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“Your gasping breaths when I touch you. The way you melt into me. You’re still sweet and gentle. Still a worrier.” He freed her lower lip from her mouth. It had become such an ingrained habit in her now. A sure sign of her worrying or thinking. “But what I love the most is the way you take my name when you are lost in the throes of pleasure.”
Her eyes heated, and her throat worked. The air around them charged again. Unable to resist, he lifted her higher to claim her lips. She melted into him like she always did. This woman had always been his. God! If only he’d have found her earlier. If only… He stopped those rioting thoughts. He couldn’t change the past, but he sure as hell could change the future.
And the first thing he wanted to do was to tell her what he felt about her, what he’d always felt for her. What time and distance hadn’t been able to erase.
He shifted back to caress her cheek. “Avantika, I lo…”
The shrill sound of a phone ringing made him pause.
She frowned. “It’s mine.”
When she tried to get up, he pulled her back in his arms. “Let it ring. I finally have you in my arms, and there’s so much I need to tell you.”
The phone stopped ringing. He opened his mouth to speak, and the phone in their hotel room rang.
His eyes caught her worried ones. This time when she moved to get up, he let her. She wrapped the sheet around her as she answered the phone.
“Shaurya!” She frowned. “What’s wrong?”
Her face creased as she spoke. “Hospital? Why?”
Dev wore a t-shirt and his cotton sleep pants, worried at the conversation Avantika was having with Shaurya.
“Don’t worry,” she said softly. “Myra will be fine, I promise. Where’s everyone? Who’s with you?”
Dev was aware that Shaurya’s wife was pregnant and in her second trimester. He left Avantika to communicate with Shaurya and went outside to collect his phone.
He’d just finished talking to his office when Avantika entered the living room, looking sad. She’d worn her dress from the morning and fidgeted with one end of it.
“Myra’s in the hospital,” she explained. “Shaurya is devastated. She’s been having some lower back pain, and she started spotting. He called me two hours ago, but I forgot to return his call or see his texts. The doctors are taking her in for surgery as we speak. He was too stressed to give me the correct answers.”
“Where are Aaryan and Vihaan?”
“Vihaan and Tiya were in our holiday home in Ras Al Khaimah. They’re on their way back as we speak. Aaryan and Sanjana are in Switzerland. They’re returning too.”
His chest pinched on hearing that. His sister was traveling, and she hadn’t even informed him. He hated this distance that existed between them. He had to meet Sanjana, and hopefully Aaryan too, once they were back. He couldn’t be an outsider in his own sister’s life forever.
“I’m so worried.” Avantika’s sad voice broke into his musings. “Shaurya’s all alone.”
She ran a shaking hand down her face. “What if they lose the baby? Oh God! It will devastate them. All of us.”
He went to her and cupped her cheeks. “Hey. It’s going to be fine.”
She wrapped her arms around him. “Their child is a beacon of hope for us. That good things happen in dark times. We can’t lose it, Dev. We can’t.”
He loved hearing his name from her lips. She was finally opening up to him.
“I’m scared,” she cried.
“We could return to Dubai if that’s what you want,” he told her.
She shifted to study his face. “Really? We still have six days left.”
He tugged at her left hand and raised it up to his mouth, biting the soft skin of the back of her hand. Her breath hitched, as always.
His lips curved. “You’re not my prisoner, Avantika. How many times do I need to tell you that? All you need to do is ask where you want me to take you, and I will.”
“Then I’d like to go back, please.”
