Marriage by Arrangement

by Sophia Singh Sasson

  When she opened her eyes, Arjun was leaning toward her, his forehead touching hers. Did he enjoy it? Did he finish? She’d been so focused on her own pleasure that she hadn’t paid attention to his. Now she noticed that he was soft inside her.

  He lifted his head and dropped a gentle kiss on her lips.

  She wanted to tell him how much this had meant to her. To know that she was capable of enjoying sex like a normal woman. That nothing was wrong with her. She could arouse a man like him and have the kind of mind-blowing orgasms that other women always talked about.

  Most of all she wanted to thank him for showing her that she wasn’t broken.

  7>He will rock your world. If you let him.

  Nine

  “Well.” Arjun spoke first. “We can’t sleep here tonight.”

  She nodded. “The workers may show up really early to start on the other bedrooms. Um...it was a great. I guess I’ll see you around.”

  He laughed and pulled her close. “Oh no, you’re not getting away that easy. I’m spending the night with you.” Her heart kicked at the fierceness in his voice. “We will go back to my place.”

  Rani wanted to object to the plan but the thought of spending the night with him was too tempting.

  They dressed quickly, then made the bed together. He stealthily held her hand on the way down to the almost completed lobby, then let go when they reached the circular driveway out front where Sam was waiting with the car. She appreciated Arjun’s caution; the last thing she needed was for RKS to suspect what had just happened between them. While she wasn’t so worried about losing her job anymore, she didn’t want people to think she got the hotel contract because she was sleeping with Arjun.

  She followed his car and parked in the visitor’s lot. He met her in the lobby. As soon as they got inside his condo, he kissed her. She knew without a doubt that he was ready to make love to her again and that knowledge gave her a rush. It had been such a struggle to arouse Navin; she’d constantly felt inadequate.

  In one night, Arjun had elevated her confidence, in and out of bed. A month ago a promotion was the best she could’ve hoped for with her career. Now, a world of possibilities lay at her feet. All because Arjun believed in her. When she was done with his hotel, all of Vegas would know her name. And this time for the right reasons.

  Then doubt snaked through her.

  He began undressing her but she stopped him. “Arjun, I need to ask. Did you give me the hotel contract because you’d hoped we would get together tonight?”

  He frowned at her. “How could you ask me that, Rani? I gave it to you because you earned it. You did an extraordinary work with the owners condo. And I had no idea you were even interested in us getting together. You did a good job convincing me I was not worth your time.”

  She laughed. “Not worth my time? You’ve been consuming my every dream since we met.”

  He grinned, and she kissed that dimple that had been driving her mad.

  “Well then, how about we make some more dreams come true.” And with that, he led her into the bedroom.

  * * *

  When she woke in the morning, all she could think about was how unreal it was to be in Arjun’s bed and not starting at the popcorn-textured ceiling of her apartment. She rolled over, expecting to find Arjun, but the bed was empty. She sat up. He wasn’t in the room. She looked for a note on the nightstand but there was none.

  Is our time over? She quickly wrapped a sheet around her and raced downstairs to the great room. A room service cart next to the dining table where Arjun, dressed in a bathrobe, was seated with a cup and saucer in his hand. She let out a breath.

  “Good morning.” He grinned when he saw her. “What do you eat for breakfast?”

  “Usually it’s coffee and an oatmeal bar.”

  “Well, today you have your choice.” He waved to the cart where there were no fewer than ten dishes covered by silver domes.

  She gasped. “That’s enough food to feed half the building.”

  “Well, I didn’t know what you liked, so I ordered one of everything through room service. There’s omelets, French toast, eggs Benedict, pancakes, Belgian waffles, oatmeal...”

  Room service was a luxury she didn’t allow herself even when she traveled for work on an expense account. The very thought of how much all this food must’ve cost made her head spin.

  “Okay, let me get some clothes on.”

  “How about a bathrobe? It’ll save me some time when I take it off later. There’s one for you in the bedroom.”

  A shiver of anticipation went through her as she went and got the bathrobe, then joined him at the table.

  “I don’t have any morning meetings. How about you?” Arjun poured her a cup of coffee as she lifted the domes off the breakfast dishes.

  “My first meeting is in an hour and a half, but I have to go home and change. I can’t show up in the same clothes I was wearing yesterday.”

  “What size do you wear?”

  “Um...none of your business.”

  He rolled his eyes. “There are some nice stores downstairs in the building complex. Let me call down to the concierge.”

  Rani stared as he called and got connected to the store he wanted. “Yes, this is Mr. Singh in P241. I need you to send up a few complete business outfits for my guest to select from. I’ll give you a credit card now for anything she decides to keep.”

  He handed the phone to her. “I’ll give you some privacy.”

  Was he for real? Did he really expect her to order clothes like it was room service?

  “Rani?”

  She realized he was still holding the phone. As soon as he handed it to her, he disappeared upstairs. The woman on the other end efficiently asked her about size, color preferences and whether she preferred any designers. Designers? Her clothes came from discount department stores.

