I slid my fingers into his hair, reveling in its softness while he cupped the back of my head and deepened the kiss. He tasted like strawberries and whiskey, hunger and desperation, and I couldn’t get enough. It was like I’d had my first hit of sugar after a lifetime of deprivation, and I shamelessly lapped it all up.
My other hand fisted the front of his shirt. He was the only solid thing left in a sea of sensation, and if I didn’t hold on to him, I’d melt into a puddle right there at his feet.
I whimpered when Sebastian broke away to press a hot, open-mouthed kiss against the hollow of my throat. I wondered if he felt it, that wild flutter of a pulse gone rogue. My lungs burned, and each heartbeat was a drum of raw, aching need.
My fingers dug harder into his hair as he kissed his way up my neck. “You still think I hate you?” he murmured.
“No,” I gasped, my head falling back when he nipped a particularly sensitive spot behind my ear. Tingles exploded throughout my body.
A low groan rumbled from his throat. He dragged his mouth across my jaw, sending new bursts of electricity across my skin. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted this,” he whispered. “T’as encore un meilleur goût que je ne l’imaginais, mon ange.”
His lips claimed mine again, and any questions I’d had about how long that was, exactly, floated away like dust in the wind.
It didn’t matter how many years we’d been rivals or how deeply I’d loathed him at one point in my life. None of that seemed real. There was only the grip of his hand in my hair and the slide of his tongue against mine. Everything else was swallowed up by a flood of desire.
I sighed, drunk on the moonlight and the potency of our kiss. It was diabolical, the way he shattered my every inhibition with one touch.
Sebastian’s free hand gripped my waist. I arched into him,urging him closer, desperate—
“Maya!”
My name drifted over on the wind.
I ignored it and continued the kiss. I needed—
“Maya, are you out here? Helloooo?”
The voice was now close enough for me to recognize Priya’s singsong cadence. My eyes flew open as the realization tossed an ice bucket of water over the moment.
Sebastian and I wrenched apart just in the nick of time. My sister rounded the corner, her face lighting up when she spotted me.
“There you are!” Her eyes were suspiciously bright. I wondered how many drinks she’d had after she left the dance floor. “I was looking all over for you. Radhika wants to get a picture with all the cousins, like,right now.”
“Okay,” I squeaked. I cleared my throat. “I mean, I’ll be right there.”
“Great!” She waved at Sebastian. “Hey, Seb.”
He gave her a grim smile, his face flushed.
Thank God Priya was so drunk. If she were sober, she might’ve questioned what we were doing alone in the gardens, our clothes rumpled and our chests heaving as we struggled to catch our breath.
As it stood, she didn’t ask any of those things. She grabbed my hand and dragged me toward the party, chattering the entire way about the celebrities she’d met that night.
I looked back at Sebastian. He hadn’t moved from his spot by the hedges.
Our eyes connected, and another breathless shiver rolled down my spine. I was so distracted I didn’t notice my dupatta slipping off my shoulder and fluttering to the ground.
Before I could say anything—a goodbye, maybe, or a “let’s talk later”—Priya pulled me into the tent, and chaos enveloped us once more.
CHAPTER 24
Maya
GROUP PICTURES TOOK UP THE NEXT HOUR. FIRST, ITwas 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.