Davis, Liz - Slivers of Moonlight (Siren Publishing Classic) (29 page)

Suddenly the view she was looking at was magnified even further, allowing her to see even more detail than before.

“Whoa! What did you just do? I can see so much more now. This is incredible!”

He smiled at her enthusiasm. “There’s a filter on the end of this telescope. All I did was rotate it a few times to adjust the magnification so that you could see things a bit clearer.”

“This is amazing. What are those darker areas? Are they filled with water?” Removing her eye from the lens, she let him lean in so he could see what she was looking at.

“Oh, those are called maria. They’re plains on the moon.” He removed his eye from the telescope so she could look at the view once again.

“Probably a stupid question, but why are they called maria?”

“That’s a good question, not a stupid one. They got their name from early astronomers who thought they were large bodies of water. ‘Maria’ means ‘seas’ in Latin.”

Removing her eye from the telescope, Maya glanced up at her boyfriend. She found herself amazed by the amount of knowledge he had and would never have taken him for the scientific type. Then again, as the saying went, you could never judge a book from its cover.

“You know quite a lot about this, don’t you? I have to say I’m very impressed.”

His lips tugged into a bashful smile. “I don’t know that much, really. When it comes to astronomy, I’m more of an amateur. I just have a good memory, so I tend to remember all types of facts.”

Maya smiled at him, finding it cute that he was trying to downplay his knowledge. Looking back into the telescope, she asked, “So what exactly are the maria made of then?”

“Hardened lava. It was created billions of years ago, back when the moon was still volcanically active.”

“Hmm, interesting.” Maya felt like a whole new world was being opened up to her, and this other side of Evan was very intriguing to her.

“I know it’s a crescent moon, but if you look really closely, you can see the entire outline of the lunar disk.” There was excitement in his voice.

“What, you mean the circle?”

Chuckling, Evan replied, “Yeah. So what you’re seeing isn’t just the crescent, but the part that’s not yet illuminated by sunlight. Can you see it?”

She nodded. “Oh yeah, I can see it now. You’re right, it’s really faint, but it’s still there.”

“That’s called earthshine. It’s kind of an interesting effect, because if we were on the moon, we’d be able to see Earth going through similar phases as the moon, just in reverse order. So whenever we see a crescent moon on Earth, an astronaut’s view on the moon would be a gibbous Earth.”

Withdrawing her gaze from the lens, Maya turned to face him. “That’s really quite fascinating.”

“Yeah, it is.” He averted his gaze briefly, and then said, “I get sort of excited about this stuff, and I could go on about it forever, so I’ll stop talking now. We can do something else if you like.”

“No way, I’m really enjoying this. I’m quite impressed with your knowledge, and I’ve never met anyone who was into astronomy. I’ve always been fascinated by it, but just never took the time to really learn anything. The fact that you have, however, really does interest me quite a bit.”

“Really? So you don’t think I’m a nerd?”

Laughing, she replied, “If intelligence is nerdy, then I’m all for it. And besides, smart guys are hot. I’m actually quite turned on right now.”

Evan’s lips curled into a smirk. “So watching the moon through a telescope really does it for you, huh? Hmm, I wonder how you’d react to seeing Mars.”

Standing up from the stool, she wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a wide grin. “Well, if you can locate Mars, then I’d be really impressed. There’s no telling what I’d do for a view of that.”

“Mmmm.” He pressed his lips against hers for a quick kiss, then withdrew from the hug and took his telescope down from the tripod.

He packed both the tripod and the telescope in a protective case, and then he switched on a light.

“Let’s get dressed so we can go up on the roof. We can get a really good view of the stars up there.”

“Really, we can go up there?”

“Oh yeah, I do it all the time.”

He grabbed her hand so they could go out into the living room and get dressed. Once they were fully clothed, they slipped into some shoes and headed out the door. It was a fairly warm night, so they didn’t need any jackets.

Evan led her up a flight of stairs at the back of the apartment, and once they reached the top of the stairwell, he opened a door, and they went out on the roof. As they walked outside, the warm breeze greeted them, carrying the smell of freshly cooked food. A couple of lounge chairs and a small table were placed in the middle of the roof, and a few potted plants sat along a narrow ledge.

He walked over to a railing that was placed near the ledge then opened the case that contained his telescope and began to set it up. Once it was on the tripod, he peered through the lens and swiveled the telescope toward the sky. Maya stood behind him, watching as he adjusted the filter to sharpen and magnify the image.

After he was satisfied, he reached his hand out behind him, motioning for her to come closer. Evan moved aside so she could stand directly in front of the telescope. As she peered into it, Evan slid his arms around her waist, resting his chin against her shoulder as she studied the stars.

