Rebel Hard (Hard Play #2)(24)

She kissed her grandmother on the cheek… and caught a whiff of masculine aftershave. “Were you with Mr. Hohepa?” she asked on a gasp.

Her grandmother’s eyes twinkled. “We took a walk through our gardens. He’s growing zucchinis the size of watermelons!” She waved a hand. “Shoo. Go have a walk with your young man. Every girl should have some romance.”

Romance is for children.

Nayna didn’t think Raj had been acting the bastard there—that was what he actually believed. While she had a stash of romance novels that kept growing. But she didn’t say anything to her grandmother and went out the back door. Unlike the front door, it didn’t squeak or make other betraying sounds. Probably the reason why her grandmother used it to sneak out with Mr. Hohepa after everyone else was in their rooms.

Raj was waiting for her at the end of their drive, his body obscured by a tree until she was close to him. He stirred before she reached him, an intimidatingly large male silhouetted against the night. Nayna wasn’t afraid—not physically anyway. Raj didn’t strike her as the kind of man who’d ever hurt a woman.

When they’d been together, he’d been rough but in a sexy way. Never hurting her even though he was so much stronger. His hands had been careful on her skin, on her breasts, and she thought if they’d gone all the way, he’d have taken care entering her.

Her skin prickled, her thighs clenching.





14





Suburban Parks Are a Hotbed of Sin





Despite her visceral and immediate reaction to Raj—would it always be like this, a conflagration?—Nayna managed to keep it together until they were in the privacy of the park. Since this was a suburban area filled with families, there was no one else there tonight, the children’s play equipment their only companions.

“Here.” She thrust out the letter toward him.

His hand came up instinctively to take it, the look he shot her hard in a way she was starting to realize didn’t mean anger. “You didn’t read it.”

“Of course I read it,” Nayna said. “I’m a woman, not a paragon of self-control.” She folded her arms. “I just thought you should have it so you never have to worry that it might fall into someone else’s hands.” He’d shared an intensely private truth with her, and Nayna would never speak about it, but she wanted him to have this insurance as well.

Folding the pages, Raj put them in the back pocket of his jeans. “Will it help if I apologize again? I was an ass. I’m sorry.”

Nayna puffed out a breath. “Apology accepted.”

Raj had opened a vein for her when he was a man who fiercely guarded himself and his privacy. It had crumbled her anger to the earth, left her floundering. And as far as apologies went, she liked his blunt way of accepting that he’d fucked up and needed to apologize.

He stared at her for long minutes, as if trying to read the meaning beneath her equally frank words. “So, where does this leave us?” he asked, his muscles still tense and his gaze making her want to shiver for all the right reasons.

Turning on her heel before she surrendered to the raw physical pull between them, Nayna went to sit down in a swing. It was meant for older kids, so her feet didn’t drag too much.

Raj followed, coming to stand behind her. “Lift your feet.”

When she did, he pulled back the swing and let go. Nayna whooshed through the summer night air, her hair flying back from her face and a smile creasing her cheeks. Raj pushed her when she reached him again and she flew a second time, then a third and a fourth, her smile turning into a grin of delight. “I haven’t done that in forever,” she said to him afterward, her legs a little wobbly as she got up. “It was fun.”

Unsmiling, Raj cupped her cheek, and for the first time since she’d known him, his actions were tentative. When she didn’t pull away, he ran the pad of his thumb over her cheekbone and stepped closer until her breasts pressed up against his chest. She hadn’t put on a bra under her navy T-shirt, and her nipples felt like tiny bullets sizzling against the heat of him.

The kiss was slow, deep, demanding, one of Raj’s hands in her hair, the other one plastered flat to her back to press her against him. The thick ridge of his erection pushed into her abdomen, causing inner muscles to spasm in need. A whimpering sound escaped her, her hands sliding up his chest to link around his neck as she rose on tiptoe in an attempt to get closer.

Raj’s chest rumbled… and a car went past on the road, the beams of its headlights momentarily flashing past them. Jerking, Nayna put at least a foot of distance between them.

“We can’t do this.” It wasn’t fair to Raj. “Not when I’m not even sure I want to be married anymore.”

Lines forming on his forehead. “What’s changed?”

Nayna told him the unpalatable truth. “I realized that my life isn’t mine. I’m allowing everyone else to drive it.” It was about damn time she took control. “And as for us…”

Uneasiness bloomed in her stomach at the memory of his letter, of her understanding of his wariness against the kind of love and trust she’d need to have in a man to walk into marriage. “I don’t want to end up living the same life for decades to come. I don’t want to end up resentful toward my husband. I have dreams that don’t involve living in a suburban house and raising babies. At least not yet.”