Chapter 6
The music and laughter faded behind him as he followed her.
He told himself he shouldn’t. Every rational instinct told him to stop right there and leave her alone.
So why the hell was he still following her?
What was it about this one woman that made him behave in ways he never had before?
Why was Shauna Sehgal the only woman who could set his blood on fire with nothing more than a glance?
Dancing with her minutes ago, holding her close, breathing in the faint, intoxicating scent of her perfume, had sent a dangerous rush through him. And then seeing her eyes darken with heat as they landed on him had ignited something inside him.
She’d run almost instantly. And he’d followed immediately.
Shauna had never been the type to run from him.
She’d always stood her ground, matching him word for word, challenge for challenge.
But after Singapore, each time things between them began to tip into dangerous territory, she ran.
Which made him wonder if this relentless pull between them wasn’t one-sided after all.
Perhaps she had been feeling exactly what he had been feeling all these months.
That night in Singapore had changed something between them.
He had hoped moving to Dubai would erase her from his mind.
Erase that night from his mind. It hadn’t.
Not even close. And now, the way she looked at him sometimes, the way she ran whenever they got too close…
he was beginning to believe it had changed things for her too.
Or maybe he was fooling himself.
He exhaled harshly. After everything she’d said to him last night, he ought to turn around and return to the party. And yet, like an utter moron, he was following her. Like a fool, he always craved a reaction from her.
He reached her just as she swiped the key card to her room and caught her elbow as she stepped inside. She gasped when he pulled her back and spun her toward him. Her back hit the wall behind her as he towered over her, his body blocking her escape.
And suddenly, the familiarity of the moment struck him. It was the same tension crackling between them. The same closeness. The same woman staring up at him with those wide, stormy eyes. Just like that night.
“Why do you keep running away from me?” he asked, looking into her eyes. And then a corner of his mouth tipped up. “The more you run from me, Shauna, the more I feel like chasing you.”
“Why can’t you just let me be?” she demanded, her voice tight. “Just… just leave me alone.”
Yet even as she said it, she didn’t make the slightest move to step away from him.
She remained exactly where she was, pressed against the wall, his hand still wrapped around her arm, her eyes locked with his.
With every passing second, the brown of her eyes seemed to darken further, heat flickering in their depths.
He brushed a strand of her hair away from her face. “That is exactly my problem. No matter how many times I tell myself to walk away… I can’t seem to leave you alone.”
Which was the absolute, bloody truth. Every time she ran from him, the urge to chase her only grew stronger.
This need to catch her and show her how she responded to him when his hands were on her pulsed through his veins like a relentless rhythm.
No matter how complicated their past was, or how much worse their future could be, he just couldn’t leave her the hell alone.
Fuck.
She stared at him. “Are you drunk?”
He laughed softly. “Maybe.”
But he knew it wasn’t the alcohol. The whiskey wasn’t making his head spin.
It was her. The warmth of her skin inches from his, the faint scent of her perfume wrapping around him, the soft rise and fall of her breath…
all of it was enough to blur his senses.
Shauna Sehgal was bloody intoxicating. And right now, he felt thoroughly drunk on her.
He cupped her cheeks in his hands, his thumbs caressing her skin.
“What is it about you?” he murmured.
For a moment, she simply stared at him, her breathing uneven. Then her hands came up, curling tightly around his wrists.
“What is it about you?” Her voice was rougher now. “I should stay far away from you. I should ask you to go away and leave me alone.” Her grip tightened slightly. “And yet… here I am… apparently incapable of doing that.”
He leaned into her, slowly, deliberately. Giving her plenty of time to push him away… to tell him to stop… to turn her face. She did none of those things. Instead, she lifted her chin. And met him halfway.
Her lips touched his, and a feeling of utter rightness settled inside his soul. Heat rushed through him as he drew her closer. His hand slid to the back of her neck, holding her there as his mouth moved hungrily over hers.
And she gave in to him, completely. Her lips softened beneath his, responding in a way that sent a fierce rush through him.
Her fingers tightened into the front of his shirt as she kissed him back with equal urgency. His tongue slid against hers, slow and deliberate, and she shivered. God, she tasted incredible—so dangerous and tempting, like the promise of reckless nights and choices he knew he shouldn’t make.
And yet, standing here with her, he found himself wanting to be reckless.
Without breaking the kiss, she grabbed his arm and pulled him further into the room.
Shauna pressed closer to him, the pressure of her tongue more urgent, more demanding now.
His body began to throb. Lust slammed into him.
The world outside disappeared. All he could feel was her.
She trailed kisses down his throat, suckling at the base of his neck, her teeth nipping and her tongue soothing the sting in alternating strokes.
A sharp, electric sensation shot through him, unraveling whatever control he had left.
Her hands moved to his shirt, quickly unbuttoning it, and then she leaned forward and pressed her mouth to his chest. He sucked in a harsh breath.
Her teeth scraped his skin, and he growled.
His hands fisted her hair as her mouth roamed over his chest, then up and then down and then to the side, and then to the base of his neck.
Fuck, he was painfully hard, his entire body demanding release, needing what only she could give him.
He lifted her off the floor and laid her gently on the bed. Climbing over her, he tugged the zipper of her strapless maxi down, slowly peeling it away along with her bra and panties until she lay bare beneath him.
For a moment he simply stared. Fuck. She was beautiful.
His gaze moved slowly over her, taking in her flushed face, those sexy kiss-swollen lips, the soft curve of her breasts, and the smooth line of her flat belly. His hands caressed her breasts, and her eyes darkened with heat.
Leaning down, he claimed one rosy tip, swirling his tongue around one nipple.
She whimpered, and her hands flew to the back of his head, holding him to her as he sucked the pebbled tip over and over.
