Something was set down beside her, probably on the bedside table.
“I’m going to feed you now,” he said, the tone wicked. “Let’s see how good you are at taking it.”
Her lips parted at his words, involuntarily.What kind of line was that?The words and the way he said them… They weren’t innocent. Not even close.
He was still standing, towering over her as she sat. The angle alone sent a flush to her cheeks. He wasn’t even trying to mask the undertone anymore. And for reasons she couldn’t fully explain, she didn’t want him to.
“What are you waiting for?” he asked. “Open your lips.”
He didn’t wait for her to comply. His fingers found her chin, tilting it upward gently. Then, with maddening slowness, he brushed the pad of his thumb across her lower lip…softly.
She held her breath. She was the one who had dared him. And now she was in too deep to retreat.
She remained still, lips parted, waiting.
And he… he took his time.
He didn’t feed her, not yet.
His thumb continued to trace over her mouth, back and forth. The pad of his thumb memorising their shape. Not teasing her. Just touching. Light, patient strokes that made her want to scream or melt.
She wanted to see him. To rip the blindfold away and meet his eyes, toknowhow he was looking at her like this. But she couldn’t. She had started this. And she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of watching her break first.
Then, finally, she felt it.
Something cool…likely fruit…grazed her lips. But he didn’t feed it to her. Just let it rest there, offering only the barest taste.
She leaned in, instinctively reaching for it with her mouth, but he pulled it back at the last second.
“Easy,” he murmured. “You’ll get it.”
And there it was again. That voice. That damn voice. Teasing her, tormenting her, flooding her with want.
That was the confirmation she needed.
He wasn’t playing fair. He was playingher.
She clenched her hands tightly in her lap, biting back the words building inside her.
And for the first time in her life, she couldn’t evendenyhim the thrill of saying things like that.
Because in truth, her body wasn’t protesting.
It was begging for more.
Then his voice came again…all velvety, commanding, with a heat that slid right beneath her skin. “Be a good girl… and you’ll get it all.”
This time, Arundhati couldn’t stay silent. Her chin lifted slightly, her face angling toward where she imagined he stood. “I know what you’re doing.”
He didn’t deny it. Instead, the pad of his thumb, which had been teasing the curve of her lips, drifted lower. It trailed down the column of her neck. There, it moved in slow, deliberate strokes, as if he was reading the rhythm of her pulse.
“Hmm?” he murmured, dipping his head slightly, his voice husky. “And what exactly am I doing, Arundhati?”
He wanted her to say it. She knew that tone. He was coaxing it out of her. So she did.
“You’re seducing me, Kushal.”
A grin pulled at his lips. She couldn’t see it, but shefeltit in the pause that followed, in the way his breath slowed and deepened.