“This is a three-and-a-half-hour drive. You’d rather spend it in tense silence?”
“One, you should sleep. Two, I’m not tense.”
He reached over to tap her shoulders that had risen up to her ears.
“Don’t touch me,” she ordered sharply.
“That’s not what you’ve said before.”
“This is a work trip. Need I remind you to be professional?”
“Maybe. I don’t think it’ll help.” In a forlorn voice, talking to himself more than her, he added, “I seem to forget myself around you.”
“Maybe you should forget me instead.”
“I can’t,” he replied quietly, unable to look away from her while she avoided his gaze. “I’ve tried. I can’t forget that I want you in my bed, naked and begging for my cock.”
Vera’s nostrils flared, her jaw tightening visibly.
“The hippopotamus kills five-hundred humans every year.”
“What?”
“I thought we were just throwing out random and inappropriate comments under the guise of a conversation,” she snapped, finally deigning to throw a skewering glare his way.
“Princess,” he laughed, wincing when the action caused the throb in his head to worsen. “I asked you a series of innocent questions and you gave me sass. What else was I supposed to do?”
“Go to sleep!”
“Wish you were saying that to me in bed,” he grumbled. “With your slutty nurse dress on.” Lower lip jutting out in a pout, he shimmied and shifted, eventually reclining in his seat before giving in to the blessed silence of a medicated mind.
24
Booster Shot
VERA
“Wake up.”
A lazy smile tickled the edges of Vihaan’s kissable mouth and Vera felt an answering tug on her lips. The rise and fall of his chest was even, his face—relaxed. God, he was so beautiful, it ached to look at him sometimes.
She’d been waiting in the guest parkade for well over a half hour while Vihaan had slumbered, clearly needing the rest. Her face softened in sympathy, recalling the pain he’d tried to hide. With his eyes closed and his thick lashes casting shadows on the tops of his cheeks, he exuded a cherubic sort of innocence.
She snorted slightly, a smile finally breaking through. A horny cherub with a filthy mouth was what he was. The idea of him dressed in a diaper, flying about while uttering curses, winking, and outrageously flirting with everyone had her giggling to herself. Her palm cupped her mouth to muffle her soft laugh at the recollection of his stumped response to her driving ability, the mirth-filled gurglethat had broken out of him when she’d thrown out a random hippo fact, and the sheer childishness in his grumpy response to her scolding. She shouldn’t find his pouts endearing but she did, and it was utterly maddening having to control her smiles around him.
Nothing about their exchange felt new. They’d been through similar moments all through their childhood: interactions filled with snark, sneaky comments, banter, incredulous laughter. Somehow, despite the long passage of time, being in each other’s vicinity meant that they’d fallen back into old habits without effort. She’d be lying if she said that a part of her didn’t enjoy it. There was an unexplainable comfort in this familiarity. Throughout the drive here, Vera had found herself remembering past events that had made her chuckle. As the speed of the car ate the dark grey roads beneath them, lush trees and dusky scenery passing by in a blur of green, brown, and orange, Vera had revisited memories she’d pushed away for years, Vihaan’s close presence uncloaking them from whichever shroud she’d hidden them under.
Despite being tired, she’d waited in the car, loath to give up this unexpected lightness she was experiencing. But it had always been that way with them. Vihaan had been the only one to slip under her spiky exterior, charming her till she was struggling to hold back her laughter, coaxing sunshine to break through the thunderclouds darkening her heart. In a childhood where whispers of her being abandoned and unwanted had surrounded her, those moments of levity had stood out starkly, and become one of the reasons she’d fallen in love with him.
Because he’d been the only one besides Nanu who’d fought to stay with her. Who she’d felt safe with. Who she’d found comfort, happiness and acceptance with.
Or so she’d believed.
It was unbelievably cruel that, despite being the one who’d most hurt her, he still had the ability to make her laugh. She rubbed her chest where an uncomfortable ache had settled in, trying to massageit away, knowing that extending her wait tonight was only going to make this worse.
“Oi, Charming. Wake up! We’re home.”
He jerked awake, glancing around him, finally finding her crouched right outside the passenger side door next to him. “Home?” he confirmed, waiting till she stood back before he exited the car. He stretched his arms all the way up, letting out a singular yawn. He shuffled a bit, staring at his apartment building like it was the first time he was seeing it.