Chapter 19
Dalhousie Hotel - Next Morning
Arundhati stirred gently, her body stretching with the kind of ease that only came after deep, dreamless sleep. She reached her arms across the bed in a slow stretch before curling into the pillow beside her, a contented sigh slipping from her lips.
It felt like the first real rest she’d had in months.
The previous day had drained her completely.
They had made it to the semi-finals in the couple’s game. And yet... they lost. Because Kushal couldn’t tell the difference between chocolate sauce and Nutella? Seriously?
She groaned into the mattress. And just then, what transpired after they lost the game came rushing back in fragments.
Their argument once back in the room.
Her frustration.
That wild, impulsive challenge she’d thrown at him.
Blindfold me. Feed me. I’ll guess everything right.
Kushal tying the scarf around her eyes.
His teasing words.
That dangerously seductive tone that brought out double meaning in every sentence he uttered.
Her losing control.
She ripping the blindfold off.
Kissing him. Hard.
Her eyes flew open.
Because she remembered now how that kiss wasn’t where it ended. Her pulse quickened as the rest came back in vivid detail.
The night had ended with him giving her a kind of pleasure she hadn’t dared to seek in months, pleasure that was deeper, hotter, and far more intense than anything she had ever imagined sharing with him.
And God... they had done it. She had actually seen shooting stars like she was in some cosmic world, feeling the best pleasure in the world.
The way he’d touched her like she was his again. The way she had let him…In ways that stripped her bare, not just physically, but emotionally. And then… nothing. No memory of what came after.
Had she really passed out after that? Just slipped into sleep?
She sat up quickly, clutching the duvet to her chest.
She was still in nothing but her silk lace panties. She turned toward the other side of the bed, and her breath caught again.
It was untouched.
Kushal hadn’t slept beside her.
Not like he had the previous two nights.
The sheets on his side were perfectly smooth. Cold. As if he hadn’t even considered lying next to her after what they’d shared.
Why?
Her heart stuttered with panic.
What had he thought? That she used him? That she didn’t care enough to stay awake, to acknowledge what had just happened between them?
Shame twisted in her gut. He’d given her something so intimate. And she just… fell asleep?
What kind of message did that send?
More than anything, she couldn’t believe she’d allowed herself to fall into something so deeply intimate with him when she hadn’t even made a decision about the divorce yet. What was she doing?
With herself.
With him.
With them?
She slipped out of bed in a hurry, clutching the sheets tightly around her body, making sure not an inch slipped.
The last thing she wanted was for Kushal to walk in through the connecting door and see her like this.
She darted into the bathroom and shut the door behind her with a soft click before finally letting out the breath she’d been holding.
What kind of wife hides from her own husband?
Her reflection stared back at her in the mirror—hair tousled, skin flushed. And then her gaze fell lower.
There it was.
Just left of her cleavage, faint but undeniable…a hickey. A mark. A memory. His.
She blinked at it, her stomach flipping. It didn’t hurt, but it spoke volumes. A trace of last night’s fire, of the hunger they hadn’t dared acknowledge in months. She reached up to touch it, then quickly shook her head, trying to snap herself out of it. Focus.
She was drunk too much last night. There was no denying that.
First, the wine with Rajveer and Ananya, then that unfamiliar liquor she’d grabbed after losing the game.
God knows what they’d been serving at that couple’s event.
Whatever it was, she hadn’t been thinking clearly when she reached for it, let alone when she emptied the glass.
She wasn’t used to alcohol in the first place. And she hadn’t meant to shut down like that, especially not after something so intimate. But her body had betrayed her. Or maybe, after all the emotional exhaustion, her system had simply done what it always did—escaped.
She remembered the first time she’d tried drinking, back when she graduated from law school. While her friends laughed, cried, did weird things, and lost all control, Arundhati had simply… fallen asleep. Silent. Still. No drama. No chaos.
And that was exactly what had happened last night.
Still, how was she supposed to face Kushal now?
What would she even say?
Should she bring it up at all? Or pretend nothing happened? Lie? Say she didn’t remember a thing?
Would he believe that? Of course not.
This was Kushal Nair.
If anyone could read people like an open book, it was him. He’d see right through any act. He always had.
