The Maharajah's Billionaire Heir Read online

  "Surely Rajvinder understands that one must go with the other." Didn't he? How could he not?

  Barbie just gave a slight shrug. "I am surprised he allows you to call him Rajvinder. He barely tolerates it from me, but it is his name."

  "Does he think it's too Indian?"

  Barbie smiled sadly and shook her head. "As much as he has little use for either my family or the Singhs, my son has never blamed the country of my birth for the choices they all made in regard to him. Rajvinder is proud of his Indian heritage."

  "But he doesn't like being called by his full name?" Vin wasn't exactly an American name, but it wasn't obviously Indian either.

  "I made the mistake of telling him the Singhs have a tradition of naming the first born son with a name that means king or prince in some way."

  "That's why he uses Vin and not Raj?" Because Raj would have been acknowledging the prince part of his name.

  "I never told him that Adhip asked me to name our son Rajvinder if I had a boy."

  "He did that?" Eliza asked in shock.

  "He did. Letting me and our child go was terribly difficult for him."

  Eliza had no trouble believing that. As content as Adhip uncle and Tabish auntie had been together, uncle had always had this underlying sadness Eliza hadn't understood. "If he'd been stronger, he wouldn't have let go at all."

  "That was the conclusion I came to, yes."

  "And still you named your son Rajvinder."

  Barbie's gave her a look filled with dignity and not even a little give. "He was a prince even if the Singhs did not recognize his place in the world."

  "You really want your son to be made heir, but not for your own sake."

  "As much as it would be nice to have vindication finally, no, not for me. My son has always been the rightful heir to their nominal throne. He deserves the title."

  "He doesn't know."

  "Know what?"

  "That I think of him as Rajvinder."

  "How?"

  "I avoid using his name."

  Barbie laughed. "Surely you've had to say it at least once."

  "Yes."

  "And?"

  "He ignored it, but he frowned."

  "He did not lecture you?"

  "No."

  "Then you have found a soft spot in my son most would say he does not possess."

  ***

  Eliza was pretty sure herself that soft spot didn't exist later when she met Rajvinder for dinner as she did nearly every night.

  "But you can't be the Prince of Mahapatras and live in America." She'd brought up the issue, believing his mother had got it wrong.

  "I assure you, I can."

  She just stared at the intransigent man in front of her. "Grandfather will never agree to that."

  "He already has."

  "You've spoken to Grandfather?" Eliza asked with shock, and a little annoyance.

  Dadaji hadn't said a word. Not before, or after, the meeting. Which might be typical for the Maharajah, but considering the fact that bringing Rajvinder back into the family had been Eliza's idea, it was still irritating.

  "As much as you and I are the only ones necessary for the conversation of whether or not the marriage that was supposed to happen to my cousin goes forward, Trisanu is the only one who can negotiate the terms of making me his heir."

  She couldn't argue Rajvinder's words. After all, Eliza had never taken an interest in the Singh's business, though they expected her to donate her considerable inheritance to bolstering said business.

  And yet, being left out of the conversation she hadn't even been told about made her feel rejected on a level Eliza didn’t really understand.

  Being offended at Grandfather wouldn't change anything, but it would have made more sense than this emotional turmoil she felt right now.

  Eliza snapped her napkin out with a brisk movement and then smoothed it over her lap once again. "He could have mentioned that you two met." Her voice was curt, exposing some of her disgruntlement.

  "I mentioned it. Now."

  She searched Rajvinder's handsome features, trying unsuccessfully to read his expression. The man probably made a killing at the poker tables. If he indulged. "And he has no problem with you not living in India? At the palace?" she asked in disbelief.

  "I have agreed to visit the palace twice a year. As you know, I travel to India more frequently for business." Rajvinder nodded toward her dinner. "Is the food not to your liking?"

  "It's fine," she dismissed with a flick of her wrist. "Neither of you thought to discuss this decision with me?" What if she didn't want to live in India only part-time? Didn't her opinion matter at all? To either of these two stubborn, proud men? "What if I want to live in India?"

  "Then I will see you twice a year when I am at the palace, perhaps more often if you wish to meet me when I am there on business."

  The words dismissing her as a future component to his life hit her like a blow, all the air whooshing from her lungs and something painful squeezing in Eliza's chest.

  Eliza told herself this visceral, over the top reaction to him as much as saying he didn't plan to marry her made no sense, but that didn't make the disappointment choking her any less keen.

  Yes, she wanted to do her duty and follow through on her promise to marry the Mahapatras heir. And even more, she knew that marriage would make Rajvinder stepping into his rightful place as heir to the Maharajah easier for everyone in the family to accept.

  The marriage was something she could give to the family that she'd been unable to give the emotional closeness she knew they had expected and Tabish auntie so clearly craved.

  But it should not bother Eliza on any emotional level to realize Rajvinder wasn't going to fall in line with that aspect of him taking on his role as heir. In fact, she should feel relief.

  "Is something wrong?" he asked, sounding like he honestly couldn't imagine what might be bothering her.

  Probably because he couldn't. Rajvinder would have no reason to believe she would react with anything but acceptance to his decision not to honor his cousin's marriage plans.

