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He was in front of her then, his eyes searching hers with an intensity she wanted to run away from. “I...you haven’t been with anyone else since our last time together, have you?”
Zara’s face flamed. Now she wished she’d politely thanked him and hightailed it out of the room. Instead, she was standing here, looking like a fool that was fixated on him. She let the cool poise she was known for fill her voice. “Wow, I thought you of all men wouldn’t require a case-by-case recap of my sexual history. That you wouldn’t decide a woman’s worth by how many sexual partners she’s had. Please don’t turn out to have clay feet, Virat. My heart can only take so much.”
He looked shocked for a moment. “I’ve never judged a woman for having the same needs as I do, never. You know that.” He smiled then and it gleamed in the darkness. “You really know how to push my buttons, don’t you, Zara?”
“I wish I believed that.”
“Oh, believe it,shahzadi. You see far too much.”
“I’ve learned that from you.”
His arms casually came around her waist and Zara felt a sense of elation at the casual touch. God, she had it bad!
“Make sure to mention that at our next interview, please.”
“Mention what?” he asked.
“How good I am at pushing your buttons. I’m sure my female fan base would love to hear of all the delightful ways Virat Raawal can be made to behave.”
“Zara, why haven’t you been with anyone else? Why use Bhai as a shield to hide the fact that you have no life?”
“I resent the implication that love and sex and marriage have to be the center of my existence just because I’m a woman.”
He raised his hands and studied her, his mouth twitching. “I never said any of that.”
Zara swallowed and looked away. He wasn’t going to let up without her answering the question and truthfully at that. She wondered what she would truly lose if she told him this one truth. If she let him see a part of what made her Zara Khan.
But she suddenly couldn’t bear it if he saw her as a victim. If he...treated her differently. If he thought she was too weak. Which meant she could reveal very little. She shrugged, and filled her voice with a breezy nonchalance that was hard to come by just then. “Success is a double-edged sword. Especially for women. After you and I parted ways I was too busy building a career. For a long time, I didn’t want a man in my life.
“And then, once I had reached a certain level of success, my specifications for what I needed in a man grew, too. It was easier to battle loneliness than invite someone into my life who didn’t make the grade. Than trust someone new.”
“Ah...so I get extra points for—”
She pressed a hand to his mouth and glared at him. “You are familiar and convenient, yes.” She scoffed when he made a hurt sound. “But I also knew that you’d make this easy and good for me and—” she shrugged when he caught her gaze with his “—you will not think you have a right to ask me unnecessary questions afterward.”
With that, Zara walked away before the dratted man could see into her soul. And if he followed her to her suite and stood motionless outside it for a few minutes, while she did the same on the opposite side of the double doors with her hand pressed to her heart and her knees trembling beneath her, she told herself it was only because the sex had been that good.
That and nothing else.
CHAPTER SIX
“IFYOUCAN’Tdrag your sorry backside away from your new bride for a couple of hours to learn your lines for one measly scene, and if you don’t stop grinning at her from across the room like some...teenage Romeo, then we might as well pack up and go home, Bhai!”
Her mouth dropping open, Zara stared at the unfolding scene between the two brothers with alarmed fascination like the rest of the production crew. She suddenly had a better understanding of what her high school headmistress had meant when she said pin-drop silence.
Having never been even offered a chance to audition for one of his acclaimed projects before this one, she’d never seen Virat in action on a set before. With her calendar in conflict, she was the last one to come onto the production.
Of course, his reputation as a strange combination of a pit bull and a brilliant wizard who drew out stellar performances from the most average actor or actress was widespread. The man’s capability for diving deep into his work was well known throughout the industry. And yet, it left Zara feeling as if she were as memorable as the cigars he sometimes smoked.
He’d forced his brother and Naina to cut their honeymoon short to just one week in the Swiss Alps.
So here they were, installed at a luxury resort two kilometers from the thousand-acre studio complex for more rehearsals before they began shooting Zara’s main scenes.
Zara blinked and looked away, the harsh midday sun making her feel tired again. But not even under pain of death was she going to admit to Virat or anyone else on the team that she wasn’t feeling a hundred percent. She was damned if she gave Virat an excuse to lay into her for being unprofessional or weak or something else. The man was a brutal taskmaster, surviving on little sleep and constantly on the go, and expecting the rest of the team to do the same.
The first few days on set had been eye-opening for them all. If anyone had expected Virat Raawal to give his beautiful fiancée special treatment for even a few minutes of the day, they were all grossly disappointed. If Zara didn’t go to bed each night with the thought of his delicious weight pressing down on her and wake up every morning craving more of his expert, possessive kisses, she could have convinced herself that their time together at Vikram’s wedding two weeks ago had been nothing but a feverish dream concocted by her horny body and hungry mind.
Not by one prolonged glance or look sent in her direction did Virat betray himself. In fact, Zara had no trouble believing that he’d shelved the entire evening as a completed task in his mind’s diary. Not only had he vanished the next morning from the wedding, he’d been MIA for at least a week before he’d called the production team ahead of schedule for more rehearsals.
