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“Yes!” Raya says, her excitement palpable. She reaches for my hand and entwines our fingers, her gorgeous eyes on mine. “Come on. I’ll show you the lab Dad built for all of our experiments. It’s similar to yours, and you’ll love it. I think we may actually have most of the materials we’ll need.”
Her parents exchange loaded looks as she drags me out of the kitchen, her father’s footsteps trailing behind us. “Come to think of it, there’s no reason why we can’t include the cooking component too,” Raya says. “We can just build in a hot plate and make sure that the dough falls onto it as the last step. Add in a flipping component, and it should be able to create the perfect paratha. Something like that probably already exists, though it might be for pancakes or something similar. We’d just have to adapt it. We wouldn’t even have to design from scratch if we didn’t want to.”
“But where’s the fun in that, my little fairy? If you and I create something, it’ll be better than anything that’s currently on the market.”
She grins up at me and nods. Even her dad’s cold exterior seems to melt in light of her palpable excitement. “Let’s see if you learned anything in that Mechatronics class,” he grumbles.
I smile at him and shrug. “Doubtful,” I tell him. “I heard the professor’s a real tool.”
His eyes widen a little, and then he bursts out laughing, seemingly surprised by my ability to make fun of myself. His expression shifts a little, some of the frost melting. It isn’t much, but I’ll take it.
Thirty
Lex
Anxiety claws at me as I walk out of Raya’s ensuite bathroom, my thoughts getting the best of me. It’s been years, and I still can’t get comfortable in unfamiliar places. I need to find a way to get over this — I can’t keep living this way.
“Lex?”
I tense, startled by Raya’s voice, my eyes cutting to hers. She puts down her hairbrush and walks up to me, concern etched into her face. “Is everything okay? I called you a few times, and you didn’t seem to hear me.”
I force a smile and nod. “Sorry, just lost in thought.”
She nods, her eyes roaming over my body and settling on the towel around my hips. “Come on,” she says, leading me to her bed. She sits me down and grabs my shoulders. “One second, okay? I’ll be right back.”
I frown as she rushes back into her bathroom and emerges with a spare towel. Raya pauses in front of me, the cutest look on her face as she raises it to my head and gently begins to dry my hair for me.Fuck. She’s so fucking sweet.
I grab her waist and stare at her, taking in those long lashes, the high bridge of her nose, and those perfect fucking lips. She’s wearing pajamas that are clearly quite old, but despite the faded colors, she looks beautiful in those white cotton shorts and her matching button-up top, little red hearts all over it. “What are you doing, baby?” I whisper.
“Me? I’m just helping my husband.”
I inhale sharply at the sound of those words and grab her waist, all but tackling her onto her bed. She gasps, a soft giggle escaping her lips when I roll on top of her. “How about you kiss your husband instead?”
She hooks her hands around the back of my neck and pulls me closer, pressing a kiss to my cheek. My heart skips a beat, and I chuckle, my forehead dropping to hers.
She’s grinning mischievously when I pull back a little to look at her. The tips of her fingers trail over my temple, and her smile turns into the one that’s reserved just for me — intimate, sweet. This connection between us, it’s been there from the second we met, and with each passing day, it only gets stronger.
“You terrify me, Raya,” I whisper without thinking.
Confusion crosses her eyes, and she cups my face. “Why?”
Because you’re the kind of woman I could lose my heart to when I didn’t think I’d ever dare do something so foolish again. Because you’ve enchanted me in a matter of days.
I shake my head and lower my face to hers, taking her lips with intention, my teeth grazing her bottom lip, before I suck on it. She tilts her face, her hand burying in my hair as she kisses me in earnest, her body moving against mine. She hums and rolls her hips when she feels how hard I am, her tongue moving in that teasing way she knows I can’t resist. “Fuck,” I whisper against her mouth. “I want you so fucking badly.”
She moves her head, her lips brushing against my ear. “Then take me,” she whispers. “I’m right here, desperate for you.”
I groan and push off her, eager to get her out of her clothes. She laughs when I pull her up with me, her hands wrapping around my towel moments before her bedroom door opens. My heart nearly stops when her mother walks in, her eyes on the tray she’s holding, two steaming cups of tea on it. “Let me help you,” Raya’s dad calls.
I don’t think I’ve ever moved faster in my life as I grab one of my wife’s pillows and sit down, covering my erection with it. Raya moves in front of me, her dainty body barely covering my torso as I grab the discarded towel she’d brought for me and pretend to be drying my hair.
My mother-in-law looks up, her eyes growing wide when she notices the no doubt awkward looks, we must be wearing. She raises a brow, a hint of amusement on her face as Raya’s dad walks in behind her, his expression rapidly going from relaxed to murderous when he sees my bare torso and notices the pillow in my lap.
“Apologies,” I murmur, my voice steady. “I just got out of the shower. My hair just takes a while to dry.” I groan internally even as I force a smile. What the fuck did I just say? I’ve breezed through hundreds of high-stake negotiations, and this is what rattles me?
“Shower, huh?” Raya’s father says, taking a step toward me.
His wife moves in front of him and cuts off his path, her gaze trained on her daughter. A few moments later, she smiles to herself, a look of understanding in her eyes. “We’ll just leave this here,” she says as she places the tray on Raya’s nightstand, and I glance at my wife, curious about what her mother saw that put her at ease. “Have some, Lex. You didn’t eat anything for dinner. You should at least have some tea.”
