“I'm evaluating risk. It’s still cold.”
She laughed. “I'm not delicate.”
His gaze dropped briefly to her bare feet, then came back to her face. “I know.”
The way he said it made her cheeks heat. She recalled their nightly passion when he was hardly gentle. But she didn’t complain. She reveled in his touch and gave it back equally until his own control wavered.
She stepped closer and brushed a petal from his broad shoulder.
“You are thinking too much about the risks,” she said.
“I always do.”
“Then don't. Enjoy the moment.”
He didn't answer.
She had accused him of controlling her life. He had.
But then, she had taken back control in several ways.
She was the one who had moved into his room. She was the one who had started leaving her books on his side of the bed. She was the one who reached for his hand in public now without thinking about it first.
He let her, every time.
As apple blossoms drifted down around them in the spring air, she understood something that felt more unsettling than all the anger she'd carried for months.
She wasn't just staying because of the contract.
She was falling.
And the most unsettling part was that she had stopped trying to catch herself.
CHAPTER 44
The helicopter descended toward Rewa Palace.
Yamini watched through the window as the lawns came into view, green and wide, bougainvillea spilling over carved balconies, the courtyard fountains catching the afternoon light.
“I hope Rani Ma likes my gift,” she said.
Bharat glanced at the wrapped frame resting against her knee. “She will.”
He didn't elaborate. He rarely did. But she had learned that when he said something with that particular certainty, he usually knew something she didn't.
“You are just biased like Pooja is,” she said with a laugh.
But her fingers, which had been pressing hard against the frame, loosened slightly
Despite preparing herself for the trip, she was still slightly nervous.
She had been to Rewa Palace before. As a child, she had come with her mother during the summer, running through these same corridors, sneaking into the kitchens, getting scolded by palace staff for climbing things she shouldn't have climbed. Rani Suchitra was amused every time, rather than annoyed by the unruly behavior.
She had never once made Yamini feel like a nuisance. Even when she absolutely was one.
But Yamini wasn’t a child anymore.
She recalled the last visit to Rewa Palace as an adult. It was on her wedding day. She had been dazed and convinced none of it was real. She had stood in these courtyards in bridal red and been certain she was dreaming.
