Page 22 of The Surprise Bollywood Baby

“That you want to have a repeat performance?”

“That I don’t want to wait another ten years to carpe the diem or whatever.”

“Is that what you’re doing here,shahzadi? Picking your next lover on my set instead of focusing on your scene?”

Zara shrugged, loving that this giant of a man was indeed truly, horribly jealous. While his criticism of her and Vikram’s performance was justified, it had been underscored by this emotion that was gripping him. But he would never admit it to her.

But she...she was done playing games. She knew what and who she wanted.

“I want you, Virat. No one else.” The words fell into the silence between them as if a tractor had razed the entire set. She hadn’t meant to say it. But her mother’s words had been digging a hole through her head and her heart was pining away for this man who was so close, who was her fiancé as far as the world cared, and Zara was done fighting it.

His head jerked up.

“For as long as this charade continues,” Zara qualified, blushing to the roots of her hair.

She tilted her chin, refusing to let the vulnerability she felt in every cell show up on her face. This was who she’d wanted to be for so long—a woman who didn’t hide from her own wants and desires.

The pad of his thumb moved over her soft cheek. “There’s that boldness again, tempting me.”

“But?” Zara added, feeling some small part of her shatter.

Some unknown emotion flared in his eyes. And Zara felt as if she should brace herself for a blow that was coming.

Virat brought that thumb to her lips and Zara knew he was seriously tempted. Knew he wanted her with the same inexplicable hunger that she did him. Knew that he wasn’t going to simply give in because she was available and willing.

“What?” she said, turning that dismay into a mocking taunt.

“I think we already burnt out the fun part of whatever this is that evening at Bhai’s wedding. Now this feels like too much work. Too much like a relationship.”

“The playboy is only a role. A partial truth you put out for the world to see,” she said, refusing to bow out. “And if you were so shallow that having sex with me in the dark counts as too much work...then you’re lying. To me and more importantly to yourself.”

“Fine. I haven’t stopped thinking about that night. About us. About you.”

“Then why are you denying us?”

“Because I can’t forget,shahzadi...” his voice was full of self-mockery “...that when you did have me, you traded me in for something better. Your career. Turns out I’m just as much of a resentful bastard as the man who refuses to admit that I’m his son.” His fingers squeezed her shoulder as if he was reassuring her rather than rejecting her. “That’s why this is too much work, Zara. Remember all those principles you used to tease me about? I still have them. And I don’t like the man I become around you.”

“No,” she said, her tummy rolling in on itself. “No. You don’t like that I make you feel something genuine, Virat. You don’t like that you can’t pretend that I’m just another one of the women you specifically choose exactly because they make you feel nothing. You don’t like that you can’t fit me into a box and put me aside. That you can’t continue ignoring me anymore as you did for ten years.

“You don’t like that it’s not an itch that you thought you could scratch and it would have gone away by now.”

He stilled for a moment and Zara readied herself for whatever he’d throw at her. She didn’t give a damn that everyone was staring at them. Or that they’d been obviously arguing, albeit very quietly, when they were supposed to be crawling all over each other.

But the thing was she’d never felt so fiercely alive. Fighting with Virat was more exciting than jumping off a cliff. Probably. Most definitely.

He stared at her for a long second but said nothing.

With a disgusted sound that Zara was sure was directed at himself, Virat threw the scene sheet he’d been holding into the air, called for a break and stormed out.

“Thank God,” someone whispered.

It was as if the entire team took a collective breath in Virat’s absence. However short-lived it might be.

Her hands were still trembling as Zara gathered her water bottle and her phone when someone tapped on her shoulder. For a few foolish seconds, hope leaped in Zara’s chest and she thought maybe Virat had returned.

She turned to find Vikram regarding her with a thoughtful gaze. Naina was nowhere to be seen and most of the team had scurried away as soon as the big, bad lion had told them to get lost.

“Hey,” he said, arms folded across his chest.

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