Sophia took a deep breath, pasted a bright and clueless smile on her face and opened the door.
The smile froze where it was, as did her breath.
“You forgot your bag in my room. I thought you might need it,” Bharat said quietly. In one large hand he held her tattered hold-all. It looked incongruous against him.
She wanted to take it from him but she couldn’t move. That was incongruous too.
“You need to leave,” she said, at last. “You need to leave before you get thrown out.”
“I’m willing to risk it.”
~~~~~
Tess considered herself to be a people person. She could read a room. Maybe not like Sophia, the cardshark, but well enough to understand vibes. And, in the space of five seconds, the vibes in this tiny room were thick with tension. And lust. Good, old-fashioned lust.
Tess was a bit of a romantic so she hoped she detected a little shudder in her friend. Shudders were good. Next-door neighbors to shivers and tingles.
“Hello,” Tess said pleasantly, while the two dummies were engaged in a stare-a-thon. “Please. Do come in. Close the door behind you. Awesome,” she complimented when Bharat shut the door automatically. “The bag? You can keep it here.”
The high-roller was inside before he could form a single thought or Sophia a single protest. He dumped the bag near the edge of the small suitcase that contained Sophia’s possessions. There was no room to move, now that the three of them occupied it.
Tess, a vision in black and red lipstick to match, stuck her hand out and said, “I am Teresa, Sophia’s friend. You’re the high roller who bought my friend’s services.”
“High-roller?”
Tess nodded. “You throw money around like its water because you have so much of it. Our pit boss loves to have you throw money at our tables. High-roller.” She winked. “It makes you very special.”
~~~~~
Bharat’s lips twitched, especially because he heard Sophia suck a sharp breath next to him. Hyperaware of her, as he always was.
“I don’t think I’m a high-roller by any definition,” he argued.
“Oh,” Sophia’s stunning friend smiled widely at him. “You are.” She gave him a look of frank appreciation.
Bharat could care less. He wanted to be alone with Sophia, as he’d wanted ever since she’d walked out on him in the middle of the meeting.
Bharat knew Henry hated that he’d skipped the post-meeting debrief, but he really could not give a shit if Harrison and his people were going to invest in Caliban. He’d wanted to see Sophia. Nothing else mattered.
Finally, a lot of things about how Shiv had behaved with Naina was beginning to make sense to him.
This sucked.
“I am Bharat Shrinivasan. It’s very nice to meet you, Teresa.” He gave the woman’s hand a firm squeeze. “And I didn’t buy your friend’s services. I am paying for her expertise.”
“It would be nicer if she could stay. Tessa?” Sophia posed it as a question but it was an order. Get out, her eyes practically screamed.
So Tess extricated her hand from Bharat’s grip, smiled and exited with a murmured goodbye.
Chapter Sixteen
Bharat stuck his hands in his pockets, and leaned back against the door.
“You were very rude to your friend, right now. You were very rude to my friends too,” he commented.
Sophia took a deep breath which did interesting things to the thing she wore. He figured it had been a tee shirt at some point, but was now just a rag with arm holes. It was insanely sexy.
“I’m sorry about your meeting. I realized it was a mistake for me to attend something so far beyond my comprehension.” She gave him a polite smile, like the one she gave people at her dealer’s table. “I apologize for the inconvenience I may have caused. And, thank you for my bag. It contains my spare uniform.”
“I was worried about you. Your phone’s switched off,” Bharat said.
Sophia shrugged. “I know. I was…resting.”
He knew it for the lie it was but didn’t bother arguing. “Are you feeling rested now?”
“Yeah.”
“So, what’s wrong?”
Sophia made a big show of unzipping the bag and placing the clothes inside it onto the bed that didn’t fool him for a second. “Nothing is wrong, Bharat. I am really grateful for everything. And I am a bit tired so…”
“So?”
A flash of irritation passed by her face. But then her expression smoothed out and she said calmly, “So, I would like to go to bed now. I have a full day tomorrow. I’m on two shifts, since I am going to helping out with hostessing too.”
