Rebel Hard (Hard Play #2)(94)

Making a face, she added, “You know, the only downside of marrying you will be Komal. Promise me you’ll never let her convince you I’m having an affair with the milkman.” She poked him in the chest.

He grabbed her hand, hauled her close, kissed her because he could. “Komal is going to learn to avoid me whenever possible. I am done with her.” He’d had sympathy for his sister-in-law because of Navin’s antics, but this was beyond anything he could ever forgive. “And I know you’d hold out for the plumber.”

He laughed when she pretended to beat him up for that joke—which he could make because he knew Nayna would never break her promises to him. Nayna Sharma’s flaw was that she loved too much and too deeply. And Raj was lucky enough to be loved by her. It was a gift he would never take for granted.

“Come on, Mr. Funny, we have to vanquish a villain.” Once in the truck, she said, “Afterward, we’ll come back and have ice cream.”

Raj’s hands tightened on the steering wheel as his heart expanded to fill his entire body. Nayna was putting on her seat belt but shot him a questioning smile when he didn’t immediately pull out. Unable to explain what her simple everyday words had meant to him, he just ran his knuckles over her cheek before heading out.

All that time, his heart continued to grow and grow. Because Nayna had chosen to be his. One hundred percent in. Of her own free will. Their futures entwined. Ice cream, evil-sister-in-law, rides in this truck through the night, her asking him to wait while she ran into her office to grab her phone, muffins delivered to his job site, him fixing her plumbing, all the small, everyday moments of life, they’d have them together.





48





Vanquish Your Foes (Use Blackmail as Required)





Nayna hesitated a little when she and Raj walked hand in hand into his parents’ lounge. Not only were his parents there, so were his grandparents as well as Navin and Komal. All of them silent and stiff as they watched a documentary on television. No one talking, a hundred angry thoughts unsaid.

Jitesh Sen was the first to see them in the doorway. His face lit up. “Geeta,” he said. “Look.”

Her smile luminous, Sangeeta Sen turned off the television and rose. “You sit,” she ordered her healing husband when he went to get out of his armchair.

Then she came over and cupped Nayna’s face in her hands. A kiss on each cheek, then a hug. Whispered words in her ear. “He will love you always. My Raj doesn’t change his mind about the people he loves.”

Nayna’s eyes burned. Nodding as the older woman pulled away, she swallowed the knot in her throat. Raj hugged his mother; after that, he and Nayna went to greet his father. When they announced their engagement was back on, Jitesh and Sangeeta burned with joy.

But Raj still had something to say—this time to his grandparents. “We’ll be getting married,” he told the older couple. “Whether you want to be a part of our lives is up to you.”

“Hold on there, Raj,” his grandfather said, waving his cane. “Would you truly cut off your family for this girl?”

“If you force me to,” Raj said, utter resolve in his tone.

“Well, I suppose you know her much better than we do. If she makes you act like this, she must be some kind of woman indeed.” He thumped his cane on the ground. “Kushla, I’m too old to get into a feud with my eldest son and his son. And you know you don’t like Dhiraj’s flashy new wife.”

Raj’s grandmother sniffed. “Well,” she said to Nayna, “I hope you don’t think this means you’ll always get your own way in this family.”

Nayna wove her fingers through Raj’s. “My future husband is a stubborn man. I think we’ll be having a few disagreements.”

Raj scowled down at her, but she laughed and leaned her body against him. When he looked at his grandparents again, he saw his grandmother’s face had softened. She wasn’t a bad person underneath the stern demeanor. She’d be all right once she got to know Nayna.

“I was just looking out for the family.” Komal’s voice cut through the warmth, a serrated razor.

Raj didn’t trust himself to speak. Thankfully, he didn’t have to.

Nayna bristled. “Since when does looking out for the family mean being vicious and destructive?”

Komal stood, her entire body rigid. “You can’t speak to me like that!”

“Sure I can,” Nayna said, calm but unbending. “You gave me that right when you poked your nose into my business.” Temper in her eyes. “You can’t sow seeds of pain and anger between Raj and me, or with his parents. But if you try, I will kick your posterior all the way back to the hole you crawled out of!”

Raj was attempting not to smile. His grandfather wasn’t even doing that much—he had a full-out grin on his face. “Kushla! This one is like you!”

His grandmother sniffed again. “At least she knows how to be loyal.”

“What, she’s perfect and I’m not?”

“Jesus, Komal, let it go.” Navin sounded tired. “I asked Komal for a divorce,” he announced to the room. “That’s why she did it.”

Komal turned on her husband, all fury and wet eyes. “Why does she get to have the happiness?” Pointing at Nayna. “Why can’t you love me like Raj loves her? What is so wrong with me that you have to go out night after night without me?”