PROLOGUE
MEHER
The winter sun blazed over the field, bathing us in its warmth as the final chukker ticked down. The score was tied. The crowd hushed, holding its breath as the ponies thundered across the turf, their hooves pounding like war drums.
Suddenly, he broke free. He leant low over his pony’s neck, the reins taut and his mallet poised. I rammed my Dior tortoiseshell sunglasses on the top of my head and prayed fervently under my breath as the ball skipped just ahead of him.
With a swift flick of his wrist, he swung his mallet and connected with the elusive ball, clean and sharp. The ball soared through the air and swung neatly through the goalposts. The flags flew up, and he turned to me with a triumphant grin.
My custom Valentino dress in a gorgeous sky blue georgette flapped in the wind as I threw my hands in the air and cheered my heart out, the crowd in the stands echoing my cry.
“Sammmmraaaat!”we yelled as one, as His Highness Samrat Singh Deora, prince of Deorangir, galloped across the field to join his team. They swarmed him, and for a moment, I lost sight of his broad shoulders and that thick, handsome head of hair.
The Deorangir polo team had defended their title of champions of the IPA Opens for the third year in a row, and it was all because of him.
“Close your mouth, Meher. You’re making a spectacle of yourself,” muttered my mother. “Samrat’s sister-in-law, the Maharani, is staring at you rather disapprovingly.”
I cast a quick glance in the direction of the Maharaja’s box and saw a very familiar expression on Nilanjana’s face. It was the one she wore whenever she looked at me. As if she’d bitten into a particularly sour lemon. Whatever.
“I don’t care, Ma,” I said breezily, as Samrat galloped towards the VIP enclosure.
“Why is he coming here?” asked Ma, panicking at the very thought. “This is most improper. He needs to greet the Maharani first, as per protocol.”
Fuck protocol, I thought defiantly. I was his girlfriend. Of course, Samrat was going to come tomefirst after his amazing performance. He rode past his brother’s box without a glance at his family and made straight for me.
I ignored my mother’s strictures and leaned over the edge of the box to throw my arms around Samrat’s neck. He grabbed me by the waist and lifted me out of the box and onto his horse.
“Meher! Stop that at once,” cried Ma, looking completely scandalised. “Get off his horse!”
I giggled into the crook of Samrat’s shoulder as he rode away with me.
“She is so going to kill me,” I whispered, not caring if my parents locked me up in the family dungeons at our palace in Matta, as long as Samrat was with me.
“I’ll marry you right now. She wouldn’t dare to touch my wife,” he growled, and a delicious shiver ran down my body.
His wife!Princess Meher Singh Deora.
It was all I’d ever wanted to be from the first time I set my eyes on the handsome prince of Deorangir, who had dropped in to visit my brother, Shaurya, two years ago. He was still training at the Indian Military Academy then, and had kept a polite distance from me until six months ago.
And in just six months, he had swept me off my feet in a whirlwind courtship that was one for the romance novels.
“Marry me, then,” I whispered to the button on his polo jersey.
“Don’t tempt me,” he said with a groan, as he pulled up outside the stables.
Samrat jumped off his pony and lifted me off before he set me down carefully.
I could have jumped off that pony just like him, but that would have deprived me of the pleasure of sliding down his body. I shuddered at the sensations that coursed through my body.
Just then, a stable hand approached us to take the reins of Samrat’s pony, and I took a hasty step back and waited till he’d led the pony away before I spoke.
“I’m serious. Speak to Baba Sa this week and ask for my hand, Samrat. You’re going to be posted to some godforsaken corner of the country soon, and I want to go with you,” I said.
“You’re only twenty-two, Meher!”
“And you’re twenty-five. What’s your point?” I demanded.
“You’re too young to be married,” he insisted. “You should be thinking of a career right now. Think about what you’re going to do with your time when I’m away on missions.”
