Page 164 of Lawfully Yours

“You missed this?” he asked again. This time, his voice was low and husky enough to undo her completely.

She shivered, her lashes fluttering closed, surrendering to the scrape of his jaw, the warmth of his breath. All she could do was hum.

His hands grew bolder, possessive. One palm clamped tightly above her saree pallu at her waist. The other slipped behind the pallu, fingers meeting her bare skin. His fingers teased the hollow of her stomach, circling, grazing, until his thumb brushed inside her navel. She squealed, a desperate sound that escaped without permission, writhing like a kitten trapped in his arms.

“Did you miss this?” he pressed again, circling her belly button harder, making her gasp so sharply it hurt.

Her breath stuttered, faster and faster, her body betraying her as a sweet, scorching ache built, pooling low in her stomach and sliding between her thighs. She wanted him. Needed him. Every nerve in her body screamed for more.

And he knew it.

Kushal’s own breath was ragged now. His lips descended next, trailing fire along the delicate curve where her neck met her shoulder. He sucked at her skin, wet and merciless, leaving behind a mark that would not fade easily.

“Did you miss this, Aru?” he asked again, his voice breaking into a growl against her pulse.

By now, she was trembling, hyperventilating, her body pressed against the hard ridge of his own arousal. The faint bulge behind her was a sweet torment, a cruel reminder of how much he wanted her too and wasn’t taking her.

Her voice finally broke free; this time, she replied with more than one word. “Yes… Yes, I miss this. All of this. So much.”

He froze, lips still at her neck. The next second, his lips tore away from her neck, leaving her skin cold and burning at once, and he leaned to her ear instead, and whispered, “Good. Because I don’t miss this.”

Her spell shattered. Her eyes flew open in shock, the ache inside her body clenching harder, begging for what he had just denied. She spun around, fury igniting, trying to search his face for meaning, but he had already stepped back.

His arms loosened, and then, without a word, he turned and walked out of his cabin. He left her there, standing alone in his cabin, her body still trembling, her body still aching with a desire he had lit and abandoned.

Kushal didn’t stop until he was out of his cabin. He didn’t pause in the corridor either. His strides carried him straight to the long, open balcony at the end of the floor. He braced his palms against the railing, chest heaving, breath refusing to steady.

He needed air. He needed distance. He needed anything but the memory of her pressed against him seconds ago.

He was losing control. Ever since she’d walked into that conference room in saree and sindoor, he had been burning andon the edge. That sight alone had set off an ache inside him that he hadn’t managed to calm since. And when she had walked into his cabin afterwards, armed with excuses and her sly smile, he hadn’t stood a chance.

The minute she began adjusting her saree pleats, Kushal knew restraint would fail him. He had told himself to keep distance, to stay composed, to not let her see how desperately he still burned for her.

But for those few intoxicating minutes, his heart had trampled over his mind. His body had betrayed him mercilessly. He needed her. Needed the one touch, the one kiss, the one reminder that she was still his wife, still the woman he loved despite everything. He had caged her in his arms, buried his face into her skin, breathed in that sweet perfume of hers like his lungs depended on it. He had touched what he wasn’t supposed to, kissed where he shouldn’t have, and felt her melt like he knew she would.

And God, he had wanted more.

So much more.

The way her body had arched into his, the way she had gasped when his thumb circled her navel, it had driven him insane. That desperate little squeal of hers, the way her thighs clenched with unspoken ache, had nearly wrecked him. His own desire had surged painfully, his arousal pressing into her back in a way that left no secrets. She would have felt it how close he was to ripping that saree off her, sweeping every file from his desk, sitting her there and claiming every inch of her until neither of them remembered what the worddivorceeven meant.

But then, the bitterness cut through the lust. The reminder of every rejection she had thrown his way. Every time she had claimed she wanted out. That wound was still raw, still bleeding. And Kushal Nair was too proud a man to let her see that kind of power over him.

And so he’d lied. Lied to her face, said he didn’t miss any of it, even when his body screamed the opposite.

He knew she had caught the lie. That hard, aching bulge pressed against her back had betrayed him. His mouth, his hands, his need, they had almost confessed it all for him.

And yet, he had walked away. Left her alone. Left her burning. Left her with the same ache that now twisted violently in his gut.

Walking away hadn’t set him free.

He had hurt her. But he had hurt himself worse.

Chapter 31

Two Days Later – Kushal’s Penthouse

It had been two long days since that stormy moment in Verma & Associates, the day she had draped a saree for him, only for him to nearly surrender, then cruelly pull back. Kushal had touched her then, kissed her skin like a starving man, only to end it with a lie:he didn’t miss any of it anymore.