CHAPTER 9 #2
“You do realise you have, once again, intruded on my privacy, don’t you?” I cut her off before she can finish. “That was a personal call, Siya Vardhaan, which you interrupted.”
Siya frowns in irritation, clearly distracted from the previous subject.
“How was I supposed to know you were on a call? That too a video call? I couldn’t even see your iPad from that distance,” she shoots back, her irritation rising to meet mine.
“When I came out, I saw you fixing that pendant and—”
“Don’t remind me of the pendant,” I cut in again, this time more firmly. “Because that only reminds me that you stole it.”
“I didn’t steal it,” she retorts, her eyes flashing indignantly.
“Nor did I have any intention of keeping it with me. I just didn’t want to run after you in the night to return it, especially after the way you behaved at the pool.
But I was going to give it back the next day…
today…” she adds, lifting her hands between us. “And look what you’ve done instead.”
My gaze drops to her wrists again. There are faint red lines on her wrist where the scarf must have pressed too tightly, proof that her struggle lasted longer than I had thought.
“How could you tie me up like that?” she demands.
“Stop fussing,” I reply. “It’s not like a mafia princess who can take down men twice her size with a single kick can’t untie her own hands from a scarf.”
“It took me an hour,” she fires back. “An entire hour to get free. And these bruises are because of you. Remember that.”
There is no hesitation in her accusation. No fear either.
“And what is it with you?” she scoffs, stepping closer this time. “You couldn’t wait a few hours to get your pendant back? You had to barge into my bedroom in the middle of the night for it? It’s just a pendant, RK. Not the end of the world that you had to come and get it right away.”
That does it. I wrap my fingers around her arms and pull her towards me. In a single motion, the distance between us vanishes, her body stopping just short of crashing into mine because I’m holding her there.
“It is not just a pendant,” I say quietly, meeting her eyes. “It’s the only thing I have that belongs to my mother.”
Siya stills against me, the fight draining out of her as she processes my words.
“It’s the only memory I have of her,” I continue, my voice coming out rougher than I intend. “It’s my lifeline, Siya. The only thing that keeps my heart beating.”
Her eyes do not leave mine, even as silence follows.
For the first time since she walked into my world, the defiance in her gaze softens into something like understanding.
She looks at me like she finally sees why I lost control last night.
Why I did not wait to get it back. Why I would never wait when it comes to that pendant.
But what shocks me even more is the fact that I told her what that pendant means to me. It’s something I’ve never said out loud to anyone else. And yet, I said it to her.
The only person who knows is Ayaan because some things run too deep to be hidden from my twin.
I was barely four when I first understood what it meant to not have a mother. I felt it in that restless, aching way a child keeps looking for someone who is never going to walk into the room. I remember asking for her again and again, refusing to accept silence as an answer.
That was when my father, Tej Khurana, gave it to me.
A thin gold chain with a small pendant, the letter ‘R’ carved into it. He told me it belonged to my mother, Rukmini. I didn’t understand much back then, except that this was all I was ever going to have of her.
So I held on to it.
I have worn it around my neck ever since.
Through years, through bloodshed, through everything I became and everything I lost. I never took it off.
It stayed with me like a blessing I could never see, but always felt.
As though she was still here… watching over me, protecting me from the dark world and from everyone out there who wanted me dead.
And I just handed that truth to Siya without thinking? How could I?
My grip on her loosens as I pull back abruptly, more annoyed at myself than at her.
Without sparing her a glance, I focus back on fixing the pendant onto the chain around my neck.
But before I can try to hook it again, Siya steps closer and touches the pendant.
For a heartbeat, my instinct tells me to pull it away.
To not let anyone else touch what has always been mine. But I do not.
Not even when she takes the pendant from my hand, as if it’s the most precious thing in the world.
My hand stills as my gaze lifts to her, but she doesn’t look back at me.
Her entire focus is on the chain and the tiny hook I’ve been struggling to secure since last night.
Her fingers instinctively move to my neck, reaching for the chain, as she patiently tries to fix it for me.
She’s only trying to help, and yet I can’t stop watching her.
