by Lucy Monroe
"That's not my personal life though, is it?"
"No, but if you're immensely different, there is such a thing as divorce." Did he think she would stay married to someone she found untenable?
This wasn't a love match, where feelings might drive her to stay married to a man who treated her with cruelty or even indifference. He would give her the same level of loyalty and consideration he did any business venture.
"You would divorce me if I turned out to be an asshole?"
"Yes."
"It actually relieves me to hear that."
And knowing he felt that way? Told her more about his character than she was sure he wanted it to.
He shook his head. "Let's finish our dinner. You know I'm not going to make a decision tonight."
"No. You have to have us all investigated first."
"I do, but I'm also going to insist on that old-fashioned concept of getting to know you personally before I make a decision."
"You don't expect to fall in love, do you?" she asked, making no effort to hide her horror at the thought.
He laughed. "Don't worry. We've both established I don't believe in fairytales, but I don't trust an investigator's report to tell me if we're compatible."
"So, you want to date?" she asked, nonplussed.
"You sound both shocked and confused by what is a very common practice." The laughter lurking in his dark eyes charmed her.
Though she was certain it wasn't supposed to. "For others, in different situations."
"I think for anyone in our situation."
Was he right? The idea of getting to know Rajvinder both excited and frightened her, a little. She already reacted so strongly to him.
"My mother likes the Christmas lights at SeaWorld this time of year. We'll take her to see them the day after tomorrow."
Autocratic, much? And a tourist attraction did not sound at all like how the tycoon usually spent his day. "But surely you are too busy…"
"I am never too busy to take my mother to view the Christmas lights."
"Oh."
***
Eliza tossed and turned that night in the luxurious bed that had felt nothing but comfortable the first night she'd stayed with Grandfather in the five-star hotel suite.
Rajvinder wanted to date.
Eliza had never dated.
Her life had been more sheltered than even she realized until the accident. Until her entire world was turned on its ear.
What had seemed like a natural follow through on duty, now loomed before her as a life-altering event. Marriage to Dev would have been easy, comfortable. They'd been friends, but nothing more. Eliza had known her heart would only ever be so involved.
And she hadn't felt even a little bit guilty about that. It had been the same for Dev. They'd talked about it, both a little worried about the other's reaction, only to be relieved when they had both acknowledged complete complacency with that situation.
She knew why she didn't want to be in love, but Dev had never told her why he felt the same.
Eliza realized now, she should have asked. Didn't she owe that to her friend? Shouldn't she have cared why Dev didn't want Eliza to be in love with him?
Dev had been her best friend, but there had been big blanks in his life she hadn't known about. Hadn't been interested to know. And now she felt badly about that.
They weren't even engaged yet, if indeed they were going to end up that way, and Rajvinder was already wreaking havoc with her thoughts and emotions.
Oh, she wasn't worried about falling in love with him. She'd cut off access to her heart and that emotion too completely. Eliza was concerned that the neat and ordered life she'd planned for herself had just become a lot less certain.
Rajvinder had said nothing against her working, and frankly, she wouldn't listen if he had. She may have spent the last nearly two decades in a privileged bubble, but her views on how to live were not in the least archaic. She was an adult and she got to make her own decisions.
That was something Rajvinder didn't understand.
Eliza had chosen to accept the first arranged marriage and it had been her decision to suggest this one. She didn't want to worry about things like love and overly deep emotional entanglements.
Her body's response to him was both encouraging and worrying.
Passion was not a bad thing. She'd been fully prepared to live without it as Dev's wife, believing their friendship and companionability made up for something so insignificant.
However, she had no doubts whatsoever that Rajvinder would never settle for a passionless marriage, even if, like her, he didn't want love. She wasn't even sure he believed in it.
Unlike her.
Eliza knew how destructive a force love could be and she wanted none of it. She'd lost too many people she loved to ever want her heart involved in a relationship again.
Eliza threw back the covers and got up, moving quietly so as not to bother Grandfather in the other room. He probably wouldn't hear her if she watched some television, but she wasn't taking any risks. So, she grabbed a book she'd been wanting to read and opened it, only to stare sightlessly at the page.
Grandfather wasn't happy about the dating.
He disapproved that her first outing with Rajvinder was to see Christmas lights, a holiday not celebrated at the palace. Though there were many in India who did celebrate the holiday, religiously if they were Christian and secularly, if they were not. But not in the House of Mahapatras.
Despite this truth, the Maharajah had expressed concern that Badriyah had gone native in her years living in America.
Eliza was kind of proud of herself for not showing even an inkling of her amusement at Grandfather's disgruntlement.
The investigative report had indicated that Badriyah was still a practicing Hindu, which meant her celebration of the Christmas holiday would have to be a purely secular one, with none of the religious overtones.
Of course, Dadaji probably had no idea that Christmas had been the holiday celebrated in Eliza's family. Nor, did she think, he would have cared.
