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“Of course I do. You work like a demon, skate the line of burnout and then you get into a spiral of sleeplessness. A long bout of hot sex with a willing woman is your usual answer, but—”
“But I don’t want to take a strange woman to my bed.”
Her smile was so wide that Zara thought her muscles might break. “Breaking patterns, are we?”
“Finding comfort in old playthings.”
Zara gasped and went at him with two fists. She barely landed one on his bicep before he caught her. Firm fingers pulled her arms behind her and Zara moaned at how good the stretch felt on her muscles when he did that.
“You’re far too tight here, Zara,” Virat added, his fingers weaving magic on the tight knots in her shoulders.
“Hmm...” Zara said, with a smile. It felt as if her heart was bursting with a feverish, giddy joy.
Gathering her against him, Virat crushed her mouth with his. Zara could feel his heart thumping against her. Could feel the faint outline of his arousal teasing against her belly. The strength of his powerfully corded thighs anchoring hers as she trembled at the onslaught of pleasure. Hard and warm, he was exactly what she wanted right now. “Come to bed with me,shahzadi,” he whispered in her ear. “I’ll give you an apology for barking at you in front of everyone, at least three orgasms before the day is out and a little direction as to why you and Bhai are botching that scene.”
“No wonder they call you a hard taskmaster.”
“Well, I do have a lot of items on the agenda I want to do with you,” he added with a wicked grin.
Zara followed him when he tugged her, feeling as if she’d follow this man anywhere. If living in the moment meant pushing away the clamor of questions she had for him and take everything he was willing to give her right now, then she was going to do it.
She was going to take the biggest risk of her life if that meant the man she’d always wanted would be hers, even if only temporarily.
CHAPTER NINE
IFVIRATTHOUGHTthe intimacy of spending two entire days with Zara would somehow descend into awkwardness, he’d have been completely wrong. If he’d thought drowning himself in her company and her body and her wit and laughter would somehow get her out of his system, then he’d have failed utterly.
But since all he’d wanted was to indulge himself very thoroughly with a woman he was finding increasingly irresistible on more than one level, he’d succeeded.
As long as Zara and he kept the past where it belonged, as long as he could quiet the resentful niggle that she’d chosen him this time around because now he was successful and powerful and independently wealthy, the easy connection they’d once shared came kicking back into life.
He suited her this time around. That was the only explanation he had for how effortlessly they’d found the camaraderie and connection that had once sparked so easily between them.
The off day he’d forced the both of them to take had been one of his better ideas. Zara had fallen asleep even before he had, and the warmth of her body next to his—the woman he hadn’t stopped wanting for ten long years—had knocked him into a dreamless slumber.
And then to wake up and find those silky limbs tangled all around him...it had been even more deliciously decadent than he’d imagined. Just the memory of how hard and fast they’d gone at each other sent a shiver through his muscles. Of how equally fierce her own need had been for him would forever be etched into his brain.
He smiled at the thought now, as Zara and he lazed on a sofa in her suite. She was stretched out along its length, with her feet in his lap while she went over her lines for the final scene they were going to start shooting tomorrow.
One more week and the shoot would be wrapped up. He would begin postproduction work with his team and Zara would go back to Mumbai and start whatever other job she had lined up next.
As he sat there with his head thrown back and thinking of all that was waiting for him as soon as this small interlude was over, Virat felt a strange sense of peace that had been missing for some time now. Was it because he had been avoiding any deep connections—whether romantically or otherwise—for so long?
Or was it simply because for ten years he’d worked round the clock and he’d been in a rut? The docuseries and the biopic were the most important projects he’d ever tackled, and yet, he couldn’t lie to himself that it was seeing Zara, teasing and taunting her, having her to himself that had got his blood pumping these past few weeks.
The idea of walking away from this, from her, and going back to his old life held no appeal. And yet, there was no future for them together. Not with a woman he could never fully trust.
It was the very finiteness of this thing between them, he was sure, that made it so powerfully raw at the moment.
“You have a very serious look about you right now,” Zara said softly, her face hidden behind the script pages.
Virat tensed. Zara had a way of seeing through to his innermost thoughts that he found more than a little uncomfortable. “I’m going to leave a little earlier than planned once the shoot wraps up,” he blurted out, surprising even himself.
She didn’t lower the pages. Her feet stilled in his hands. “Okay.” After a beat of silence, she said, “I have a long stretch of vacation after we wrap this up. I’ve been pushing myself too much recently. If you let me know what your schedule looks like, I’ll come see you. As and when you’re available.”
“Look at me, Zara,” he demanded.
She lowered the papers with a sigh. The rust-colored sleeveless blouse she wore brought out the warm golden tones of her skin. Her hair was a silky mess since he had plunged his fingers and messed it up when she’d walked out of her shower wrapped in a white towel that he’d unwrapped as if she was his very own present.
