Soulmates ✓

18 | A Game Of Deception

What is she doing here?

It seems unnecessary to question her choices now that she has stayed. But where is she going to sleep? Shay peeks inside the luxurious room, her toes sinking into the fluffy carpet by the doorway as Ryan slips past her. She watches his broad shoulders and back muscles flexing with each of his movements as he changes the sheets on the king-size circular bed from a lighter shade of gray to a darker shade.

The glass windows here look even more magnificent than downstairs, giving a perfect view of the rainy weather outside. The charcoal bedding compliments the use of black and white interior furniture gathered around the fireplace and wall-mounted TV screen. It's very masculine and cozy.

Her mind goes back in time to the exact moment she had decided to give in to this game of deception. She knows that it was wrong, and she is being selfish, a vicious girl who can't seem to get over her dead lover. And now that someone who wears the same skin as Aarav looks at her with the same color of eyes and same facial features, she wants to pretend that she is holding her lover again.

Only when Ryan kissed her -the touch didn't remind her of Aarav, but it stirred some long-hidden forbidden desires that she had been suppressing all this time. Maybe, it's because she has not been this close to someone in years, and it's just the need to feel that desire, that passion again. But either way, she can't seem to ignore the tingling sensation on her skin every time Ryan is near her and her feelings have nothing to do with Aarav.

Ryan had been a beast at her apartment, pinning Arnab down with a mere hold of his hand. Shay has known him as the grumpy teenager who hardly ever looked past his books or laptop, but now he's completely different. Dressed in a violent fury of his raw brutality, his control, and his signature scowls have turned him into a savage, masculine glory of a man. He ripped Arnab apart in just a few punches without taking one in return.

Her eyes move towards his injured hand. He seems unfazed, but when she saw him break that glass in his vise grip, it almost made her forget about any other man in existence. While his care is the sweetest thing in the world, his possessiveness is a whole other dimensional thing.

It is the scariest thing yet the hottest thing she has ever seen. She wants to explore all that in Ryan. When he looks at her with those midnight eyes, a soul-deep connection forms between them. That should have been enough red flags for her to leave his company. Stay away from him and not let him tear down the walls she has created around her heart and soul, at least whatever is left of them.

Except with him, she feels safe. He draws out all the pain she has been hiding within her bones. They share the same pain and guilt, but his pain seems a little more than hers. And she knows Ryan has been hiding it from her.

She wants to be there for him, too. But every time she takes a step forward, her skin burns with something akin to shame. She wants to save him from his demons, too. But she can't ignore the recognition that keeps surfacing around him.

She wants to hold him, caress those angry lines of scars running down his chin, and she wants to feel his heartbeat against her ear again. It makes her forget her pain. Even if it is momentary, it's enough. When he kissed her, she felt alive. And she wants to have that feeling every single day.

She wants to know why it doesn't feel wrong to be so close to him. Will it be cheating on Aarav?

"You can change in the bathroom." Ryan comes out of the walk-in closet with a set of clothes and flicks a finger towards the en suite.

"Do you have another bedroom?" Shay asks, craning her neck to look at the long hallway, and turns back to face him.

He shakes his head and places a white collared shirt on the bed. "You can take the bed. I will sleep on the couch."