  Wanting the negative to be true, Eliza shook her head, no words coming to her usually active brain. She remained quiet through the rest of dinner, having little appetite and doing her best to hide it.

  Since when had she started wanting to marry the self-made tycoon?

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Eliza hadn't even really wanted to marry Dev.

  Not for his sake certainly. As close of friends as they had been, Eliza knew without question she would not have been angry, or even disappointed, if Dev had backed out of the arranged marriage.

  As she'd grown older, she had come to believe she did not have to marry Dev to keep her place in the Singh family. Adhip uncle and Tabish auntie saw her as their daughter, marriage, or not marriage.

  Even now, as much as Tabish auntie wanted what she termed the stability of Eliza's marriage to the new heir, she had also told Eliza privately that if she didn't want to go through with it, Eliza should not.

  Now, that it looked like Rajvinder wasn't as keen on the marriage, Eliza couldn't hide from the truth that she did want the marriage.

  And it worried her, because though he and Grandfather had discussed terms for Rajvinder becoming the Maharajah's official heir, she knew the old man was still laboring under the belief that his heir would be marrying the woman raised to be princess. Eliza.

  Anxiety and disappointment created a negative maelstrom of emotions inside her.

  Eliza and Rajvinder were in the car when she realized that as much as she'd looked forward to seeing the Nutcracker ballet, she was no longer in the mood.

  "Would you mind terribly if I begged off on the ballet?" she asked, certain he wouldn't mind at all.

  Rajvinder looked at her with an expression she might have been tricked into thinking was concern, if she didn't know better. "Are you all right? You were very quiet at dinner."

  "I'm tired." Exhausted. A sense of defeat rode
her while she told herself it didn't matter.

  He'd agreed to be heir. That was what was important. Not only would Rajvinder be reunited with his father's family, like Dev wanted, but Eliza was sure he would fix the ailing business empire. Taking care of the family just as she'd promised Dev.

  Rajvinder gave her another searching look, but nodded. He stopped in front of the hotel, going to unclip his seatbelt. But she stopped him with a hand to his wrist. "Don't get out. I'll see myself up."

  He pressed the button and the snick of the seatbelt disengaging sounded. "I will see you inside."

  "That's not necessary, really."

  But Rajvinder was already getting out of the car. He said something to the valet before coming around to help Eliza out of the car, showing no compunction about stepping around the livery clad attendant that had opened her door.

  "I will change our tickets for tomorrow's ballet," he said as he led her inside.

  "Please, don't bother. I'll probably be packing. I'll look for a flight back to India tonight." She had some thinking to do, plans to make.

  The marriage might not be going forward, but her time with Rajvinder Acharya and his mother Barbie Latham had made Eliza realize that maybe the time had come to stop living for other people.

  That maybe it was time to start living. Full stop.

  "What? Why are you going back to India?"

  "I came over to negotiate your return to the family, but it looks like you and Dadaji have already done that. And since you're not interested in fulfilling the marriage contract, my presence is clearly surplus to requirements."

  "Who said I wasn't interested in marrying you?" he asked, sounding genuinely perplexed.

  Then before she could answer, he was guiding her to a couple of chairs in a secluded corner in the lobby. Without really realizing how it had happened, Eliza found herself sitting down, Rajvinder in a chair kitty-corner to hers.

  His knee brushed her thigh as he leaned toward her. "We need to talk."

  "Why? It sounds like you and Dadaji have everything worked out."

  "Have you noticed that you refer to him as dadaji when you are feeling nervous, or emotional and Grandfather the rest of the time?"

  "I'm not feeling nervous," she assured him. Nerves did not come into it. "And I'm not an emotional person."

  "You really believe that," he said with some awe. Like her words were oh so ridiculous to him. "Are you backing out of the arranged marriage?"

  "What?" Why would he ask that? "You said…"

  "I never said anything about it, either way." He sounded very sure.

  She was equally sure he had. "You did. At dinner."

  "What did I say?" he asked. The confusion he exhibited would have been rather charming if she wasn't dealing with a maelstrom of unexpected feelings, that did not make her an emotional person.

  In fact, her own shock at feeling them clearly indicated she wasn't usually emotional, but if she said that, she'd sound defensive and that would be self-defeating.

  Instead she reminded him, "You said that I would see on your visits to India."

  "If you chose to live in the Palace, then when else would I see you?"

  "You meant as husband and wife?"

  "Well, I'm not going to presume, we haven't actually agreed to marriage between us, but that is one possible outcome."

  "And you don't care if we only see each other twice a year?" Married? As much as she'd never planned on falling for her husband, it had never occurred to Eliza that she and her husband would have such a distant relationship.

  She stifled the urge to sigh, frustrated and confused by her own reaction once again. The idea should make her happy, not depress her.

  "That's up to you. I can't say I'm keen to go months between sex, but I'm not going to force you to relocate to California."

  "You plan to be faithful?" she asked, before thinking, but wanting the answer, so she didn't take the words back, or try to give him an out.

  "Don't you?"