I’m mesmerised by the way her brows draw together in concentration, the way her lashes lower as she studies the clasp, and the way her fingers move close to my chest, brushing against my skin unintentionally, oblivious to what that simple contact does to me.
All this while, I just stand there, letting her close that distance between us.
Siya tries once. Then again. But when the clasp still refuses to catch, she leans in closer without warning.
This time, her hair brushes softly against my face, carrying a faint floral fragrance that envelops my senses before I can react.
My eyes close for a fraction of a second.
I inhale deeply, and in that moment, she’s all I breathe. Yet Siya remains completely unaware of the effect she’s having on me. When I open my eyes again, she’s still focused on the chain.
Just as she thinks she’s got it, the pendant nearly slips from the hook once more. But this time, she doesn’t give up. Her lips part slightly as she studies the stubborn clasp, and before I can register what she’s about to do, she moves closer, lifting the pendant and brings it near her mouth.
And then she uses her teeth.
F*ck!
My mind wants this torture to end, but my body wants it to continue forever. My throat is dry, and I go completely still as her plump lips graze the skin of my chest, right at the open V of my shirt.
It shouldn’t matter. I’ve been around women long enough to know the difference between intention and accident. But today, I’m only seconds away from grabbing her waist and pulling her closer, wanting to feel her against me and never let her go.
My lower body, which was quiet a minute ago, now hardens to the point of aching.
It’s not supposed to react this way, yet it does, and it’s embarrassing.
I hate how aware I am of my semi-a*oused state.
Hate that my body reacts to her like this, without my permission.
I know I shouldn’t have such thoughts about her, yet all I do is stand there, watching her as she finally secures the hook of the pendant into place, fastening it firmly onto the chain.
The moment the pendant settles back against my chest, where it belongs, she finally pulls away, satisfied. The distance between us returns just as suddenly as it had disappeared.
For a brief second, her eyes meet mine. Mine holds hers.
There are no words. Even Siya feels that shift and looks surprised herself. She quickly looks away before walking off without another word.
As my gaze follows her, my fingers instinctively lift to the pendant now resting securely against my chest.
She fixed it. I don’t understand how she managed what I couldn’t since last night.
And for a strange, fleeting second, a thought crosses my mind.
Maybe it needed her touch. Maybe, in some quiet way, even my mother has approved of this.
Of her. Of the way Siya’s touch has stirred something in me that I have guarded my entire life.
No! I push that thought away and walk back to the resort, forcing my mind to focus on matters that need my attention.
Now that Ayaan and Meher have seen me with Siya and drawn their own conclusions about what might have happened between us last night, they wouldn’t stop digging until they piece together who Siya is, what she’s doing here at RK Estate, and most important, why she’s anywhere near me.
****************
Day 5 @ RK Estate
The shrill vibration of my phone cuts through the last haze of sleep still clinging to me. I reach for my phone, my eyes barely open, and see Haider’s name flashing on the screen.
A low curse slips past my lips as I swipe to answer. “Don’t tell me she’s escaped again.”
Siya and her escape attempts have become a problem I can no longer ignore. There’s a brief pause on the other end before Haider clears his throat.
“No, she hasn’t,” he replies. “But someone else is here.”
That is enough to make me open my eyes. The fog is gone in an instant as he reveals who.
“Kailash Shergill has just entered the premises and is heading towards your villa.”
I let out a slow breath, dragging my palm over my face as I force myself to be fully awake.
“Alright,” I mutter, already swinging my legs off the bed.
Haider disconnects the call, and I grab the black T-shirt lying on the chair and pull it over my head as I move. Taking the stairs two at a time, I reach the ground floor and walk straight to the main door and pull it open.
The car rolls in at that exact moment, coming to a stop at the pavement right in front of the villa. The door opens, and he steps out.
Kailash Shergill.
The man who raised my brother, Ayaan. The man who shaped him into the person he is today. The man who, without trying, became something close to a father figure in my life as well. And yet, I have never been able to call him that.
For three decades, the word ‘Dad’ had belonged to only one man in my life. Tej Khurana. Whatever he was, whatever he did, that title remains tied to him in a way I cannot change.