Her eyes dropped, not in submission but in distraction. Having him this close was new. Her gaze traced the line of his chest, then moved upward to his throat, lingering briefly at the slow movement of his Adam’s apple as he swallowed. Her heartbeat now thundered in her ears.
And Karan? He noticed it all.
He saw the way her gaze hovered on his lips before she finally looked back into his eyes. He thought she would answer him now. He was certain of it.
And she did. But not in the way he expected.
“Relax, Mr Wadhwa,” she said teasingly. “It was just a dinner. No one is going to steal your wife. She’s all yours.”
Something snapped inside his stone heart that very moment.
A raw desire…enough to override his restraint.
Before he could stop himself, before he could think about what this meant or what it would lead to, he leaned in and crashed his lips against hers, with an intent to silence her. To stop her from defying him every single time. In his mind, it was meant to be brief, overwhelming, a kiss meant to assert control and remind her who held the power between them. Nothing more than that. But the moment their lips met, it turned out completely different from his initial intentions.
What followed was not control but possession, born from the tension that had been simmering far too long. Plus, the dimly lit kitchen, the late hour, and the intimacy of the moment ignited something he had tried to bury.
The moment he had leaned in for the kiss, he was already aware he was not supposed to do this. That he was not supposed to cross this forbidden line with her. And yet, the moment his lips touched hers, every rule he had built for himself collapsed on its own.
Mishti, on the other hand, gasped softly at the contact. She had not expected this either. This was her first kiss. The first time any man had touched her like this, and claimed her mouth like it belonged to him alone. She did not know what she was meant to feel, or how she was meant to respond. Her body froze for a heartbeat, caught between surprise and sensation. She did not even know if she wanted to kiss him back, and if she did, then how?
But in that brief moment, everything else ceased to exist when his lips moved against hers slowly, coaxing, guiding, as if showing her what to do. And she followed instinct. Shy at first, she kissed him back. It wasn’t perfect, just soft, submissive and honest.
That single gesture of her returning his kiss should have stopped him. It should have been the moment reality crashedback into place, the moment he realised what he was taking from her.
Instead, it undid him completely. The moment she kissed him back, something feral awakened in Karan. His mouth returned to hers with greater force, deeper, harder, as though her innocence had stripped away the last of his restraint. He forgot why this was forbidden. He forgot why he should pull away.
Their lips moved as if having a language of their own. Seated on the marble counter, her body began to tremble. The need to hold him rose so suddenly that, without a conscious thought, her hands moved. Her palms slid over his chest, feeling the heat of his skin, and the strength beneath it. Instinctively, she traced every muscle she had never touched before.
The moment her hands brushed his abs, Karan inhaled sharply. He grabbed her wrists immediately, closing his fingers around them, not in anger but in desperation, before pinning them lightly against the counter. He stopped her not because he wanted distance, but because her innocent touch threatened to destroy what little control he had left.
The kitchen filled with quiet, breathless noises of their kiss turned into smooches, echoing in the stillness. The dim light cast their shadows against the wall, their bodies close, their faces moving together, the intimacy of it all magnified by the silence around them.
When he caught her lower lip between his teeth, it was not to hurt her or claim more, but to force control back into a moment that was slipping far away from him and from her. She moaned this time, and that soft sound was enough to shatter that fragile restraint and snap him fully back to reality.
Karan pulled away, breathless, creating a small distance to stop himself from going any further. He still held her wrists as if letting go might undo him again. He looked at Mishti, whowas still struggling to breathe steadily. Her lips were still parted, swollen and glistening with the trace of his kiss, still aching, still inviting for more.
He did not regret kissing her.
He regretted wanting more.
And that thought shook him like never before. He shrugged off her wrists like it burned him, before turning around and marching out.
Mishti had kept her eyes shut, afraid of what she might see if she opened them, afraid she would find regret on his face. Afraid she might regret this herself, for allowing a man who hurt her so often to take her senses away so completely, in that one moment.
But when his touch slipped away, she finally opened her eyes and watched him walk out of the kitchen without looking back. She did not fully understand why she had let him kiss her like that, or why she had responded as though she had been aching for him too. But she knew one thing with crystal clarity. Whatever happened between them tonight was going to change the dynamics between them hereon.
CHAPTER 18
Next Day
When Mishti came downstairs the next morning, she saw Abhimanyu at the breakfast table, sipping his coffee and scrolling through his phone. The moment he saw her, he immediately asked.
“Did Bhai tell you before leaving?”
Mishti shrugged. “He left for the office early?”
Abhimanyu shook his head. “Not office. He left for Dubai early this morning. For some meeting.”
