Chapter 12
CHAPTER 12
VEER
C handel Sahab droned on about the electoral process, but I couldn’t pay attention to a word he said because all I could think about was that Isha had just announced our engagement. Without consulting me.
We saw him off hand-in-hand, and as soon as his car drove out of sight, Isha tried to pull her hand from mine, but I held on tightly. She wasn’t getting away so easily. Not after she had put everything I had worked for in danger.
Ranvijay and our mothers turned to us in surprise.
“What the hell was that, Isha?” demanded her mother.
“I think that should be my question,” I said bitterly. “If you don’t mind, Isha owes me some answers right now. In private.”
Before anyone could argue, I dragged her by the hand and took her into the garden. I flung her onto a wrought iron bench in the formal rose garden and began to pace up and down the small space. Thrice I opened my mouth to speak, but no words would come out because I had been rendered speechless with fury.
Finally, I stopped before her and glared down at her unrepentant face.
“How dare you?” I seethed. “How dare you put all my hard work at risk with this ridiculous farce?”
“Veer, hear me out,” she began, but I held up a hand and she stopped talking.
“Do you know what will happen when we don’t get married within a month? Raman Chandel will tear up my nomination papers and make sure no party ever gives me a ticket. My people will lose their homes for good, Isha! And the mafia will take over the whole state. All because you did not think before you made that tall claim. What the fuck is wrong with you? ”
The last question came out on a shout and she flinched at the fury in my face and voice.
Just when I thought she was about to burst into tears, Isha stood up and poked me in the chest with a pointy finger.
“Don’t you yell at me, Ranveer Sisodia! You should be on your knees, thanking me for saving your sorry ass,” she exclaimed.
I stared at her blankly because I didn’t know if I was stuck in some alternate universe or if she was off her rocker.
“How did you save my ass? You just postponed the inevitable, Isha. And when Chandel Sahab realises that we won’t be getting married anytime soon, it will only make matters worse.”
Isha looked into the distance and mumbled something.
“I beg your pardon?” I asked, leaning forward.
She met my eyes fleetingly and looked away again.
“Just hear me out, okay?” she begged. “No matter what you believe, you do need a wife to fix your image. And if I don’t find a husband within a month, I will lose my dream house forever.”
“You’re not serious?” I asked weakly.
Isha nodded firmly.
“I’m dead serious, Veer. I have no other options left. I need a husband. And you can delude yourself all you like but no amount of social work will get you as many votes as your wife campaigning for you. Especially when that wife happens to be a princess who helped her brother fight the mafia that control these lands. When Bhai Sa would go hunting drug dealers and gun runners, I would deal with the aftermath of the bloodshed in the village and make sure the villagers had enough food and medicines.”
I grabbed Isha by the shoulders and forced her to meet my eyes.
“Isha, do you really want to marry me? After everything that’s happened between us?”
She flushed uncomfortably and pushed my hands away.
“Not forever,” she clarified.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m proposing a temporary marriage of convenience that works to both our advantage. If we get married within a month, I can claim my inheritance. I’ll help you campaign for the elections, and we stay married until you take oath as the CM, and then get a quiet annulment. We’ll only have to be married for a year or so.”
A slow fury started building in me as I stared down at her. Only be married for a year? Did she even know what that meant?
“What if I’m involved with someone else? Did you stop to consider that?”
Isha went pale as she thought about it, but then she flushed with anger and punched me in the shoulder lightly.
“If you’re already involved with someone else, you had no right to touch me the way you did the other night,” she said furiously.
Of course, I wouldn’t have touched her if I had been involved with someone. But she didn’t know that and I enjoyed watching her squirm with guilt. She studied me for a moment and then raised an eyebrow imperiously.
“Well? Are you dating anyone?” she demanded.
“No,” I admitted.
“Then what’s the problem?”
“The problem is that I don’t want to get married at all! Not even temporarily,” I yelled.
“Well, guess what, Laajwanti? Neither do I,” she yelled back. “But Gulab Mahal matters the world to me, and if I have to sacrifice one year of my life to achieve my dream, I will do it. What’s the worst thing you’re willing to do to achieve yours?”
“Thanks to you, it seems I’ll have to get married,” I bit out.
I didn’t know if Isha really thought she was helping me when she announced our wedding to Chandel Sahab, or if she was using my desperation to fulfil her dream, but there was no backing out now. Not if I wanted to avoid political suicide.
I knew I should be grateful to her for her help, and a temporary marriage was the perfect solution to both our problems, but it felt so transactional. I had no plans to marry in the immediate future, but I had always thought that when I did get married, it would be for love. I had rejected all the arranged marriage proposals put forth by my mother because I couldn’t dream of being tied to someone without love.
Besides, this was Isha! The woman who had driven me crazy for years. I had stayed far away from her because I knew she deserved much better than the mix of hatred and insatiable desire which was all I had to offer. Now that I had no reason to hate her, it was getting very difficult to keep my desire leashed and under control.
One spark was all it would take to trigger an explosion, and she had no idea she was playing with fire.
I had a feeling one taste of her wouldn’t be enough for me. Hell, a lifetime of making love to Isha wouldn’t be enough for me. And all she was offering was a year.
She plonked herself down on the bench and began to hyperventilate.
“So, we’re doing this, right? I know you’re not happy about it, but we have to go through with it. For the sake of our dreams,” she said, between bouts of rapid, shallow breathing.
I knelt before her and took her hands in mine.
“Hey, take slow, deep breaths,” I ordered. “It will look very bad for me if my new fiancée passes out and hits her head on a bench.”
