Aditya

Zoya lay against me, her body soft and spent, the rapid rise and fall of her chest slowing as she tried to catch her breath.

My fingers trailed absentmindedly across her bare shoulder, where the thin strap of her nightdress had fallen, and for a brief moment, I wished I could freeze time. Just stay like this – no plans, no consequences, no lies between us.

But the weight of what we were doing started to settle back in as reality crept around us like a storm.

She was beautiful like this – raw, unguarded.

Her hand reached up to adjust the strap of her nightdress, her fingers trembling slightly as she did. And then she said something that shattered the fragile peace between us.

"You’d make your wife... so happy," she murmured, swiping her hair off her face, her tone almost teasing but with a hint of something deeper beneath it.

A sadness she wasn’t voicing.

I froze.

The words hit me like a punch to the gut, the air knocked from my lungs.

"I...—....Stay quiet," I said sharply, more harshly than I intended, turning my head away from her.

My voice sounded foreign even to my own ears, but I couldn’t take it back now.

"Adi..."

But I wasn’t looking at her. I was staring up at the ceiling, my mind racing as realization crashed over me.

We were doomed.

I ran a hand over my face, frustration boiling inside me. "This... this isn’t what we planned, Zoya," I muttered, more to myself than to her.

But I knew she heard it. I could feel her eyes on me, searching for answers I didn’t have.

"What do you mean?" she asked softly, sitting up slightly, her voice gentler now.

She reached out to touch my arm, her fingers brushing against my skin like she was trying to anchor me, but I pulled away, needing space.

"I asked you to marry me Zoe..... it’s not just a deal anymore.... This is... it’s messing with everything...your estate inheritance...Cheeku...our feelings...” I paused, letting that last word hang between us, heavy and suffocating...."I know we both like each other but ...we aren't on the same page,.Zoe.... We weren’t supposed to get involved like this."

My voice was tight, and I could feel the tension building in my chest. I didn’t know how to explain to her that I was scared – scared of what was happening between us, scared of what it meant for our future.

How could I make her understand that? How could I tell her I was terrified of losing myself in her, of losing control over everything I’d planned?

Zoya sighed, sitting up fully now, the sheet slipping down her body as she hugged her knees to her chest.

She didn’t say anything for a moment, just looked at me with those deep, light brown eyes that always saw through the cracks in my armor.

"Can we.... Not... Just?...." She faltered, biting her lip..."I mean..." She was trying to say something.

"... You ...what, Zoe?"

"I don't want to think about the future right now Adi.... I came here...for an year...away from everything that could worry me."

“That’s not how life works, Zoe.” I couldn’t keep the frustration out of my voice, my hands clenching into fists at my sides. “If you want a life away from everything… you’ll have to go away from everything. And that includes me.” I paused, trying to calm the racing of my pulse. “Involving yourself with me would be the stupidest decision if you want peace, Zoe.”

Her eyes flashed with hurt, and I hated myself for putting it there, but it was the truth.

The last few weeks had been chaos. We’d gone from friends, to her being Cheeku's tutor... to… this.

Whatever this was— Uncontrollable desires.

“You think I don’t know that?” Her voice was sharp, but beneath the anger, I heard something else—desperation. “You think I don’t know how complicated this is, Aditya? I came here to escape, not to…” She trailed off, her voice breaking.

“Not to what?” I asked, my own voice softening despite the turmoil inside me.

“Not to fall for me?” I regretted the words the moment they left my mouth. They sounded selfish, needy, but I couldn’t help it.

I needed to know where she stood, even if it tore me apart.

She laughed, but there was no humor in it, just a hollow sound that echoed through the room. “No, Aditya. Not to fall in love with anyone. I came here to breathe, to not be Zoya who’s always making decisions for others, always the one holding things together.” She shook her head, frustration etching lines across her beautiful face.

“And then you came along, with your crazy marriage plan and your infuriating charm, and suddenly, everything I thought I wanted… changed.”

"What do you want then Zoe?"

"You...I don't know anything else but I cannot help but want only and only you ... I need you like a drug Adi...and it's complicating everything..." She came clean... making my heart leave my body for a moment.

I sit silently... Reaching to hold her hand.

"What do you want?..." She asked.

I had an answer.
But I knew she couldn't give me that.

"You know what I want...but that's not fair...to you..."

She got off the bed...as if she needed to be rational and our proximity was making it difficult for her.

"Fine... Let's get married and then we won't touch," Zoya blurted out, her voice shaking slightly with a mixture of frustration and resignation.

She crossed her arms, pacing across the room as if the movement could help her process the mess we had gotten ourselves into.

"Because I need to fear a consequence... I need a reason to stop myself from being obsessed with you." Her words hung in the air, heavy with guilt and longing. She paused, biting her lip as her eyes softened. "I need a reason to not want to spend my nights on your bed, Adi..."

Her voice broke on the last line, as if she was ashamed of the way she couldn’t stop herself, of how deeply she was drawn to me.

And I felt that same shame, that same pull.

Every time we were near each other, it was like trying to fight gravity.
Impossible.

