Rebel Hard (Hard Play #2)(66)

“Nayna.” Douglas stopped her after the meeting, his green eyes piercing against the dark brown of his hair. “I’ve got a major meet with the Barths Tuesday afternoon. You want to sit in?”

The Barths were big clients—and whatever Nayna’s future held, any such connections would be a bonus. “Thank you. That’d be fantastic.”

The meeting ended up being in the private room of a restaurant, and once it was over, Douglas drove them both back to the office. “I spent Christmas vacation in Egypt,” he told her, regaling her with stories when she admitted her interest in the country. “There’s an Egyptian exhibition on at the art gallery,” he said as they turned into the firm’s parking lot. “Last week before it closes. I’m thinking about going. You want to come?”

The past and the future collided, two very different men asking her to attend the same event. Douglas, of course, was just being friendly. Though he was divorced and currently single, he’d never made any move on Nayna.

“Thank you,” she said, “but I’m not going anywhere until I clear my workload.”

“Well,” Douglas said, “if you change your mind, you know where I work.” His grin was wide. “I’ll email you a few of my Egypt photos too. I’ve already bored everyone else with them.”

Laughing, the two of them entered the villa and headed off to their separate offices.

In the days that followed, Nayna had to work long hours to catch up after having taken extra time off work. Raj dropped by one night with takeout while she and Douglas were working out a problem.

Delight had her bouncing inside.

She introduced the men and they shook hands. For a second, she thought she was imagining the sudden tension in the air, but Raj’s expressions were no longer opaque to her—and the way he was holding his jaw, it didn’t exactly shout happiness. As for Douglas, he shot her a huge smile before he left and said, “Don’t forget about the Egyptian exhibition. We still have a few days to catch it.”

Raj said absolutely nothing after Douglas left the room, simply helped her set out the takeout on the coffee table in one corner of her office, between two small sofas. Nayna waited until her colleague had exited the villa altogether, driving off in his BMW, before deciding to take the bull by the horns.

“I don’t know what that was about,” she said bluntly. “If I was going to go to that exhibition, it’d be with you.”

Raj gave her an intent look. “I don’t think he knew I existed until I walked in.” Quiet, potent words.

Nayna frowned. “That’s because I don’t talk about my private life in the office.” She liked her colleagues but didn’t consider them close enough friends to chat to them about the problems and joys of her life.

Raj’s shoulder muscles remained rigid. “He thought you were single, and he was building up to asking you out.”

Nayna snorted. “He’s known me since I began working here. He hasn’t suddenly been overcome by my beauty.” And if Raj didn’t stop being so hardheaded about this, Nayna would have a blowup to rival Shilpa Sharma’s.

“The man was hitting on you,” Raj said without raising his voice. “Or does he stay behind to help out all the people in this office?”

“Ugh!” Nayna hauled Raj’s face down to her own, kissing him until his fingers dug into her hips and her heart was thunder. “You’re my man, and we’re not having a dumb fight over nothing.”

Raj’s gaze smoldered. He was the one who initiated the next kiss, and that kiss burned through her like hot black fire. She’d already taken off her jacket earlier in the day, and now he unbuttoned her shirt with one hand while tugging up the hem of her pencil skirt with the other.

She shoved her hands under his T-shirt, clawing at his back as he kissed her throat, one hand on the lace-covered mound of her bra. Each squeeze, each brush, it only made her hotter. When he pulled away to spin her around, she instinctively braced her hands on the edge of her desk.

“Raj?”

Shoving up her skirt to her hips, Raj didn’t reply as he pulled down her panties. Nayna lifted one foot, then the other so he could get them fully off. The sound of a belt being opened, a zipper being lowered, the crackle of foil.

Her face was hot, her entire body teetering on the cliff of anticipation.

One big hand gripped her hip. “Nayna.” A ground-out word that demanded a response.

She lowered herself even farther, arching her back. “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes.”

He surged into her in a hard thrust that lifted her onto her toes and tore a scream from her mouth. Hands on her hips on either side, Raj thrust in and out in a relentless motion that pushed her over the cliff in a passionate clenching of inner muscles that made him stiffen and let out a loud grunt before he leaned down to press a kiss to her neck.

His breath was heaving bellows, his heart pounding against her back.

Reaching up with one hand, Nayna brushed her palm over his bristled cheek. “You’re mine,” she said, her voice husky. “I don’t want anyone else.”



* * *



Raj met up with Navin for a beer the next night, his mood still dark.

He’d been rough with Nayna the previous day in her office, and he wasn’t happy with himself about it. He hadn’t physically hurt her, and she’d been with him all the way, but Raj wasn’t used to losing control the way he had with her.