by Lucy Monroe
"To the point of being willing to marry a stranger?" Rajvinder asked, disapproval darkening his tone.
Words stuck in her throat as the reality that he was that stranger hit her in a new way, so Eliza nodded.
Marriage to this man would be nothing like marriage to Dev would have been. And Eliza wasn't entirely sure how she felt about that.
Unsettled for sure. But excited too. And that wasn't like her.
But he shook his head, his dark gaze probing hers, like he could read her mind through what he saw there. "I don't get you."
"Why?"
"You went to school here in the States. You were raised in America until you were ten. You attended university here, as well. You just said so."
"You don't think American women ever agree to arranged marriages?" she scoffed, wanting to laugh at his naivete. "We've already established that my outlook has been deeply influenced by the family I've lived with for the last seventeen years."
But Eliza found it particularly amusing that such a hotshot COO could be that naïve to begin with, that he could even suggest no American woman would consider a marriage of convenience. "Every country has its own unique culture certainly, but no way do you believe that love is the only reason for marriage here."
"No, of course not. But neither do parents arrange their children's marriages."
"You know that isn't true. I'm sure even among your mother's friends and yours, there are marriage that have been arranged by the families involved."
"Among the more traditional families, yes," he admitted, clearly grudgingly.
"But it's not just the Indian-American families that engage in the practice."
"I suppose."
Eliza rolled her eyes, more amused than irritated by his willful blindness to a cultural norm. "My parents loved each other very much."
"So you have said."
"Because it was true, but it was also true that they got married at the behest of both their parents. Two extremely wealthy families looking to merge through marriage as well as business."
Rajvinder said nothing, waiting to see if she had more to add.
She did. "Both my parents had coached me on not marrying someone who pretended to love me but was really just after my money. I was only ten when they died. That was such an important reality for them and people with wealth like them, that they started admonishing me about it from my earliest memory."
He stared at her for a second in silence and then nodded. "Point taken."
His easy acquiescence to her point of view surprised her, but then Adhip uncle always used to say that a truly intelligent man did not hesitate to admit when he was wrong. Rajvinder probably wouldn't appreciate her telling him that though.
"Where were your grandparents when your parents died?" he asked her, once again shifting their conversation.
To something that was still painful to her, but she wouldn't expect him to know that. "They had all died by the time I was ten."
"I am sorry to hear that. I know there's a certain loneliness in being raised without any extended family."
She could imagine that for him and his mother, it would have been particularly difficult. Because even living here in the States, his mother would have had a hard time building relationships among her countrymen. Her unwillingness to give him up would have cost her a great deal thirty-five years ago.
Eliza had been luckier. "The Singhs gave me back a family."
"And now you believe you owe them everything because of it."
His words were so close to her earlier thoughts, she couldn't deny them. But he made it sound like a weakness on her part.
She knew it wasn't. It took all her courage to give the family the trust and loyalty that she did after losing everyone else. "You don't know me."
"But you expect me to get to know you very well."
She drew herself up and gave him the look she'd learned at Tabish auntie's knee. "I do not appreciate your mockery."
"Who's mocking? You do realize that if we marry, the usual thing that follows is to share a bed." Something in his tone said he wouldn't mind that part of the arrangement.
Her own body responded to his with unfamiliar longings, desire that burned hot and deep.
"I know that." She hadn't been frightened of it with Dev. She hadn't been particularly keen either.
It was the opposite with this man. There was no denying she found him more than a little sexually attractive. And the fact she had no idea what to do with that attraction was just a little terrifying.
She and Dev could have stumbled through the wedding night together. With Rajvinder? Eliza didn't believe there would be any stumbling. At least on his part.
"It frightens you, doesn't it? The idea of sharing your body with me."
"Stop reading my mind," she blurted out, then covered her mouth, wishing she could pull the words back in.
They revealed too much. And she thought with this man, that would never be a good thing.
"You may not believe me, but I am not making fun of you. I'm trying to understand a situation that makes no sense to me. Have the Singhs threatened to disown you if you don't agree to the marriage?" he asked her, his tone devoid of compassion or criticism.
"They would not do that." Only she wasn't one-hundred percent sure that was true.
Doing one's duty to family was paramount to those of the Mahapatras dynasty.
While this plan had been Eliza's idea, there was no doubt that everyone in the family expected her to acquiesce to the marriage component.
"Don't lie to me. Not even to protect what you consider your family's honor." The look he gave her called her on her uncertainty. "We both know they are more than capable of rejecting blood family, much less a ward with no DNA ties, when it suits them."
"It's not the same." It wasn't, but if it was? She wasn't going to let it happen. Not this time around.
There would be reconciliation between the Singhs and their rightful heir to the Maharaja. Dev had wanted it, but Rajvinder deserved it too. It was past time that Rajvinder was acknowledged as part of the Singh family.
