& Then They Loved (Ampersand Love #3)

23. Changing Tides

23

Changing Tides

Vihaan

H e’d never been one for rules.

Rules were meant to be broken, and boundaries were meant to be crossed. Especially when those served to keep Vera away from him.

The crushing sense of emptiness when he couldn’t see her was a feeling he detested. It was sobering to realise, however, that neither his presence nor absence affected her. Vihaan sighed internally, watching the woman he couldn’t ignore inform him of all the ways in which she expected him to maintain a distance.

Fat chance.

“This,” Vera gestured to about a foot around her, circling with her finger, “is a no-smiling zone.”

“What if I break your zone rules? How exactly do you plan to stop me from smiling at you?” Vihaan stepped closer on purpose, the devil on his shoulder cackling at the idea of riling her up .

“Aaagh,” she growled, fingers curled into claws mid-air like a tigress ready to maul her victim. Despite her anger, Vihaan felt amusement trickle through him. Somehow, a spitfire Vera put him far more at ease than a Vera who looked like she was hiding from him, or worse, unaware of him.

“You are such an. . . annoying man.”

“Run out of unique curses already? I was starting to look forward to what new combination you’d call me next. Made me feel so special.”

“Shut up.”

“Make me.”

“Why can’t you ever listen?!”

“Earn my obedience,” he dared, barely holding himself back from touching her when he picked up the muted flash of interest in her dark eyes. Damnit, if only he could figure out how to get her guards down. He drew his phone out to type something. “Say this word and I’ll leave you alone.”

One glance at his screen had her lowering her claws, confusion flickering across her pretty face. She never could resist a challenge.

“Wuh…” She squinted, her brain working hard. “Wor-chest-uhr-shy-uhr.”

“Nope. It’s Wu-stuh-shr.”

“No way.”

He played the pronunciation out loud, reining in a snort at the look of utter disgust she threw his way.

“That sounds nothing like how it is written!” she exclaimed in outrage.

“Blame the Brits. I can’t help that you failed the test.”

“Fuck you, this test was rigged.”

Vihaan couldn’t hold his laugh back anymore. She was so beautiful when she got annoyed. The thought brought him up short, his laughter petering out in favour of observing her. The spark of defiance, the pinch of her lips when she was angry, the way she blew her hair out of her face because she couldn’t be bothered to move her hands off her hips—everything she did, he found fetching.

Wait. Fetching?!

His poker face must have been better than he’d imagined because she didn’t seem to realise the furious misfiring of his neurons.

“I’m going to go now,” she announced, her words a low growl. “Do not follow me or so help me, my shoe will be so far up your intestine that you’ll forget every word that isn’t a cry.”

With an audible hmph , she spun away, her hair swinging back and forth as she stomped off to join their crew, leaving Vihaan feeling like he’d been shot in the ass with a cannonball.

Even her threats were cute. What in the fresh fucking hell was going on? He didn’t want to find her cute. Cute was meant for things he’d want to cuddle and hold and kiss into the next month. And. . . oh fuckity-fuck , he wanted to do all that and more to her. He may as well go out and adopt a leopard for a house-pet because on the danger scale, Vera ranked much higher.

In the month since they’d slept together, their previously cloying hatred for each other had simmered down into something more manageable. As if their emotions had been redirected toward a new memory—one of them experiencing incomparable pleasure—and fighting against wanting it again.

Still, there had been moments of friction in the office where she’d pushed back in her professional capacity, and he’d argued and questioned till he was convinced. But without Olivia’s interfering presence, the two of them and the rest of the team had been performing well, with considerable progress made on their project.

As his respect for her ability at work grew, so did his desire. No other woman held his interest anymore, and Vihaan wasn’t sure what he could do when her mere existence was like a warm hearth for a man desperate to escape the frigid cold. At least when he hadn’t known where she was, he’d had no choice but to try and forget her. Now that he had direct access, he was finding it impossible to cut the link between them. But it was madness to think they could become something more, wasn’t it?

He pressed his pointer and middle finger into the centre of his forehead, jiggling the nerve he could feel throbbing right there. His internal conflict regarding Vera had only worsened his symptoms, and the headache he’d been staving off all morning returned with a vengeance.

By late afternoon, Vihaan was ready to jam a hot poker into his own brain, swirl it around and pull the remnants out like a noodle. He could barely muster up a tight smile when the weavers and dye technicians thanked him and Vera for picking them to be part of the spotlight series. He nodded intermittently, shaking their hands, trying not to wince at the clang and clatter of the crew as they packed up their equipment and loaded it onto the company bus. Every unwelcome sound felt like a horde of monkeys with cymbals marching inside his brain to the beat of Thriller.

The moment he was alone with Vera however, she turned to him. “Why are you here if you’re unwell?”

His mouth parted in surprise. Before he could answer, she continued, “Your eyes are red, and your stupid smiles have been different. Do you have a migraine?”

Vihaan cocked his head to the left, blinking once. His smiles were different?

“You noticed my. . . smiles?” he asked, clearing his throat to reduce his shock. Unsurprisingly, Vera rolled her eyes at him.

“Of course that’s all you hear. Why have you not taken painkillers? Do you not have them?”

“In my car.”

She tipped her head, giving him a look that said, What are you waiting for?

“The pills make me sleepy,” he explained.

“So? ”

“I didn’t bring my driver with me. I have to drive my car back to the city.”

