by Nalini Singh
* * *
Nayna hadn’t known this much pleasure could exist. Raj was… She shuddered on another rocking wave of sensation. He could get a little rough, but the instant she let him know, he gentled. That was even sexier than his abs and gorgeously muscular shoulders. It was as if he was learning her, learning what she liked and putting it in his memory banks.
Her serious, dedicated, practical, and wonderful lover.
Nayna decided to return the favor. She’d noticed he liked it when she played with his chest, which was a gift from the gods since she loved playing with his chest. Now, as he kissed her, his hands braced on either side of her head, she tried different pressures until she found the one that made him groan.
A light scratch across his nipples had him sucking in a breath and looking down to watch what she was doing. Nayna remembered something she’d heard once about men being visual creatures. Raj definitely liked watching her hands on him. All at once, she could imagine him watching her as she gripped the hottest, hardest part of him, and oh, her thighs were clenching so tight around his hips.
Hand fisting in her hair, Raj tilted back her head so he could kiss her again. She continued to pet his chest while he did so, and when he put his free hand on her breast and tugged down the cup of her bra, she shivered but didn’t tell him to stop. Breaking the kiss, he looked down again, his hair messy and falling across his forehead and his lips kiss-swollen.
Nayna almost couldn’t look down herself, the image was so carnal. But she did, and it was even more erotic than she’d imagined. He was rubbing the work-roughened pad of his thumb gently over her tightly furled nipple, then circling with his nail, the tiny edge causing her to shiver.
He looked up and his pupils were dilated. As if satisfied she was still with him, still enjoying this, he looked down again. Nayna’s chest heaved. One hand curving over the back of his neck, she said, “You like to look.” It just came out. She couldn’t keep the thoughts inside her head when he was doing such delicious, naughty things to her.
“Hmm?” A squeeze of her breast, the calluses on his palm a delicious rasp of sensation. “I guess I do.” A slow, devastating smile when he looked up, as if he’d made a discovery. “Are you going to let me?”
She had no idea what wicked things he was asking, but she’d give him anything right now. Aware of the danger, she leaned in and sucked at his lower lip. He let her play, and he played with her. She was pretty sure her panties were well beyond damp at this stage; she could smell her arousal. It might’ve been embarrassing if Raj hadn’t been with her every step of the way.
His own arousal wasn’t exactly a secret.
He was big.
Kind of intimidatingly big.
She’d worry about that later.
Right now, she was being kissed and fondled by the sexiest man she’d ever met. His stubble was rough and perfect, and she was totally okay with stubble rash. She’d stocked up on high-strength concealer for a reason.
It was only when he moved them to the bed, dropping her onto her back, that she had a flash of intelligent thought. “I’m not on the pill.” Blurted-out words. Important words.
Thrusting his hands through his hair, Raj groaned. “I’m an idiot.” A second later, his pragmatic brain kicked in. “Where’s the closest pharmacy?”
Nayna pointed to her bathroom. “I went this morning.” She’d been sure she’d be busted by some auntie on holiday any second. Her heart had beat like thunder. She’d felt like she was trying to buy drugs instead of protection. “It’s in the medicine cabinet.”
Raj bounced onto the bed. On his hands and knees above her, he leaned down to kiss her with an open delight that just… turned her into light and fluff and sparkles. She’d never seen him like this with anyone. Not his family. Not her family. Not with the people at the party.
Just her.
“One second,” he said and got off the bed when they came up for air.
Nayna began to feel a bit awkward a split-second after he disappeared into the bathroom. Pulling up the bra cup he’d pushed down, she swallowed. He entered the bedroom again, the box in his hand.
Lifting it to his mouth, he used his teeth to rip off the plastic. As she watched, he emptied the box onto the bedside table.
“Easy access,” he said when she just stared, and then he was over her again, a big warm wall. “I have to tell you something before we do this.”
Distracted by his biceps as he leaned on his forearms, she said, “Hmm?”
“Nayna, my face is up here.” It was a laughing comment, his shoulders shaking.
Wanting to smile—she’d never thought sex would include smiling—she looked up. “I’m listening, cutie-pie.”
A hint of color on his cheekbones as he said, “I’m going to mess this up.” It came out a rough statement. “I want you too much and I’m probably going to lose it the instant I get inside you.”
Nayna squirmed, her thighs squeezing tight around an arousal that might send her over the edge before he even pushed in. “That’s okay. I’ll give you a do-over.” If he kept on looking at her as if she was his favorite candy and he was starving, she’d give him as many do-overs as he wanted.
Scowling, he shook his head. “No. This is our first time. We both get to orgasm.” No give in his words.
Nayna’s mind caught on his phrasing. “It’s our first time together,” she murmured, trying not to feel jealous of all the women who’d come before her; her shyness and resulting lack of experience wasn’t Raj’s fault.
“That too.”
It took Nayna a minute. Her brain sparked with too many neurons all firing at once. “B-but you’re so…” Dumbfounded, she ran her hands over his chest and abs. “How can you have never…?”
“I decided I’d only be with a woman who wanted to lick my abs.” He kissed her.
