“It is. For whoever did it.” I will be admitting nothing.
“Stubborn.” He shakes his head. “Did you ever wonder what it would have been like if we weren’t constantly in competition?”
Wonder? No. Imagine all the sex we would have? Constantly.
Like I’m imagining right now.
Chapter Sixteen
When I don’t answer, Gavin continues, “I think we could have made a good couple.”
I let out another laugh at the thought of being in a relationship with the same man I once used as a target for a game of darts. Lucky for him I’m bad at darts, and it was only his picture.
He uses the movement to slide his arms around me, crossing his arms at my lower back. “We would spend all day taking over the art world and then all night burning off the extra energy,” he whispers.
“More like spendallof our time arguing over every small, insignificant detail in our lives. Leaving us too exhausted and bitter to do anything at night.”
“Or, we’d argue and settle it in bed.” He brings his head closer to mine at the second mention of sex.
I don’t want to imagine it anymore. He’s here, talking about us having sex and smelling amazing and feeling even better.
I close the distance between our mouths. Gavin jerks away from me initially, maybe surprised that I’d gone for it. But then he immediately comes back.
I was the one to initiate our lips touching, but he takes it further, his tongue peeking out to caress my lips, and then delve deeper. I grab him behind the shoulders, trying to get him closer than he currently is. Warmth travels along my veins, settling in the area that wants to get very close to him.
It feels like I’m kissing Michelangelo’sDavid. He’s just as hard as the marble sculpture. Just as perfectly formed.
I try to pull him even closer, and he gets the message and lifts me up a little to lean me against the wall, putting a hand under my butt. I raise my right leg and give in to the desire to rub against Gavin.
Gavin’s mouth leaves mine, and I open mine to complain. He starts sucking on my neck and I moan, mentally withdrawing my complaints.
When his hand slides under my dress, I realize exactly what I’m doing, and who I’m doing it with. So I push him away a little, and take satisfaction with the way he makes a small forward movement to get back to my lips.
I almost give in, but he’s still the competition, and pursuing anything with him would still lose any respect I had in Dad’s eyes. I’ve worked too hard for that to happen. Since nothing’s changed in my life in the last twenty seconds, I push my hand on his chest to keep him away.
He opens his mouth, and I’m a little afraid of what might come out of it. I don’t want to discuss what just happened, so I ward off whatever he’s about to say with a quick, “Good night, Gavin.”
“Night, Riya.”
I turn around and throw myself through my open door, not stopping until I’ve walked all the way across the room, shedding clothes on the way. I toss on a big shirt and throw myself into the bed. It’s very well deserved after the turmoil of the day.
I take out my daily contacts and toss them over the side of the bed in the general direction of the trash. The phone gets a little more care, gently landing on the charger. I reach over and turn off the light.
Unfortunately, my brain can’t shut down long enough to give me the rest I deserve, and thoughts of Gavin and this show keep me tossing and turning in the luxurious bed.
“Did you get drunk on a school night?” Sonia asks me on the phone after the lackluster greeting she gets.
“No,” I deny vehemently, burying my head back in my pillow. Buzzed is not the same as drunk. And if she wasn’t rude enough to call people at the crack of...9:00 a.m., my phone screen tells me, then she’d get a better reception. “But I did stay up way past my bedtime.”
“Aren’t you practically on vacation?”
“I would be if you didn’t keep contacting me to do work.”
“Right, actually...”
We discuss work for the next forty-five minutes. By the time Sonia winds down, I have all my electronics on with different information on the screens, and multiple notebooks open. Still in bed though. It’s kind of a vacation.
“That’s it for now,” Sonia says. “Except...”
