Chapter 13
13
C haaru stared around in wonder as they walked through the resort's expansive courtyard. A gentle breeze, laced with a hint of coolness, danced through the palm trees that lined the entrance, their fronds swaying softly. Against her overheated skin, the breeze felt perfect.
Excitement and trepidation filled her. She’d just gotten off on his fingers while there had been other people in the car. But walking into a resort while holding hands like an actual couple threw her.
When she shivered, DP pulled her close. He smelled like sweat and soap and her, and it was both comforting and jarring.
The foyer gleamed with pristine white floors and glittering marble counters. A pool surrounded by large floor lanterns throwing out dreamy patches of light beckoned on one side while the dark velvet of the ocean shimmered on the other. The vast space looked like some otherworldly portal between two worlds, and it was exactly what she needed.
For an entire week, she was going to leave her mortgage, bills, and backbreaking work behind and enter a fantasy world with the man she trusted more than any other in the world. Who could, apparently, get her off like the cork off a champagne bottle.
Disentangling herself, she walked around, trying to get her head straight. In the few minutes that he talked to the receptionist, she already missed his touch.
Her jumbled emotions lingered as they took the elevator to the nineteenth floor surrounded by other guests. Their room felt like an official title, like a stamp on a paper or a chain around her heart. Granted, a very delicate, barely formed beautiful chain, but a chain anyway. A part of her wanted to yank it away and start running. Blowing a breath out, she examined the source of her…disquiet.
She shouldn’t be surprised that DP was the kind of man who would ask his lover what she liked and delivered it a hundredfold. That he would hold his lover’s trembling body as if she were precious. That he’d look deep into her eyes even as he finger-fucked her raw.
Compartmentalizing her explosive climax would be easier if he had been a little less considerate, a little less into her desires, just a little less…DP. But that was like asking a sunbeam to turn itself into a dim streetlight.
Mona had had it right. In some tiny corner of her battered heart, Chaaru had known that DP and her coming together would be a conflagration. Was that why she’d tried to match him with other women? To keep him from knocking her out at the knees like this?
Fresh shock filled her as she followed DP into the room. To say Mona and Dom were generous had always been an understatement. But this was…ridiculous.
Their room was a…luxury suite with a sitting lounge, a gorgeous ocean view and a tiled terrace. Geometrical in shape, it had a chic contemporary vibe even as it embraced the local beach and jungle motifs. Fresh flowers and sparkling wine sat on the coffee table in the sitting lounge.
“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” she said, walking to the bath the size of her two bedrooms combined. Even the toiletries were expensive designer brands. She greedily wondered how many refills she could store away in a week. “Or am I still riding the high from my orgasm?”
Standing in the middle of the suite, DP shrugged. “It’s a lovely room.”
His stoic practicality made her laugh. “It’s a fucking suite, DP. Just the bed itself is making me swoon.”
The culprit was a large king bed with white down duvet that looked like a cloud that would swallow her whole. From the bed, they could see into the large terrace. Beyond that, turquoise waters as far as the eye could see, with the horizon nothing but a tantalizing promise at the far end.
Something came at her as she smelled the fresh flowers and eyed the wine. Anything beyond cardboard wine coolers was outside her meager budget, but she worked for some of the richest families on the eastside. That wine bottle was not cheap. “Wait! You were talking to the receptionist for way too long. You got us the upgrade?”
Again, DP shrugged.
Chaaru looked around, her initial excitement fading. “DP, this is way too expensive. I can’t let you -”
“I did it so that we can both enjoy this week. Don’t make a big deal out of it.”
“DP, you hate wasteful spending. And it’s not like you’re loaded.”
“No, I’m not,” he said, an edge sneaking into his tone. “But like you said, I’m careful with money and I have no mortgage and damn it…I want this for you.” He clasped her cheeks with a tenderness that threatened to unravel her. “There’s a reason Kaasi was flipping out about your spending. You work so hard. Is it so wrong if I want to give you a pleasant experience for once?”
“This is hardly just pleasant, DP. This is…” Catching the look in his eyes, she swallowed her words. “What if I chip in…”
He turned away abruptly, his jaw tight. “I will ask them to switch us back to the room that Mona booked.”
“No, wait,” Chaaru said, throwing her arms around his shoulders to halt him. She pressed her cheek to his back, loving the solid strength of him in her hands. “Don’t, please. I won’t say another word. I love it. If you must know, I was already calculating how many of those designer toiletries I could steal.”
He laughed, and it echoed through her body, filling her with a warm gooeyness. Threading his fingers through hers, he kissed the back of her hand. When he spoke, a tendril of tension echoed through him. “I went too fast, starting it up in the car.”
“Not at all.”
“But?” he said. “We’ve always been honest with each other, sweetheart. That doesn’t have to change because we’re doing this. If anything, it’s your honesty that’s always drawn me in.”
Her heart spasmed in her chest. What she wouldn’t give to hear where this had begun for him but a small part of her was also terrified. God, she was a coward. She rubbed her breasts against his back shamelessly and moaned as ringlets of pleasure curled through her. “And here I was hoping it was my tiny tits.”
