Chapter 11
CHAPTER 11
DIYA
I slapped a hand against Dheer’s chest, intending to push him away. Instead, quite against my will, my hands wound themselves around his neck and I pulled him even closer. One kiss blended into another until I lost count. His tongue traced the seam of my lips and coaxed them to open for him. The sweetness of his breath invaded my mouth as his silky tongue played with mine, bossing it around. I sucked on it with a soft moan.
The sound brought me to my senses, and I wondered if I had lost my mind. Maybe this was some weird form of PTSD and I was in a fugue state where I didn’t know what I was doing. Why else would I be kissing Dheer of all people? He could say what he liked, but there was no way I could forget the past. As for being his in mind, body and soul, he was going to find himself in a world of pain if he even tried to get close to me. This was a marriage of convenience, and I was going to walk out on it as soon as I could, whether he liked it or not. There was no way I was going to tie myself to a man I hated for life, even if his kisses made me forget why I was mad at him in the first place.
I dragged my mouth from his and pushed Dheer away angrily.
“I’ll punch you in the throat the next time you do that, ” I warned, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.
My words might have been more convincing if I hadn’t wrapped one leg around his hip while he kissed me. Dheer looked very amused as I unwound myself from his body and stepped away from him. Bastard.
“Be my guest because I love a good fight,” he drawled.
I bet he did, the beast, I fumed as I tried to slow my breathing. How could I have allowed him to kiss me within full view of his staff? My mother would skin me alive if she ever found out, and I shuddered at his grandmother’s reaction. She would make snide comments about my sluttiness until the day she died.
It was all Dheer’s fault. I would never have done such a thing if he hadn’t distracted me with his bare chest. I wished it was illegal for him to go about without a shirt. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if his female staff walked into walls when he passed by them in his bare-chested glory.
“Fuck off,” I muttered as I pushed past him and walked away with as much dignity as I could muster.
“Now and forever, Diya,” he called out, and I resisted the urge to break out into a run. After all, there was nowhere to run.
When I entered the house, the butler informed me that the Rani Mas awaited me in the small sitting room. It was a beautiful room, light and airy, with sunshine-yellow walls and pale pink upholstery. There was a delicate pink and yellow finely embroidered silk tapestry on the long wall, bringing it all together.
“I love that tapestry, Aunty! Is it a scene from the Ramayana?” I asked with interest, and Dheer’s mother nodded happily.
“Yes! The story of Shabari. It was hand-embroidered by our local artisans. I had this room redesigned after my husband passed away. It is my little haven where I can relax and read…”
“And hide from my grandmother,” teased Isha.
“Hush! Us Rajputs don’t hide. We discreetly retire to avoid conflict,” scolded her mother with a twinkle in her eye. “And you’re more than welcome to use this room after you’re married, beta. Or redecorate any of the other rooms to suit your taste. Accha, I’ve been speaking to our priest, and he says there’s an excellent muhurat for the wedding this Saturday.”
I turned to stare at her in surprise and banged my hip into the corner of a beautifully carved rosewood writing desk.
“Uff! I can’t believe how clumsy this girl is,” complained my mother with a pained sigh. “I’m surprised she hasn’t fallen off the runway yet.”
I had. More times than I cared to recall, but I wasn’t going to admit that to the woman who was my fiercest critic.
“I was just surprised at Padmini Aunty’s words,” I muttered, rubbing my hip with a wince. “Isn’t that too soon?”
“It is. Almost indecently soon,” grumbled my mother. “I’m sorry, Padmini Ji. We cannot arrange a wedding at such short notice. We need at least three months to organise a proper wedding. This is the first one in our family in Diya’s generation. None of her cousins are married yet. And to be honest, I was almost sure my daughter would never get married. Now that my dream is coming true, I need time to put together a huge celebration.”
“Raji, Diya’s safety matters more than a big celebration. And we don’t expect you to do anything. We’ll have the wedding right here this weekend, and your family can host a huge reception after all this blows over,” said Dheer’s mother firmly.
“Haye! We’ll be the laughingstock of the whole country,” wailed my mother. “How can a Sisodia/Shekhawat wedding not be a grand affair? Padmini Ji, we throw huge parties for the smallest reason. Just last month, my husband organised a Mediterranean cruise for fifty-five guests to celebrate my fifty-fifth birthday. Think how it will look if we get our daughter married in a hush-hush ceremony. People will think she’s pregnant!”
“I don’t want a big wedding, Ma,” I insisted.
“Who cares about what you want?” she snapped.
Sure. Who cared what I wanted? I was just the bride. It wasn’t as if the wedding was about me, I thought sarcastically.
