Aloha, page 5
Nihaal sighed. His chest moving in tandem with the big gust of breath.
“I messed up my relationship with her when I left home all those years ago, I thought…now’s my chance to make it up to her. To rebuild our foundations.” He was melancholic. “And it feels like you made a unilateral decision to pause that.”
I crawled over to him. And put my arms around his waist, mindful of the sling.
The driver gave us a surprised glance in the rearview mirror. As if he wasn’t used to PDAs in the backseat of the car.
I couldn’t give a fuck about propriety right now. I was having an important conversation with the love of my life.
“I was hoping you’d say that.” I kissed his unshaven jaw. “You have the best heart, Nihaal. And I’m sorry, truly, that I didn’t tell you my plan. I wasn’t sure you’d leave if you knew why I wanted us to go.”
His arms came around my waist, traveled down my pants leg so I lay half-draped over him. “I am not sure either.” Nihaal ran a hand over my leg. “That’s what sucks. That you are fucking right about this. But…next time, just tell me. Okay? I don’t want to ever feel like you’re trying to control me.”
Like his father had tried to, constantly. In life and after he died.
“I won’t. I’ll try my hardest not to,” I vowed.
“That’s enough for me, love.” He ran a thumb over the inside of my wrist.
“Anya says I should use sex to get you to listen to me.”
Nihaal grinned. Cheekily. Sexily. Devilishly. Sparks of lust and heat driving the flames hotter between us. “Anya might be smarter than you.”
I looked at the driver’s stiff, disapproving form and kissed Nihaal’s jaw discreetly.
“Later,” I promised. “I’ll prove to you just how smart I am.”
Chapter 3
Nihaal
I was going to die today.
The car climbed up the mountain valley town of Manali several hours later, on the way to Goonj Manali. It was soon to be a world-famous hospitality location known for its classy décor, excellent South Asian cooking, and breathtaking views of the snow-capped Himalayas. Krivi and Ziya were as good at the hospitality business as one of my other friends, Ansh Thackery.
Yet, I was certain today would be my last.
Because, after making up with Mili, which was second to making love with Mili, I remembered the ruthless cool on her cousin’s face and the promise he’d made me minutes before I said ‘I do’ to Mili and tethered our fates together.
I’m watching you. I don’t care how rich or famous or talented you are…The minute I see something I know will hurt my sister will be the last thing you ever do…That is a promise. And I always keep my promises.
I was not fully aware of his career prior to helping Ziya manage the Goonj hospitality business, but I had my suspicions. I could have asked my cousin, Mason Jones-Tarrant, of the billionaire Manhattan Jones-Tarrants, to look into Krivi and confirm my suspicions but I was not eager to know the ugly truth.
Ignorance was bliss in this instance.
“You’re worried,” Mili observed. “What’s gotten you worried?”
I gave her a droll look. “Don’t pretend like you don’t know, Mils. Your cousin is a terrifying man.”
“He’s like a cute teddy bear,” Mili protested. “You just don’t know him very well.”
I shook my head at her blind ignorance. “A lethal teddy bear,” I corrected her. “And I’m fairly certain he’s going to have things to say to me after what happened.”
“What happened?” She was so clueless, my smart Firecracker.
“You got hurt. There.” I pointed at her midriff, and her arm, which was not in a sling like mine was, but it rankled all the same. “There.”
Mili stared at me, nonplussed. “And?”
“I let you get hurt, Mili. This happened on my watch,” I said simply.
And that was it. Mili got hurt not once but twice with me. Because of me. And all the love in the world wasn’t enough to make me feel better about it. God knew, I deserved whatever hurt Krivi would inevitably dish out.
She opened her mouth as if to argue the point. Instead, she smiled softly. Delicately, with her whole heart.
“What?” I demanded, restlessly. “What are you smiling about?”
Mili shrugged. “You didn’t protest, not even once, when I asked you to come here with me. Knowing Krivi might not be exactly welcoming, you still came.”
