by Alyssa Cole
“That was what you deserve, Callie,” he said softly. “Remember that. Now help me undress. I’m wearing entirely too much clothing.”
She was nowhere near as good at undressing someone as he was, especially someone who was holding her against his body. She struggled to remove his jacket, and then sighed in resignation.
“I think you’re going to have to let me go for a minute,” she said.
The gandharva looked down at her and shook his head, his curls bouncing in emphasis. Instead, he lifted her up and backed her up against the tree.
“Wrap your legs around my waist tightly and the tree will hold you up,” he ordered. When she complied, he released her and quickly removed his jacket. She unbuttoned his shirt as he tossed the jacket aside, and then he leaned in and caught her mouth with his. Callie slid her hands over his broad chest as she pushed his shirt open, and he pulled at the sleeves and dropped it to the floor, never moving his mouth from hers. She felt the clenching deep inside her core again as he kissed her, his soft lips unrelenting as they coaxed a response from her. She could feel the evidence of his desire through the thin material of his pants, its heavy warmth resting in the crack of her ass. His cock seemed to pulse in time with her ever-increasing heart rate.
She broke their kiss to look at him and to explore.
His body was wondrous, a deep golden brown that was beautifully put together. His arms weren’t overly muscular, but she could feel the strength in them as she ran her hands over the heated silk of his skin. His chest was covered with a thatch of black hair, and she eagerly caressed it, searching out his nipples and pinching them between her fingertips. He bucked beneath her and she realized that he was still wearing his pants. Frustrated by the barrier, she reached down to undo his button and zipper, grinding her slit over his length as she adjusted her position for better access.
He closed his eyes at her movement and clenched his teeth, and Callie decided to do it again, as it seemed to give him as much pleasure as it had her. Slowly she worked her pussy against him, loving the friction that sent delicious shocks of passion zipping through her body, loving that she was driving him crazy, too. The front of his pants was drenched with her arousal, and only a thin layer of wet fabric separated her from his hard and heavy cock—the gandharva had avoided any embarrassing underwear problems by simply going commando.
“Yes, like that, jaan,” he hissed, his hips moving to match her pace as he ground against her. His hands moved over her body, creating pleasure wherever they stopped and caressed her, as if he were taking her on a tour of all of her erogenous zones.
Callie panted and was about to moan his name, to beg him to fuck her, when she realized she didn’t know what to call him. She fumbled once more with the button of his pants and simply whispered, “Please.”
“Of course,” he said, as he unbuttoned his pants and they pooled at his feet. His thick, long cock sprang out, slapping lasciviously against her ass. She shuddered and pressed against it, feeling the veins and ridges as they rubbed against her wet folds.
“Now!” she hissed, banging her head back against the tree. “Please tell me you have a condom.”
“I have a condom,” he said wryly and, in a couple of deftly executed maneuvers, he slipped it on.
She tightened her legs around his waist, and then he pressed up into her, slowly sliding his cock in to the hilt, fitting her so tightly and so completely that she was beyond words, able to utter only a nonsensical string of sounds. Her shoulders dug into the tree as she braced herself for more. His hands moved to accommodate the redistribution of weight, one resting beneath her ass and the other pulling the pins from her dreadlocks and wrapping a fistful of hair around his hand, forcing her head back to provide better access to her neck, which he licked and sucked greedily as he pumped into her.
He slid his thickness out of her slowly, but returned fast and hard, an almost overwhelmingly pleasurable point-counterpoint that left Callie clawing at his shoulders as she sought some measure of control. She was still coming down from her first real orgasm, but the pressure was already gathering within her again, an orchestra playing madly as it charged toward the inevitable crescendo.
“Do you like that Callie?” the gandharva asked as he made small suckling bites down her neck. “Don’t be afraid of it, jaan.”
Callie didn’t bother responding. He got his answer in the small, mewling cries that he dragged from her as her next orgasm began to crest. As if sensing her pleasure, he thrust into her deep and hard, and Callie broke, falling forward against him as she drowned in a cacophony of pleasure.
