Page 110 of Lawfully Yours

Because she remembered now how that kiss wasn’t where it ended. Her pulse quickened as the rest came back in vivid detail.

The night had ended with him giving her a kind of pleasure she hadn’t dared to seek in months, pleasure that was deeper, hotter, and far more intense than anything she had ever imagined sharing with him. And God... they had done it. She had actually seen shooting stars like she was in some cosmic world, feeling the best pleasure in the world.

The way he’d touched her like she was his again. The way she had let him…In ways that stripped her bare, not just physically, but emotionally. And then… nothing. No memory of what came after.

Had she really passed out after that? Just slipped into sleep?

She sat up quickly, clutching the duvet to her chest.

She was still in nothing but her silk lace panties. She turned toward the other side of the bed, and her breath caught again.

It was untouched.

Kushal hadn’t slept beside her.

Not like he had the previous two nights.

The sheets on his side were perfectly smooth. Cold. As if he hadn’t even considered lying next to her after what they’d shared.

Why?

Her heart stuttered with panic.

What had he thought? That she used him? That she didn’t care enough to stay awake, to acknowledge what had just happened between them?

Shame twisted in her gut. He’d given her something so intimate. And she just… fell asleep?

What kind of message did that send?

More than anything, she couldn’t believe she’d allowed herself to fall into something so deeply intimate with him whenshe hadn’t even made a decision about the divorce yet. What was she doing?

With herself.

With him.

With them?

She slipped out of bed in a hurry, clutching the sheets tightly around her body, making sure not an inch slipped. The last thing she wanted was for Kushal to walk in through the connecting door and see her like this. She darted into the bathroom and shut the door behind her with a soft click before finally letting out the breath she’d been holding.

What kind of wife hides from her own husband?

Her reflection stared back at her in the mirror—hair tousled, skin flushed. And then her gaze fell lower.

There it was.

Just left of her cleavage, faint but undeniable…a hickey. A mark. A memory.His.

She blinked at it, her stomach flipping. It didn’t hurt, but it spoke volumes. A trace of last night’s fire, of the hunger they hadn’t dared acknowledge in months. She reached up to touch it, then quickly shook her head, trying to snap herself out of it.Focus.

She was drunk too much last night. There was no denying that. First, the wine with Rajveer and Ananya, then that unfamiliar liquor she’d grabbed after losing the game. God knows what they’d been serving at that couple’s event. Whatever it was, she hadn’t been thinking clearly when she reached for it, let alone when she emptied the glass.

She wasn’t used to alcohol in the first place. And she hadn’t meant to shut down like that, especially not after something so intimate. But her body had betrayed her. Or maybe, after all the emotional exhaustion, her system had simply done what it always did—escaped.

She remembered the first time she’d tried drinking, back when she graduated from law school. While her friends laughed, cried, did weird things, and lost all control, Arundhati had simply… fallen asleep. Silent. Still. No drama. No chaos.

And that was exactly what had happened last night.

Still, how was she supposed to face Kushal now?