Starstruck

A few, hurried days pass before I get to see Amy again. We share some light, flirty texts, but Amy is busy with her classes, just like I should be. Instead, I’m bored and unfocused. I feel like I’m treading water anxiously, just waiting for Amy to be free.

Laura and her boyfriend are both not answering my texts, which is frustrating and weird. Did I do something? I hope everything’s going okay in Paris. Thankfully, Ethan’s around, and we have a nice casual coffee date. I catch him up on the ongoing, spicy, sexy drama of the Lives of Jo and Amy, his eyes sparkling as he sips his cappuccino. I try to pry details out of him about his sex life with Caleb, but he’s predictably close-lipped.

And then, finally, we’re together. I’m meeting Amy at night, out in a field not too far from campus. She said what we were doing would be a surprise, but I already know. It’s a clear night: Stargazing.

I see her in the distance, hunched over a metal tube on a tripod. She’s in a puffy winter coat like I am, and my heart leaps to see her. I quicken my pace, eager to see her. As I approach, she turns, a smile breaking out on her face.

“Hey, Jo,” she says, voice calm. “Perfect night out tonight,” she gestures to the expanse of sky before us, unobstructed by clouds.

“Hey! Looking good. I like you in the big puffy coat. It’s cute.” Amy’s smile broadens and she takes a tentative step toward me. I close the distance, pulling her into a hug. Our poofy coats compress, and I can almost feel her warmth through the down. She nestles into my arms. I think I’m fine here forever; we don’t need to move.

But she breaks away, squeezing my upper arm and looking into my eyes in a way that makes my heart pound. She returns to the telescope, tinkering with things I’m not even going to try to understand.

“Ideally we would get further out of town and avoid all the light pollution,” she says, looking into the scope and swinging it around slightly. “But it takes too long to get far enough out, plus, I don’t have a car. So this will have to do!”

I nod, even though she’s turned away and can’t see it. I’m entranced by the curve of her back, her legs. She’s wearing cute leggings, and as she fiddles with the telescope, she bends over, giving me quite the view. I can’t help wondering if this is on purpose, if I’m being seduced. Either way, my eyes are glued to her, following that delightful swell. I desperately want to pinch it, to grab a handful and hear her moan…

“... so yeah, there’s really a lot of great targets in this hemisphere in the winter sky. If you can deal with the cold, it’s really awesome. The cold air also holds less moisture, which means less atmospheric interference…”

I should really be paying attention and not ogling her ass. I decide on a compromise: Do both.

“There! Got it!” She finishes her work, which I believe she explained was focusing the lenses. Wow, I failed on the paying attention part fast. Well, at least I was paying attention to how attractive she is when she talks about things she knows a lot about.

Amy leans back from the telescope, eyes shining. “She looks really good today. Tell me how many moons you can see!” She reaches out and takes my hand to pull me toward the telescope. Hers is warm from all the work she’s been doing, and that heat takes the chill from my freezing fingers.

“Oh! Your hands are so cold!” She takes her other hand, enveloping mine. She’s warm and soft as she rubs my fingers between hers, kneading life into them. Before I can process what’s happening, she takes my hand up to her lips and blows hot air over my frozen digits, augmenting the kneading. I feel her lips brush up against my fingertips and I want nothing more than for her to kiss my fingers, to slide a finger into that cute mouth. I get weak in the knees as she warms me up, I want her so bad.

The lines flash through my head. Very Jo lines, so easy for me to say: How about I warm my hands up in your pants?

But I can’t. I’m paralyzed. “That feels good,” I say lamely. Amy just smiles up at me and pulls me to the scope.

“Take a look!”

She lets go of my hand, warmth immediately fading. I already miss it. I try not to sigh too loud as I grab the telescope.

“Careful,” she says, “don’t touch the tripod or the scope or it’ll wobble way too much. Just kind of hover over the eyepiece.”

I nod. Noted. Already blowing it.

And then I look into the eyepiece. Holy shit.

There, suspended in inky blackness, is a thing. Not just a pinprick of light, but an object, with volume. Something suspended. As I stare at that tiny marble, I can even see some color, some textural variation. It’s a fucking planet!

“Holy shit,” I whisper, taking it in. I turn around and look at Amy, and she’s beaming.

“Pretty cool, right?”

“Hell yeah, it is! What is that?”

“Jupiter. Can you see any tiny pinpricks of light around it?”

I look back into the little view piece. “Yup, I can see three.” Wow. This is so cool.

“Those are moons! Jupiter has 95 or more, depending on how you want to count them. But we can only see a few of them with a scope like this. There are four that Galileo could see, and we’re seeing three of those four now. Three is lucky!”

I look at her beautiful face. She’s buzzing with excitement from my reaction. She’s sharing this with me, my reaction is giving her this joy. That’s amazing. I feel special, loved. I want her to share things with me that she loves until the end of time if it makes her feel like that. I feel like a girl who’s just been given two dozen roses.