If it wasn't part of life at the palace, it wasn't important to the Maharajah.
But Eliza's mother had loved decorating the tree and while they hired a service to put up lights and the other décor, it had always felt special and personal to Eliza.
She'd missed Christmas when she went to live in the Palace. Since one of the breaks from boarding school every year fell over the Winter break, which included the week of Christmas, she'd pretty much stopped celebrating when she was ten.
Oh, she'd always gone back to school with a passel of new gifts from Adhip uncle and Tabish auntie, but that happened every break she returned to the Palace. Winter, Spring and Summer always saw her spoiled with new pressies. It was Tabish auntie's way, but Christmas was not.
The little girl who had lost her holiday along with her parents was really excited about going to SeaWorld, no matter how nervous the woman she'd become was about spending time with Rajvinder.
Would he expect to kiss? He was such a sensual, confident man. Even so, he wouldn't expect to test their personal chemistry with his mother there, surely.
That thought should not disappoint her.
***
Eliza slid into the backseat of the luxurious town car and Rajvinder joined her on the leather upholstered seats.
"So, sometimes you do use a driver," she said to him as she clicked her seat belt into place.
Rajvinder shrugged. "Maan prefers it."
"Where is she?"
"At her home, waiting for us to collect her."
He might have been raised in California, but Rajvinder had picked up a barely-there British accent and a more formal way of speaking while away at boarding school. Or perhaps, his mother still spoke with that slight emphasis on formality that always charmed Eliza in Tabish auntie.
"Her home? You do not live with her?" Eliza asked.
"No. I've had my own place for a very long time. As I keep reminding y
ou, this is not India. I prefer my independence."
"India isn't the only place families continue to live under a communal roof. Extreme wealth often leads to palatial type abodes and more than one generation living in them."
"You think my mother is extremely wealthy?" he asked with some mockery.
"I think she married a man who was moderately so until he went into business with you and now you're both in the extreme category, though because you own seventy-five percent of your ultra-successful business holdings, you are naturally richer."
"Is that why the Singhs want me to be recognized as the Maharaja's heir? They believe I will prop up some of their failing businesses with my money?" he asked with sharp cynicism.
"You aren't the one they expect to refill coffers that have shrunk over the years, but are hardly the result of failing businesses." At least she didn't think the Mahapatras empire's businesses were failing. Grandfather said they were all doing well.
"You told the truth about Adhip being involved in civic life and apparently he was good at it, but he was not so adept at business. Under his and his brother's helm, the Mahapatras fortune has shrunk almost in half and they have had to sell off several concerns."
"That can't be true." But why would Rajvinder lie to her?
"I assure you, it is. However good the Singhs investigators are, they aren't as efficient and accurate as Hawk Enterprises."
She'd heard of the multi-national security company. Who hadn't? Just recently they'd merged with a company that developed what was supposed to be the most advanced security software on the market.
"But Adhip wouldn't just sell off properties. People depend on the family for employment." They really did need the infusion of capital from her inheritance.
But if what Rajvinder said was true, then she could not be at all confident that it wouldn't just be throwing good money after bad.
Before there had been Adhip uncle and his brother running the businesses, now it was just Veeresh uncle. Grandfather had retired from the hotel business many years ago.
"Yes. Those same people whose children he was trying to get educated."
"How awful that must have been for him." It would have depressed Adhip uncle terribly to know he was letting down the very people he was so intent on helping. "He'd grown less jovial over the years, smiled infrequently…I didn't know why."
"I think it was worse for the people his incompetent management left without a job."
"Just because he sold off a hotel, or two, doesn't mean everyone got fired." It didn't work like that. Did it?
Her expert knowledge of chemistry and science in no way helped Eliza make sense of the situation Rajvinder described.
"Try four hotels and of those properties, only one was purchased by another hotel group. The others were torn down for other types of development."
"But all those properties were Mahapatras family homes at one time," she said with shock. The royal family had been large and lived lavishly. Once the privy purse was dismantled, they had turned many of their private homes into hotels, both to preserve a way of life in India for generations to come and to make a profit.
Grandfather often boasted of how successfully their family had weathered the privy purse crisis, but it didn't sound like that success had made its way to the next generation.
"They were indeed, but that did not stop Adhip from selling them."
"Can't you refer to him as father?" she asked, pained.
"No."
"You're very blunt. And stubborn." And a few other things she was doing her best not to say out loud.
"He was never my father."
"He wanted to be."
"I have only your word for that."
"Why would I lie to you?"
"To convince me that my family wanted me and therefore I have some kind of emotionally driven responsibility to step in and save them from themselves."
"That's not what Grandfather wants. He's looking for an heir, not a safety net." They had her for that. "He wants to know the next Maharaja will take care of the people that rely on the Mahapatras family."