And though she was still caught in a loop of disbelief and wonder, she had no shields against his kiss. Or from his desire. Raj wanted her and he made no attempt to hide it. To hear his breathing go uneven, to feel his chest rising and falling as raggedly as her own, his hands trembling slightly when he touched her—as if he couldn’t believe his luck—it made her feel the most beautiful woman on the planet.
She touched him as voraciously; drinking in every drop, savoring every moment, every touch. His body was hot silk and rigid strength, his chest hairs a crisp abrasion against her skin. Then there was the defined vee above his hips—she was going to kiss and lick every inch of the muscles that created that vee.
Don’t get her started on the furred trail that led down into his jeans.
Breaking the kiss, she followed that trail with her fingers—and knew he was watching again.
Her breath caught.
Her nipples throbbed.
Reaching the edge of his jeans, she played her fingers near the button above the zipper. She wasn’t trying to be a tease. The truth was, her shyness around men had decided to wake up and wave its flag at the worst possible moment. Her throat was dry, her pulse thrumming. “In the movies,” she whispered, “they make it look so seamless.”
“In the movies,” Raj rasped, “the guy never goes off half-cocked.” Groaning on those harsh words, he tugged away her hand. “We both have fun on our first time,” he repeated stubbornly. “That means you keep your hands away from dangerous places.”
Placing his palm on her navel as she fought the sudden wave of self-consciousness, he spread his fingers over her skin. “Let me do this.” His eyes holding hers, his pupils dilated. “Let me make you feel good.”
27
Heat Wave at the Glacier
Nayna swallowed and fought her nerves by focusing on his erection, the heat flushing his cheeks, the desire in his eyes. Raj wanted her. He wasn’t pretending, wasn’t disappointed. No, he was all but vibrating with passion.
“Yes,” she whispered. “I want this.”
Raj shuddered before taking a long, deep breath and lowering his fingers to the button of her jeans. She was the one wh
o watched this time as he undid the button and pulled down the zipper—to reveal the pale peach of her lace panties.
“You bought a matching set,” he said, sounding a little choked.
Nayna had to confess. “I was thinking of you when I did it.”
He groaned and slipped his hand inside her jeans to cup the hottest, most private part of her. Having not expected the sudden move, Nayna jerked. Oh, wow. Exhaling a gusty breath on the punch of erotic sensation, she made herself look down at the sight of his hand—big, brown-skinned, with a few nicks and scars—holding her so intimately.
It fried her senses.
“Tell me what you like.” Raj lowered his body so that he was speaking against her ear. “I’ve never done this before. Help me get it right.”
A single motion of his finger across the gusset of her panties had her toes curling and her stomach in free fall. Nayna had been dreaming and aching and fantasizing about him for so long that the simple friction of the lace against her skin as he explored her might well be enough to send her over.
Unable to stop the instinctive motions, she moved against him, rubbing and needy. He made a rumbling sound of approval in his chest, seemingly happy with her nonvocal encouragement.
“I fantasized about this,” he confessed as he continued to stroke her between her thighs. “After that night at the party—that night when I was nearly certain you weren’t wearing panties.”
Nayna shivered. “I wasn’t.”
A groan. “I dreamed about touching you like this and hearing you whimper. I told myself you’d be wet and silky for me.”
He so didn’t have to worry about that.
“This is better than my fantasy.” He kissed his way down the edge of her jaw to her mouth, at the same time using his free hand to tug down the cups of her bra.
Wrapping her arms around him because she loved kissing Raj as much as he seemed to love kissing her, Nayna jerked her hips against his hand when he stopped his petting. He started up again, going a little faster when she shifted impatiently.
Nayna felt wanton and wild and she loved it.
Suddenly needy for something she couldn’t put into words, she pressed down against his touch—he pushed back with the heel of his hand before withdrawing for a second, only to slip his hand inside her panties.
He speared two fingers through her flesh, pinning her clit in between.
Nayna’s cry was silent, her nails digging into his neck and the fingers of her free hand clenching on his biceps as her body tried to ride his hand. She should’ve been mortified and uncomfortable, but she couldn’t be, not with him encouraging her with rough whispers and private caresses that followed the movements of her body.
Right at the end, when she couldn’t stand it anymore, she gripped his wrist and guided him to exactly where she wanted the pressure.
The orgasm tore her apart. It was nothing like the sharp sweetness she’d experienced at her own hands. This was deeper, harder, a wrenching jolt that flowed over her in luscious, demanding waves.
* * *
Raj knew his decision to stay celibate until he found the woman who would be his was old-fashioned even in their culture. But as he watched Nayna’s face while her body rippled under his touch, her hand gripping convulsively at his wrist, he had zero regrets. It wouldn’t have changed anything if she’d been more experienced; it would’ve still been their first time together.
Exploring this new adventure with Nayna by his side, yeah, that felt good.
His own breathing was a ragged rasp by now, his heart a roar in his ears. He’d never seen anything more beautiful in his life. She was heat and woman, the dark brown of her skin flushed with a fine layer of perspiration, and on his fingers, she moved sweet and slick and goddamn perfect. His fantasies paled in comparison to the reality.
