I narrow my eyes. “You’ve been looking at me for ten minutes.”
“Twelve,” he corrects, without missing a beat.
My mouth opens, then shuts. I exhale through my nose. “You’re distracting.”
He tilts his head. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“It wasn’t.”
He shrugs, a smirk forming on his lips. I roll my eyes and drop my gaze back to the tablet, though my heart is now doing an enthusiastic sprint. “Don’t you have… I don’t know. King things to do?”
“Mm.” He leans back slightly, stretching his legs. “I cleared my schedule.”
“For this flight?”
“For you.”
I look up again, scowling. “Stop saying things like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like—” I gesture vaguely in his direction. “That.”
He watches me for a second, something softer slipping into his expression. “You’re flustered.”
“I am not.”
“You are.”
“I amirritated.”
He hums thoughtfully. “Interesting. Because you look like you’re one sentence away from combusting.”
I grip my stylus tighter. “Dhruv.”
“Yes, Sitara?”
“Please,” I say, trying very hard to sound composed, “stop flirting with me.”
He studies my face, really studies it, as if deciding something. Then he stands. My breath catches despite myself. He crosses the small space between us unhurriedly, stopping just short of my seat. I tilt my head back to look up at him, pulse thudding loud enough that I’m convinced the entire plane can hear it.
He braces one hand on the armrest beside me, leaning in—not close enough to touch, but close enough that I can smell him. “You kissed me,” he says quietly.
I swallow. “Yeah…um...”
A smile ghosts over his lips and he ignores my incomprehensible response, “And you’ve been avoiding my eyes ever since.”
“That’s not true.”
“Sitara.” His voice dips. “You haven’t looked at me properly since that dinner.”
I hate that he notices everything and I absolutely hate that he understands me so well. I shift, suddenly aware of how small the space feels. “Maybe I just don’t like being stared at.”
“Then tell me to stop,” he says gently.
I open my mouth. Nothing comes out. His eyes soften—not triumphant like I expected. He looks so… fond. “That’s what I thought.”
He straightens, stepping back before I can spiral any further. “Relax. I’m not going to push.”
