Page 59 of Not In Love

"Go show Muriel," Kash urged, giving her a playful little nudge. "She’s been dying to see you dressed up."

Tia needed no more encouragement. She grabbed the edges of her skirts and ran out, her laughter trailing behind her like a ribbon.

As the door clicked shut, Kash started to push herself up from the rug, but Diego was already there, offering his hand.

She took it without thinking, and he pulled her up smoothly, steadying her when the weight of her lehenga made her wobble.

“You know you’re going to have to set some boundaries with your mother at some point, right?" he said, his thumb brushing across her knuckles absently. “Both for yours and Tia’s sake?”

Kash let out a hollow laugh, tipping her head back for a second before meeting his gaze. "That’s the one person I can't be firm with," she said, voice rough. "I turn into this needy, resentful child who just wants her approval. Her concern. Anything.”

She swallowed. “It’s pathetic, isn’t it?”

“No, Kash. It’s heartbreaking.”

Kash looked away, fighting the wet heat behind her eyes. “I tell myself if I give in on just one more thing, if I stand strong for one more time, she will see it, and she will tell me how much she loves for me it.”

Before she could say more, Diego shifted closer and cupped her face in his hands. His thumbs brushed her cheekbones with aching tenderness.

"That's not needy or resentful," he said, with such gentleness that it was a whisper. "That's you longing for something you deserve."

The words hit harder than anything she could have prepared for. Kash pressed her face into his shoulder, breathing him in, grounding herself against the ache splintering through her.

This time, he wrapped his arms around her fully, pulling her in tight. His touch was solid, protective, certain, despite the complications between them.

"Do you want me to do it for you?" he asked, voice a rumble against her hair. "I don’t care if Neena aunty hates me."

Kash laughed against his shirt, muffled but real. "You don’t know how tempting that is," she said. "But no. I’ll talk to her. It has to come from me."

Diego pulled back just enough to see her face, brushing her hair behind her ear. “And Kaif?”

"I’ll talk to him too," she said, exhaling. "But maybe after the wedding? Muriel doesn’t deserve to be caught up in our drama.”

His thumb brushed along her jaw before he let his hands fall away, slow and reluctant. “My cousin is a blunt, shrewd, no-nonsense badass. I’d be surprised if she wasn’t chewing out Kaif already over this. But I get it that you want to take your time before confronting either of them.”

Kash shifted her skirts into place, smoothing them with restless fingers.

Diego watched her, something almost shy flickering across his face.

"You want help unhooking the blouse?" he asked casually.

Kash slid a glance at him, arching an eyebrow. "Can you keep your hands to yourself?" she teased, mouth twitching. "Or are you going to strip me fully and pin me down under you until I can’t breathe?”

Color climbed up Diego’s neck, all the way to the tips of his ears.

"I didn’t mean to—" he started, flustered. "Did I... hurt you?"

Kash’s teasing softened into something real, something tender. "No," she said quietly. "You didn’t hurt me. I just... I wish you had stayed the night."

He went still.

When he spoke, his voice was quieter, edged with something fierce and raw. "That might turn this whole thing into a relationship, Doc,” he said. “We don’t want that, do we?”

Before she could answer—before she could even catch her breath—he turned and walked out of her room, leaving her standing there, skirts rustling around her ankles, her heart thudding wildly in her chest.

The warmth of his touch still lingered on her skin, stubborn and soft.

The words he’d left behind—a relationship—drifted across her lips.

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