Isha looked into my eyes as she took deeper breaths. I wondered if she could see deep into the depths of my soul and what she found there. For my part, I could feel my anger slipping away when I stared into her big, brown eyes. I grabbed hold of it before it slipped away completely and left me weak and vulnerable again.
“It depends on you, Isha. Can you walk away from me after a year?” I whispered in her ear.
I nibbled on the soft shell of her ear and Isha shuddered in response. I kissed my way gently from her ear to the side of her mouth, dropping soft, butterfly kisses on her skin.
Isha opened her mouth to speak, but I swallowed her protest when I covered her lips with mine and kissed her deeply for the first time in years. With a soft moan, she kissed me back, and it felt like I was home at last. I thrust my tongue in her mouth and hers duelled with it for a few seconds, before she sucked on it, sending sparks of fire straight to my groin.
With a groan, I broke the kiss and leaned back to observe her beautiful face. Her lips were parted and glistening, and her face was flushed with desire. I waited until Isha opened her eyes and it gave me immense pleasure to note that she looked dazed.
“Are you capable of walking away from this? From… us ?”
Isha’s eyes turned glacial and she pushed me away.
“There is no us, Veer. This is a business proposition. A marriage of convenience. There won’t be any of… this,” she said, waving a hand between our bodies.
I cracked a harsh laugh as I shook my head in disbelief.
“There’s nothing convenient about my desire for you, Isha. So why should our marriage be anything different? If you think you and I can live together for a year and have a marriage in name only, you’re out of your mind,” I argued.
Isha shot me a wintry smile.
“Not at all, Veer. All I need to do is remember how you didn’t find me attractive when I was ten kilos heavier. You might have forgotten that, but I haven’t,” she said bitterly.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I asked sharply.
I had spent the past nine years agonising about my insatiable desire for the one woman who was forbidden to me. And she had the cheek to say I didn’t find her attractive!
She stood up and began to walk away.
“It doesn’t matter. If you’re willing to go ahead with this, we need to inform our families,” she said off-handedly.
“Of course it fucking matters,” I exploded, grabbing her hand and pulling her back to me. “You can’t walk away from me after saying something so outlandish.”
“What’s outlandish about it?” she asked coldly. “I’m merely stating facts. You used to find me physically repulsive.”
“Isha Shekhawat, I’ve known you for almost your entire life, and I’ve felt a lot of things for you over all these years. Affection, a lot of anger, some fear, and above all, insatiable lust. But it is safe to say that I’ve never been repelled by you,” I said starkly.
“You don’t have to spare my feelings, Veer. I don’t care if you were put off by my appearance. That’s a reflection on you, not me.”
She still wasn’t looking at me as she spoke, so I knew that she did care. Somehow, at some point in our long and chequered past, Isha had got it into her head that I didn’t find her attractive. She sounded absolutely convinced about that. And I had no idea how that was possible.
“Isha, look at me,” I insisted and waited till she raised her eyes to meet mine.
All I could see was a wall. Isha had retreated behind that wall and she was closing me out. If I wanted her to let me in, I was going to have to punch that fucking wall down, and I knew only one way to do it.
“I know you don’t believe me, but I will prove to you that you’re very, very wrong,” I said fiercely. “Forget about a marriage of convenience, baby. There won’t be an annulment. Ever. As soon as I get that mangalsutra around your neck, I’m going to spend all my time showing you exactly how much I want you. I’ve spent the past nine years denying my desire, so be warned, Isha. I won’t rest until you recognise how you’ve bewitched me. Until you recognise your own beauty that has nothing to do with how much you weigh. I will make love to your delicious curves until my palace resounds with your screams of pleasure. And then, I will fuck you some more so that you never, ever say such a thing again.”
And bam! The wall went crashing down as Isha’s pupils dilated in shock.
“You… you’re…” she sputtered, and I shot her a feral grin.
“Not now, baby. You’ll have to make an honest man out of me if you want a taste of this,” I said, waving a hand down my body.
Isha growled under her breath and pulled her hand out of my grasp.
“In your dreams, Laajwanti. You can fuck me in your dreams,” she spat.
“Oh, I’ve been doing that for years now,” I replied, enjoying the way she turned bright red. “But now, I’m going to invade your waking hours and make long, sweet love to you until you beg me to stop. But you won’t because you’ll be too busy begging for more.”
She snorted in derision.
“Yeah, right. I know you rate your dick really high, but a Trikhera never begs,” she said haughtily.
“Challenge accepted,” I murmured happily.
“Wait! That’s not what I meant,” she exclaimed.
“Too bad, princess. Now, didn’t you learn in that fancy finishing school that a princess never keeps her guests waiting? Our mothers are probably having a collective stroke while you talk dirty to me here.”
“ You were the one talking dirty!” she yelled.
I shot her a concerned look.
“Are you sure? That doesn’t sound like me,” I said thoughtfully.
Isha growled again.
“Of course, you did! You… you said you’d… do all those things to me,” she stammered, going red again.
“That’s right, baby. You remember each and everything I promised to do to you and keep me honest when I’m doing it. Remind me if I forget something important,” I murmured, as I linked my fingers with hers and led her out of the garden.
She looked adorably confused, which was a good thing.
This marriage promised to be a rollercoaster anyway, and the more unbalanced I kept her, the better it was for me. Because I knew one thing and one thing only. I had no idea how this very inconvenient marriage of convenience was going to turn out, but I knew that I had finally got a chance to explore my obsession with Isha. And I wasn’t going to be satisfied with one measly year together. If it took a lifetime to convince her of that, so be it.