Beneath Your Beautiful: A Neighbors to Lovers Romance [COMPLETED]

9 - Just scratching an itch

Noah needed to get out of the house—and his mind off Jaya. Kissing wasn't the problem with her whether it was rough or tender. But as soon as he tried to caress her in any way, she retreated. A woman who didn't want to cuddle was a novelty for him.

Worse still, he almost wished he hadn't slept with her. And not because he hadn't enjoyed it but because of what she'd said after—that this was a one-and-done deal for her. How naive was he to think they had a connection, that she might like him for more than his looks.

Same shit, different girl. Whoever spread the assumption that being attractive made it easier to find a partner was a moron.

Half an hour later, Noah met Nico and Elena for a late afternoon picnic at the beach. Dinner with his friends lightened his mood until a young couple walked past them. They were holding hands and appeared to be pausing every twenty steps to steal a kiss. Thankfully, Nico and Elena didn't rub their happiness in his face like that. Or at least not when it was just the three of them.

"Jaya and I had sex earlier." The words slipped out of him.

Elena and Nico shared a look. He didn't miss the knowing smile passing between them.

"How was it?" Nico asked, handing him a bottle of ice-cold kombucha.

Californians.

"Not as gratifying as it could've been." Noah frowned at his sandy feet. He couldn't even tell if Jaya had genuinely enjoyed it. Maybe she was like his autumn fling and thought he miraculously knew where her G-spot was before he tried touching her there. Women didn't necessarily know where it was either, so why did they expect him to know?

Elena laid a hand on his arm. "Why wasn't it as gratifying as it could have been?"

"It felt like scratching an itch."

She squeezed his arm before she released it. "And you wanted it to be more?"

Yes, a real connection—was that too much to ask? "It was fine, but she didn't want any intimacy whatsoever."

"Which is a problem because you have feelings for her," Elena concluded.

"She's one frustrating woman." Noah bowed his head, careful not to spill the bottle. "Jaya has absolutely no filter. She tells you what she thinks whenever she thinks it. And she doesn't have a bed or any clean surfaces in her house, what's up with that?"

Nico clapped him on the shoulder, spilling his kombucha. "Man, you got it bad. My condolences."

Elena jabbed Nico. "It's cute. Been awhile since a woman got under his skin."

Noah swiped the sand off his leg. "Couldn't it be a sweet, uncomplicated woman?"

Cupping his face, Elena gave him a peck on the forehead. "Where would the fun be in that?"

***

Jaya sat in the middle of her living room floor, staring at the splash of red paint on the wall from when she tumbled off the ladder. The longer she stared at it, the more it resembled a bleeding heart. Although she felt like crying, as usual, no tears came out. She couldn't even recall the last time she'd cried because Sanjay had trained it out of her when she was little.

Difficulties in identifying and describing emotions had ruled most of her life. Which made it all the more confusing now to figure out her reaction to the man who lived across from her. Of all the people who could've been her neighbor, why did it have to be Noah? Why couldn't it be someone safer—an Indian doctor, perhaps? Someone who understood where she came from and why she was the way she was?