Minutes went by and my body relaxed, melted into the chair with the breeze whipping through my hair. I tried to stay in the conversation, mainly wedding things and snorkeling information, but my focus kept wandering toward Bane. The wind kept raising her cover-up higher and higher, the long ends fluttering up and away, revealing sneak peeks of light brown skin. Ah. So, a two-piece?
“Did you hear me, Sunny?”
“Hmm?”
Leave it to Sejal to interrupt me. She was wearing a string bikini clearly seen beneath a lacy dress and sitting on Pradeep’s lap. He placed a hand on her thigh and kissed her neck. Even though I didn’t check, I knew the others were watching me. Waiting for a reaction that never came.
I expected to have one. Jealousy. Annoyance. Pain. Anything. Maybe Sejal was right that I didn’t have emotions, at least not enough or the right kind a girlfriend needed, because I felt nothing. As long as she was nice to Bane, her presence floated by unnoticed.
“Where’s your girl?” Sejal repeated.
“My woman,” I corrected, “is doing whatever she’s doing.” She was obviously on the boat, so why was Sejal asking as if Bane had jumped ship and swum off? Although it wasn’t a horrible idea. If Bane fled, I’d follow her.
Bane pushed away from the railing and walked past us on her way to the nose of the boat in her floppy hat, short shorts, and sneak-a-peak cover-up giving me all sorts of glimpses of skin. Cute, awkward, kind of hot. My eyes followed her. Damnit, what was she wearing?
“Bhanu! Why don’t you sit with us?” Sejal crooned.
“Oh, okay.” Bane looked around for a chair. Before I could give her mine, Sejal suggested, “Oh, you can just sit on Sunny’s lap.”
I stiffened, and so had Bane. Her expression went deadpan, and the others had quieted to watch our little weird interaction of current and ex-girlfriend. Were they expecting something to happen? They seemed ready to jump in to douse any situation that might arise, but I wasn’t having any said situation get that far.
I shifted to get up when Sejal said, “I’m sure Sunny won’t mind. Since you are his girlfriend, aren’t you?”
I lowered my feet off the footrest and began pushing myself up when Bane calmly replied, “That doesn’t seem comfortable.”
“Oh, it’s fine! I’m doing it.”
“I need more space for all this, I guess.”
My brows shot up and I imperceptibly leaned back to conclude, that yes, Bane had a nice, full backside.
Sejal stuttered, like she didn’t know how to respond.
Bane twisted toward me. “Were you just checking out my butt?”
I nodded with grave appreciation. “It is nice.”
Bane rolled her eyes, trying not to smile, and told Sejal, “I was on my way to look at the water. There are dolphins out.”
She smiled and walked around my chair to lean down from behind, running a finger up my arm, setting every inch from her touch on fire. She whispered in my ear, “You’re welcome to join me…”
And with that, I jumped to my feet and announced to my now silenced friends, “Yep. Dolphins.”
I hurried after Bane, my hands on her hips. She didn’t hurry, and now I had my chest pressed to her back, vaguely feeling the curves of the nice backside I’d just been admiring. She fit so perfectly against me.
“Look!” She pointed out at the water where two dolphins jumped into the air, spinning.
“That’s pretty cool.”
We leaned against the railing, and I kept an arm around her, pulling her to my side, my hand precariously low on her back. She stiffened and I was quick to ask, “Too much? Should I move?”
“Are they watching?”
I stole a glance over my shoulder. “Yep.”
She snaked an arm around my waist, inadvertently twisting into me so that two things simultaneously happened: My hand slipped lower, nearly groping the top of her butt, and her breast grazed my side. In response—I swore to the gods I hadn’t meant to—my hand twitched, an imperceptible squeeze where it rested much too low on her backside.
I braced for her reaction. It didn’t come.
Where was Bane’s shove? Her pushing me into the water? Her quick remark to put me in my place? Or was she…was she so uncomfortable that she couldn’t move? I should move.
From this angle, I caught her profile. The rim of her hat hid her eyes, shaded her nose, but left her mouth to my hungry gaze. She was biting her lip.
Did she…like it? Did she like me touching her?
Because I was bold or stupid or really wanted to get slapped into the ocean…I gave a slight squeeze.
Bane heaved, her petite fingers clutching my shirt over my hip. If she bit her lip any harder, she was going to bleed. But damn if I’d ever been more turned on.
Nineteen Bhanu
The air sparked around us. Was Sunny…touching my butt, and more importantly, did I like it? I did not, could not, be attracted to Sunny. Ludicrous, unsound, to feel this way about a grump who’d made it his career goal to irk me at work every single day.
However, twisted insides and roller-coaster thrills and a fired-up body were telling my brain to shut up. If the chemical reactions raging through me could be a voice, they would collectively say, “Sunny is getting your dried-out wheels lubricated. You need this.”
Ugh. The obvious explanation was that this stupid fantasy tied up into the fact that I hadn’t been touched by a man in a long time had finally unraveled any good sense.
For however long this interaction lasted, I allowed myself to enjoy it. But never would I cave. I would never melt into him, never squeeze him back, never flirt, never let him know what his touch did to me, never act on these ridiculous impulses. Never, ever, ever.