I shrugged. “You missed your mom. You wanted to be with her.”
And, in my head, that was the end of the argument. Whatever Mili wanted, she got. Especially if it was time with her family. I knew full well what happened when families spent too much time apart and never really healed, I wouldn’t let that happen to Mili if I could help it.
“Getting killed is a small price to pay for you to make up with your mom.” And I half-meant it. I liked living but I loved Mili.
Mili sighed and kissed the tips of my uninjured fingers. “You undo me when you say things like that, you know.”
“Well…” I narrowed my eyes. “It’s certainly more romantic than the things your book characters say.”
I kept my chuckle in because she pouted and was about to argue with me. Her eyes fired up and she had that militant tilt to her chin.
But then she sucked in a breath. Mili jerked her head and said, “Look. It’s beautiful.”
I turned around to check it out. A towering stone castle chiseled from the mountain side came into view. It was stately, imposing, born from the mountain. A terrifyingly beautiful thing come to life.
“God,” I breathed. “He can throw me from up there and they won’t even find my body.”
“You’re paranoid, Bhatnagar. Krivi isn’t going to hurt you. I promise,” she assured me.
“I’m going to stay three feet behind you and your mom to make sure he doesn’t,” I told her grimly. “You can protect me.”
She leaned over and squeezed my knee. Only slightly lasciviously. “Happy to, champ. Happy to.”
“Bhatnagar,” Krivi said as he opened the car door, ten minutes later. All six-three of him hulked and bulked up in the muscle tee he wore under the cotton shirt and jeans and workman boots.
“Krivi,” I said grimly, holding tight to Mili’s hand, just in case the slaughter began at the gate itself.
“Krivi!” Mili reached over me and hugged him around the neck, ignoring her injured arm. “Oh my god, Krivi. Let me hug you.”
His eyes almost bugged out from the force of her hug. But the light of destruction left them, and he gave me a tentative smile.
I smiled back. I also let go of Mili’s hand.
Krivi could do his worst if he wanted. I was still going to be okay. I’d lived through far worse in the last month. And I wasn’t going to allow some ex-spy to ruin my happy ever after.
“Good to see you, cousin,” I said cheekily, exiting the car.
Krivi looked at my sling, then at me. And, finally at Mili who tightly gripped my hand. She was beaming, happy. I knew it radiated from her – the warmth of her love. And I basked in it, a little of it was because of me.
I squared my shoulders even more, like a boxer getting into the ring.
“Good to see you too, Nihaal,” Krivi said quietly.
“This place is heavenly,” Mili gushed. “Ziya chooses the best places to do business in.”
“She does.” Pride and love shimmered on Krivi’s expressionless face. “She is the best.”
“Milika!” Mili’s mom wailed as she came out of the half-finished portico, flat-out running toward us.
She was closely followed by Ziya and Krivi’s two-year-old daughter – Noori. Noori waddled on chubby legs clad in light up sneakers with her mother trailing close behind.
I watched, my newly awakened heart a little full as Mili ran from my side to her mom and the two women hugged each other. Laugh-crying as they spoke over each other. In half-phrases and endearments and apologies that only made sense to them.
“Shalini will be happy now,” Krivi murmured, to me. “Her daughter’s here.”
“Her daughter is happy too,” I said quietly.
Krivi looked at his wife and called out, “I’ll take her.” He indicated his daughter, still waddling over to us as fast as her little feet would carry her. She touched Mili’s knees when she went past her.
Mili chuckled and wept a little more, clutching her mom closer. “She’s grown so much,” she marveled.
I thought so too but I wasn’t going to say anything to provoke the cousin. So, I just smiled.
I even took a step forward to go to my mother-in-law when the little girl barreled straight past her father’s waiting arms and collided against my pant legs.
Immediately I scooped her up with my good hand, so she wouldn’t bounce down from the impact and fall.
To my surprise, she let me.