She held on to him as he sank to his knees and lay her down against the cool grass. The blades soothed her abraded back, feeling like soft down after the roughness of the tree bark. Her ass rested on his knees, her legs akimbo, trembling from the aftershocks of her newfound carnality. The singer was nestled between her legs, with his cock still deeply embedded in her pulsing core, still hard and throbbing for her.
“Are you okay?” he asked, leaning forward to drop a kiss on her forehead.
“I’m better than okay,” Callie said with a laugh, and it was true. She felt satiated. And beyond the great-sex afterglow, she felt like something that had been broken in her was mending, knitting itself back together.
“They say soma is a poultice for the soul,” he said, his voice taking on the curiously serious tone she had heard earlier. His hips swiveled, a corkscrew motion that drove his shaft deeper into the slick tightness of her sheath. She felt her pussy squeeze around him in welcome.
“Bring your feet up, Callie, to my shoulders,” he said urgently, as he pumped his cock into her, his arms braced on either side of her head.
“I don’t think I’m that flexible,” she said. She’d never experimented with positions and, even after her time against the tree, insecurities worried the edges of her mind.
“You shouldn’t doubt yourself, jaan,” he said and thrust his rigid rod into her hard and fast, sending a searing dart of pleasure straight to her core. Her hips bucked uncontrollably, and her legs lifted of their own accord as her body processed the delicious shock. He grabbed her feet, holding them in place against his shoulders.
She gasped, but then he slid into her pussy again, a gentle motion that was soothing after his last heated thrust but no less pleasurable. In this position, the deliberate pistoning of his thick cock seemed to brush against every nerve ending and finish with a delicate caress of her deepest and most sensitive erogenous zone.
“Yes,” she moaned, the walls of her pussy clamping around his cock as if trying to hold him captive.
“Gods, Callie, you’re amazing,” he said as he looked down at her, reverence in his eyes as he pushed her to the limits of her passion with his slow and steady strokes. “I knew you would be sweet, but I didn’t think you’d make me burn for you like this.”
He began to massage her feet, his thumbs working her soles in tandem measure to the lazy thrusts of his cock. He seemed to have a direct line from her foot to her clit, and when he kneaded the muscled arch of her foot, she knew what it was to feel rapture. She cried out, her arched back and quivering abdominals a testament to the wonderful sensations coursing through her body. Her toes grasped for purchase at his shoulders as she tried to maintain the position.
The gandharva bent his head to the side to place a kiss on her big toe, the chaste kiss inflaming her even more.
Callie thrust up against him, using her feet against his shoulders for leverage as she matched him stroke for stroke. Her hands caressed his thighs and stomach, any patch of his naked skin she could reach. He shuddered with each movement of her hands and she knew that, in this moment, she held as much power over him as he did over her. Knowledge led to action, and she squeezed her inner muscles, wanting to thank him for the pleasure he was giving her. The friction intensified as she clenched herself around him; she could feel the ridge of his mushroomed head and the thick veins of his engorged member rub against her sensitive l
ining.
“Oh, Callie, what you do to me,” he cried out. “But now…”
He released her feet and forced her thighs wide by a firm grip at the knees. His slow thrusts shifted to a fast, relentless hammering. “I want you to open for me. Come, jaan.”
Callie felt as if she were flying apart at the seams. Her toes curled at the pleasure and her body quivered uncontrollably as she dangled on the precipice of ecstasy. In the middle of the maelstrom of wonderful sensations, she realized a moment of clarity.
There’s nothing wrong with me.
Just then, the singer reached down between their writhing bodies and rubbed gentle circles against her clit, the perfect accompaniment to his pumping hips.
His breaths were coming in ragged gasps now, and his fingers on her clit moved at a manic pace, keeping time with his insistent thrusting. She could tell he was close, could feel it in the way his cock swelled even larger inside her.
