Page 86 of Lawfully Yours

Her brow lifted in perfect disdain. “Huh! This is so convenient. You got exhausted? From what? Pulling one extra blanket?”

He folded his arms behind his head, stretching lazily as if he had no intention of getting up. “You were tossing, shivering, biting your teeth half the night. I took all that like a champ. I deserve a trophy if not a thank you coming out from those… lips.” His gaze dropped to her parted lips before meeting her eyes again.

Arundhati felt something in the pit of her stomach.

“How about you deserve a door slammed on your face?” she muttered.

“And yet,” he said, this time his gaze trailing shamelessly from her messy hair to her flushed cheeks and then down to the hem of her still scandalously short nightie, “here we are. Again. Sharing the bed.”

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

“Not flattering. Just reminding,” he said smoothly, “that even if you think the marriage won’t work, I make a damn good heater.”

She grabbed the nearest pillow and chucked it at him, already heading for the bathroom, ignoring the grin that tugged at his lips as he watched her go.

God help her. This was going to be one hell of a time in Dalhousie.

Just then, his phone buzzed on the nightstand. He picked it up without glancing at the screen. “Yes?”

The moment he heard the voice of his local contact in Dalhousie, he became serious. Arundhati, who was about to step into the bathroom, turned around and caught his expression shifting.

“She left?” he repeated, his brows furrowing. “What do you mean she left?”

Arundhati stilled. Kushal put the phone on speaker so that she too could listen.

“Sir, she left early this morning. Around 7 a.m. She’s joined one of those local sightseeing group packages. It’s a two-day tour, headed toward Khajjiar and Chamera Lake. It’s about a hundred kilometres from Dalhousie, give or take.”

“What the hell,” Arundhati muttered.

“She’s with a group. Mostly tourists. I’ve managed to get into the same package, posing as a solo traveller. Don’t worry, I’ll keep my distance. She hasn’t noticed anything so far.”

Kushal rubbed his temple.

“So she’s gone for two full days?”

“Yes, sir. The itinerary says they’ll stay overnight at a guest lodge and return to Dalhousie the day after tomorrow. I’ll keep tracking her movements and text you her updates every few hours.”

Kushal sighed sharply.

“Alright. Keep a low profile. Text me regular updates.” He disconnected and turned toward Arundhati with a look that confirmed what she already dreaded.

“She’s not returning fortwodays?” she asked, hands on her hips. “I can’t believe this.”

He nodded, rubbing the back of his neck. “The guy’s still on her, but looks like we’re stuck here till she returns.”

“No,” Arundhati said flatly, “we’re not just sitting here waiting around like retired old couples. We’ll go there and confront her directly.”

“Absolutely not,” he snorted. “Do you know how ridiculous that would look? We’d just keep chasing her from one location to another. She’ll get spooked, and the moment we corner her, she’ll clam up. We’ll lose the edge.”

She opened her mouth to argue, but stopped. For once, what he said made sense even if she hated that it did.

Before she could offer a reluctant nod, he got down from the bed and smirked. “Besides, it’s not a total loss. We never got to honeymoon, remember?”

Her glare could’ve frozen molten rock.

“If not a honeymoon, take this as a short break. After all, we barely ever took a real break. Between briefs, case files, and courtrooms, we’ve never had a moment to just… unwind.”

“Unwind?” she repeated. “That’s your plan for the next two days?”