  "I hadn't thought about it." She'd been pretty sure Dev had a girlfriend and Eliza hadn't been at all sure that he planned to give her up after marriage.

  Considering her own attitude toward marriage, seeing it as more a joining of two friends in the united effort to continue the House of Mahapatras, than any kind of romantic connection, Eliza hadn't really cared either way. For some reason, the idea of Rajvinder taking other bed partners seemed entirely different.

  Wholly unexpected and foreign rage surged up inside her at the idea. "No. No other bed partners. If I agree to this marriage, neither of us will take other bed partners."

  "If you agree?" he asked with dry, near academic interest.

  "It's my choice as much as yours."

  "That's not the attitude you had when you first arrived in San Diego."

  "I'm sorry if I gave you a different impression, but I assure you, it was."

  Rajvinder inclined his head in acknowledgement of her words. "I told Trisanu that if he wanted me to take over the Singh's business interests and bring them back to profitability, he would accept that your inheritance would remain your own."

  "That's not your decision. I never said that was what I wanted."

  "No. You still have an unhealthy focus on doing your duty by the Singh family."

  "Accepting one's duty is not unhealthy." But she supposed to a man who claimed to feel no responsibility toward his father's family, it might be seen that way.

  "If it is your duty."

  "Helping my family is my duty."

  "And marrying me?"

  "Duty plays a part in that, but I'm still not marrying you if I don't feel right about it." She'd never put that thought into words, but she knew it was how she'd always felt. "I came here prepared to an arranged marriage, but not if you'd turned out to be someone I could not see myself living with."

  "Not like Dev." Something in his tone bothered her, but she couldn't place what.

  "No. Marrying Dev would not have been the same as marrying you." She had no doubts about that truth.

  "He was your best friend."

  "He was."

  "But he'd never kissed you."

  "No."

  Rajvinder brushed his fingertip along her lips. "I have."

  "Yes." Many times. And she'd liked it more than she thought possible.

  "If we marry, we will have passion, not just friendship."

  She could not deny it. And something inside her was very satisfied at his acknowledgement of that truth, even while she feared what it could mean. "Yes."

  "That scares you."

  "Stop reading my mind." She frowned at him with exasperation.

  No way did he know her that well, but then reading others was a skill he would need to be the successful businessman that he was.

  Unrepentant, he gave her a shark's grin. "Friends understand each other."

  "You want to be my friend?"

  "I will be a better friend to you than Dev was." There was a wealth of implications behind those words.

  "What do you mean?"

  "For one thing, I won't allow the Singh family to take advantage of you."

  "I never considered it taking advantage. Family does what it can." Besides, giving money was easier than giving emotion. Though Eliza had come to realize she'd probably invested a lot more emotion than she'd ever wanted to admit in her new family. It was apparently a night for inner revelations and not happy ones. "There's tradition in the royal lineage. Tradition that should not be lost."

  "Perhaps, but it will have to change because I'm never making India my permanent home. I am an American man with an Indian heritage and I have no intention of changing that."

  "But your child will be the heir to the throne as well."

  "Are we going to have children?"

  "Are we getting married?" she countered.

  He stood up without answering, then put his hand out. "Come with me."

  Bemused and still more than a little confused, she took the offered han
d and let him lead her to the bank of elevators. He swiped with a card and then pressed a button that was marked private. When the elevator stopped, he led her out into a small annex and then through a door that led to rooftop garden.

  "I didn't know this was here."

  "It's reserved for special clientele."

  "The ones staying in the penthouse?"

  "Some of them, yes."

  "Oh." Very exclusive then. She didn't ask how he'd gotten access. The man was a powerful billionaire. She doubted there were very many, if any, exclusive places he didn't have access to.

  He led her to a spot where they could look out over the city, Christmas lights and the usual street and traffic lights mixing for a magical beauty she would not have expected from their vantage point. "It's so pretty."

  "Eliza."

  She turned to see what he wanted. Rajvinder had a ring box, in the distinctive blue of a traditional and very well-known jeweler. "I…"

  "Will you marry me, Eliza?"

  "You didn't have to do this."

  "Ours is not a romantic match, and honestly? That works for me, but you deserve every trapping to make it special. The truth is, I enjoy your company. I'm insanely attracted to you and I'm very much looking forward to making you my wife."

  What an old-fashioned sentiment for such a modern guy, but Eliza didn't mind.

  "Dev never asked." His father had spoken to Adhip uncle and then Dadaji had told her she would be marrying Dev when she was done with school. She'd been sixteen.

  It had all been very traditional and very much in keeping with how the family operated. Even though the Maharajah had told both her and Dev they were getting married, Eliza had known she could refuse, but she hadn't wanted to.

  Dev had been her best friend and at sixteen, Eliza had only been too happy to agree to a marriage that would ensure her new family didn't disappear from her life like her birth family had through tragedy.

  Rajvinder flipped open the lid on the ring box. The diamond ring inside glittered under the soft rooftop lights, twinkling like the clear Christmas lights strung around them. "I am not Dev."

  "No, you aren't." Two men could hardly be more disparate in personality and life choices.