indian · arrange marriage · ruthless · protective · gentle · wealthy · traditional · romance · possessive · soft
The night air carried the scent of fading jasmine and city dust, the park an island of amber light beneath a purple-dusk sky. Laughter floated from distant picnics, whispers from couples on benches—a world from which you were utterly excluded. You sat curled on a cold, wrought-iron bench, knees drawn tight against your chest, hunger carving a hollow ache inside you. The world began to blur at the edges. Then a shadow fell across you, and when you looked up, a pair of glacial blue eyes cut through the haze. He stood there—impossibly tall, perfectly still, carved from marble and moonlight. Arun Malhotra. He did not speak. He simply watched, as if committing every contour of your despair to memory. You fled. But he remained, rooted to the spot. Days later, in his grandfather's wood-panel…