My gaze travels up, looking into the night sky. Suddenly, it doesn’t feel like a black bedsheet with a light behind it and little holes punched into it. I feel depth, distance. Each star takes on a different level in some heavenly, stratified plane. I turn to look where the scope is pointed and find a “star” a little bigger than all the others. Jupiter. I can suddenly feel its size, its presence, its distance against the backdrop of impossibly far stars.

It makes me dizzy. Like, physically dizzy. I stumble, taking a lurching step forward and trying to right myself. Suddenly, Amy is there, hands on my back, firm despite her small size. It’s not a full catch, per se, but now I’m inches away from her, her hands on my body.

She laughs, and keeps her hands on me even though I’m steady now. “Feeling starstruck?”

I nod, a huge lump in my throat as she looks at me. I love the way she looks at me. I want her to look at me forever. My gaze drops to her lips, and my heart leaps.

Ok, I’m sick of this. I’m going in. It’s Jo-time.

I reach up and grab her on either side of her head. Her eyes widen in surprise as I pull her face to mine, meeting her at the halfway point. It’s sloppy, aggressive, direct. I don’t care, I just need to kiss her.

Our lips meet in an assertive kiss, my hands firmly holding her face. It’s not my finest or most elegant work, and I’m not exactly taking Ethan’s advice to go subtle, but it’s honest. It’s what I feel, and I pour everything into it. It's powerful, a wave of pent-up emotions crashing over us. She gasps into the kiss, but doesn't pull away. Instead, her arms snake around my neck, pulling me closer.

The kiss starts as something fierce, a rush of adrenaline, an outpouring of long-held feelings. But soon, it slows, softens. Turns into something more. Something intimate, something shared.

Her lips are soft, warm, a delight. The taste of her, the feel of her against me, I’m drunk with her. It's the kind of kiss that sets your soul on fire, that makes you forget everything else but the person in front of you.

As we pull apart, our foreheads rest against each other, our heavy breaths mingling in the night air. The world has shrunk, the vast expanse of the universe just a backdrop to this one moment. I can still feel the warmth of her lips on mine, a lingering sensation that sends a thrill down my spine.

Her eyes flutter open, the stars reflecting in her gaze. Her hands are still on the back of my neck, a steady anchor in the dizzying aftermath of our first kiss.

"Starstruck, huh?" She murmurs, a soft smile playing on her lips.

Starstruck. Yes, that's exactly what I am. Not by the celestial bodies shining down on us, but by the girl in my arms, her eyes twinkling brighter than any star in the night sky.

Amy's eyes never leave mine as she raises her hand. Her thumb moves over the dip of my lower lip, a soft, lingering touch that leaves me breathless. The simple act is charged with an intensity that makes my heat pool in my belly. Her gaze is intense, focused solely on me. I can see a spark in her eyes, a hint of something playful, powerful.

"I like the way you kiss," she murmurs, her voice low and sultry. The sound of it sends a shiver down my spine, a trembling deep inside me. "Do it again."

The assertiveness of her tone is strangely captivating. I find myself drawn to it, to her. My heart beats faster, thumping wildly against my chest as I smile nervously.

Before our lips meet, she stops me with a soft touch, her finger lingering on my lips. The pause is agonizing, thrilling. Then, she leans in, pressing her lips against mine once more. This time, the kiss is deeper, more intense.

Her tongue slips past my lips, exploring, tasting. She takes control with her tongue, working it along my lips, finding my tongue. I let her in, giving her full reign of my mouth. Her taste is intoxicating, the sensation overwhelming. Her teeth find my bottom lip, and she nips me ever so softly. I gasp, feeling the arousal course through me. Nobody has ever done that to me before.

Our bodies press together, the heat between us a palpable force. Her hands wander, tracing the contours of my body through the fabric of my clothes. I want her to strip me down right here and have her way with me, cold be damned. I kiss her even harder, my hands moving down her sides, rounding the corner, lower…

Amy pulls away from me then, and every fiber in me screams for her to come back. She seems to notice my distress, but just smiles at me and gestures toward the telescope.

“So, do you want to see more of Jupiter, or shall we move on to different targets?”

“I… I have my mind on other things.” I stammer out.

“Come on, good things come to those who wait.” She gives me a wink and I melt. “Let’s look at the moon!”

She swings the scope around taking aim, but I’ve got my mind on a different heavenly body.

≋ ≋ ≋

Amy shows me wonderful things, detailed views of the moon’s craters I thought weren’t even possible to see from Earth, nebulae invisible to the naked eye, and more wonders. At a certain point though, I’m getting cold. I shouldn’t have worn something so revealing under this coat. But hey, a girl has to be prepared.

"Okay, I'm freezing my butt off," I confess, wrapping my arms around myself in a vain attempt to ward off the chilly night air. "Let's get out of here."

Amy laughs, the sound bright and clear in the quiet night. She nods, her breath visible in the cold air as she starts to pack up the telescope. The process is methodical, each piece finding its place in the case with a precision that demonstrates years of practice.

