Anxiety claws at me as I walk out of Raya’s ensuite bathroom, my thoughts getting the best of me. It’s been years, and I still can’t get comfortable in unfamiliar places. I need to find a way to get over this — I can’t keep living this way.
“Lex?”
I tense, startled by Raya’s voice, my eyes cutting to hers. She puts down her hairbrush and walks up to me, concern etched into her face. “Is everything okay? I called you a few times, and you didn’t seem to hear me.”
I force a smile and nod. “Sorry, just lost in thought.”
She nods, her eyes roaming over my body and settling on the towel around my hips. “Come on,” she says, leading me to her bed. She sits me down and grabs my shoulders. “One second, okay? I’ll be right back.”
I frown as she rushes back into her bathroom and emerges with a spare towel. Raya pauses in front of me, the cutest look on her face as she raises it to my head and gently begins to dry my hair for me. Fuck. She’s so fucking sweet.
I grab her waist and stare at her, taking in those long lashes, the high bridge of her nose, and those perfect fucking lips. She’s wearing pajamas that are clearly quite old, but despite the faded colors, she looks beautiful in those white cotton shorts and her matching button-up top, little red hearts all over it. “What are you doing, baby?” I whisper.
“Me? I’m just helping my husband.”
I inhale sharply at the sound of those words and grab her waist, all but tackling her onto her bed. She gasps, a soft giggle escaping her lips when I roll on top of her. “How about you kiss your husband instead?”
She hooks her hands around the back of my neck and pulls me closer, pressing a kiss to my cheek. My heart skips a beat, and I chuckle, my forehead dropping to hers.
She’s grinning mischievously when I pull back a little to look at her. The tips of her fingers trail over my temple, and her smile turns into the one that’s reserved just for me — intimate, sweet. This connection between us, it’s been there from the second we met, and with each passing day, it only gets stronger.
“You terrify me, Raya,” I whisper without thinking.
Confusion crosses her eyes, and she cups my face. “Why?”
Because you’re the kind of woman I could lose my heart to when I didn’t think I’d ever dare do something so foolish again. Because you’ve enchanted me in a matter of days.
I shake my head and lower my face to hers, taking her lips with intention, my teeth grazing her bottom lip, before I suck on it. She tilts her face, her hand burying in my hair as she kisses me in earnest, her body moving against mine. She hums and rolls her hips when she feels how hard I am, her tongue moving in that teasing way she knows I can’t resist. “Fuck,” I whisper against her mouth. “I want you so fucking badly.”
She moves her head, her lips brushing against my ear. “Then take me,” she whispers. “I’m right here, desperate for you.”
I groan and push off her, eager to get her out of her clothes. She laughs when I pull her up with me, her hands wrapping around my towel moments before her bedroom door opens. My heart nearly stops when her mother walks in, her eyes on the tray she’s holding, two steaming cups of tea on it. “Let me help you,” Raya’s dad calls.
I don’t think I’ve ever moved faster in my life as I grab one of my wife’s pillows and sit down, covering my erection with it. Raya moves in front of me, her dainty body barely covering my torso as I grab the discarded towel she’d brought for me and pretend to be drying my hair.
My mother-in-law looks up, her eyes growing wide when she notices the no doubt awkward looks, we must be wearing. She raises a brow, a hint of amusement on her face as Raya’s dad walks in behind her, his expression rapidly going from relaxed to murderous when he sees my bare torso and notices the pillow in my lap.
“Apologies,” I murmur, my voice steady. “I just got out of the shower. My hair just takes a while to dry.” I groan internally even as I force a smile. What the fuck did I just say? I’ve breezed through hundreds of high-stake negotiations, and this is what rattles me?
“Shower, huh?” Raya’s father says, taking a step toward me.
His wife moves in front of him and cuts off his path, her gaze trained on her daughter. A few moments later, she smiles to herself, a look of understanding in her eyes. “We’ll just leave this here,” she says as she places the tray on Raya’s nightstand, and I glance at my wife, curious about what her mother saw that put her at ease. “Have some, Lex. You didn’t eat anything for dinner. You should at least have some tea.”
Raya is blushing fiercely as she wrings her hands, her posture stiff. She looks even more awkward than I probably do, and I’m the one that’s half naked. “Thanks, Mom,” she murmurs.
“We can leave the tea, but we can’t leave our daughter here,” her dad says, distraught. “Forget the rules. Who’s gonna know if we split them up?”
My mother-in-law rolls her eyes and pushes her husband out. “Honey,” she says, her tone firm. “Let’s go to bed. The kids are perfectly capable of drinking tea by themselves.”
“Meera,” he complains, but my mother-in-law, wonderful woman that she is, pushes him out the door and closes it behind her.
I fall back on the bed the second the door shuts and throw my arm over my face, my heart racing. “I thought I was going to die,” I tell Raya, and she bursts out laughing. I throw her a fake glare and narrow my eyes. “You don’t understand, darling. I saw my life flash before my eyes.”
She slaps her hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter, but it rings through her room, nonetheless. The sound does funny things to me — it makes my heart race, sparks joy deep inside my chest.
Raya climbs onto her bed and lies down next to me, on her side, to face me. “You’re ridiculous,” she whispers. I turn onto my side too and gently push her hair out of her face, taking a moment to just look at her. She truly is beautiful, but it isn’t just her looks that captivate me so. Why is it that I keep finding myself smiling in her presence? Why do I enjoy being around her so much?
Raya scoots a little closer, her eyes twinkling. “You know?” she whispers as she reaches for me, her fingers tracing a path down the bridge of my nose and onto my lips. “They definitely won’t come back in now.”
“Don’t even think about it,” I whisper back at her before letting her fingers slip into my mouth, biting down softly. She pulls her hand away in mock outrage, and I grin at my beautiful wife. “Today is not the day I get murdered by your father, Raya Indira Windsor.”
She pouts, and I almost give in there and then. I probably would have, if not for the footsteps I can hear in the hallway, her parents milling about the house as they get ready for bed themselves.
“What a way to go, though,” she whispers, pure mischief written all over her face.
I bite back a startled laugh and shake my head. “Be good for me for now, and I’ll bury my face between your pretty thighs later,” I promise, unable to help myself.
She giggles and cups my face, and my heart skips a beat. What is it about her that I just can’t resist? Every single thing she does is in contrast with my expectations, and I should hate her unpredictability, but instead I thrive on it.
It isn’t until I have her head on my chest, her steady breathing easing my anxiety, that I realize she’s single-handedly taken away the fears that normally accompany me in unfamiliar places. But in doing so, she’s becoming something I’m growing to fear.