“Now, Callie,” he ordered, and that was what broke her. She inhaled deeply and belted out a passionate aria that she was afraid would shatter the walls of the greenhouse and send glass raining down around them. Her back bowed, nearly to breaking, as she gave in to his ministrations this final time. The gandharva followed her lead, tensing beneath her hands and releasing a low bass note of a growl as he pumped his hot load, warming her inside and out. A final wave of pleasure overtook Callie, and then she fell into a dark, black abyss of mindless rapture, the sound of the gandharva’s pleasure reverberating in her ears.
Chapter Four
When she opened her eyes, she couldn’t tell if a few seconds or a few hours had passed. She was still lying on the warm humid grass, but she was now fully dressed. The singer lay stretched out beside her, back in his linen suit, his head resting on his hand as he looked down at her with amusement twinkling in his eyes.
“How—” she began to ask, her hands flying to the material of her sari.
“I told you, I’ve had a lot of practice. And besides, you needed a moment to recover,” he said, lithely springing to his feet and holding out a hand to help her up. She placed her hands in his, surprised at how easily he pulled her to his feet, as if she weighed nothing.
“I thought you were worried about me dirtying my sari,” she said, checking for grass stains.
“That was just a ruse to see your beautiful body, but I think you’ll find that you’re stain free.”
She laughed and swatted at his arm. She felt…wonderful. Slightly sore in the loveliest places, but there was no sense of shame or regret. And though she had never considered herself capable of a one-night stand, there was also no overwhelming feeling that this man was her true love, or that she expected anything else from him. In fact, the strongest emotion she felt toward him was gratitude.
“Thank you,” she said. “That was amazing.”
“You were amazing,” he said, catching her chin in his hand and looking down at her. “Exquisite. I travel often, so our time together would be short, but it could always be like this, or even better. Would you consider being my consort? I haven’t asked that of a woman in a very long while.”
Callie looked up at his perfectly symmetrical face, his lush lips. A tremor flowed over her at the memory of his touch, so recent and so unforgettable. But she also remembered what it was like to never be first on someone’s list of priorities. Although she was sure this gandharva was a better man than David ever would be, he was still not the man for her.
She shook her head gently, placing her hand over the one that cupped her face so gently.
“I appreciate the offer, but I think deserve more,” she said firmly, knowing that it was true, but also wondering if she were insane to give up the offer of unlimited mind-blowing sex.
She worried that she might have offended him, but the singer simply grinned at her, his eyes closing in what seemed like bittersweet relief.
“You’re right,” he said. “You deserve more than a role as a consort. However, if Mr. Right doesn’t come along soon, I’d be more than happy to remind you just how much pleasure you deserve.”
Callie laughed again and stood on tip-toe to kiss him on the cheek.
“I should be getting back to the party,” she said. “Priya’s probably wondering where I am, and she’ll never believe me if I tell her I’ve been off having a tryst in the greenhouse.”
“You go ahead,” he said. “I think I need a few moments to give thanks for the wonderful gift I just received.”
He sat cross-legged at the base of the tree, their tree, and gazed into the distance with the hint of a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. In the grass near his foot, the bud of one of the soma flowers she had tasted rose from the ground and unfurled.
Callie didn’t try to figure out the how or the why. She simply nodded in his direction and then began to walk back through the greenhouse, surprised to find that it was quite a bit smaller than it had seemed when she first entered. Just as she opened the door, Priya came rushing in, grabbing Callie by the arm and tugging her back inside.
“There you are,” she exclaimed. “Where have you been? One of my uncles has been lecturing me on a proper wife’s duties for an hour now. You’re supposed to bail me out of those situations.”
Callie looked frantically around the space as Priya pulled her back toward its center, but the singer was gone. As was the grassy clearing. Where the tree she had gotten to know so intimately had stood, there was instead a small shrub.