“Bed,” Bharat murmured. “Is an excellent idea.” He shucked off his tie and tossed it on her suitcase.
Sophia stared at him as if he’d lost his mind and was singing the national anthem. In French. “What are you doing?”
“Getting ready for bed.” He removed his cufflinks next.
~~~~~
Sophia was more than concerned now. She was riled up. “Fuck no. You’re not sleeping here.”
Bharat looked up, smiled at her. A sexy little grin that worked its way into her, low down and generated heat and annoyed her even more. “You think not? You really want me to leave?”
“No!” The denial was instantaneous. “But I am not…you’re not…we’re not.” She didn’t have the words to articulate her feelings. And she was tired too.
The evening had been such a bust, physically and emotionally, and fighting with her brother had made her more miserable than ever. Not to mention, seeing Bharat again when she’d promised herself she wouldn’t ever have to see him again.
It was over.
“Okay, then.” He shrugged off his jacket and all his muscles just rippled.
Sophia swallowed. The heat burned a little more. Burned up. Her skin felt tight, like she wanted it off.
He said, very formally, “So, this is not part of any services or… expertise that may or may not have been exchanged between us. I’d like to make that extremely clear, right away.”
“What?” Her tongue was thick. Unable to form words.
He was unbuttoning his shirt now and she could not stop staring. Her fingers curled into fists and she pressed them tight to her sides. She would not touch him.
She would not touch him.
“You. Me. This. Us.” He gestured between them again. “Pay attention, Sophia.”
“I don’t…” She shook her head and gave a fetid curse in Bengali. The cursing cleared her mind a little, although Bharat raised his brows at the colorful language. “Why are you taking your clothes off, Bharat? And don’t tell me it is to sleep here,” she muttered. “You have a perfectly amazing bed at the Aria. It’s like a cloud. Literally. So, will you stop already?”
He paused in the unbuttoning, doing as she wished. Perversely she wanted him to continue.
“I am seducing you. Well. I am going to. In a second,” he answered, matter-of-factly.
Her knees went weak. So she sat down on the edge of the bed. He looked perfectly earnest, dead serious. There was no warmth in his pitch eyes. Just a blaze of desire that was licking at her skin. Inch by inch.
Her heart thudded crazily while she tried to form words again. They just wouldn’t come.
“I don’t understand,” she whispered.
He loped to her side of the bed in one easy leap. And, incredibly, he knelt down at her feet. Of course, he was still able to look her straight in the eye and when he placed his hands on either side of her hips, in convenient touching distance, her skin burned some more.
There was no air here. None. Sophia couldn’t look away from him to save her life. She whispered his name. Or maybe she just wished it on the universe.
“I’m here,” Bharat said softly, almost grimly. “I couldn’t wait to end my pitch meeting with one of the most earnest investors in the Valley because I wanted to make sure you were okay. That you’d got a cab and made it back safely. I wan
ted to see you.” He moved his hand an inch closer, the backs of his fingers touching her bare thigh. “To touch you.”
Sophia shuddered at the stark confession. She pressed a hand to her roiling stomach as she tried to gulp in air. There wasn’t any. She was breathless and dizzy. From his words, his proximity. The things she saw in his eyes.
Things that made her forget everything, everything she’d sworn to uphold.
“I thought we’d never see each other again,” Sophia confessed. “I hoped we wouldn’t. This is impossible. We are impossible. Insane.”
“Sophia,” he said in the same low timbre, as hers. “I once sat down and wrote code for three days straight without sleeping because a friend bet me that I couldn’t do it. That it was impossible. While drinking three bottles of whiskey. That was insane. Impossible is a walk in the park for me.”
“That doesn’t mean we are perfect for each other.” But she touched his shoulder... Couldn’t help it.
He sucked in a breath and she felt the shift in his eyes. How her touch affected him. It steadied her as much as it undid her.
