CHAPTER 24
Maya
GROUP PICTURES TOOK UP THE NEXT HOUR. FIRST, IT was the cousins. Then we added the aunties and uncles. By the end, there were so many people crammed into the frame that the photographer had to break out his extra-wide-angle lens.
I noticed belatedly I was missing my dupatta, but I didn’t have time to look for it until after the pictures were done, and there was nothing left to do except more drinking and dancing. We’d already gotten through the formalities like the cake cutting and speeches, so I congratulated Radhika and her husband one last time and excused myself for the night.
It was late. The crowd had dwindled, but there was still a significant number of guests left. I scanned the tent for Sebastian, but I didn’t see him anywhere.
I felt a stab of disappointment.
I’d left my phone in my suite, and I didn’t know what his room number was. Even if I did, I wasn’t bold enough to seek him out like that yet.
Uncertainty mixed with a twinge of frustration.
Every time Sebastian and I made progress, someone or
something interrupted us. It was like the universe got a kick out of throwing us together only to yank us apart—except tonight was different. We’d crossed the point of no return, and I didn’t know where to go from here.
I stepped out of the tent, my thoughts in turmoil. I had to pass through the gardens again to reach the hotel, and my gaze strayed to the spot where we’d kissed.
I half expected to see him standing there, his mouth curled into a lazy smirk as he made some smart-ass remark about what took me so long. But of course, he wasn’t. There was nothing except shadows and greenery.
I shook off another wisp of disappointment.Did you really expect him to wait? Why would he stay here when he had no idea whether I was coming back or not?
Still, his absence didn’t stop a surge of memories.
His hands. His lips. His voice.
T’as encore un meilleur goût que je ne l’imaginais, mon ange.
You taste ever better than I imagined, my angel.
If Priya hadn’t interrupted us… My skin flushed hot and cold all over as a host of new images invaded my mind. Things we would’ve done—things I would’velet him do—right here in the garden, potential witnesses be damned.
Need coiled low in my belly, and I picked up my pace until I was basically running. But no matter how fast I moved, I couldn’t outrun what happened.
One kiss, and Sebastian had imprinted himself on my mind forever.
I burst into the hotel lobby and beelined toward the elevators, keeping my head low in case one of the other guests tried to stop me for small talk. I was about to press the lift button when I spotted several of my aunties turning the corner.
Shit. If they saw me, they’d rope me into an hour-long gossip session about who did what at the wedding or, worse,
grill me about why I’d shown up without a date.
I frantically looked around for a place to hide. My eyes landed on the door to the stairwell, and I rushed through it before they noticed I was there.
“Was that Maya?” I heard one of them say as the door closed behind me. “That looked like her lehenga.”
“Why would she be taking the stairs?” another scoffed.
“You’ve been drinking too much…”
I breathed a sigh of relief when the elevator pinged, and their voices disappeared. That’d been a close call.
However, I only made it up one flight of stairs when I heard footsteps behind me.
I tensed again. I whirled around, bracing myself for a confrontation with my aunties or a serial killer. I wasn’t sure which would be worse.
As it turned out, I was wrong on both accounts.
My heart pulsed when I saw Sebastian at the bottom of the stairs, my dupatta in hand. He must’ve picked it up when I lost it. “Don’t shoot,” he said, his expression faintly amused. “It’s just me.”
“God, Seb.” My shoulders sagged again with relief. My fight-or-flight response was getting a real workout this evening. “Were you behind me this entire time?”
“Yes. I’ve been trying to get your attention since you left the party.” Sebastian joined me at the top of the stairs, his amusement visibly deepening. “You dropped this in the garden.”
He handed me my dupatta. I took it, my skin tingling when our fingers brushed. His hand lingered for a second before he dropped his arm.
“You’re a fast walker,” he said. “Actually, ‘runner’ would be more accurate.”
My cheeks flamed. “I had a lot on my mind.”
“Did you?” His drawl was edged with velvet. “Like what?”
Now that I wasn’t scared for my life, I was hyperaware of the fact that we were alone again. His smile was small but
knowing, and the heat crawled from my face down to my neck and chest.
There was no way I was going to tell him I’d been fantasizing about our kiss—and what might’ve happened had Priya not interrupted us. “Like whether I should find out what room you’re in so we can… we can talk.”
It was still the truth, but it was tamer. Safer.
Except it didn’t feel so safe when Sebastian dipped his chin, his gaze sweeping over my face. A trace of my perfume clung to him, and I hated how much it turned me on to know that he smelled like me. That our kiss had left as concrete a mark on him as it had on me.
