Page 10 of Every Move You Make
But he had.
He’d held her. Tasted her. Lost himself in the heat of her body and the way she surrendered to every demand he made. That memory still lived under his skin. Her touch, her breath, the way she’d felt beneath him, all of it was as vivid as the night it had happened.
Soon after that, he’d left for Dubai believing time and distance would weaken whatever spell she had over him. He’d thrown himself into work, determined to become the man Janak needed him to be. But seeing her again tonight had shattered that illusion. One look was all it took to remind him just how dangerous she was to his carefully constructed control. His jaw tightened. He’d been a fool about Shauna Sehgal once before in the past, and then again in Singapore. They had no future, and soon she’d hate him far more than she already did. And that was exactly why he needed to stay the fuck away from her.
She was Janak’s granddaughter, and Janak meant more to him than anyone else in the world. He was his mentor, his friend, and one of the few people who was truly in his corner. Always. Janak had looked after Keya and him after their own grandfather passed away when they’d been so young. He’d giventhem stability, taught them responsibility, and cared for them like his own. Keya and he were who they were thanks to the kindness of this one man, and for that reason alone, he ought to stay away from Shauna. He’d already made one mistake with her. He couldn’t afford another.
Shauna finally looked at him, and Akash felt his lips curve into a grin. No matter how hard he tried to put her behind him, she always came back, if only to spar and argue. And every time she did, it dragged him right back in, no matter how determined he was to stay away.
“What?” she hissed. “What are you smirking about?”
“I like how you keep trying to ignore me and can’t.”
Her eyes flashed. “God, you’re insufferable.”
He lifted his hands in surrender. “Sorry. Relax, okay? I promise to behave.”
She shot him a look. “You don’t know how to behave. You don’t know how to be polite or how to speak without every word having a bite to it.”
He chuckled. “Bite, huh?”
Images from that night rose instantly in his mind, memories of the way his teeth had scraped against her… He crushed those thoughts immediately.
He tilted his head. “Alright then. I promise to behave. And not to bite. Although, last I remember, you quite enjoyed mybite.”
The flush in her cheeks was worth everything.
Before he’d left for Dubai, he’d tried several times to get her to talk about that night and what had happened between them in Singapore. But Shauna had deflected every single time. Soon, she’d started keeping her distance from him, barely speaking to him and ensuring she was never alone with him.
Now, watching her grow flustered every time he hinted at that night made him wonder why exactly she’d avoided thattopic with him. For too long, he’d convinced himself that it hadn’t meant as much to her as it had to him, that he’d probably exaggerated her reactions to him in his head. But now, seeing her flushed cheeks and the way her gaze kept straying from him before sliding back to him, made him wonder if he’d been wrong.
Not that it changed anything. But it still thrilled him to know that the ice princess had actually felt something that night too.
Shauna gave him a dark look and once again rose to leave. To run.
Once again, he stopped her. “Running again.”
“Leaving, not running,” she said sharply. “There’s a difference between the two. Leaving implies I refuse to be in your presence any longer.”
He laughed. “Sure. Keep telling yourself that.”
He ought to shut up, end this conversation, and let her go, yet he couldn’t bring himself to do it. “In the last year, every time you’ve found yourself alone with me, you’ve run. Just like you didthat night.”
There. He was finally addressing that night directly, like a fool hoping she would too, hoping he’d know once and for all where he stood with her.
Her jaw dropped. She stared at him for a long moment and then said, “It wasn’t night. It was morning when I left.”
He straightened, unable to believe she was finally talking aboutthatnight. But Shauna wasn’t the type to back down from a blatant challenge, especially one issued by him.
“That’s right,” he murmured. “It was morning. I’m glad we’re finally talking about it.”
“There is nothing to talk about.”
“I beg to differ.”
“Oh, please,” she forced out. “Don’t make a big deal out of it. That night was nothing. It was a stupid mistake.”
He arched a brow. “Mistake? Funny… it didn’t feel like one to me when you were begging for more.”
