When You Were Mine

Just like that, her heart was already beating faster as his intense eyes stared into hers. She knew he was going to kiss her, and she was going to let him.

He did. Softy. Sweetly. And she kissed him back. “Why do you get so crazy?” he whispered.

She pulled her lips away from his, pushing her hand against his chest again. “Why do I get so crazy? What about you and your bulldog? You know that little tag-team thing you guys pull every time you see me talking to another guy or even when you do it on your own is getting old, Alex. You can’t just—”

“Yes, I can,” he said immediately, pressing his big body against hers, then traced her lips with his tongue. “And you know I will”—he nipped her bottom lip—“every time.” He kissed her deeper this time, longer, as he usually did when they were about to make love, making her tingle in all the right places at that most inopportune moment. He finally eased up and came up for air. “And for the record, I’ve never asked Romero to do anything.” He laughed against her lips. “You know that guy. That’s all him.”

Valerie could smile, thinking back now. After that she ended up at the Moreno’s booth until the end of the festival, having as good a time as she had the previous year. The girls that came by were still annoying, but Alex did plenty of holding her hand and kissing her, so the girls got it. Like with Angel, they toned their flirting way down, and Romero was more than happy to make up for the lack of single guys.

This year she’d be there from the beginning. She still had a lot of studying to do for her state test, but there was no way she was passing up getting to spend this much time with Alex.

Valerie already knew the drill. She’d been coming to this festival since she was a little girl. Each booth had three menu items and a specialty drink they were offering at a low price for people to sample. This year Moreno’s had a mini chimichanga, a carne asada sope, two taquitos with the works and, for the drink, a mini version of their signature peach mojito.

Valerie and Alex were assigned to the sope station, where they mostly giggled and groped and kissed each other every chance they got. This kind of playfulness so openly in front of others wasn’t unusual for them. It never had been, but there was something different this time. Normally they were teased about getting a room because Alex was all over her with his usual inability to keep his hands and lips off her.

While she loved how easily she drove him insane, this time felt so much sweeter. He kept leaning into her ear to whisper things like how beautiful she was or how incredible she smelled. Instead of sneaking in quick passionate kisses, he kissed her forehead several times or just hugged her from behind, breathing in deeply. Sal had even cracked a joke about the “two love birds” at the sope station, slacking off. Those kinds of remarks were typically reserved for Sarah and Angel or even Sofie and Eric.

Valerie never minded that she and Alex were treated more like the horny couple always full of drama. How could she even pretend to be insulted? They were that couple! Still she couldn’t help being excited by this turn of events. Sarah had even given her a knowing and excited smile. She, too, had picked up on things being different.

Valerie had taken a break just out in the back of their tent when Alex stepped out still wearing his plastic gloves. Valerie grinned when she saw the sour cream and powdered cojito cheese on his fingers—her favorite. “You ready to go take a little stroll around the festival?” he asked, beginning to pull off one of the gloves. “Sal’s back. He and Leslie can take over the sopes for a while.”

“Wait,” she said before he could pull off the second glove.

He watched as she took his hand and brought his finger to her mouth, sucking it clean. “Stop!” he whispered, looking around a bit panicked as she took two of his fingers all the way in her mouth and sucked hard. “Jesus,” he said, wrapping his other arm around her neck. “We’re gonna have to go back to the van now.”

“Let’s go.” She giggled, feeling a little evil because, with him leaning into her, she could already feel the confirmation against her hip that he wasn’t exaggerating.

He pulled back to look at her wide-eyed then glanced around. “It’s too risky. There are lots of people still coming and going in that parking garage.”

“Even better.” She giggled.

The second he was done pulling off both gloves he dumped them in the nearby trashcan and patted the front of his pants down. “You’re nuts, you know that?”

The way he eyed her she could tell he was trying to figure out if she was serious or not, but she could also see the smoldering heat becoming more intense in his eyes the longer he stared at her. “I thought that’s what you liked most about me,” she said, sucking the tip of her own finger teasingly.

“Stop that!” he practically groaned.

Before she could stop, he took her hand. “Let’s go.” He leaned quickly into the tent of their booth. “We’re taking off for a little while. You guys are cool in here, right?”

After getting the okay, they were off. Valerie’s heart sped up when she realized he was actually headed to the parking garage. “If we get arrested,” he said, turning back to her, “I’m telling my parents this was all you.”

She laughed at that, picking up her step to keep up with him. Glad that her shorts were loose, her insides were already bursting. Being with Alex was always exciting—passionate. But when they did things like this, it only heightened that excitement. Alex wasn’t a little guy. So being discreet was a challenge.