“Not everyone has a hidden agenda,” he argued. He wiped his hands on a towel before slinging it over one shoulder. Then he placed his hands flat on the countertop and leaned toward her. “Sometimes people do things just because they want to make someone happy. I want you to feel comfortable and safe with me always.”
“I do.” God help her, but it was true.
He didn’t scare her, although he should have. She had given him her virginity without a second thought, but somehow the notion of having him cook her dinner and then sharing a private meal in his home was much more intimate.
“You put impossible thoughts in my head,” she whispered. Even as she said the words, she heard the ring of truth in them. “This”—she gestured to the apartment, and then at the food he was making—“none of this is my real life. It wasn’t what I was raised to. It wasn’t what I expected.”
“And now you don’t know what to make of it,” he finished for her.
“Exactly.”
“So stop trying to overanalyze everything and just enjoy it.” He quickly and efficiently began ladling pasta onto plates only to cover each mound with plenty of the hearty vegetable and chicken red sauce mixture. He placed the full plate in front of her with a fork. “Just eat and enjoy.”
SPARKS CHOSE A bottle of wine and carefully opened it. He made his movements methodical and very unhurried. It was easy to see that Jaipriya was ready to bolt, even though he didn’t really understand what was going on in her head. Why was she suddenly being so critical of their association? It felt as if she were getting ready to say goodbye.
He poured the wine and then set a glass before her. She had already started picking at her food, eating tiny bites with precision. Sparks picked up his own plate of food and joined her at the counter. There was no talking, but at least the silence didn’t feel uncomfortable.
“This is really good,” she told him. “Thank you.”
“You sound surprised.” He ate a few bites and then winked at her. “Did you think I would be horrible and you’d be stuck sitting here trying to eat some awful slop while complimenting me just to avoid hurting my tender feelings?”
Her face went blank for a moment, and then she laughed. “Not exactly.”
“But you were afraid I would be awful.”
“An awful cook? Not really. I’ve just never had a man cook for me before.”
Sparks thought for a moment. “My father did a lot of the cooking in our household. Sometimes I think he liked it just because it was so different from the daily grind of his job as a lawyer.”
“So you came from a happy home?”
He snorted. “God no. I didn’t say that. My parents politely hated each other all of their lives. I think they actually enjoyed being mean and nasty to one another. My mother never missed an opportunity to make fun of my dad, and he had absolutely no concept of fidelity. He cheated on her repeatedly.”
“I’m afraid that’s the sort of life I’m bound to have,” Jai told him softly. “Most of the men my parents have considered for my husband are not the sort that would respect a vow of fidelity to a spouse.”
“So you’ve always just assumed that you would have an arranged marriage?” He barely managed not to choke on the words.
“Of course.” She shrugged. “That is the best way. Although I refused to marry Asif, just because he’s very stupid and his brothers are mean.”
“You were afraid.” He didn’t have to be told that to know that it was true.
“I was,” she agreed. Then she seemed to think better of her words. “I suppose I still am.”
“I think that’s a reasonable reaction, and something that almost anyone raised in American culture would feel.” Sparks thought about the centuries of tradition that were working against her. “Growing up here sort of left you straddling two cultures and two worlds.”
“Very much.” She gave a sad little sigh. “But if what everyone is saying about my father is true, a good marriage for me will be even more important to my mother.”
“Why is that?” Sparks had to force himself to speak. The idea of her marrying any other man was unacceptable to him, for reasons he could not understand. “Why would it matter at all? Your mother is a grown woman. Let her take care of herself.”
“That is not how it is done. And she will need my support when she is without my father.”
IT ALL SOUNDED so sterile and dutiful when she put the situation in those terms. Was that really how she felt about it? The idea that she was quietly stewing in her own internal rebellion made her feel restless. She could no longer sit still.
Sliding down from the barstool, she walked toward the windows overlooking the busy street below. Cars passed to and fro, their drivers hurrying off toward their destinations and not even giving the buildings on either side of them any notice. In that moment she felt her insignificance. Nobody really cared about her decisions or what was right or wrong for Jaipriya Bhatia. They were all too busy living their own lives.
“Jaipriya, what’s wrong?” Sparks approached slowly from behind her. “Please tell me what’s going on inside your head right now.”
“Nothing,” she whispered. “There’s nothing in my head.”
Then he reached out and tugged her into his arms. She should not have given in so easily, but it was impossible to resist the warm security he offered. Turning, she buried her face in the hollow between his shoulder and his neck. She felt safe there. He pressed his lips to the top of her head, and she was struck by how loved she felt in this moment. How could he make her feel as if he truly cared about her? It was all just proximity and hormones, wasn’t it?
“Jaipriya,” he whispered. “You are too much woman to be trapped into a loveless arranged marriage. I know that they aren’t all like that, but what you’re describing would be a fate worse than death for someone like you.”
“Like me?” She frowned up at him. “What does that even mean?”
“You’re a passionate woman.”
He spoke the words, and then he cupped her face in his hands and took her mouth in a gentle kiss. She made a soft sound, unable to hold back as a wave of powerful emotions swept her defenses away. She wound her arms around his neck and kissed him back.
