Page 44 of The Promise of a Traitor

Aastha walked over to where Advik stood, his angry glower boring holes into his grinning brother and tapped his chest. “Look at me.”

Advik’s gaze snapped to hers, searching for the cause of her tears.

“He didn’t do anything,” she whispered, “but I’m going to.”

And then, forgetting all about Rehaan and the other employees crowding her busy kitchen, she went up on her tiptoes and kissed Advik. It was meant to be a slight brush of her lips against his. A need to comfort and be comforted.

But Advik stiffened, his entire body turning to stone. Flustered, Aastha pulled back, unsure and embarrassed.

“Thank you,” she murmured to a stone faced Advik. “For Rehaan’s help and the helpers your family is sending over. I appreciate it.”

He didn’t say anything. He just stood there, like a granite statue, staring down at her.

“And you should get to work,” she babbled, now just saying words to fill the uncomfortable silence that had fallen over everyone in the kitchen. “You’ve wasted enough time in trying to help me. I’m sure your work needs your attention now. And your family. And –‘

She never finished whatever else she was trying to say. To be fair, she had no idea what she was trying to say at this point. A hand snaked out, snagging her around her waist and hauling her up against him.

Soft curves met hard planes in a delicious collision, one that reeked of familiarity and yet brought with it a pang of sadness, of years of absence. They fit together like two halves of a whole, magnets that had spent years seeking each other out.

His lips were hard, demanding, searching for something she didn’t know if she had to give, and still she opened for him, giving him everything she did have. A loud wolf whistle rent the space and they pulled apart.

She raised a trembling hand to her hair, only to encounter the hairnet she wore when she worked in the kitchen.

“You’re welcome,” Advik said, his voice hard and cold, but she heard it nevertheless. The barest breath of a tremble. He wasn’t as unaffected as he pretended to be.

Before she could say or do anything else, he turned and shoved his way through the door, letting it swing shut behind him.

“Uh huh,” Rehaan muttered from behind her. “I don’t think either of you is walking away this time.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Advik

He stood on the sidewalk across from Aastha’s café, night blanketing him. The place was buzzing, the bright lights and soft music a direct contrast to the shadows in which he stood. As he watched, Aastha stopped at an elderly couple’s table to make conversation, in direct line of sight of one of the brightly lit windows. She looked exhausted but her smile still lit up her eyes as she responded to something they were saying.

All day…All day, he’d sat at his desk pretending to work but instead replaying the moment he’d held her in his arms, her soft curves a welcome weight, his entire body seeming to come alive with that simple contact.

Need thrummed within him, a desire to be with her, to hold her, to have her smile at him again.

“Stalker much?” Rehaan stepped out from a little alley beside the café and ambled over to stand beside Advik. His apron was stained and crumpled, his face lined with exhaustion but his cousin looked happy, elated even.

“What were you doing over there?” Advik asked, his gaze never leaving Aastha who was now speaking to her manager, her hands moving furiously as she illustrated some point she was making.

In reply, Rehaan lit a cigarette, took a deep drag and held it out to Advik.

Advik glanced at the glowing red tip and then up at his cousin’s face. “I thought you quit smoking.”

Rehaan shrugged, taking another drag when Advik didn’t reach for the cigarette.

“Thanks for helping Aastha out.”

Another shrug, another deep inhale. The red tip of the cigarette burned brightly in the dark.

“At least the family screw up was good for something,” he said finally with a good natured laugh.

“Don’t do that,” Advik said quietly. “Don’t call yourself that.”

“Are you denying that that’s what I am?”