She nodded now, biting her lower lip to stay focused. His eyes turned molten, the same heat in her body seeming to swarm through them.
“Then,” he whispered, his voice tight with a pain neither of them would ever voice. “Do you remember getting engaged last night, Bug?”
---***---
“Engaged?”
She stared at him, her eyes huge and stunned. Something moved in Kabir’s chest, something that should never have existed.
“What do you mean engaged?” she yelped, holding the comforter close to her chest like it was going to protect her from the news.
Kabir glanced down to the hand clutching the comforter. Tanisha’s eyes followed, widening when she caught sight of the massive diamond sparkling on her ring finger.
“What the actual fuck?” she breathed, horror suffusing her face.
Kabir’s lips quirked up in a small smile at her reaction. There was no denying that it brought him some measure of joy to know that she shared his horror at the idea of her marrying Jay.
“Bug, let’s get you checked out okay?” Kabir said softly.
“I’m not an idiot, Kabs,” she said, still staring at the ring. “I would never do drugs. I barely even drink.” That was said with a pointed stare in his direction.
“Is it possible that he slipped something in your drink?”
Temper sparked in those beautiful eyes of her, the colour of warm, molten honey. “You can’t be serious?” Tanisha dropped the comforter and shoved out of the bed. Kabir’s gaze dropped to the long, slim legs visible beneath her nightshirt. He swallowed hard and looked away. He really needed to get a grip. Taking a deep breath, he stepped away from the bed, standing closer to the door, putting as much space between them as was possible in the small bedroom.
“I am serious,” he said, scrubbing a hand through his hair and struggling not to look at her.
“I know you don’t like Jay,” Tanisha raged in her corner of the room. “But to suggest that my fiancé drugged me-“
“So, he’s your fiancé now?” Something bitter and ripe turned in his stomach as he heard her use the word.
In response, Tanisha lifted her hand, the diamond winking in the lights of her bedroom.
“You can’t marry him, Tani.”
Her eyebrows shot up, her smudged eyeliner giving her raccoon eyes. Angry raccoon eyes.
“Oh, I can’t?”
She walked over to where he stood, forcing him to take a step back to keep some distance between them. But Tani keptcoming. When his back hit the wall, Kabir was forced to stop. She stopped right in front of him.
He took a deep breath, the soft, sweet scent of her hitting him right in the heart. “What are you doing Tani?” he rasped.
“Why can’t I marry Jay, Kabs?” she asked, her voice soft but lethal.
“He’s an idiot.”
“Maybe I like idiots.” He looked down at her to see her eyeing him challengingly.
He wanted to shake her, to force some common sense into her. “Or maybe you are an idiot.”
“Well then, we’d be perfectly matched,” she declared, grinning up at him. “Maybe that’s what makes him my soulmate.”
She turned away from him but not before he caught the angry glitter of tears in her eyes.
“Tan-“
“You should go, Kabs,” she said now. “You’ve checked on me, reported back to the mothers, and waited patiently till I slept off this weird ass champagne hangover. All your big brother duties have been performed perfectly. You’ve done your bit. Now, you can leave.”
