“His fans would disagree,” Tani said automatically, a pulsing pain beginning in her head. “Jay, listen-“
“Fans.” Jay spat the word. “All he’s got are the groupies he fucks like a bunny on steroids.”
Tani blinked. “Alright. Can we just get back on track? I need to talk to you.”
“And I need to talk to you.” Jay crossed his hands over his chest. “Tani, you need to know. This behaviour will not be acceptable after we’re married. It has to stop.”
“This behaviour?” she repeated slowly, her mind slowly churning over his words and the shift in his tone.
“Yes, I’ve tolerated your relationship with this guy until now. But I won’t anymore. I’m putting my foot down. He’s a bad influence. You can have nothing to do with him ever again. I don’t even want to hear his name mentioned in my house.”
“No man, not even me, should be telling you how to live your life, or whom to have in it.”
Her father’s words echoed in her head as she stared at the man she was supposed to marry in two days.
“Did you hear me?” he asked, his voice hard and his eyes cold. “I am putting my foot down.”
“Well,” she said, her brain fog falling away as she looked at him. “You’re going to have to pick it up and put it down somewhere else.”
Jay went white with fury. “Have you lost your mind?”
“I kissed him.” A strange calm descended over her as she spoke her truth, the confusion and anguish of the past few months dropping away.
“I kissed Kabir.”
CHAPTER 31
KABIR
He sat aloneon the back porch, elbows on his knees, staring out at the endless sweep of vineyards stretching toward the horizon. The morning light bled onto the rows of grapevines, painting everything in soft gold, beautiful, peaceful, utterly at odds with the chaos roaring inside him.
His phone wouldn’t stop buzzing.
Message after message came through from the band with questions about the set list, lighting cues, tweaks for the performance two days from now. Mumbai and the rest of his life were calling him back with relentless urgency, tugging at him from all sides.
He should go. He should have already left.
He had a thousand fires to put out; parents to make plans with, lawyers to discuss paperwork with, decisions to make that would alter the course of a child’s life and his own. And the biggest hellstorm of all, he’d have to loop his manager, Varsha, in. God. She would handle everything like a general marching into battle, but not before giving him a tongue lashing that would last him through five reincarnations.
And then there was his sister. Cousin, technically. But in his heart, in every place that mattered, she was his sister already. Family…he had more family, biological family. And meeting her felt like standing at the mouth of a dark tunnel with no map, no light, and no idea if he’d make it out alive. A bead of sweat slid down his temple.
What the fuck did he know about being anyone’s guardian?
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Could he kidnap his mother and force her to live with him? Should he move back to India so there’d be family, support, hands to catch the pieces when he inevitably dropped them?
His thoughts spun faster, a carousel gone mad. No beginning, no end, just frantic circles that had his throat tightening.
And cutting through all of the madness, threading through every panicked spiral, wasthe kiss.
That impossible, devastating kiss. Tani’s hands in his hair. Her mouth on his. The heat of her body pressed against him like she’d never stopped being his. Like she’d never wanted to be anything but his.
And now she was behind a shut door with another man. He shut his eyes, breath shallow.
