Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6
D iego tried to stay still, even as his heart ramped up in his chest, as if stuck in a never-ending box-to-box drill.
Next to him, Kash was boneless and warm in deep sleep, as if she’d finally given up every last bit of her outer shell and had nothing else to keep her together.
He hadn’t meant to climb into bed with her. But she had folded into him like a mewling kitten and clung to him as he pushed to his feet. By the time he had brought her to the bed, she’d been fast asleep. No doubt her climax, after all this time, had completely ravaged her.
He wanted to believe that she trusted him to take care of her. This woman who didn’t let her guard down even with her best friends, trusted him. And he had delivered. Yes, some of it was macho pride but a large part was unadulterated relief that he’d been able to give her what she needed. It brought him more joy than any championship trophy he had ever won, and fuck if he knew what to make of that.
Even now, as he shifted, she curled into his side like her body knew exactly where to go. One arm draped over his stomach, a leg nudged between his. Her cheek pressed over his heart.
Her face though...she looked wrecked. Undone. All the polished perfection stripped away.
Lashes damp, lips parted, skin glowing gold where the moonlight hit it through the open French doors. Her sweaty curls stuck to her cheek. One hand was still bunched into his shirt like she was afraid he’d leave her.
A sigh rattled out of him. She would hate herself for the small weakness, even if it was in sleep. Tonight had been a big breakthrough for her, he got that. But he didn’t want her to run screaming from him because he’d witnessed it.
Would she let him stay when she woke? Or throw him out for every filthy thing he’d said to get her to come?
With Kash, he was damned if he did, damned if he didn’t. A dry chuckle escaped his lips at the thought. When he was around her though, every bit of that aimless lethargy he’d been feeling for months vanished. It was exhilarating, like he was on the pitch again, thousands of fans roaring his name, every move instinctive, the ball glued to his feet. But without the constant threat of bones shattering.
This was deeper. Quieter. Something lighting up in his gut, reminding him he could still feel like this. After years of feeling static.
Slowly, he pulled his arm from under her and untangled himself enough to roll out of the cushiony bed. He smiled when her slumber remained undisturbed.
Walking to the bathroom, while adjusting his painful erection under his tight jeans, he soaked a washcloth in water at the sink and squeezed the excess out. Returning to the bed, he gently wiped her face, starting with her brow, the damp skin above her lip, the hollow of her throat.
She didn’t stir, though her long, feathery lashes danced against those razor-sharp cheekbones. Then, lured in by the thick rose scent of her, he pressed a kiss to her temple.
She mewled, puffed out warm air through those lush lips but didn’t stir.
He let out a breath, then walked around the bed.
The air had shifted—cooler now, creeping through the open doors in slow drafts. Outside, the music from the kids’ pool had finally gone quiet. A muffled shout from across the resort echoed and faded.
He closed the gap in the French doors, his thoughts in a whirl.
A part of him, the rational part of him he nurtured more these days to be a better father to his little girl, urged him to leave. To end this here. He’d given Kash what she needed. If he walked out now, there was still a chance that they could write it off as a transaction.
But his gut, the boy in him that took risk after risk to get somewhere in the competitive field of soccer, screamed at him to stay. His cock was already her bitch anyway.
Even if Kash wanted more, the reality of their situation wouldn’t change. They were a touchstone in each other’s life, for Tia’s sake. Who knew, after this breakthrough, Kash might even throw herself back into the dating game. Might find another man who could shatter her like he had done.
The very thought made his gut twist. And it wasn’t just the fact that he wanted to fuck her back into surrendering to him, wanted to break her all over again and put her back together.
Only for his eyes, only at his hands.
It was more. Around Kash, he felt rooted. Anchored in a way he hadn’t in years. Like something in him had found ground.
Everywhere else—even in the stadiums, the PR meetings, the coaching plans—he was just drifting, making noise, moving through his days.
But here? With her?
It was the next big crossroads. Something he wouldn’t be able to undo if he went forward. But something he would always regret not walking toward.
So, no, he wasn’t leaving, not until she kicked him out. Even then, he’d have it out of her, make her squirm and writhe under his gaze, play with this version of her before her armor was back up again.
* * *
Kash woke slowly, like surfacing through warm water.
For a second, she didn’t move. The air was thick with heat and the quiet hum of a ceiling fan turning above her. A thin thread of Diego’s scent lingered on the pillows, something citrusy. The moonlight had shifted, spilling a duller silver across the rumpled bed and her bare thigh. A breeze filtered in through the open French doors, just cool enough to kiss her skin.
Her core throbbed as she shifted—not painful, just aware. As if her body wasn’t letting go of the memory of what he’d done. The sheets brushed her sensitized skin and sent a shiver crawling over her arms.
She blinked and turned her head.
Diego lay on the bed, casually propped up on one elbow, his gaze fixed on her with a quiet, unreadable intensity.
“I fell asleep,” she murmured. Embarrassment clawed its way into her throat.
“Barely fifteen minutes,” he said, watching her. “You needed it.”
She sat up quickly, tugging the sheet up over her chest.
He reached for the water bottle on the nightstand, opened it, and handed it to her.
