AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The worry in her tone forestalled his instinctive response. “We will talk about terms and conditions for this new game, then. So that we can ensure both of us get what we desperately want out of this new...adventure.”
“I want nothing from you,” she retorted defensively and then blushed. Protesting much?
“One evening in my company and you might be ready to revise that declaration, Zara. In fact, if I remember right, there was one particularly delightful evening ten years ago when we were supposed to sneak into one of Vikram’s launch parties so that he would notice you and instead we—”
Her palm landed on his mouth and their gazes held. An electric current arced between them, every bit as powerful and intense as it had been ten years ago. “If you think I’ve forgotten even one second of the things we did, then you have me all wrong, Virat. But this...this is about something more than you and me.
“Something that’s bigger than our petty differences and ego wars.”
“Petty differences,shahzadi? We will see about that.”
Virat wrapped his fingers around her wrist and gently pulled her away from the wall. Her skin was so utterly soft against his calloused hands. “Lead the way,” he said, finally breaking eye contact and releasing a long breath.
She nodded and they turned toward the stage as one.
He didn’t remove his arm from around her waist and she didn’t put any distance between their brushing bodies. They walked down the red carpet to the dais, their strides in rhythm as if they’d done this a thousand times before. As if they shared an intimacy that the world knew nothing about.
As if they knew each other inside out, better than anyone else.
A long time ago, he’d foolishly assumed that they did. With one move, Zara had proved to him that he didn’t know her at all. That she wasn’t the woman he’d thought her. And yet, this evening, something new had already begun. Something that was beyond both of them. Something that his entire body was primed for.
Zara and he had circled each other for ten years in the same industry, never coming too close. Never working on a project together, until with the biopic now. Never engaging with each other. There had been nothing to say or do while rumors of her continued entanglement with his brother abounded.
Now this, a fake romance, and the next few weeks of being together on the set of the biopic filming the final scenes meant the past was surely going to repeat itself.
He hadn’t missed the flicker of interest she’d fought to hide from her eyes. He didn’t lie to himself over his own interest in her. But this time, he reassured himself as they climbed the steps to the stage amid roaring applause, the ending of their relationship would be different. This time, he would make sure he was the one that walked away.
CHAPTER TWO
THEEVENINGTURNEDout to be a fantastic success—in terms of getting the man with a notorious reputation for not playing by the rules to cooperate with her and agree to behave as Zara’s man of the hour.
As the evening came to an end, Zara signaled to Naina that she was free to leave. The last thing she wanted was to appease the curiosity shining in Naina’s eyes when she and Virat still had to discuss “terms and conditions,” as he’d put it. When the media was out in full force, hungry for the details of what they had teased out tonight.
Now it was time for their own personal showdown, to find out what the devil would demand as his due. Zara braced herself for it. She wasn’t naive enough to think Virat’s compliance as her boy toy for the near future would come without a very high price...
Her clutch in hand, Zara walked through the coffee lounge hidden behind a colorful, paneled wall on the hotel’s ground floor. The pub was a well-kept secret, especially when one wanted to hide from the media.
Dark marble floor, handcrafted accents and clusters of low lighting gave the bar a retro, fun atmosphere. Virat sat at one of the high barstools around a table in a dimly lit corner. His discarded jacket was draped on the other barstool, his shirt still casually unbuttoned, a glass of Old Monk rum in a tumbler by his hand. His hair, piled high in a stylish haircut to accentuate those blade-like cheekbones, was mussed up.
As always, he had a tablet in front of him that he studied with that laser focus of his. Even in the quiet atmosphere of the bar, his restless energy dominated the space.
“Are you going to stand there and watch me all night,shahzadi?” came his deep voice in a husky murmur, his head still bent over the screen in front of him.
The endearment hit Zara low in the belly, and then moved up through her body, lodging painfully in her chest. Once upon a time, she’d loved it when he’d teased her like that. And if she was honest, there was a part of her that still liked it. A bit too much.
Except there wasn’t that sweet indulgence in his voice anymore, and she wasn’t a naive, gauche girl with stars in her eyes.
“Come closer. I won’t bite. Unless you want me to.”
Zara remained still, letting the longing pass through her. She’d had enough practice, having watched him afar for more than a decade. Having watched him go through woman after woman. He’d earned the reputation of being a brilliant director and an utter womanizer, both justly deserved.
“That endearment didn’t make sense ten years ago,” she said, covering the distance between them. “Given my lowly background, I’ve always been the farthest thing from a princess.”
He still didn’t look up when she arrived at the table, and the casual arrogance in the gesture stole her breath. “I’m used to thinking of you as a princess in training,shahzadi. Bad habits, as you know, are hard to shake.”
“Was I a bad habit, then?” she fired back, before she could curb the self-indulgence. At least she sounded challenging, full of that verve she portrayed on-screen. At least she hadn’t betrayed how much his opinion of her still mattered.
“Oh, the worst kind,shahzadi,” he said, finally looking up. Cool brown eyes held hers, full of mockery and something more. Only a second’s attention on her, then he flipped over another page on the device with his finger. “If one isn’t careful, one could slide headlong back in...again and again.”