She let out a heavy exhale and turned on the shower, the sound of rushing water grounding her just enough to think.
Maybe by the time she stepped out, she’d have come up with something.
A way to explain why she’d surrendered completely to the one man she was still trying to walk away from.
Yet even as her own thoughts swirled around her, another question tugged at her relentlessly.
What had he felt last night, after she’d slipped into sleep? What had been running through his mind in those unfinished moments?
And more pressingly… where was he now?
****************
Hotel Restaurant
Kushal sat at the far end of the restaurant, nursing a cup of tea as he listened to Vivek, his source, who had just returned from a two-day “sightseeing” trip.
The same trip where Vivek had been shadowing Noyonika the entire time.
Now, back in Dalhousie, he sat across from Kushal with updates—details about how Noyonika had been indulging herself, buying luxury items, entertaining herself with local hospitality, and even scouting property on the outskirts, negotiating to purchase a boutique hotel.
But Kushal wasn’t fully present.
His eyes were on Vivek, but his mind… it was still somewhere else. Somewhere tangled in the dark heat of last night.
He couldn’t stop thinking about it. About her. His Aru!
About the way he had devoured his wife last night, the way she had come undone beneath his hands and mouth, about the way their bodies had found a rhythm that didn’t need words or logic or names like “husband” or “wife.” In those moments, their egos had faded.
Their silence had broken. And what remained was raw, unfiltered need. For each other.
Last night hadn’t been just passion…it had been all-consuming. It was driven by the sizzling chemistry they had, that Arundhati still refused to acknowledge pulsed between them. They’d crossed that invisible line between desire and surrender, and yet, it ended in the most jarring way.
Though unplanned, what made it more maddening was how it ended—after taking her to that edge, giving her the pleasure she didn’t even realise she’d been craving, she had simply.
.. fallen asleep. As if the drinks and exhaustion had stolen her from him at the very moment, while he was still burning for her.
He remembered how he had paused, pulling away from her soft and warm body, completely shocked, yet tucking the duvet gently around her. She hadn’t stirred.
He could’ve stayed on her bed. Slept next to her, taking her in his arms. He wanted to.
But he knew if he did, he wouldn’t have been able to keep his hands and mouth off her again.
The feel of her, the taste, the way she had let go…
all of it had driven him to the brink. So he’d done the only thing he could.
He left. Slipped back into his own room with a body still aching for her and a mind that hadn’t shut down since.
“Sir?” Vivek’s voice cut through his thoughts. “Are you even listening to me?”
Kushal blinked and refocused. “Sorry. Just tired. But I’m listening.”
Vivek gave him a quick summary. “We’ve got enough on Noyonika now to press her. My men are still on her. But heads-up, she’s not staying in Dalhousie much longer. She’s flying back to the Middle East this weekend. If we’re going to confront her, it has to be soon.”
Kushal nodded absently, then paused as a thought struck him. Instinctively, he pulled out his phone and opened WhatsApp, his fingers typing out: Hey baby… Awake?
He stared at the message for a second, then rolled his eyes at himself. Baby? What was he thinking? She’d probably block him the moment she read that. No way Arundhati would let him get away with calling her that.
He sighed, deleted the message, and replaced it with something safer, more neutral: “Breakfast? I’m already down with my source. Needed to talk to him before we head to meet Noyonika today.”
He sent it, then leaned back, guessing she was probably up by now…probably already caught in her own spiral of thoughts about last night. About them.
A few moments later, her reply came through. It was exactly what he expected.
“I’m ordering breakfast in the room. You can continue. I’ll meet you in the lobby in an hour before we leave.”
Kushal smirked.
So, formal it was. Not even a sliver of acknowledgment about the night they’d just shared. Kushal let out a breath somewhere between a scoff and a laugh.
So that was her game? To pretend like nothing happened. To avoid it like it hadn’t left a crater between them.
He replied simply: Okay.
Then slid the phone aside and turned his attention back to Vivek, pretending to be fully invested in the conversation… even as his mind lingered somewhere else entirely.
*****************
An hour later
Arundhati walked out of the elevator with her back straight and her thoughts carefully aligned…or so she told herself.