Page 27 of A Royal Deception

That silenced me as nothing else could. Not because I was afraid of his inner demon. But because I had a feeling I wouldn’t be able to resist it.

I exhaled sharply and turned my head to stare out of the window resolutely. There was no point in reasoning with him when he was in this mood. The best thing to do was to wait patiently until we got to Mirpur and then appeal to his mother. Even if the Rani Ma was furious with me for deceiving her son, I was sure she’d help me get back to my sister because she’d be as eager to move on from this disaster as I was.

CHAPTER 11

RANVIJAY

Kissing Shivina had seemed like a good idea to start with.

I had been desperate to shut her up. I didn’t want the chauffeur listening to any more of our argument than he’d already heard before I put up the privacy screen. I needed Shivina to shut up and let me think because I didn’t really have a plan.

I had no idea what I was going to do with her once I took her to my palace. Carrying her away had been a knee-jerk reaction to the vilest trick destiny could have played on me. It was a gesture. But I had no idea what came after that.

I needed to think it through and have a plan ready when I faced my family, who had no idea what was happening. I tried intimidating her into shutting up, but she wasn’t scared of me. At all. Which was a little stupid considering she was in the company of a very angry man. I had two choices. I could either strangle her into silence, or I could kiss her.

And maddening as she was, and as angry as I was, there was never really a choice. I kissed her.

I poured all my fury into the kiss, but she melted into my arms as if she was always meant to be there. When she wound her arms around my neck and kissed me back, I was almost relieved I had married her and not Kavya. When that thought registered in my lust-addled brain, I realised I’d made a big mistake. I pushed her away hastily and growled at her. But Shivina just wasn’t backing down.

She met me barb for barb, threat for threat. And that’s when I made my second mistake. I kissed her again. And I promised to keep kissing her until she stopped talking.

I should have been relieved when Shivina finally deigned to shut up but fuck me, I was disappointed.I needed my head examined!

That woman had just scammed me in front of all our guests. Sure, she was just a paid hand, standing in for Kavya. And I knew that the real culprits were the Dodiyas, but the fact that Shivina, of all people, had helped to fool me stuck in my craw like last night’s fishbone. Her betrayal cut the sharpest because I thought she was different.

I mean, I’d expect Kavya to pull off something shady because that’s the kind of woman she was. But I had believed Shivina to be different. She had honest eyes. And she didn’t set off the internal radar that had protected me from avaricious women ever since Devika died. I guess that radar had finally gone to pieces, and the sad part was I didn’t think it could ever be fixed after this disaster.

And considering that she had turned out to be as bad as my first wife, I really had no business kissing her at all. Let alone being disappointed that I couldn’t do it again.

Every cell in my body demanded that I grab her by the shoulders and shake her hard until she explained what shemeant by this betrayal. But was it even a betrayal if I meant nothing to her?

In my head, I had felt some sort of connection with Shivina. A deep pull that took me into her path again and again. But what if that wasn’t real? What if I had imagined it because I was attracted to her? Which I was, no matter how much I denied it. Those sizzling kisses had laid that bit of denial to rest.

But clearly, Shivina felt no such pull. If she had, she’d have thought of the consequences of her actions. All she had thought of was the money.

“How much did they pay you?” I asked gruffly; the words dragged out of me quite against my will.

What I meant was, what price had she put on my feelings when I discovered the deception? How much money did it take to overcome any scruples she had about deceiving me?

She flinched a bit and then straightened her spine and turned to look down her nose at me. Amazing! The sheer…audacity… of looking down at her victim! Simply amazing, I thought viciously.

“Five lakhs,” she replied.

Wow! I wasn’t worth much, apparently.

“You should have asked for at least triple that amount,” I said dryly.

Shivina shrugged before she turned to look out the window again.

“Eh, I didn’t want to be greedy,” she said softly.

I wanted to slam my fist into the screen that separated us from the front seat. I wanted to roar my anger and disillusionment until the noise shattered the windshield. I wanted to burn down Sajjangarh Palace and every single fucking Dodiya who lived there. Instead, I laughed.

A harsh, bitter, vicious sound that made Shivina flinch again. She turned to stare at me fearfully as if I had lost my mind, andmaybe I had. But it was all I could do right now. I could only laugh at the irony of our situation.

Even in her greed, Shivina had some scruples, while Kavya and her family clearly had none. Even in their time of desperate need, they had haggled like Banias and scored a good deal for themselves. Five lakhs was a very small price to pay for the title of Maharani of Mirpur.

“Stop laughing,” she said, looking mighty grumpy for a woman who had just made the biggest mistake of her life.

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