Page 12 of My Sinner

“No.”

“Really?” he asked, his tone light. “You’re not the least bit curious about me or what I want from you?”

For years, she’d tamped her curiosity about him. Afterthatnight, when everything had ended, she’d refused to take his name aloud ever again. She’d refused to see his pictures online or learn anything about him. She’d tried to cut him from her life completely. Despite that, she’d had no control over her dreams, and he returned often enough in them, haunting her nights. He’d even forcefully made a place in her waking thoughts a few months ago after she’d learned that Dev had moved to Dubai and was searching for her.

Post that, she often wondered what would happen if she ever came face to face with him again. What she hadn’t expected was to be seated in front of him in his private jet, being whisked off to God only knew what destination.

“What is it that you want from me? Why am I here?” she finally asked.

He lifted the olive stick from the martini glass and bit into it. His lips curved around the olive, and she looked away from him.

“Like I said, Avantika, I only want to talk to you.”

She blinked. She wasn’t quite sure she believed him.

“To talk? For twelve days? Why do I find that hard to believe?”

“You can believe what you want. But that is the truth.”

“So, you dragged me away from my family to only talk?” His motives couldn’t be that simple. There had to be more.

His gaze fell on her lips, and a strange sensation washed over her skin. She ignored it. His eyes, however, lingered on her mouth.

“There are several other things I’d love to do,” he said, his voice thick with an emotion she refused to acknowledge. “But I’ll wait for you to want those as well.”

“I will never want anything from you.”

“There was a time when you did. If I recall, you wantedmorefrom me. You were desperate for it. Andme.”

Her eyes flared. How dare he remind her of that time? She’d been a fool then. She’d fallen so wholly and completely for him. She’d been the one to initiate and insist on a deeper physical relationship with him, which had eventually led to them being careless and her getting pregnant with Neil. At that time, she’d been thoroughly and completely blinded by him. Now, for him to even talk about their mutual past so easily and casually cut sharply through her chest, reminding her of her biggest mistake—him.

“Time has changed. That was then and this is now,” she replied stiffly.

“Time cannot change everything.”

“True, but I have changed. Since I am going to be stuck with you, you’ll learn that first-hand, I suppose.”

“I look forward to that… I’m sure I’ll be delighted to learn how time has made you…you. And what part of you from long ago has remained unchanged. I welcome the idea of getting to know you again, Avantika.”

The enthusiasm in his voice made her hands tremble. She covered it by raising the martini glass to her mouth. She barely tasted the drink. Fuck! She really was going to be alone with him for the next few days.

A strange fluttering crept up in her belly. It had started the moment her eyes had met his when she’d stepped out of the car and looked up at the jet to find him watching her. That fluttering was only growing with each passing second she spent inhiscompany.

It was nerves. Plain nerves, she told herself. Nothing else.

“I hope you remember what happens when you bite your lip, Avantika.”

The heat in his voice further curled under her skin, waking up hitherto dormant emotions. Many of which she had not felt in a long while.

She flattened her lips into a straight line. She couldn’t even recall that she’d been biting her lower lip. It was a habit ingrained for years now.

“Stop talking about the past as if twelve years haven’t passed,” she shot out.

“I’ll continue to do so until you ask me to tell you my side of the story. And you will…ask.”

“Don’t imply that you know me better than I know myself. You don’t. And I will never ask. I was there that night. I saw what happened. I saw what you did.”

“So, what did you see that night? Come on, let’s discuss.”

---