Page 56 of Lawfully Yours

But he was smart. He didn’t meet her eyes, just smirked.

She knew what he was doing. He was teasing her, unrepentant, like he always was. Only this time, she didn’t know if she wanted to push him away or pull him closer.

Before she could decide, he did something unexpected.

He kneeled.

Right at her feet.

The sight of Kushal Nair, her soon-to-be ex-husband, the firm’s most arrogant legal star and her uncle’s golden boy, on his knees in front of her as he arranged the saree pleats was enough to scatter every coherent thought from her mind.

It should have been a simple gesture.

But it wasn’t.

Not when his hands brushed against her ankles. Not when his lips hovered a breath away from her midriff as he focused on setting the fabric just right. Not when he looked up at her with that dark and hungry expression.

“Is this okay?” he asked, voice gruff.

She didn’t answer.

She couldn’t.

Her fingers clenched at her sides, gripping the saree tight, because if she didn’t, they might betray her. They might find their way to his hair, to his shoulders, to the place where her desire burned beneath the ruins of their battles.

And that scared her more than anything.

Because she had never expected to feel this again.

Her lips parted slightly, trying to form some kind of protest, a coherent thought, anything that would stop this spiralling heat between them. But when his palm rested lightly on her hip, just to steady her, her words dissolved into silence again.

When he stood in front of her again, neither of them spoke. Her hand twitched at her side, tempted beyond logic to reach for his collar, to pull him that final inch closer and kiss him.

Kushal hadn’t come here for this.

He had walked into that party with one intention, to talk to her. To finally clear the air, to explain things he should’ve said months ago. But the moment he saw her upstairs, half-draped in that damn saree, frustration written on her face, vulnerability in her eyes, everything spiralled. One look, and whatever rational words he’d prepared vanished like smoke.

And now here they were.

Inches away from kissing the hell out of each other.

His fingers brushed a strand of hair off her face, his knuckles grazing her jaw. The soft touch made her eyes flutter shut for just a second.

And that was enough.

He dipped his head. She felt it. The shift. His lips were just a breath away from hers, their foreheads nearly touching. Her pulse thundered in her ears. One more second… just one…

Knock knock.

They both froze.

The sound shattered the moment like glass hitting tile.

She stepped back, her breath catching as if she’d been yanked out of a dream, before rushing toward the door and opening it in one swift motion, only to find Sudha aunty standing there with a smile.

“I just wanted to check if you needed help, beta. Raj Sir said you’d asked for my help.”

Before she could utter a syllable, Kushal’s voice rang out from behind her.