Take One Arranged Marriage… (15 page)

‘Why do I get the feeling I was conned into doing a bunch of unnecessary stuff there?’ he asked, his voice husky against her ear.

Tara leaned against him, shamelessly enjoying the feel of his warm, hard, slightly sweaty body against hers.

‘Because you were,’ she whispered back. ‘I get really turned on watching a man lift heavy stuff.’

After that it was no wonder that all thought
of making lunch flew out of their heads—they didn’t even make it to the bedroom this time, collapsing in a tangle of limbs on the nearest sofa.

Afterwards Tara lay quietly next to Vikram, her head on his chest so that she could hear the steady thump of his heart. The euphoria of the morning had passed and she was beginning to feel very, very depressed. The more time she spent with Vikram, the more deeply she fell in love with him—and the pain in her heart was rapidly becoming unbearable. She could have dealt with him not returning her love, but the fact that he didn’t even want to acknowledge it was what really hurt.

Vikram’s breath stirred her hair as he spoke. ‘Taking a day off has its advantages,’ he said. ‘I wonder we didn’t think of doing this earlier.’

Tara felt like telling him that he’d been too busy trying to keep away from her earlier, but she held the words back.

‘Are you hungry?’ she asked instead. ‘I think it’s almost four o’clock.’

‘So it is,’ Vikram said, propping himself up to look at the nearest clock. ‘And we’ve had more than enough exercise to work up an appetite.’

‘I’ll rustle something up, then,’ Tara said, trying to get up.

Vikram pulled her back into his arms. ‘Don’t bother. We’ll order in,’ he said. ‘Pass me my phone—it’s nearer you.’

He pulled her into his arms as he dialled the number of a nearby Chinese restaurant, absently stroking her hair as he placed the order. Somehow the casual caress had the power to upset her more than the most passionate embrace—it suggested a degree of affection that she didn’t think Vikram would ever have towards her. Biting her lip, she straightened and picked up the TV remote from a side table. She flicked the TV on, tuning into a completely mindless action flick.

Vikram frowned. ‘Do you like that kind of movie?’ he asked.

His own tastes in movies ran to the very serious, and she remembered a conversation a long while ago when she’d told him she liked Hollywood romantic comedies.

‘There’s nothing better on,’ she said, shrugging and hoping her voice sounded casual enough.

‘Switch it off, then.’ He took the remote from her. ‘I want to talk to you. I was thinking a little more about my trip next month.’

‘The Spain one?’ Tara said.

‘That’s right. I was thinking I could take a couple of weeks off and we could spend some time in Andalusia and then go to Madrid.’

‘Sounds interesting,’ Tara said, keeping her face averted.

‘It would be like a second honeymoon,’ Vikram said, bending down to kiss her lightly. ‘Spain’s a lovely country. Say yes, Tara. I’ll square it with Dr Shanta if you want. You need a break from microscopes and Petri dishes.’

‘I don’t use Petri dishes much,’ Tara said, pulling away from him and standing up. ‘Or microscopes, for that matter. I’ll speak to Dr Shanta tomorrow.’

She turned towards the stairs and Vikram asked, ‘Where are you going?’

‘I need a shower,’ she called back over her shoulder. ‘Anyway, it’ll be some time before the food arrives.’

Vikram frowned. Something wasn’t quite right, but he didn’t want to push the issue. Tara had suffered enough at his hands in the past, and now that he was clearer about his own feelings all he wanted was a chance to make things up to her.

He flicked the TV on again, tuning into the same action movie that Tara had been watching
until the delivery man from the restaurant rang the bell. He took the food in and paid the man, tipping him generously before he closed the door and called out to Tara.

There was no response. The water had stopped running in the bathroom some time ago and he’d not heard a sound from the first floor since then. Maybe Tara had fallen asleep—she had good reason to be tired.

He stacked the takeaway cartons on the dining table and took the stairs two at a time.

‘The food’s here,’ he said, opening the door of their bedroom, half expecting to see her curled up in bed.

Tara looked up from the suitcase she was packing. A heap of jeans, dresses and books lay on the bed in an unorganised pile, evidently having been pulled out from one of the cupboards in a hurry. A second empty suitcase lay on the bed, next to the one she was cramming clothes into. Vikram stopped at the threshold, completely flabbergasted.

‘What are you doing?’ he asked slowly, a heavy weight settling in the region of his heart.

‘I’m leaving,’ she said, closing the suitcase with a very final-sounding thud. ‘I’m sorry, I can’t take it any more.’