She gave appreciative comments about the view, and as she continued to watch the stars, she felt his teeth graze along the back of her neck, lightly nipping at her delicate flesh. Then his lips moved up to her earlobe, pulling her fleshy lobe into his mouth so he could slide his tongue over it.

“Mmmm,” she murmured contentedly as she felt his hand slide between her legs.

He lightly traced the outline of her pussy lips through the fabric of her pants, sending delicious shivers along her spine.

“You’d better stop.” She gave his hand a playful swat, but in truth, she didn’t really want him to.

“Why?” His voice came out seductively deep, daring her to resist him.

She didn’t have any excuse to tell him, so she relaxed her body and let him take over. Grasping a handful of her hair, he tilted her head back, sucking on the delicate flesh of her neck.

“Evan.” Giving a pleasured hiss, she closed her eyes.

She felt one of his hands slide beneath the fabric of her shirt, traveling along the plane of her stomach until it reached her breast. Cupping it in his palm, he stroked his thumb against her nipple, tweaking it into a hardened nub. He lavished the same attention on the other nipple, and then he spoke into her ear.

“Turn around.” His voice had that husky sound to it, the way it always got when he was really turned on.

She turned to face him, and he placed a palm on either side of her face. The warm breeze whipped his hair around his face, and his deep brown eyes gazed lovingly into her own.

“You have my heart now. You know that, right?”

“Do I?” As he held her by the waist, she looped her hands around his neck.

“Yeah. It’s been a long time since I felt like this. Before you came along, I was pretty much determined to stay single, but once I met you, things began to change. I’m really happy with you. And I want you to know that our relationship means a lot to me.”

“I’m happy with you, too.” The gentle breeze blew a lock of hair into her eye, and she brushed it away.

He pulled her into an embrace, and they enjoyed a long hug. Then, grabbing her by the hand, he pulled her over to a makeshift bed he’d created. It consisted of a futon mattress covered with a thick duvet, and a couple of large throw pillows that provided additional comfort. There was a large Oriental rug placed beneath it, which she guessed was done to keep the area around the mattress nice and clean. The roof was well kept as it was, so she felt no hesitation about lying down on the mattress with him.

“You come out here often?” She eyed the bed with curiosity as they sat down on it.

“Yeah. Sometimes I come out her to unwind after a long day. I also enjoy waking up early in the morning and heading up here to watch the sun rise. It’s a nice, peaceful place to hang out. It’s like my own private sanctuary.”

“Does anyone else come out here?”

“Nope, not really. I’ve been living at this apartment for longer than a year now, and I can count on one hand how many times I’ve seen someone out here. I don’t think many people even know about it.”

Looping an arm around her waist, Evan pulled her down so that they were in the reclining position. It was a quiet, peaceful night, and the only sounds that broke the silence were the clattering of dishes and the soft cry of a newborn baby from one of the apartments off in the distance.

She felt him take her hand in his and gently stroke it. The stars above them shone brightly, twinkling like precious jewels. They lay there in silence for a while, contentedly admiring the shimmering white display above them. As Maya studied the stars, she began to realize that she’d never really taken the time to fully appreciate them. She’d always found them beautiful, of course, but she’d never lain down and taken in their full beauty.

“So what do they look like to you?” Evan’s voice punctured the silence.

“Well, I always sort of thought of them as doorways to another dimension. When I was younger, I used to look up at the stars and believe that if I reached high enough, they’d take me away from my crummy life.” Maya gave a little chuckle. “I know that sounds really corny, but I needed to have something to believe in as a kid.”

“That’s not corny. I think it’s pretty imaginative.”

“And what about you? What do you think they look like?” She looked over at him.

“I think they’re up there to give you hope. So that whenever you have a lousy day, you can just look up there and remember there’s more to life than what’s here on Earth.”

She was hoping he would say more, but he left it at that, leaving her to ponder his statement.

Glancing back up at the sky, she responded, “Yeah, I guess they do give you hope, don’t they?”

Evan rolled over onto his side, grasping her hips firmly as he leaned in for a kiss. His mouth sealed firmly against hers, his tongue leaving not one inch of her mouth unexplored.

She moved her wet appendage toward his so that they could mingle, and it wasn’t long before he was stroking her mouth to ecstasy. His lips moved sensually against hers, dominating her with an expertise she’d never experienced.

As their lips parted, they both were gasping for breath, and their eyes were full of passion and desire.

Nuzzling her head in the crook of his neck, she laid her hand on his firm chest, comforted by the strength of his beating heart. Her hand rose up and down with each of his breaths, and as she lay there next to her lover, something in her body responded. An overwhelming rush of emotions surged through her, and she realized that she hadn’t felt anything quite this strong before. Was she in love? Listening to the sound of his breath, she realized that she was. She felt Evan take her hand in his, and as their fingers threaded together, they stared up at the sky, contentedly lying beneath a blanket of stars.

THE END

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