"They all made a mistake thirty-five years ago," she impressed upon Rajvinder. "We must believe they would not make the same choices today."
While Eliza felt real anger and sadness on Badriyah and Rajvinder's behalf, for the way both had been rejected, she couldn't personally be sad that Tabisha auntie had married Adhip uncle. Because that would make Eliza a hypocrite.
They had been very good together. And very good to her.
It was wrong that Rajvinder's mother had been so summarily rejected. Full stop. But thankfully, her life and that of the others involved had turned out well. Look at Rajvinder, self-made billionaire and international business mogul.
"They expect you to enter into an arranged marriage," he said sardonically. "They can't have changed all that much."
"It is still a very common practice, and not just for the Singhs. Children trust their parents to make the best choices for them." Most of the women and men she'd met in the Singh's social circle were either already married, or contracted to marry at some point in the future.
"I wouldn't trust even my mother to choose my lifetime partner."
Eliza had no trouble believing that. This man did not let others choose anything for him, she'd bet. It showed that ultimately, he did not trust anyone outside himself.
"If you had, you might be married by now," Eliza pointed out.
His gorgeous mouth twisted with sardonic humor. "You think thirty-five is too old for a man to remain unmarried?"
"You've been alone a long time."
"No one said I've been alone, just that I'm not married."
"Grandfather had you investigated. There is no evidence of a steady girlfriend."
"Perhaps I'm very private and good at keeping my relationships out of the press."
She almost believed him, but Grandfather's people were thorough. "The investigators did not rely only on what could be found in the socie
ty pages about you."
"Even so," he challenged.
"Are you in a relationship?" she asked, realizing that needed to be answered before they moved forward with any plans of marriage.
"I'm not sure it's any of your business, but, no, I am not." He gave her another one of those unreadable looks. "You do realize that most people would find the fact they were investigated a gross invasion of privacy?"
Relief not commensurate with the situation rolled over Eliza in a spine-tingling wave at his assurance he was not committed to someone else.
Ignoring an emotional response she'd rather not have, she said, "Tell me that you don't plan to do the same to the Singhs and to me before making any firm decisions about taking on the role of heir to the dynasty."
"Now you're doing your best to read my mind."
As if she could. This man had enigma down to a science. "Am I wrong?"
"No."
"There."
He shook his head. "You're very stubborn."
"It has been mentioned." She wasn't blind to her own faults and neither were the people she was closest to.
"And yet, you are willing to marry a man selected by other people."
"More by circumstance," she corrected and then added, "I'm the heiress to a multi-million-dollar fortune."
He nodded.
"I've been courted as a friend for that money already. I have had both women and men, colleagues and even professors, befriend me, hoping for access to my money. I cannot imagine a much worse situation than to believe someone loved me for myself, marry him and only then discover he wants my money, not me."
"So, you are saying you think it is better to marry someone whose motives while not romantic, are transparent?"
"Yes."
"And if I do not want you at all?" he asked.
She stared back, challenging him with everything in her. "Don't lie to me either." He may not want the marriage, but he was as attracted as she was.
She might not be an expert on human interaction, but she did understand chemistry and they had it on an explosive level. She was the spark to his tinder, he the fuel to her flame.
He laid his hand over hers, his thumb tucking under to rub against her palm, proving her thoughts with how the air between them fairly crackled with sexual desire from that small connection. "I have news for you, Eliza, everyone has hidden motives."
She didn't know what to say, and frankly her words were frozen in her throat, that touch to her hand short-circuiting her brain.
She had never known desire like she felt in this man's presence. Part of her, the craven bit that didn't want to take a risk, hoped that while he accepted his role as heir, he would reject the arranged marriage idea.
Her eventual marriage to Dev had always been this comfortable concept she relied on.
Marriage to Rajvinder? Would challenge the very fabric of her being.
She had no experience with which to combat the combustible connection between them.
Eliza had been courted by other men, yes, but she'd been promised to Dev for her entire adult life. She had never entertained another man's attentions for long enough to even experience her first kiss.
Rajvinder's lips looks so capable, so perfectly shaped. She couldn't help wondering what kissing this man would be like.
He made a strange sound and she let her gaze raise to his eyes.
There was amusement there, but something else too. Heat. And lots of it. "Do you have any idea what you are doing?"
She shook her head before she could think better of it. "I'm not doing anything."
"The way you are staring at my mouth is making me want to join you on your side of the booth." He sounded like he was about to do just that, his body tense in a way that implied he was ready for movement.
"I…" What could she say? She had been staring at his mouth.
And thinking about kissing him. How could he know that? Weren't men like him supposed to be unaware of the feelings and reactions of the people around them?
Adhip uncle had always seemed somewhat oblivious.
"I don't think you would be a comfortable husband."
"You assume I will go through with this entire farce."
