Page 13 of Not In Love

His knees hit the carpet before he made up his mind.

Her lovely mouth fell open in an O. It was a bluff, of course. She hadn’t really expected him to do it.

He looked up at her, pulse hammering in his ears. “I was out of line, Kash. Forgive me.”

A filthy curse flew from her pretty lips, making him laugh.

“Jesus, Diego,” she said, panting as if she’d been running. “I didn’t mean for you to actually?—”

He reached for her waistband and tugged until her balance faltered, and he could bury his face in her lower belly. An explosion of that rose scent filled his nostrils, and beneath that, the musky thread of her arousal. All Kash.

The claws of her nails dug into his shoulders as she looked down, her gaze dark. The tip of her tongue snaked out to lick her lower lip. She was vibrating with that unnamed ache he had spied in her eyes for months now.

His voice turned low and rough as he pulled at the elastic of her boy shorts and let it snap back against her flesh. His mouth watered in anticipation. “Since you’ve got me here,” he said, gaze locked on hers, “why don’t I relieve you of your frustration?”

“What?”

He skimmed his thumb over the edge of her shorts. “Use me, Doc, to get yourself over the edge.”

“Why are you doing this?”

Her confusion was the most adorable thing he’d ever seen.

He licked his lips, loving the string of tension tightening between them as she waited for his answer. The words floated to his lips easily, sweet but with a bite, just like the woman he was saying them to. “I like you, Kash, and I want to help you out of a tight spot.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“That the person you hate can like you?”

Color crested her cheeks. “I don’t... hate you. Hatred takes a lot of energy I don’t have. I just don’t care one way or the other about you.”

“Ouch,” he said, hand on his chest.

A thoughtful expression dawned in her eyes as she looked down at him and took one step back. Her sigh was a rattling exhale. “This shouldn’t affect how we show up for Tia, in any way,” she said, her words steady.

Diego stared at her.

“I’ll sign the custody papers when they’re ready. As long as you don’t throw any curveballs at me.”

Their gazes held as he spoke through a dry mouth. “You will?”

She nodded. “I... never realized that I made you question your place in Tia’s life. Of course, I trust you with her. The last three years would have been a special kind of hell without you steadying us. So, yeah, thank you.”

“I was just doing my job, Kash.”

“With Tia? Yes. But you’ve been... kind to me too, even though I don’t need it. Definitely didn’t earn it.”

Diego swallowed at how wrong he’d gotten her.

Kash was a tough nut to crack, but it didn’t mean there was no softness beneath.

Even as a boy, he’d known she was different. While the rest of them—him, her brother Kaif, and Katrina—had viewed their lower-middle class upbringing as challenges, she’d always aimed high.

Studied hard to land on every scholarship list she possibly could on the way to med school. Helped Kaif stay on the straight and narrow after he’d gotten into trouble with some bad kids. Kept the family together by using every free minute to help her mother with her catering business.

He’d always admired her no-nonsense attitude, her fierce ambition, the way she never gave a damn about pleasing anyone because she was fighting for survival.

Even when he’d been dating Katrina, this woman had left an impression on him. After all the missteps he’d made in his life, he wasn’t ashamed to admit that he’d always been interested in her.

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