Royal Love

PROLOGUE

A ROYAL INCONVENIENCE

When the playboy wants to change the world…

His Highness Ranveer Singh Sisodia, Yuvarajkumar of Jadhwal, has been steadily working towards a party ticket, but he can’t outrun his playboy past.

When a political rival leaks pictures of a racy New Year’s Eve party on his yacht in Monaco, Veer needs to do damage control or his fledgling political career is toast. How low will he stoop to do so? Would marriage to his former enemy’s sister be too low?

Princess Isha Shekhawat has been cheated out of her dream house in her grandmother’s will. But she’s not going to let her chudail of her grandmother win so easily. If she needs a husband to inherit her dream haveli, then a husband she’ll find. Even if she has to enter into a contract with the devil. And not just any contract. A marriage contract. Veer might be her mortal enemy, but when he suggests a temporary marriage as the solution to both their problems, Isha jumps at the offer.

When the desire that has been simmering between them for years suddenly boils over, the expiry date on their marriage of convenience becomes terribly inconvenient, and these reluctant royals are forced to grapple with the truth behind their enmity.

Duty, dreams and desire collide in this spicy, angsty, royal romance as Isha and Veer choose to go their own way only to realise that all paths lead them to each other.

Is their love enough to overcome years of prejudice? To find out, read A Royal Love – a steamy, marriage of convenience, enemies-to-lovers romance.

✨️✨️✨️

Authyÿ

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY 🇮🇳

01

*..........*- Action "..........."- Thoughts

Isha POV

As I stared at the woman who had just face-planted into a bowl of deconstructed kesar-pista falooda, all I could think of was that I had just killed my grandmother.

Princess Isha Shekhawat [FL]

F*ck

To make matters worse, instead of feeling guilty, all I could feel was intense relief that she could no longer bully me into marrying a man of her choice. I was so going to h*ll.

I bit my lower lip hard enough to draw blood to hold back the nervous giggles that threatened to burst from my lips.

Pull it together, Isha, I told myself sternly. You will not shame your family by getting hysterical in a restaurant with your grandmother lying dead in front of you.

The head waiter hurried to our table when I beckoned him over and his eyes widened in horror at the sight of Dadi Sa’s lifeless form. But he took charge of the situation and within minutes, he had an ornate wooden screen placed around our table for privacy and arranged for a doctor to attend to her. All I had to do was call my brother and tell him what had happened.

But how did one just come out and confess to killing one’s grandmother? That too, in public!

I opened my mouth to tell Bhai Sa exactly how it happened, but at the last second, I chickened out and only gave him the bare bones of the story - that she had collapsed in her chair without warning. I left out the part where I drove her to said collapse.

To be fair, I didn’t set out to kill her. All I wanted to do was enjoy a falooda without being made to feel like a marauding wildebeest. It wasn’t a crime to eat ice cream. After a lifetime of counting calories and thinking of food as my biggest enemy, I had finally made my peace with the fact that my soul needed as much nourishment as my body. Which was why when Dadi Sa slowly pulled my bowl of falooda towards her just as I sank my spoon into it, I snatched it back firmly and shoved a heaping spoonful of kulfi into my mouth.

Princess Isha Shekhawat [FL]

This is mine, Dadi Sa. Yours is right in front of you *said with my mouth full, ignoring the way her face turned an ugly shade of puce*

She was forced to bottle up her anger because she was playing the genial grandmother today as she tried to fix me up with yet another man she deemed suitable. For our illustrious family, that is. Not for me. Never for me.

Aman Solankis/Captain

Wow! You really like ice cream *Captain Obvious sitting opposite me.*

That wasn’t his real name, but I couldn’t remember a thing about him except the fact that he belonged to one of the minor royal families that had made it big in import-export post-independence and that his family used to export ivory and tiger skin. That was all I needed to know because eww! I would never marry a poacher! God only knew where Dadi Sa dug up these creeps and why she inflicted them on me.

I fixed him with a cold glare and enjoyed the way he shrivelled under my gaze.

His mother sniffed disapprovingly.

