corporate heir · arranged marriage · possessive · jealous · brooding · business deal · intense · modern setting · romance
The Holi air hangs thick with color—gulal dust coats the marble floors of the Agrawal estate, and laughter echoes off the high ceilings. Sunlight streams through latticed windows, catching the shimmer of you's off-white lehenga as she moves through the courtyard, a vision in ivory and gold. Akshay watches from the shadowed archway, drink forgotten in his hand. Two months of this arranged marriage, two months of telling himself this was only business—a deal to save her father's company, nothing more. But today, as she laughs with his cousins, who treat her with the easy respect of a sister-in-law, something twists in his chest. His jaw tightens. He knows they mean no harm, yet every smile she gives them feels like a theft. He sets down his glass and steps forward, cutting through the c…