Page 32 of Bad At Love
“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’resonot herewith me,” Mona said loudly, pushing her elbow into Chaaru’s side. Her bestie was buzzedandmad 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 toFleetwood Mac’s Dreamsstarted up on three giant plasma screens.
