Chapter 2
Akash Karia took a sip of his wine, studying the woman seated beside him.
He smiled. Shauna had deliberately avoided looking in his direction for the past ten minutes, her attention fixed intently on the story her elder brother Sameer was narrating.
But Akash could see the way her fingers clenched and unclenched around the stem of her wine glass, and the restless way her knee was bouncing under the table.
Amusement curled inside him. He knew he’d managed to rile her up again. Shauna Sehgal moved through the world like an ice queen—poised, superior, and untouchable. Hence, it pleased him more than it should that he was the one person who could crack her cold, immaculate facade.
He really shouldn’t enjoy riling her. Shouldn’t take satisfaction in seeing her worked up because of him. In fact, he ought to stay the fuck away from her. He’d tried for years. Yet he’d failed spectacularly every single time. He exhaled slowly as he studied her.
The ink-blue strappy dress hugged her curves perfectly.
She pushed her chair back and crossed her legs.
The hem of her dress slipped higher, revealing long, tanned legs and a tempting sweep of smooth skin.
His gaze followed the movement before lifting to her face.
High, sculpted cheekbones gave her face a natural elegance.
Her dark, almond-shaped eyes were framed by thick lashes.
Her makeup was understated yet flawless.
Her eyes looked darker tonight, her lips painted with a deep rose gloss that caught the light.
Her hair was swept back from her face, exposing the graceful line of her neck and shoulders.
Shauna wore her poise like a second skin.
He inhaled, and immediately her perfume invaded his senses, floral, sharp, and spicy, just like her.
Dangerous. She was absolutely dangerous.
Shauna Sehgal was the storm he’d never been able to outrun. The one woman who’d haunted his thoughts ever since he’d laid eyes on her at Sheena and Rajiv’s wedding reception in Goa six years ago.
He had just landed from London and headed straight to the hotel where Sheena was getting married.
He’d been making his way toward the beach where the ceremony was being held when he’d turned a corner, and there she was, dressed in a rust-orange lehenga, sunlight catching in her dark waves, the sea glittering behind her. He had literally stopped walking.
She’d been a vision. Shauna Sehgal had been the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. She still was.
But it wasn’t just her beauty that had undone him then. It was her fire. Her spark. That bold, bossy, icy confidence that said she knew her place in the world and feared nothing and no one.
They’d been introduced at the wedding, and her twin, Rhea, had kept in touch with him in London as well.
Both sisters were studying there then, just like he was, and they’d met up a few times.
Those casual hangouts had soon blossomed into an easy friendship between the three of them.
He’d learned their dreams, shared his own hopes, and somewhere along the way, both girls had begun to mean something to him.
While Rhea had soon become a dear friend, Shauna…
she was something else. Her wit and sass kept him on his toes, and her laughter lingered in his mind long after their conversations ended.
There was a quiet pull in the way she looked at him sometimes, a flash of curiosity in her eyes that made his heart beat a little too fast. Soon he’d begun to wonder if maybe—just maybe—she felt that same impossible spark that flared to life when they were together.
Slowly, almost foolishly, he’d even begun to hope if he could make her a part of his future.
But then the truth of his past had come crashing into his life, and with it came the sharp realization that he could never have her. Like a fool, he’d rushed into dating another woman, hoping to forget her. It hadn’t lasted long.
And Shauna? She’d turned out to be far different from what he’d imagined her to be.
He still remembered that one conversation he’d overheard between the sisters.
A conversation that had changed his life.
He’d heard his name on Shauna’s lips, followed by a dismissive comment that had cut straight through his heart.
And from then on, his tangled, unfinished relationship with Shauna had grown bitter and complicated.
It still shocked him how Shauna had changed from a woman who once laughed with him into someone who seemed determined to hate him.
She belittled everything he said, took offense at everything he did, and wielded her disdain like a sharpened blade aimed directly at him.
And he was not the type to back down from a fight, especially with her.
Trading insults whenever their paths crossed had quickly become their twisted version of normal.
He should’ve been offended by her constant jabs.
He should have ignored her and moved on.
Instead, he found himself seeking out every opportunity to rile her up.
Watching her eyes ignite with irritation whenever he pushed the right buttons…
God, it was addictive. Their bickering had become a game he couldn’t stop playing, a battle he enjoyed far more than he should.
They’d been at war for so long that he barely remembered what it felt like to speak to her normally.
But that night in Singapore…
One second, they’d been at odds like always, and the next, he’d found himself staring at her in a way he hadn’t in a long time.
Whether it had been the magic of the night, the drinks he’d had, or simply her—her fire, her sass, her beauty—he’d let himself be pulled toward her, allowed himself to feel too much for her and crave even more.
And something in the way she’d looked at him had drawn him in, made him cross a line he never should’ve crossed.
But he had.
He’d held her. Tasted her. Lost himself in the heat of her body and the way she surrendered to every demand he made. That memory still lived under his skin. Her touch, her breath, the way she’d felt beneath him, all of it was as vivid as the night it had happened.
Soon after that, he’d left for Dubai believing time and distance would weaken whatever spell she had over him.
He’d thrown himself into work, determined to become the man Janak needed him to be.
But seeing her again tonight had shattered that illusion.
One look was all it took to remind him just how dangerous she was to his carefully constructed control.
His jaw tightened. He’d been a fool about Shauna Sehgal once before in the past, and then again in Singapore.
They had no future, and soon she’d hate him far more than she already did.
And that was exactly why he needed to stay the fuck away from her.
She was Janak’s granddaughter, and Janak meant more to him than anyone else in the world.
He was his mentor, his friend, and one of the few people who was truly in his corner.
Always. Janak had looked after Keya and him after their own grandfather passed away when they’d been so young.