But I meant it. This was a fake, temporary marriage, and it didn’t deserve anything more than a hole-in-the-wall affair. I wanted to reserve the celebrations for when I eventually married for love. If I ever did. Still, it was the principle of the thing. I didn’t want to be forced to do all the typical romantic wedding things with Dheer when it meant nothing. I shuddered at the thought of a sappy couple’s dance at a sangeet, but when I thought of the beautiful rituals of the actual wedding, including the promises the couple made to each other over the agni, it made me want to cry.
It would be heartbreaking to look into Dheer’s eyes and promise to be his forever when I knew that wasn’t possible. When I knew that he would never love me the way I deserved. Because that was the crux of my anger at being forced to marry him. It wasn’t like a typical arranged, dynastic marriage where the couple hoped to build their budding attraction into a strong relationship. I already knew that Dheer had never loved me and that he never would. He didn’t even want to marry me. He was doing it out of pity. That wasn’t a very good basis for a happy marriage, and I refused to settle for anything less.
“I care about it,” I said, taking a stand. “This is my wedding, and I don’t want a big fuss. I’m okay with a court marriage, to be honest.”
“You need to apply for that a month in advance,” said Isha. “ What ? Don’t look at me like that, Ma. It’s common knowledge.”
“As long as you’re not planning to elope with someone,” said her mother with a dry look.
“Who’s eloping?” asked a deep voice from the door, and I turned around with a yelp.
“Veer! You’re here. Finally,” I cried, as I ran forward to greet my brother.
But he held a hand up to stop me when I was about to hug him.
“Easy there, Diya. I’ve cracked a rib,” he said with a wince.
“What happened to you? You’re hurt,” exclaimed Isha.
I looked him over carefully and was alarmed to see a big bruise forming on his cheekbone.
“A small accident. Nothing to worry about,” he said dismissively, pushing Isha’s hand away when she tried to help him into a chair. “I’m fine. Stop fussing.”
“What accident?” demanded my mother.
“A truck rammed into the back of the car that Dheer sent to pick me up from the airport. The car was totalled, but the driver and I got off with minimal damage.”
“Ohmigod! Someone tried to kill you,” I cried.
By someone, I meant the Goels. It was too much of a coincidence for it to be anyone else. First, they tried to kill me, and now my brother. Would this nightmare never end?
“Forget about it. They caught the driver before he could escape and he’s in jail now.”
“That means nothing,” said Isha angrily. “I bet he’s just some drunk truck driver who did it for a few extra bucks. The cops won’t find anything to link him to the Goels.”
“It’s not a big deal. And Ma, please stop weeping,” snapped Veer. “I’m not dead yet. Now, what’s this about an elopement? Who’s eloping?”
“Isha,” I said promptly, hoping to distract everyone from my mother’s waterworks.
“Who’s the victim?” asked Veer snidely.
“You seem to be in a lot of pain. Let’s see if a swift kick to the ribs can fix it,” offered Isha sweetly, and I turned to gape at her.
She had never responded so viciously to Veer’s snideness before, but I was very glad to see her giving it back to him. It wasn’t her fault her brother had betrayed me, and it pissed me off when Veer was mean to her. I did my best to keep them apart, but as my best friend, she couldn’t avoid him completely.
Veer grunted in reply and looked away from her. I high-fived her from afar and hastily wiped the smile from my face when my mother glared at me. Meanwhile, Dheer’s mother bit back a smile and winked at her daughter. See? That was how a loving mother responded when her daughter stood up to a bully. I wished my mother would learn something from Dheer’s mom. I sighed as I accepted that for the pipe dream that it was.
“You’re just in time to help us plan Diya and Dheer’s wedding,” said Dheer’s mother.
Veer looked at me in shock.
“Are you serious? You’re going to marry him after what he did to you?”
“I don’t have a choice, Veer.”
“There’s always a choice, Diya,” he began, but our mother broke in hastily.
“Don’t fill her ears with your nonsense, Veer. The wedding has been fixed and she can’t back out of it now.”
“I won’t let anyone force Diya into marrying a man she hates,” declared Veer, and I blinked back the tears that welled in my eyes.
“It’s the only thing that can keep her safe, Veer,” argued Ma.
“I can keep my sister safe,” he insisted.
But what about him? Who would keep him and the rest of my family safe? How long before Ayush and his men went after all the people I loved just to prove their point? I couldn’t risk their lives. But I also knew that if Veer realised why I was marrying Dheer, he’d drag me out of the mandap. My brother had a protective streak a mile long.
“I need to do this, Veer. In fact, I want to,” I lied.
He glanced at me thoughtfully for a few seconds, and then he nodded.
“If that’s what you want. Where’s Dheer? I need to talk to him.”
Isha rang for the butler and asked him to call Dheer while Ma and Dheer’s mother left to discuss the wedding arrangements. Dheer froze in the doorway when he saw Veer, and I remembered that the last time they had spoken to each other had been when Veer asked him to get the hell out of our palace and take his fiancée with him.