At the end nearest the stairs was a large rumpus room/lounge, set up with a television and sofas.
Raj and Navin had both had single bedrooms on the ground floor before Navin got married and Raj moved out. At present, one was his mother’s sewing room and the other functioned as his father’s study. When in town, Raj’s grandparents occupied the final master suite on the ground floor. That suite had been built for them so they wouldn’t have to deal with stairs.
The main downstairs lounge was where his parents watched their television shows and hosted guests, but there was another, more casual space that flowed off the kitchen and was the lounge Raj and Navin had used most often when growing up. Navin’s game system still sat in one corner, dusted off occasionally by Aditi and her friends.
So it wasn’t as if this was a small house with people on top of one another. And yet Navin and Komal had managed to permeate the entire house with their dislike of one another.
When he knocked lightly on the door of their suite, conscious of not waking his parents, it was wrenched open from the inside.
“Where the f—” Komal bit off her words when she saw Raj supporting Navin.
Stepping aside with her lips compressed tightly together, she let Raj bring his brother inside and drop him on the bed. Not sure Komal would bother, Raj took off his brother’s shoes.
Navin, meanwhile, smiled drunkenly at Komal. “Pretty girl,” he slurred. “C’mere.”
“Not while you have eau de beer coming out of your pores,” Komal muttered before glancing at Raj. “Thank you.”
“He should be fine, but just keep an eye on him.” Raj went to step outside.
A hand on his forearm, Komal’s nails cut short as befit a nurse but her face fully made up despite the late hour. “You’re a good man, Raj.” Her smile was warm, far softer than he’d seen her direct Navin’s way over the past couple of years. “Any woman would be lucky to have you.”
Raj broke the physical contact at once. “Good night, Komal.”
But she followed him to the door. “If Nayna Sharma’s still dangling you like a fish on a hook, she doesn’t deserve you. You need to move on before you waste your life waiting for her to make up her mind.”
Ignoring the words and glad the commotion of bringing Navin home hadn’t woken anyone else, Raj made his way down the stairs and out the back door. He shrugged off Komal’s poisonous words as he walked; he understood his Nayna in a way Komal never could. The idea of clipping her wings… No, Raj would never do it.
No matter how much he hurt.
Opening the front door of his flat, he glanced left. A smile formed on his face when he spotted his sister’s curls peeking out from under the thick blanket she’d pulled up over herself despite the summer warmth. Walking over, he tucked the blanket in more neatly and wondered what Komal had done that had driven Aditi out here today.
His sister-in-law was still on his mind when he walked into his bedroom and began to prepare for bed. Not in the way she wanted to be, however. In Navin and Komal, he had a graphic example that people changed.
Emotions changed.
Raj knew his stubbornness could be both a gift and a curse. When he claimed people, he held on. Love for him had never been a simple matter. He would love Nayna Sharma always.
“Bhaiya?”
Hearing the sleepy call, Raj pulled on a T-shirt over his sweatpants and wandered out to see Aditi sitting up in bed. “Did I wake you, Monkey?”
A yawning nod. “It’s okay. I went to bed at grandma hours.” She rubbed at her face. “Want to watch TV and eat ice cream?”
Raj had an early start the next day, needed to get some sleep. However, with his mind tangled up in thoughts of a woman with hair of silk whose body welcomed him with tight heat but who wouldn’t wear his ring, he didn’t think he’d be sleeping anytime soon. “Sure. You can pick the show.”
Aditi chose a baking show. Halfway through her bowl of ice cream, she leaned her head on his shoulder and began to tell him about how Harlow had built her a village. It took him a while to figure out that Harlow had built that village in a game the two played online. “I lost a level because of a dumb mistake and couldn’t make my village, so he stayed up like five hours one night to gain the points to gift me the village.”
Raj was only half listening to his sister, but when he did finally go to bed, he dreamed of building Nayna a village full of adventures and wonder and showing her that life with him wouldn’t be tedium, tradition, and rules.
The problem was, Raj wasn’t sure he could pull it off.
As with Mr. Darcy, tradition was woven into his bones.
35
Nayna Unbuttons Her Shirt
Two days after the erotic encounter with Raj in her office—she still blushed thinking about it—Nayna had to admit he’d been right. Douglas was hitting on her. Nothing creepy or crossing the line, but when he asked her out to dinner while they were both working late, she knew she had to put a stop to it right then.
“Raj and I, we’re serious, Doug,” she said, calm but firm. “Exclusive.”
Unabashed, Douglas kicked back in the chair across from her. “You never talk about him. Can’t be that serious.”
“I’m not the kind of woman who spreads her private life around,” Nayna said, annoyed. “I’d appreciate it if you dropped this. It’s making me uncomfortable.”
He held up his hands, smile fading. “Hey, sorry. I just… You’ve changed somehow, Nayna. There’s a new brightness to you, and it’s attractive as hell. But I won’t push where I’m not wanted.”
Afterward, back in her office, Nayna found herself annoyed all over again at the memory of what Douglas had said. But what turned her irritation into worry was the memory of Raj’s words.
I don’t think he knew I existed until I walked in.
She’d taken that as an indication of jealousy, but what if it was worse? What if Raj thought she was deliberately pushing him to the periphery of her world? Was that why he hadn’t been in touch since? Was she beginning to lose Raj?
The idea of it caused a deep pain in her stomach, made her breath knot.
Picking up her phone, she called him. “I miss you,” she said when he picked up. “Are you working late today?”
A pause before he said, “I can change my plans if you’re free.”
Her toes curled, but the spreadsheet in front of her mocked her hunger to hold him. “I can’t if I want to have any of the weekend free.” She had to catch up after her unscheduled time off. “Saturday?”
“Done.”
Nayna hung up with her nerves in a knot. Raj was never voluble on the phone, but he’d sounded even more curt than usual. Maybe it was just her imagination and it was only tiredness on his part. He was working long hours too after three of his crew came down with the same cold that had hit her grandmother.
Thankfully, Aji had only had a mild case and was all but fully recovered—helped along by many cups of ginger chai and hours of Indian television dramas. Spoiler: the evil sister-in-law was still trying to cause trouble, and now she was trying to make it look like the younger, innocent sister-in-law was having an affair with the milkman.
But even the thought of that never-ending plotline wasn’t enough to distract Nayna from her worry about what was going on with Raj. He hadn’t even sent her an ab selfie for days. She picked up her phone to look through her private Raj folder… and felt a stir of wickedness. Not giving herself time to chicken out, she made sure her office door was firmly shut, then quickly undid several extra buttons on her shirt and fluffed at her hair.
It stayed dead straight.
Ugh.
She took the shot regardless, a selfie of her blowing him a kiss while her cleavage was teasing shadows between the sides of her shirt. Only when it was too late did she wonder if Raj would find the shot shocking rather than enticing.
* * *