“What joke? You need money, I’m giving you a way to earn it. Nothing you haven’t already done before.”
Red eyes raised to him, the growing fire in them doing nothing to melt the ice that caged his heart.
“I’m not a whore.”
“Certainly looked like it when you spread your legs for me.”
Her slap was quick, its sound still not loud enough to subdue the screaming agony tearing him apart from within. His cheek stung, an almost welcome pain to replace the mental anguish he’d been dealing with for a fortnight.
“I’m growing tired of your drama,” he spat, refusing to let the burn behind his eyes translate to tears in front of her. “Either get on your knees and use your mouth the way I taught you or get the fuck out of my house.”
Vera stepped back as if he’d hit her too.
“You told me you loved me.”
Her comment felt like she was throwing his stupidity in his face.
“I also called you a princess, but that doesn’t make you one, does it?”
“Why?” Her whispered question cut into him like a hot blade slicing through butter.
“Because,” he answered, his bitterness swelling, his pain crossing the line into cruelty, “I don’twantyou anymore.”
Vera turned away, but not before he caught sight of the tears that spilled down her cheeks. His fingers dug into his sheets as he ruthlessly subdued the urge to run after her and rescind every nasty word. Her tears were no longer his concern.
“Aww Princess, don’t cry,” he called after her as he succumbed to the demon within. “We had fun while it lasted. And now you’ve learned a few new tricks in bed. Maybe you can get more than just a gold bangle from the next guy, hmm?”
Vera stilled, her hand clutching his doorframe. Momentarily, Vihaan wondered if she’d stomp back in and slap him again. Maybethat’s what he wanted. To rile her up so she’d react. So she’d show some emotion other than greed. So there would be some connection to kill this distance, even if for one final moment.
Instead, in a voice as cold as his heart now felt, Vera announced, “I hate you, Vihaan Oberoi.”
Vihaan sat there for what seemed like hours after Vera left, refusing to acknowledge the absolute devastation that was carving a hole into his chest. Before he could understand how, he found himself hunched over the toilet bowl, heaving his feelings and his food out in one go.
As he sat on the cool marble floor, his forehead dotted with sweat, a gnawing emptiness growing within him with each passing breath, he promised himself that he’d never fall in love again.
Love was for idiots. And he was done playing the fool.
33
A Second Chance
Vera
“Searching for this?”
Vera glanced over her shoulder, trying to not blush when she saw Vihaan dangle her silky panties on the tip of his finger. Sitting back against his headboard, he swung her thong like a pendulum, the action causing his biceps to flex. She couldn’t help but skim a look over the expanse of his tawny chest, sliding down to his stomach, noting the happy trail that disappeared under the sheets that covered him from the waist down. Not that it hid the outline of his firm thighs nor the appendage in between that had singularly destroyed her ability to move for the last several hours.
“I’ve been looking for that for the last ten minutes!” she complained, stretching one hand out when he teasingly jerked her undergarment out of reach. “Vihaan!” she grunted, leaning over to grab it and failing when he kept tugging it away. With an exasperated growl, she straightened, glaring down at the naughty man who’dalready waylaid her efforts to leave multiple times. “Can I have them back?”
“No, I’m going to hoard them until you have no choice but to stop wearing underwear around me.”
Heat dotted her cheeks when he grinned playfully at her, looking so boyish that it made her want to stare. How did he keep getting more handsome everyday? It was so unfair.
Needing to gather herself, Vera turned away, spotting her discarded bra at the foot of his dresser. Muffled footsteps approached her from behind as she slipped her dress on, struggling with the zipper on her back.
She went still, goosebumps prickling her skin when he brushed her hands off and gripped the two open edges to jerk her closer. The heat of his uncovered chest warmed her back, making her want to press into him and melt. With excruciating slowness, he pulled the zipper up, one finger trailing up the bumps of her spine in a familiar dance, causing her stomach to clench as need pulsed through her again. Her awareness of him made it hard for her to breathe normally, her mind going woozy at the recollection of all sinfully pleasurable things those hands had done to her not long ago.
“Stay,” he husked, his lips brushing against the ridge of her ear, causing her to shiver as she felt the hardening nudge of his cock against the top of her ass. The man was insatiable and, as it was becoming quite clear, so was she.