CHAPTER 25
Sebastian
THE FINAL DAY OF RADHIKA’S WEDDING FESTIVITIES dawned clear and bright. A gentle breeze ruffled my hair as I walked to the lake where the other guests were already gathered. It was a noticeably smaller crowd than on previous days.
Last night’s reception was the last grand event. Most people had already left or were leaving today. However, family and close friends were invited to stay for a more casual, intimate day of games and activities.
The first item on the itinerary was a boat ride around the hotel’s biggest lake. The man-made behemoth was big enough to accommodate dozens of boats at once, and guests were assigned a number corresponding with their boat group.
I searched the lakeside until I found Maya. She was standing with her sisters and their significant others. Like everyone else, she was dressed far more casually today in linen pants and a cotton top. She laughed at something Neha’s husband said, and my chest constricted.
I wanted to see her smile at me like that again. I wanted… fuck, I wanted everything about her again.
“Sir, you’re in boat number six.” The activity organizer handed me a card with a big red six printed on it.
I took it with a distracted thanks.
Maya hadn’t noticed me yet. It was almost infuriating, the way I was so attuned to her presence when she wasn’t to mine.
She was fresh-faced and glowing while I was exhausted after a sleepless night.
I’d tossed and turned until the early hours of morning, my mind teeming with memories of our time together.
Her cries of pleasure, the way she’d tasted… and the panicked look on her face when she realized we hadn’t used protection. I was still kicking myself for that massive oversight, but I was almost certain that wasn’t why Maya had fled after, especially since she was on birth control.
No, I knew her well enough to guess what she’d been feeling in that exact moment—shock that we’d slept together, horror over our recklessness, fear over what it meant for our relationship going forward.
She’d been scared, so she ran.
Once upon a time, I would’ve let her, but I was done pretending.
Some people waited their whole lives to experience something that inevitably turned out to be a disappointment.
I’d waited my whole life to kiss Maya, and it’d shattered every expectation I’d ever had.
It’d stolen my reason, my control, my fucking sanity, and I’d be damned if I let her go without a fight.
“Actually…” I faced the organizer again and put on a charming smile. “Can you tell me which boat Maya Singh is in? I’d like to be in that one instead.”
“I’m sorry, sir. Boat number two is reserved for extended family only.”
“I am extended family.”
He gave me a dubious look.
“If you don’t believe me, I have some friends who can testify to that.” I pulled out my wallet and slipped a thick wad of rupees into his hand.
Five minutes later, I joined Maya’s group with a number two card in hand. Neha and her husband had split off to their own group, leaving behind Priya, her fiancé Ben, and a guy I didn’t recognize.
“Hi, everyone,” I said easily. “I hope you all got some good rest last night.”
Maya didn’t turn around, but her shoulders visibly tensed.
“Is this group two?” I held up my card. When Priya nodded, I smiled. “Looks like we’re spending the morning together then. I can’t wait.”
“No, we’re not,” Maya said, still not looking at me. “This boat is for extended family only.”
“That’s not what he told me.”
“That’s not what he told me either,” the unknown guy butted in. “I’m also in group two. Dev.” He held out his hand. “My dad works with Radhika’s dad.”
He shook everyone’s hand, but he held Maya’s for a little too long.
I scowled. I hated him already.
With Dev’s unintended backup and the coordinator hurrying us along so we didn’t run behind schedule, Maya had no choice but to allow me to join her.
Each boat had its own oarsman. Once our group was settled in, he set off.
The lake was almost big enough to rival the one in Central Park. It was dotted with picturesque arched bridges and miniature waterfalls, and sunlight rippled across the serene surface with each oar stroke.
I’d tried sitting next to Maya, but she’d maneuvered herself in between Dev and Priya. However, her new position put her directly across from me, which meant we had a perfect view of each other’s faces for the next hour.
Unfortunately, it meant I also had a perfect view of Dev trying to flirt with her.
“You live in New York, right?” he asked her. “I love that place. I’m in Berlin now, but I was thinking about moving there next year.”
I suppressed a scoff.
What a lame-ass pickup line. I should push him off the boat and save us all the misery.
My eyes lingered on Maya’s profile as she gave him a polite answer. It was exquisitely delicate for someone so tough, but I liked that about her. People always underestimated her until she kicked their ass, figuratively speaking. I’d made that mistake once and never again.
Priya and Ben were too busy cooing at each other to make conversation, so I was forced to listen to Dev prattle on. This was supposed to be a peaceful activity, and he was ruining it.
“Last night was fun.” I interrupted his painful attempts to find out whether Maya was single by dropping questions about her ‘boyfriend.’ “What was your favorite part?”
He blinked, clearly caught off guard. “Uh, the cake was good.”
