Page 20 of Not In Love

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.

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