“Can I hold you?” I asked the little girl, not sure she’d understand me. But it was always polite and important to ask consent as I’d learned around the new mamas of my racing team.
Noori stuck her thumb in her mouth, her eyes big and black in a face too small for it. She had the cutest nose, rosebud lips, and fluffy, pillow-soft cheeks. And she actually cocked her head, as if considering my question.
“Let me—” Krivi began.
“Okay,” Noori said. And lay her head on my shoulder, sucking on her thumb in that endearing way I remembered from the wedding.
I felt a hit in my gut. One made of elastic love for this little girl who just trusted me instantly. It was a massive feeling and I didn’t know how to deal with it, except…breathe.
Krivi’s eyes widened. And then a light entered his eyes. Was it approval?
“Sorry about that. She just got away from me.” Ziya skidded to a stop next to her husband. She was shocked when she saw her daughter lying quietly on me.
“She doesn’t go to anyone,” she breathed out. “She’s very particular about who holds her. You are magic, Nihaal.”
Mili and her mom came to stand beside me, arms around each other’s waists. She snaked one arm around me and gave me a warm, side hug, and I nodded softly at her.
We didn’t know each other very well, if at all, but that was going to change over the next few days.
I was going to make sure of it.
“Hello, Shalini Ma,” I said pleasantly. The words slipped out. Natural and right. Mili’s eyes widened and softened at hearing me say them. That sealed it for me. “I brought your daughter to you in one piece.”
Shalini wiped streaming eyes with shaking hands. “I’m glad both of you are okay, Nihaal.”
I looked at Krivi quickly. He was looking at the four of us, consideringly. As if weighing the odds of keeping me alive versus disposing of me while his daughter was tucked against my chest.
“Yeah,” he said finally. “I’m glad both of you are okay.”
I heaved a sigh of relief, internally.
I wasn’t going to die today.
Chapter 4
Mili
Three days later…
Goonj Manali
* * *
“Where are we going? Nihaal…Nihaal…” I grumbled as I held onto him awkwardly, his strong fingers wrapped around my palms. I was blindfolded so I had to rely on him to lead me safely.
It was a strange thing. Trusting someone like this. For me, it was anathema to do so. But…love was strange and wonderful so when Nihaal tied one of my scarves around my eyes as we were preparing for bed after another raucous family dinner to lead me here, I submitted. The submission was new too. And, if I was being honest, exciting and hot.
So. Fucking. Hot.
My nipples peaked against my bra, in agreement.
“Is this a sex thing?” I asked as he paused.
“There’s a step here. Watch for it, okay?” Nihaal instructed.
I drew the sash of my dressing gown closer around my waist and felt the edge of the step with my toe. I did not want a stubbed toe to begin whatever this was. I climbed the step, holding tighter to him.
We walked a little farther, the air becoming colder, purer with each step I took. I knew we hadn’t left the property because it was bitching cold in the homestay than outside it. But we had taken a series of turns leading us farther away from the construction and our rooms, almost like a maze, so I was disoriented.
“Where are we?” I wondered. The stone was cold to the touch on my fur-slipper clad feet, so I deduced we were somewhere inside the mountain and not out of it.
And I wasn’t exactly dressed for an excursion, especially with what I had on under my dressing gown. Besides, Nihaal still wore the clothes he’d worn for dinner - gray sweatpants and a worn silver and black Menzo tee.
I didn’t know what he was doing, where he was taking me. I was completely under his control…the notion was new. Exciting. Hot AF.
Dammit. I was such a goner for this man.
“We’re here. You ready for it?”
“Can I open my blindfold?” I asked.
His fingers trailed up my neck to my collarbone.
I felt him settle at my back, an insistent male presence. My favorite position in foreplay. Because being held by Nihaal like this was…delicious helplessness and heat combined.
“If you want to.” His voice, so beloved and so familiar, was foreign too. Maybe because I couldn’t see him. Only feel him.
