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She didn’t know how long she stared, but a few moments later, she knew he was done exercising when he lowered his muscled arms and joined his palms in front of him before fluidly dropping them to his sides.
He wiped his face with a small white towel before turning towards the bedroom. Her heart raced in panic, and before she could close her eyes and pretend to be asleep, his eyes met with hers.
Her cheeks heated because it was obvious that she had been ogling him. She quickly sat up and placed her feet on the floor. Resisting the urge to run and hide in the bathroom, she waited.
Her heart thudded as he slid open the French doors of the balcony and stepped inside. The cool ocean breeze blew over her, but her body began to heat watching him.
His tanned skin glistened with sweat, and the combined smell of his citrusy body wash along with the earthy musky scent was addicting. He stood watching her.
She began talking. “I… I was looking outside to see if we arrived at the island or not.”
“Not yet. It’ll take a couple more hours.”
“Uh… okay.
Her cheeks heated because she didn’t know what else to say to cut through the tension.
Her lips began tingling and her breath sped up recalling the previous night’s kiss. It was supposed to be a fake kiss, but the memories of it trembled her insides.
Sucking in her breath, she stood up. “Excuse me,” she murmured.
She was about to go and hide in the bathroom when he spoke.
“Tell me about Dheeraj and you.”
Frowning, she turned. “What?”
“Why did you have separate bedrooms?”
Anger erupted inside her. “How do you know that?” she demanded. “And how dare you! You had no right to snoop into my life!”
He didn’t say anything or show any outward reaction.
But her anger continued to build. “Just because Dheeraj and I didn’t share a bedroom didn’t mean ours wasn’t a good marriage. You will never understand what it is to have a good relationship. Dheeraj and I had that!”
That made him react. His eyes flashed as he strode to her. “You and I had a good relationship too,” he growled. “We loved each other.”
“No! Ours was based on hormones and nothing else. It was just sex,” she said, dismissing the long hours they simply held each other and discussed their childhood and future dreams.
He clenched his jaw, but didn’t say anything.
She hurried to the bathroom and shut it close and leaned against it, blindly staring at the ocean outside the huge glass windows.
“Why did you have separate bedrooms?”
Aarav had no right to ask her that. But his question triggered her. It made her feel as though the relationship she and Dheeraj had was less of a marriage.
It also made her once again feel guilty and feel the acute loss of Dheeraj. She closed her eyes. For a moment, she panicked when she couldn’t recall Dheeraj’s face. She took a deep breath and focused until her sweet, gentle and supportive husband’s face flashed in her mind.
Seven years ago, she had been the one to propose marriage to Dheeraj, which he readily obliged since he had a crush on her. They got married, and right on their wedding day, they flew to another country to work on a confidential research project.
The circumstances of their wedding and her angry, heartbroken feelings at that time didn’t allow for them to have intimacy right away. Dheeraj was too sweet to pressurize her in any way and had even slept in a different room until she was ready.
A few months after the wedding, she went to him, determined to consummate their marriage. The sex had been awkward and embarrassing for both. They couldn’t consummate their marriage that night.
But she had been determined. She continued to go to Dheeraj, feeling the obligation to be a good wife to him like she had promised herself when she had proposed to him. But it was the same each time. It was awkward, embarrassing and even painful.
A few more awkward times later, they finally managed to finish the act and consummate their marriage. But Dheeraj held her hands gently that night.