  She hung up the phone and found Arjun. “I’m not letting you buy me clothes,” she said.

  “Why not?”

  “Because I’m not one of those women who lets a man buy her things and tell her what to wear.” She crossed her arms and a minute of silence passed between them.

  “It’s not that, Rani. I just figured that it’ll give us more time together. Every minute I get to spend with you is precious.” He touched her arm and her heart squeezed. It was a sweet gesture and the words were even sweeter, but a part still stung. Every minute together was precious because they wouldn’t have too many. She knew this was temporary and was really okay with it when all it was about was hot and lusty sex. But his tenderness was something else.

  She shook her head. “Let’s not waste time arguing over this. I need to leave in forty minutes.”

  He opened his mouth to object but then gestured to the dining table instead. They dug into the scrumptious breakfast.

  “Tell me about your family,” he asked after a minute of silence.

  A piece of egg stuck in her throat and she coughed. “What do you want to know?”

  “How about telling me more about your siblings.”

  She relaxed and a smile spread on her face. “My brother, Sohel, is two years younger than I am. He’s trying to break into Hollywood as a screenwriter and director. My sister, Anaya, is much younger. She’s still a teenager. What about your siblings?”

  She already knew he had three sisters and a brother but she wanted to see how he described them.

  He took a sip of his tea. “Well, my brother, Sameer, is three years younger than me and is proving to be a handful. We are so careful about our media image and he is constantly getting in trouble. I have a budget just to pay off reporters, a full time IT guy to sanitize his social media accounts, and an entire PR team that monitors all the news outlets.”

  His family did do a good job of keeping the dirty laundry under wraps but she didn’t realize how much it took. �
�And your sisters? Are they just as much trouble?”

  He sighed. “Divya, Karishma and Naina. They are harder to handle than Sameer. My mother is constantly calling me about some issue with them.”

  “Like what?”

  “Well, yesterday, just before I got to the hotel, she called because Karishma and Divya snuck out of the house to go to a nightclub with their friends and Naina, who is the youngest, put pillows under their bedsheets to cover up for them.”

  Rani tensed. “Why did they have to sneak out?” She knew that his sisters were only a few years younger than him. Definitely old enough to be independent.

  “Because it’s not safe for girls to be out late at night by themselves in India.”

  Rani set down her fork a little harder than she intended and it clanked on the plate. “But it’s okay for the boys to go out late?” Her tone was sharp but she didn’t regret it.

  He looked up. “It’s different in India. Police enforcement is not what it should be and harassment is not punished the way it is in America so the bad elements are a little more aggressive.”

  She was well aware of the horrifying statistics regarding women’s safety but it was not an excuse to curtail their freedoms.

  “And do you know how many men get murdered every night around the world? No one uses that as an excuse to lock them at home at night.”

  He opened his mouth, then closed it. “You’re right. I know how chauvinistic it sounds. My parents are very traditional. There are rules in our house that have existed for generations. And yes, they are sexist, but I have to choose the battles I fight. My role in the family is to run the business. My battle with my parents has been to expand outside of India—they were very reluctant to go that route. But one of the benefits is that it will open up so many opportunities for my sisters to experience the world.”

  Your parents sound as bad as my ex in-laws. Rani would never say the words out loud to him; it wasn’t her business. They weren’t in a relationship. She had fought her own battles, and paid the price for her freedom. What did she care what Arjun’s family was like? It wasn’t as if they were ever going to meet.

  He leaned forward and placed his hand on hers. “I know my parents are old-fashioned. It’s something I deal with every day in our house. I’m working on them, one day at a time.” He smiled. “Luckily they are far away and the only thing we need to worry about right now is how to delay your first meeting.”

  She sighed, feeling herself give in to his charm once again. After all, what did she care about his family? She wasn’t going to marry him. This was just a casual affair.

  Ten

  Arjun rubbed his temples. He’d been hoping to see Rani tonight but it didn’t look like he’d make it out of the office before midnight. He was having trouble with his liquor license in addition to the red tape being thrown up by the gaming commission. It was the usual headaches that came with opening a hotel. Whether it was India or America, the last-minute troubles were the same. He’d hired a Las Vegas firm to make sure the right palms were greased and the appropriate people wined and dined, but he had to personally show face and kiss a few rings to make it all work. He half suspected that since he’d used the gaming commission as an excuse not to return to India for the Diwali holiday, effectively postponing his engagement, it was the universe’s way of making him pay.

  He couldn’t stop thinking about Rani. He’d only seen her once since their first night together. He’d taken her out to dinner at an exclusive Japanese restaurant on the outskirts of the city. The food was amazing, and her face glowed in the soft lights.

  They’d talked about politics, religion, even his problems with the gaming commission. Normally Arjun kept to superficial topics with his dates, like food and travel. It was his stress-relief time, when he didn’t have to think, plan, solve a problem or make an impossible decision. But with Rani, they lapsed naturally into meaningful conversations. He asked her opinions about how to resolve the problems he was having with the hotel and she offered solutions and helped him think through thorny issues. She was a good strategist and he liked talking things over with her.