Kash took it and drank deep, some of it sloshing down her chin in cooling rivulets.
Her body hummed. Her brain tried to catch up. The night felt surreal, as if she’d been transported into some alternate reality. Which was stupid because the room hadn’t changed. The noises and laughter drifting in from the outside world hadn’t changed.
But she definitely had.
As corny as it sounded, she felt different in her own skin. Freer. Lighter. Unfettered. And underneath all the sudden awkwardness and the torn seams of her composure, something pulsed louder.
Want.
The kind that wasn’t satisfied yet, that whispered there was more of the night left, more of his promises left. “Will you be insulted if I said thank you?” she swallowed. “I needed it, whatever that was.” Without looking at him, she took another sip, just to give her hands something to do.
He chuckled. “Glad to have been of service.”
The water went down the wrong pipe and she spluttered, spraying it everywhere.
His laughter deepened, head slipping off his elbow, his muscled body shaking the bed with his movements.
Kash froze and stared. And stared more.
Hair mussed, t-shirt riding high on his abdomen, jeans hung low on his hips, he looked so good that she wanted to lick him up. The sight of the tight V of his pelvis made her skin hum with renewed hunger.
It was stupid to feel embarrassed after earlier. God, he’d had his tongue up her pussy.
Her shorts lay discarded near the door. Slowly, while holding his gaze, she let the sheet fall. Her nipples poked at the fabric of her top. “You said three times,” she murmured, tone cool, even as heat crawled up her neck. “Is the offer still on?”
His gaze lingered at the pulse over her neck, then tugged up to meet hers. Without a word, he pulled the neckline of his t-shirt behind him and tugged it off.
His leanly defined chest was a feast to her eyes. The flat planes of his stomach made her mouth water. Reaching behind her, she picked up a condom from the nightstand and tossed it at him. “I want one with you inside me.”
He didn’t move or say a word. Just stared at her. For a heartbeat, her pulse spiked, that sharp flicker of rejection making her chest tight.
Then his grin bloomed, like the first rays of spring sun after a long, gloomy winter, searing into your skin, making you glad to be alive.
She prickled under the sunbeam of his gaze, fighting the urge to bask and preen in it. “If you want to go back on your word, that’s fine,” she added, trying to act like it wouldn’t bother her either way.
The grin morphed into laughter. Not mocking or cruel. But a low, genuine sound that vibrated straight through her, warm and rumbling. “Take off that top. I want you naked and writhing under me.”
Swallowing at the promise in his words, Kash pulled her top off and shivered as the breeze kissed her nipples. Under his hot gaze, they pebbled instantly, begging for attention.
“Fuck, your tits are glorious, Dr. Shah.” With that, he collapsed on top of her, giving her his full, breath-stealing weight. Kash thought she might die at the full press of his corded muscles bearing down on her but had zero regrets about it.
Grinning in that devilish way, he dragged himself down, making sure his bare chest glided against her breasts, her belly, and finally settled between her thighs.
“Are you sure you weren’t a prickly cactus in another life?” His face pressed lightly against her stomach as his laughter spilled out.
The contact jolted her. It was too much, too intimate, his skin hot and solid against hers. She could feel every breath, every shift of his shoulders, the sound of his laugh reverberating through her ribs. Settling around her heart. Jolting the electric fence she’d built around it.
“Did you know that cacti absorb water drop by drop and then store it for months?” she added drily, realizing too late how nerdy she sounded.
“Ahh…” Diego said, pretending thoughtful interest, while his eyes glowed with muffled laughter. “I was right about that analogy then?”
She pinched, or tried to pinch, the smooth ridge of his shoulder. He was like velvet poured over concrete under her fingers and all she ended up doing was tracing the thick muscle. “How?”
“You’re storing all the pleasure I give you. Planning to ration it out to yourself? Use it as prime inspirational material for later sessions?” He licked around her bellybutton, and pressed a noisy kiss on top. “If you say please, I’ll record some of the filthier lines on your phone. For you to play back at leisure while you indulge yourself.”
Kash grinned, despite his words searing her, in more ways than one. Warmth pooled at her chest—how easy and comforting he made this, how effortlessly he unraveled her here too.
It was supposed to be sex. Only sex.
Not this warmth and laughter and the sheer joy of being alive in this moment.
She shoved lightly at his shoulder. “Get off me.”
He lifted his head, a wild gleam in his eyes, and again, her breath caught.
Spidery laugh lines creasing at the edges of his eyes, lips curved, dark hair ruffled where she’d tugged at it. His eyes gleamed, warm and sharp, smooth skin stretched taut over rippling muscles.
And it struck her then, how the confused, naughty, failing-in-school teenager who pushed himself, and his body to its edge, to succeed in soccer, had become this grounded, happy, gorgeous man.
And through a strange twist of fate, he was her partner in raising a child, the man who’d seen how close she’d been skating the edge, and he was here in her bed.
Possessiveness she’d never known before clawed at her.
It wasn’t that she wanted to own him so much as the knowing in her gut that he was letting her borrow him. That she only had a fragment of time with him while some other woman would get him for a lifetime. That for the rest of her own life, she would have to watch him find that woman and fall in love, from the sidelines.
