Page 17 of Driven By Desire

C urled up like a sleeping kitten on the couch in his office, head pillowed on her arm, she had one arm curved protectively around a squashed bunch of flowers.

Her skirt had ridden up to give him a glimpse of the soft silk of her thigh.

Long, bare legs sprawled over black leather making him think thoughts that would have had him arrested if anyone had found out.

Great! Now he was fantasizing about her in the middle of the day. In his office, no less.

On a soft, snuffling sigh, she stretched voluptuously in her sleep and turned over on to her side making her neckline gape with the barest hint of cleavage.

The whisper of sound and his body’s reaction to it had him blinking.

This wasn’t a fantasy. This was real. Max was here.

In his office. Sleeping. Stepping over the threshold, he shut the door firmly behind him.

After a second’s thought, he locked it with a flick of his wrist.

Approaching her, he sat down on the table next to the couch and stared.

Her hair tumbled out in a tangle from a ponytail that was now skewed sideways.

A brown skirt that ended near her knee was topped off with a sleeveless cream top.

Her version of corporate wear, he assumed.

Grinning at the idea of Max all buttoned and suited up like one of his employees, he made his way over to the phone and dialed his secretary’s extension.

“Mrs. Sharma. I seem to have an unexpected visitor in my office.”

“It seems you do, Mr. Mehra.” The bland response had his grin widening. “Given she’s been waiting close to three hours for you, I suggest you don’t keep her waiting any longer.”

The buzz of the line going dead had him slowly replacing the receiver on the hook and looking over at Max who hadn’t stirred an inch.

“How did you manage to twist my stern, no-nonsense secretary around your little finger?” he asked her peaceful, sleeping face. Unable to resist, he cupped her cheek and stroked it gently with his thumb.

Long, black eyelashes fluttered open slowly. Sleepy, unfocused eyes blinked at him even as her legs flexed languorously.

“Oh!” Dismay filtered through the initial confusion that clouded her eyes.

Realization had her jacking herself into a sitting position, almost head-butting him in the process.

Scrambling away from him, she tried desperately to straighten her outfit out.

The creases in her top had her giving up on dignity and just pulling it out of her skirt and letting it hang loose.

“Max.”

Hand stilling at the hem of the skirt she was tugging down, she looked up warily.

“Why are you here? Why did you come?”

“Because you wouldn’t.”

The simple answer summed up everything that seethed between them. Wordlessly, he reached for her. Enfolding her in his embrace, he cradled her against his chest. The exhaustion and stress that had him in a vice-like grip faded to nothing as the warmth of her seeped into him.

Loosening her hair from its ruined ponytail, Krish let it rain down her back. Burying his face in the soft cloud of it, he inhaled the sweet, spring fragrance of her shampoo that always teased and tantalized him when she was close.

They stayed like that for long, silent seconds until a muted laugh from the other side of the blinds had them drawing apart.

“You brought me flowers.” The wonder of it stayed with him. No one ever had before.

Reaching up, Max cupped his face and brought his lips to hers in a gentle, tender kiss that had his heart turning over. “I’m courting you.”

The teasing whisper had him smiling. “Are you now?”

“Next,” A quick peck on his lips followed by a gentle nuzzle with the tip of her nose. “Is chocolate.”

“Dark chocolate?” The fervent hope in his voice had her giggling.

“Sure, why not.” Unable to keep from touching him, Max ran a hand down the crisp, formal shirt she was rumpling. An appealing emerald green, it set off his dark grey suit perfectly.

“I was mad at you.”

“So you bought me flowers and turned up at my office?” Grinning, he fisted the heavy mass of her hair until it fell in silken waves around his hand. “I should piss you off more often.”

“You didn’t call,” she reminded him, primly.

Laughter fading, he let go of her hair. “No, I didn’t.”

The quiet agreement had a trickle of fear snaking its way down her spine. Keeping her voice even, she said, “You wanted to explain why there could never be an ‘us.’ I didn’t listen then. I’m listening now.”

“I have another meeting in half an hour.”

“Your explanation is going to take longer than that?” The incredulous question dragged a reluctant smile from him.

“I took Pooja to have her ears pierced yesterday.” Shifting restlessly, he went to lean against his desk.

The more distance between the two of them the better.

“I figured it would take an hour tops. After that, I’d have the rest of the day to myself.