Suddenly they were all over each other. The kiss grew almost frenzied. He slid his tongue inside her mouth and mated it to hers. He rubbed and coaxed and teased her until she felt as though her insides were trembling with arousal and excitement. She had never felt like this before. The heightened anticipation was almost excruciating.
“Sparks,” she whispered. “I—I want something. I don’t—I don’t understand what’s happening.”
HER INNOCENCE AND honesty in response was so damn refreshing. It was a huge change from the other women he’d been with, who had pretended not to want sex even when they did, or the ones who had other reasons for using sex like a weapon.
Sparks put one arm beneath her knees and the other behind her back and lifted her right off the floor. He walked out of the living room, down a short hallway, and to his bedroom. He wanted her in his bed. He wanted to feel that sense of possessing a woman in a space that was all his.
“What are you doing?” she asked, her dark eyes wide.
“I’m going to make love to you.”
He didn’t give her a chance to question or worry. He tugged her T-shirt over her head and worked her jeans down her legs. The smooth expanse of dusky skin was too much to resist. It was as if he couldn’t get out of his own clothing fast enough. He shoved his shirt over his head and tripped getting out of his pants. And when he was finally naked he got onto the bed and groaned at how good it felt to have her bare skin next to his.
She touched him so gently. Her fingers moved over his skin, exploring and stroking. The expression on her face was incredible. The wonder there made him feel as though he could take on the world. Then he nudged his way between her legs. She spread her knees to accommodate him.
“I can’t wait, Jaipriya.” His v
oice was gravelly with the pent-up arousal he was experiencing. “I need you now. I need to be inside you.”
“I need you too.” Her tone was fervent. “Please. I ache so badly!”
He nudged her slick opening with the tip of his cock. Bracing his weight on his hands, he looked down at the view of her lush mound, dark pubic hair, and his cock sliding along her wet cleft. The erotic sight nearly made him come then and there. Seconds later he entered her with a grunt of satisfaction.
Jaipriya gasped and arched her back. He caught one of her nipples between his lips and gave it a tug. She whimpered. Then he started moving in and out of her body, and he felt her rise almost immediately toward an orgasm. The sensation gave him a thrill unequaled in anything else he had ever experienced. This was what he wanted. This was all he wanted. And as he used long strokes to bring her ever closer to her peak, he knew it was also where he belonged.
He watched her face as she neared her climax. It was such a beautiful thing to see her eyes hazy with passion and her lips barely parted as she gasped and moaned. Then she wrapped her legs around his waist, and suddenly he was the one hanging on by a thread. Her inner muscles tightened, and she used her legs for leverage to grind herself against him. It felt exquisite, and in only a few heartbeats he was too far gone and too excited to care.
“I’m coming!” she gasped.
He thrust hard and held as he ejaculated with a throbbing intensity that left him almost incoherent. “So am I,” he managed to groan. Then he spent himself completely and closed his eyes to savor this sensation as long as he possibly could.
Chapter Sixteen
Jaipriya woke early and rolled over in the soft warm bed. It was heavenly to wake up next to Sparks. For just a moment she closed her eyes and pretended that this was her real life. She imagined that she was married to a man who treated her like an equal. She thought about morning conversations over coffee, walks in the park, and perhaps lively discussions about what else they might choose to do with their time. Sparks would be the sort of husband that supported her no matter what field of study she chose to pursue or what career she wanted to try. His love would be unconditional, and she would love him back with every ounce of her soul.
She opened her eyes and sat up. She was very careful not to disturb the man lying beside her. She slid out from beneath the covers and found her clothes with exaggerated movements that promised silence. It was difficult not to stare at the bed and be distracted by the sight of Sparks sprawled on his belly with the sheet down around his waist. His golden shoulders and lean torso invited touching, but this wasn’t her life, and he wasn’t her man. She belonged to another existence, where men were not fairytale princes and there were no happy endings.
Perhaps she had been foolish to come this far and let herself pretend with Sparks for even one night. Still, she could not regret her choices. She had lived more in the last few days than she had in her entire previous life. That was what made it so difficult to go back to the way things were. Yet she had to try. She had a responsibility to her family to do just that.
It was tricky to get the door open and leave the apartment, but she managed just fine. She knew that if Sparks had not been home, where he considered himself “safe”, she never would have been able to get away. His SEAL instincts would have immediately registered the noise. But he didn’t expect any trouble here. This was his home turf.
She stole out of the building and refused to look back. She had seen a train station not far from here. It would be a simple thing to take a train back to Baltimore. There was more than enough cash in her pocket to get her there. Besides, she was going home. Once she got there she would not need money, or any other “necessities”. She was pretty sure that everything would be provided for her whether she wanted it or not.
SPARKS BLINKED AWAY the sleep. He could not remember having slept this deeply in ages—maybe never. He’d heard a noise, and he’d felt the bed move. Now he kept waiting for the sound of the shower or the toilet flushing. Surely Jaipriya would come back to bed after she took care of her morning—well, whatever girls did in the morning.