It made the urgency under her skin, in her core, thrum keener.
“You look like my laughing’s a contagious disease you just isolated,” he teased.
Despite her gloomy thoughts, her lips twitched. “Why wouldn’t I,” she shot back, with a fake glare, “when you’re laughing at me?”
“Not at you,” he said, eyes never leaving hers. “I’m…” his Adam’s apple bobbed, “amazed by you.”
Her pulse jumped at his easy praise. He was right earlier that she hadn’t ever wanted praise or validation for showing up and being strong. For doing the right thing by her family. But she did wish that she didn’t have to be so, all the time. And only he had seen that. “Why?”
“You never let regrets or self-pity or anything else get you down.”
She shrugged.
He watched her for a beat, something unreadable flickering in his expression. “Since we only have one night, I shouldn’t waste any more time, right?”
“How magnanimous of you to let me have you,” she said, her smile slipping past her lips.
“I promised three orgasms.” He bent his head and pressed another kiss to her stomach. “Although now I wish I’d said ten,” he said, nibbling at her flesh like it was an appetizer.
His mouth moved higher as he crawled over her, making every point of contact tormentingly delicious. He cupped and kneaded her breasts, pressed them together and licked a path down her cleavage. Played with her as if he had all the time in the world and he’d rather be nowhere else.
“Neglected these earlier,” he murmured, almost apologetic, before blowing around the aching peaks.
Kash writhed beneath him, a fresh trail of needy fire licking down to her core. Then, he pinned her, his tongue flicking over her nipple until she gasped, hips shifting under him, seeking to trap that thick hardness where she needed it most.
“Jesus, you’re winding me up again.”
“That’s the point, Preciosa.” When he leaned up to kiss her mouth, she turned her head away. She regretted the juvenile impulse almost immediately. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t kissed once already. But with how desperately she wanted to lose herself in him, it was better this way.
His sigh brushed her collarbone before he kissed his way back down, lips trailing heat along her ribs, her belly. Then, voice rough and low, he murmured against her skin. “You know, it’s not just you who’s floundering a little at all this.”
“Please,” she said, heavy on sarcasm. “Have you seen yourself?”
“Have you?” he retorted. “You know very well that looks or confidence have nothing to do with all this.”
Suddenly, all the preconceptions she’d held on to about him for self-preservation fell away. She sank trembling fingers into his hair and pulled at the thick strands, fighting the tenderness that threatened to overwhelm her. “What did you mean then?”
He sighed and pushed his head up, asking for a deeper touch. Heart thundering, she relented and tugged harder. His mouth trailed warm kisses over her pelvis before he said, “Been a long while for me.”
She swallowed, her pulse hammering. “Long while since what?”
“Since it’s been more than my hand.”
“How long a while?” she asked, quieter now. Even as a different kind of hunger, yearning if she dared to name it, roared under her skin.
He kissed the hollow of her hip, his breath hot. “Four, almost five years.”
The words landed slowly, making her mind whir, taking her out of the present.
It was around the time his ankle had been shattered. Only months before that, Kat had brought him back permanently into their lives, claiming Tia needed him as more than just a guest in her life. Until then, with his busy schedule, he had only visited with Tia here and there.
Had losing soccer thrown him off? Or had he abstained because he’d wanted to get back with Kat? The thought of him with her sister like this, sent ants crawling over her skin, inside her head. But it wasn’t shame as much as it was pure jealousy.
A hot rush of possessiveness had her raking her nails down the nape of his neck.
“Fuck, are you getting hot at the idea of getting my full load?” Diego teased, eyes dark and wicked. “You like knowing that I haven’t fucked anyone in a long while, don’t you?” His long fingers dug into her hips, leaving dimply divots. Then he dragged his mouth lower, lingering right over her pussy. Kash squirmed at his warm breath coasting over her folds. “You like it that it’s this pussy, these tits, these long legs that I’ve been panting over? You like it that you’ve got me twisted inside out all these months, don’t you?”
Every word landed like a soothing rain drop on parched earth.
Kash clutched his shoulders and dragged herself up. She clasped his jaw, her heart a thundering drumbeat in her chest. “And you know that only you could take me apart, Diego,” she whispered, something cracking open in her chest. She placed a soft kiss at the corner of his mouth. “Please, give me more. Fuck me into oblivion. Use me thoroughly.”
Brown eyes held hers and for once, she didn’t flinch or pull away.
It felt like a rite of fire she had to go through tonight.
First her body, her mind, and now her heart. Although she wished she could keep the latter enclosed in a steel cage.
Kat wasn’t here. Whether Diego had wanted to get back with her was irrelevant. As was Simon.
The past was gone, done. Only the smoky fingers of grief remained and always would. But she couldn’t breathe anymore under its weight, couldn’t let it drag her down. And not just for the little girl she loved as her own.
This wonderful man had brought her back to life, and she was more than thankful for him. For this new awareness. Leaning in, she rubbed her cheek against his. “Take whatever you need, Diego. I’m all yours.”