“I see. And what did you decide?” His voice was like velvet, his question heavy with loaded meaning.
Just like that, I was thrown back in time to our kiss in the garden, when we were the only people in the world, and all I wanted was to melt into his arms and never leave.
“I decided to wait until tomorrow.” My throat was so dry, it was a miracle I could speak. “I wasn’t sure if the kiss was a mistake or…”
“Or?” A dangerous glint entered his eyes.
“Something more,” I finished, my voice barely audible.
Sebastian tucked two fingers beneath my chin and tilted it up. Instead of replying, he touched his mouth to mine— softly at first, then deeper until my toes literally curled.
My doubts faded beneath a surge of renewed desire as he teased the seam of my lips with the tip of his tongue. I parted eagerly for him, and he made a tortured noise in the back of his throat before he gripped my hips and pushed me against the wall. My dupatta slipped through my fingers and onto the ground again.
The kiss grew harder, more demanding. I’d lost all sense of where we were, but I didn’t care. All I cared about was him, and this, and us.
I ground against him, need pulsing to life in my belly.
Little bursts of pleasure flickered down my spine, but they
gave way to a whine of protest when Sebastian pulled back.
He grasped my chin again, almost hard enough to hurt. “Did that feel like a mistake to you?” he asked, his voice rough.
The intensity in his gaze made my lungs constrict.
I shook my head, unable to form words. My mouth felt swollen and tender, and I whimpered when he pressed his thumb in between my lips.
“Good,” he said softly. “Because if it did, I would’ve had to fuck the doubt out of you.”
My whimper turned into an embarrassing moan when he pushed deeper into my mouth. The taste of him flooded my mouth, and I instinctively suckled for more. Any inhibitions I had were long gone, erased by the strange yet intimate pressure of him inside me.
It wasn’t enough. I needed something else. I needed more.
Sebastian’s eyes darkened when I moaned again. He yanked his hand away and hauled me onto the floor, the force of his movements only making me wetter.
“Or maybe that’s what you want.” He shoved my skirt up, the heavy layers of silk no match for his hands. He easily found the sticky arousal between my thighs. “Do you want me to fuck you, Maya?”
I panted, too distracted by the lazy circles he was drawing around my clit to answer. I was strung tighter than a wire, my nipples straining against my top, my panties a soaked mess.
I shouldn’t want it like this, rough and dirty in a stairwell where anyone could see us, but the truth was, I’d follow Sebastian anywhere he took me. No one had ever made me feel like this. We hadn’t had sex yet, and I was already getting addicted to the high.
He slipped my underwear to the side and plunged two fingers inside me. A strangled cry ripped from my throat, followed by his low chuckle.
“I think that’s a yes, but I want to hear you say it.” He was
unrelenting, his voice merciless as he dragged his fingers out and thrust them into me again. “Use your words, Maya.
Do you want me tofuck you?”
“Yes,” I bit out, half pissed he was making me beg, half aroused beyond reason. “Yes, okay? I want you to fuck me!”
Sebastian pulled his fingers out again. I expected him to undo his pants, but I squealed in surprise when he grabbed my ankles and yanked me down so I sprawled gracelessly across the steps. My skirt was still bunched around my waist. The marble floor was cold and hard against my bare skin, but any discomfort was swallowed up by the sight of Sebastian kneeling below me, his eyes feral with hunger.
There was no more amusement, only pure, undiluted desire.
My heart pounded as he pulled my underwear down and replaced his earlier touch with his mouth. A strange mix of lust and longing twisted inside me. No one had ever looked at me like that—like I was the most precious thing in their world, and they would stop breathing if they couldn’t have me.
I was lying half-naked and bared to him, but that type of connection made me feel more exposed than anything else.
Then Sebastian dragged his tongue leisurely over my clit, and all my thoughts disintegrated into dust. His hands bracketed my thighs, keeping them spread as he ate me out. He was a great kisser, but he deserved a gold medal for — “Fuck!” I moaned again when he thrust his tongue inside me. He hit a sweet spot, and my body bowed into a near- painful arch.
I’d propped myself up on my elbows with the intention of watching him, but I lasted less than five seconds. The sensations were too intense, the pleasure too consuming. A violent shudder rolled through me, and my head tipped back, the ends of my hair pooling against the floor as Sebastian tongue fucked me into incoherence.
Sweat beaded on my skin. I trembled all over, my nipples
so sensitive that the scrape of silk against the hardened points was almost too much to bear. My breaths grew more and more ragged until I came with a loud cry.
A hand clamped over my mouth, muffling my scream.
“Shhh. Someone will hear us,” Sebastian warned.
