So Tanvi set her own plate aside and brought her face to his.

She heard his sharp intake of breath before Venkat cupped her cheeks in his hands. He gazed down at her like she was the most precious thing he’d ever seen. His dark eyes might have been tourmaline dreamstones, but filled with visions of her and only her. His long eyelashes brushed his cheeks as he blinked.

Heat pooled in her belly until she forgot all about the food, and she couldn’t stop staring at his mouth. The air between them, around them, crackled, an electric current that she couldn’t and didn’t want to pretend away.

Want. She tingled with so much want, so much longing, she couldn’t stand it. Her nerves fizzed, as if the silver wine still effervesced in her blood. She needed him to touch her. Needed to learn the scent of his skin, to taste the hollow over his collarbone.

“I’ve been alone since my family died,” he said, his voice low and raw. “I thought I had Nayan. That I belonged here with him. But I have you.”

Everything Tanvi wanted to say got knotted up in her throat. She sucked in huge lungfuls of air, trying to force the words out.

Venkat must have felt her stiffen, because he let his hands drop. She ached in their absence. He took a step back, and even those couple of inches felt like a devastating loss.

No, she thought. No, no, no.

“I’m sorry,” he said, already half turned away. “That was stupid of me.”

Tanvi was a lit sparkler, tossing scorching embers throughout the room. How in all the worlds didn’t he see it?

She closed the gap between them. Startled, he angled his head toward her. Rising up on her tiptoes, she looked right at him, not hiding anything.

“Shut up,” she ordered, fury rocketing through her. “Don’t you dare say you’re sorry.”

When confusion flickered over his face, his sweet, beautiful face, she added, “I’m not.” Then she kissed him.

He made a noise against her mouth, and she pushed herself into him. Crushing her to his chest, he kissed her back like she was his lifeline. Like if he stopped for a second, she might vanish and leave him to drown in the vast ocean of his loneliness.

Her hands tangled in his hair, caressed his cheek, found the hollow under his jaw. Nothing existed but him.

They somehow ended up with Tanvi seated on the table and Venkat leaning over her. She couldn’t pull him near enough. His lips grazed her neck as he breathed her name, making her shiver, and his scent engulfed her senses.

She caught his earlobe between her teeth and felt him shudder. His skin seared her fingers as if a fire blazed just beneath.