Page 50 of Claiming His Bollywood Cinderella

“You’re marrying the poor woman because she’s low maintenance?” His brother sounded appalled.

“I’m marrying her because she doesn’t play games like everyone else in our industry, Virat. Naina knows my shortcomings, knows exactly what I can and can’t give her and yet, she’s all in. After all the drama of Papa and Mama’s marriage, this is exactly the kind of—”

“Bhai...”

Vikram didn’t need the warning from Virat. His skin prickled. He hung up the call and turned around to find Naina standing at the entrance to the room.

Her eyes looked even wider than usual, the acute hurt in them pinning him to the spot.

“You wanted to marry Zara?”

He hated feeling defensive and yet she made him feel it. “It was just a crazy, impulsive thing. I didn’t really mean it.”

“But you don’t do crazy impulsive things. You weigh your every word and action. So...what happened?”

“We don’t need a postmortem of it, Naina.”

“You proposed to your best friend. It had to have meant something. Even for you.”

“Even for me?”

“Yes, you.”

“I had a rough year. Call it a midlife crisis. I asked her one evening and she laughed it off and that was that. Really, Naina, you’re making too much of this.”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot. I’m supposed to be undemanding. Low maintenance. I’m supposed to give you all my trust and come running when you whistle, so that you can throw me a treat and then walk away when you’re done. I’m not supposed to create drama. That last one is my most attractive quality to you, isn’t it?”

Vikram rubbed his hand over his face and cursed. He hadn’t meant for it to sound like a dismissal. Or a cruelly neat summary of what role she filled in his life. It had been a glib, defensive thing to say to Virat. Because how could he explain to his brother what he felt for her when he didn’t understand it himself? When he didn’t really trust it? When the fear of one day losing her kept him up at night?

“I will apologize if the way I said it hurt you. But it’s not far from the truth, Naina. What we have is—”

“Am I just a replacement for Zara since she turned you down? Because I have to tell you, you’re getting a bad bargain, Vikram.”

Vikram could feel himself shaking, losing control of this. “You’re insulting not just yourself with that ridiculous comparison, but me too. And the commitment we’ve made to each other.”

She met his gaze and nodded but he saw that they weren’t done. He could see the same fears he felt in her eyes. “You’re right. I know that you and Zara are best friends. I know that and yet...” Confusion and something like grief suffused her features. “Please tell me this was before you met me at the ball. Before we slept with each other.”

“If it’s just to keep your timeline straight, yes, it was before I met you. Before you came into my life. Before you—”

“So why hide it from me then?”

“I didn’t hide it as much as I decided it was irrelevant to us. I still stand by that decision.”

“And that should be enough for me?” she said, tilting her chin in challenge.

“Yes.”

She sat down and pushed the tangled mass of her hair away from her face. “I thought you were one person who would never hurt me. I didn’t even care that you...”

“That I what?” Vikram felt like he was standing on the edge of a cliff, blindfolded, completely unaware of how deep the gorge below was.

“That you didn’t love me back. I was okay with it, honestly. I know you’re not given to sweet words and sugary declarations but your actions said enough for me. I was more than happy with the fact that you wanted me in your life forever. That you...”

“I still do,” he said, a shaft of fear cracking through the shell he kept around himself.

The power this woman could wield over him sent him into a cold sweat. And fear was something he’d always hated. Despised. It made his words curt. “So the question to ask is haveyouchanged your mind?”

And she responded to that harshness, her mouth flinching. Her eyes widening further. Her fingers in her lap tangled and untangled. “No, yes. I don’t know. All I know is that I need to rethink this. I need to—”

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