Page 77 of Isn't It Obvious?
His grip tightens. She could paintthislook. It would be part of a series: in front of his house, in the library office, in her kitchen. The balance of emotions shifting across each panel. So hungry now that she might have missed the pain if she hadn’t already memorized what those emotions looked like tangled together on his face. It’s a perverse thrill, to be wanted to the point of hurt.
And comforting, perhaps, because she so often feels the same.
“There were things I was planning to say to you,” Ravi says.
The space between them constricts. He smells clean, fresh, bright, and still so much like him. “What were they?” Yael asks. She sounds breathy and hoarse. It’s honestly ridiculous. She’s had his mouth almost everywhere on her, his fingers inside her, and yet just the heat of him this close is enough to weaken her knees.
“I honestly don’t remember.”
“Must not have been very important,” she says.
“Must not,” Ravi agrees, looking at her lips.
“Maybe,” Yael says, “you’ll remember what you wanted to say in a few hours.”
She steps back, peeling his hand off her hip and tugging him toward the bedroom. He adjusts his grip as he follows her, and then somehow… they’re holding hands. Her heart beats in double time. They fit so well together like this. They fit so well together in every way they’ve tried, and maybe it’s too good to be true. Maybe this will finally be the way they won’t fit.
Or worse, maybe theywillfit, and she’ll be devastated by Ravi in an entirely new way.
Her body, which has been steadily thrumming with arousal for the last eighteen-odd hours, is suddenly awash with nerves.
In her room, Ravi gives her hand a squeeze before releasingit and setting the box of condoms on her bedside table. He turns to face her, reaching over his shoulder to pull his sweatshirt off in one smooth motion. Underneath, he’s wearing a fitted white T-shirt. It strains at his biceps, and the right side of the bottom hem is rolled up enough for Yael to catch a glimpse of skin over the band of his boxer briefs.
Yael exhales slowly, heat already gathering between her legs. Ravi smiles at her as he undoes his belt buckle, sliding it out from the loops and dropping it on top of his discarded sweatshirt.
His eyes drag over her, and she glows under his gaze. “The way you’re looking at me makes me feel like you can see through my dress,” she says.
Ravi’s smile widens. “I’m trying my best,” he says, stepping out of his jeans next.
Yael carefully reaches for the hem of her dress and removes it, only breaking eye contact for the brief moment when the fabric clouds her vision.
“Christ,” Ravi says.
Yael wants to joke to diffuse the tension coiled tightly within her.It’s the slippers, isn’t it?she could say. But Ravi takes off his shirt, too, and Yael’s throat feels too thick with need to speak. She loves the dark hair that grows along the contours of his torso, how it starts to thicken before it disappears beneath the band of his underwear. The bulge there makes her feel less silly about how hard her nipples are already, the pulse between her thighs. She clears her throat quietly.
“You are…” Ravi trails off.
“Nervous,” Yael supplies.
Ravi nods, swallowing. He sits down on the edge of the bed and offers her his hand. She takes it, stepping between hisknees. It’s better, looking down at him like this, and the fact that he knew it would be makes her heart feel too big for her chest. “What can I do to make this good for you? I’m highly trainable.” He presses a kiss to her belly.
She shakes her head and shrugs all at once. Ravi loosens his grip on her hand, letting his fingertips lightly trace the lines of her palm instead. “I want to make this good foryou,” she says.
“It will be.”
“It’s been a really long time since I’ve had penetrative sex,” Yael admits. “I mean, like… actual years. I know we already had sex several times yesterday, so I’m not sure why I’m even feeling—”
“It will be good,” Ravi interrupts before she can apologize further, “because you’ll use your words”—he kisses the valley between her breasts—“and I’ll use mine.”
Yael’s jaw loosens. Slowly, she nods. “I want you to kiss me,” she says.
Ravi drags her down flush against him, hands on her ass. The kiss is deep and so, so slow. He licks into her mouth like,I’m listening, letting her guide the pressure and tempo. The hard length of him against her makes her even more desperate for him than it did yesterday, the anticipation mixing with actual knowledge of just how good he can make her feel.
They kiss and kiss until Yael is gasping for air. Her hands are on his shoulders, his nape, his hair, his back. But his hands stay firmly in place, aiding the grind of her hips. He sucks at a spot on her neck that makes her arch into him, moaning, and he answers by taking one of her nipples between his lips. Then, gently, blessedly, his teeth. His tongue to soothe.
He kisses his way across her chest before doing the same to her other one. And then again. Lips, teeth, tongue. Overand over, as she continues to rock against his erection. She’s aching for him, inside and out, every nerve ending screaming for release.
“I could come like this,” she says, her voice rasping.