He dozed off again before coming awake with a start. She still hadn’t come back to bed. Glancing over at the clock, he realized that it had been fifteen minutes since he’d last stirred. What was taking her so long?
Then it hit him all at once. She wasn’t coming back to bed. She wasn’t coming back! She’d left the apartment, and he had just slept through the event!
He came to with a decisive snap. Flinging his legs over the side of the mattress, he stumbled to his feet and started pulling on clothing. She couldn’t be that far ahead of him. She didn’t have a car or any money to speak of. There was no place she could go. Had she just gone for coffee? Was he being completely paranoid?
Sparks attempted to relax, but couldn’t do it. His instincts were on high alert and would not settle. Perhaps he was wrong. Maybe she was around the corner at the coffee shop. He would head there first and hope for the best, but something inside his gut told him that was a shot in the dark.
He shoved his feet into his boots and pounded out the door. He slammed his way out of the building and stopped on the sidewalk. Other morning passersby stared at him as though he was a lunatic. And why wouldn’t they? He had to look like a wild man. No doubt his expression showed his internal panic.
Turning, he strode quickly for the coffee shop. He kept thinking that he was overreacting. He would find her there, and it would all be a laugh that they would share later on. Then he arrived at the shop and discovered that it was packed full of morning coffee drinkers. There were couples out for breakfast, business people grabbing a cup before their morning meetings, and groups of moms with strollers. No Jaipriya.
He was starting to panic. He felt the fear rising inside him as he realized what must have happened. Somehow. Some way. She must have decided to go back to her father’s house. The strength of her commitment to her family was phenomenal. If anything, it only made him love her more. Yet he could not stand the idea of her being in that sort of danger. Her father might love her. Her family might cherish her. But when it came to the Armeen al Sauds, nothing was sacred, and every debt had to paid at the highest cost possible.
JAI WONDERED IF it was actually possible to drive oneself insane by constantly changing one’s mind. She thought that it might be possible, because she was pretty certain that was what had happened in the last several hours.
She had waffled back and forth about returning to her father’s house so many times that she felt like a pendulum swinging back and forth. Still, she could not bring herself to simply walk away. She owed her parents an explanation. That was the only thing that kept her coming back to the same thought over and over again. Her father was a good man. She knew he was. She had to give him a chance to explain himself. He deserved at least that before Sparks and his friends bought down the entire organization and let the chips fall right in her father’s lap.
Now, standing on the opposite side of the street in front of her father’s sprawling house, she remembered the night she had snuck out. Sparks had been here, watching her. He had helped her without question and without asking for anything in return. Those were the things that characterized him as a person. And those were the sorts of traits she was looking for in a man.
With a deep inhale and a slow exhale, Jai marched herself across the street and prepared to confront her father. How bad could it really be? Yes. She had broken the rules and snuck out. But her father was breaking laws, not just rules. Surely that would count for something.
She went right up to the front door and rang the bell. Less than a minute later, the door swung open, and she found herself face to face with her aunt. The woman began to shriek excitedly in Punjabi. In fact, she was talking so quickly that Jai couldn’t actually translate it. But Jai’s first indication that things were not going to go exactly as she hoped was when her aunt grabbed Jai by the arm and squeezed so tightly that Jai was sure her arm would pop righ
t off. Then, instead of giving her a hug, Jai’s aunt drew back and slapped Jai right across the right side of her cheek.
Jai jerked away. “Hey! What the hell, Mami?”
“You wicked, wicked girl!” Mami snarled. “Do you have any idea the trouble you have caused?”
“Me?” Jai snorted. “If Pita wasn’t helping those jackass Armeen al Sauds traffic in stolen women from America, none of this would be happening in the first place!”
“Oh, I told my sister-in-law that she should not send you to American schools.” Mami dragged Jai back into the house and slammed the front door closed. “All of those bad notions they give you are just wrong! Good Indian girls don’t think about things like that. They appreciate the honor of marrying a prince and anticipate the lovely life they will have in an Arabian palace.”
“Then why don’t you marry them?” Jai snapped. “And let go of my arm. I can walk! I’m not some child that you can chastise. I’m a grown woman.”
“Yes.” Her father’s voice came from the top of the stairs. “You are a grown woman who should know better than to disobey her parents.”
“Disobey you?” Jai struggled to hold onto her temper. “If you have truly done what I think you have done, I’m ashamed to call you ‘Father’. I cannot imagine how I would trust you far enough to follow any dictates you give me.”
Her father’s response was quick and brutal. “Then you will suffer the consequences of your arrogance.”
SPARKS DID NO more than send a text to the others to let him know where he was going. None of that mattered. He wanted to do his part in the investigation. He wanted to find Rachel. But at this point he’d done all he could, and the information was in the hands of the right people. They would find out more, and then he would respond. That was how it worked. And until he found Jaipriya, he was pretty sure he’d be useless doing anything else. He couldn’t focus long enough.
SEAL INVESTIGATIONS: A 5-Books SEAL Romance Series Page 56
