Page 163 of Lawfully Yours

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Kushal ended the meeting in record time, fleeing the conference room as though the walls themselves were suffocating him. He had to get out. One more second of watching her in that saree, her sly smiles, the streak of sindoor that had branded her as his in front of everyone, and the entire office would know just how smitten he still was by his wife.

He strode back to his cabin, shut the door harder than necessary, grabbed a bottle of water and downed half of it in one go, trying to cool the heat burning under his skin. But fate had other plans. Because a knock came, and the source of his torment walked right in.

Arundhati.

“Hey, any idea when Raj uncle’s coming back today?” she asked casually, stepping into his space as if she owned it.

Kushal didn’t look up, scrolling through his phone instead. “Why don’t you message him and find out?”

“I did,” she said, stepping further inside, closing the distance like she had every right to. “He’s probably in court. Didn’t check my message yet.”

He stiffened. She wasn’t here for her uncle. He knew that. She was here to torment him.

“Sorry, I was late to the meeting,” she added lightly, fingers toying with her saree pleats as though it were nothing. “The fuel tank was empty. So, I had to stop at the petrol station, and it was so crowded. Long queues everywhere.”

She kept adjusting the pleats of her saree, right there in front of him. Fingers brushing along her waist, pallu slipping just so as she bent down, that flawless back of hers. His throat worked as he swallowed, but his eyes betrayed him. He couldn’t take his eyes off her, no matter what.

His head snapped up just as the pleats slipped a little lower, revealing the faint dip of her navel. Heat surged in his body.

“Did I ask why you were late?” he groaned. “And stop reporting to me. I’m not your boss.”

She glanced up through her lashes, lips tugging in a knowing curve. “I wasn’t reporting to my boss. I was reporting to my husband. That’s every wife’s right, isn’t it? And every husband’s duty… to listen patiently.”

The smile that bloomed on her lips was pure provocation. He reached for the AC dial, lowering the temperature, but it was useless. The heat was coming fromher.

“You alright?” she asked sweetly, her smirk biting. “You look hot. I mean… You look like you’refeelinghot.”

That was it. His control snapped.

“Digging into old tricks for attention, Aru? It won’t work. If you think I’m affected by this saree or your Sindoor, you are fooling your own self.”

“Funny,” she murmured, eyes locking on his, “for someone so unaffected, you haven’t stopped staring since I walked in.”

That did it.

He strode back from his desk and crossed the distance in three lethal strides. Her smirk was still there when his hand slid around her bare waist, tugging her flush against him. No air, no space, nothing between them but the wild thrum of their hearts.

“Don’t flatter yourself,” he said, low, lethal, his breath fanning her cheek. “I just happen to notice things… even the ones I should ignore.”

Her arms looped around his neck before she could stop herself, her perfume weaving around him, dizzying.

“Men who want to ignore,” she whispered back, lips brushing dangerously close, “don’t hold their wives like this.”

And just as she said that, Arundhati rose on her toes and pressed a soft, lingering kiss on his nose. A tender wet kiss, charged with longing and so full of love it made his chest cave. For the first time in his life, Kushal felt shy. The way she kissed him, the way her eyes glimmered as she smiled at him, like he was still her entire world, cornered him, stripped him bare in a way nothing else ever could.

She used that moment of weakness, of him standing there in his lovesick, vulnerable state, to slip deeper, to speak truths she otherwise never could pierce through his walls of ego. Her palms cupped his jaw, fingers brushing against his prickly stubble, as she whispered against his skin, her voice trembling with honesty, “I miss this, Kushal. I miss your romantic side… those one-liners of yours that could melt me down in a second.”

That was it. His restraint snapped completely.

Her gaze lingered on his lips, and he felt his own part in reflex. But instead of claiming her mouth, he spun her around inside the circle of his arms, pulling her flush to him, her back crushing into his chest. There was still no space between them for even air to pass, only heat, radiating from their bodies.

She gasped, heat curling low in her stomach, as he lowered his face to her jawline, rubbing his nose along her skin, breathing her in like she was oxygen.

His own breath shuddered as he whispered against her skin, “What else did you miss?”

Her lips curled into a faint, breathless smile. She knew he was giving in. Slowly, stubbornly, but surely. She wanted to answer, but her words dissolved the moment he pressed further. His rough stubble grazed her cheek in delicious friction that made her knees weak, setting every nerve alive in her body.