Page 49 of Bad At Love

Apparently, he would not hold back anything anymore.

Her heart was a thundering beat in her ears. It was a marvel the whole world didn’t stop turning at the sound. She looked away, past their friends and the hotel, toward the obsidian ocean. But not even that brilliant sight could distract her. “What did she say?”

“She asked if I was okay. I told her I’d almost touched a rainbow.” His mouth turned rueful. “She hugged me tight and told me to never change. It’s one of the last things I remember her saying to me.”

“DP…” Chaaru said, trembling all over.

Words were mirages, and life was one unending replay of that night and God, so much time had passed. A million moments gained and lost, and yet, his love for her had sustained, deep and abiding.

That evening at a bar had been two decades ago. Had he loved her all this time? How was she to hold on to it?

“It’s not a demand or a declaration, Char.” His rough hand clasped her cheek, and she sank into his touch, into him, as if he were her only lifeline. “Just a memory I turned into a poem.”

Her knees gave out and she fell into him, giving herself over. And he caught her, as he’d always done. As he would always do, however messy and imperfect she was.

She looked up and the sight of his broad face with square cheekbones and thick lips and that honker of a nose…every inch of him was so familiar to her. But now, it was all new, as if she’d unearthed a rare treasure among her cheap trinkets. “I didn’t know you wrote poetry.”

“I write bad poetry,” he countered with a self-deprecating grin. “If you read it again, you’ll see it.”

“Bad or not, it was beautiful. Did you-”

“Nope. Not in fifteen minutes. Though I attempted one as an homage to your body. Decided Mona would have my hide. Honestly, it’s damn hard to find words that rhyme with pussy.”

Laughter burst out of her, leaving her breathless and shaking. “You didn’t work hard enough then.”

“Chaaru’s Pussy, music like Claude Debussy…” he started with an exaggerated serious expression.

“That’s that great classical composer and you’ve reduced the poor guy’s genius for my…”

He grinned and gathered her to him, his fingers pressing tightly into her flesh. As if he knew that she needed to be held, even as the storm wrecking her was him.

She wrapped her arms around his middle, her legs propped over his, and gave him what Kaasi called her Squid Hug. He smelled like pine and sweat and whiskey, a cocktail of scents she would forever associate with love. Her home and her adventure, it was all him now.

“It’s a gift,” he said, dragging his mouth across the top of her cheek. “Can you accept it?”

She buried her face in his neck. “It’s the best gift anyone’s ever given me. And that includes Kaasi’s fifth grade Mother’s Day card that gave me coupons for three hugs and six kisses.”

He laughed, and she stole that sound for herself. Though she was beginning to see that she didn’t need to hoard them like a thief. She just needed to woman up and claim them all.

“That girl you met that evening at the bar…she was a naïve fool. If only…”

His fingers in her hair tugged hard, sending heat prickling over her skin. “Don’t you dare say that. That girl was young and innocent and so achingly brave. So full of life. And the woman she’s become…”

“Tell me, please,” she begged, needing his praise more than she needed air.

“The woman is all the promise and potential of that girl fulfilled beyond anything I could imagine that night. There will always be parts of that girl in you, Char. And I adore the woman as much as I adored her.”

Tears filled her eyes and this time, Chaaru didn’t stop them. They drenched his neck and her soul, washing away the clinging remnants of shame she’d hidden away about that girl.

The shame had never been hers, anyway.

Just as this man had always been hers in one form or another.

19

The big day of Mona and Dom’s anniversary celebration dawned bright and sunny. DP and Chaaru barely had any time to themselves in the morning, late as they were waking up.

It had been close to dawn when they’d returned to their suite, both of them completely buzzed.

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