“Sorry, I…fell asleep,” she said. She hadn’t, but there was no way she could explain what happened to Priya. Hell, she was having a hard time believing it herself. She thought back to Nani’s talk of the mythical gandharva, and the way the old women had tittered. If only they knew…
Priya turned and scrutinized her. For a second, Callie thought she would call her out for the lie.
“Is that why you look so refreshed? You’re practically glowing!” Priya said as she examined Callie’s face closely. “Seriously, are you using a new cleanser or something?”
“Something,” Callie quipped. “Should we get back out to the party? I’m starving.”
“Sure,” Priya agreed. “I made sure the caterer saved an entire tray of samosas just for you.”
“This is the best wedding ever,” Callie said with a happy sigh as she followed her friend out. “Even without the elephants.”
Chapter Five
Callie woke up in her hotel room the next morning feeling invigorated. She had retired early, utterly fatigued by the day’s events. She awoke with plenty of time to prepare for the brunch that had been arranged for the remaining wedding guests.
After she had dressed in her short-sleeved oxford button up, jeans, and sneakers, she examined herself critically. She unbuttoned a few of the top buttons, but then rebuttoned them. One fantastic encounter didn’t mean she had to change anything about herself. She was comfortable like this, and if others wanted to think she was a prude…well, then let them.
Making love to a demi-god in the middle of a greenhouse is very good for one’s self-esteem, she thought with a grin.
When she entered the bustling private room where the party was being held, Priya immediately rushed over and began whispering excitedly.
“My cousin Ramjit is here!” she said, looking around dramatically to make sure no one was listening. “Remember, the one who used to have a huge crush on you? He had to work yesterday, but he flew in last night for the brunch.”
Callie groaned. “Ramjit, as in short, gawky, mouth-breathing Ramjit?” she whispered back. “Thanks, but I’m not that desperate, Priya!”
Priya’s eyes widened, and then her face went serene.
“You were such a great help during the wedding, and the fact that you traveled all alone just to be here for me—”
“What?” Callie asked, cutting her off, but then followed Priya’s gaze.
“Oh. Hi, Ram,” Priya continued in mock surprise, addressing her cousin who had sidled up behind Callie. “I’m
so glad you could make it. You should have been here yesterday. Callie looked amazing in her sari. I think my mom is calling me, gottagobye!”
As Priya hurried off, but not before winking at Callie over her shoulder, the man who was apparently Ramjit gave her a crooked smile and shrugged.
“I don’t know how you’ve put up with her all these years,” he said in an even-keeled voice with just a hint of Jersey accent. “Or with her mouth-breathing cousins, for that matter.”
Callie cringed.
“Sorry,” she said, wishing she could crawl under the buffet table. Apparently, her new-found confidence couldn’t save her from sticking her foot in her mouth.
“I’ve been called worse,” he said, waving off her apology. “If my mouth breathing is the one thing you remember about me, I guess it served its purpose.”
This was not the boy she remembered. Ram was all grown up: slightly taller than her, nice build, handsome face, and an extremely engaging smile. Something stirred within Callie. Not the overwhelming desire she had felt for the gandharva, but a spark of genuine interest.
“I wish I could look back at my high school years with such optimism,” she said, her smile unconsciously matching his. “So you were working yesterday?”
He nodded, attempting to look put-upon.
“I was interviewing one of the president’s top aides about the situation in North Korea,” he said in a way that managed to be proud but not boastful.
“Really? That’s a pretty good excuse for missing your cousin’s wedding,” she said, intrigued. Last time she had met him, his primary interest had been mastering the newest first-person shooter game, not foreign policy.
His mouth opened to respond, but then his eyes focused on something to her left and his arm darted out quickly. He gently blocked the hand of the old man who had been reaching to surreptitiously stroke Callie’s dreadlocks. Ram said something chiding but playful in Hindi, and the old man shrugged and shuffled away.
“I told him it wasn’t nice to touch someone’s hair without asking,” he said simply, and then met her gaze. “If you haven’t eaten yet, do you mind if I join you? It would be nice to catch up after all these years.”