Page 59 of His Smile
"How?" shewhispered.
"With you, I want towatch your fear fight against your trust, I want to hear you scream and shakein my arms,” she shivered at his words. “I like hearing you whisper my name asI clean you and pull you close. I could never grow tired of you."
She prayed he never would.
The phone rang on thenightstand next to her, the shrill sound startling the silent sanctity of theirroom. Reaching over she grabbed the phone and tilted it upward to see thecaller ID—it was Rubina. Hitting the ignore button, she turned back over to seeRoman's curious expression.
“That will make it the thirdtime in two days I have seen you ignore your sister’s call.”
Looking away, she focused ona loose string at the edge of her pillow. "Yes, well, I am not in the moodto talk to her now," she mumbled.
Roman didn’t respond. Aftera few long awkward moments, she looked up with a sigh to see him staring ather.
“I don’t want to talk aboutit,” she breathed.
“Then let me guess,” hesaid, propping himself up onto his elbow. “Your plan to make Dev Gorshal yourmessenger that night backfired when I arrived, and now Dev has done exactlywhat you wanted, he ran back and told your parents everything. And for the pastweek since then your mother, father, brother, and now your sister, most likelypressured by your mother, are calling you and demanding for you to come homeand explain yourself.”
Sitting up, she held theblanket to her chest with one arm and turned to him with an accusing glare."I am so glad you get it now because this is all your fault!"
"My fault for cominghome to find you laying a seductive trap of revenge, no sweetheart that wasyour fault. I played my role, and so did your spineless fiancé,” he made ascoffing noise in the back of his throat.
“Well, I’m glad you’re nottoo worried,” she spat, flipping the sheet back from her legs with allintention of getting up and storming off. “Because if I do go home, my parentswill want me to stop seeing you, you do know that, right?"
“My beautiful Rahina,"he purred as he wrapped a securing arm around her waist, stopping her fromgoing any further. Pulling her back, he forced her to lay down next to himuntil she was glaring up at his propped-up position above her. “You could notstop seeing me even if you wanted to,” he continued. “No, sweetheart what youare going to have to do is face the music and just deal with your parents’anger and tell them you are with me now whether they like it or not.”
Crossing her arms, shestifled a huff. “What if they disown me or something?”
“That will not happen,” hisdeep, reassuring voice wrapped around her working to calm her against her will.
“How can you know that?” shedemanded, hating the pout in her voice.
“Because your mother’s solepurpose in her life is her children and from what you have told me about yourfather, he could never survive it,” he informed her easily.
That was true. Knowing sheprobably shouldn't, she looked up and groaned at the smug look on his face ashe stared back at her. Reaching over she pinched his firm pectoral muscle inretaliation, though he didn't even flinch. "You think you're always right,don't you?"
Slowly, he pushed himself uponto both arms, one on either side of her head. “It sounds as if I should makea believer out of you,” he said, his voice deep and seductive.
Smiling, she opened her armsto let him try his best.
~*~
The next day, Rahina sat atthe bar stool with her chin resting on top of her folded hands as Mosca madethem both scrambled eggs.
“How exactly do you burneggs?” Mosca shot her a judgmental look over his shoulder as he slid thefreshly scrambled eggs onto two plates.
Earlier, he walked in as shetried and failed to make herself breakfast.
“I don’t know whathappened,” she protested, holding her hands out excitedly for the offered plateof eggs and fruit. “I thought I copied what Roman did in the past—but theyended up all dark and crispy.”
"Burnt," Moscacorrected dryly, as he leaned a hip on the counter, not bothering with a stool.“They were burnt not dark, just burnt.”
Normally, Roman made herbreakfast, but this morning, he had to leave for some meeting before she gotup.
"Yes, yes, I know I'm ashameful woman," she waved her fork at him before taking another bite."So, have you seen my billboard on eighth avenue?”
With an all black backgroundand with Jason to her right dressed in a dark shimmering blue and Yuri dressedin stark white, the two men pulled at each of her arms as she stood in themiddle posed in glittering crystals. Her face was upturned and staring at thesky as if resigned to her fate as the men fought over her. The simplicity oftheir outfits, the plain black background, and the glimmering beauty of heroutfit made the picture stunning. It took her breath away each time she lookedat it. After this performance, she was going to be a legend.
“The one where you arenaked? Yes.” Mosca said between mouthfuls. His practiced expressionless eyesbetrayed him today and held a glimmer of provocation.