  He looked at his calendar again to see if there was something he could move to make time for Rani. While he enjoyed the company of women, he fit them in during holes in his schedule. He never arranged his meetings around them. But Rani was special. He wanted more time with her, in and out of bed. It was the last time he’d get to be with a woman because he wanted to be, not because he had to.

  His mother had made it very clear that she was planning the wedding as soon as the hotel was done and she would not accept any more excuses from him. Hema was sending him daily text messages freaking out. He had finally told her that she had to accept the inevitable just like he did.

  His assistant buzzed to let him know that Rani was downstairs and he asked for her to be sent up immediately.

  “This is a nice surprise.” He greeted her from behind his desk. His office walls were all glass and he didn’t want to give his staff a show.

  She smiled and took a seat opposite him. Her demeanor was professional but her eyes glinted with excitement. “I have the final designs for the guest rooms. Your team has already approved them but I wanted an excuse to see you.” On Rani’s advice, Arjun hadn’t fired Vanessa, but he had read her the riot act and she’d been much more pleasant to work with.

  “I’m glad you came. I have yet another dinner with the gaming commission tonight.”

  She held up a brown bag. “Then how about lunch with me?”

  He smiled. “That depends on what you brought me.”

  “The best drunken noodle you’ll ever have. This Thai food truck near me is amazing, just the right amount of spice and heat.”

  He smiled. Just like you, Rani. The right amount of spice and heat.

  She took out a container and handed it to him with a plastic fork. He stared at it, the foil tin with the paper lid stinging him with a long buried memory.

  “Is something wrong?”

  He shook his head. “The last time I ate out of a container like this was eleven years ago.”

  Her face fell and she set the container on the table. “I’m sorry, I should’ve thought about the fact that you’re not used to eating food out of plastic.”

  He shook his head. “It’s not that. It reminds me of this time in Mumbai with my ex-girlfriend. It didn’t end well.”

  Rani tilted her head, her eyes begging him to tell her more.

  He sighed. Why was he thinking of Lakshmi now? The last time he had talked about her was five years ago, when he’d agreed to marry Hema.

  “I’m so sorry. That must have been so painful for you.” Rani extended her arm across the table and put her hand on his.

  “I was going to marry her. Her parents didn’t approve and neither did mine so we were going to elope.” He waited for the familiar ache to settle into his heart but it didn’t come.

  “Why didn’t the parents approve?”

  “Hers did not approve because they knew my parents would never accept her and they were worried that I’d dump her. Mine took issue with the fact that Lakshmi came from a poor, unknown family.”

  “Ah, truly the makings of a Bollywood film.”

  He smiled. “We thought so too when we decided to elope. We were meeting in Juhu Beach to plan the details. I stopped at her favorite restaurant to pick up hakka noodles. We were sitting on the sand eating out of containers exactly like those.” He pointed to the takeout food she’d brought. “Then she broke my heart.”

  Rani didn’t say anything, giving him the space to tell his story.

  “She decided she didn’t want to marry me.”

  “Why not?” Rani’s voice had the same incredulous tone his had when he’d asked the question of Lakshmi.

  “That day she’d auditioned for a role in a Bollywood film and she was offered the part.
It was her life’s dream.”

  “I understand such a profession wouldn’t have been acceptable in your family, especially eleven years ago, but was it worth letting go of the woman you loved?”

  He sighed. “She never gave me the chance to make that decision. That role had been offered to her on the condition that she leave me. My mother orchestrated it. Ma challenged me with the idea, and not in a million years did I think Lakshmi would take that offer so I told my mother to try it. I wanted to prove to Ma that our love was real. But Lakshmi came to tell me that it was her big Bollywood break and she couldn’t give it up for me.”

  Rani bit her lip. “How could your mother do that to you?”

  He bristled at her tone. “My mother has always had my best interest at heart.”

  Rani’s lips thinned and Arjun could see the disapproval in her eyes. He didn’t want her to get the wrong impression of his mother. “I’m going to tell you something that only my family knows.” He swallowed to ease the lump in his throat, wondering why he wanted to share something so personal with Rani when he wasn’t yet ready to tell her about Hema. “My biological mother died giving birth to me.”

  Rani gasped and squeezed his hand. “This is something I didn’t know until recently,” he continued. “My mother gave me so much love that not once did I question whether she was my real mother. My siblings who are her biological children still say I am my mother’s favorite. She was heartbroken when I found out.” So much so that his mother hadn’t spoken to her own brother for years for telling Arjun.

  “You would do anything for your mother, wouldn’t you?”

  Rani’s voice held no judgment. Just soft understanding. Arjun nodded.

  “Do you still think about Lakshmi?”

  “Enough time has passed that I’ve let go.” Or at least he did a good job pretending he had.

  “It doesn’t seem that way to me.”

  His heart stopped in his chest. On the pretense of taking the Thai food container, he extracted his hand from Rani’s.