Page 65 of Entangled Vows
The officer grimaced and muttered something under his breath as he walked off.
Vikram rolled up the window and turned to Mahika. Then, he surprised her by grinning like it was no big deal.
She jabbed him in the shoulder, hissing, “What the fuck was that? You’re impossible.”
“And you’re sweet,” he replied, licking his bottom lip as if he could still taste her. “Just the perfect cure for my spicy smoothie. Mess with my smoothie again, and I’ll think you’re just yearning for another of my killer kiss.”
“You…” she pointed a finger at him. “you kissed me. I didnotkiss you.”
“Are you sure you want to play the denial card, sweetheart? Because your mouth had a lot to say a few seconds ago, and none of it sounded like ano.”
“You…” She pointed at him again, her words stuck somewhere between fury and humiliation. “Just… shut up.”
Vikram merely smirked, all smug, as if he’d just won this round. And annoyingly, he had.
Mahika stayed silent for the rest of the ride, though she kept sneaking glances at him whenever she thought he wasn’t looking. She touched her lips for a hot minute and realised theywere still tingling from the kiss. Her cheeks were on fire, and her entire body seemed to burn with a heat she refused to name.
She couldn’t stop herself. The kiss kept circling back in her thoughts like a damn boomerang. The way his mouth had crashed onto hers, the fire of his touch at the nape of her neck, the sexy groan that had slipped from him when she responded, and the confident grip on her when she’d leaned in before her mind could stop her. God. It was mental torture on loop, refusing to let her go.
She exhaled, pressing her palms to her cheeks as if she could smother the memory of that impossibly hot kiss. But it lingered. And the worst part? The reckless teenage girl inside her, the one who had once dreamed about moments like this, who had craved even a second of his attention, didn’t want it to fade away. Not ever.
24
It had been exactly two months since the kiss.
Two months of silence that she wanted to strangle. Two months of Vikram purposefully avoiding her, and acting as if she didn’t exist. And it was slowly killing her.
She still wasn’t over the kiss. Still wasn’t over the way her heart ached to be near him, to hear his voice, or to feel the sharp edge of his words snapping at her, as if her presence affected him. That sensation of being the centre of his attention lingered as vividly as the imprint of his lips on hers. It was impossible to forget it.
And yet, after that kiss, he behaved as if nothing had changed. Their mornings slipped into a rhythm neither of them had asked for, but couldn’t escape either. They spent their days skirting around each other, pretending nothing had happened, as if the silence could somehow make it all disappear.
Then, one morning, Vikram handed her a cup of tea and a slice of toast, as if offering a truce. A weak, pale truce she had no interest in. She craved his arrogance, his dominance… the kind that made her think if she needed therapy. Because who in their right mind would want a husband like him?
She wasn’t fine. Not even close, because there was no trace of their usual hostility or banter. She waited for him,for any reaction, any spark, any touch… but he remained indifferent.
Her mornings were spent keeping herself distracted. She tried to write in the early hours, went through her yoga routine on autopilot, and watched Vikram lace up his running shoes and rush out the door, before she could strike up any conversation that might bring back the tension between them.
That kiss in the car had been a collision of need and desire neither of them fully understood. It shifted the air between them, making it electrifying, dangerous, and impossible to ignore. It wasn’t supposed to make her feel anything. It wasn’t meant to unleash a flood of suppressed emotions.
Yet it did. That reckless, impulsive moment had awakened the demon she thought she’d locked away for years. Her simmering hatred had bounced back into that old crush, laced in obsession and longing. Every inch of his avoidance wounded her pride, fuelling a fire that her mind couldn’t quieten.How dare he treat her like that?
She refused to be invisible. She refused to be the girl from his childhood that he’d ignored, or the burden of his present that he merely tolerated.
She wanted him towanther just like that day… the day he’d kissed her with a passion that set her whole being on fire.
So, she decided to up her game. To provoke him. Seduce him. She wore silk camisoles that hugged her curves and satin robes that slipped over her shoulders, exposing her creamy skin. She stretched her legs intentionally in his view, and dropped spoons and glasses on purpose. Then she bent slowly to pick them up, letting her fingers brush the floor, all while feeling his gaze on her back.
But how saintly of her perfect husband. He never reacted. Not even a twitch.
His control was absolute, though she could see him struggling not to get affected by her games. But his jaw would clench, his grip on his phone would tighten, and his eyes would flicker dangerously. And those little gestures betrayed him, saying everything he couldn’t.
The chemistry between them was undeniable. Their conversations were still spiked with sarcasm, but beneath all that, something warm and unwelcome came to the fore. A spark that had been simmering long before the kiss now came with a taste, a memory that refused to fade.
The tension between them no longer felt like a game. Her dreams were consumed by him, leaving her breathless, aching. Still, they kept up the pretence, acting as if everything was normal. But deep down, they both knew the truth. The line between resistance and surrender was blurring and had turned into something undefined and dangerous. Something she didn’t dare name. And she had no idea whether to chase it or run from it, before it consumed her completely.
Pushing all thoughts aside, she let out a long, audible sigh.
Now, sitting at the head of the conference table on the tenth floor, Mahika gazed out over the city, with a simmering fire burning inside her. In just fifteen minutes, the strategic alignment session for the marketing and launch of their new hospitality tech app, developed by the software division, would begin.
