Page 48 of Addiction

“Yes, I noticed Arlo is with you always.”

“He’s with me, usually, yes,” Armaan said. “By the way, how do you know Vasily? I’ve been curious about this since that night at our New Year’s Eve party.”

She unfolded a napkin and placed it on her lap. “His girlfriend, Su Min, works as a nurse in the same department as Reina at the hospital. She invited us to the party, via him of course. Actually, I had gone to London to catch the Coldplay concert with Reina, but she was called in to work the night of the concert. So, instead of letting the tickets go to waste, she offered them to Su Min and Vasily. Them inviting us to your party was, I suppose, their way of returning the favor.”

“Hmm, I didn’t know Vasily has a girlfriend, that too in London,” Armaan said. “Why didn’t Vasily or you acknowledge one another when we were dealing with that man who spiked your drink that night?”

“I met him for the first time that night. I thought he didn’t acknowledge me because he was afraid of you.” She shrugged. “That’s all.”

“Hmm. Not sure why he needed to be afraid. He’s worked with us for years, and he’s been our Chief of Security for more than a year now, ever since our old guy retired. We trust him.”

“Could it have anything to do with the scary reputation you brothers choose to maintain?” she asked, her tone sweetly sarcastic.

“My reputation didn’t scare you.”

That was true. She ought to be scared of him. He could probably make her disappear with a wave of his hand. He could have his way with her right here, right now, and no one would to come help her, and yet she knew from the bottom of her soul that he wouldn’t hurt her. To the world, he may be extremely dangerous, but she’d never felt threatened in his presence. In fact, she felt safe around him. Her breath hitched. Shit. Now was not the time to dwell into why she felt like that.

“This is a huge house for just the three of you. Assuming there are only three of you, right?” she asked, deliberately changing the topic.

“Yes, it’s been just the three of us for a long time now.”

Was she imagining it or did his usually calm face freeze for a second? The next moment, however, he smiled and continued, “We like big houses. They afford us the ability to live under one roof and have our individual privacy as well.”

“And the guards? Do you need so many?”

“Being as rich as we are also puts us in the eye of some not-so-nice people. It doesn’t hurt to be careful. Besides, Mihir is too rigid about our security.”

“And do you always do what he says?”

He poured the juice for her. “We listen to each another and always have one another’s back. My brothers are my everything. Look, I know there is bad blood between Ananya and Mihir. However, since I’m not judging her, I’d request that you don’t judge him either.”

“I won’t sit quiet if he threatens me again like he did earlier. In fact, I may just put some of your training lessons to use and hurt him.”

“Sheath your claws, tigress!” Armaan laughed. “I’ll ask him to back off. But you have to understand that his actions and words only come from a place of love.”

His brother was a dick. She was still reeling from how he’d openly threatened her if she hurt Armaan. Please. This between Armaan and her was purely physical and nothing else. No one was going to get hurt. But she did get that Mihir was protective about his brother, the same way Ananya was protective about her. They each didn’t want their sibling to be involved with the other’s sibling. Unfortunately for them, what they wanted didn’t matter here.

She held her glass up, changing the topic. “A toast.”

He grinned and lifted his glass to hers. “To the day you accept that you like me.”

She rolled her eyes. “Not this again.”

“Youwillaccept it one day, baby. You already said yes to me today and you’re sitting here with me, exactly as I wanted. Aren’t you feeling good already? Why not agree to give in to everything I say? I promise that you won’t regret it.”

She clinked her glass to his. “Let’s take it one moment at a time.”

A corner of his lips tipped. “You’re going to be a handful, aren’t you?”

“It’s what you like about me,” she replied.

“Oh, I like so much about you,moya tigritsa.” His voice turned husky as he stared at her. “And there’s so much more I want to do to you.”

Her heart rumbled in agreement. She gave him a flirtatious smile. “There’s so much I want to do with you too.”

His eyes turned dark at her admission. Even the air around them crackled. So quickly, the mood between them shifted from light and easy, to hot and heavy.

He lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed it. “All in due time, baby.”

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