‘Take what?’ he asked. When she didn’t answer
he crossed the room in a few quick strides and took her shoulders in his hands, almost shaking her. ‘What’s happened to you, Tara? I thought we were doing fine.’

He
had
thought that—he’d almost convinced himself that they were over the worst and could look forward to a happy life together. Evidently he’d been deluding himself.

She didn’t answer for a few seconds, and then she burst out, her eyes swimming with tears, ‘That’s the whole point! Today was perfect, only I know you don’t mean any of it. You’re just trying to make me feel better. I’ve tried so hard to stop loving you, but it’s no use. I’m still just as much in love with you as I was the day of Lisa’s wedding. More, if anything. You’ve no idea how much it hurts. And then you come up with the idea of a second honeymoon—I can’t bear it. It’s like constant torture.’

The weight lifted from Vikram’s heart, and he asked gently, ‘Would you still go if you thought I loved you?’

‘I’d be all kinds of fool if I thought so, wouldn’t I?’ Tara said, jerking away from his hands. ‘Stop winding me up, Vikram. I’ve made up my mind, and it’d be more dignified
for both of us if you just let me go rather than trying to make me think you care.’

‘But I
do
care, damn it!’ he said, his voice fierce. As she flinched back, he continued in softer tones, ‘I haven’t said the words, but I thought you knew.’

‘The words are important,’ Tara said, not looking at him. ‘All this while I thought you were going out of your way to be nice to me because you were just so relieved I wasn’t all over you, begging you to love me back.’

Vikram had begun to shake his head even before she’d finished speaking. ‘I think I’ve been in love with you since the night we had that office party. But I was too much of a coward to admit it then, even to myself. All the time I told myself that you weren’t really in love with me—it was just a temporary infatuation, and you’d soon realise that I wasn’t worth it anyway. But you left instead, and when you came back you told me you were going to teach yourself to fall out of love with me. For a while it felt like we were back to the way we’d been when we’d just got married. I knew by then that I was in love with you. I’d known since the day you stormed out of the house. But I wasn’t sure any longer of how you felt. I didn’t want
to rock the boat—especially after the way I’d handled things earlier.’

‘Why would you think you weren’t worth it?’ Tara asked indignantly, latching onto the one part of his speech that she took objection to. ‘Of
course
you’re worth it. I wouldn’t have fallen in love with you if you weren’t, and even if I had I wouldn’t have stayed in love with you. You have some really weird ideas in your head about yourself.’

Vikram laughed, bending his head to kiss her tenderly, his lips lingering against hers for a long, long while. Tara clung to him as he finally moved his head away.

‘I love you,’ he said softly, taking her face between his hands. ‘I’ve been an unspeakable idiot, not telling you the minute I realised it, but I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.’

‘I love you, too,’ Tara said, her eyes filling with tears. She’d been so careful, hiding her feelings from him for so long, and the relief of being able to say the words out loud was overwhelming. ‘I love you so much.’ The tears spilt over, and she buried her face in Vikram’s chest. ‘I’ve loved you since the honeymoon. Only I was so confused—you were so aloof sometimes. I didn’t know what to think.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Vikram said. ‘My only excuse is that my feelings for you are so strong it took me a long while to come to terms with them. But I
do
love you, and I know that I’ll love you till the day I die.’

Tara nodded, grabbing at a slack part of his T-shirt to scrub the tears off her face. ‘I’ll have that in writing, please,’ she said. ‘And you can add in something about being my slave for life. And obeying my every whim and command.’

‘Anything you want,’ he said.

And as Tara looked into his eyes she saw so much love in them that she forgot about being snippy and put her arms around him.

‘All I want is you,’ she said softly, reaching up to brush his hair off his forehead. ‘For ever.’

‘All yours,’ he promised, and his lips took hers in a kiss that sent her senses reeling.

Several minutes later Tara pulled away from Vikram and said, ‘We should send your dad a thank-you card.’ Vikram raised his eyebrows and she grabbed his hands excitedly. ‘Don’t you see? If it wasn’t for that ridiculous ad he put out we’d never even have met!’

‘I never thought of that,’ Vikram said, much struck by the thought. ‘I’ll buy him an entire
box full of cards as soon as the shops open tomorrow.’

And he did.

ISBN: 9781472039439

TAKE ONE ARRANGED MARRIAGE…

© Shoma Narayanan 2013

First Published in Great Britain in 2013
Harlequin (UK) Limited
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