Mrs Solankis

Your Highness, in our family, girls would die before they allowed anyone to see them gorge in public

Mrs Solankis

The Solankis are a very dignified family

And what are the Trikheras, I wondered. Chopped liver? My ancestors had built their kingdom the hard way - through years and years of war and sacrifice. And we had held on to it despite nearly two centuries of oppression by the British. As far as I knew, the Solankis got their jagir as a reward from the British for supplying arms and men to quell the 1857 mutiny.

I turned to the older lady with a sweet smile and ignored Dadi Sa’s foot which came down heavily on mine under the table in warning.

Princess Isha Shekhawat [FL]

Correct me if I’m wrong, Aunty. But isn’t it true that the girls in your family tend to die young?

"I asked gently, referring to the suspected dowry deaths of at least three women in her extended family."

"From what I’d heard, the Solankis were a very greedy family, I thought with an eye roll. Dadi Sa dug her heel into my instep and I tried not to wince in pain."

Captain Obvious stammered something about that being an ugly rumour but closed his mouth with a snap when his mother held up a hand.

Mrs Solankis

I don’t think your uncouth granddaughter is suited to our family, Your Highness, even if she is a princess. Her immense fortune cannot compensate for her lack of beauty or venomous tongue. Good luck with getting her off your hands *said sarcastically before she rose and stalked away from the table, her son following at her heels like a trained puppy.*

I knew what was coming, so I decided to keep my head down and finish my ice cream as Dadi Sa berated me for the millionth time in my life. Was it the millionth or the zillionth lecture I was about to hear? I had lost count by now. I was slurping up the last bit of seviyan from the bowl when I realised that she hadn’t said anything. And then I heard it - a wheezy gasp.

I looked up in time to see Dadi Sa faceplant in her untouched bowl of melted kulfi and seviyan.

I shook her in panic, but she didn’t stir. I even checked her pulse after a hasty look around the room to make sure no one was looking in our direction. When I couldn’t find one even after minutes of trying, I had to accept that I had done what I had only dreamed of doing for years. I had finally killed the woman who had tortured me since I was a child. A woman who had played tambola with my insecurities and fears and who had lived to shame me for every kilo I gained, for every bite of food I ate. Well, the joke was on her because I had finally shamed her to death.

Princess Isha Shekhawat [FL]

I’m a bad, bad person *said with a sigh as Dadi Sa’s lifeless body was loaded into the ambulance.*

My brother, His Highness Randheer Singh Shekhawat, the Maharaja of Trikhera, begged to differ.

Randheer Singh Shekhawat [FL BROTHER]

Dadi Sa died of a heart attack. You had nothing to do with it, so stop feeling guilty.

✨️✨️✨️

Authyÿ

HAPPY JANMASHTAMI EVERYONE

02

Princess Isha Shekhawat [FL]

That’s why I said I’m a bad person, Bhai Sa, Dadi Sa might still be with us if I hadn’t been so rude to the Solanki woman, but instead of feeling guilty, I feel… free!

Randheer Singh Shekhawat [FL BROTHER]

I don’t get it, Isha. If you hated it so much, why did you go along with her plans to marry you off? All you had to do was say no, and I would have backed you up.

Princess Isha Shekhawat [FL]

😮‍💨

Princess Isha Shekhawat [FL]

If I tell you, you’ll think less of me, Bhai Sa.

My brother put his arm around my shoulders and led me to the car waiting for us.

Randheer Singh Shekhawat [FL BROTHER]

I could never think less of you, Isha *he promised*

Princess Isha Shekhawat [FL]

Well, I did it all for Gulab Mahal *confessed as I settled into the back seat.*

Bhai Sa’s brows creased in confusion as he stared at me.

Randheer Singh Shekhawat [FL BROTHER]

Gulab Banna’s house?

Gulab Banna was our father’s younger brother, Prince Gulab Singh Shekhawat. Unlike the palatial Trikhera Palace, Gulab Mahal was a haveli. Small, but beautiful with a gorgeous rose garden and a lily pond, it was my idea of heaven. But it wasn’t always the rosy haven it was now.

