Wicked (Now Available on Amazon, Eden Books, Apple, B&N and Kobo!)

Chapter 11 🖋

Jasmine

"It just occurred to me," I said thoughtfully as I watched all the tiny humans moving below us. "We've never had sex on a Ferris wheel. Want to give it a shot?"

Armaan cast me a sidelong glance from where he sat beside me on one of the seats on the huge Ferris Wheel at the carnival and raised an eyebrow at me. "Are you serious?" he asked me.

I nodded at him, as seriously as possible. "Think about it, honey. You can scream as much as you like and people would simply assume that you're enjoying the ride. Which would be true, in a sense."

He let out a laugh and pulled me closer, snuggling with me as the ride started turning slowly, preparing to take us all for a spin. It felt so good to take a break from writing and joining him and the kids on this outing. The atmosphere was romantic as fuck, cold air blowing all around us but with my lover holding me close against his warm body. No clothes would have been better but this was fine too.

"I love you, baby," I murmured in his ear and gave it a nip for good measure.

He made a growly sound deep in this throat and tucked me in tighter, pulling one of my legs to rest over his thighs. Okay, now he was just making me horny. "Love you too," he groaned sexily against my throat and then I felt his hand creeping below the sweater I had on underneath my jacket, skimming my waistline in a taunting manner. Fuck, yes.

"This should be good," I stated pleasantly, settling against him and looking ahead with a smile. I was about to get serviced on a Ferris Wheel by my gorgeous man in plain view of hundreds of people. Awesome.

My gaze happened to land on the seat slightly below us at that moment where Jacob was sitting with his...girlfriend, I guessed. He was staring at me. When I caught him looking, he turned to face in front and put an arm around the blond next to him, pulling her closer before starting to do something that looked like he was trying to eat her neck. I started to laugh then. I just found the whole thing really funny and couldn't help it.

Was the kid actually trying to make me jealous now? Oh, God. This was like a private joke of mine which I never shared with either Jasper or Aaru, the two people I was closest to. I'd figured out a year ago that Jacob had a crush on me. It was hard not to notice with the way he kept staring at me when he believed I wasn't paying attention. I paid attention to everything which was something only a few people knew about me. I only looked like I was lost in my own world half the time.

"What? What is it?" Armaan asked me, his hand going still. "Jas, one of these days, could you at least try to explain the things you find so funny to me? I'd love to be in on the joke."

"Mmm, I know, baby," I said huskily and turned my head to kiss him deeply. His tongue swirled with mine and soon, the noise of the crowd faded along with the chill in the air and all I knew was him. This guy who was still so damn devoted to me after all these years. I thanked Allah every day for that miracle.

When we finally came up for air and I looked at his handsome face, the way his hair fell over his brow, the glazed expression in his beautiful eyes and that intense look of love he directed at me, it blew my mind for the hundredth time. I wanted to ravish him on that seat right there because that was the only way I could handle all these strong feelings he aroused in me. How was it possible to love someone so much? I never believed it could happen for me after the way I had messed things up in my twenties but our relationship was living proof that second chances existed and could lead to something truly amazing.

Emotions erupted inside me, the fierce, uncontrollable kind that rendered me helpless so I turned and sat away from him firmly. "Too much PDA," I informed him arrogantly, folding my arms. "You know I have a reputation to uphold, right? I'm supposed to be the cold bitch queen to your Prince Charming."

Armaan took my hand in his and squeezed. "Tell me you're going to give me some of that cold treatment later on?" he asked, sounding aroused.

I smirked while averting my face. He was still so naughty and got off on the most random things. It kept things interesting in the bedroom even though we were in our forties. Being with Armaan felt like reliving your fun, childhood days all over again. I guess someone like me needed that more than anything from her partner.

The cold bitch queen wasn't some random phrase I had picked for myself. It was Aaliyah's favourite and another private joke of mine. She truly insulted my intelligence when she believed she could live under my roof for so many years, talk about me behind my back that way and still think I would have no clue.

Aali had issues. Lots of them. Some of them were things I never wanted to dwell on. But if I could understand anything, it was feeling lost, being tortured over things that ate you up at night and thinking that behaving badly was going to help fix the pain. I hadn't taken anybody's fucking advice during my bad girl phase and I doubted she would either. And she was just getting started. The only thing to do was to let her ride it out and hope she would find her way back someday.

Life had taught me that if someone was determined to hate you, no amount of reasoning was going to change their minds. You just had to suck it up and refuse to let it ruin your perspective of the future.

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