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This was their spot. It was here that he had asked her to be his. It was here that he’d told her that he loved her for the first time. It made sense that he’d bring her here to make love to her for the first time as well. He stepped out of the car and rounded the jeep to help her out before removing the picnic blanket he always kept in the boot. Soon they were on the blanket, kneeling, facing each other.
When his father called for the third time, Dev switched off his phone. A strange sense of foreboding crawled down Avantika’s nape.
She sucked in a harsh breath.
Dev cupped her cheek, lifting it, and looking deep into her eyes. “What’s wrong? Are you afraid? We don’t have to take this…us…any further unless you’re not ready.”
“It’s not that.” She shook her head. “Everything is so perfect right now. It will always remain like this between us, right? Promise me that nothing bad will happen.”
“I promise you that you will always be safe as long as I’m alive,” he vowed. “I will always protect you. You are mine, and we are meant to be together.”
She gave him a smile, but that ominous feeling remained. She just prayed to God that it was because she was going to cross a line with Dev tonight and nothing else.
Cupping her cheeks, he kissed her. She sank into him and his kiss. Instantly, her worries vanished. Dev was right; they were meant to be together. Nothing could ever come between them.
Nothing!
1
12 years later
Dubai
The monster from her past was back.
She thought she’d have more time before she had to face him. She thought the one month he’d given her as a respite would extend to two and then three, and maybe by a stroke of luck,hewould forget about her.
But Avantika Rajpoot was wrong. So very wrong.
Hehad come for her, as he’d promised he would.
She’d made a bargain with the devil, and now he had come calling to collect his dues. Her hands trembled as she reread the messages sent on her elder brother, Aaryan’s phone, from the demon of hell himself.
“Tell Avantika our 12 days begin tomorrow. A car will fetch her at sharp ten amfrom outsideLa Soiree.”
“No one from your family is allowed to come with her.”
She exhaled a deep breath and inhaled again, repeating the familiar stress-busting exercise several times, but none of that eased her fears this evening.
It was happening.
Hehad summoned her, and she had no choice but to fulfil the bargain she’d made withhim.
Him—Dev Luthra—the only man she’d ever loved and the man who, more than a decade ago, had mercilessly and cruelly betrayed her. He was her sinner in every sense of the word. His treachery had destroyed her life and that of her brothers.
She swallowed thickly and looked outside the window of her home. The majesticBurj Khalifarose in front of her, slightly to the right; its glass façade reflecting the late afternoon light, shining like a thousand suns. Here, on the thirty-third floor, the city of Dubai was spread like a blanket below her. Usually, this sight soothed her and settled her nerves. Not now, though. Her nerves were all over the place, her mind switching back and forth between the past and the present.
She sighed, shutting her eyes, finally allowing the old memories from the long past to resurface.
Dev and her brothers, Aaryan & Vihaan, walking in the forest behind their house together.
Dev laughing with her brothers.
Dev telling her he loved her for the first time in their spot in the forest.
Dev kissing her under a snowy sky while ice skating.
Dev making love to her that same night for the first time at their spot.
