She wanted to scoff, but looking into his eyes gave her the safest feeling she’d ever experienced in her life. Ever. She should probably step away from him, but she could count the golden flecks in his eyes. She shouldn’t get used to the joy that emanated from him, but it sank into her the way his hypnotic dimples sank into his cheeks. Safety and joy braided together and squeezed her chest, but she couldn’t bring herself to care that she could barely breathe around it.

Chapter Nineteen

It had been two weeks since Naman had removed all their roadblocks with one authoritative wave of his hand. Vansh watched as Naina thanked Naman for the umpteenth time, something too fierce to name burning inside him. This was their last scheduled debriefing video conference.

“I’ll admit I started out helping because of my brother here,” Naman said. “I’d go to the ends of the earth for him, but getting to know you has been the real pleasure, Ms. Kohli.”

Naina gave him her professional smile. Only she could turn a smile into a declaration of victory without sacrificing grace. “Likewise.” Then she slid a sideways looks at Vansh. “I might have to record this to play back to Vansh.”

A laugh spurted out of Naman. The past few weeks had been tense, but that laugh was the Naman Vansh knew. “I see Vansh hasn’t changed at all,” he said, slipping out of his minister-of-the-masses avatar for the first time.

Vansh shrugged and Naman started laughing in earnest. Naman had always had a problem putting the brakes on once he started laughing. To hear that laugh now made Vansh wonder if his friend’s old habits had changed quite as much as he wanted everyone to believe, or if his new mellow gentility had to do with having adjusted his alchemical potions, so to speak.

Laughing so freely, he looked too young to be running any part of a country’s government, but also earnest and unjaded enough to have a shot at actually doing it right.

He finally stopped laughing long enough to speak. “As a thank-you for the work you’ve done for my people, I would’ve liked to do you the favor of warning you against getting too attached to my friend here, but I know exactly how well those warnings work on women.”

Naina stiffened next to Vansh, but her smile didn’t slip. “That warning is entirely unnecessary, Mr. Thapa. I’ve known your friend since he was in diapers.”

Seriously? she wrote on the Post-it pad they always used to carry out a side conversation during calls. Then she added a few question marks as she gave Naman her most dignified smile.

What? Vansh responded on the notepad, also decorating it with question marks. And a smiley face, because he knew it would fake-annoy her out of whatever was real-annoying her.