He could still feel her lips, still taste the heartbreak on her tongue, still hear the raw sound she’d made when she pulled him down to her.
And, God help him, he could still feel what had shattered inside him when she tore away from him. He dragged a hand over his face, fingers trembling. What the hell was he doing? What the hell was he supposed to do? Was he really going to stand by while she married another man?
His life was folding in on itself, collapsing under weight he wasn’t built to carry. And layered over every responsibility, every impossible decision, every reason to leave…Was the one reason he wanted to stay.
Her.
He couldn’t do this. He needed to tell Tani everything. They would figure it out, all of it, together. He got up from the chair, the legs screeching against the tiled floor and strode into the house, heading straight for the living room. Thankfully, he didn’t run into anyone. After the morning’s drama, everyone had retreated to their respective rooms to lick their wounds and prepare for round two of their family wars.
He reached the hall and his hand went to the door handle, clenching around the cool metal as he pulled it open a crack.
“It doesn’t matter,” Jay was saying, his voice floating clearly through the tiny crack of space. “I don’t care.”
“You don’t care?” Tani repeated. “I’m telling you that I kissed another man. I kissed Kabir.”
Yes, she had, Kabir thought with satisfaction. She’d told him. So that meant that she was calling off the wedding, right? RIGHT?
“Hmm.” Jay didn’t sound perturbed. “And did it work? Did you get him out of your system?”
Kabir froze. Get him out of her system? Was that what that had been? Had she? Like hell she had…she hadn’t, right?
“Jay.” Tani sounded exasperated. “I need you to listen to what I’m saying. Not just hear it.Listento it. I can’t marry you. I won’t marry you.”
“Why?”
“Why???” Tani’s disbelieving squawk echoed Kabir’s thoughts. “Because I kissed Kabir. I cheated on you.”
“Calling it cheating is a bit much for what you did. Like I told you I don’t care. I forgive you,” Jay said grandly.
Kabir frowned. That was it? No emotion about his fiancée kissing someone else? No anger, no jealousy, no hurt?
“I didn’t ask for your forgiveness,” Tani said quietly, emotion thrumming under her voice. “I’m calling this wedding off, Jay. We’re not getting married.”
“For that mongrel from the chawls?” Jay sneered, the emotion finally rising to the fore . “Slumming, are we?”
“Careful.” Tani’s voice was calm, too calm. Kabir knew that it was the calm that came before a Tani shaped grenade exploded.
“Careful?” Jay scoffed, clearly not seeing the danger that lay ahead. “You’re the one groping the help and I’m supposed to be careful.”
Tani said nothing to that, her silence brittle with tension. Kabir was about to push the door open and walk in when Jay added, “If I’d known you were this easy, I wouldn’t have put in all that extra effort to get you.”
Kabir’s hand stilled on the door.
“Extra effort?” Tani’s confused voice reached him. “What extra effort?”
“Are you really that dumb? You didn’t wake up the next day feeling like you had the world’s worst hangover?”
A dull roaring filled Kabir’s ears, Tani’s horrified whisper reaching him through it. “You drugged me that night?”
Jay laughed. “It worked, didn’t it? The ice cold bitch thawed long enough to get engaged to me.” Another bitter laugh echoed. “I never really wanted you. I wanted what came with you, the money, the power, the connections. A little something in your drink to get you there was nothing but an inducement to get you to see straight, an investment into our shared future.”
“Oh my God,” Tani’s voice was a whisper of sound. “You bastard!”
Kabir pushed the door open, widening the rack a bit more, his entire body tensing for what was coming.
“You’ve kept me at arm’s length this whole relationship,” Jay snarled, pacing in front of her like a predator that had finally decided to stop pretending it was tame. “Acting all coy and principled, refusing to let us get too intimate.”
Tani’s spine stiffened and she looked away. He mistook that for submission.
