"By the way, how did you know where I was staying?" I ask, only to find him looking outside the window again.

Ronav smirks. "I know a lot of things."

It throws my off and I blink. Whatever. Then reach for the door handle.

"Wait." He suddenly halts me with a raised hand. Before I could ask what is wrong, he's out of the car. He goes around the back and opens my door for me, performing an act of classic chivalry that confuses the life out of me.

I shake it off and get out. "Thank you."

He looks past my shoulder, giving me a wide, somewhat teasing smirk. "Arey, no need for that. If you want anything, you can just call me."

His sudden, dramatic change in demeanor from aversion to charming, watchful flirtation makes me feel really weird.

Lagta hai Sukriti ke pyaar mein paagal hi ho gaya hai.

(Looks like he's completely gone mad over Sukriti.)

I nod quickly, and hurry my way toward the hotel entrance to get away from him.

I stride through the lobby and enter the elevator, my head still buzzing from the unexpected success of my conversation.

Ronav is off the hook.

I'm off the hook.

The relief is immense.

The elevator reaches my floor. I step out, walking toward my suite.

"Kaha gayi..." I rummage through my handbag to take the keycard out when I am suddenly seized, spun around, and shoved hard against the door of my suite.

(Where is it...)

Then, I am looking up into a pair of fierce, pitch-black eyes.

Soham.

His face is a mask of furious, granite-hard anger. Simmering with cold, dominating rage.

His hands slam on the door on either side of my head, trapping me completely.

"What was that?"

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Nandhar was never meant to be his fate.

Soham Kshatriya dreamed beyond this village—beyond the fields his father tilled and the dhaba that once fed half of Nandhar. He wanted to carve beauty from gold and gemstones, not be shackled by duty. But fate had other plans.

His father's death dragged him back, forcing him into a legacy he never wanted. Now, he's the Sarpanch, the reluctant ruler of a land that refuses to let him go.

The once-small dhaba is now a chain of thriving hotels, the crop business flourishes under men he hired, and his name carries power. But the village? The blood feud with the Thakurs? The weight of a family name steeped in history and hatred? That's all his to bear.

Then she arrives.

Avani Jadhav—Mumbai's high-society darling, the polished and untouchable socialite. Sent here for a marriage she doesn't want, to a man who isn't him. She's everything he should despise—privileged, spoiled, a pawn in a game played by the rich.

But from the moment he lays eyes on her, obsession sinks its claws in deep.

She stops being their pawn.
Stops being anyone's. Period.
Because now—she's his.

His obsession. His downfall. His vixen.

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨🟢୧⋆ ˚｡⋆

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With much love,

Your Inkwitch🪄