She shrugged. "Not really." Her opinion stood, no matter who he married, but for her? She knew it was true.
Living with this man would be nothing but challenge and excitement. Terrifying. Intriguing.
She was seriously out of her depth.
Besides, if he said no, she'd deal with it, but she wasn't going into negotiations with a defeated attitude.
"Did you believe Dev would be a comfortable husband?"
That she could answer without hesitation. "Yes." Her best friend would have allowed her to live as independently as she wanted. "He had no problem with me pursuing a career in medical research."
"I thought your doctorate was in chemistry."
He had been listening. "It is."
"Wouldn't it be more natural to go into pharmaceuticals, or something?"
"Maybe, but the kinds of things I want to research are broader than that and it takes more than medical doctors to do the kind of medical research being done today."
Rajvinder nodded. "Laudable." He was silent, eating, for a little while. "Maybe too comfortable," he mused, searching her face in a way that made Eliza feel exposed.
"What are you talking about?" What was too comfortable.
"You and Dev."
No, it would have been perfect. "He would have been a very considerate, caring companion."
"He was your best friend."
"Yes." She didn't understand Rajvinder's emphasis on the friend part.
"Was he as uninterested in you physically as he was to you?"
"I never said that."
"Didn't you?"
Despite her avoidance of accepting certain truths earlier, Eliza was not one to lie. Even when it was more comfortable.
Stifling a sigh, Eliza shrugged. "Neither of us were particularly interested in the physical side of our relationship."
Rajvinder's eyes widened a little, less in shock at what she'd admitted, Eliza thought, than surprise at her honesty. "Did you plan to have children?"
"Of course."
"There's no of course. Some people choose not to have children for a lot of different reasons."
Was he one of those people? That would not work for his Singh family. Not at all. "We wanted children. Lots of them." Neither had particularly enjoyed being only children, and they had wanted at least three. Poor Dev, gone before he'd ever been able to see the fruition of the family he'd always wanted. "What about you?"
"I never considered having children. As your investigator revealed, I haven't had any long term, serious relationships, and no way in hell was I allowing any child of mine raised without his father."
"That's commendable."
"Too bad my sperm donor didn't feel the same."
"Adhip uncle was not perfect, but he was a good man." She thought maybe if Rajvinder could understand that, he might find some peace about his past.
"What made him good?" Rajvinder asked, making it clear he thought she wouldn't have an answer. Because he thought there wasn't one.
Eliza knew better. "He believed in supporting education for the masses. He believed that women should have equal protection under the law."
"And what did he do to back those beliefs up?"
"You're so sure it was all talk with him, but it wasn't. Your father actually held office for more than the last decade of his life. He fought to enact stricter laws guaranteeing children's access to education and protections for women, particularly in areas where a great deal of inequality still exists. Adhip uncle did his best to see programs put into place that made it possible for more girls especially, to attend school to completion. He funded scholarships for the poor who showed academic acuity."
"He sounds like a prince," Rajvinder said sarcastically.
"He was a prince, as are you. He had a responsibility to
the people even if the family no longer rules. And he was aware of that every day of his life."
"He felt so much duty to the people, he refused to marry a woman outside the palace, even though she carried his child. He did nothing to make sure I received an education."
"Perhaps he knew he didn't need to." She had a hard time reconciling the Adhip uncle she'd known to a man who would, or even could deny his own son.
"Because my mother came from a wealthy family?"
"They did help her financially."
"With some very definite restrictions."
Eliza had no answer for that, so she said nothing.
"And you?" Rajvinder asked.
She was lost. "Me what?" Would she deny her own child? Never.
"Do you believe only royalty should marry royalty?"
"Patently not because I am not technically royalty, but I believe we should marry." Or she had before she realized just how devastating to the walls around her heart that marriage might be.
"You sound so confident of that."
"Do I?" She didn't feel confident. She felt restless. Uncertain. Achy with something she'd never felt before. Sexual need. "I was raised differently than you, I think. Both before and after my parents' deaths."
CHAPTER FOUR
Rajvinder gave her an unreadable look. "What do you know of how I was raised?"
"I know you are more Western than Indian in your outlook." She wasn't going to deny any knowledge at all, nor did she think he would expect her to.
He shrugged. "On some things, yes, but that is a small, very obvious thing about me."
"I know more." A lot more. The investigator's report had been very thorough.
"You've read a report on me and now you think you know everything you need to, but how can you? Since I haven't been in a serious relationship, you have no clue how I will function as a husband. I may carry the same blood as the Singhs, but you can't know if I'll be kind, or cruel. Honest, or deceitful. Faithful, or have a string of lovers outside our marriage."
He thought he was being so smart, but she knew him better than he thought. "Your reputation in business is very telling. You are ruthless but not dishonest. You don't break contracts, even if doing so might make you more money. You show loyalty to your partners, your businesses, those who do business with you. A contract means something to you."
