Chapter 11
CHAPTER 11
T he house was quiet and still but breathing. With that late-night hush that settled over people and walls and warm beds after too much food, too much chatter, too many threads left unfinished.
Unsurprisingly, Kash couldn’t sleep. The cool duvet felt like a punishment against her bare legs, the walls surrounding her like it was an escape room she had to get out of.
No, not to escape as much as to seek him out.
She tried to talk herself out of it. But her thoughts kept circling the same dangerous look in his eyes as he recalled lurid details she barely forgot for a moment. It was as if he’d slipped a hand between her thighs right there in the kitchen and stirred the ache she’d been trying to crush.
He hadn’t pushed the memory of the night to the depths of his soul, like she had tried to.
Eyes gleaming with that devilish glint, he made it clear that he still wanted her. In response to the mere memory, her body buzzed with need. Like she needed to be grounded, and he was the only thing that could steady her.
And despite her best efforts to move on, she wanted one more kiss, one more gentling at his hands while he roughly stroked into her. A sweaty sheen broke out on her skin, and she sat up on the bed.
What did it even mean to continue this madness with him? How far could she go before it cost her more than she could afford?
Worse—what if she started to need him?
A serrated laugh broke through her lips. What was this humming under her skin, if not need?
The idea of anyone finding out—her mother, Kaif, Muriel—made her skin prickle with alarm. Even the fact that there were people in the house didn’t make a difference. Her legs fairly shook with the need to find him.
With a muffled cry, Kash threw her head back. If she went to him, it had to be with the full understanding that it was a fling. Until the wedding madness died down, until one of them put an end to it.
Until he decided he had had enough. Because he would—he was young and going places and figuring out his purpose in life again. He would want to spend his life with someone who knew how to be easy and sweet and loving, who didn’t have to be broken apart to respond and live.
A woman who hadn’t given up on love.
Whereas she couldn’t foresee a day where she wouldn’t want to be with him. He had burrowed himself deep under her skin already.
Shaking like a leaf, she pressed her palm to her chest. Her heart thumped like a traitor, telling her how much she craved his company. Not just his mouth or his hands or the way he could destroy her composure with a single look, but his voice.
His calm. His steadiness, unexpected and real.
The way she didn’t have to be strong or perfect around him, the way she didn’t have to hide her fears or her pettiness because he’d already seen it and hadn’t run away screaming.
She wasn’t going to him for sex or an orgasm or even a kiss.
She just... wanted to talk. See if he needed anything. Look after him once, instead of the other way around. Hadn’t he been asking his cousins for an extra charger earlier? And ibuprofen?
She was racking through her nightstand drawer before she realized she had slipped out of bed and put on a robe.
It wasn’t like she could fall asleep anyway.
* * *
The floorboards creaked underfoot as Kash padded down the hallway. Faint moonlight spilled through the skylight near the kitchen. She quickly opened the door to Tia’s bedroom. Her soft snores made Kash smile.
Somewhere, a pipe groaned. Her mother’s room was quiet. Muriel’s friends were in the den.
Everything was still.
The guest room door was closed.
She knocked, her fingertips clinging to the wood. “It’s Kash. Can I come in?”
When he rumbled something close to a yes, she slipped in before she could change her mind. Or before he did.
The door opened with the faintest click.
Somewhere, the heater, or was it AC, kicked in with a hum that made her jump. Slowly, Kash closed the door behind her and pasted her back to it.
The scents hit her first.
The room smelled like him—fresh soap, faint sweat, and something warm and musky. The overhead light was off, but the standing lamp near the window cast a soft amber glow over everything. And then there was the moonlight—bright, full, flooding in from the large window directly across from where he stood.
Where he stood, leaning back against the edge of the bed, facing the window, his hips thrust slightly forward. One hand braced on the mattress behind him, the other wrapped around the thick length of his cock.
Pre-cum beaded at the tip of the swollen head.
Kash’s skin buzzed with a roar that could rival the AC unit. His sweatpants were shoved low on his hips, loose enough to reveal all of him, tight enough to cling to his thighs.
With his T-shirt gone, a faint sheen of sweat shimmered across his chest, the skin stretched taut over clenched muscles. Moonlight poured over his shoulders and down his upper back like silver paint.