"As well as his own sons have done?" Rajvinder asked with no attempt at diplomacy and a great deal of sarcasm.
"Adhip uncle did his best!"
"His best wasn't good enough then."
"I know Dadaji is not looking for you to give them money."
"Like you knew the hotel business was doing as well as it always had?" he asked with a raised brow.
How could she want to smack and kiss a man at the same time? And really…Eliza never wanted to smack people. She was a pacifist. Mostly.
"When I marry, I gain control of my inheritance. I've already promised to sign it over to Grandfather." There. Proof that the Singhs weren't looking for a monetary bailout from Rajvinder.
"Like hell you will."
"What? It's my inheritance and I'll do with it as I like."
"It won't be going into the Mahapatras coffers to be mismanaged like their own finances."
"Grandfather built the hotel empire. He's not going to mismanage it."
"The man you think of as a grandfather hasn't been in the family business for more years than you've been alive."
"He's still head of the family."
"And if he wants an heir, he'll give up designs on your money."
"What? No. You can't do that. I'm an adult woman and you aren't making my decisions for me."
"Neither are the Singhs." Rajvinder made a sound that was very much like a frustrated growl. "Listen, if they come to you with an offer to invest, you can look it over and decide if the investment is sound, but I won't be party to any more draconian decision making on your behalf by that family. They won't take advantage of you through me."
"What difference does it make to you? Are you worried I'll expect you to pay for things for me?"
"Don't be ridiculous. If I agree to the arranged marriage you seem keen to follow through on, you will be my wife. Do you honestly expect me not to look out for your interests?"
If she said yes, which was her honest answer, it was clear she would offend him. But it had never occurred to Eliza that Rajvinder would watch out for her. "Dev wasn't bothered by that aspect to our marriage."
"Dev was probably as hopeless a businessman as his father and uncle and believed all they needed was an infusion of capital to keep things afloat."
"It's not?" she asked, pretty sure she wasn't going to like the answer.
"If it were, selling the properties they did would have already seen them on the road to economic recovery, not continuing to slide down toward penury."
"It's not that bad, surely."
"Without some proper financial management and economic forecasting, the Mahapatras dynasty will be a family of paupers within a generation, two at the most."
"No. It cannot be that bad."
"Eliza, the Singh hotels are hemorrhaging money and the family continue to live like royalty with independent means."
"Can you help them?"
"Undoubtedly."
"Will you?"
"That's the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question, isn't it?"
It certainly was to her. She didn't want her adopted family to tumble into penury. She didn't care about her inheritance. It was the least she could offer them and Rajvinder would have to come to see that, but if it wasn't going to make things better, what could?
Looking at Rajvinder, self-made billionaire, she thought she had her answer. And she thought he might be right. Grandfather hadn't just come to California looking for an heir, he'd come looking for the one person who could reverse the family's economic downturn.
***
Rajvinder led his mother and Eliza through the VIP entrance to SeaWorld, smiling at the way maan's eyes lit up at the sight of her favorite tourist attraction, indulging her desire to stop and check out the newest merchandise in the kitchy gift shop.
He had no doubts she'd drag him to every single one of the Christmas gift and décor kiosks er
ected only at this time of year and with special park themed holiday items, as well as all sorts of Christmas decorations. They'd had a different theme for their tree every year since those holiday décor shops had popped up at the park that first November.
SeaWorld was as much a part of Vin's childhood holiday memories as Santa Claus (at the mall, which would no doubt horrify Eliza).
One of the earliest times Vin could remember was of his mother bringing him to the aquatic park at Christmastime. Things had been different back then and changed a great deal over the intervening years, but it was still Badriyah's favorite way to kick off the holiday season as she called it.
They'd come in the later afternoon, so they would have time to attend a few of the shows and still be there when darkness fell early as it did this time of year, and the Christmas lights around the park were lit.
As he predicted, his mother wanted to stop at the first Christmas décor kiosk they came to. What shocked him was the delight, almost awe, with which Eliza handled each ornament.
"Oh, this is so beautiful." Eliza touched a silver and gold bauble reverently.
"You act as if you haven't seen a Christmas ornament before," his mother dismissed with something less than her usual warmth toward others.
She'd been silent in the car, barely responsive to Eliza's conversational overtures.
Vin didn't understand his mother's attitude. She'd made it clear she wanted him to take on the role of Mahapatras Prince, family's legitimized and recognized heir to the Maharaja.
Perhaps she thought that family would accept Vin without the trappings of the arranged marriage. Vin was not so naïve. While he knew the decision was entirely his, he also knew that if he refused to marry Eliza, it was entirely likely the Maharajah would look further afield in the family lineage for someone to name his heir.
And that would not suit Vin.
Besides, he'd never been in love, wasn't sure he believed in the emotion, so wasn't looking for it to justify his choice in a life partner. He would choose that life partner though.