“I don’t care about perfect. I care about you.”
Sophia’s fingers dug into his shoulder, the nails going deep. Longing swirled inside her, endless and nearly as impossible as the coding challenge he’d won.
All her life, she had waited to feel like this. To be wanted like this. Just for herself. Just for being Sophia. And that it had to happen with him…with this man…
The fates had a cruel sense of humor.
“I care about you too.” The admission slipped out before she could stop it. And to her shame, she felt tears gather in her eyes. Sophia closed her eyes. Willed the tears back.
Before she could stop herself, before she could talk herself out of it, Sophia leaned in and kissed him. Swift and fleeting. She leaned back before he could do anything but blink. His hands still lay on either side of her.
They stared at each other for a second more. The air unbearably still – like the calm before the storm.
~~~~~
Sophia was the first to move. She grabbed him by the back of the neck at the same time that Bharat tried to lean in to kiss her. They bumped nose and chin together.
Someone cursed.
He swept her from the bed, his hands hot and demanding on her thighs. She landed on him, clutching at his neck at an odd angle.
A sound escaped, a puff of air and then his lips were on hers and she whimpered with relief and desire.
Bharat ate at her mouth, licking and nipping, changing the angle while she tried to find his tongue. He pulled her closer, so she was astride him, the edges of the bed digging into her spine while he kissed her and kissed her. When his tongue finally swept in, she captured it in an aggressively sexual gesture, squeezed it.
His erection leaped between them, melting her from the inside out. Wet heat and the scent of sex pumped through the air.
Bharat reared over her, big and threatening. Sophia loved every second of it. She crawled back over the bed, shimmying over every inch of him that she could.
He placed his hand on her ankle, bracketing it as he followed her up, like a great predator.
Sophia pushed at his shirt and he shrugged it off. He touched her midriff under the tee shirt she wore and she squirmed, unbearably aroused. They kissed, hands and legs tangling as he pushed into the core of her.
Her legs already braced for him, wide open for his penetration. Bharat tugged at the tee shirt and she arched against him in order to tug it off. He made an appreciative sound at the close contact… discovered she was bra-less inside the tee and groaned.
Every lick, every touch, brought her closer and closer to a runaway orgasm, heavy and building. Out of control.
When he plumped her breast and took the tip in his mouth she trembled. Ran her hands down to his butt and cupped him closer, rubbed her wet heat against him. Wanting relief, wanting him so much she was out of her mind with it.
It was she who tugged off her leggy boy panties and attacked his belt. Unable to bear less than full-skin contact. He was more than happy to oblige even though their foreheads bumped when they went after the zipper at the same time.
Bharat chuckled, she swatted his hand away and drew it down. Cupping him through the opening, gave him a long, firm stroke. He stopped chuckling.
The pants came off as did his boxers and she kissed him. Wild and wet, pulling him deep in her mouth while she tugged and stroked at him till he thought he was going to come before he entered her.
“Wait,” he muttered. And took her hands off his erection and placed it on either side of the bed. Bracing her with his own hands.
“I want…” she gasped as she rubbed herself against him. She didn’t know how to stop. This kind of lust was mad. Unbearable. She couldn’t stand it.
~~~~~
“Wait.” Bharat ran a soothing hand down the side of her body. “Condom.”
“Okay,” Sophia said, trembling.
Flushed with desire. For him. The thought made him harder. This was not about some biological imperative. Or a thing to do to pass the time.
This was…
He stopped thinking as he reached down to his tangled pants and extracted a long-forgotten condom. Sophia took over the task of putting it on and had him cursing the air blue, for once. Then…
Then, he eased into her. Sophia moved her thighs so he could come closer. He clutched her wrists, arched her closer so he could suckle at her breasts. Her breath came out in a strangled half sob.
Bharat moved inside her. And she sobbed again.
“Look at me,” he whispered, bold and daring like he never was.
