She glanced at him skeptically. "Okay. That makes it right, I guess." She was kneeling on the bed and reached up to start removing all the pins that held up her hair.
Now he was really starting to get pissed. He shot to his feet again, erection forgotten. "For fuck's sake, just get to the point. What do you mean by that?" he demanded. "Do you think I liked taking advantage of you? That I planned to do it or something? I have felt worse about my actions that night than you have."
Jasmine let her hair tumble luxuriantly around her shoulders and down her back. "Look, I really don't care anymore. I'm never fucking you again. So just because we're married, you don't have to be faithful to me or anything. I won't get mad at you for sleeping with other women."
Armaan could not believe this. He laughed shortly and shook his head at her. It angered him even more that she claimed that his infidelity would never upset her as long as he was up front about it.
"Jasmine Khan. Listen very carefully to what I'm about to tell you right now." He placed his palms on the bed and leaned forwards to capture her gaze. "I take nikah very seriously. Unlike some people," he added with meaning.
She looked at him uncertainly. "What are you implying?" she wanted to know.
"Implying?" He straightened and started pacing the room because rage was building up inside him. "I'm not implying anything. I'm just trying to tell you that I'm not like my brother. It wouldn't have pissed me off so much if you had just told me but no, damn it, I had to find out about it the hard way. I had to see the two of you that night kissing! In my fucking bedroom!" he yelled and picked up the small ornamental vase on his bedside table and sent it sailing across the room where it crashed on the opposite wall and shattered into a dozen pieces.
Jasmine jumped at this display of his temper, feeling a little scared. He had told her once that he got angry instead of offended but this was downright violent. This was a side of him that she had never expected to see. Charming, boyish, flirtatious Armaan had a temper akin to a mad bull.
"You don't have to take your anger out on inanimate objects." Her voice was soft and soothing and he whirled around to face her, breathing heavily.
"You see that's the thing, Miss. Khan," he bit out harshly. "They're inanimate. They can't feel any of these fucked up emotions that I'm feeling right now!" He glared at her some more and she wished she had some experience regarding how to deal with people who lost their temper in this manner.
She had no idea how to handle him or the raw emotions emanating from him. Armaan let out a growl, ran a hand through his hair and sat back down on the bed. His shoulders sagged a while later but he said nothing before a sudden movement from him plunged them into darkness. He stretched out on the bed with a weary sigh and she did the same, turning on her side to face the balcony, watching the tendrils flutter in the breeze and inhaling the sweet fragrance coming from them.
She didn't want to deal with this whole new drama with Armaan, whatever his problem was. Instead, she thought about Hamza. Maybe she would see him tomorrow, in private, and explain everything properly. And the situation was very delicate tonight so she was going to broach the subject of separate beds to Armaan later.
She was about to close her eyes when the mattress dipped and then, her breathing stopped for a few seconds as she felt Armaan snuggling up to her from behind. Throwing his leg possessively over hers, he wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face in her hair, pulling her in close, his erection pressing into her bottom.
A tiny gasp escaped her. "Armaan?" she said, heat curling in her belly and a throb starting between her legs, making her feel ashamed that she was responding to him physically.
He did not answer but Jasmine knew that he was not asleep. He was not snoring. "Armaan?" she said again, a little firmly this time.
"What?"
She tried not to sigh exasperatedly because it would cause her body to move unnecessarily against his and create unwanted friction. It seemed that his anger cooled down just as quickly as it erupted. Or maybe it was a habit of his to snuggle up to his bed companions since Alex had told her that he rarely slept alone. But that was not her habit. She had been sleeping alone since she was a baby.
"I need space," she muttered, trying not to sound mad because she still wasn't sure of his mood.
Armaan didn't move for a while and she feared that they would stay in this position the whole night and at some point, it would prove too much for her sex-starved body and she would just beg him to take her. But he shifted and she felt him slide across the bed to his side. When she turned to look at him after her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, he was perched right at the edge, as far away from her as possible, his back stiff and his arms folded.
She bit her lip, feeling guilty when she knew she owed him nothing. She had been honest with him about where her heart lay. He should not feel betrayed by her refusal to have sex with him. She owed her loyalty to the one she loved not her so-called husband.
"Why did you do it, Jasmine?" he asked slowly, startling her with his question in the silence. "Why did you go back to him after
