The ride back from the gala was a suffocating silence. The partition in the Maybach was up, separating them from the driver, but the distance between Myra and Reyansh felt like a canyon.
The moment the elevator doors to the penthouse hissed shut, the mask Myra had worn all night shattered.
"A girl like me?" she whispered, her voice trembling with a mix of fury and humiliation. "Is that all I am to you, Reyansh? A shadow you keep for the night because the woman you're actually going to marry is too 'business-like' for your bed?"
Reyansh was pouring himself a drink at the crystal bar. He didn't even turn around. "You're getting emotional again, Myra. We discussed this. The contract is clear."
"The contract didn't say I had to stand there like a piece of furniture while your future wife insulted me!" Myra marched over to him, grabbing his arm to force him to face her. "I am an architect. I have a degree. I have a soul. But to you, I'm just a 'distraction' you can switch off when the cameras start flashing."
Reyansh set his glass down with a sharp clack. In one blurred movement, he grabbed her waist and hauled her against his chest. His eyes were no longer cold—they were a swirling storm of dark possessiveness.
"You want to be more than a distraction?" he rasped, his hand sliding up to grip her throat, not to hurt, but to command her full attention. "You want me to tell the world that the girl from Delhi is the only one who makes me lose my mind? You want to destroy my merger with the Singhanias for a 'feeling'?"
"I want respect!" she choked out.
"In this world, Myra, respect is earned through power, not through tears." He leaned down, his forehead resting against hers, his breathing heavy. "Shanaya is a signature on a paper. She is a bank account. She is nothing."
He spun her around, pinning her back against the bar. He reached for the Cartier scarf on her wrist, untying it with a jerk. "But you... you are the one I can't stop thinking about when I'm standing next to her. You are the one whose scent is still on my skin when I'm talking to investors. Does that make you feel better? Or does it make you realize how much I'm going to ruin you?"
He didn't wait for an answer. He claimed her mouth in a kiss that tasted of scotch and desperation. It wasn't the kiss of a lover; it was the kiss of a man trying to reclaim a territory he thought he was losing.
Myra tried to push him away, her heart screaming at her to run, but as his hands roamed over her body, the familiar, treacherous heat ignited. She hated him. She hated herself for wanting him. But as he lifted her onto the marble counter, she realized that in this golden cage, he was the only air she had left to breathe.
Author's Thought
THE INTENSITY! 😱🔥 Reyansh is basically admitting he's obsessed with her, but he's still choosing money and power over his heart. He is such a complex "Red Flag"! 🚩