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

opposite taste in movies and music. We seemed to have nothing in common, but he did have a lip ring, and I had an interest in his lips.
    Back then, Adrian’s lip ring clicked against his teeth sometimes, and he'd flick at the metal hoop with his tongue when he was waiting for the slow computers in the library to load up photos. We had little to talk about, and he always looked bored when he talked to me, but I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to kiss him so bad, and I never did, because I wasn't the fun girl.
    That night after my cousin’s wedding, as I stood in the mud of my front lawn, with a sexy actor, I kissed him with all the passion my lips could handle, and then some. My hands slid up along his chest, feeling the hard muscles just beneath his shirt.
    He broke away just long enough to say, “This doesn't feel like goodbye.”
    My hands roved down, over the ridges of his lean stomach, then around to his back so I could hold on to him for balance.
    “I can't invite you in,” I said. “That's my house, and my life, and—”
    He stopped me with a finger to my lips, while saying, “Shh.”
    Was he actually shushing me?

CHAPTER 5
    Dalton Deangelo seemed to be shushing me. Which I do not like, not even from someone with a face so handsome you want to crush it up and eat it.
    I continued, around his fingers mashing my lips, “But thanks for the nice evening and the r—”
    “Shush.”
    I shoved his hand away and stepped back. “Don't shush me. You're not the boss of me. Feel free to interrupt me, like a regular person, but don't you dare put your hand on my mouth.”
    Dalton grinned like a kid being caught with his hand up a vending machine, his fingers wrapped around a stolen chocolate bar.
    “Whoops,” he said.
    “Uh, whoops?”
    The moment of romance was gone, and my passion morphed into something else—something defensive. His arms around me no longer felt like heaven, but like a mousetrap. I shoved against his chest and wriggled myself free.
    “I'm sorry you're offended,” he said.
    “I'm sorry you think shushing a woman is appealing in some way.”
    “You're cute when you're mad.”
    “You're not,” I lied.
    He stepped back, taking an audible breath. “It was nice to know you.”
    And then began the speedy getaway I’d been anticipating all day.
    He backed away over the hedge and onto the sidewalk. The driver was already circling around to open the car door for him. I could sense Shayla's presence on the porch behind me, but she was staying quiet for now.
    Something about the way Dalton was grinning and backing away from me set me off even more. He was treating me the same way he had that girl Alexis, who probably had good reason to be angry at him. What a smarmy creepazoid!
    “Good to know you,” he repeated awkwardly.
    My head started to move from side to side with all the attitude that had to go somewhere. “Oh, you don't know me,” I said.
    Shayla chimed in, “That's right. You don't know her.”
    He glanced up at her and shrugged. “Your loss.”
    Shayla murmured behind me, “Oh, no, he didn’t.” Louder, she called out to him, “More like your loss.”
    “Yeah!” I added. “Your loss, mister. I would have rocked your world.”
    Dalton shot me one last smirk, then he climbed into the back of his fancy car with the tinted windows and shut the door.
    Getaway complete.
    As the red taillights disappeared down the street, Shayla traipsed down the front steps and slipped her arm around my back. “Let's get you out of these wet clothes and into a shot of tequila. Or wine. We don’t have tequila, but we do have wine.”
    “Oh, Shay. What did I just do? What's wrong with me?”
    “You have too much pride,” she said, matter-of-factly. “You could have had your meatflaps moistened by Mr. Smoldering Eyeballs himself, but I can loan you Drake for the night if you run him through the dishwasher.”
    I patted her hand. “No thanks, but I appreciate the sentiment.”
    “He was taller than I