Her breath caught.
You said you wanted to talk, the drowning rational voice whispered in one last feeble attempt. The house is full of people, it said next.
But somehow that made it worse. Made it better. Made her want it more. As if it was a window out of her real life and she didn’t have to justify it.
Just one more time, to see what he tasted like. How he’d use her mouth. How he’d look when he exploded.
He knew it was her when he’d asked her to come in. He knew she would see him like this, in the throes of pleasure, his neck corded, a vein bulging in his temple. “Diego?”
He turned his head but didn’t move to cover himself. Didn’t flinch. His eyes met hers like he’d known she would come. Like he’d been waiting.
The air between them thickened.
She tried to move her tongue to speak. Failed utterly. Stared some more as his large hand squeezed and tugged at his cock. Her knees trembled, her thong was wet. “I didn’t mean to...” she licked her lips and tried again. “I thought you might want your charger. And some ibuprofen. You told Muriel you felt like you were run over by a truck and?—”
The items in her hand slipped from her fingers and thumped to the rug. She scrambled to her knees to grab them.
From above her, his voice dropped, amused and low. “This is better than my hottest dreams of you, Dr. Shah.”
Heat slammed into her spine, pooled molten at her core. She looked up, startled.
His cock was still in his hand, the head bulging outside his tight fist on every stroke. His eyes were dark pools of lust.
She straightened slowly but didn’t rise fully. If she moved a little, she could anchor her hands on his muscled thighs, could lick the tip and taste his arousal. “Do you want me to leave?”
His gaze mocked hers even as he continued to stroke himself. “Do you want to? The clarity you’ve achieved should light your way.”
Kash’s throat felt dry. Her mouth said the truth before she could stop it. “Clarity and common sense are overrated. Although, I came over to just have a chat.”
“I know you’re working on yourself, but I didn’t think you a coward, Kash.”
She swallowed. “I’m not making it up.” Looking up at him so that he could see the truth in her eyes was the hardest thing she’d ever done. “Do I want to be fucked by you until I see stars again? Yes. But I wanted your company more. The first I could control, the second not so much.”
Something flashed in his eyes, but he shoved it away. “I’m not in the mood for chitchat. You should go.”
She fidgeted on her knees in a very ungainly manner.
“If you come any closer, you might choke on my cock, Dr. Shah”
“And if that’s exactly what I want?”
“Why?”
She laughed and gave a nod toward the hard length in his hand. “Do I need more reasons when that thing is staring at me in the face?”
The white of his grin made her blink. God, the man was beautiful.
“Anyway, I want to return the favor you did me in Cancun.”
He cocked his head, the edge of anger curling his mouth. “There are no favors between us. No strings. No IOUs.” His voice dropped further. Rough silk. “Anything you want to do to me, or with me… the only reason should be that you want to.”
“I want to suck you off. Please.” Her voice was barely audible while every inch of her thrummed with excitement. “I’m kind of good at a blow job.” She raised her hand, palm out, like a girl scout. “I promise to swallow every drop of your cum.”
He let out a harsh breath, gaze dragging over her face, her chest, her thighs bared by her nightgown riding up. “Get rid of the robe.”
She shrugged it off. The cool night air kissed her bare shoulders while between her thighs, it was like an inferno. The gown had a low neckline that showed off the swells of her breasts.
And under his thorough gaze, her nipples beaded instantly.
Diego stepped back, until the backs of his thighs hit the bed, and pointed to the floor in front of him. “Crawl to me.”
She hesitated.
And in that pause, he added, voice like velvet laced with sin. “You like this part, don’t you? Sneaking into my room like I’m your filthy secret. You like the fact that you’re going to suck me off with a house full of people that will most probably judge you if they find out.”
Her spine tingled. Her breasts ached.
He wasn’t wrong. He wasn’t fully right either. Yes, there was an added buzz in her blood at how deliciously wrong this felt. But deep down, she knew that everything that involved this man was exactly right for her.
As if the universe had brought them to this space and time for them to be entangled just so.
But she didn’t tell him that. She didn’t think she would ever be able to.
Instead, she crawled to him on her knees, her core fluttering, her nipples peaking. And her heart soaring like an untethered kite in the sky.