I slid my hand in his, and he pulled me up onto the tailgate. “Where’s Buster?”
“Off checking out all the smells. He won’t go far.” Jasper spread out the blanket we’d used when we watched the movie. “Have a seat.”
“What are you up to?” I sat down, keeping an eye on him while he opened the cooler and retrieved the bottle of wine. He poured us each a plastic cup full, then handed me one.
“Sorry about the lack of glassware.” He clunked his cup against mine.
“What are we doing out here?” The sound of crickets surrounded us. I couldn’t help but worry a little bit about one of them jumping into the truck bed. Just thinking about the other night gave me a shiver.
He leaned back, propping himself up on an elbow. “Do I make you nervous?”
I wrinkled my brow. What was he getting at? “Why do you ask?”
“Do you always have to answer a question with a question?”
“I don’t do that.” The wide grin he gave me made me reconsider. “Do I?”
“You just did it again. Come here.” He motioned for me to scoot closer to him.
“Why did you ask if you make me nervous?” I slid over a few inches.
He groaned. “Sometimes I don’t know what to do with you.”
“What about the other times?” I’d skipped ahead to full-on flirt mode. Seeing him a little flustered, a little out of his element, was a bit of a turn-on.
“The other times I want to...” His gaze slid from my eyes to focus on my mouth.
“What?” I whispered.
He cupped my cheek with his palm, then ran the pad of his thumb over my lower lip. The contact sent a wave of warmth over me.
I opened my mouth, giving his thumb the slightest nip with my teeth. His eyes widened and before I had a chance to tease him about his reaction, his lips were on mine.
He pulled me down next to him as he stretched out. I registered the hardness of the truck bed against my hip, even through the blanket. Then I didn’t register anything at all, except for the heat of his tongue sliding into my mouth.
If I could pause time and spend the rest of eternity kissing Jasper Taylor, I’d do it in a heartbeat. He’d perfected the art of kissing.
By the time I pulled away to catch my breath, his hands had found their way under my shirt and scorched the skin over my ribs. “Is this what you brought me out here for?”
He shook his head, his nose nudging against my neck. “Look up.”
“What am I looking for?” I rolled onto my back, and looked up at the clear, dark sky. Thousands of pinpricks of light dotted the blackness above. “Oh, wow. The stars.”
His fingers twined with mine and he brought my hand to his lips. “They’re beautiful, aren’t they?”
“I never knew there were so many.”
“You’ve got to get far enough away from town to be able to see them. We got lucky with no clouds tonight.”
We lay there for several minutes, looking up at the sky, the crickets playing a symphony around us. A flash of light streaked across the darkness. “Did you see that?” I squeezed his hand.
“A shooting star. You know you’re supposed to make a wish now, right?”
I took in a shaky breath. “What would you wish for?”
“It’s not my star. I don’t get a wish.” He flipped onto his side to face me and propped his arm up to rest his cheek on his palm. “The question is, what are you going to wish for?”
“I don’t know.” I hadn’t wished on a star in years. The last time I had, it hadn’t come true. That was before I figured out that wishing on stars didn’t have enough magic to bring my dad back into my life.