"So," I start, watching as Amy packs up the telescope with practiced ease, "What's next for you after graduation?"

Amy pauses, a piece of the telescope in her hand as she considers the question. "I don't know," she admits, a small shrug lifting her shoulders. "I'm not going to grad school right away. But I'm thinking about it. Maybe the year after next. It’d be nice to take a break and travel or something. I have some savings I can burn."

The thought of Amy leaving makes a knot form in my stomach. "Will you move away?" I ask, my voice quieter than I intended. I’m trying to hide the fact that I don’t want her to go away and utterly failing.

A teasing smile plays on her lips as she meets my gaze. "Oh, are you going to miss me that much?"

The playful tone of her voice does little to ease the worry gnawing at me. I swallow, nodding as I meet her gaze. "Yeah," I confirm, my voice serious. "I don’t want you to go away, after all this..." I vaguely gesture between us.

Her teasing demeanor softens, replaced by a genuine warmth that makes my heart beat faster. She sets the piece of the telescope down, stepping closer to me. "That's really sweet, Jo," she murmurs, her eyes twinkling in the moonlight. “I like it when you’re sweet. I also like it when you’re crazy, but I like it when you’re sweet too. You should try it more often.”

Before I can respond, Amy leans in, her lips meeting mine in a soft kiss that sends my heart aflutter. It's brief, but filled with a promise that leaves me breathless.

Pulling back, she gives me a reassuring smile. "Whatever I decide," she assures me, her voice soft, "You'll be the first to know."

Her words provide some relief, a promise that keeps the knot in my stomach from tightening further. I watch as she turns back to the telescope, resuming her task with a renewed determination.

Amy finishes packing up the telescope, securing the latches on the case with a satisfying click. She stands, brushing the debris from her leggings before turning to me with a questioning look in her eyes.

"Walk me to my dorm?" she asks, her voice soft in the quiet night.

I nod, the answer immediate. "Of course," I say. I reach out out to take her hand. Her fingers intertwine with mine, a perfect fit that sends a comfortable warmth spreading through me.

We start walking, hand in hand, the telescope in its case slung over Amy’s shoulder. We slowly move through campus in the quiet night. The journey is silent, but it's a comfortable silence. It's a silence filled with unspoken words, shared glances, and the subtle squeeze of her hand in mine.

As we approach her dorm, I feel nervous, but I’m humming with excitement for what comes next tonight. We stand in front of the door, and Amy turns to me, taking my other hand. She looks into my eyes. I’m obsessed, taken with her completely.

“So,” I start, “Are you going to invite me in?”

Amy gives me a wry smile. “I don’t think so, Jo,” she says softly.

My heart crashes. And then she kisses me, deep, passionate, raw. I feel her tongue on me again and my disappointment vanishes for a moment. I’m so confused, but I keep kissing her.

“Are you sure?” I whisper into her lips. Amy nods in response, but she places a hand on my upper chest, over my heart. Her touch is like electricity against my exposed skin.

“I’m sure. Maybe next time. I want you to build up a little appetite,” her fingers walk down my chest until they find the low neckline of the top I wore for her. I shudder as she explores me.

“I have plenty of appetite, Amy,” I whisper against her lips. She smiles, then slips a finger under the fabric, running her knuckles against my breasts. My breath catches in my throat, and her smile turns sultrier. I’m so wet right now I’m going to have to change panties. In a single motion, she runs her hand laterally across my chest, her knuckle grazing my nipple. I literally shake, my body hitching under her touch.

“I think you can want me more, and I want you to want me with everything you have.” She pulls her hand away, and I don’t think I’ve ever been more frustrated in my life. That very same hand is now pulling down the zipper of her jacket. Down, down it goes. My eyes are glued to what she’s doing, and I see glimpses of flesh and lace through the widening gap.

I’m hypnotized as she opens her jacket, giving me a glimpse of only the top. She’s only got a thin, see-through lacey top on.

She’s right. I can want her more.

“Goodnight, Jo,” she says, folding her jacket closed once more. I’m on fire for her.

“Goodnight, Amy,” I respond, and it’s a husky whisper. Amy turns and starts to unlock the door to her building. I just watch her go.

“Oh, Jo?” Amy turns around, and I perk up like I’ve been pulled on a leash.

“Yeah?”

“Can you do me a favor?”

“Sure?” I say, tentatively.

“Don’t touch yourself until I see you again. Can you do that?”

I swallow hard. I’ll do anything she asks. “I can do that, but it’ll be hard.” Really hard.

Amy gives me a sweet smile. “Good girl. It’ll be worth it, I promise.”

With that, she disappears behind the door to the complex. It closes behind her with a soft click. My head is spinning. Between my legs it’s Niagara Falls.

Why is it always the quiet ones that turn out dominant in the bedroom?

Whatever the reason, I’m not complaining.