You Can't Fight a Royal Attraction (20 page)

They began to walk again, hands moving to clasp together. They reached the stall. Rihaan chatted with the man and bought her
bhel.
They went to sit on the rocks to munch the spiced rice crispies.

She remembered he’d finished and published his novel. ‘Congrats on the rave reviews,’ she said.

‘Thanks. Did you read it?’

‘I did.’ Two lines. Just those two lines had made her miss him so much and cry buckets so she had put it under the mattress.

‘Liar,’ he said softly. ‘You didn’t. I know, because if you had you wouldn’t have stayed away.’ His voice became low, a rough edge giving away the depth of his feelings, ‘Every line of it, the whole character is steeped in the feeling I have for you. I get the reviews and I want to tell them it’s not talent, it’s cheating. It wasn’t imagination, just what I’ve felt for you.’

‘I inspired you that much? Is that why you want me
back?’ she teased because her pounding heart would burst otherwise.

‘It’s being made into a movie and I’m doing the screenplay. I kinda could use the inspiration,’ he teased back.

He added, ‘I got so carried away in telling my feelings through the book. Expressing them made me realise I was going to be hopeless in forgetting you. But the rejection was hard to swallow. I knew I had to tell you, but…’

‘Yes, but.’ She looked away. ‘Buts are so bad, aren’t they?’

‘Maybe not all bad,’ he said unexpectedly. ‘You needed this. You needed to refuse me and chart out your own course.’ And the words, the way he said them, made her look at him because it was as though… as though he understood.

‘Yes, I needed this. To find myself. I’m not sure I have, but at least now I know… I’m worth loving in some small amount. Oh sheesh! That sounds so miserable.’ She shook her head, placing her fingers on her temples.

‘Saira! You don’t really believe—’

‘I know, I know—’ she threw up her hands ‘—I shouldn’t talk this sort of silliness.’

He drew her hand through his arm. ‘At the risk of offending you by implying that anything you say can be silly, I’d like to tell you that you can talk any sort of silliness with me.’

She squeezed the hard biceps under her palm. ‘I need to talk it out anyway. After the way I left… I knew deep down I didn’t mean to leave you. Over time, I thought a lot about that.’ She chewed her lip then began to speak again, ‘You know Vishakha and I are stepsisters. Her mom married my papa when I was just five. I never knew my real mom. She just upped and left one day. I never cared because Mom, Vishakha’s mother, has been everything a mother can be for me. More even.’

She looked down at her hands. ‘But when you’re growing up, sometimes, like unconsciously, you know, the thought creeps up. Why did she leave? I have only one memory of my birth mom when she’s playing peekaboo with me. I don’t know if it’s real or I just made it up to think she loved me.’ She shook her head. ‘It was so silly to think of her. But a child has strange ways of hanging onto a memory. I think all my life I tried to garner attention because of that. I did things which earned me the admiration of kids at school because no one else dared to do them. I got plenty of attention but underneath was this scared girl who never grew up, who knew she didn’t deserve love because her mom left her, didn’t she?’ Her voice broke a little, but the words wouldn’t be stemmed. ‘Then Munish came into my life. During the whole of that marriage, there wasn’t any equality, you know. I tried to please him and make him love me. Tried so hard. But it was all on my side. Till I knew I didn’t need that kind of love. I needed more. I think I took the first step of liberating myself then. Even after the divorce, I kept telling myself he loved me in his own way. That was holding me back. I was just afraid to face up to the truth… that it wasn’t love at all. But then I met you and knew… got a glimpse of what love could be. It was you, Rihaan, your love which gave me strength. Strength to find myself. Strength to do what I wanted to do, to do the work that gave meaning to my life… and to me. Is that cheesy? All I know is that it’s true.’ She paused, taking a deep breath, but she hadn’t finished. ‘I think, through all this, the memory of your loving was holding me together. But I couldn’t come to you. Because I didn’t feel I was worth that love.’

He smoothed the hair from her face, letting the touch linger in a caress.

‘Then you were wrong there. When you went away, I swore I wouldn’t try to even see you again. That was hurt
pride. But my heart took over. Seems it knew better. And knew it with a strength that had me bending to its will. I knew I would see you again. I had to.’ His arm came around her. ‘Trust me, you’re worth it. And more.’ His voice warmed her through and through. He took her hand and kissed it. ‘Much more.’

‘How much more?’ she asked, breathless at the small contact.

‘A lot.’

‘Great, because I’m a greedy woman. Really hard to please.’ Her voice caught as emotion became too much.

‘Maybe I’d better start early then,’ he whispered against her skin.

