Rebel Hard (Hard Play #2)(45)

“Mere jaanam, are you drunk?”

“No.” She hiccupped, decided to take another sip of tequila to wash down the potato chip. “Only had a few drinks.”

“Of what?”

“You called me your darling.” She blew him a noisy kiss. “You’re my jaanu too.”

“Nayna, baby, what are you drinking?”

“Tequila!” she whooped, and beside her, ísa gave a battle cry.

“Are you in a bar?” Raj asked, his tone rougher. “Do you two need a ride home?”

She crunched more potato chips. “Will you be half-naked when you come? I want a half-naked taxi driver. With romantic cactuses.”

“Cac-tiiiiii,” ísa whispered loudly.

“Nayna, focus. Where are you?”

Nayna stuck out her tongue at the phone. “He wants to know where we are,” she said to ísa without removing the phone from her ear.

“Home!” ísa yelled too loudly toward the phone. “We’re at home!”

“See?” Nayna said into the phone. “We’re at home like I said.” Her brain was a little fuzzy, and she wanted to make sure she didn’t forget to tell him the most important thing, so she said, “I want to lick your abs.”

“Anytime,” Raj answered, and she was eighty-nine percent sure he was laughing. “Can I lick yours in return?”

Nayna pulled up the sleep T-shirt she’d borrowed from ísa because she couldn’t be bothered going down to her car to get her stuff. Above her panties, her belly curved softly. “I don’t have any,” she said sadly. “It’s all soft.” She poked at it. “My panties are orange.”

A harsh groan down the line. “Jaan, don’t drive tonight.”

“Duh. I’m staying at ísa’s.” Pushing down the T-shirt, she said, “Will you teach me how to have abs?”

“No. I like you soft.”

Nayna smiled and kicked her feet… and took the drink ísa held out. Her friend’s face was a little red. Maybe she was drunk. Giggling at the thought, Nayna said, “You’re so pretty, Raj. I’m gonna have sex dreams about you.”

Then she hung up and threw back the shot.

“Sex dreams!” ísa fell off the sofa laughing.

Cracking up at her friend’s expression, Nayna swigged directly from the bottle of tequila and decided she would lick Raj’s abs twice.



* * *



Raj stared at the phone. “Sex dreams,” he muttered. “Nayna Sharma, you will drive me to madness.” Then he tore off his towel, which he’d wrapped around his body after he heard the phone come alive with the ringtone he’d programmed for her, and walked back into the shower.

As he stroked himself to release under the heated spray, he imagined Nayna’s tongue as she licked her way down his abs and decided to go further. Those soft lips surrounding him, her long, slender-fingered hands on his thighs, her hair falling forward as she—

“Fuck.”

He came so hard that his back bowed and white spots flickered in front of his eyes. Slumping back against the shower wall while the water cascaded over him, washing away the signs of his orgasm, he told himself that he had to get a better handle on this. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be able to make it good for Nayna when she was ready to let him. And he wanted to make it good for her. So damn good.

Finally getting out of the shower again ten minutes later, his body under control but his mind full of thoughts of her, he checked his phone to make sure she hadn’t sent him a message. Nothing.

His adorably drunk Nayna was probably fast asleep by now.

He’d been worried there for a second that she was out somewhere and clearly incapacitated, but knowing that she was with her best friend, the two of them getting drunk safely at home, made him grin. He wondered if she’d remember what she’d said to him when she woke up tomorrow. If she didn’t, he’d be certain to remind her. It wasn’t every day that a man got told he was cute and that a woman wanted to lick his abs.

Rubbing at his stubbled jaw, he said, “Cute” and chuckled.

He dressed in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, ran his fingers through his hair, then pulled on his sneakers and padded down the stone pathway that connected his one-bedroom unit to his parents’ place.

His friend Sailor didn’t get it, how he could still live so close to his folks. Sailor loved his parents, but he’d been out of their place as soon as possible. But this was Raj’s normal. As the eldest son, he was expected to live at home—and to bring his bride home too. Raj had never felt like rebelling against that aspect of his culture; he’d grown up in a multigenerational family home, and he wanted that for his children too.

Of course, he’d extend his place to be bigger. The family had the room on their patch of land, and no way was he sharing living space with Navin and Komal. He’d likely have to build a room for Aditi too, or she’d curse him to eternity, he thought with an inward laugh.

Raj, did you dream of a homemaker wife and lots of children?

The memory of Nayna’s solemn question made his lingering smile fade. He wanted to get in his truck and find her right now, had planned to track her down after his shower, but she was in no state to talk.