Married in Vengeance (Dynasty Rebels #4)

Chapter 2

Two

AADHYA

“A ghunghat with a silk saree looks silly.” Varalakshmi Reddy, Aadhya’s mother, looked irritated and mildly scandalized.

“I like it Amma,” Aadhya said, adjusting the soft, gold net over her head and shoulders so it fell just right.

“ You like it,” her mother grumbled. “What about your in laws? Will they like it?”

Aadhya shrugged. “It’s my wedding day. Not theirs.”

“Aadhya!” Her mother’s scandalized cry made her grin. “You’ll be divorced before the month is over if you talk like this. Marriage is about compromise and the woman only has to compromise for the peace of the family. The sooner you understand this, the better.”

“Amma please.” Aadhya got to her feet, turning away from her mother. “I don’t want that lecture right now.”

Her mother fell silent for a short moment. “Aadhya,” she sighed. “You said no to every marriage proposal Nanna and I brought but you said yes to this one. There must be something about this one that you liked, no?”

Ram, Aadhya thought. That was what she liked about this one. Ram Gadde. Righteous, stick in the mud on most days but the most sinful craving between the sheets. Not that she could tell her mother that. And it wasn’t only the ridiculously, flammable sex they’d had in the past few months. It was more. She liked more, felt more, wanted more from Ram.

Throughout their clandestine, no strings attached fling, Ram had constantly told her that they had no future together. They were not good together. They could never be together because they had nothing in common.

She was the antithesis of the woman he wanted in his life. And yet, she was the woman he wanted in his bed.

And so, he’d sent a proposal of marriage to her home. He hadn’t even done the romantic thing of getting down on one knee with a ring in his hand. No, Ram Gadde hadn’t bothered with any of that. He’d sent his parents instead to speak to hers with a formal offer of marriage.

So, why had she said yes?

Because she wanted him, and she’d take him any which way she got him. Maybe all she got right now were scraps, but Aadhya knew how to upcycle scraps and make it gold.

She met her clear, blazing gaze in the mirror across from her. Ram may only want her now but soon he would love her. Like she loved him already. Aadhya closed her eyes against the sudden burn of tears.

Three months of dancing around the blaze of their attraction, three months of giving herself over to the pleasure she could only feel in his arms, three months of loving this man and watching him walk away from her.

Three months and no more. Today, she would marry him and then he would be hers forever.

“Aadhya?” Her mother was still waiting for a response.

“Yes Amma,” she answered quietly. “There is something I like.”

“Then keep that in the front of your mind and make this marriage work. Don’t go in like a bull in a china shop like you always do, destroying everything of value.”

A bull in a china shop. What an apt description. Aadhya shook her head, trying to get the image of herself rampaging through a cutlery shop out of her head.

A knock sounded on the door and her brother, Aarush, walked in. “It’s time for the ceremonies to start," he said, smiling his easy smile.

“Shall we?” He tipped his head towards the door.

Panic swelled inside her, a trumpet issuing its clarion call. What was she doing? Was she really going to marry Ram?

“Aadhya?” Aarush’s brow furrowed with concern. “Are you coming?”

She glanced past him to the window that overlooked the hundreds of acres of farmland owned by her family, the venue for her wedding. A Mercedes came to a rolling stop at the end of the avenue of trees and the Gadde family spilled out of it. Her gaze searched for him but didn’t find him. As she watched, a jeep pulled up behind the car.

And Ram got out.

Her breath caught in her chest as she saw him in his crisp, simple pancha, angavastram draped over his bare shoulders, his devastating abs on full display.

“Aadhya? Are you coming?” Aarush asked again.

“Yes.” The word came out hoarsely, a parched throat desperate for a sip of water. She cleared her throat and said, “Yes, I’m coming.”

Aarush tipped her chin up, his perceptive gaze studying her tight face.

“Are you okay, Chinna? This is what you want right?”

Aadhya nodded, for once in her life, words failing her. Aarush didn’t look convinced by whatever he saw in her face.

“All of this has happened too fast,” he muttered. “I told Nanna to slow it down, but he wouldn’t listen.”

No, their father rarely listened to anyone. He did what he wanted and when the Gaddes insisted on a quick wedding with no engagement or any extra rituals, he’d agreed. So, Aadhya and Ram’s wedding had been arranged within a month and she’d been swept up in a whirlwind of shopping and manic wedding preparations.

She’d seen Ram twice in this one month, both times surrounded by their families. She’d found a moment alone with him when the families had met to discuss the wedding.

“What changed your mind about us?” she’d asked.

“You did.” His voice had been cold and level, but his eyes had burned bright with an indecipherable emotion, one that had her own exultation flaring. Finally! Finally, he saw in them what she always had.

Since then, they hadn’t really had a moment to connect. They’d texted each other infrequently and she’d tried not to read too much or too little into his terse replies.

“You can change your mind if you want to,” Aarush told her, a glint of battle in his eyes.

Their mother squeaked in alarm behind them. “What rubbish are you telling her? It’s the wedding day. She can’t call anything off. Our family reputation will never recover.”

“She can call it off even in the moment he’s tying the thaali around her neck or putting the jilakarbelum on her head. She can call it off anytime she wants,” Aarush said, his voice ringing like cold steel through the room. “Before or after, Aadhya can do whatever she wants.”

Aadhya almost wept. She loved her brother for his unconditional support and unwavering faith in her. But she was doing what she wanted.

She wanted to marry Ram. She was going to make him love her the way she loved him. And then they were going to live happily ever after.

Aadhya Reddy would accept nothing less.