Accidentally Engaged(44)

Typical desi parents. Always taking things to extremes—years of neglect, and then way too much interference. His father’s idea of helping him seemed to not only be planning his entire life for him, but also shipping him off again, this time to Canada instead of England. Why would Nadim even care to please this man?

“So, he sent you off to marry a good girl because you messed up?”

“Reena, I’m thirty-two. I wanted to do this. We both decided it would be a fresh start for me.”

“What was your big mistake, anyway?”

Nadim stilled.

This was it. The reason for the bailout. Maybe the truth?

“It sounds ridiculous, and I feel all of fifteen years old, but I fell in with a bad crowd. A situation snowballed, and I needed my father’s help to get out of it.”

Father’s help. Wrong crowd. He was one of those troubled daddy needs to bail me out kids. What had he done?

Nadim knew what she was thinking. “Don’t worry, Reena, it wasn’t illegal or anything. Just a lapse in judgment. Anyway, I promised my father I’d put it behind me,” he continued. “And he helped me do that.”

Reena closed her eyes as the comb scraped behind her ear, causing her to shiver. She didn’t know what to say next. Nadim seemed to have no desire to talk about the details, and maybe for good reason. She could bet his father told him not to tell anyone, especially not her father. And why should Nadim trust Reena? After all, as Dad said, the business was a family business—and she was a Manji.

But she wouldn’t betray him. She didn’t work for her father and had no obligation to carry out his corporate espionage. Dad would judge Nadim for his past. Just like he judged Reena for every mistake she made. She couldn’t subject Nadim to that.

“I think I get it,” she said quietly. “I know I’ve made mistakes, before. Lapses in judgment.”

He silently took the hair tie out of the next segment of hair and started combing. They were both silent for a bit while he worked through her hair. As he gently tilted her head to get behind her other ear, he asked, “Reena, are you glad I moved here?”

What a question. Yesterday, she would have said maybe. Probably. But now? After hearing him tell the truth about why he was here? “Yes. I’m glad you’re here. I’m sorry things went badly for you in London, but I’m glad you’re getting a second chance.” Her voice quieted. “And I’m glad to have you for company when my life is complete shit.”

“I’m glad I’m here, too.” She heard the smile in his voice. After a few more runs of the comb, he straightened her head and ran it down the middle of her now fully loose hair. “You have such soft hair,” he murmured, letting his fingers trail down her neck and behind her ear. She shivered again.

“Thank you.”

“It’s a lot longer wet. I guess because the curls are stretched out. No more bungee jumping.” He scraped the comb through the top of her head with his right hand while his left hand dug into the back, raking his fingers through the wet strands.

The touch made her insides melt. It felt charged somehow. “I thought you had a foot fetish? What’s with the scalp love?”

“I think I may be developing a taste for wet curls, too.” He placed the comb on the coffee table but did not remove his left hand from her hair. Soon his right hand joined in the party, lightly fingering the wet ends. “I think I’m done combing,” he murmured. He leaned closer and brushed his face in her hair.

“Nadim?”

“Hmm?”

“Are you coming on to me?”

“Maybe.” He leaned even closer, his warm breath tickling her neck. It was getting harder to breathe in her living room.

“I…” She shuddered as he pushed her hair to one side. What were they talking about?

He dipped his head and soft lips starting to graze her sensitized skin. Barely making contact, but with a promise of so much more.

Reena’s internal alert system blared: Mayday! He was going to kiss her neck. And if he did that, her asshole libido would let him, and she would lean into him and turn around, and then there would be kissing and writhing and clothes thrown to the floor, and she was pretty sure there were unexpired condoms in her bathroom, but maybe they could go to his place because his bed was better, even though it was technically her bed and…ungh. She closed her eyes and leaned into him.

There were thousands of valid reasons not to do this. And maybe just as many to do it. But with lips on her neck, it was hard to weigh the pros and cons right now.

Her upper body reclined on him as one of his hands moved to her hip and the other gently pushed her shoulder down to expose more of her neck. He kissed, licked, and sucked gently, turning her spine to goo.

His mouth was on her with intention. Maybe she was just imagining it, but there was a deliberateness in his actions. It had been months since she’d been touched by a man. Even longer since she’d felt completely wanted. Not just the convenient girl, not the party girl. She was the one he wanted to be with right now. It was her neck he wanted to kiss, her hair he wanted his hands in.

That thought was more intoxicating than the bourbon in her tea, so she let her brain turn off. Let it not worry about what a terrible idea this was. It didn’t matter. All that mattered were those soft lips closing the circuit that had been open since they met.