Secrets of a Bollywood Marriage

CHAPTER SEVEN


DEV WATCHED AS Tina stormed into the house and marched up the stairs. Her anger had not waned since they’d left the bazaar. Nothing he said on the way back home had seemed to pierce the cloud of fury that had surrounded her.

How could she think he preferred Shreya? Wasn’t it obvious that Tina held him spellbound? It had been torment the past two weeks to refrain from touching her. Kissing her. He couldn’t stop staring at her lips, remembering how they felt and tasted. He didn’t want any other woman. He wanted his wife.

“Do you need anything, Sahib?” Sandeep asked as he closed the door.

Patience, Dev decided. Because he had officially run out of it.

He shook his head. “No, thank you, Sandeep. Any calls?” He hoped there was urgent business back at the office. Something that would require him to leave. Distract him.

Dev frowned. How often had he done that? Gone to work instead of confronting a problem head-on at home? Work came easily to him but relationships were a minefield he had yet to master. Maybe Nikhil was right. He wasn’t a good husband.

“Yes, one message,” Sandeep said. He glanced upstairs and lowered his voice. “Shreya Sen called.”

Dev exhaled slowly. Even the old manservant knew how Tina felt about Shreya. Everyone had noticed but him. He should have picked up on the clues. He hadn’t considered Shreya a threat to his marriage until now.

She had been a colleague and a family friend. She often called for advice. Two years ago his family had started discussions with hers about an arranged marriage. Dev hadn’t been enthusiastic about the idea but the union     made sense. And then he had met Tina.

The marriage talks had stalled and then broken down completely. His parents thought he was rebelling. Shreya had thought they both needed one last fling before they settled down. But he had found something with Tina that he hadn’t thought existed. He had found love that didn’t hinge on his box office success. He had a private life. A world that wasn’t designed by publicity or the film industry.

He had allowed the fantasy of a family life to slip through his fingers. Now he had a chance to get it back and he was going to hold on tighter. Somehow he was going to get Tina to love him again. Only this time, the love would be stronger and wouldn’t shatter at the first sign of trouble.

“Sahib?” Sandeep said. “Would you like for me to get Miss Sen on the phone?”

“No, that won’t be necessary.” Dev raked his fingers through his hair. “From now on, if Shreya calls, I’m not here.”

Sandeep smiled with approval and bobbed his head side to side. “Yes, Sahib.”


Dev strode up the stairs and went straight to the bedroom. He was going to convince Tina once and for all that he hadn’t slept with Shreya.

He paused when he looked around the bedroom. She wasn’t there. He heard the scrape of the clothes hangers and immediately went to her walk-in closet. He followed the trail of her sandals that looked like they had been kicked off violently. Her dupatta was balled up in the corner.

He stood at the threshold, his heart stopping for one aching moment, when he saw Tina scooping up her clothes and throwing them into a suitcase. She was leaving. Again. She didn’t believe him. Didn’t trust him. Why did he think he could regain that trust?

“Don’t you think you’re overreacting?” Dev drawled as he held back the rising panic.

Tina didn’t look at him. She didn’t answer. She acted as if he wasn’t there.

“I will not accept the silent treatment, jaan,” he warned. He’d had enough of being shut out. “I’d rather have you shout at me and tell me what’s on your mind than ignore me.”

“Fine,” she said. “When I got married to you, I was seen as the obstacle that kept you and Shreya apart. I was the villainess in the story. The seductress that stole you from everyone’s favorite heroine,” Tina said as she tossed a shoe in the suitcase. “While I was gone, you take the role of a man who goes mad because he can’t have the woman he loves. That woman being Shreya.” She threw the other shoe with more force. “You want me to ignore the gossip, but it’s a little hard when everyone knows you handpicked Shreya to play Laila!”

“Those were creative and marketing decisions. It wasn’t personal.” People thought it was his finest performance as he played a man who was heartbroken and descending into madness because he couldn’t be with the woman he loved. He hadn’t been thinking about Shreya when he played the role. He had been thinking of Tina, who had spurned him and had disappeared from his life.

“Really? It wasn’t personal.” She walked to her makeup table and yanked open a drawer. She pulled out a rolled-up magazine and tossed it at him. He caught it by reflex. “Then how do you explain this?”

He unrolled the magazine. The headline read Dev and Shreya: Together at Last! and promised pictures of their rekindled romance. “Where did you get this?”

“In America. I had found an Indian grocery market and went in there to get snacks. I found that instead.” She picked up the hairbrush from the table and threw it savagely into the suitcase. “Those pictures are not of two colleagues at work. That was in front of our home during the night.”

“I did not have an affair with her. I have never had sex with Shreya and I have no interest in her. I was faithful to you.” But the pictures were damning. He wasn’t sure when they had been taken. Shreya had used one of the guest rooms on one occasion as they worked together on their roles. “You got this in America?”

