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“That’s the difference between you and me, Dream Girl. Because I do have expectations. Of this. Of us. A whole world of them.”
She raised her face and pinned him with that stormy gaze. As if she meant to see into his very soul. As if she already could. “So you do want to be with me?”
He laughed again, to cover up the urgency he felt. Even his breathing felt shallow—his reaction to losing control of this thing between them. “Is that what you want to call it? Being with each other?” He searched for ways to say it right. “I want more than you can imagine. I want everything, Naina.
“I want you to be my wife.”
The entire world seemed to have fallen silent at his admission. He couldn’t even hear the waves outside beneath the dull thundering in his ears. He felt vulnerable, and he didn’t like it one bit. But just this once, he promised himself. Just this once and she would give him everything in return.
“Have I rendered you mute, Dream Girl?”
She raised her gaze to his, her hands slowly coming to cradle his cheek. “Are you sure? You know you...”
“Would I offer you marriage if all I wanted was to scratch an itch?”
“No. Of course not, but...this is a...complete...”
Her swift intake of breath made him smile. Impatience fluttered through him, but he curbed it.
She turned her head, and moonlight gilded the tip of her nose, the curve of her cheek. In that moment, she was truly the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
He pushed himself to his feet, settled down next to her and pulled her to him. She let him arrange her to his satisfaction, her curvy body settling against him with a sensual slide that made his heartbeat jump. Her palms landed against his chest, her face half hidden in the curve of his neck.
“Talk to me, Naina. Tell me what you’re thinking. Don’t ever take away your words,” he said, burying his nose in her hair. She smelled like coconuts and lemon and something so incredibly luscious that desire began a beat in his veins. Just the graze of her body, the scent of her skin was enough to drown him in memories of their time together.
Of the incredible pleasure he’d found with her. Of the utter feeling of peace he’d felt holding her in his arms.
Small fingers rubbed at his chest, the weight of her voluptuous breasts against his ribs incredibly arousing. “You can have anyone, any woman in the world. And I’m just...” She laughed and it was the sweetest sound he’d ever heard. “I mean, not that I’m not great. I’m just not particularly beautiful or brave or ambitious or smart or fierce or...”
“Watch out what you say about my girl,” he said, hearing the thread of ache buried deep in those words. It wasn’t exactly insecurity. It was a question that had never been answered by people who should have, a question that gained more and more control over one’s life the longer it went unaddressed.
“I’m so...ordinary, Vikram. Very much so. Nothing...”
“I’d like to point out that everything you’ve said is wrong.”
“How?” she said, the word so full of hope that he had to consider his words carefully.
“Firstly, the idea that I could have any woman I wanted is such ridiculous thinking. I’m really disappointed you haven’t already deconstructed such an arbitrary, archaic thought, as if women were meant to be simply...had.” She giggled and pinched him and Vikram felt as if the entire world was in his arms right then. “Secondly, if I’ve learned one thing in life—and since I’m more than a decade older than you, you have to admit that I’ve seen and heard and done more things in my life than you have—”
“Oh, God, I can see you’re going to use this to dominate every argument we will have...” she muttered into his chest, her mouth a warm, open pocket against his throat.
“It is in the ordinary that life and magic happen. Thirdly, all that is completely moot because I don’t want anyone else. I want you, Dream Girl. Only you.”
He could feel her softening against his words, against his touch. Against him. He nuzzled his nose into her face.
“But, Vikram...”
“Shh... Dream Girl,” he said, pressing his mouth to the corner of hers. That quieted her immediately. “Do you believe that if I give you my word, I’d never ever break it?”
“Absolutely. From the first moment.”
“Good. Now believe me when I say you’ve given me a future that I never allowed myself to even imagine I could have.”
He opened his mouth and whispered against the silky soft skin of her jaw, loving the taste of her on his tongue. “So think of this. Take your time. I trust you, too, Naina. I trust that once you make a commitment to me, you will keep it. And I have never trusted anyone like that ever before.”
Slowly, against his body’s every wish, he untangled her from him. Or him from her. And stood up.
She frowned. “You’re leaving?”
