AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER NINE
INDIATHOUGHTSHE’D attended fancy balls before, but she very quickly realised that nothing within her experience prepared her for something of this magnitude. The modern façade of the high-rise was exactly that—a façade—behind which a centuries-old building stood wrapped in a lush, overgrown courtyard, the gardens of which had been strung with fairy lights overhead, and, on the ground, covered in a delicate carpet of tea lights, so it looked like something out of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. An orchestra played and, while their song was unified, they stood throughout the gardens: a cluster of three violinists here, a pianist there, an ensemble of flutists and a clutch of harpists, so that the delightfully ethereal music wafted and breezed on the wind—both all-consuming and delicate at the same time. The details took on a new importance to India as a sort of coping mechanism, and she immediately understood why Khalil had presumed their kiss at the bar in New York might have been photographed.
Here, he was the star of the ball, every eye on him at all times—which meant that every eye was also on her. It wasn’t simply about attention, but also appraisal, as dozens of women eyed her with barely concealed envy.
So he was considered to be that much of a catch, huh? Well, she could see why, from the outside at least. He was devastatingly handsome, wealthy, powerful, and on the first night they’d met, he’d been charming—if, oh, so arrogant. But he was the last man on earth she would have chosen to marry if it weren’t for their situation! She had to remember that. Only, when Khalil offered his arm, she placed hers in the crook of it, and a blade of desire pressed hard to her breast, so she forgot, for a moment, that she wanted to dislike him...
‘I’m suddenly regretting the impulse to bring you here,’ he muttered sotto voce, so her eyes skittled to his.
‘Oh?’ Her lips, painted red for the occasion, formed a perfect ‘O’ and his eyes dropped to them with obvious desire.
He swore softly, drawing her close. ‘We won’t stay long. It’s only a matter of being seen together, then we can leave.’
‘What if I’m having fun?’
‘I promise you will have more fun alone with me.’
She smiled, and, despite the tangle of emotions pulling at her, surrendered to the sheer sensuality of being near him, of his words, and the power that came from knowing how much he wanted her. It was—for that moment—enough.
‘We’ll see,’ she teased, and he laughed, a soft, throaty noise that made her ache to turn on her heel and slide right back into his car, to leave the crowds behind and be alone with this man. All night, just the two of them...
He caught her hand and lifted it to his lips, kissing the back of it as though he couldn’t help himself. Flashes went off—not the paparazzi lenses that had snapped them outside, but the flashlights of phones every guest at the event carried.
‘In New York, that would be considered very bad etiquette,’ she said under her breath.
‘The kiss, or the photos.’
‘Both.’ She slid him a sidelong glance. ‘But I meant the photos.’
‘Here too,’ he agreed. ‘Under ordinary circumstances, but you are the first woman I have been seen with publicly since my engagement ended, so it is natural that your appearance has sparked a flurry of fascination.’
India stared at him, his words not making sense at first. ‘I’m sorry, did you just say...you were engaged?’
‘Was, yes.’
‘What? When? To whom?’
He lifted a brow at her numerous questions. ‘Our engagement ended six months ago. It was a mistake.’ His voice was stony suddenly, as though he were pushing her away physically. ‘And this is not the place to discuss it.’
‘Six months ago? So the night we met, it had only been four months—or just over three and a half, in fact,’ she clarified, nodding slowly.
‘So?’
So, she was a rebound girl. That night had been meaningless to him, even before Ethan had informed him of what he believed India to be. Until that moment, she hadn’t realised how hard she’d been clinging onto the spark of what they’d shared, as though it stood in a little box outside normal time, just him and her and a connection that had formed spontaneously and urgently, that had actually meant something.
But it had been nothing. A chance to push his ex-fiancée from his mind, nothing more.
‘Dance with me,’ he murmured.
‘Now?’
‘Why not?’
‘Because no one else is dancing.’
‘We want the world to see us together, do we not?’
‘I think your kiss accomplished that.’