She placed her hands on her hips. “Yes, why?”

“That’s why you came home.” Would she have returned if she’d thought he had been pining away for her? Would she have felt the need for one final confrontation if she hadn’t seen this tabloid?

He threw the magazine on the floor and approached her. She took a step back and bumped against the wall. Dev grabbed her wrists and held her arms above her head. “Not because I was worried sick about you. Not because your family missed you. It’s because of those lies!”

“I’m just supposed to believe you?” Tina thrust out her chin as her eyes glittered with defiance. “Shreya wants you.”

“No, she doesn’t. Shreya is secretly dating a married director.” Dev had to wonder if Shreya had encouraged the stories about a possible love affair to keep the reporters off the scent of the real story.

“You tried to hide the fact that she was your leading lady,” Tina pointed out. “Anything else you’re not telling me?”

“No,” he said as he leaned into her. His muscles clenched as her soft body cradled him. “Shreya is no threat to this marriage. I have nothing to hide. I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Nothing to hide? Then tell me, was Shreya your first pick as a wife?”

“Yes, but—”

“Then you met me and got me pregnant,” she said harshly. “I put an end to those plans. Or at least a temporary hold.”

And marrying her had been the best thing that had ever happened to him. “So you’re going to walk now? Sabotage your future because you believe a tabloid story over your husband’s words?”

“It took me by surprise.” Her voice rose. “I’m not jealous or anything.”

Dev hadn’t seen her like this. She had dealt with overly familiar starlets at parties and zealous fans who wanted to sleep with him. His wife had always handled these situations with a sophisticated ease. Tina must know he was under her sensual spell. He didn’t want anyone but her and he thought he had proved it every day.

“Fine, Dev. You win,” she said in a growl. “I will stay for the remaining six weeks, but I have a few demands.”

He slowly let go of her wrists and watched her intently. What was she up to now? “You are in no position to make demands.”

“When we are in public, you need to make it very clear that you are besotted with me.” She glared at him. “Why are you smiling?”

“Am I?” He set his mouth in a firm line. Tina was staking her claim. He liked it. He liked knowing that she was protecting what she felt was hers. She hadn’t done it that boldly before. Had he mistaken her silence for confidence instead of uncertainty? Did she think she didn’t have a right to make a claim? That he would have rejected it?

“I’m serious, Dev.” She crossed her arms and leaned forward. “You want to prove to your investors that you have a stable family life? Don’t let them think you’re having an extramarital affair.”

Dev rubbed his hand over his chin, hiding the smile that wanted to break through. Tina was going to be so angry when she discovered that there were no investors. That he had foreign investor groups who were clamoring to work with him since they had discovered Bollywood made billions.

“Do you think I’m going to respond to threats?” he asked silkily.

She rested her head on the wall and sighed as if the fight was leaving her. “Can you at least act like I was your one and only choice for a wife?”

“Yeah, I can do that,” he said in a husky whisper. He wished he had shown it earlier and more often. If he had, maybe he wouldn’t have made Tina feel unwanted. “But I want something else in return.”

She looked at him with suspicion. “What?”

“Tell me where you went after you left me in Los Angeles.” He needed to know. He was sure he wasn’t going to like the answer, but the not knowing was killing him. “And who replaced me during those months?”

* * *

Tina hesitated. She didn’t have to tell him. She knew that Shreya wasn’t a threat to her marriage. That she never had been. It seemed incredible that the ingenue would choose another man over Dev.

Tina wanted to keep her secret. She was afraid to tell her husband where she had been. It could be used as ammunition.

“Why are you so quick to assume that I was with another man?” she asked. His accusation bothered her. Did he think she was like the bad girls she played on screen?

“Why were you so quick to think I’ve been with Shreya all this time?” he countered.

Tina flattened her hand against her chest. “I’m not the one with the playboy reputation. I’m not the one who’s been caught with photographic evidence. And I was a virgin when I met you.”

She saw the possessive gleam in his eye and it made her skin flush. He loved the fact that he was her first and made no secret about it. But now the idea that he may not be her only lover had shaken him.

“You may have been a virgin, but you were not innocent.” His gaze drifted to her mouth. He leaned forward and then stopped, catching himself before he kissed her. “You knew how to drive me wild that first time. And once you had a taste of pleasure, you were insatiable.”

She blushed. “So what?” She couldn’t let him know just how much his touch affected her. How she became almost obsessed with him and his body.

He clenched his jaw and a muscle bunched in his cheek. “There is no way you would have been celibate while we were apart,” he decided. “You are too sensual and too passionate to have slept alone.”

“That’s your evidence? You are using the way I respond to you as proof that I can’t be faithful? Where is the logic in that?” she asked angrily. She had given herself freely to him and he was using it against her.

Dev’s eyes darkened. “How do I know you wouldn’t respond like that to all your lovers?”