He couldn’t understand some of the things he’d heard on the work sites. More than one man had complained about how long it took to make a woman come. Hard work, they’d muttered, to a chorus of agreement. The women on the sites had added their own thoughts—that the vast majority of men were lazy bastards who just wanted to get off and who acted as if making a lover orgasm was a chore.
Raj loved watching Nayna lose it. He loved that he’d done this to her. And he loved the idea of learning all the different ways in which he could coax her to pleasure, his confident but shy Nayna with the reading glasses sitting on the bedside table.
Her lashes lifted, revealing eyes deep and dark and fuzzy with passion-drenched shock.
He stopped the motions of his hand even before she tugged at his wrist, guessing that she might be too sensitive now. It was, however, hard to take his hand from her flesh. He’d found his favorite instrument to play, his favorite hobby in which to indulge. He had the feeling he could do this with Nayna all day long.
Except for one thing—his cock was about to snap in two.
And Nayna looked so soft and sexy and erotic that he had no hope of resisting her.
Holding her gaze, he hooked his hands into the sides of her jeans and began to tug them off. She lazily lifted her hips so that he could strip her of the denim. Afterward, he gave himself a second to appreciate how sexy she looked in just her panties and with her nude breasts exposed and deliciously framed by the lines of her bra.
That was about as much control as he had.
Getting up, he tore off his jeans and underwear and threw them to the floor, then grabbed for one of the flat packets on the bedside table. A new awareness came into Nayna’s eyes, her gaze going to his as he finally got the damn thing open and began to roll it down his erection. His hands were trembling with need, and he’d been half afraid he’d mess it up.
Chucking aside the empty foil packet the instant he was done, he reached for the sides of her panties. She stiffened and he snapped up his eyes. But she relaxed almost at once and lifted her hips again in silent encouragement.
The scrap of lace joined the rest of their clothes on the floor.
Though he was trembling by the time he came between her thighs, he locked gazes with her once more and said, “Are you sure?” Nayna might want to break the rules, but she’d always before followed the traditional path. If she did this, she’d have to live with it. The last thing Raj wanted was for her to regret their first time together.
Never did he want Nayna to regret being with him.
“I’m very sure.” It was a soft statement, but there was no doubting her resolve, especially when she hooked one of her legs over his waist and arched her body into his.
Soft dampness rubbing against him, a lap of heat and musk.
Muscles trembling from his teeth-gritted attempt at control, he guided himself to the slick heat of her and nudged in.
She made a funny sound, and when he looked up, he saw that she was wide-eyed, her hands braced up against the headboard. “You feel… large.”
And even though Raj was about to totally lose his shit, he grinned. “That’s it, jaanam. Talk dirty to me.”
She laughed, husky and delighted.
On the verge of coming then and there, Raj clenched his jaw and pushed into her as slowly as he could manage. He did everything in his power not to hurt her even though he knew that was apt to be impossible.
When she made a sharp noise at one point, he hesitated, but a second later, she lifted her hips toward him and he just couldn’t hold it together anymore. He thrust the final inches into the heated tightness of her body, and when he looked up, her eyes were closed and her spine slightly arched. Lowering his head, he sucked her nipple into his mouth as he withdrew then thrust back in.
Once.
Twice.
And boom.
28
The Woman with No Panties
Nayna lay on her back in bed, the sheets pulled up to her neck and her bra straightened. She didn’t know why she’d done that when she wasn’t wearing panties—or anything else for that matter. Raj lay beside her, the sheets rumpled at his waist and one arm bent above his
head. The other one he’d tucked under her head and kind of curled it across her chest.
Nayna liked that. It was cuddling. Even if he wouldn’t call it that, it definitely was. She’d been half afraid he’d just turn over and go to sleep, or maybe go into the shower. She’d read all those complaints from women who wrote in to the magazines, but Raj had only gotten up to dispose of the protection—after letting her use the bathroom first.
Then they’d both come back to bed and he’d made sure she ended up cuddled next to his furnace of a body. Only now she didn’t know quite what to do. No one ever described what you did after sex. Especially when it’d been your first time.
“Did it hurt?”
She jerked a little at Raj’s deep voice, her skin heating. But because she could hear the worry in his tone, she gave him an answer. “A tiny bit,” she said honestly as she turned onto her side to face him. “Kind of like a deep twinge.” She continued to feel him between her legs, as if he’d left an imprint inside her. She wondered how long it would last and hoped it would be a while. She liked the intimate sensation, hugged the erotic knowledge that she’d been with the most gorgeous man she’d ever met. And that she’d been his first too.
“Was it…” She bit down on her lower lip and tried again. “Did you have a good time?”
“Fucking incredible,” was the blunt response. “Even though I went off like a rocket.”
Nayna’s cheeks burned hot at the frank talk, but she liked it. “Me too,” she said, after coughing to clear her throat. “I… I liked feeling you move inside me.”
Raj’s legs stirred under the sheet. “So,” he murmured, “when do you think you’ll be ready again?”
Nayna’s eyes widened, her hand going motionless on his chest—because of course she’d begun petting him. “Do you want to?”
“Nayna, I’m a guy who just experienced sex for the first time—and with the hottest woman on the planet. Yes, I want to.”