Rebel Hard (Hard Play #2)(55)

Surely Aji would still love her, she comforted herself.

A muscle throbbed in Raj’s jaw. “Is there room in this new life of yours for me? Or were you telling the truth the night we met and you only ever wanted me for my body?”

He was angry, she realized. Very, very angry. She should’ve felt afraid but she didn’t. He had himself ruthlessly in check. And though she wanted to jump on the offer and never let him go, she had no right to stomp on his dreams. “You want a wife, Raj.” His assumption that their intimacy could have only one end underlined that searing truth. “You want tradition and marriage and a life rooted in community.”

Her eyes burned. “I would make you so unhappy.” It sickened her to think of this beautiful bright thing between them going to rot in the face of divergent dreams; she couldn’t bear to see Raj look at her in resentment. “We should end this before it hurts any more.”

Raj looked at her, all clenched muscles and fury before he rose and went to his duffel. Back to her and breath harsh, he pulled out a fresh T-shirt and shrugged into it. He had his feet in his sneakers and was walking out the door before she knew quite what was going on.

The door shut behind him, leaving her in echoing silence.

Only his scent remained, rich and masculine and clinging to her like a kiss.

Nayna burst into tears.



* * *



Raj had no idea where he was going, but he turned left after he came out of the cabin and went down the path marked out by the beaten-down grass. A sign appeared about a hundred meters in. It indicated that this track led to a large waterfall and that it would take him an hour to make the return trip.

He set off, more than willing to burn off his emotions with the physical. Native birds sang around him, and the sun speared through the forest, but he saw none of the beauty, felt none of the calm. His heart was thunder, his skin so tight he felt it would burst if he clenched his muscles any harder.

Nayna had been a virgin. She hadn’t slept with anyone all this time—and he’d thought that she was choosing him. And she had, but only for her first time. Not forever. Fight for me, he’d begged her silently. But Nayna wasn’t trying to hold on to him any way she could; she was ready and willing to walk away.

Fuck, his throat was closing up.

Bending over with his hands on his thighs, he breathed through the burn at the backs of his irises, breathed through the tearing in two of his heart. He’d had to leave the cabin before he splintered right in front of her.

So what are you going to do, Raj? asked the part of him that had come here with the secret, beautiful dream of taking her home as his bride. Leave her? Try to find another wife?

Raj rose, shoved a hand through his hair. As if that was even an option. Nayna Sharma was his forever. No woman could make him so happy… or hurt him so badly. She was light and laughter and sinful smiles that held him captive. He couldn’t imagine doing with anyone else what he’d done in that cabin with her.

The idea of waking up next to her for a lifetime, it filled all the hollow places inside him.

But to Nayna, was he freedom and love and happiness… or was he a cage?





29





Nayna Sharma, the T-Shirt Thief





Nayna didn’t know what to do.

Her lower lip trembled every time she thought of Raj walking out.

Desperate not to be here when he returned in case he just picked up his bag and left—like she’d told him to—she cleaned herself up and put on a fresh pair of panties and her jeans, along with one of her own T-shirts. Raj’s T-shirt she folded and was about to put on the bed when she hesitated… and decided to hide it instead.

She didn’t care if it was pathetic; she needed a piece of him, needed his scent around her.

Lost afterward, she almost reached for her phone and called ísa. But she wasn’t ready to talk about this, wasn’t ready to put this horrible sense of loss into words. Stuffing some money into her pocket, she walked out the door and toward Franz Josef town instead.

Sugar and carbs would help.

Wouldn’t they?



* * *



Raj returned to the cabin to find it empty. He wasn’t exactly surprised.

Leaving the cabin, he didn’t try to call Nayna but decided to walk into the town instead and see if he could spot her. While it wasn’t a tiny place, it was small enough that he could theoretically find her if he went in the right direction.

After reaching the edge of the commercial area, he saw that the restaurants and cafés were bustling. Plenty of people, most of them tourists and hikers. Way more people than he’d expected, but none of them a slender woman with sleek black hair and subtle curves, her eyes sparkling and her lips generous.

A moment’s thought before he went with his first instinct and aimed himself toward the bakery he’d seen as he drove in. Its sign—painted a bright pink—stood out against the dark green of the forest all around them. Nayna said he didn’t see her, didn’t know her, but Raj listened to everything she said—and the things she didn’t.

He found her seated outside, finishing off a mug of frothy chocolate. When he slid into the seat across from her, she gave him an unreadable look.

“So, when are you leaving?”

Raj’s gut clenched. “I’m not that easy to get rid of,” he said, ready to battle for her.