” The look he flashed her left her in no doubt as to how he’d intended to spend the day.

“We were done with the actual piercing in less than an hour. Even with all the squealing and screeching. Then we got home. By four in the evening, her ears were fire engine red and she was sobbing like the world was going to come to an end.”

“Infected?” Max guessed.

“And how. I tried to get the earrings off.” Max’s involuntary wince at that statement had him smiling wryly. “You can imagine how that went down. By the time we went to the hospital, saw a doctor and came home, she had a fever. I’ve been up all night with her.”

Shoving back from the desk, he came to sit on the low center table in front of her.

Taking her hands in his, he clasped them gently.

“This is why there can’t be an ‘us,’ Max.

Relationships need time, energy and focus to flourish.

Between family, work and home, I barely manage to watch some TV at the end of the day. ”

“Have you tried vitamin supplements?”

Helpless laughter bubbled up and had him resting his forehead weakly against hers. “God, you’re something else.”

Catching his breath, he said, “Max, I couldn’t squeeze in two minutes out of the day to message you.”

The gentle reminder only had her twining her fingers around his. “So, it was a bad day. We all have them.”

“It wasn’t a bad day. Just a regular one.” Frustrated that he couldn’t make her understand, he tried again. “I have responsibilities that govern my life, that rule my decisions, my actions. Every move I make has consequences that spill into three other lives.”

Exhaling hard, he brought her hands to his lips. The gentle press of his lips against her skin couldn’t completely mask his desperation. “You know what I think of when I see you?”

Trapped by the dark intensity of his gaze, Max shook her head.

“Rainbows. The wild, vibrant colour in them that streams out of sunlight watered down by rain.” His fingers tightened around hers keeping her from reaching out to him. “Don’t let the weight of my life rob the colour from yours, Max. You deserve better.”

“What if you are my better?” The gentle passion in the declaration had an unbearable longing take root in him. She moved to rest her cheek against his stubbled jaw in a quiet gesture of faith that shook him to the core.

A brisk knock had them both springing back from each other. Stepping away her, Krish called out, “Yes?”

Mrs. Sharma’s voice filtered through the door. “My apologies for interrupting, Mr. Mehra. Your next appointment is here. Should I show him to the office or a conference room?”

“A conference room. I’ll be there in five minutes.”

“Okay.” Footsteps retreated leaving them standing in awkward silence.

His gaze tracked her every movement as she tucked her shirt in again and gathered her hair into a neat ponytail.

Slipping her feet into her boots, she zipped them up and straightened to face him.

The unprecedented depth of what she was feeling had Max burying her pride.

“Give it a month. Let’s explore this thing between us for one month. If at the end of that it doesn’t work out, if you find it shifts your focus from your family and work or even if we realize that maybe this isn’t all we thought it would be, we’ll call it quits. No hard feelings.”

Keeping her eyes on his inscrutable ones was the hardest thing she’d ever done.

“Give me a month. Give us a month.”

The silence that filled the room had her nerves jangling until finally, accepting defeat, she turned away.

“Okay.” The hoarse reply had relief and disbelief streaming through her. Hand going slack on the doorknob, she turned back towards him.

“Okay.” Fighting the urge to throw herself back into his arms, she kept her hand on the door.

“I hope that doesn’t mean you’re going to stop courting me?”

A loud, exuberant laugh escaped her as she slowly turned the doorknob. “Want a little bonus?”

Krish grinned, “Always.”

“Cream lace.”

The blood drained out of his brain and pooled in his pants as the meaning of that seductive whisper sank in. Laughing with delight at the stunned surprise on his face, she blew him a farewell kiss, flashed one last brilliant smile and walked out.

---***---

Bumper to bumper traffic, manic motorcyclists who wove through it like cokeheads looking for their next fix and the incessant clanging and banging of the ongoing underground cable work happening by the side of the road had Krish crawling home from work.

Rotating his neck once to relieve the crick in it, he mentally ran through his list of things to finish this evening.

He had the proposal on the new factory to review, dinner to start if there wasn’t enough in the fridge to microwave and to take charge of Pooja, who was by Adi’s latest report still feverish and cranky.

She had quarterly exams coming up in a week and he had the dubious distinction of being the long division champ in the family.

So hopefully she would be up to a little bit of studying.