I swallowed. Suddenly a little too hot for my comfort. I tried to capture his hand with mine. But he slipped from my hold. “I…”
Nihaal kissed my neck. “Say yes and I’ll open it.”
I moaned and lay my suddenly weak neck on his shoulder. I tried to suppress the shudder that wanted to run through me.
He made me feel so vulnerable, so powerless when he held me like this. Because I didn’t want to move away and face him. I wanted him to do whatever he wanted to me. While I could only experience it.
My pussy slicked with wet heat. Immediate and clamorous.
“Say it, Mili.” He kissed the corner of my lips, bending his head to do so.
I took his healing hand and pressed it against the tips of my breasts, already beading to tight, painful points against his palm. “Nihaal…” I whined.
He squeezed against the silk. Just a little rough. A little painful. “You like being at my mercy,” he observed, coolly.
I reached blindly up his thigh and cupped the rough material of his sweatpants. Where his cock was already at attention. “You’re at mine too,” I spoke through my teeth.
“I like being at your mercy, Mils.” Nihaal feathered his lips over my ears. His breath fluttered over me. Showering me with heat and chills at the same time.
“Well.” I tried to keep whatever sanity I still could. And untied the sash of my gown with nerveless fingers. “Prepare to fall at my feet, Bhatnagar.”
I shrugged out of the gown. But, because I was trapped against his back, it didn’t slide down my body, sticking instead to our middle.
He sucked in a sharp breath as his hand collided against my silk-clad breasts.
“What the fuck is this?” Nihaal’s growl was sin incarnate.
I smiled. Trailed a hand down his thigh, which was more rigid than it had been a moment ago.
“You said you wanted to go to Hawaii so you could see me in a coconut bikini…” I reminded him. Breathless and out of words.
Because his hand was moving over my belly, my abdomen, touching the waistband of the G-string bikini I wore. His other hand was squeezing and releasing my tits like he wasn’t aware of what he was doing. Arousing me endlessly with each rough caress.
“So, what?” He sucked on my throat, his teeth scraping against the tender pulse fluttering there.
I turned molten, fire licking along my nerves, my limbs. Making it hard to concentrate on anything but his lips, his fucking talented hands and the way every time he touched me, I combusted.
“So…” I swallowed. “I…ahh.”
Nihaal dipped a finger into my belly button and swirled. Electricity shot from the dip of my spine straight through every part of me.
“I figured, I could give you what you wanted.”
“Why?” He toyed with the back of my robe, sliding his knuckles up and down my spine, while the other hand moved down, down, whispering over my neon green bikini panties, hot and insistent. Possessive.
I arched into his touch, a wave crashing on the shore. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could stay upright with him touching me, teasing me…
“Because I…” I gripped his thigh. Hard. Nails digging into the material. Feeling his bones and muscles contract against my fingers. “I love you.”
Nihaal plunged one finger into my waiting heat at the ‘you.’
I closed my eyes and nearly gasped at the force of it all. Colors and shapes, the whole galaxy, danced in front of my eyes as I absorbed the feel of him inside me. Thick and invading and so necessary I felt tears prick the corners of my blindfolded eyes, the fabric adding to the sensations I was forced to experience.
He untied the blindfold, the silk sliding from me in a whisper.
“So did I.” He kissed my cheek, my jaw.
I opened heavy-lidded eyes. And what I saw struck me mute.
We were in a small cavern, with untouched stone walls. Lit with tiki torches at the moment. A straw umbrella had been set up on one side of the space with two colorful, fruity drinks on a wicker table. The table only boasted one chair though.
At the very back of the cavern was a huge white four-poster bed with sheer white curtains that fluttered in the cool breeze. Fluffy pillows and sheets were piled high on it. And, on the stone wall behind the bed was a huge poster.
It was a beach scene, full of the bluest of waves, the sun dipping in the horizon and palm trees swaying in the breeze. Colorful and cheery and super sunny.
Across the poster were the words, “Aloha! Welcome to Hawaii.”
