Page 42 of Right Where I Belong
Aditya leaned back in his chair, his gaze fixed on the woman sitting across from him. Sabrina was looking around the restaurant, taking it all in—the opulent chandeliers, the soft flicker of candlelight on each table, the hum of quiet conversation around them.
She looked alive. At ease in a way he hadn’t seen her before. Under the golden wash of the lights, her skin glowed. The barest of makeup covered her face. Her lips were slightly glossed, her hair fell in waves past her shoulders, and her deep blue dress hugged her figure like it was made just for her.
And yet, it wasn’t just her appearance. It was the way she tilted her head as she studied the restaurant, the small crease between her brows as if she were memorizing it. It was the way she carried herself—confident, yet guarded.
He studied her quietly, feeling confused and a little unsettled. Why was he suddenly so… Fuck. Akash was right. He was getting fixated on Sabrina. But he needed to know why. Why had she taken over his thoughts like she had? Of all the women he’d met, flirted and slept with, no one had lingered like this.No one had curled around his thoughts and taken up permanent residence in his mind the way she had.
What was it about her?
He should have been glad she’d walked away that morning. He should have moved on too, the way he always did. But he hadn’t. Hecouldn’t. There was something about Sabrina—her fire, her vulnerability, the way she’d responded to him like her body had known his for years. When she’d moaned his name, when she’d come apart in his arms, when she’d fallen asleep tangled around him, his heart had done something strange and unfamiliar. It hadn’t just raced. It had steadied, settled… like it had finally arrived somewhere it belonged.
And he wasn’t ready to let that feeling go. He wasn’t ready to lethergo.
Something had exploded between them last night. Raw, unexpected, and impossible to ignore. And now, sitting across from her, watching the candlelight flicker against her cheekbones, he felt it again. The pull. The ache. The need toknow. He needed to figure out what the hell this was between them.
Whyher?
Why couldn’t he stop thinking about her? Why couldn’t he stop looking at her?
“You’re beautiful…” The words slipped out from his lips of their own accord.
Her head whipped toward him, her eyes wide in surprise.
He smiled. “I kept trying to figure it out all day… What was different about you here in Singapore. Now I know.”
Her brow lifted in question.
“It’s criminal how you’ve been hiding all this beauty behind those severe hairstyles and stiff outfits.”
A faint pink bloomed on her cheeks, and she looked down, pretending to smooth her napkin. He felt a strange senseof satisfaction watching her fluster. A waiter appeared beside them. Aditya conferred with him about their drinks. Sabrina ordered a white wine, while he ordered a single malt for himself.
After the waiter stepped away, he looked at her again. Sabrina was still blushing slightly, but a small smile tugged at her lips. God, she was stunning.
“This is a lovely restaurant…” she said, finally looking at him.
“This is my favorite place to eat in Singapore,” Aditya said casually. “And now you know one more thing about me.”
She glanced away, trying to hide her smile before looking back at him. That soft, unsure expression on her face undid something in him.
“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you,” he confessed quietly. “This—whatever this is between us—happened out of nowhere. But I can’t ignore it. And I know you feel it too.”
She shook her head, slow and silent. “No.”
Reaching across the table, he ran a single finger down the back of her hand. A light touch. Barely there. But she shuddered.
He gave her a pointed look. “Tell me you feel nothing when I touch you. Tell me you feel nothing when I’m close to you. I promise I’ll leave you alone. We’ll end this dinner and never speak about last night. But I need you to be absolutely honest, Sabrina. No lies. You owe me that much at least.”
Her eyes fluttered shut, and a pained expression crossed over her face. When she opened her eyes, they were clearer.
“Thereissomething,” she admitted, her voice soft. “But I can’t act on it again.”
“Why?” he asked, leaning forward.
“Because I have responsibilities I can’t ignore,” she said, her tone steady even as her fingers curled into her palm. “And we have too many people in common. If things go south between us, how do we face each other again? How do we sit across from our friends pretending nothing happened?”
Her words sliced through the air between them. He studied her face, saw the tightness in her jaw, the conflict in her eyes, and realized just how much she was holding herself back. It was clearly not because she didn’t want this. But because she was afraid of everything else.
Aditya leaned forward. “I don’t care about our friends right now. If keeping this between us makes you feel safer, we’ll do that. It doesn’t matter to me.Youmatter.”
