Page 31 of Bad At Love

When she pressed a soft kiss to the corded column of his throat, his arms around her became tighter, and his lips drifted to her temple.

Chaaru felt that contact all the way to the core of her battered and bent heart.

13

Chaaru stared around in wonder as they walked through the resort's expansive courtyard. A gentle breeze, laced with a hint of coolness, danced through the palm trees that lined the entrance, their fronds swaying softly. Against her overheated skin, the breeze felt perfect.

Excitement and trepidation filled her. She’d just gotten off on his fingers while there had been other people in the car. But walking into a resort while holding hands like an actual couple threw her.

When she shivered, DP pulled her close. He smelled like sweat and soap and her, and it was both comforting and jarring.

The foyer gleamed with pristine white floors and glittering marble counters. A pool surrounded by large floor lanterns throwing out dreamy patches of light beckoned on one side while the dark velvet of the ocean shimmered on the other. The vast space looked like some otherworldly portal between two worlds, and it was exactly what she needed.

For an entire week, she was going to leave her mortgage, bills, and backbreaking work behind and enter a fantasy world with the man she trusted more than any other in the world. Who could, apparently, get her off like the cork off a champagne bottle.

Disentangling herself, she walked around, trying to get her head straight. In the few minutes that he talked to the receptionist, she already missed his touch.

Her jumbled emotions lingered as they took the elevator to the nineteenth floor surrounded by other guests.Their roomfelt like an official title, like a stamp on a paper or a chain around her heart. Granted, a very delicate, barely formed beautiful chain, but a chain anyway. A part of her wanted to yank it away and start running. Blowing a breath out, she examined the source of her…disquiet.

She shouldn’t be surprised that DP was the kind of man who would ask his lover what she liked and delivered it a hundredfold. That he would hold his lover’s trembling body as if she were precious. That he’d look deep into her eyes even as he finger-fucked her raw.

Compartmentalizing her explosive climax would be easier if he had been a little less considerate, a little less into her desires, just a little less…DP. But that was like asking a sunbeam to turn itself into a dim streetlight.

Mona had had it right. In some tiny corner of her battered heart, Chaaru had known that DP and her coming together would be a conflagration. Was that why she’d tried to match him with other women? To keep him from knocking her out at the knees like this?

Fresh shock filled her as she followed DP into the room. To say Mona and Dom were generous had always been an understatement. But this was…ridiculous.

Theirroomwas a…luxury suite with a sitting lounge, a gorgeous ocean view and a tiled terrace. Geometrical in shape, it had a chic contemporary vibe even as it embraced the local beach and jungle motifs. Fresh flowers and sparkling wine sat on the coffee table in the sitting lounge.

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” she said, walking to the bath the size of her two bedrooms combined. Even the toiletries were expensive designer brands. She greedily wondered how many refills she could store away in a week. “Or am I still riding the high from my orgasm?”

Standing in the middle of the suite, DP shrugged. “It’s a lovely room.”

His stoic practicality made her laugh. “It’s a fucking suite, DP. Just the bed itself is making me swoon.”

The culprit was a large king bed with white down duvet that looked like a cloud that would swallow her whole. From the bed, they could see into the large terrace. Beyond that, turquoise waters as far as the eye could see, with the horizon nothing but a tantalizing promise at the far end.

Something came at her as she smelled the fresh flowers and eyed the wine. Anything beyond cardboard wine coolers was outside her meager budget, but she worked for some of the richest families on the eastside. That wine bottle was not cheap. “Wait! You were talking to the receptionist for way too long. You got us the upgrade?”

Again, DP shrugged.

Chaaru looked around, her initial excitement fading. “DP, this is way too expensive. I can’t let you -”

“I did it so that we can both enjoy this week. Don’t make a big deal out of it.”

“DP, you hate wasteful spending. And it’s not like you’re loaded.”

“No, I’m not,” he said, an edge sneaking into his tone. “But like you said, I’m careful with money and I have no mortgage and damn it…I want this for you.” He clasped her cheeks with a tenderness that threatened to unravel her. “There’s a reason Kaasi was flipping out about your spending. You work so hard. Is it so wrong if I want to give you a pleasant experience for once?”

“This is hardly just pleasant, DP. This is…” Catching the look in his eyes, she swallowed her words. “What if I chip in…”

He turned away abruptly, his jaw tight. “I will ask them to switch us back to the room that Mona booked.”

“No, wait,” Chaaru said, throwing her arms around his shoulders to halt him. She pressed her cheek to his back, loving the solid strength of him in her hands. “Don’t, please. I won’t say another word. I love it. If you must know, I was already calculating how many of those designer toiletries I could steal.”

He laughed, and it echoed through her body, filling her with a warm gooeyness. Threading his fingers through hers, he kissed the back of her hand. When he spoke, a tendril of tension echoed through him. “I went too fast, starting it up in the car.”

“Not at all.”