Leaning up, he brushed his lips across mine. “I want to see Draco.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Okay then.” He settled me back down beside him, but I leaned my head closer to his shoulder, and he laced his long fingers through mine. The night sky was perfect; moonless, cloudless, each star twinkling, the markers brighter than the rest. Raising my arm straight up, I pointed to the sky. “Okay, what do you see?”
Brax inhaled, exhaled. “I see stars, Sunshine. A lot of them.”
“Is that all?”
He was quiet for a moment. “Some are brighter than others.”
I smiled in the darkness. “That’s right. Can you see a pattern? A distinct shape?”
More silence as he studied the heavens. “Am I supposed to?”
I gave a soft laugh. “Yes.” I lifted our joined hands between us. “Point your index out like mine and follow the ends of our fingers.” He did. “Memorize each spot our fingertips pause at, and then mentally draw a line from each star. Kind of like an Etch-a-Sketch. Ready?”
“Always.”
I snuggled closer. “Okay. Here we go.” I began pointing, our index fingers snugged together. “See that bright star there?”
“Yes.” His lips brushed across my temple, sending tingles over my skin.
I concentrated. Hard. “Okay, that’s our starting point. Now we move down, then over, then back up,” I continued. “We’ve just traced the tip of Draco’s tail. Now keep your eye on our fingertips and move up, up, up.” I could clearly see Draco’s entire body, but I’d been looking at it my whole life. “Can you see it yet?” I moved our hands over the star points until the entire dragon had been traced, then lowered our arms. I turned my head slightly, watching Brax’s features as he searched the sky.
The minute he found it, I knew.
Slowly, he sat up, his face turned heavenward. He didn’t say anything for several moments; but his eyes roved over the night sky. “It’s right there,” he said. With his own arm stretched out, without my help, he dragged his fingertip through the air, marking each of Draco’s stars. “Holy shit, I see the whole dragon, Gracie.”
I sat up beside him. “I knew you would.”
His fascination at seeing the beauty of Draco twinkling in a black October sky sent a thrill of contentment rushing throughout my body. That he thought something I loved so much was so … interesting? It was hard to believe. “Breathtaking, isn’t it?”
He didn’t answer at first; his gaze was locked onto the stars of Draco. But then his stare left the heavens and turned to me. In the darkness, those ghostly eyes softened as they searched mine, and the scar on his cheekbone appeared like a jagged smudge of soot in the shadows. “Hell yeah, it is.” His hand cupped my jaw, his thumb brushed over the scar on my lip. “I can’t believe it’s been right here this whole time.”
My breath lodged in my throat, and no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t look away as he lowered his head and pressed his lips to mine.
Brax slowly pushed me back, his body hovering over mine, bracing his weight on his elbow as his lips explored further. He kissed my mouth fully, drawing my bottom lip in and sucking, his tongue tangling with mine and causing a surge of excitement blended with fear, desire, and I clutched his forearms. Urgency laced his breath, and a low groan escaped as his free hand found the bare skin of my stomach, his fingers dragging roughly, yet gently, over my ribs. I wanted this. I didn’t want him to stop. But I had to tell him the truth first.
I pushed my hand over his and stopped his movement. When he pulled back and looked at me, his expression was unreadable. Waiting. His unusually beautiful features were etched in stone.
“I have to tell you something, Brax,” I said. My voice was whispery soft, and a little unsteady. “I should’ve told you before now. But I was … scared.” I lifted my hand to his jaw, loved the roughened sand-papery feel of his day-old stubble. “But now it’s necessary.”
In the shadowy light, his eyes flashed question, uncertainty. He didn’t say anything; not a single word, but his hand remained possessively against my bare stomach.
I stared at his Adam’s apple, the strong column of his throat marred with the scar that carried a reminder of his violent past. “The night with Kelsy—our senior class party at the pond.” My gaze moved to the portion of his chest exposed by the opened buttons of his shirt. I swallowed, inhaled, and raised my eyes to meet his. “I’m not a virgin, Brax. This ring,” I moved my hand between us, held up my finger. “It’s a personal choice I made after that night.” A soft laugh escaped my throat as I looked away. “It’s my one and only time and I don’t even remember it. Not a single second of it. I only remember that last drink.” Brax’s silence frightened me, but still I went on. “Then … being somewhere else, away from the others, on the ground, face down in the dirt, the pain in my lip, and … other places.” The recall of humiliation brought fresh tears to my eyes, and I’d leave most of the sordid details out of the story. “Through the darkness I could see my brothers beating Kelsy.” Brax’s hand moved to my hip, and his fingers gripped me there as he listened in silence. “I remember thinking they were going to kill him, and I was so damn scared of that.” I squeezed my eyes shut for a second as the memory crowded me. “Kelsy was crying, begging them to stop and saying how sorry he was. That he’d been drunk—was still drunk and only slipped me one pill in my drink, just to loosen me up. He hadn’t meant to hurt me, he’d said.” I let out a long sigh. “Later I remembered getting my lip sewn up in the emergency room, and then the … female examination, and how painful it was—”