Our situation was beyond complicated. It was absurd, even.
Here we were, planning a marriage not out of love, but for convenience, inheritance, and property rights.

A marriage so that she could inherit the tea garden and the house, and I could buy it from her to expand my estate.

But now, it felt like we were scrambling to keep our own emotions at bay. As if getting married was supposed to stop us from being what we already were—a mess of desire and chaos.

I leaned against the headboard, watching her as she ran a hand through her hair, exasperated.

"Do you hear yourself, Zoya? We're going to get married so we don't end up sleeping together? That's the plan now?" I couldn’t help the sarcasm that slipped into my voice.

It was ridiculous, the very thought of it.

She stopped pacing and turned to face me, her eyes full of conflicted emotions. "You have a better idea?" she snapped back, the tension between us rising again. "Because this... this thing between us... it's making everything impossible! We can't even have a normal conversation without—" She gestured between us, frustrated. "Without.... Ending up... On your bed....all..."

All Naked...and raw...and sweaty....and guilty....and irrational...as if the world didn't exist.

"All...messy..." She completed with a sigh.

I sighed, rubbing my temples.

She was right.
We couldn’t keep our hands off each other, and that was becoming THE problem.

"I know it's messy," I admitted, my voice softer now, trying to cut through the heat of the moment. "But we have to be smart about this. We can’t let what happened last night keep happening. If we’re going to pull this off—this fake marriage for a whole year—we need to have boundaries."

Her lips parted slightly as she looked at me, the intensity between us crackling like a live wire. "Boundaries..." she repeated, her voice tinged with bitterness.

"As much as I love to end up in your bed. I don’t know how to make this work without..." She trailed off, her gaze falling to the floor.

"Without what?" I asked, stepping closer, my voice low.

I knew what she meant.

Without us losing control.
Without falling deeper into something we weren’t ready to face.

"What if I marry someone else?” Zoya suggested, her voice barely above a whisper, as if testing the waters. “You can buy the property from me after the inheritance… It’ll be simpler.”

I froze.

“NO!” The word left my mouth before I even realized I was shouting.

My chest tightened, the mere thought of her standing beside someone else—taking vows, even if they were fake—made my blood run cold.

Zoya blinked, startled by my outburst, her wide eyes searching my face. She opened her mouth, probably to say something reassuring, but I cut her off, the words spilling out of me uncontrollably.

“No. I won’t let that happen. You can’t—” I paused, trying to steady my breath, but my thoughts were racing, clashing against each other. “I won’t see you as someone else’s wife, Zoya… not even if it’s just on paper.”

Her lips parted in surprise, her gaze flickering with confusion and something else—something deeper.
She was trying to understand, but how could she? I didn’t fully understand it myself.
But I felt it.

“I want you to be my wife,” I muttered, almost as if saying it out loud made it less terrifying. “Even if it’s just for the papers, even if it’s temporary, I want it to be me.”

Zoya stared at me, her eyes softening, her fingers nervously playing with the edge of her sleeve. “Adi…” she breathed, her voice catching. “You’re complicating this—”

“I don’t care,” I interrupted, my tone harsher than I intended. “I’d rather complicate things than live knowing you married someone else. Even if it was a lie.” The words hung heavy between us, but I couldn’t take them back. I didn’t want to.

She looked away, biting her lip, her silence speaking volumes. The idea was absurd, yet here we were.

“Zoya,” I said, my voice softer now, trying to bridge the emotional distance my outburst had created. “Do you honestly think I could watch you with someone else?”

She met my eyes again, the flicker of uncertainty still there, but now something else—something like understanding—creeping in.

“Fine,” she said, her voice trembling, but her resolve hardening. “We’ll get married. We’ll sign the papers… But there have to be rules.”

I swallowed, feeling a lump form in my throat. “Rules?”

“Yes,” she said, more determined now. “We get married for the inheritance. But… we don’t cross any lines. No touching, no acting like we’re anything more than business partners.”

I let out a dry laugh, shaking my head in disbelief. “You seriously think we can manage that? We can’t even get through one conversation without ending up in each other’s arms.”

Her face flushed, and she looked away again. “That’s why we need the rules. I need boundaries, Aditya… I need something to hold on to, to stop... this.” Her voice cracked on the last word, and she swallowed hard. “I need a reason not to… to want you every night.”

My heart clenched at her confession, a strange mix of desire and frustration swirling inside me.
This situation was insane.

We were about to get married so that we wouldn’t end up in bed together.

“So that’s your plan?” I asked, my voice low. “We get married, but pretend it doesn’t mean anything. Pretend we’re not already tangled up in each other’s lives.”

She closed her eyes, as if bracing herself. “Yes. It’s the only way this works.”

I stepped closer, lifting her chin so she had to meet my gaze. “What if I don’t want to pretend, Zoya?” I whispered, my breath ghosting over her lips. “What if I want you to be mine… for real?”

Her breath hitched, and for a moment, just a moment, I thought I saw her walls crumble. But then she pulled away, shaking her head.

“We can’t,” she whispered, her voice laced with both longing and regret. “This… this was never part of the plan.”

And just like that, the distance between us felt greater than ever.

~~~

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