Page 1 of Driven By Desire

A loud shriek was all the warning Krish got before something large came tumbling out of the sky and landed rather inconveniently on top of him.

Winded, he found himself planted on the patch of lawn that led to his front door with a bag of bones sprawled across him.

A bag of bones with acres of long straight hair that hid the rest of this unexpected gift from the heavens from view.

Gift? Probably more of a curse given the day he’d been having.

Swearing under his breath, he reached out to move her strategically placed knee from his groin and took a closer look at the stranger.

She looked alright. A bit dazed but it didn’t look like she’d done any major damage to herself or to him which meant she hadn’t fallen far and he’d done a fine job of cushioning the impact.

Glancing up, he saw his brother’s guilty face hastily disappearing through the open first floor window. Well, that explained the woman tumbling out from the sky. Although he’d prefer it if they didn’t land on him while they were falling for his brother.

“Are you alright?” The brusque query had the girl flushing and scrambling off him. An awkward nod gave him his answer even as he got to his feet and fixed his malevolent glare on the front door and bellowed, “Adi! Get out here right now.”

The words had barely left his mouth when an ominous creak had him looking up again.

Staring up into the tree that canopied them, he couldn’t see anything amiss but caution had him grabbing the girl and turning to move away.

He was still in mid turn when the branch that had politely creaked its warning earlier came hurtling towards him and smacked him solidly on the head.

Swearing viciously, he lifted a hand in a futile attempt to stanch the blood that fountained from his forehead.

Closing his right eye to keep the blood out of it, he shook off the girl’s fluttering helping hands and tried to stay on his feet.

Bracing himself against the front door, he fought the waves of blackness threatening to envelop him.

Grim determination had him winning the battle until the door opened behind him toppling him once more.

“Oh hell!” Groaning, he closed his eyes on the sight of his brother’s aghast upside down face and gave in to the blessed dark.

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Hushed whispers had him painfully cranking one eyelid open to scan the room.

It looked like he was sprawled on the living room sofa with a wet hand towel on his forehead.

The room was in darkness only lightened by the yellow light that streamed in from the kitchen.

His brother and the bag of bones were across the room in the middle of an intense conversation that seemed to involve a lot of hand gestures and pained grimaces.

It had something to do with whether he could be moved or not to be taken to the hospital or if an ambulance was required.

By the time they decided, he’d probably bleed to death.

Leveraging himself up on one elbow he managed to growl, “Would anyone care to explain what’s going on? ”

Identical expressions of guilt and chagrin faced him from across the breadth of the room.

“Bhai, I’m so sorry. Are you okay? Should we go to the hospital?

” The words tumbled out of his brother as he threw himself across the room towards the sofa.

Wincing as Adi’s headlong rush ended in a bone crushing hug, Krish patted his brother’s back absently as he took in the strange girl standing stiffly across from him.

“Who the hell are you?” The less than polite question had his brother shifting nervously next to him but he wasn’t feeling very charitable at the moment towards either of them but most especially towards the flying missile staring at him with those big eyes.

When she didn’t answer immediately, his brother mumbled, “We should go to the hospital and have you checked out. That was quite a blow to the head.”

“You think?” The dry question had Adi flushing and lowering his head again. The throbbing behind his eyes and the renewed bleeding that was making its presence felt had him agreeing. “Probably a good idea to have a quick check up. Might need stitches. Go get the car keys.”

Adi scrambled out of the room leaving him to train his eyes on the other, silent, occupant.

“I believe I asked you a question. Who. The. Hell. Are. You?”

Huge, round eyes flashed defiantly at him under the cover of overly long bangs.

Her skinny, boyish figure was encased in slim jeans and a white shapeless t-shirt that pledged allegiance to Metallica.

Poker straight hair fell almost to her waist and vividly coloured bracelets jangled from both hands forming an incongruous contrast to the androgynous look she was sporting otherwise.

“Max.”

The sound of her surprisingly husky voice dragged his attention from his perusal of her dirty scuffed sneakers which were leaving dark brown imprints on his cream carpet.

“Care to explain to me, Max, how you managed to fall out of the sky and land on my head?”

“Technically, I landed first on your shoulder and then well, I sort of crashed into the rest of you.”

Wondering if a judge would consider this extenuating circumstances for murder, he growled, “What the hell were you doing up a goddamn tree? My goddamn tree, to be specific.”

Shrugging awkwardly, she mumbled, “I was trying to show your brother how well I climbed trees.”

Letting the ludicrous statement hang in the room for a second, he waited for a particularly vicious spike of pain in his head to subside before saying, “And what a fine job you did of it too.”

A rueful smile touched her lips, softening the pointy pixie angles of her face into something more gamine. Something in his chest caught and squeezed at the sight of that small smile. Great, he thought sourly, now she was probably going to finish him off with a heart attack.

“Why did you think it was necessary to prove to him that you could climb trees?” Gritting his teeth, he managed to get to his feet.

“He didn’t believe me when I told him I could. And then he sort of dared me and one thing lead to another.” Smile disappearing in the face of his glare, she shrugged, “I guess you had to be there to understand.”

“I doubt there is any circumstance in which I would understand the sheer idiocy and irresponsibility of your actions.” Turning dismissively from her now upset face when his brother entered the room, he strode into the kitchen to leave the current blood soaked towel and get a fresh one for the ride to the hospital.

“Bhai, it was an accident. We were just having a bit of fun after guitar class. Max didn’t mean for you to get hurt or to cause-“

“Adi,” Spinning from the kitchen sink that now had a stream of red running down the drain, Krish fumed, “I’ve had an incredibly shitty day.

Pooja’s school called telling me she got into a free for all with another child which had me leaving in the middle of an incredibly important pitch we were preparing at work.

On reaching the school, I was informed by the principal that she’s been suspended for a week.

Chirag called to say he was delayed with work in Mumbai for another three days which means, my friend, that you’re on babysitting duty for the rest of the week once you’re done with your schedule at college. ”

He paused to take a breath before the top of his head blew off in a toxic mix of anger and frustration. It didn’t work.

“I, then, spent the next six hours completing that pitch with a sulky thirteen year old whining in the background which meant I had to take the time again to drive her in peak traffic to maasi’s house.

I dropped her off there to spend the night so I could continue working from home to be ready for tomorrow and just made it home in time for your girlfriend to crash land on me.

Thanks to that, I, now, not only get to spend most of the night in the emergency room but I also get to give the most important pitch of my career tomorrow looking like a car crash victim.

So, I really don’t give a flying fig if Peter Pan in the living room meant to hurt me or not. ”

Dropping the bloody towel in the sink and pressing the fresh one to the still bleeding gash on his forehead, he started to storm out of the kitchen only to be brought up short by the sight of his unwanted, flying guest in the doorway.

Her stricken expression caused a momentary pang of conscience which disappeared in the next burst of pain to assault his head.

Brushing past her, he made it almost to the front door before his overdeveloped conscience reappeared.

“Bring your friend along.”

The terse order had Adi swallowing nervously. “Why?”

“Why? Because she fell out of a tree and it’s probably a good idea to have her checked out as well.”

“I’m fine.” That ‘come have sex with me’ voice wrapped itself around him causing his temper to spike even more.

“Forgive me if I don’t have much faith in your judgment or common sense.” Turning away from her, he muttered, “Make her get into the car or I will.”

That ominous pronouncement silenced all argument and had the two of them trailing behind him.

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