“I’d love to.”
Intrigued and salacious eyes burn a hole into my bare back, making me wish I didn’t wear such a daring dress. The attention of these cunning men is unnerving.
At the bar, Rithvik holds my hand as I cautiously sit on the tall barstool and cross my legs, which causes the hem to ride up my thighs. I put my string purse on my lap and avoid adjusting my position.
“What would you like?” Rithvik asks, standing closely. For which I’m grateful.
“A raspberry daiquiri, please.”
Waving at the bartender, Rithvik tells him my drink while ordering a gin and tonic for himself. Then he sits down gracefully next to me, our knees brushing.
My body doesn’t react.
At all.
Not even a little zing.
It feels like I’m dead inside.
Rithvik, who’s a picture-perfect man, soft-spoken, and genuinely interested in me. Yet I can’t muster any attraction toward him.
Had I never met Nathan, Rithvik would be the type of man I’d obsess over.
I hate Nathan for altering my brain chemistry and making me pine for bad boys with steel gray eyes, a savior complex, cocky attitude, and dominance in their bones.
Oh, add emotionally unavailable.
The bartender serves our drinks at lightning speed. Leaning closer, Rithvik raises his glass with a goofy grin, saying, “Let’s cheer to Anaya for bringing us together again and to a lovely night.”
Chuckling, I lift my flute and I’m about to clink mine against his when I feel time slow down and the temperature in the room drop.
The small hairs on the back of my neck rise at the intoxicating scent of man and storm that still lingers in every corner of my apartment.
Nathan.
What the hell is he doing here?
My hand trembles when his body heat seeps into mine.
“Having a little date, are we?” Nathan speaks in a deceptively calm voice. It drops an octave when he possessively claims, “Too bad you’re with the wrong woman.”
Chapter Forty-One
Nathan
An electric shiver ripple down Arya’s naked back, left tantalizingly on display for every single man to leer and imagine running their fingers down it.
Sliding my arm underneath hers on the bar, I shift behind her, so she’s hidden from view, but I don’t press against my chest flush against hers.
If I touch Arya right now, I will scorch the entire building to the ground.
It had taken an act of God not to do it the second I saw her entering the club on his arms on the live feed in Kian’s office. I was exiting the room when I caught a flash of her dark brown hair and had to do a double take because I couldn’t believe my eyes.
I had screeched to a halt realizing I wasn’t hallucinating.
Arya was here.
With a man.
