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“I’m hoping he takes a liking to you. This will all be so smooth then. My business can then remain in the family.”
Anger shot through her. “Really, dad? You’re pawning me off to someone who probably doesn’t even want me.”
Her dad glowered and then his eyes warmed. “Have you looked at yourself? No man in his right mind can refuse you. You are just perfect in every way.”
Her anger evaporated. God! It was so hard to be annoyed with her dad when he spoke like this.
“But Dad,” she began gently. “Let’s talk this through a bit. Vihaan and I have something special. You’ll see when you meet him.”
“No. I think my guy and you will be perfect.” He rubbed his hands together. “Oh, what lovely babies you will make.”
Good God! Tiya wanted to bang her head somewhere. Her dad was incorrigible. He was planning her babies with some random guy whom she didn’t even remember meeting. It was totally the pits.
She hissed out an annoyed breath.
“Look, Tiya. The man I want you to meet is here,” her dad said. Tiya spun around to see who here father was referring to, but he remained hidden behind the crowd now surrounding him, making it hard for her to decipher who her father was talking about.
“Your mom and I are going to bring him over to meet you. For God’s sake, please behave in front of him,” her dad instructed. “I don’t want any drama or high handedness from you.”
And before she could as much as let out a sound of protest, her parents left her. She watched them enter the crowd around the mystery man. Within moments, the people around them dispersed. She got her first glance of the man chosen for her by her parents and her jaw dropped.
Dev Luthra.
Her dad wanted her to marry him? Him?
No fucking way.
Of course, she’d met him at her dad’s birthday a few months ago. She knew who he was. Everyone knew who he was. Despite being only in his thirties, Dev Luthra was rich as freaking Croesus, well-connected and very powerful. His business empire spanned into timber, marble mines, air-conditioning, construction, real estate and so many other fields. And one day, for no apparent reason, he’d decided to shift base from India to Dubai. He’d moved his entire business operations here. He was the reason why Myra had moved to Dubai in the first place.
He was Myra’s ex-boss.
Myra had been happy working for him, until for some reason she’d quit. In her gut, Tiya knew that it had something to do with Shaurya or with the Rajpoots—she just didn’t know what that was just yet.
She watched her parents smile and chat with him, and her hands began to tremble. There was something about Dev Luthra that was off, that made her instincts scream to stay away. She didn’t even want to be alone with the man and to think, her parents wanted her to consider marrying him. A shudder ran through her. No way was that ever happening.
Her heart began to pound as Dev and her parents continued to converse. Any moment now, they’d bring him to meet her and then what was she going to do? Bloody bollocks, she ought to have accepted Vihaan’s help. Why the fuck had she turned him away?
God! Perhaps she could delay the inevitable and hide for a bit. Backing a few steps, she went to stand behind a potted palm.
“Are you standing here by yourself, thinking about me?” a smooth voice whispered in her ear.
Tiya whirled around, her hand on her chest.
She took in the smiling face of Vihaan Rajpoot, and heaved out a sigh of utter relief. Dressed in a bespoke black suit with a white open-collared shirt, his hair falling down the sides of his face, he oozed pure sex appeal. He looked like a dream come true. Without thinking, she threw herself at his chest, holding him close.
“You’re here. Thank God, you’re here.”
It took him a moment to put his arms around her. But then he held her to him. She shut her eyes as her heartbeat relaxed. He was here and she was going to show her parents that she was with him, and that there was no way in hell that she’d ever marry Dev Luthra or anyone else she didn’t want to.
“If I’d known this was the reception I was going to get, I’d have arrived much sooner,” Vihaan said softly.
She inhaled and his sharp, spicy scent hit her nostrils. Suddenly, she realized she was plastered to his chest, his strong arms wrapped around her, holding her close. Her skin warmed as a delicious ache began to spread down her body. Her heart, which had barely calmed, went into a frenzy again because ofhim. Vihaan Rajpoot.
Bloody hell, she’d managed to jump out of the frying pan and straight into the fire.
5
Vihaan shifted and looked into Tiya’s face.