He leaned closer. His mouth found hers and she sighed, surrendering to the sensations raging through her. The wretchedness, the desperation mingled with the wanting streaming through her as she gave in to the need to feel.

They broke away to get breath. ‘We could get arrested for this,’ she warned but he wasn’t listening as he kissed her again. Feeling thudded through her, sweetness shimmering across her senses. ‘Rihaan!’ Her fingers bunched protesting into his shirt as he broke away.

‘Oh, we might be arrested,’ he teased.

‘I love you.’ A sigh left her. She had said it. Words that fairly poured out now. Without pause, without reservation. This was the man she wanted, the man who had the strength to let her be, who had the will to fight for her and himself and who most of all had the depth to understand what had driven her… She remembered his need to know her, delve into her secrets… his tenderness, his passion… knew this was love… the man who wanted her to be herself, just her and more
her
than ever.

His arms tightened around her. ‘Oh, my love.’ He sighted a policeman walking towards them and groaned, ‘You do choose your moments, don’t you? Let’s go. I don’t
plan to spend the night that I propose to you being jailed for inappropriate PDA.’

They retrieved their shoes and headed back. She giggled. ‘Maybe we should get jailed after all. It’d be something to tell our kids.’

‘Kids? You mean it?’ He paused.

‘Oh yes. I’d love having kids. It feels so right with you. Everything feels right.’

‘It
is
right,’ he told her. ‘And I’m going to do this just the right way.’ He whipped out his cell phone.

She had to wait in the lobby of his hotel for a bit. She wondered what people must think of them, yet not particularly worried. But they were smiling back at her. The bubble of happiness that enclosed her seemed to make everyone respond with a smile. He came over. ‘My apologies for the delay.’

The elevator glided them up to his floor. And then he was leading her inside.

She stopped short, a gasp of amazement leaving her. He had done it with candles and flowers. Red roses—no, there were other colours too. All colours. Peach, orange, yellow, even…
gasp
… lavender! And candles in flame-shaped glass holders. White lace curtains providing a delicate backdrop.

‘Now that the setting is right, I guess I’ll go for it.’

He took out a ring box, making her clamp a hand on her mouth. His slight fumbling with it hinted oddly of nervousness, and it made her melt a little bit more. He went down on his knee, placing a hand on his heart in the most romantic way she could think of, opening the box to show her the most beautiful diamond ring in the world.

But the romance was in his eyes, sherry depths sparkling and deep all at once. ‘Will you marry me, sweetheart?’

‘Oh Rihaan, yes!’ She fell into his arms, nearly unbalancing him.

‘Careful, there’s a camera somewhere recording all this,’ he told her.

‘What? You could have warned me! And me in my sandy dress and wild hair,’ she lamented.

‘You look beautiful. Entrancing.’

They got up. ‘I’m sorry for saying no before. I’ve been a headache, haven’t I?’ She put her arms around his neck.

‘That wasn’t a proposal. It was clubbing you on the head. Unplanned and inconsiderate. It deserved to be refused. You know what it is. Twice jilted, third time lucky.’

‘You’re misquoting horribly.’

‘I’m reinventing,’ he corrected. ‘And now allow me to say you’ve made me a happy man and kiss you. Remember it isn’t official till it’s sealed.’ He bent down to make it official.

After long satisfying moments, he broke the contact. Gazing at him starry-eyed, she sighed, her eyes dancing, ‘A royal proposal. I’m tickled!’ She added, mock regretfully, slanting him a look from under her lashes, ‘A pity about your bedroom at the palace, though. No decadent elaborate statues. So disappointing.’

‘You can redesign my bedroom.’ He caught her around the waist, drawing her up close with a jerk that made her gasp with the slight shock of it. ‘Fill it with all the kinky stuff you want to.’

‘Mmm, I can work on that,’ she said. ‘Let’s see, first thing I’m going to buy is a blindfold to work on enhancing your senses,’ she teased, covering his eyes with her hand. ‘Something like this. And this…’ With the other hand she drew out the top buttons of his shirt, slipping her hand inside.

‘Goo-ood,’ he murmured. ‘What else do you have in mind?’

‘Shall I tell you?’ she whispered, standing on tiptoes, till their lips were a breath apart.

‘Definitely. In graphic detail.’ He closed the distance and fulfilled the kiss.

Saira felt herself getting lost and surrendered to the sensations he evoked. This night was theirs and many more to come. After all the angst, finally she had the happiness she deserved. Joy spilled from her heart and filled her veins. She had waited too long for it and she was never going to let it go.

ISBN-13: 9781460383704

You Can’t Fight a Royal Attraction

Copyright © 2014 by Ruchi Vasudeva

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