Married in Vengeance (Dynasty Rebels #4)

Chapter 21

Twenty-One

RAM

Ram slowly got to his feet and advanced towards her. Aadhya being Aadhya, she only planted her feet more firmly and tipped her chin up in challenge, waiting for him to reach her. Her sage green pantsuit clung to her tall, lean figure perfectly, accentuating her subtle curves.

Her hair escaped her ponytail in wild curls that tumbled around her face and neck. He’d always thought her hair was the perfect representation of her personality. Wild, unrestrained and with a mind of its own.

But this time, it wasn’t the hair that caught his attention. It was her eyes. Exhaustion, nerves, and good old rage formed a cocktail that spat sparks at him.

“Is the fucking I’m getting worth the fucking I’m about to get?”

His drawled words had her brow furrowing. “I beg your pardon?”

He traced the edge of her sleeve and watched goosebumps erupt on her soft skin. “Is the fucking you’re getting worth it, Aadhya Gadde?”

Her glance slid down to the glass in his hand. “Just how much of that have you already had?” she asked, wry derision coating her voice.

“It’s my first glass.” His hand went to the back of her neck, fingers curling around the shape of her head. His grip tightened on her forcing her head back, those unruly curls now twining around his fingers. “I see you, Aadhya. I see you clearly.”

Her lips parted on a soundless gasp as her hands came up to brace against his chest. “Do you?” she breathed. “And what do you see?”

They stared at each other, endless fraught moments. He could drown in those huge, dark eyes of hers. And he’d go down smiling.

“Tell me why,” he said, bending his head to inhale the spicy, intoxicating smell of her. “Just tell me.”

Her hands vised against his chest, her breath shortening. “I don’t understand.”

A mirthless smile touched his lips. “Neither do I,” he whispered, kissing his way along the line of her jaw. His lips touched the edge of her mouth, his hand fisting in her hair. “Fuck this,” he growled.

And then he was kissing her. She opened for him like a flower parched for rain, her desperate need for him a match for the intensity of his desire. A broken moan was torn from her as he slid his free hand up her rib cage, his thumb grazing the underside of her breast.

He clenched his hand in the front of her silk, formal shirt and pulled. Buttons went flying as the delicate stitching ripped. Aadhya arched up in his hold, offering herself to him.

His hot gaze raked over her pert breasts caged in delicate lace.

“If you want me to stop,” he said hoarsely, his eyes still on the perfection in his arms. “You need to say so now.”

Aadhya grabbed his hand, the thumb still making lazy swirls against the soft skin of her breast. As he watched, she brought it to her lips, kissing each finger before nipping his thumb.

“Don’t stop,” she whispered. “Don’t ever stop.”

It felt like a dam had burst inside him as he wrapped his arms around her, hoisting her up in his arms in one easy sweep. He tossed her onto the bed. Aadhya bounced lightly before coming to rest on her elbows, her lace covered breasts pushed out with the movement.

Ram ripped his shirt off, following her down on to the bed, his forearms coming to rest beside her head, caging her in. Aadhya fell back, allowing him to sweep his fevered gaze down the gorgeous length of her.

He slid a finger beneath the waist of her pants, popping the button and loosening its grip. Aadhya raised her hips letting him pull them down and off her.

He took her in, the cream lacy bra and panties perfectly showcasing the woman of his dreams. And nightmares, he thought his lips twisting as he felt his brain try to regain control over the moment.

“Ram?” Whatever Aadhya saw in his eyes had her stiffening self-consciously.

“No,” he muttered, shoving his own pants off and rejoining her on the bed, the touch of skin to skin having him hissing on a chokehold of desire. “No thinking.”

“You were thinking,” Aadhya gasped as he kissed his way down the length of her body, pausing finally at the juncture of her legs.

He looked up at her, his gaze holding her glittering ones. He licked her, just once, through the fabric of satin and lace. Aadhya’s hands fisted in the sheets, her hips bucking against his mouth.

“Ram!”

“Tell me what you want.”

“You. This. Now.” Her words were a garbled mess of frustrated need and desperate longing. “I want all of it. All of you.”

Triumph surged through him as he ripped her panties off, tossing them over his shoulder and applying himself to the task at hand. He licked, sucked, nipped and kissed her into a mindless wreck, her legs trembling as he held her down, one hand curled around her hip and another on her thigh, holding her open, wide open. For him.

She came with a keening wail that resonated through him, his every cell realigning to make space for her pleasure. He kissed her quivering thigh, soothing, gentling, bringing her back from the cliff she’d just flown off.

Her hand came to cradle the back of his head, gently, lovingly and his heart juddered from his desperate need to turn into the caress, to believe it was real. Ram ripped himself from the bed, shoving away from her. His heart crumbled to bloody shards in his chest as he forced himself to turn away from his beautiful, naked wife.

“Ram?” Aadhya’s confused voice halted him in his tracks. “Where are you going? Come back. We didn’t finish.”

He kept his back to her, shame, fury, hurt coursing through him. “We’re finished Aadhya.”

It was all he said before he went into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. He turned the shower on and stepped beneath the icy rain pelting out of the showerhead. He allowed the water to cleanse him, his eyes closed as he took his throbbing length in his fist.

“Why Aadhya?” he whispered, the words washed away from his lips by the deluge of water. “Why?”