Pari should have been happy. She should have been smiling, standing beside the man she had chosen—Varun. He was calm and caring, and they had gotten engaged just last week. Today the families had gathered to celebrate their engagement.
But all she could feel was his gaze. Burning. Piercing. Possessive.
Ishaan
The boy who had once made her heart race was no longer just a boy. He was a man now—a man who looked at her like she was his prey, and he was ready to hunt.
She tried to focus on Varun as he smiled warmly at her and pressed a light kiss to her lips. Pari flinched. Varun didn’t notice, but she did. She had been clear—no intimacy before marriage. That kiss felt like a line crossed.
“I need some water. I’ll be back,” she muttered, stepping away. She walked under the shade of a tree, seeking air, seeking space. But she wasn’t alone.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She didn’t have to turn. She knew it was him. Ishaan.
His voice, deep and deliberate, broke the silence. “Congratulations on your engagement, Pari.”
There was no warmth in his words. She stayed silent and refused to look at him, but his voice still had the power to make her heart race.
“Upset, are we? Is the engagement bothering you?” he asked, stepping closer. He was trying to provoke her, but she wasn’t ready to give him the satisfaction.
“I’m perfectly happy, Ishaan. Varun is a gentleman. And if you were watching, you might’ve noticed him kissing me just now,” she retorted.
He chuckled. A slow, dark laugh. “That? You call that a kiss?” His eyes glinted. “Sweetheart, that’s how a boy kisses.”
Pari clenched her fists. “And I suppose you think you’re an expert? Maybe you’ve kissed a woman—or too many women—in your life.”
His eyes burned with a heat she couldn’t quite read when she said those words.
“I’ve never kissed anyone, Pari. But when I do, it’ll be my woman. And I’ll kiss her like a man. I’ll hold her by the waist, pull her close until our bodies forget the space between. I’ll ravage her mouth until she forgets the world. Her hands in my hair, my fingers grazing her skin. A kiss so fierce, she’ll feel it in her soul. That is how I will claim my woman and that will only be the beginning of what I would do to her. She will be my queen, the one who holds the reins to rule me and my world.”
Her breath caught. She hadn’t even realized how close they’d gotten—his chest grazing hers, his heat sinking into her bones. His eyes devoured every inch of her. She knew she should have walked away, but her feet refused to move, as if he had cast a spell on her.
And then, just like that, he stepped back, as if he hadn’t just shattered her world. She knew there was a smirk on his lips.
” What did he mean? Is he really back… to claim me? “
Leaning against the tree, Pari shut her eyes. Her chest rose and fell rapidly as she tried to erase his words from her mind.
Ishaan tilted his head, his gaze lingering on her. His lips curved into a smirk and then into a slow smile.
Ishaan loved her with an obsession that frightened her. His love was so intense that it had once driven him to walk away from her, from his family, from everything. But he had never truly left. He had watched from the shadows, calculating, waiting.
They had called him back for her engagement. But he hadn’t come to bless it.
He had come to end it. He had come to reclaim what was his.
“I will win your heart. Your soul. And your body, Pari. This is my promise. And Ishaan Rey never backs down from a promise.”, he vowed, his voice low and certain.
She had once been his weakness. Now, she was his only salvation.
***************************
A/N:
Hello Everyone!
Welcome to the Billionaire Series.
The Billionaire’s Promise will follow the intense journey of Ishaan and Pari.
Ruthless Heart will be the story of Ayaan, the youngesr son of Rey and Vaishu
With so much of Love
Devi Subramanian
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