Vera’s brows knit, as if trying to think of a solution. Before they could talk further, she got pulled away to check the equipment and sign off before the bus could depart with the crew.

Vihaan marched off to his car and slid into the driver’s seat. Eyes closed, he drew in a deep breath, trying to shift the focus from his headache and push back the pain until it wasn’t so prevalent. His fingers tightened over the steering wheel, clenching and unclenching, attempting to find the fortitude to open his eyes and concentrate on the drive back. Damn, maybe he should take a nap first. It wasn’t close to the severity of his previous migraine attacks, and a short rest would be prudent, especially since his eyes were starting to burn.

A series of raps on his window had him jumping, startled when Vera stood right outside. He rolled the window down. “Problem?”

“Yes. Come out.” She beckoned to him with two fingers, stepping back to let him exit. The minute he did, she swiped the car keys from his hand and pointed to the passenger side. “Sit. I’m driving you home.”

Vihaan’s brows almost flew off his forehead. “You are?”

“Yes. I don’t want you to die in a fiery car crash on the way back.” She put up her palm to stop him from questioning her further. “And it’s not because I like you. It’s because you’re my boss, and you pay my salary, and I like my job. So really, it’s for the job.”

“I didn’t ask,” he chuckled, giddy at the thought that she cared enough to do this for him. Grumpy caretaking by Vera Talwar? Sign me up!

He buckled himself in, waiting patiently while she checked her mirrors and adjusted her seat. He should’ve been worried. She was about to drive his very expensive car, and he had no idea what her driving history was .

But if a minor crash or car damage was the price for a couple extra hours with Vera, it was a trade-off he was willing to make. He popped a painkiller and washed it down with a massive gulp of water.

The engine purred to life as Vera shifted the gear into reverse. Vihaan watched with unabashed fascination as she stretched one arm out, cradling the back of his headrest while she glanced over her shoulder, single handedly spinning the wheel. Her focus remained firmly behind her until they’d pulled out of the parking spot. Just as she turned to set herself straight again, she caught his gobsmacked expression.

“What? Do I have something on my face?” she asked, self-consciously checking the rearview mirror.

“You reversed the car with one hand.” And it was so fucking smooth! Was there anything she didn’t do well?

“So?”

“So, I think I got pregnant watching you do that,” he muttered, feeling irrationally attracted to her because of it.

Vera made an odd, choking sort of sound, choosing to press on the pedal instead of responding to him. “Go to sleep. You’re delirious.”

“I’m not sleepy yet. The meds haven’t kicked in.”

Silence.

“You did a good job out there today,” he blurted out after a moment, the words out of his mouth before he could stop himself. To his fascination, a touch of pink bloomed across her skin, growing above her collarbone.

“Th—thanks.”

“I’ve been learning a lot from watching you do this. You should’ve been promoted a long time ago.”

Vera looked like she didn’t quite know what was happening. She threw him a wary look, choosing to refrain from commenting .

“Maybe it was because your degree was from a lesser-known institution,” he supposed, pausing in case she elaborated.

Again, silence. Vihaan didn’t have the patience to play the polite game anymore, so he came right out to ask the question that had been bothering him for days. “How come you went to night school?”

“I’m a vampire,” she answered, not sparing him a single glance.

“Why didn’t you go to a proper university like you’d planned? With your grades, you could’ve gone anywhere.”

“Wanted clown school and couldn’t find one.”

“Why did you apply for an office loan a few years ago?”

“Gambling addiction.”

Vihaan drew in a breath, trying to not get annoyed with her flippant answers. She wanted to keep him at an arm’s length, but his curiosity was driving him insane. Their night together had only heightened his zeal to figure her out.

“What have you been up to lately?” he tried once more, hoping that she’d share something of her life outside of work.

“Breathing.”

If he’d been feeling better, he’d have snarked back. But he was drained from the pounding inside his skull. “Do you really want to be like this?” he sighed, looking out the windshield, noting a sign that listed the distance left to reach Mumbai.

“What I really want is for you to stop asking questions.”

“This is a three-and-a-half-hour drive. You’d rather spend it in tense silence?”

“One, you should sleep. Two, I’m not tense.”

He reached over to tap her shoulders that had risen up to her ears.

“Don’t touch me,” she ordered sharply.

“That’s not what you’ve said before.”

“This is a work trip. Need I remind you to be professional? ”

“Maybe. I don’t think it’ll help.” In a forlorn voice, talking to himself more than her, he added, “I seem to forget myself around you.”

“Maybe you should forget me instead.”

“I can’t,” he replied quietly, unable to look away from her while she avoided his gaze. “I’ve tried. I can’t forget that I want you in my bed, naked and begging for my cock.”

Vera’s nostrils flared, her jaw tightening visibly.

“The hippopotamus kills five-hundred humans every year.”

“What?”

“I thought we were just throwing out random and inappropriate comments under the guise of a conversation,” she snapped, finally deigning to throw a skewering glare his way.

“Princess,” he laughed, wincing when the action caused the throb in his head to worsen. “I asked you a series of innocent questions and you gave me sass. What else was I supposed to do?”

“Go to sleep!”

“Wish you were saying that to me in bed,” he grumbled. “With your slutty nurse dress on.” Lower lip jutting out in a pout, he shimmied and shifted, eventually reclining in his seat before giving in to the blessed silence of a medicated mind.