He’d given them stability, taught them responsibility, and cared for them like his own.
Keya and he were who they were thanks to the kindness of this one man, and for that reason alone, he ought to stay away from Shauna.
He’d already made one mistake with her. He couldn’t afford another.
Shauna finally looked at him, and Akash felt his lips curve into a grin. No matter how hard he tried to put her behind him, she always came back, if only to spar and argue. And every time she did, it dragged him right back in, no matter how determined he was to stay away.
“What?” she hissed. “What are you smirking about?”
“I like how you keep trying to ignore me and can’t.”
Her eyes flashed. “God, you’re insufferable.”
He lifted his hands in surrender. “Sorry. Relax, okay? I promise to behave.”
She shot him a look. “You don’t know how to behave. You don’t know how to be polite or how to speak without every word having a bite to it.”
He chuckled. “Bite, huh?”
Images from that night rose instantly in his mind, memories of the way his teeth had scraped against her… He crushed those thoughts immediately.
He tilted his head. “Alright then. I promise to behave. And not to bite. Although, last I remember, you quite enjoyed my bite.”
The flush in her cheeks was worth everything.
Before he’d left for Dubai, he’d tried several times to get her to talk about that night and what had happened between them in Singapore. But Shauna had deflected every single time. Soon, she’d started keeping her distance from him, barely speaking to him and ensuring she was never alone with him.
Now, watching her grow flustered every time he hinted at that night made him wonder why exactly she’d avoided that topic with him.
For too long, he’d convinced himself that it hadn’t meant as much to her as it had to him, that he’d probably exaggerated her reactions to him in his head.
But now, seeing her flushed cheeks and the way her gaze kept straying from him before sliding back to him, made him wonder if he’d been wrong.
Not that it changed anything. But it still thrilled him to know that the ice princess had actually felt something that night too.
Shauna gave him a dark look and once again rose to leave. To run.
Once again, he stopped her. “Running again.”
“Leaving, not running,” she said sharply. “There’s a difference between the two. Leaving implies I refuse to be in your presence any longer.”
He laughed. “Sure. Keep telling yourself that.”
He ought to shut up, end this conversation, and let her go, yet he couldn’t bring himself to do it. “In the last year, every time you’ve found yourself alone with me, you’ve run. Just like you did that night.”
There. He was finally addressing that night directly, like a fool hoping she would too, hoping he’d know once and for all where he stood with her.
Her jaw dropped. She stared at him for a long moment and then said, “It wasn’t night. It was morning when I left.”
He straightened, unable to believe she was finally talking about that night. But Shauna wasn’t the type to back down from a blatant challenge, especially one issued by him.
“That’s right,” he murmured. “It was morning. I’m glad we’re finally talking about it.”
“There is nothing to talk about.”
“I beg to differ.”
“Oh, please,” she forced out. “Don’t make a big deal out of it. That night was nothing. It was a stupid mistake.”
He arched a brow. “Mistake? Funny… it didn’t feel like one to me when you were begging for more.”
Her cheeks turned red. Anger filled her gaze.
“You know what? I’m tired of you constantly baiting me about that night, so let me clarify this once and for all.
That night was a mistake.” She lowered her tone.
“The biggest mistake of my life. I was drunk, and I took things too far with you. Do you really think if I were in my senses, I’d have slept with an asshole like you?
You sit there looking smug and arrogant, but for what?
What is your claim to fame?” She spread a hand out.
“Look around you. Everyone here has earned their place at this table. Everyone. And then there’s you, sitting here simply because you’re Keya’s brother.
You pretend to be one of us when you never will be.
You go about life living in luxury, spending your sister’s money like it’s yours to burn, when you’ve never achieved anything other than a free entry to Sehgal Media thanks to her and my grandfather. ”
Her cruel words landed like a blow. Shock gave way to something fiercer as anger and hurt coiled tightly around his chest. Is that what she thought about him?
Dismissing that night as a mistake was one thing, but to reduce him to nothing more than a parasite living off his sister’s success was something else entirely.
“You should be careful, Shauna,” he said quietly. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, I know exactly what I’m talking about,” she shot back.
“You move through the world as if luxury is your birthright when everyone knows it isn’t.
Case in point: the absurdly luxurious suite at Marina Bay Sands that night in Singapore.
And the outrageously expensive black Aston Martin you drive…
obviously all indulgences paid for by Keya. ”
Fuck. His blood was boiling now. How dare she speak to him like that? He let out a slow breath, but even that didn’t help in controlling his raging emotions. It shouldn’t have mattered what she thought of him, yet it did.
He downed his wine in a single swallow. “So that’s what you think of me? That I am a liability? A leech?”
“Your words, not mine.”
If she had any idea… If she knew even a fraction of the truth, she wouldn’t be looking at him with that kind of contempt in her eyes. God, he was an idiot. Once again, she’d tried to make him feel small and unimportant. Nothing had changed with her. She was just the same.
Perhaps her harsh words were just the reminder he needed to walk away from her once and for all. No more being intrigued by her, no more bantering, and no more trying to rile her up. He was done with her.
“Believe whatever makes it easier for you,” he said flatly. “You seem very good at that.”
He didn’t wait for her response. He rose and walked away.
Under any other circumstances, he would have left altogether.
But this was his sister’s anniversary celebration, so instead he headed toward the Kids’ zone to meet his nephew and niece.
He refused to let Shauna’s bitterness cast a shadow over a night that mattered to Keya.
Besides, he wasn’t the man Shauna had painted him to be. He was a man shaped by a harsh past and driven by a destiny he had been born to embrace. Besides, he knew no one at that table thought poorly of him. No one except her. And he was done with her.
Shauna Sehgal was indeed a mistake. His mistake.
And this time, he told himself, he would forget her for good.