Page 15 of Married in Vengeance

Something flared in his eyes, something dark and deadly as he looked at her. She hated herself for the excitement thaterupted in the pit of her stomach at the sight of it. It had always been this way between them. One look, one touch…and it was all over.

Except, Ram blinked, his infamous shutters coming down over his eyes. He took off his glasses and dropped them on the side table, looking away from her and walking towards the bedroom door.

“Where are you going?”

Her low voice didn’t even cause a hitch in his step. Aadhya reached out as he crossed her and grabbed his arm, stopping him.

“Where are you going?” she asked again, her voice cold and hard.

“Out.” He pulled out of her grasp, but Aadhya was ready for him.

Swinging around, she put herself between him and the door, her bare back meeting the polished wood of it.

Ram’s eyes got impossibly harder. “Move.”

“Not until I know what the fuck is going on with you. With us.”

“There is nous.” He spat the last word out like it was poison.

She picked up the chain around her neck, the golden pendant dangling between her fingers. “This says otherwise.”

His gaze dropped to the thaali she was holding out before flashing back to her face. His inclined his head towards her, a slight dip. “Thatis what you wanted, isn’t it?”

She frowned, even as hurt sliced through her, thin ribbons that snaked through her heart.

“It’s what we both wanted, wasn’t it?” Her gaze searched his cold, tight face. “You sent the proposal to my family. You initiated this.”

“I did.”

“Then why are you acting like you don’t want this, don’t want me?”

“Because I don’t.”

Pain like she’d never known it slammed through her, taking her breath away. “W-w-what?” she stammered, taking a stumbling step back.

“Move out of my way Aadhya.” Ram looked away, his eyes squeezing shut, almost as if her pain caused him pain.

But that wasn’t possible, was it?

“Why did you marry me?”

He didn’t answer, his face still turned away from her.

“WHY DID YOU MARRY ME?” Aadhya slammed her hands into his chest, shoving him back a step.

The man was built like a rock. If she pushed him back a step, it was because he let her.

“I don’t want to do this.”

“I don’t give a flying fuck what you want?” she screamed, getting right up into his face. “Why did you marry me?”

Ram took a sudden step forward, his arm going around her naked waist and hauling her up against him.

“Enough of the dramatics,” he said, his voice bitingly cold. “We both know the stakes here and why we married each other.”

Bewildered, she turned her head slightly, the locks of hair falling out of her bun brushing against his jaw. Something, somewhere had gone terribly wrong. But what?

“I know why I married you,” she said shakily. “Why don’t you tell me why you married me?”

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