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“Not tonight,” Aaryan’s lips tipped. “But I have a feeling that one day soon, you will learn my name. Take care.”
Nodding, she climbed out of the vehicle. Rajiv gave Aaryan a nod, and he took off. His own car was already waiting below her building. He’d just see to it that she was fine, and then he’d leave. He wouldn’t leave her until he was convinced that she was alright.
He followed Sheena as she unlocked the door to her apartment and stepped inside, switching on the lights. She stepped out of her heels and removed his jacket from her shoulders.
“Thank you for getting me out of there.” Her expression was sad, weary.
She handed him his jacket. Taking it from her, he dropped it on the armchair.
“Are you okay?” he asked, moving closer to her.
She sighed. “I’m fine.”
“It’s okay to not be okay, you know,” he said gently. “You don’t have to be so brave all the time.”
“I think you should go now.” The curtness of her response surprised him. She looked visibly upset; she sounded even more so.
“Hey, talk to me,” he said. “You’ve been through a lot tonight.”
He leaned forward to touch her face, and she backed a step.
“Don’t,” she said. “I don’t want your pity or your sympathy.”
He narrowed his eyes. “What’s going on, Princess?”
“Stop. Just stop pretending you care about me. Stop making me feel that I am important to you when that’s not the case. You and I had been circling one another for days, and just when we got close, you up and disappeared. I told you what I’m starting to feel about you, and instead of talking to me about it, you left. Then you didn’t communicate with me for a month. A whole Goddamn month. God. I’m a first-class idiot.” She pointed a finger at him. “I keep thinking that there is something between us, only for you to shoot it down. Even there, on the yacht, you had already told them I was your girlfriend. You just made out with me to cement that fact. It’s not that you really wanted me… Whereas, I, like a fool, thought that it was something special, again. That maybe you’d missed me and come to realize that you felt something for me, too. How stupid of me. So, take your pity and sympathy and shove it somewhere, and never touch me again.”
Seeing her anger, and hearing the despair in her voice shook him to his core. She thought he didn’t care, when he actually cared too much. There was so much he felt for her and so much he couldn’t tell her. But he could give her something to clear her misconception and to wipe out the pain from her eyes because he hated that she was hurting because of him.
He took a step closer. “Tonight, when Ananya called me and I learned you were also caught in that situation, my heart literally shrivelled. I couldn’t breathe for a whole minute. Those men had Navya as well, and I was petrified for her, but I knew in my gut they wouldn’t hurt her because they wanted something from me. It is their modus operandi to make bargains that suit them. That’s why they’d kept her. But you…” He took another step closer, anger filling his movements. Finally, he let out all that fear and worry he’d been feeling ever since he’d heard that the Oshnovs had Sheena. She must have seen his thunderous expression because she backed a step. He followed her, taking one step forward. She took a step backward. Until her back hit the wall and there was no place for her to go.
His emotions were all over the place. He continued, “I didn’t know what they wanted from you. The only thing that made sense was that they’d kept you in order to bargain for some huge favor from your brother. But I wasn’t going to wait for Kabier to be located and then for him to come and bargain with them for your release. I refused to leave you alone with those men.” He leaned toward her. “I told them you were my girlfriend to protect you so that they’d let me negotiate on your behalf as well.”
Her eyes flashed. “And I already thanked you for that. Now that we have that cleared, you can leave.”
She took a step to the side, but he slammed both his hands on the wall behind her head, trapping her.
“I haven’t finished talking, Princess.”
Her jaw lifted. “Then talk from a distance.”
“I’m perfectly fine talking from right here.” When she opened her mouth to retaliate, he pressed a finger to her lips. “One more word from you, and it will be my mouth silencing you. Go on, try me.”
Her eyes popped. Her breath hitched. She gulped, but thankfully kept silent. He was very close to losing control. She was not the only one who had been to hell and back. He’d barely restrained himself in front of those men. He’d nearly had a heart attack knowing she was in danger, and her giving him attitude would snap his meager hold on his mind.
“Those men released Navya before I got to you. She was not in any danger,” he said. “Like you heard, I already had them by the balls because I was holding their precious cargo hostage across the world on my ships and in my shipping yards. I didn’t need to negotiate with them. I didn’t need to agree to any of their demands. But I did it foryou.”
She gasped. He moved a step closer to her, wiping the distance between them. Her hands flattened on the wall behind her as if she was resisting touching him.
“The thing is, Princess, if I hadn’t claimed you as mine, I’d have to leave you with them, and that was unacceptable. If I’d laid my cards out earlier and hadn’t agreed to negotiate with them, then those men would have considered that you were not really important to me. That I cheated them of an opportunity to gain a favor from your brother. Knowing them, they could have come after you again. I wasn’t willing to take that risk. Not on my fucking life. I couldn’t and wouldn’t compromise your safety and security for even a single minute, and hence, I agreed to their demands. I’m going to lose millions of dollars of fucking hard-earned money, just foryouto be safe.”
Her throat bobbed as the reality of what he’d said hit her brain.
He lowered his cheek, touching it to hers, breathing her in. Allowing her scent to calm him. “So,never,not for one fucking minute, think that I don’t care about you.”
She licked her lips as if digesting his words. Suddenly, she leaned forward and pecked his cheek. Now, it was him who lost a breath.
“Then why won’t you accept what you feel for me?” She held his face in her hands. “Every time things gain momentum between us, you make me feel like it wasn’t important. That it wasn’t real. That what happened between us doesn’t mean anything. You hurt me every time you do that.”
