxiously loud, gas-guzzling muscle car, and we had the exact