"Doc. Wait."
Before he could talk himself out of it, his fingers gripped her chin, tipping her face up. He bent low and pressed his lips against hers, gentle, soft, noting that she’d gone still. When he straightened, his focus was on her. He had no idea what her reaction was going to be.
“There you go,” he awkwardly said, as though he’d just survived a chore. Aditi blinked, air filling her cheeks as she clamped her lips together, swallowing back a response. Rian had kissed her and it had been. . .underwhelming. Not that it was a bad kiss. For a sister. And she would wade through a vat of cow dung before she allowed him to think of her as a sister.
"Nice.” Her voice pitched high as it usually did when she lied. She cleared her throat. “For your first kiss, it was fine."
His eyes narrowed. "That wasn't my first kiss.”
"Sure,” she agreed, wincing when her soprano gave her away.
"You don'tbelieve me."
“No offence, but when my ex kissed me, I could count to fifteen decimal places for pi. What you did, I didn’t have time to think of the word much less start counting. It ended before it began."
"That was deliberate. You asked me for a kiss. I gave you one. Duration was not a factor.”
Suddenly, she didn’t feel too well. A kiss from Rian, as unexpected as it had been, had possibly been the nicest thing to happen to her in a while. To hear that he couldn’t bear to mash lips with her for longer than a few seconds made her feel like she'd been pushed out of a moving train.
Rian couldn’t hold back a frown, watching Aditi retreat from him in a way he had not expected. "What?”
“Nothing, it’s fine.”
“Aditi!” he barked, his patience wearing thin, worry and lust creating a frustratingly confusing mix of emotions within him.
“I just expected more,” she admitted sadly, no longer looking at him.
More?
“Maybe it’s me. Maybe I don’t inspire the kind of passion I read about in books or see on screen.” She sighed, staring outwards again, leaning her elbows on the railing. Her stance reeked of defeat. He had never expected to witness this touch of melancholy in her, and it didn’t sit right with him. Her uncertainty regarding her sexual appeal boggled his mind.
“I hadn’t considered that Harish could be right,” she said, her wistful smile curling like a thorny tendril about his errant heart, squeezing it so painfully that it ached.
"He’s not right.”
A quiethapuffed out of her. “You don’t even know him. He was –”
“An idiot,” Rian firmly said. Her profile was illuminated by the lights around them, the golden glow making her look like a goddess bathed in honey. Anyone foolish enough to make her believe thatshe was less was definitely of questionable intelligence. Thankfully, his grumpy frown hid his thoughts well.
“Your ex didn't know what he was doing if you were counting numbers while kissing him.”
"Hmm?"
"You won't be thinking when I kiss you."
If you kiss me,she wanted to snap, still annoyed with his non-smooch. All that build-up and it had ended before she could blink.
"I don’t believe you. Not that I think you can’t kiss well. Maybe you can—”
The ‘maybe’ was starting to get more irritating by the second. He wanted to kiss her until she had no breath left in her body to doubt him again. But that would be a mistake. Truly, kissing this woman would start something that he wasn’t prepared for.
“. . .but my brain is too loud.”
That stopped him short.
“Yourbrainis the problem?” he asked, incredulously.
She nodded.