“Nope. It’s Wu-stuh-shr.”
“No way.”
He played the pronunciation out loud, reining in a snort at the look of utter disgust she threw his way.
“That sounds nothing like how it is written!” she exclaimed in outrage.
“Blame the Brits. I can’t help that you failed the test.”
“Fuck you, this test was rigged.”
Vihaan couldn’t hold his laugh back anymore. She was so beautiful when she got annoyed. The thought brought him up short, his laughter petering out in favour of observing her. The spark of defiance, the pinch of her lips when she was angry, the way sheblew her hair out of her face because she couldn’t be bothered to move her hands off her hips—everything she did, he found fetching.
Wait.Fetching?!
His poker face must have been better than he’d imagined because she didn’t seem to realise the furious misfiring of his neurons.
“I’m going to go now,” she announced, her words a low growl. “Donotfollow me or so help me, my shoe will be so far up your intestine that you’ll forget every word that isn’t a cry.”
With an audiblehmph, she spun away, her hair swinging back and forth as she stomped off to join their crew, leaving Vihaan feeling like he’d been shot in the ass with a cannonball.
Even her threats were cute. What in the fresh fucking hell was going on? He didn’t want to find her cute. Cute was meant for things he’d want to cuddle and hold and kiss into the next month. And. . .oh fuckity-fuck, he wanted to do all that and more to her. He may as well go out and adopt a leopard for a house-pet because on the danger scale, Vera ranked much higher.
In the month since they’d slept together, their previously cloying hatred for each other had simmered down into something more manageable. As if their emotions had been redirected toward a new memory—one of them experiencing incomparable pleasure—and fighting against wanting it again.
Still, there had been moments of friction in the office where she’d pushed back in her professional capacity, and he’d argued and questioned till he was convinced. But without Olivia’s interfering presence, the two of them and the rest of the team had been performing well, with considerable progress made on their project.
As his respect for her ability at work grew, so did his desire. No other woman held his interest anymore, and Vihaan wasn’t sure what he could do when her mere existence was like a warm hearth for a man desperate to escape the frigid cold. At least when he hadn’t known where she was, he’d had no choice but to try and forget her. Now that he had direct access, he was finding it impossible to cut thelink between them. But it was madness to think they could become something more, wasn’t it?
He pressed his pointer and middle finger into the centre of his forehead, jiggling the nerve he could feel throbbing right there. His internal conflict regarding Vera had only worsened his symptoms, and the headache he’d been staving off all morning returned with a vengeance.
By late afternoon, Vihaan was ready to jam a hot poker into his own brain, swirl it around and pull the remnants out like a noodle. He could barely muster up a tight smile when the weavers and dye technicians thanked him and Vera for picking them to be part of the spotlight series. He nodded intermittently, shaking their hands, trying not to wince at the clang and clatter of the crew as they packed up their equipment and loaded it onto the company bus. Every unwelcome sound felt like a horde of monkeys with cymbals marching inside his brain to the beat ofThriller.
The moment he was alone with Vera however, she turned to him. “Why are you here if you’re unwell?”
His mouth parted in surprise. Before he could answer, she continued, “Your eyes are red, and your stupid smiles have been different. Do you have a migraine?”
Vihaan cocked his head to the left, blinking once.His smiles were different?
“You noticed my. . . smiles?” he asked, clearing his throat to reduce his shock. Unsurprisingly, Vera rolled her eyes at him.
“Of course that’s all you hear. Why have you not taken painkillers? Do you not have them?”
“In my car.”
She tipped her head, giving him a look that said,What are you waiting for?
“The pills make me sleepy,” he explained.
“So?”
“I didn’t bring my driver with me. I have to drive my car back to the city.”
Vera’s brows knit, as if trying to think of a solution. Before they could talk further, she got pulled away to check the equipment and sign off before the bus could depart with the crew.
Vihaan marched off to his car and slid into the driver’s seat. Eyes closed, he drew in a deep breath, trying to shift the focus from his headache and push back the pain until it wasn’t so prevalent. His fingers tightened over the steering wheel, clenching and unclenching, attempting to find the fortitude to open his eyes and concentrate on the drive back. Damn, maybe heshouldtake a nap first. It wasn’t close to the severity of his previous migraine attacks, and a short rest would be prudent, especially since his eyes were starting to burn.
A series of raps on his window had him jumping, startled when Vera stood right outside. He rolled the window down. “Problem?”