“I’m making love to you,” he said in Punjabi, his voice hoarse, as he struggled to focus, to tell her this one thing that was so important. “I’m making love to only you. This is our first. Do you feel it? Do you feel me all the way inside you?”

“Tuhada piyar mera ata hona vala hai.”

Your love will be my end.

“No,” he said, struggling to speak now. “No, it’s our beginning.”

He began moving inside her now, keeping his thrusts slow and even. Raj pushed against him, demanding more, but he wouldn’t give it to her. He couldn’t. He wanted them to memorize every kiss, every lick, every pump of hips.

He felt his balls tighten even as she quivered with her rising orgasm.

And then she came, rolling her head back against the bed, reaching down to grip his hips and pull him flush against hers. He followed seconds later, roaring her name and feeling blinded by the joy between them.

When his brain started to clear, he took stock of what had happened. He knew he wouldn’t remember how long they lay together, or who helped who clean up the remnants of their lovemaking. What he would remember forever was resting his head against her breast and feeling her fingers run through his hair.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked into the silence.

He closed his eyes and sighed. “Yeah,” he replied. “Yeah, I do.”

Chapter Twenty-One
Rajneet

Raj didn’t know if practical advice or continuous sex would be enough to soothe the hurt in Ajay’s eyes, but hopefully her listening would.

And food. After all, food worked for her.

She poured two cups of masala ginger chai and set them on the dining table. The smell of frying bature and simmering chole filled the house. Khunda chewed on a small hank of rope in her plush, custom-designed chesterfield dog bed. The scene was unusually domestic, but it felt comfortable to Raj. It felt right.

“What are you thinking?” she asked as she stood next to Ajay’s chair, stroking his back.

He pulled her close, wrapping one arm around her hips even as he continued to read through emails on his phone.

“I should’ve asked Rafael to drop off my laptop and work clothes with my overnight bag yesterday,” he mused. “I could’ve gone straight to the office from here.”

“Well, hopefully when Khunda and I move, we’ll be close enough that it won’t be too difficult to get clothes anymore.”

His head jerked up. “What do you mean?”

“I’m going to sell the brownstone,” she said. She’d slowly come to the decision over the last few weeks. “It’s a part of my old life, and honestly, it makes me nervous that Khunda is so small and could get lost in all the space.”

“Where do you think you’re going to move?”