Page 64 of Every Move You Make
She yanked his hand away, her eyes blazing. “I. Don’t. Care.”
He caught her chin again and angled her gaze toward a far corner. “Look,” he said. “Vir and Dheer. Her brothers.”
She followed his line of sight despite herself. Two men stood near the bar, still deep in conversation with a few others. One was unmistakably Vir. The other was Dheer Malhotra. She knew him. He was Raashi’s friend too.
The brothers shook hands with whoever they were talking to and left.
“I had to tell them about their grandfather, about how he’d put me in this position, and about you,” Akash explained. “What you saw meant nothing. Amara was simply concerned about me. She’s a friend, Shauna. Only that.”
Her anger deflated in a rush. And instantly, she hated herself for feeling relieved. Still, she couldn’t deny that her chest felt lighter.
Fuck. She’d sworn a long time ago that she wouldn’t care what Akash Karia did. But how could she not when she was considering marrying him? When he was going to beherhusband for five years?
She turned back to him, her jaw tightening, anger reigniting. God, she was an idiot. She couldn’t allow him to matter again.
“Ok, you’ve made your point,” she snapped. “Now move.”
“No,” Akash said quietly.
“What do you want from me?”
“I want you to stop pretending that this—you and I—don’t matter,” he shot back.
“You and I mean nothing to each another.”
“Really?” he said, stepping closer, his voice low. “Because a minute ago, you thought I’d betrayed you.”
“No,” she said fiercely.
His gaze dropped to her mouth, then lifted again, his eyes dark. “Then why are you shaking?”
She hated that he noticed. Hated that he was right.
“Because I’m an idiot,” she said, losing the battle with herself. “Because I feel too much for you when you’re the last man I ought to feel anything for.”
Something raw crossed his face. “You think this is easy for me?” He let out a harsh breath. “You and I are constantly at war, and yet I can’t, for the life of me, resist you. I’m standing here trying not to touch you when every instinct I have is screaming at me to pull you closer.”
His words unlocked something primitive inside her. She studied him carefully. Dressed in blue denims and a white shirt, his hair ruffled and the shadow of stubble darkening his jaw, he looked hot as hell.
Mine. A wild, irrational voice inside her screamed.He was hers, finally, for the entire duration of their marriage. And she wanted him more than she’d ever wanted another man. He was right. She wanted more from this marriage too. She wanted him, his body, his hands on her skin, and all the feelings only he ever invoked in her. She’d fought this for too long and buried everything she felt for him for years beneath scathing remarks and carefully constructed indifference. And now she was done fighting.
She was going to let go of the past and take a chance on this marriage. On him.
Rising on her toes, she pulled his head down and slammed her mouth against his. For a moment he froze. Then something snapped. His mouth claimed hers in return, harder than it had that morning. More fierce and completely unrestrained. He backed her into the wall, one hand braced beside her head, the other at her waist. Her world narrowed to heat and want and the man invoking all that inside her. Everything else disappeared.
Her hands slid into his hair, gripping, holding him there as she let herself fall into him. She explored his mouth, letting his taste to sink into her.
God. She wanted him. She wanted to lose herself in him. In this need that was consuming every inch of her.
“What. The. Fuck.”
A voice cut through the haze.
She pulled back, but Akash didn’t. He followed her retreat, his mouth brushing hers again, unwilling, uncaring, as if the rest of the world no longer existed for him either. She melted back into him, letting the heat and urgency swallow her whole.
“Oh my God.”
That second voice finally pierced through.
