Her nails turned harder, more insistent. “I want you, inside of me. Now.”
His body hardened more, almost to the point of pain. “As you wish.”
He grabbed a condom and donned it in record time. When he slid inside her, they both groaned. He braced his weight on his arms and lowered his forehead to hers. They stared into each other’s eyes as he rocked back and forth.
Naveen pulled almost all the way out, then slid back in, luxuriating in the wet glide. He couldn’t hold off for long, especially with her rising cries and the way she clutched his skin. He lowered his lips to her ear. “You’re so tight and wet,” he growled. The praise made her whimper, and he licked her lobe. “You take me so perfectly, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Me, and only me. You looked so pretty in that chair. I could stay on my knees for you forever. Would you like that?”
“Yes.” Her body shuddered around him, and he lost it, driving inside her one last time.
As their sweat settled on their bodies, he rolled off her and stared at the ceiling. “It gets better every time.”
She gave a breathless laugh. “No kidding.”
He pulled her closer, so she could nestle her head on his shoulder. That spot was made for her. They were silent for a while, until he finally spoke. “You okay?”
Her face was relaxed, but contemplative. “Not really.”
“What’s up?”
“Seems weird to think my aunt’s not dead anymore, but still gone to me. Should I mourn her? Should I not?”
“I’m not sure. A very weird position to be in, yes,” Naveen agreed. And to think, he’d thought his family was complicated.
“And Sejal. I know we didn’t have a relationship like you and your brother, but I thought we’d at least get to exchange numbers or something.”
“Yeah.” He took her hand. “I’m sorry, Mira.” He could tell she didn’t want solutions, just listening, and he was happy to give it to her.
“It’s been a really wild night.”
“That it has.” He’d already called his family, and everyone was okay. Kiran was sending a plane for them tomorrow. He’d be glad to get out of Vegas soon.
“I wonder what my dad had planned to do with that money,” she mused.
“I think he genuinely left those diamonds for you and your sister.”
“And the crypto fortune? He had the passcode in his hands and handed it to Wyatt instead of accessing it. That’s weird.”
“Or he’s a better friend to Wyatt than Wyatt thought.” Naveen shrugged. “Maybe your dad just wanted to see if he could get one over on your mom for once.” It pained him to think of six hundred million dollars—poof!—lost to the United States government, but better it be in official hands than criminal ones. “I’m sorry your mom turned out to be someone else,” he said quietly. The disillusionment in her gaze had been hard to watch, so living it must have been brutal for her.
“Me too.” She stirred. “All this time, I thought . . . my dad was the evil one, but my mom and aunt, at least, were good. People with morals and ethics. Someone I could look up to, and feel a connection with.” She shook her head. “And that was all a lie.”
“I don’t think it was a total lie. I mean, yeah, your mom is a mess. But your aunt? She might do crime too, but she saved us. And it sounds like she tried to be as good of a person as she could be with the resources at her disposal.” He’d liked Rhea Auntie, despite her deception. She’d reminded him of a couple of his aunts with their fiery personalities and fierce protectiveness.
Could he imagine any of his proper aunts dirtying their hands to steal gems or turn state’s witness? No. But he could definitely imagine them smacking someone with a frying pan upside the head if they felt their precious children or nieces and nephews were in danger.
Also, Rhea had purposefully brought Mira and him together again, and that was wonderful.
Mira hasn’t agreed to date you yet. In fact, that conversation was decidedly tabled. Stuff she said during sex doesn’t count.
“I suppose so.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes, and he wondered how to bring up their relationship. He opened his mouth, but all that came out was, “Hang on. Let me go to the bathroom.” Coward.
When he came back, he found her using one of the brand-new phones they’d bought on their way from the storage unit to replace the ones the kidnappers had taken from them. He hadn’t set his up yet, but he believed he might kiss it when he finally did. God, he missed his phone.
The odd expression on her face stopped him. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, listening to my messages. A few from Christine, and then this one.” She hit the speaker button and a familiar voice blared out.
“Hello, Amira. Unfortunately, as I warned you, I can no longer represent you.” Hema Auntie spoke briskly, but that’s how she did everything. Naveen imagined her in her lavish home in the Bay Area, sitting at her ornate wooden desk imported from India, dark hair pulled back in a bun, Cartier reading glasses perched on her nose. Hema was both ancient and ageless, her skin smooth but her eyes full of wisdom. And annoyance. “I hope you won’t argue with my decision. I have two families flying in from Edison tonight, and I don’t have time to hash this out. I have run out of matches for you. You are getting older, and you are only getting more difficult. I have my metrics to consider. Perhaps you could try one of those apps. Goodbye, and good luck.”
“Guess I can take of marriageable age off my own spreadsheet, since I’m such an old crone,” Mira muttered, and tossed the phone onto the nightstand.
He got back into bed with her and braced himself. “It doesn’t matter. You won’t need Hema anymore. You have me.”
She drew the sheets over her and he mourned the loss of the view. It was good, though, because he could focus on her words. “You know why I ended things before with you, right?”
“I was too extroverted for you.” Hema had shared that as part of his debriefing.
“That’s what I told Hema. You were too ambitious and extroverted. You worked too much. I didn’t want those qualities in a mate because I was scared that meant you might be like my father, craving too much.”
He nodded again. While it hurt to hear her talk about why she’d left him so matter-of-factly, he appreciated what she was saying. “I don’t think you were wrong. I wasn’t settled back then, and I definitely wasn’t comfortable with myself yet. That was probably why I sought out someone who could make me feel balanced.”
“I see the work you did, in you. But also, all those reasons were kind of bullshit. Because the real reason I ended it was because I was scared and I ran.”
He nodded.
“You could at least pretend to be surprised by that reveal,” she said dryly. “I worked hard all these years, trying to rationalize it.”
“Oh my God. I cannot believe it.”
She huffed out a laugh, and he savored it. “I ran from uncomfortable things once upon a time, too. I ran right into a bottle so I could dull what I was feeling. Why did you run?”
“I was scared. Of so many things. Like, what if my entire family is just genetically predisposed toward being bad people?”