Sink or Swim (Beach Kingdom 3)

When it came down to it, last night in the dark, a restaurant couldn’t compete. Not even making her parents instantaneously proud could compare to being with Andrew.

She’d be sentencing herself to life with half a soul.

Before she could guess her own intentions, she’d gotten out of bed, dressed and driven to Ajay’s apartment in Long Island City last night. He’d known why she was there. That much had been obvious as soon as he’d opened the door with a wry smile on his face.

The engagement was off.

She took solace in two facts. One, Ajay hadn’t been all that broken up about the called off engagement. He’d thanked Jiya for doing it in person and being kind about it. Two, they’d known each other less than a week and she hadn’t dragged out the decision her heart had deemed a mistake since the beginning.

Yes. That’s right. Accepting a marriage proposal from a nice, eligible businessman who came with a restaurant attached? Mistake.

Holding out for a murderer? Clearly the right thing to do.

Jiya covered her face with her hands to muffle a hysterical laugh. It had never been more obvious that this love she possessed for Andrew Prince was consuming and unconditional. Sitting at his dining room table last night, there hadn’t been a single second where she’d had doubt about his character or his intentions. She’d only seen the love of her life trying to do his best with the shit he’d been shoveled—and she’d been almost desperate to join him in that shit. Because being at Andrew’s side in the worst possible conditions was favorable to being beside a king in a castle.

Her heart needed him to keep beating. Simple as that.

She sifted some fresh turmeric into a Ziploc bag for the khichdi, intending to replenish the brothers’ supply, tucking it into her tote bag and pausing to acknowledge what worried her most. Even after calling off her engagement for Andrew, she still didn’t know if they would be together. His stubborn self wouldn’t commit to her unless he could give her safety. Security. A life free of the burden he’d taken on in the name of his father’s sins. In the name of the sins he’d committed against his father. But she’d walked into that uncertainty willingly, hadn’t she? Knowing they loved each other was almost enough to sustain her happiness. For now.

Not forever, though.

Last night in the dark, something had happened inside of her.

Something expansive and electrifying and wonderful. She’d experienced the beginnings of it on the beach with Andrew when she’d been handed the reins, the control. She’d felt another stirring of power when she’d streaked through the sky in the airplane, a scene straight out of her fantasies.

Getting what she wanted meant fighting for it. Taking it.

No more sitting back and toiling away, believing good things would happen if she just worked a little harder or made those around her happier.

She deserved her wildest dreams to come true right now.

Reaching out and taking them meant reaching out and taking them.

Jiya had to have faith. She would have faith. They were a six-part team now and they’d see Andrew clear of this mess. She just needed it to be soon, because her heart—and her body—couldn’t continue this life separate from Andrew anymore. Even now, she could see him, feel him in his kitchen. Looking for her. Waiting for her. Needing her.

She closed her eyes and pressed her hips to the counter, wishing for his hands there. On her waist, sliding down to her backside. That hard part of him nudging her tummy. His gruff, broken sounds in her hair.

Her breath released on a frustrated shudder and she reminded herself of today’s plan. For all they knew, it could take months to figure out this mess with Handler—and Jiya wasn’t waiting that long to explore the panty-melting attraction between her and Andrew, so he could forget that nonsense. They’d waited long enough.

She’d just finished packing her ingredients when her mother shuffled into the kitchen in her slippers. “Jiya.”

“Mother.”

The older woman propped a hip against the counter and tightened the belt of her robe. “Was that you I heard sneaking in late last night?”

“I wasn’t sneaking. And yes.”

Her mother’s eyebrow ticked up after some silence.

Jiya forced herself to stop fidgeting with the strap of her tote bag. She was more nervous about telling her mother about the broken engagement than she’d been to break it. If that wasn’t proof that pressure had factored into her decision to accept the proposal, nothing was. “I went to see Ajay last night.”

Her mother’s nails tapped on the counter. “So late at night? It’s very soon for that sort of thing, isn’t it, Jiya? You only met him on Sunday.”

A laugh rushed out of her. “Yes. I only met him on Sunday. I guess that’s soon enough to agree to marriage, but not to sleep together.”