Chapter 24
Twenty-Four
RAASHI
Raashi could feel her makeup melting off her face. A hot, fevered flush ran through her body as she tried to look everywhere but at Harsh.
You always looked good, you stupid woman.
Only Harsh Kodela could both insult and compliment her in one sentence.
“Congratulations Raashi,” a distant relative squealed. “I can’t believe you’re marrying Harsh Kodela. You’re so lucky. I mean I literally can’t find the words to describe what I’m thinking.”
“I believe the word you’re looking for is blessed,” Harsh interjected making Raashi scowl at him.
The brainless twit tittered at him.
“Pranoti,” Raashi said icily. “I think your mother is calling you.”
The twit blinked at her blankly. “My mother didn’t come tonight.”
Oh. Dammit.
“Well, someone in a pink saree is waving at you.”
The twit frowned at the crowd. There were an awful lot of pink sarees. “Where?”
“There!” Raashi pointed vaguely towards the north Indian food stall and then gave Pranoti a helpful shove with a hand between her shoulder blades. Thankfully, the other girl finally got the message and walked off in a huff.
A husky laugh had the fine hair on the nape of her neck standing at attention. She desperately wished for the heavy mane of hair she’d hacked off earlier that afternoon. It would have made sure the fine hair behaved.
“That was evil, Rash.”
She gave him what she hoped was a cool look. “But I am evil, didn’t you know?”
“No, you’re not,” he murmured, his warm gaze making her cheeks flame brighter. “I know your secret now.”
“And what is my secret?” she asked, her heart doing a slow roll in her chest. He couldn’t possibly know, could he?
Oh baby. You’ve always been too good for him.
Harsh flicked the tip of her nose with his forefinger. “You’re a porcupine. Prickly on the outside, soft on the inside.”
“I’m not soft,” she muttered indignantly.
“It doesn’t matter.” Harsh’s voice dropped another octave. Raashi’s stomach dropped with it. “Ask me why…”
“Why?” she asked, a trifle breathlessly.
“Because I know how to handle your quills now, Porky.”
“You-“ But she never got to finish that sentence because their fathers swept up to them, the press and the rest of their entourages following closely behind.
“It’s time for the ring exchange.”
Suryakanth Kodela put a fatherly arm around Raashi’s shoulders, startling her. Harsh’s eyes narrowed at her jerk of reaction. Mr. Kodela led her to the front of the crowd, making her already thudding heart start to take flight. Harsh and her father brought up the rear. She looked around at the assorted faces surrounding them, zeroing in on her mother and siblings, all of whom were making their way through the mass of people to the front.
“Everybody, may I have your attention please?” Suryakanth Kodela slipped into Telugu, his oratory skills shining when he was in his comfort zone. “It is with great pleasure that I welcome another daughter into my home and into my heart. I am blessed. God has been very kind to me. Not only did he give me a wonderful wife, but he also gave me three wonderful children.”
Was it her imagination or did Harsh sound like he was choking on air? She couldn’t turn and look at him since his father had a death grip on her shoulders.
“And now these three wonderful children have brought three lovely people into our lives. So now, I don’t have two sons and one daughter. I have three sons and three daughters. If this is not God’s deepest blessings, what is? Maybe grandchildren next huh?” He laughed uproariously at his own joke, aided by the sycophants in the crowd.
“Gadde Garu.” He turned to Raashi’s father. “We are now family twice over.” The two older men embraced and the cameras went wild.
“Maybe they should get engaged,” Harsh murmured sotto voice, sidling up to her.
Raashi snorted loudly, an inelegant piggy sound that had her clapping a hand to her mouth, mortified. Harsh threw his head back and laughed, the contagious sound making everyone around them laugh too.
His mother appeared with a ring box at the same time as hers did. Total synchrony the families had achieved in this whole marriage thing. Raashi looked at the simple, solitaire diamond ring that twinkled at her from the box in Harsh’s hand.
The sheer wrongness of the moment struck her, taking her already strangled breath away. This was awful. Harsh should be sharing this moment with a woman he loved. She’d taken it away from him. First with her thoughtless remark and then by agreeing to marry him even when he was fighting the families and saying no. She’d backed him into a corner. He’d had no choice but to give in. To marry her.
No one will ever want you, Raashi.
“Porky?” Harsh tipped her chin up with one hand.
She stared at him mutely.
“Breathe,” he told her, a wicked grin sliding over his face as he slipped the ring on to her limp finger.
Cameras flashed, people cheered, the world around them went mad. But all Raashi saw was his beautiful eyes twinkling at her with cheer and good humour, almost amused at the predicament they found themselves in.
And for the first time in a long while, Raashi did just that. She breathed. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Raashi looked at the humongous diamond now twinkling on her hand. “I could take someone’s eye out with this thing.”
“As long as it’s not mine,” he told her, waggling his hand in her face.
“Your name is on the top of my list,” she replied, batting at his hand. “Stop that.”
“Return the favour idiot,” he said. “Put a ring on it!”
The people closest to them laughed even as Raashi flushed and shook her head ruefully. She’d been so blinded by the ring that she had forgotten she needed to put one on his hand too.
“Typical Raashi,” someone in the crowd said snidely. “Never thinking about the other person. Can’t believe she managed to land Harsh Kodela.”
She stiffened, her small smile sliding off her face. There were too many people around for her to pinpoint the nasty cow. Her mother handed her the ring and she slid it into place on Harsh’s ring finger.
Harsh was looking at her, his deep, dark chocolate eyes boring into her. She knew he’d heard the comment. She knew he could see it. The hurt, the shame, the rejection…all of it stinging a little more in the shadow of his golden aura.
And before she could pull her mask back in place or turn away from his perceptive gaze, he leaned forward, his lips finding hers.
Tentative, chaste, and sweet, it was meant to be comforting, a show of support. She knew that and yet, the minute his lips touched hers, everything changed. The pressure of his mouth increased even as she pressed herself against him, yearning to get closer.
He was the darkest of dark chocolate, a sinful pleasure that bordered on decadence. He was a hint of heaven wrapped in the coils of hell. He was Raashi’s biggest mistake and her most desperate craving, all twisted together in one painful package.
They broke apart, shocked and stunned. Her fingers went to her lips, the scorching heat of his kiss seeming to have left their brand on her soft flesh.
“Vedhava.” His father’s furious voice broke the moment. “Don’t you know how to behave?” Mr. Kodela hissed. “People are watching.”
As she watched, Harsh morphed back into the charming, superficial man she’d thought she’d known.
“Sorry everyone,” he shouted cheerfully at the crowd. “I thought it was that time in the ceremony where you get to kiss the bride.”
Everyone laughed. No one bothering to correct him or inform him that this was an engagement and certainly not a Christian wedding. No one would. He was Harsh Kodela. He could do anything and the adoring public would forgive him. The families though…the wave of disapproval from the elders was tsunami level high.
Even Agastya shook his head, resigned to the scene that was sure to follow. Raashi wondered if she should be outraged too. She was sure that kiss would be the picture every media outlet would lead with tomorrow.
And with a jolt she realised that was exactly what Harsh had been aiming for. In one swoop of his lips, he’d done what her day long makeover hadn’t.
That kiss would ensure nobody would question how she’d managed to hook Harsh Kodela anymore.
Nobody that is other than her. Fake, she reminded herself, her fingers going to her tingling lips. This was fake.