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“Stop, please…” she pleaded. “I’ll tell you why I refused Rajiv. But first, you have to promise not to count this as touching.”
“No.” He breathed in her scent. Fucking lavender and vanilla, every single time.
Her eyes saddened. “Please.”
No matter that her body wanted him, her heart was still rejecting him. He’d wait for her to want him fully. With a sigh, he let go of her hand.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“I don’t want to do anything that hurts you or upsets you. Therefore, I’ll warn you again. If you don’t want me touching you, then do not touch me again.”
“Gladly,” she bit out.
“Now answer my question. Why did you refuse Rajiv Mehra? Marrying him could have given you protection...even from me. He’s rich; he could have given you everything you ever wanted.”
She leveled him with a glower, but he wasn’t budging.
“He was being kind when he asked me,” she finally said. “The first time he asked, we’d just moved to Dubai, and Rajiv thought that marrying me would reduce my…my family’s burden. But I couldn’t do that to him. I refused, but he kept asking me year after year. He was—is—a great guy, and he deserved someone who loved him fully and wholly. That someone wasn’t me. And to be honest, he didn’t love me either. He just has a very good heart. I was right to have refused him because he met Sheena a few years later, and they fell in love. They’re so happy together. She’s…she’s perfect for him.”
Their food arrived, preventing him from replying. The rest of their meal continued in silence. She refused his offer of dessert, and soon, they were back in their suite.
Once there, he left her without a word and went to his own bedroom. He leaned against the shut door, his head falling back. After his abysmal behavior during dinner, he wouldn’t be surprised if she decided to turn tail and run from him. He scraped a hand down his face, pissed off at himself.
He had to control his emotions around her. He couldn’t let his anger and possessive streak overcome him like it had today. For too long, he’d been painted as the bad guy, the villain, thesinner, and he was simply tired of it now.
She’d spoken so casually to him about Rajiv Mehra proposing to her. Hearing her say that had made him want to commit murder. For the first time in a very long time, years’ worth of mental exhaustion had rushed to the surface, making him lose his tightly held restraint on his anger.
She’d told him that deliberately, knowing it would affect him. And it had. Despite the years between them, he exactly knew how to push Avantika’s buttons, which meant she also knew exactly what to say that would make him madder than hell. And Rajiv Mehra was that topic.
That man had been a thorn in his side for too long, and now he’d become a wound that was only festering—one that he could do nothing about because of the importance he held in the Rajpoot siblings’ lives. Rajiv was the one who’d saved them and whisked them off to Dubai, after which Dev had never been able to find them. Until he’d found Shaurya.
Nonetheless, the bottom line was that on day one of Dev’s time with Avantika, he’d managed to not only piss her off several times, but he’d also shown her the darkest side of him, one he kept tightly locked…always.
He needed her to soften toward him. He needed her to give him a chance to allow him in so she’d be agreeable to listen to him. That was the first step. However, if today was any indication, he’d really need to work on getting into her good books. There was no other choice.
6
Breathe in, counting to four... Avantika held her breath for four seconds and then exhaled for four seconds.
Repeat… Inhale… Hold and exhale.
Eyes shut and sitting on the floor in her usual meditative pose, Avantika did her regular morning breathing routine. She repeated these calming exercises over and over again, but they were of no use today. Deep breathing, meditation, and yoga had been her mantra for the last decade and more. Yet, today, for the first time, her daily routine failed to settle her heartrate; it failed to calm her nerves and did not give her the focus and clarity she needed to steady herself. Her traitorous thoughts kept running loose, circling back tohim.
She inhaled, held her breath, and exhaled again, trying to think of anything or anyone other than him. But her mind remained firmly fixed onhim.Hewas her enemy, her sinner, yet her heart wouldn’t stop accelerating in his presence. Telling herself that it was only because she was frightened of him was of no use. Now that she’d madehisacquaintance again, she knew she wasn’t afraid of him hurting her. Not that he’d done anything to make her fear him…yet.
For years, she’d wondered what would happen when she met him again. But now that she was here, in exactly that much-dreaded situation from her imagination, she truly didn’t know what to think anymore. Dev was surprising her at every turn.
Her mind had spun over and over last night, pondering his claim that he’d helped all her brothers find happiness. That he’d even pushed them to it. Could that be it? It did look like that, if one considered the way he phrased that narrative. It didn’t make sense, though. Was Dev trying to make amends for the past? But why do that if he had been complicit with his father all those years back? Why feel guilty now?
Why did he want her to hear his side of the story after his bitter betrayal? She’d lived through it, and rehashing the past would bring her nothing but pain.
She let out a heavy sigh. She’d lived that pain once, and she didn’t want to live through it again, no matter what Dev had to say. Besides, she’d experienced his treachery first-hand. There was no way she’d be giving him a chance to even explain himself, not in this lifetime, at least. She not only had herself to consider but her son as well. She’d spoken to Neil last night after they’d returned from dinner. He sounded excited that Aaryan and Sanjana were taking him on a holiday to Switzerland.
These days, even thinking of her son invariably brought her mind back to her son’s father, Dev Luthra—the man she was stuck with for the next eleven days now. God! Dev infuriated her so much. And what was all that anger he directed towards Rajiv? It didn’t make sense to her. After seeing Dev’s reaction to Rajiv at the airport, she was pretty sure that any mention of him would tick him off, yet she’d deliberately irked him by informing him that Rajiv had asked her to marry him at one time. And Dev’s reaction to that long-ago truth had been pure chaos. Why though?
She scolded herself. She needn’t care about what Dev thought and felt. She hated him; that was the bottom line. Then why did her traitorous body not understand that memo at all? Each time he touched her, the heat between them escalated to a volatile level.
Eyes closed, she breathed in again. Why did she smell leather and musk in the air? God! She was truly behaving insanely if she thought the air around her also smelled of him. This was crazy.
