Page 252 of A King's Oath

“Then leave me.”

“I haven’t kept you.”

She moved her hips, and realised his legs were eased away. He had eased them away a long time ago. Ava slapped his thighs, hard, and began to get up but he bounced her back onto his lap.

“Are you not even a little impressed?”

“Rawalji still ties abysmal ponytails. What’s to be impressed?”

“Rawal’s kisses,” he opened his mouth and sucked the crook of her throat. She shuddered.

“Sama…”

“Keep it down, she will hear you.”

“Just shut up and leave me.”

“Promise to meet me alone again.”

“What?”

“Tonight, after Brahmi is asleep. I want a date.”

“A date?”

“We will have eaten dinner with her. So a dessert and wine date.”

“I am not leaving her alone at home.”

“Neither am I. It’ll be here, at home.”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because I am not in the mood.”

He smirked, baring his teeth and nibbling the flesh of her jaw. “Are you sure?”

“Samarth!” She shirked him off.

“I like this.”

“What this?”

“You, making me work for it after so many years.”

“I never made you work for it,” she sat back in his lap, turning sideways, ready to fight like his old Ava. “I should so have made you work for it but you always made those puppy faces and I would think, let it go, bechara, he needs you.”

“Which, this puppy face?” He pulled his brows down and tried to replicate a look he didn’t even know he had in the first place.

“Yeah, now it’s gone,” she scorned. “Doesn’t work.”

“Does this work?” He grabbed the back of her head and pushed her down to meet his mouth. She gasped, those soft open lips his goalpost after a decade. She bit his lip andhegasped, pulling away — “Still peppermint and still a spitfire.”

“What did you call me?”

“Your debt has just been multiplied, Raje,” he ran his tongue over her bite on his lip.

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