Page 32 of & Then They Loved
“Go away, you’re ruining my evening!” Vera hissed, shoving her shoulder against his arm as she tried to pass him. Vihaan caught her by the waist, yanking her into him till her back was flush with his chest.
“I did you a favour. He didn’t even care to ask if you felt safe with me. He just left you.”
“Because of you! Now let go!”
“You keep avoiding me.” His hands gripped her hips. “Why? Too scared you’ll find me irresistible?”
The music around them swelled and ebbed as Vera placed her own hands over his, reacting to his words as if he’d dared her into staying. She ground her hip into his, gyrating in time with the music, forcing him to clench his teeth at the feel of her ass brushing against his front. There was no hiding his reaction from her.
“You’ve far too high an opinion of yourself,” she said, softly enough that only he heard her.
“Yeah? That’s why you were spewing shit about me to my friend?”
“Friend?” He felt her laugh. “Is that why she was crying?”
“It is none of your business why she was crying.”
“Of course it isn’t,” she blithely agreed. “It’s also none of your business what I told her.”
“That I wasn’t worth it?”
“It was the truth.”
She gasped when he spun her in a fast turn, one arm encircling her tiny waist. He pushed his knee between her legs, forcing her to straddle his thigh, when he bent low to whisper in her ear.
“Is that why you let me fuck you? Why you came apart on my cock like you couldn’t get enough?”
He could feel her chest heave when he placed his hand on the curve of her back, putting just enough pressure to stay her.
“I’m over it,” she gulped.
“You’re lying.”
“And you’re beginning to sound desperate. Go after one of the hundred other girls the gossip rags photograph you with. Unlike them, I’m not interested.”
Defiant eyes met his when he stepped even closer, his thigh firmly wedged between hers, the slit on the side of her dress spreading open to reveal the top of her leg. Her nails dug into his upper arm in retaliation, yet he couldn’t find it in him to care.
“Do you reserve all your venom for me?” Vihaan growled.
“Yes. So stay away before I poison you.”
“That’s the damnedest thing,” he said, his voice laced with something that sounded a lot like self-loathing. “I can’t.”
“Sounds like ayouproblem. I’m here to blow off steam and you’re in my way.”
She pointedly glanced where he held her, expecting him to let her go. The space around them was loud, flashy, mixed with the smell of alcohol, cologne and sweaty dancers grinding against each other in a haze of lust and inebriation. Through this, his nose picked up the faint whiff of sandalwood. His lungs seemed to fill themselves with her scent, driving his need deeper and deeper until it became as essential as his next breath.
Vihaan swore quietly, unable to believe what he was about to say. For the sake of his sanity, he had to try.
“Do it with me.”
15
The Deal
Vera
Frown lines marred herforehead.
