He crossed his arms. “I think we handled that fairly well.”
She rolled her eyes.
“And we’ll keep getting better,” he continued. “This is new right now. We just need…practice.”
“Practice?” she asked skeptically.
Yes.That’s it. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of it before.
“This is a performance, right? To make it believable, we just need to rehearse.”
“Rehearse what?”
His throat went dry as his mind generously provided him with numerous suggestions. “Everything.”
She just stared at him.
“Like earlier,” he said. “You acted like we had never touched before.”
“Because we haven’t!”
“I know, but they need to believe we’re together, right? You need to act like it’s normal.”
“None of this is normal,” she muttered.
“No, but it’s what we agreed to.”
Her face remained blank. Inscrutable.
“I’m just being practical,” he insisted.
The elevator doors opened and they stepped out onto their floor, walking in silence to their room.
As the silence dragged on, he began to regret his words. Now she probably thought he was some slimeball trying to come on to her. Like that creep who’d approached her at Ankita’s party. He frowned.He should have offered to leave as soon as he’d noticed she was uncomfortable. Maybe that was what she wanted. He was about to suggest some excuse they could give the group about why he had to leave suddenly when her voice cut him off.
“Mind if I use the bathroom?” she asked. She grabbed a handful of things from her suitcase and stepped inside before he could respond.
A few minutes later she walked back out wearing a bright red bikini and a gauzy white cover-up,though Karthik thought the name was a misnomer. It covered nothing.She wasn’t particularly tall, but right now all he could see were her legs. Smooth and long, as if they went on forever.Whoa. All thoughts of leaving flew out of his head.
He realized he was staring and quickly looked away, fishing his swim trunks out of his bag. “Excuse me,” he said, going into the bathroom. He shut the door behind him and turned on the faucet. A faint buzzing rang in his ears.
What she wears is none of my business. I shouldn’t care. I shouldn’t even be looking. But for whatever reason, the image of her standing there in that swimsuit was burned into his mind.
His temperature skyrocketed. He splashed some water on his face, trying to erase the picture from his head and cool himself down. Maybe he was coming down with something. Maybe he was contagious. If he was, she’d been exposed to it too. To be on the safe side, they probably needed to quarantine. Lock themselves in this room and never leave. Then she wouldn’t go down to the beach looking like that with all those bozo groomsmen around.
None of my business,he reminded himself.
She’s your fiancée,the dumb half of his brain immediately replied.
She’s not. Not really. And even if she was, it still wouldn’t be any of my business. He splashed some more water on his face, his body returning to normal, his rationality slowly returning.
He was attracted to her. It was just biology. Inconvenient, but not an insurmountable problem. He would simply push it down. Suppressit. At least he was aware of it now. And thank goodness Meghna had rejected his pathetic idea to “rehearse.” If he had been forced to practice certain…things with her, well, he didn’t know what would happen exactly, but he worried it would jeopardize their deal. And he couldn’t allow that to happen. He stared at his reflection, watching his usual cool demeanor fall back into place. He could control this. He had to.
—
“I think you’re right,” Meghna said once Karthik walked out of the bathroom.
“About what?”