“You want to know what else?” he said, licking at a fingertip.
“Yes,” she said, playing along.
“It’s those thick thighs and that curvy ass. I’ve had the filthiest dreams about both.”
She dug her teeth into the thick rope of his shoulder and exhaled. The least he deserved was open communication. “I want this week to go well so badly that I’m…jumping from excitement to dread.”
“What’s throwing you right now?”
“I’ve never had a lover who has gotten me off like that.”
“Explain,” he said, the starchy command he used at work seeping into the word.
Chaaru buried her soft whimper in his shirt as that tone went straight to her clit. Who knew there could be so many ways he could turn her on?
“That was our first time together, and you knocked the daylights out of me. I’ve never…climaxed with such intensity. I mean, outside of a vibrator.”
He pulled her to face him, his hands landing on her hips with a proprietary touch. “How is that possible? You have been with…” When she raised her brows, he grinned. “I will not finish that sentence.”
She smacked his chest playfully. Then, because he was a hunk of a man, she dug her fingernails into the muscle. The way he’d already put a hook in her heart and was jostling it around.
He grunted but didn’t come closer. As if he knew how fragile she felt and would take any excuse to get out of talking. “You would be surprised by how many men actually don't listen to their partner’s needs,” she finally said.
He scowled. And she was suddenly immersed in that feeling that she’d only ever gotten around him. Of knowing she was being heard and understood.
She threw herself at him impulsively, inhaling the pine scent of him into her lungs. “I want this, DP. So much. Just…please be patient with me.”
Thick arms roping around her, he squeezed her tight. “I’m not going anywhere, sweetheart. Whatever speed you need, I’m here for it.”
They stayed like that for a long while. Chaaru couldn’t verbalize how much she appreciated his silence, for not pushing her or pulling back. For just letting her be a mess in her head, but not alone with it.
* * *
“You’re so not here with me,” Mona said loudly, pushing her elbow into Chaaru’s side. Her bestie was buzzed and mad at her currently missing husband. Around them, the nightclub pulsed with an electric energy that permeated every corner of the opulent space.
The DJ, perched high above the dance floor on a glittering platform, spun a hypnotic mix of pulsating beats that reverberated through the air, coaxing couples onto the dance floor. Bathed in the soft glow of neon lights, it looked like a sea of bodies moving in perfect harmony.
Nearby, the karaoke bar beckoned, its stage adorned with twinkling lights.
Amidst the swirling lights and throbbing bass, Chaaru felt a surge of anticipation. “I’m here and ready to party,” she said, knocking back her second mango mojito. Not that she needed the punch from the rum to feel dizzy. Just waiting for DP to show up was enough.
When she’d come out of a long shower earlier, it was to an empty suite. On the nightstand, she’d found a note in his neat handwriting.
Going out with Dom on an errand.
Her heart felt like a ping-pong ball, needing to touch him when he gave her the very space she needed.
After putting on her dress, she’d thrown her makeup bag into a tote, and hightailed it to Mona’s suite.
Looking around their table at the nightclub now, she frowned. The first evening of their weeklong celebration and Dom had been absent all evening. The man had a history of being gobbled up by work. Justifiably, Mona was handling it by getting progressively drunk.
When the DJ turned off the music and announced they were switching to karaoke, Mona jumped off her chair. Laughing, Chaaru tailed her to the small dais. Crowding the DJ, her bestie found something she liked, rewarded him with a hug that Chaaru apologized for and strutted to the center of the stage.
As the music poured in through the speakers, it took Chaaru a few seconds to recognize the song. Right on cue, the lyrics to Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams started up on three giant plasma screens.
Chaaru mouthed ‘You say you want your freedom …’ into the mic, the music weaving through her already giddy senses. Mona joined her, her voice a nice bass. The crowd cheered and laughed as they sang at different pitches, making right asses of themselves. As she searched for DP’s rugged face and broad shoulders among the crowd, Chaaru marveled at how universal and timeless Stevie Nicks’ lyrics were.
And then there he was. Standing behind their table next to Dom, dressed in a white dress shirt that hugged the hell out of his broad chest. Watching her. Wanting her with a quiet relentlessness as he’d done all these years. Even across the distance and the noise and the crowd, she could feel the leisurely sweep of his gaze as it took in how the sheath dress clung to her curves, all the way to the three-inch stilettos she’d braved for the evening.
Chaaru knew she looked good. But seeing the effect on DP was a total trip. Mic in one hand, she sank the other in her hair and did a slow roll of her body. His white grin flashed, and he lifted his glass in her direction. A new electric energy filled her limbs, dispelling the earlier fears.
God, his gaze on her and that warm smile just for her…made her pulse race. He was everything she’d wanted as a partner once and now, he could be hers fully. If she didn’t let the past ruin it…
Bewildered as she had been all evening, she knew what she’d choose between heartache and loneliness this time around. She’d had enough of the second and for this man, she was ready to brave the first.
* * *
When she and Mona returned after killing ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’, the table was full with the other four couples. Introductions flew. One half of the fifth couple was Mona’s oldest friend Dr. Kashmira Shah. Over the years, Chaaru and she had also grown close.
