Page 35 of The Desert Prince's Jewel
RANBIR
“Mateo?” I whisper, shifting from the doorway to the hallway of our new hotel room.
It’s been a long shift, and it’s not over quite yet. Repairs are almost done on the west wing, and there’s some big celebration that’ll be happening soon. I dread the extra hours as I take off my belt, and then it hits me.
Ourhotel room.
The truth stops me in my tracks. Much to Layla and Sheena’s delight, Mateo moved in with me three nights ago. How they found out before I could tell them is anyone’s guess. I’m convinced they’re witch wives with the gift of premonition. Or, they have spies lurking in the shadows of the hotel. Either way, they seemed more pleased than I was about it.
While Rohan and Kunal have never been forthcoming about their affection for each other, it was plain for me to see after all these years growing up together. So I wasn’t surprised by thespark of lust on Rohan’s face, and the way Kunal demurred at the news that we would be swapping rooms so Mateo wouldn’t have to share my bed. And, I oh so kindly forced a gold ring on Layla to get us new beds. I didn’t trust that a laundry run of the sheets was enough to get the remnants of their legendary stamina washed out.
Not that I would’ve minded having only one bed. It’s just that the forced proximity was already setting him on edge, and I don’t need Mateo to be more freaked out about the whole arrangement than he already is.
I glower at the uneaten bacon egg croissant and the orange juice by his bedside. It’s more nibbled than uneaten, but I’m annoyed since the vast majority isn’t in his stomach. Mateo needs to eat. And I don’t care how he grumbles and groans when I feed him by force. I might have to do it again tonight if he doesn’t wake up and finish it all before it goes ice cold.
Sitting down, my eyes immediately seek the swirling mating mark on his wrist, invisible still to Mateo, much to my chagrin. He wants my body, but he hasn’t opened his heart up to me quite yet. But I’ll give it time. Three days won’t erase everything that happened between us.
I feel stalkerish watching him sleep, running my hand up and down his back as he clutches my knee until he can chase his nightmare away. But I don’t mind if I can stay close to him like this.
Our chemistry is well intoxicating. While we haven’t joined our bodies since that faithful night at the gala, Mateo has done all sorts of devilish things to me since then to quench his thirst for my body. But more and more, I can’t control the urge to demand more. Not just my cocks in his mouth, or my mouth swallowing his. I will have to share my life with this man. Like he said the first night, we must get to know each other better.
But that would require our schedules to align enough so we can go on a date.
“Guess I need yet another favor from Layla,” I whisper, stroking Mateo’s cheek with the back of my hand.
I thought it would be more awkward to cohabitate with a partner in such modest accommodations for the first time in my life. But it’s not, and I’m glad. Now, I need to find a way for us to reach the next step in our fragile relationship.
“Awaken,” I say, my break almost over. “Mateo, awaken. I have something to tell you tonight.”
“Hmmm,” he hums, adding, “Have a good night.”
I sigh. My best bet is to greet him in the morning, rather than ambush him with the prospect of a date so late in the evening. He’s had a hard day at work. And despite trying to avoid me during the morning, Mateo always melts into my arms when the sun goes down. When we wake up together tomorrow, I’ll tell him.
He’ll be waiting in bed when I return, so it’s time to go. But as I get up, he reaches for me, his mating mark glowing a strange off-white, almost gray. I cock my head to the side, sit down, and lean in.
Is he whispering my name?I think before, before all the blood stills in my veins.
“...Jaideep,” he whispers, not stirring from his sleep as his hand falls, flung limp over the sheets.
I twitch, my jaw clenches, before my body remembers to move. I get up robotically, cross the room, and slam the door shut behind me without another word.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
MATEO
Iavoid Ranbir like the plague for the rest of the week after we make our odd arrangement. I make up absurd excuses to wriggle out of his four arms and coiling tail, out of his bed, and out of our claustrophobic hotel room. And I do it again, and again, and again, and, you guessed it, again, until somehow the weekend rolls around and I have nowhere else to run and hide.
Ranbir stopped visiting me at Café Magnifique on the third day. The guys tried to cheer me up, convinced Ranbir finally dumped me or I dumped him, but I ignored all of them. I did my job like a robot and didn’t let them in. Clock in. Clock out. Eat. Shit. Sleep. Repeat. I’m on autopilot even now as I try to jog the neighborhood.Trybeing the keyword.
I can’t remember the name for some reason, but text back okay. I’ll figure it out. My mind’s been slipping lately, and I don’t know why. It’s like a heavy fog is blocking out all my critical thinking skills. Maybe Ranbir really did fuck my brains out, andI’ll never recover. Either way, this late-night jog isn’t clearing shit up.
“Damn, this hurts,” I say, huffing and puffing my way back to the hotel.
I don’t have any weekend shifts, and there’s nothing to pick up at Bonnie Appétit. It feels like every damn day, one of the baristas is disappearing on us, for one reason or another, so I can’t rely on them to hang out. And Cy has a new beau he can’t stop raving about, so he’s out of commission for at least three weeks until they break up. Hopefully they don’t. He’s a crier, after all.
My chest aches, not an athlete in the least, as I push my legs and body to the breaking point. I’m running like a lunatic in the posh neighborhood near the hotel, and a small voice is trying to scream some sense into my aching head. That voice is screaming at me that I look suspicious, not the ‘he doesn’t look like he belongs here’ kind of suspicious. No, the ‘he looks like he’s running from a legitimate crime scene’ kind of suspicious.
But I don’t care. How can I, when as much as I hate that I do, I can’t wait to get back to our hotel room? For a few blissful hours, we play lovers and do everything but penetration since I won’t be able to hold back anymore. Ranbir made a massacre of all the carefully placed wards I’ve erected to protect my heart. He’s laid me bare. It feels like death. Like a part of me was murdered when he fucked me so hard I screamed. And I want more, so much more. Every night, those words threaten to leap out and ruin the fragile balance we have going on as frenemies with benefits.
