Page 242 of Claimed By the Maharaja
“You were talking to the reporter,” she added. “You didn't see him turn.”
His jaw tightened. “I should have.” The torment didn’t leave his eyes.
“You were irritated,” she said. “About the sexiest maharaja comment. Which is true by the way.”
A flicker crossed his face that she was teasing him. Even now. Three days after a gunshot.
Inhaling a deep breath, he took another step forward.
“You don't get to protect me like that,” he said. “That is my responsibility.”
“I will always protect you,” she said. “I'm your wife.”
His eyes darkened.
“You aren’t just my wife, you are my life,” he said.
She stared at him. She had never expected to hear such words from him.
He leaned closer instead, one hand braced carefully beside her on the mattress.
“When I saw the blood,” he said, his voice rough now, all the composure gone from it, “I thought—”
He stopped when his voice broke.
She reached for his wrist. Her fingers curled around it gently.
“I'm fine,” she said.
His eyes closed for half a second. Just long enough for her to see exactly how much the last three days had cost him.
When he opened them, the control was back. But thinner. Cracked at the edges in a way it hadn't been before.
She shifted slightly toward him.
He tensed immediately.
“Relax,” she murmured.
“You were unconscious for seventy-two hours,” he said flatly. “I will not relax.”
Her smile deepened.
“You didn't leave this room, did you?” she asked.
His silence answered.
She looked at the crease in his shirt. The exhaustion carved into his face. Three days without sleep, sitting in that chair.
“Is my mother here?” she asked.
“Yes, both our families arrived the evening you were shot,” he said. “Ram and Sanjana came despite Sanjana being eight months along. Pooja came within the hour. They are all still here.”
She absorbed that quietly. Her mother would have offered to sit with her. Her brother too. The palace staff would have taken turns through the night if he had asked. Rani Suchitra would have insisted.
He had said no to all of them. She knew this without asking.
Then she tensed slightly. “The man on the water,” she said, wanting to know about the threat directed against Bharat.