Kash was a powerhouse cardiologist and a sexy bombshell who was raising her sister’s ten-year-old daughter, after losing her husband and sister in the same car accident.
Whooping, Kash enveloped them in a hug that was like being embraced by a lush bouquet of velvety rose petals. They giggled and kissed and hugged each other some more. With her heading the cardiology department at a big hospital in Portland and now a full-time parent, they didn’t see her a lot.
By the time Chaaru could catch the eye of a waiter, Kash plonked herself between her and DP at the table. On the other side, Mona was shooting daggers at Dom, even as she played hostess.
Platters of delicious appetizers arrived. Chaaru dug into everything with a relish, even though the shapewear she had under the dress threatened to cut off her circulation.
Mouth full, she nodded and laughed and drank as the conversation flowed around her seamlessly. Other than Kash and Mona’s cousin Minty, who hadn’t arrived yet, she didn’t know the other couples and was happy to listen to the chatter.
It took her a while to note that little white square plates kept appearing in front of her from Kash’s side. Leaning back, Chaaru glanced at DP calmly preparing plate after plate with delicacies and passing them to her. An intense rush of…longing filled her at his quiet attention. They hadn’t exchanged a word in the last couple of hours. Still, she could feel him in her heart, her body, as if he had a claim on both.
Neither did she miss the easy camaraderie and the intimate body language between him and Kash. The latter had leaned in and kissed his cheek lingeringly when she sat down. Then Chaaru remembered the intriguing little fact that DP and she had been an item in high school.
Sudden violent jealousy made the seafood roll taste like grass in her mouth. “So where’s your plus one?” she asked, putting a hand on Kash’s shoulder.
“Yeah, about that,” Kash said, casting a wide smile at DP. “I didn’t bring anyone.”
“Why didn’t you let me bring someone for you then?” Mona said. Everyone around the table laughed at her offer. “I don’t want you to feel left out at the couples’ activities.”
Kash shrugged. “My mom and niece Tia are in the connecting resort, and so is my nanny.”
“Isn’t your nanny Diego, the retired soccer player?” Mona interrupted with a mischievous smile.
“He is also Tia’s biological father.” Kash rolled her eyes, a wealth of sentiment in it. “My usual nanny retired recently, and I couldn’t find one in time. For reasons I don’t get, Tia adores Diego, so I took him up on his offer. Anyway, I plan to spend a couple of hours in the afternoon with Tia. And I didn’t need some man-child complaining that I wasn’t prioritizing him. As for being left out, I have a plan.” The last she said in Chaaru’s direction.
Chaaru’s cheeks flamed. “Kash, hon, I know you’re pansexual but I’m-”
“Eww…” Kash said, eyes twinkling. “Babe, you’re like my…sister.”
Chaaru laughed. “Oh, thank God!”
Kash bent towards her. “Actually, I was hoping you’d switch with me.”
“Switch what with you?” Chaaru asked, even though she had an inkling of her friend’s diabolical plan.
“You room, silly,” Kash said, wriggling her brows. “I know you and DP came together so that some idiots don’t ruin our time with Mona and Dom.”
“Yeah, so?”
“So I heard that DP’s finally free of his responsibilities and dating again. I want to see if there’s something that can be resuscitated between us. Get it?” She laughed at her own joke. “Resuscitate our desire for each other.”
Chaaru’s smile was so fake that it was a wonder it didn’t fall off her lips. Beyond Kash, she could see DP’s lips curve. He was listening to the man next to him, even responding, but was aware of everything Kash was saying to Chaaru. Was that beatific smile because he was flattered by Kash’s interest?
He turned, and their eyes met. Pure challenge glinted in his expression before he flattened it. His eyes were red-rimmed, which meant he was already a little buzzed. Or else he’d never let her see his true feelings.
In the blink of an eye, she had seen such a wealth of longing that her chest felt tight. “I can’t switch with you, Kash,” she said, without breaking away from his hypnotic pull. Even as fear stuttered and whispered that she wasn’t good enough to be wanted like that. That when he delved deeper, he might find her…unworthy.
There was that damned word again.
“Oh please, please babe,” Kash begged, as if she were asking to swap dresses for prom. “I came prepared to sex him up and maybe even take him home -”
“No, Kash, listen -”
“Men like DP are thin on the ground, Char. You can’t just friend-zone him and decide that none of us can have him. It’s not like-”
“You can’t have him,” Chaaru said, raising her voice to be heard above the din surrounding them, “because DP’s mine.” Her possessive declaration came through loud and clear since all the noise and music cut out at the exact moment. “At least, for the week.” The last bit, she whispered to herself.
Mona’s ‘ OMG, it’s finally fucking happening ’ broke the silence, followed by Dom’s drunk cheer. And then came Kash’s rancor-free, ‘Way to lock that prime piece of beef down, bae!’
A soft, slow, pure-sunshine smile kicked up one corner of DP’s mouth. Chaaru’s heart gave a fierce, hard kick in her chest. As if his smile had jumpstarted it back to life after being dead for years.