“Yeah, great.” I couldn’t care less. “And you, Sal?” I asked, my tone deceptively casual. “What was your favorite part?”
Her cheeks flushed. I wondered if she was reliving our time in the stairwell as vividly as I was.
I could still taste her sweetness on my tongue and feel the way her body fit perfectly against mine. If I’d had any doubt about my feelings toward her, they were erased the minute she touched me.
Our first kiss had been a revelation, but our second kiss? That’d been confirmation.
There was no one else who could undo me the way she did.
“I liked spending time with my cousins,” Maya said. “It was nice to see everyone together again.”
“What a lovely sentiment,” I drawled. “I saw you and Priya go out into the gardens. They’re quite beautiful, don’t you think?”
Her blush darkened, but her eyes sparked with warning. “They’re okay. I’ve seen better.”
“Have you?”
“Yes.”
“Give me an example.”
Maya’s chin jutted out defiantly. “Versailles.”
“Basic.”
“Villa d’Este.”
“Overrated.”
“Brooklyn Botanic.”
“Please.”
I liked all of those places, but we weren’t talking about gardens, and I enjoyed seeing her so flustered. Any emotion was better than no emotion.
Dev’s eyes ping-ponged between us, his brow creasing with confusion. “Uh, why does he call you Sal?” he asked. “I thought your name was Maya.”
“It is,” she said through gritted teeth. “He calls me that to piss me off.”
Dev’s frown deepened.
“We went to boarding school together,” she clarified. “We were neck and neck for the valedictorian spot, but I got food poisoning and bombed a major test. I ended up as salutatorian, hence the shortened version of the word as my nickname. Sal.”
The test had been the morning after she threw up post-debate, but the effects from her food poisoning had lingered.
“Ah.” Dev’s brow cleared. He glanced at me. “Kind of a dick move, dude.”
“No one asked you,” I said coolly. “It’s an inside joke between us. You wouldn’t get it.”
“It’s not a funny joke. I hate it,” Maya said.
“Really?” I leaned forward. “Then why haven’t you told me to stop?”
Don’t stop. Please.
Another memory from last night resurfaced, and my body tightened in response.
Maya’s lips parted. Either we were on the same wavelength, or she’d picked up on the subtle shift in the atmosphere. Whatever it was, the effect on her was obvious. Her fingers curled tight in her lap, and her chest rose and fell with uneven breaths.
The enjoyment I got out of teasing her earlier vanished.
I didn’t want to be in this boat, engaging in frivolous banter while people I didn’t care about watched.
I wanted to grab her and whisk her away somewhere, anywhere where I could kiss her again.
I yearned to touch her so desperately that I ached from it, but even though she was sitting less than a foot away, she felt impossibly out of reach.
“I did tell you.” There was a catch in her voice.
“I don’t remember.” My eyes fixed on hers. “Tell me again right now, and I’ll stop.”
She didn’t.
Other than the lap of water against the boat and the cry of a bird circling overhead, it was eerily quiet.
Maya’s silence didn’t mean she was going to bend. Resolve hardened her features, and I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or scream.
She was so damn stubborn, but that was one of the things that drew me to her. I didn’t want her despite her thorny edges; I wanted her because of them. She was the lightning to my storm, the fire to my darkness.
No matter where we were or who we were with, she would always be the most beautiful, interesting person in the room. I could meet a million people across a thousand lifetimes, and that would never change.
“Oh, shit.” Dev’s annoying voice sliced through the moment. “Do you two have a thing going on? Because I didn’t mean—”
“No.” Maya’s answer was swift but unconvincing. “No thing. There’s never been—no.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Never, huh?”
Her blush returned.
Dev’s gaze darted between us. “Okaaaayy,” he said slowly. “So, uh, that means I can ask her out, right?”
“Sure.” I smiled. “But if you do, I’ll kill you.”
Maya’s eyes snapped back to mine. “You don’t get a say in who I go out with.”
“Then go out with him.” I leaned forward. “I dare you.”
“Fine.” She leaned forward too, matching my stance. Her glare could’ve burned through steel, but I was close enough to detect another kind of heat simmering beneath her anger. “Maybe I will.”
“Never mind. It’s okay,” Dev said. He looked like he deeply regretted his choice of boating companions. “You’re both kind of unhinged.”
We ignored him.
“I would’ve thought you’d had enough of pointless dates by now.”
“I would’ve thought you’d have learned how to mind your own business by now.”
“Your business is my business.”
“In what world?”
“In every fucking world.”
We were so busy arguing we didn’t notice we’d half-risen from our seats or hear the oarsman’s urgent warnings. “Sir! Miss! Please sit properly, or we’ll—”
It was too late.
I caught a flash of alarm on Maya’s face right before the boat tipped over, and all six of us tumbled into the lake.