The corner of his mouth slowly arched up. Sunny leaned down, brushing his lips against my cheek when he whispered, “I got you all wet, Bane.”
I practically growled. Ugh. Way to ruin a nice moment, but also, holy crap, way to relubricate my dry wheels.
He went to the edge of the boat, held up the straw for all to see, and yelled, “Don’t trash the water again. I’m not going back in there!”
There he was, ardently warning his friends, beaded skin glistening in the sun like a sheath of diamonds, his hair slicked back, his muscular back and shoulders on full display with rivulets of water skimming his taut flesh, and his trunks hugging him in all the right places.
I drew my lip in between my teeth, devouring the sight of him as he stood over the railing like some water-soaked saver of sea turtles. And that was, without a doubt, the hottest thing a guy had ever done for me.
Twenty Sunny
For a good part of the boat excursion to now, there had been two things battling for attention: Bane and the fact that Sejal was still so close to my parents that they’d called her. Not me. That was a painful twist of the knife already thrust into my chest. But at least Sejal hadn’t announced Bane, for whatever reason. Maybe she wanted to isolate her from the group or purposely ignore her. Maybe she knew better than to assume my parents would know about a new relationship if my friends hadn’t known.
“Hey.” Bane elbowed my side as we walked toward a new restaurant to try at the hotel for a late lunch post boat excursion.
“Hm?”
“Are you okay?”
“Why?”
She brushed a finger over my brow and my gut clenched. “That frustrated wrinkle between your brows.”
“I’m not that easy to read.”
She cackled, drawing curious looks from my friends ahead. Bane clamped a hand over her mouth.
“Almost ruptured my eardrum.”
She flicked my ear. “Big baby.”
I grabbed her hand. “You seem to like touching me. Careful.”
“Or what? You’re always threatening me. Talk so big and never follow through—”
I stopped dead in my tracks, spun Bane into me so that she hit my chest, moved one hand to her waist and the other to her jaw, and leaned down toward her mouth. I let out a rough breath, every muscle in my body tight. Every concern and pain caused by my ex vanished. Bane incinerated Sejal’s presence as if she’d never existed, as if she’d never hurt me, as if she’d never left a trail of ashes in her wake. More than that? Everything and everyone around us melted into oblivion.
Bane grunted, gasped, some sort of soft, surprised, sexy noise that had me wondering what she’d sound like beneath a flurry of kisses. That sound, whatever the hell it was called, made me want to make her make those sounds again. And again. Tiny puffs of breath that slowly unraveled me.
“Who never follows through?” I asked, my voice dipping low.
She gulped, staring at my mouth. Her nostrils flared. She clutched my hips, digging her nails into my sides. And if she wasn’t careful, I might just toss her back into bed.
Damn. It. Bane was really out here tempting the hell out of me without even trying.
“You keep touching me, Bane, and we might get into some trouble.”
She sucked in a long, deep breath so that her breasts rose up my chest. Fuck. My gut clenched and I nearly, almost, pushed her into me. I wanted to feel more of her, all of her.
She whispered, almost labored, “Still talking, I see…”
“Does me touching you like this bother you?”
“No,” she said on a breath.
“What about now?” I ran a thumb across her bottom lip. Bane never moved away. She never told me to stop. Her body always reacted, like these little pants escaping her right now, and the way she imperceptibly tilted toward me. Was she…into me? Did she feel a fraction of anything I was feeling with her?
I yearned to know. But what if she didn’t? What if she was simply playing the part because my friends were nearby? That seemed to be the only reasonable conclusion.
“Ya’ll going to make out right here in public, huh?” a voice announced to my right.
Bane jumped and stepped back, and I dragged my eyes away from her to see who the hell had interrupted us, but softened when I saw it was Diya.
Diya was standing a few feet away, a tablet clutched to her chest, and a dopey grin on her face. “You have a whole villa for that.”
“Oh my god,” Bane grumbled, her cheeks turning a delectable rosy glow.
“I can crash at my place, don’t worry.” Diya double-clucked her tongue.
“Okay, bye.” Bane walked after the group, who’d been seated and had probably been watching our interaction based on the approving winks from Sam and Aamar and the expression of unfettered glee on April.
“I have a favor to ask,” I said.
“Oh?” Diya replied.
“Bhanu loves ube, right?”
“Like it’s the only dessert in existence.”
