Their Bollywood Reunion - Chapter 6
Chapter 6
Her eyes closed, her face raised to the sky and she looked as if she might break apart if he so much as touched her. And AJ wanted to. More than anything he’d wanted in a long time. He wanted to cradle her cheek and kiss her at the soft juncture where her skin was the silkiest and he wanted to hold her as she trembled.
Instead, he finished his drink in one gulp. But even alcohol couldn’t dim the buzz of his desire for his wife. It did, however, loosen his tongue enough to respond. “In those first few months, I thought it was a badly played joke on your part.”
Her eyes flew open. “What was a joke?”
“Your absence when I returned from Switzerland. The elaborate excuses I used for weeks… Even Virat’s movies don’t have those plot twists.”
“But unlike in Mr. Raawal’s alternate-universe plotlines, you did have my number. You could have simply called me.”
The same anger uncurled in his gut again, but he shut it away. He wanted a rational discussion this time. “Wasn’t the entire point of your leaving the fact that you wanted time and distance from me? What was it that you said that last night? That our marriage wasn’t what you had imagined.”
She looked away. Because she had no answer for that. And yet, he felt not even a little bit of satisfaction. Somewhere in the last nine months, this had stopped being about his ego. And something else.
“I thought Seema didi would have gotten rid of everything remotely related to me.” Her eyes met his and jerked away, as if she’d surprised herself by bringing it up. A breeze ruffled her hair and she tucked away a few strandsnervously. “No, forget I said that. I promised myself I wouldn’t mention your sister ever again.”
This time, it was his turn to feel guilty. When he should’ve listened, he’d shoved away Anna’s complaints, calling her childish and nagging. Now, he wondered if he had, would they be standing here in this moment, carefully circling each other like some wild animals.
“She wanted to,” he said, knowing that calls to his sister and father were long overdue. Some strange resistance stopped him. “She thought it would be therapeutic for me to wipe you from my life. But I didn’t let her.”
“Why not?” Her voice trembled and AJ knew it wasn’t because of the crisp breeze.
“I didn’t marry you at her behest. I wasn’t going to simply erase you from my life at her advice, either. Even though a juvenile part of me very much wanted to.”
“And yet you had no qualms about living it up with that industrialist’s daughter as soon as I left? The woman Seema didi and Papa wanted you to marry in the first place.”
AJ straightened from the wall. “How do you know that the Shahs and my family had that expectation?”
She shrugged. “I was informed within ten minutes of our wedding reception that I wasn’t the bright, golden future your family wanted for you, AJ. At least, you pleased them eventually.”
Damn his sister and her big mouth! And yet, as Anna glared at him from under those long lashes, all he felt was elation. She was jealous—he had no doubt. He covered the distance between them but stopped short of their bodies touching. “You sound jealous, sweetheart. If you want to know if Ms. Shah and I have been singing love duets after you left, then you need to come out and ask me. I’m too much of a gentleman to boast of my conquests.”