He didn’t release me until my cries died down into little senseless whimpers.
My vision was still staticky from post-coital aftershocks, but I heard the metal rasp of a zipper being undone. Despite my recent orgasm, my body tightened again in anticipation.
This. This was what I wanted. Him inside me, taking me and filling me up so completely I’d never feel empty again.
The tip of his cock pressed against my entrance. His mouth captured mine before he sank into me, slow and deep, the sheer size of him stretching me to the limit. Tears sprang to my eyes. It didn’t hurt, necessarily, but the pressure was so immense, I almost couldn’t breathe.
“Are you okay?” Sebastian murmured, his voice unbearably tender compared to his earlier roughness.
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.
He paused, as if he were waiting in case I changed my mind. When I didn’t, he moved again, his rhythm picking up force and speed until he was fucking me so hard, I was sure I wouldn’t be able to walk properly for days.
I clutched his shoulders, broken gasps escaping with each ruthless thrust. Inch by inch, he claimed me, and I welcomed him greedily, my pussy spasming as he slid in and out of me with deliberate, mind-melting strokes.
He swallowed my screams, his kisses alternating between soft and punishing as we literally fucked decades of pent-up tension out of each other. I tasted my juices on his tongue, and that drove me even wilder than smelling my perfume on him earlier.
The beginnings of another orgasm stirred inside me. I bucked my hips up to meet his, desperately chasing that high, but my efforts were ruined when Sebastian stilled.
My eyes flew open, but any protests died a quick death when he picked me up and pushed me against the wall again. The angle let him go harder and deeper, and we quickly gave up the pretense of trying to be quiet.
His grunts and my moans echoed in the stairwell like a filthy symphony. I clung to him, shuddering with each thrust, each slap of flesh against flesh.
“Don’t stop.Please.” I was frantic with need, my blood scorching my veins, my body demanding release. My pleas fell out with increasing desperation. “Sebastian… Please, I need… I need… Oh God…fuck!”
I bit down on his shoulder to muffle another scream. His fingers dug into my skin.
“Say it again,” he ordered. “Say my name again.”
“Sebastian,” I sobbed. “Please. I need to come.”
He hissed. “Fuck.” Another thrust, a scrape of teeth against the sensitive spot on my neck. “Come for me,” he
commanded.
That was all it took.
My second orgasm of the night hit like a lightning strike.
There was no slow buildup, no sweet cresting of pleasure— just a sudden, overwhelming explosion of sensation. My body convulsed, every muscle tensing as I arched with a soundless cry of ecstasy, and my pussy clamped down on him like it was trying to pull him deeper and never let go.
Sebastian made a strangled noise. His breaths grew shorter, his thrusts more erratic until he stiffened. His cock twitched, and he buried his face in my neck, his groan vibrating through me as he came minutes after me.
We held each other in the comedown, his arms on my hips and my legs around his waist. My senses slowly came back to me, revealing pieces of our surroundings like a jigsaw puzzle being put together.
The sandstone walls. The marble stairs. The smell of sex and the hotel’s signature floral scent. The overhead lights flickered once, and I startled when a door slammed
somewhere above us.
The sound cleared away the fog of lust and brought forth
a painful rush of clarity.
Oh my God.
I hadsex with Sebastian Laurent. In a stairwell. During my cousin’s wedding reception, where every single family member was present. Anyone could’ve walked in on us at
any moment.
What the hell had I been thinking?
I unwrapped myself from around him and pushed him off me with shaking hands. Something wet trickled down my thighs, and I realized with fresh horror that we hadn’t used a
condom.
Bile rose in my throat.
Sebastian must’ve come to the same realization because his eyes widened. “Shit.” His face was stricken with panic.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t—”
“I’m on the pill,” I said. “It wasn’t—we both forgot. It wasn’t just you.” My voice sounded far away. I was numb.
Our lack of protection wasn’t what freaked me out the most. What freaked me out the most was the fact that I’d never forgotten about protection, but tonight, it hadn’t even crossed my mind. It was incredibly reckless, and I was not a reckless person. My life was built around plans, rules, and routines, but with one kiss, Sebastian made me forget one of mybiggest rules. If he could do that in a few hours, what could he do if I let him in further?
His expression was guarded. He’d fixed his clothes, but his hair was a mess from my hands, and I was mortified to see the beginnings of a hickey blossoming on his neck.
“Maya…”
“We should leave before someone finds us.” My pulse hammered in my throat as I picked up my dupatta with a shaking hand. “I—I need to go.”
I didn’t know what else to say, so I did the only thing a girl could do after sleeping with her lifelong rival.
I fled.