Krish walked her backward, until she sat down on the bed. He pushed her back, and kissed his way down her neck. He tongued and licked his way from one nipple to the other.
Foreplay was nice and all, but sometimes things needed to get a move on. Her hands clawed their way down his back and pulled his shirt up. He drew away long enough to yank his clothes off, and she only had a moment to admire his butt as he grabbed a condom from the nightstand drawer.
He flowed over her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. One ankle hooked around his, and she had him on his back.
This was better. She did actually love being on top.
She ripped the foil wrapper of the condom open and rolled itdown over his erection, taking advantage of the moment to stroke and tease him. He groaned, and grabbed her hips. She found it perfect that the calluses on his hands came from handling boxes and books, of all things.
Sejal lowered herself on top of him. She swallowed his groan and used her grip on the headboard to move on and over him. He tilted his head back and breathed in unison with her. “Don’t stop,” she moaned against his lips, though she was the one in control.
Krish grit his teeth and pressed her down on him, her hips jerking back and forth as she convulsed in his arms. His fingers clenched hard on her buttocks, and he grunted as he came.
After they’d dealt with the condom, they lay side by side, and he pulled her into his arms. Sometimes, if someone talked about marriage too much, Sejal got tetchy about physical affection, but she was too contented to do anything but melt against him. With one finger, she traced the scar on his face, down to his lips.
He nipped her finger. “What are you thinking?”
“How was the talk with your brother?”
“As good as can be expected. He has to testify next week. He asked us to be in the courtroom. My mom already agreed. I told him I’d check with you.”
“I think we should be there, sure, if you want to be there.”
“It would be good.” He pressed a kiss against her head. “Thanks. You’ve gotten really good at navigating our various tricky family dynamics.”
“You’ve got a brother who nearly got me killed. I’ve got a sister we hope won’t become an oligarch. Life is what it is.” Sejal raised up on one elbow. “You’re okay with us not getting married,right? You’re not saying that but secretly harboring resentment against me?”
He rolled his eyes. “No. I never cared about it. If it was important to you, it would be important to me. It’s not, so it’s not.”
“It’s that it—”
“Hey.” He squeezed her arm. “It doesn’t matter. You don’t have to justify it. If you don’t want it, we don’t do it. We get to define what we look like. No one else.”
Her smile spread through her whole body. Sejal still had flashes of insecurity about being loved and loveable, but she was doing the work to arm herself with tools to combat those. She lay back down next to him and cuddled closer. “When we have our party, we could sneak off to the beach and exchange some private vows. No need for anyone to be there or have it made legal. That way we can still experience the whole thing.”
“Vows? A chance to see you mushy? I’d love that.”
She narrowed her gaze at him. “Watch it, bud.”
“Oh, I am.” He slid his hand down her back, over her butt. “I’m watching very closely.”
Sejal rolled her eyes and slid away from him. “I’m going to get dressed.”
She went to the black duffel on the floor, rummaged around in it, and found one of his shirts.
“Can you also pull out my toothbrush while you’re over there?”
She opened the smaller pocket in the front and felt around. No toothbrush, but her fingers brushed cardstock. She frowned and pulled out a $5 scratcher.
Holy crap. Krish had used this bag for a couple of trips sincetheir wild ride, but as things often went, he must not have cleaned it out properly since they’d trekked across the country. She stood and turned. “Look at this.”
Krish squinted at it. “What’s that?”
“The scratcher I bought. Somewhere in Illinois. Or was it Indiana?”
“Oh, wow.” He didn’t sound as excited as her, but Sejal definitely played the lotto more than Krish did.
She pulled the thin pin out of her ever-trusty necklace, then bounded onto the bed. She scratched the winning numbers, then went through the rest of the numbers one at a time to see if any of them matched.
