Silver Lining | Grooms #3

Prologue

Urvashi Rautela as Esha Shah

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            It's a wonder what a drunken night can lead to – especially in Vegas. Esha was no different from the fallen victims of the stereotype. She had one too many drinks. She was not used to being drunk. She was used to visiting clubs and drinking, but she never got wasted. She always kept herself in check – until she visited Vegas with her friends and they convinced her to let loose for one night.

Esha groaned, feeling the nasty side-effects of an emerging hangover – the worst pounding headache she had ever experienced. She slipped her hand out of the blanket in a hotel room to reach for her phone where her alarm was going off. Before they had went off to party the night before, she had placed multiple alarms with 15-minute interval to ensure she would wake up atleast three hours before her flight so as to not miss it. Her track record when it came to boarding flights wasn't something she was proud of.

Just as she turned it off, she felt something warm tickle her foot. She froze. As consciousness started to seep in, she realized she was naked under the sheets. Oh hell no. She thought as she opened her eyes to confirm she indeed was naked. She clutched the blanket to herself, and apart from the headache which she considered to be borderline migraine, she felt sore.

What have I done?!

She closed her eyes to scold herself. No, it was not regret that she was feeling. Esha Shah had made it a point to never hold a single regret in her life thus far and this was not going to be the first. It was simply that this was not how she had imagined losing her virginity. This scenario was nowhere near any of her imaginations.

Ofcourse, it was in itself a surprising matter that she had managed to hold on to her virginity for this long, considering the lack of faith from her condescending parents.

Reopening her eyes, she slightly turned her head towards the person next to her - scared of what she might find. Ofcourse, she knew it'd be a guy, but she prayed it was atleast someone who looked to be around her age.

She tried to remember, but she couldn't. She only remembered the beginning of her night out. She didn't remember meeting any guy. Her memory was fuzzy.

She couldn't see his face given he was on his stomach and his head was facing the other way, buried in the pillow. For a second, she considered reaching up on her elbows to try and look at his face; then she decided against it. She decided she would just leave, and pretend it never happened.

She couldn't remember it anyway. She would treat it as a one-night stand and nothing more.

She sat up, careful to keep the blanket glued to her chest and trying to not make the slightest of sounds, least he woke up and thus began an awkward altercation. As much as she tried to not look at his face, she couldn't ignore the fact that he was well built, from what his broad shoulders and lean waist hinted.

There was a tat in the center of his shoulder blades. A peacock feather. It should be nothing, but she found it a bit odd that it was on a guy. She would have expected a male to have tattoos, but not of a peacock feather. She deemed it more feminine.

She shrugged, believing she didn't know him enough to judge him for it. He must have some reason for getting it. After all, she believed that if she were to permanently ink her body, it damn well be important and have a deep meaning behind it.

She looked around the room. It wasn't her hotel room. Her eyes searched for the dress she was wearing at night. She found it discarded a couple of feet of distance away by the coffee table. She couldn't get up to walk to it with the blanket around her because the other half of it was underneath him. She wasn't going to risk trying to pull it out. Seeing his light blue shirt within reach, she reached for it instead. Sliding her hands in the sleeve, she gently pushed the cover aside and let her legs slip out.