She opened eyes drugged with desire. Gone with need. He moved again, a single stroke and she moved her legs higher to take him in.
Sophia’s eyes went glassy and drifted shut. And he moved again. And again. Grunting as he held her hands and kissed her like she had kissed him, while she accepted him inside of her, moist honey welcoming him like home.
The strokes turned fast, faster and she made noises. More noises, her breaths coming in pants. He could feel the climax building inside of him, as they moved against each other, delicious friction and even more chemistry.
Bharat stared at her, pausing for one second to draw her hair away from her sweaty cheek and kissed it, feeling something alien and inescapable build inside of him.
Sophia opened her eyes once more and, this time, didn’t close them.
He moved again and it happened. As she clutched his wrist and gasped, her knees tightening, giving herself over to the strength of her orgasm he stroked out. Her muscles doing what was needed.
Push him over the edge.
~~~~~
“So?” Sophia croaked, an hour later. Perhaps it was just minutes, perhaps a whole millennium had passed since she’d been blinded by her orgasm. Perhaps that was not such a bad thing.
“So?” Bharat murmured from where he lay against, his head pillowed against her breast. He kissed the side of it.
“Did you win that coding challenge?” She ran a shaking hand through his hair as feeling returned to her limbs. She ached, but in the best way possible.
“Hmmm?” Her chocolate brown nipple was right there so he kissed it too. Then bit it lightly.
Sophia gasped and tugged sharply at his hair.
He grinned, nudged her thighs apart so he could lie down properly against her. “I passed out somewhere around hour fifty-two. But Akhtar passed around hour forty-eight, I was the unanimous winner.”
“Technically, you didn’t survive the full three days. Did you?” she persisted.
“Can we argue semantics later? When I have use of my grey cells?”
~~~~~
Bharat rolled her over on top of him. Drew her legs around his waist. He was still semi-hard; he wanted to make use of the unexpected gift. She pushed her hair back as it was falling around them again. He tunneled his hands into it, cupped the back of her sweat-dewy neck. And kissed her
.
Hard.
She melted all over his chest. Holding onto him in a way that pleased and satisfied him.
Her kiss was a little tentative, very enthusiastic. She tugged her lips away and ran a hand down his chest. “God, you are built. I want to do things to you,” she said, almost to herself.
Bharat smiled and placed his hands behind his head. “I am all yours, baby.”
She grinned. A happy little grin that totally belonged to a woman who was thoroughly sexually gratified. “Yay.”
Then she proceeded to investigate him with a thoroughness that had him cursing out loud.
Chapter Seventeen
Sophia chuckled and ran a nail down his happy trail. He twitched against her thigh. She loved it.
In fact, she loved everything about sex. Everything. Finally. She’d enjoyed it before. She wasn’t a shy virgin or anything, but this kind of sex…she’d never understood what the fuss was about.
Till Bharat. And what he could do with that beautiful cock of his. And his wonderful hands… his sexy, sexy mouth.
Now she took that beautiful cock of his in her mouth, just as an experiment. Just to see how it would affect him.
His eyes crossed and ruddy color ran all along his tight cheeks. He stared at her with single-minded focus. And, unbelievably, it made her hotter. Wetter. So she did the thing she’d seen women do in porn videos.
Sophia trailed her hair on his knees while she tried to pleasure him. She learned what he liked. Soft and a little lick at the base of his penis, with a little stroke down to the sac and then a lot of fast stroking.
He clutched at her hair, breathing faster and faster as she tried to drive him out of every shred of control he possessed.
Five seconds before he was going to blow off, he pulled her hard by the hair over his mouth. Kissed her senseless, flipped her to the bottom and shoved her knees up. She came with a small scream at the first stroke and he followed not two strokes later.
Her hands slid off his back and down to the sheets.
“If we keep this up, we are going to die,” she panted between breaths.
“Yeah.” Bharat flopped down next to her, pulling the covers over their chilled forms. “But what a way to die.”
Against All Odds Page 13
