Royal Vs Rebel (Royal #2: Book 1)

15

-• where's my prize? •-

Yuvraaj Singh Chauhan

"What are you doing here?"

Startling both of us, she turns around in a whip. The wet tresses hit me on the neck and I wince, looking down at her in annoyance when her eyes lift to meet mine. A sigh of relief escapes her mouth realising it's me. "Can you not come behind me like a lion creeping in?" She hisses, exhaling a huffing breath. I look past her shoulder, at Vaidehi Sehgal inside the resort and then back at her. Last night too I noticed her uncanny interest in the woman, there's something weird about the way she looks at her.

"What were you two talking about?" I raise a questioning brow.

"You don't remember, Yuvraaj?" She asks me pitifully.

"What?" I frown.

She gives me a deadpanned look. "It's been sixteen years since our divorce. Stop asking me questions as if I'm entitled to answer you." She attempts to walk past me. I grab her wrist, she stops and looks over her shoulder. "What?"

My eyes rake down her drenched figure. "Did you fall in the pool?"

"Are you disappointed I didn't drown?" She smiles sarcastically.

This changed persona of her doesn't sit right with me. Sure, she had always been able to hold an argument with me, but there's a stark contrast between the Sara I know and the Sara I'm talking to right now. I can't point out the difference, I can't even tell what's changed, I just have a gut feeling, a suspicion, an instinct.

In the spur of the moment, without the will of my head, I tug her close and she gasps, her hand flying to clutch my arm. Our eyes meet. I look keenly, surprisingly interested to pick out the change in her physical appearance over the years. She has fine lines on her forehead, her nose straight, eyes worn out, exhausted, dark shadows loom beneath them, but they blaze still the same fiery. This woman, who dons on white like it's her flesh, cannot abandon colours even if she wants to, for her eyes hold the deepest of golds I've ever seen.

"What is it?" She whispers.

"Madhav," I jut my chin past her. He's in the lounge with his business partners.

She stiffens, clutches my suit jacket even tighter.

"So, I was right. You were hiding from him this morning."

She glares at me.

I step back when the group of men disappear into an elevator. "He's gone."

She glances over her shoulder, looks relieved and leaves, stepping back inside the lobby, her gaze searching for another Sehgal before she's hurrying towards the elevator and pressing for it to close. Stuffing my hands in the pocket, I look down at the pool, my reflection stares back at me.

I fish out my phone and dial a number.

He picks up on the third ring.

"Come to my suite." I state, returning to the VVIP floor of the resort, waiting for him inside my suite at the bar side with a glass of whiskey. Rudra steps through the doors five minutes later, dressed in a formal suit, talking to my sister on his phone. I wait for him to finish his conversation before offering him a glass of whiskey. He accepts it with a word of gratitude.

"What is it?" He settles down across from me.

"Why is Sara back?"

He goes quiet. Putting the glass down, he sits back and crosses his legs, his arm draping across the arm rest. "Honestly, I've no idea, Yuvraaj. I just know it has something to do with her late sister."