All? “Did you ever think that I’m only that way with you?” she said in a hiss. “That I don’t feel that way about another man? Why would I take another lover to my bed when I could have you?”

His lips tilted into a slow, sexy smile. Dev’s eyes glowed with interest as he flattened his hands on the wall above her head, caging her in. “Tell me more.”


“Shut up.” She shouldn’t have revealed that. He was already arrogant and cocky. Now he knew just how much she wanted him. How much she had always wanted him.

“You walked out on me,” Dev said and closed his eyes. “What better way to get back at me than to sleep with another man? Any man would do.”

She had walked away because she loved a man who saw her as an obligation. She had felt betrayed and discarded. She had thought the man she trusted didn’t care about her at all. Yet the idea of getting back at him by sleeping around had never occurred to her.

“I wasn’t thinking of revenge. I was in survival mode.”

Dev raised an eyebrow. “Are you telling me you weren’t tempted at all?”

“I wasn’t looking! And even if I was, there wasn’t a great pool of candidates where I was staying.”

“And where was that?”

Tina covered her face with her hands before she blurted out the truth. “At a treatment center. For the past four months I’ve been staying in a psychiatric facility for depression.”

The beat of silence stretched until her nerves twanged. She didn’t want to see Dev’s expression. The judgment in his eyes. The triumph that he could use this against her.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, his voice laced with anger. “Why did you feel the need to hide that?”

“Because I didn’t know if you would help me or use the information against me.”

“I had been trying to help you.”

She wanted to believe that but he had taken some actions that she couldn’t understand. She dragged her hands down her face and caught his gaze. “You made decisions about my career and my finances without discussing it with me. You sent me to doctors who wanted to drug me.”

Dev dipped his head. “I was taking any advice I could get. I had been concerned about you and I wanted immediate results. Any time I tried to discuss a problem with you, you shut me out. It was as if you didn’t know what was going on around you. When you disappeared, I was out of my mind with worry.”

“I’m sorry I worried you. I admit that part of it was to punish you. Part of it was to get away.” She had been angry and hurt, striking out the only way she could. “I’m sorry for everything. I’m sorry you had to marry me because of the baby. I’m sorry that my body couldn’t protect our baby.”

“It’s not your fault,” he said. “We don’t know why it happened.”

She scoffed and looked away. “I feel like I failed. That my body failed.”

“No, Tina. I am the one who failed,” he admitted. “I should have been there for you and the baby. I wasn’t because I didn’t...I focused on the wrong thing. I was too busy providing for you and creating an empire for my son.”

“You had to work,” she said. “I know how competitive this business is—”

“That is no excuse,” he insisted. “And after the miscarriage, I overcompensated.”

“There was nothing you could do to intervene,” Tina said. “Nothing could have saved our son.”

“I couldn’t save the baby, but I could have saved you. You were so frail and lost. But you made it clear that it was too little, too late.”

“I needed you,” she insisted. “I just wanted you there. That’s all you had to do.” She still needed him. She was always going to have that shadow of fear, wondering if the depression would return. Wondering if she would have to go through hell like she had for the past four months. She had already made the decision that she wouldn’t have children to avoid it happening again, but what if that wasn’t enough?

Dev curled his finger under her chin and made her look at him. “Tina, you are not weak. You are a strong woman who struggled with depression. The struggle is part of who you are now, but the depression will never define you.”

She wanted to believe that. She wanted to believe that Dev could look at her and not see the torment that had overwhelmed her. She didn’t want Dev to remember how she had been at her worst.

Tina pulled her chin from his hold and bent her head. “I’m sorry I’ve been a burden. I know I’m not the wife you wanted. You should have someone who will improve your life and be a business asset.”

“You are not a burden.” He sounded surprised that she would suggest it. “I know that if the roles had been reversed, you would have done the same.”

She couldn’t imagine Dev sick or struggling. He could conquer anything. He had the inner strength that helped him meet challenges head-on.

But she would have looked after him if needed. She would second-guess herself, but she would have done what was best for him. She also wouldn’t have walked away from him unless it was the only way he could be happy.

He wasn’t happy now and he wasn’t going to be for the next six weeks. He was miserable and moody. She was, too. It was painful being next to Dev without touching him. Without connecting. “We should end this now.”

“Enough,” he said gruffly. “Stop talking or I will make you shut up.”

“We can divorce quietly and—”

Dev bent his head and claimed her mouth with his. Her knees buckled as she clung onto his shoulders. His fierce kiss lit something deep inside her. A dangerous fire that she had tried so hard to ignore. It roared through her veins as she returned his kiss.

Tina whimpered when Dev pulled away. Her stomach clenched with anticipation when she saw the lust flaring in his eyes. She didn’t protest when he lifted her up. Instead, she wrapped her legs around his waist and grabbed the back of his head. She kissed him hard as he carried her to the bed.