When my grandfather banished his younger son to live there because he wouldn’t conform to his macho expectations - Gulab Banna wanted to design clothes and jewellery - the place was a dump. My uncle invested a lot of time, money and effort into renovating it.

Gulab Mahal was a showcase for Gulab Banna’s exquisite taste and creativity. A taste that he passed onto me. It was featured in numerous architecture and decor magazines. But more than anything, the haveli was a home. My home.

Gulab Banna was the father that I deserved but never had. While Baba Sa was a domineering asshole, my uncle was tender, loving and supportive of everything I wanted to do. While Baba Sa only saw me through the lens of disappointment because I wasn’t the typical Rajput princess, Gulab Banna saw past my chubby exterior and appreciated and loved me for what I was. While Baba Sa put me on strict diets that left me feeling weak and ugly, Gulab Banna fed me with his own hands.

If it hadn’t been for the love and support of Ma and Gulab Banna, I would have been a shadow of the woman I had grown up to be, and it was only right that I carried on the legacy of independence that Gulab Mahal embodied.

The house had been my haven, my safe place, and now, it was going to be my salvation.

While I had finally given up on my dreams of true love, I longed for the peace I felt only in that house. Gulab Mahal had always felt like my place. As if I had lived there in another life, even though I knew that was just a figment of my imagination, and perhaps, a projection of my love for the house.

Gulab Banna had always wanted me to inherit the house, but he had died of a sudden heart attack five years ago before he could change his original will which left everything to his mother. And Dadi Sa, being the snake that she was, had held it over my head ever since, using it as a bribe to force me to do her bidding.

Princess Isha Shekhawat [FL]

Dadi Sa promised to give me the house outright if I agreed to settle down. Gulab Mahal was to be my wedding gift *Said softly, and my brother shook his head in disgust.*

Randheer Singh Shekhawat [FL BROTHER]

Why didn’t you tell me, Isha? I would have put a stop to her scheming.

Princess Isha Shekhawat [FL]

You know as well as I do that she’d have sold the house just to spite us, Bhai Sa. I didn’t want to risk it. And marriage was a small price to pay for my dream house.

Randheer Singh Shekhawat [FL BROTHER]

Are you crazy? It’s far too high a price if you end up marrying the wrong guy

Princess Isha Shekhawat [FL]

That’s all very well for you to say. You married the love of your life. Not all of us have that privilege. The rest of us have to settle for the best we can get, with perks like the house of your dreams to ease the pain

I knew it made me sound very materialistic, but our marriages had always been dynastic ones. Very few people had the good fortune to marry for love like Bhai Sa, who had married my best friend, Diya. Just as I had always known that he was fated to marry Diya, I also knew that I was fated to be single forever if I held out for a love match because men couldn’t look beyond my size. I refused to set myself up for heartbreak ever again.

Besides, unlike them, I was practical. I knew that you didn’t need love to be happy in life. What you needed was stability and a sense of belonging. And the only place I belonged was Gulab Mahal.

Randheer Singh Shekhawat [FL BROTHER]

Stop putting yourself down, Isha. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t marry for love.

Was he blind or just clueless, I wondered with a disbelieving look

Princess Isha Shekhawat [FL]

Falling in love needs two people, Bhai Sa. And you might be blind to my weight issues, but trust me, the rest of the world isn’t. *said bitterly*

He sighed as he ran a gentle hand over my head.

Randheer Singh Shekhawat [FL BROTHER]

I wish I could go back and destroy all the a*sholes who hurt you. And I wish you could see yourself through the eyes of the people who love you. You’re beautiful in a way that has nothing to do with your shape or size.

✨️✨️✨️

Randheer Singh Shekhawat [FL BROTHER]

RANDHEER SINGH SHEKHAWAT FL BROTHER 28 YRS OLD MAHARAJA OF TRIKHERA PALACE LOVE HIS SISTER ALOT VERY RESPONSIBLE PERSON

Princess Isha Shekhawat [FL]

ISHA SINGH SHEKHAWAT FL 26 YRS OLD RAJKUMARI OF TRIKHERA PALACE LOVE HER FAMILY ALOT SPECIALLY HER BROTHER

Authyÿ

Just imagine she is chubby

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