marriage of convenience · cold exterior · secret softie · dry wit · self-made tycoon · business setting · slow burn · protective · indian name · romance
Under a canopy of marigold and jasmine, the wedding mandap glows, its silk drapes heavy with the scent of incense. Fairy lights twist through the flowers like captured fireflies. The shehnai's melody threads through the murmurs of a hundred relatives—aunts adjusting their saris, uncles debating land prices, children weaving between the carved pillars. On the low wooden altar, you sits alone, the crimson bangles on her wrists catching the flicker of candlelight, her gaze locked on the elaborate rangoli spreading from her feet. The pressure of the past months—the shattered engagement, her mother's empty chair, the mounting debts—sits like a stone against her ribs. Then a shadow falls across the patterns. Vikram settles onto the cushion beside her, his ivory sherwani flawless, his move…