He scowled at the blond man nearby who’d pursed his lips in a silent whistle. The guy shrugged sheepishly. “She’s hot, man. I can’t help my eyes.”
That too was true. Nayna wasn’t obvious in her sensuality, but it was there, a simmering ember below the surface that made a man want to unlock her, find out how her sleek body would move in bed, over him, under him. Her beauty was the same—not blatant and in your face, but quiet, lovely, changeable with her moods. He had the feeling he could look forever at her and be fascinated each and every time.
She hadn’t spotted him yet, her focus on avoiding being tripped up by a middle-aged lady with three dogs on leashes. Her lips, painted red to match her suit, curved as the tiny dogs attempted to bounce toward her rather than following their owner’s commands.
His body hardened. Those lips. Nayna had the most lush lips. “Try anything and I’ll break you in half,” he all but growled at the blond when the man looked like he was weighing up his chances.
The other man took a good look at Raj and threw up his hands before backing off. “Like I said, hot. You’re a lucky guy.”
Having successfully bypassed the hyperactive menaces on four legs, Nayna finished crossing the road and looked toward the café. Her smile faded when she spotted him waiting for her, to be replaced by a look he couldn’t read. It was only when she reached him that he remembered the height difference between them—and thought immediately of the dreams he’d had that involved lifting her up and wrapping her legs around his waist while he pressed her to a wall.
She’d be the perfect height then. Especially if she was naked.
Not that she was apt to be thinking of getting close to him at the present time. “Sorry about the gear,” he said with a wave at the state of his clothing. “I probably stink of sweat so we should sit outside.”
“You smell fine.” She tugged up the strap of her small purse. “But we can sit outside if you like. The sunshine’s not too much yet.”
He watched her mouth as she spoke even though it was a very bad idea. Nayna had a mouth that did things to him without even trying, made him want to act in ways primal and raw that he’d never previously considered.
Raj was a healthy male in his prime, but he’d never had trouble controlling his sexuality. He’d always had very little sympathy for men brought low by their urges. Well, the joke was on him, because Nayna Sharma could bring him to his knees with her mouth alone… and he wasn’t sure he liked that. No woman should have that much power over a man.
It made the man far too vulnerable.
“You hungry?” he asked gruffly.
They didn’t have a chance to really speak again until they were sitting down with their meals—both of them had chosen sandwiches, though hers was considerably smaller than his.
“Will that be enough?” Nayna frowned. “Don’t tell me that’s all you eat doing such a physical job?”
Raj felt warmth stab at him, and it unsettled him all over again how quickly she was getting under his skin. Nayna was even more dangerous to him than he’d believed.
* * *
“I eat about every two hours when I’m physically on a site.” Raj’s face was unsmiling and hard to read, his words almost curt. “I have to spend one day per week in the office to take care of business matters, but I like working on builds much better.”
Nayna nodded. “It’d be a waste of incredible skill if you didn’t.” She’d looked up their company website, seen the jobs on which he’d been listed as the head builder; as she’d experienced herself, Raj was gifted with his hands.
Her skin tingled, and she had to force herself back from falling victim to her physical reaction to him. Wearing a dusty T-shirt and with tumbled hair, his jaw scruffy again, Raj was bone-meltingly gorgeous; it took exquisite control not to crawl across the table and kiss him with slow, deep intensity. “I thought you’d decided against an arranged match?” she said, her voice husky.
He held her gaze with the penetrating darkness of his. “I didn’t think it was fair to meet other women when I was haunted by a woman in a skintight dress who only wanted me for my body.”
Cheeks hot, Nayna deliberately took a giant bite of her sandwich. Raj didn’t fill the taut silence with words—he was, she thought, a man comfortable with silences. Finally swallowing the bite and taking a sip of water to wash it down, she decided he deserved the truth. “You were meant to be my wild fling before I settled down into marriage with a stranger.”
A raised eyebrow followed by the faintest hint of a smile. “I wouldn’t have thought I’d qualify as a wild fling.”
Now that she knew him, she understood why: he was too intense, took things dead seriously, and oh that was far more intriguing than a brainless hunk. “Trust me,” she whispered, “you qualified for me.”
Their eyes locked again, the air still.
Hand closing into a fist on the table, Raj said, “I want to marry you.”
The stark words reverberated inside Nayna’s skull, leaving her without a response.
“I can’t get you out of my head,” he added, not sounding exactly happy about that. “Marriage would let us explore our physical connection without boundaries.”
Nayna frowned. “Such romance.”
A grim look in return. “We’re adults, Nayna. Romance is for children,” he said in a tone that was as hard as stone. “And you’re unlikely to get a better offer. Your sister’s affair with a postgrad student before she ran off with another man is well known in the community.”
Nayna’s ears burned. The affair with a married man wasn’t something any of them ever talked about, but it lay at the root of all the anguish Madhuri had caused her family. At the time, that master’s student had been a member of the local Indian community too. As had been his wife and toddler son.
It was the wife who’d turned up at the Sharma residence, sobbing her heart out after discovering evidence of the affair on her husband’s phone. Madhuri, a new university student at the time, when confronted about the affair, had yelled that she was in love.
“My sister was eighteen and a half. He was twenty-four. He should’ve known better.” Madhuri wasn’t innocent, had been old enough to make the right decision, but Nayna refused to allow the world to cast her in the role of villainess.
“Agreed,” Raj said unexpectedly. “He was the married one, the one who cheated. But you know how the world works—everyone blames your sister, and that’s a stain against your family name.” His tone remained hard, unbending. “You’re not going to get many marriage offers. It’s not fair, but people assume you’ll be as fickle and disloyal as her.”
Nayna’s hand clenched around her water glass, her vision red. “Are you offering to marry me despite that stain?”
“Yes. We have excellent chemistry, and the rest we can work out.”
It was a struggle not to throw the water in his face, but Nayna wasn’t about to make a scene. Not for him. “Thank you for your oh-so-kind offer to save me from the curse of singledom,” she said very precisely, “but given that you’ve just insulted my entire family, implied that I’m so undesirable I won’t be able to find a man who wants me despite the ‘stain’ on my family name, and acted with the emotional IQ of a block of wood, I’d rather die a shriveled-up old virgin than let you anywhere near me.”
12
Nayna’s Secret Diary (Angry Red-Ink Day)
Things that happened today:
* * *
I found out Raj is an ASS.
I came home at nine thirty so no one could grill me about that stupid lunch. I should’ve thrown the water in his face, scene or no scene.
Madhuri got two more offers of marriage. “Stain” on our family name, my posterior.
My body still gets wet thinking about him. My body is an idiot.
Oh fuck! I just realized I told Raj I was a virgin. Great. Just great.
13
Someone Is Getting Naked (Oooooooh)