Her head thrashed from side to side as his hand squeezed her other breast. He then switched his attention to the other breast, enjoying the sounds coming out of her mouth.
He bit her nipple, and she gasped. He swirled his tongue over the bite again and again, making her shudder and shake.
Shauna tugged him down on top of her. His bare skin met hers, and she moaned.
Twisting her fingers through his hair, she claimed his mouth in a deep kiss that set his blood on fire.
She pushed her core against his hardening body, and his heart rate kicked up.
God, this woman knew exactly how to make him hot and hard.
He covered her lips with his again. Their mouths melded while his body moved with hers.
A desperate hunger for her surged through his blood.
The need to claim her, to make her his, pulsed inside him like a steady beat.
Gathering whatever little control he had left, he raised himself slightly and trailed his hands lower. He caressed her bare belly, moving across her waist, and then lower down her thighs. He pressed a finger to her core and found her wet and ready for him.
“Akash, please,” she begged. “I’m burning…”
Oh, he knew exactly what she needed. He pushed a long finger inside her.
Fuck. She was so tight, so wet. A second finger joined the first, and he scissored them inside her, enjoying her needy moans and her heavy breaths.
His fingers curved inside her warmth, and he pressed his thumb to that tight bundle of nerves at her core.
Shauna gasped, and then she began to buck wildly against him.
Her body tightened; her breathing turned ragged.
Wrapping her arms around him, she slammed her mouth to his before her whole body convulsed around him.
Need sizzled through his veins. His body hardened to the point of pain.
Yet he kept kissing her softly, long after her breathing had steadied.
She pulled back, looking at him with lust-filled eyes before giving him a sweet smile.
With her hair falling across her face, her lips pink and swollen, and her skin flushed red, she looked deliciously sexy.
She pulled him back down to her. Her mouth found his again, hungry this time, the kiss deeper, more demanding. She arched beneath him, pressing her core against the hard length of him, the friction sending a sharp rush of heat through his body. A low sound escaped him. God.
This heat, this craving between them, was raw, electric, and so damn consuming. His hands slid down her sides, gripping her hips as she moved against him again. Desire roared louder in his blood, drowning out everything else.
His breathing roughened as her one hand moved to his trousers, her fingers reaching to undo them when… his phone rang. The sharp sound cut through the room.
“Ignore it,” Shauna murmured, tugging him back down and kissing him.
The world around him vanished again. Somewhere in the room, another phone began ringing too. He kept kissing her, still half-lost in the haze of heat and want, but the ringing didn’t stop. His phone buzzed insistently against his hip, dragging him back to reality.
He pulled back slightly, breathing hard. She looked up at him, flushed and beautiful beneath him, lips swollen from his kisses.
His phone rang again. He exhaled sharply and reached behind him, pulling the phone from his back pocket. The screen lit up in the dim room.
Janak.
Reality slammed into him. Fuck. He’d been seconds away from crossing the line with Shauna. Again.
God. She was Janak’s granddaughter.
He’d already crossed this line with her once before, and it had complicated everything between them.
He was at the brink of a new life in Mumbai, one that would take him even farther away from her.
Yet here he was, about to blur every boundary that should have existed between them.
He pushed himself off her abruptly and stood, dragging a frustrated hand through his hair before answering the call.
“Hello.”
“Akash,” Janak said calmly. “Where are you?”
“I’m… outside,” Akash replied, forcing his voice to remain steady even though his heart was still running away.
“Hmm.” A pause. “I’ve been looking for you. I want to spend time with you. Come back in.”
The words were soft, but the command in them was unmistakable.
Akash swallowed, glancing once at Shauna. She stood a few feet away, a sheet wrapped loosely around her body, one hand clutching it to her chest as she watched him. Her hair fell messily around her shoulders, her flushed skin still carrying the traces of what had almost happened between them.
Akash watched her for a moment, a tight knot forming in his chest as the last of the heat drained from his body, leaving behind only the heavy weight of reality.
“Akash? Are you there?” Janak asked.
“Yes. I’m coming,” he said.
He ended the call slowly.
A knot tightened in his chest. He couldn’t have her. They were already divided by a destiny that had never intended for the two of them to walk the same path. And Shauna would hate him once she learned his truth, one he had carefully kept hidden from her.
Yet, he had followed her tonight. Done worse.
But no more. This had to end.
He forced himself to meet her eyes. “I have to go. Janak is waiting for me.”
She swallowed. Her eyes flicked briefly toward the bed before returning to him.
“This… you and I…” Her voice faltered for a second before steadying. “We can’t keep doing this. One of us will end up getting hurt.”
“I know, and I’m sorry. This is entirely my fault.”
She frowned, studying his face, really looking at him. He kept his expression cold, showing her none of the turmoil he was feeling. Her spine straightened. The softness drained from her features, replaced by something colder, sharper.
“Good,” she said, her tone suddenly cutting. “Because I want you to stay away from me.” Her fingers tightened around the sheet. “I want you to never touch me again. This… you and I… is over. You hear me?”
“Loud and clear,” he shot back, irritated with the whole situation, but mostly with himself for being unable to resist her.
“I don’t like you,” she snapped.
“Really?” He arched a brow. “It didn’t seem like that a few minutes ago when you were coming for me.”
Her face flushed instantly. “God, you’re such an asshole. Just go… Get out.”
He spun around and left her room, walking quickly back to the party. But his heart, that stupid, traitorous organ, ached as if he had left something very precious behind.
God. He was so fucked. He couldn’t be thinking like that. Shauna Sehgal wasn’t for him. He’d known that years ago, and yet here he was, years later, making the same mistakes with her all over again.
But no more. He would move past her, even if that was the last thing he did.