Kendall didn’t ask what he’d wished for, and he appreciated it. Maybe that was why he told her something he’d never told another person to date. “I used to wish for a big family. Pop is the best man I’ll ever know, but at the end of the day he’s only one man. I had friends with a bunch of siblings or cousins or whatever the fuck, and I craved that kind of safe chaos more than I ever wanted to admit.”
She looked up at the stars, her smile soft and sweet. “Maybe you’ll have it someday. The big happily messy family.”
“Maybe.” He’d given up that dream a long time ago, but standing here with Kendall, he could almost allow himself to wish for it again.
“I have a confession.” Kendall stepped to the railing at the edge of the deck, still studying the sky. “I’ve never wished on a star.”
“What?”
“I put away a lot of things when my parents died, and that childhood sense of magic was one of them. How can wishes come true when the only thing I wanted with all my heart, wished with all my soul, was that they were okay?”
God, his chest ached for her remembered pain. Alex stepped up behind her and folded his body around hers, offering her comfort the only way he knew how. Not with words. He was no good at that shit. But with touch. He held her close and waited for her to keep talking.
“I think I’d like to start now,” she whispered. “How can I refuse to believe in magic when this sequence of events put you in my life? It’s too big to be a simple coincidence.” She laughed a little. “Sorry if that’s too heavy.”
“It’s not.” He felt the same way. Like they had spent their whole lives flying through space to reach this one point of impact. Alex didn’t know if he really believed in destiny, but he wasn’t going to question whatever force had set them on a collision course.
She shivered in his arms. Alex couldn’t help shifting her hair off the back of her neck and pressing a kiss there. He meant it to be… Fuck, he didn’t even know. But Kendall threw that plan out the window when she arched back against him. “Touch me,” she breathed.
As if he’d deny her anything.
Alex ran his hands up her sides and back down again, enjoying the way she twisted against him, obviously trying to guide his touch. He finally relented and cupped her breasts through her dress and then pressing the heel of his hand against her clit. It wasn’t enough. He knew that even before her breath escaped her in a sob.
“Unzip my dress.”
He shot a look around them, but they’d wandered down the side of the deck and there was no one nearby. Even if someone did see them, his body should more than hide Kendall’s. He moved back just enough to drag down the ridiculously tiny zipper. Her dress sagged away from her body and he slipped his hands beneath it to cup her bare breasts. She was so fucking perfect it blew his mind. Physically, yes, but her unfurling confidence drew him like a moth to flames. He just hoped he wouldn’t be burned up in his desire to get closer. Endlessly closer.
Alex skimmed his hand down her stomach and paused. “Sweetheart.”
“Mmmm?”
“Do you ever wear panties?”
Kendall laughed, low and wicked. “Not since meeting you.”
He cupped her pussy, loving the way she arched back against him, seeking his cock even as he pushed two fingers into her. The dress kept her from spreading her legs, though she tried. He kissed her neck again, lingering there. “Better?” he murmured against her skin. Giving this woman exactly what she asked for had become his kink. He couldn’t get enough of it. He couldn’t get enough of her.
“Yes. No.” She shivered in his arms. “Alex…” Kendall pushed back against his body harder and then she shoved her dress down until it was just past her hips, baring herself to him. “I need you,” she whispered.
Fuck.
He fumbled in his pocket with his free hand, finally coming up with the condom he’d tucked there earlier on a whim. He should have known he’d end up using it. Kendall liked fucking in public too much to risk going without, which was something he should have learned by now. He was forced to release her to rip open the foil and roll it onto his cock. “You’re going to kill me.”
“You keep saying that.” She moaned as he pressed his hand flat against her back, bending her forward a little as he guided his cock into her pussy.
“I keep meaning it,” he gritted out. Alex leaned forward to finger her clit with one hand and grip the railing with the other. “Eyes up, sweetheart. You’re going to miss a shooting star if you get distracted.”