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He dragged a hand over his face. “Let me show you something.”
She wanted to continue challenging him. Instead she asked, “Now?”
He glanced down at her transparent shift and his own nakedness, a reluctant smile creasing his face. “Once we’re dressed.”
It took everything she had not to gawp at his tight ass and corded thighs, his back muscles that flexed and shifted lightly with each stride as she followed him into the shared walk-in closet.
She had to swallow her disappointment when he pulled on casual jeans and a gray polo shirt. She picked out white cuffed pants, an emerald green t-shirt with appliqued anchor, and simple canvas shoes with an inbuilt, squishy memory foam that pillowed her feet.
She’d gotten used to the stipend her father had sent her and had grown accustomed to cheap bargain clothes. What she wore now might be casual wear but there was nothing casual in the expensive fabrics and expert stitching.
Though there were also drawers full of jewelry she ignored them and instead secured her hair into a topknot, leaving her neck and ears bare.
“Coffee before we go?” her husband asked.
“Yes, please.”
She followed him into the kitchen, and he added, “I should have installed a coffee machine. But on the rare occasions I actually stay here, I figured it wasn’t a big deal to have instant.”
“I don’t mind instant,” she conceded. “I’m used to the taste. And I found it made my few outings to the coffee shops in England extra special.”
His shoulders tightened a little as he flicked on the kettle and grabbed some mugs. “You appeared to have a tight group of friends there.”
“I did,” she conceded. “I wonder what they must think now that I’ve disappeared off the face of the Earth.”
“They will no doubt imagine the worst.”
“My departurewasrather abrupt.”
“Your father isn’t known for his…sensitivity,” Mahindar conceded. He spooned coffee into the mugs and asked, “Do you miss your friends?”
“Of course.” She sat into a high-backed stool that was a clone to three others pushed under the overhang of a dark-swirled marble island countertop. “They’ve probably started their careers now. Kiki had an offer for her journalism degree and I was contemplating an editing and acquisitions role in a major publishing house.”
The kettle boiled and clicked off and silence filled the void before her husband asked softly, “You had your future all set out in front of you.”
She nodded. “I did.”
His gaze didn’t move from her. “Do you think, one day, you might be happy with your new future?’
She blinked and sighed. “I honestly don’t know.”
He poured the boiled water into their mugs then added in a little milk and sugar as he stirred. “I regret that I took away your dream.”
“Me too,” she said in a small voice. “When I left Lumana and my family behind to live in a whole new country with a whole new language I was scared to death. But I soon adapted. I studied hard to learn English and I soon fell in love with the language and the written word. I knew soon after I wanted to be a part of that.”
“And now?”
“And now…nothing. It is a useless skill here.”
His jaw clenched a little. “You have talent. There is no need for you to waste it.”
She accepted her drink and took a big mouthful. “It’s a little late for that.”
“It’s never too late to pursue a passion.” Mahindar watched her closely then as he, too, drank his coffee. “What of your friend, Scott?”
She shrugged, but the atmosphere was suddenly tense. Mahindar no doubt assumed Scott was the man she left behind and who still had her heart. That she loved no man wasn’t up for discussion. She’d have to live with her lie. “I have no doubt he’ll go on and help run his dad’s publishing house. He was groomed for that role whether he liked it or not.”
She bit her bottom lip. She was such a hypocrite accusing her husband of lying when she’d done the same herself by pretending to love someone in England.
