The Indian Tycoon's Marriage Deal (11 page)

‘No.' She gulped hard, trying to dislodge the lump in her throat. ‘He was away and couldn't get to the hospital in time.'

She would never forget the deep loss that she had felt in the weeks after Ma's death. Papa had been wrapped in his own grief and was in no state to comfort her. Meena Mashi had come over to look after her for a few days but she had her own family to care for. Then it was just her and Papa—bonded in their grief and loss. And just how much worse it would have been for him! Torn by guilt and grief, his life had started unravelling before her. And she could do nothing but watch—bemused, lost, scared.

Krish reached out for her hand. ‘You've had a difficult life, Maya. Your parents would be proud of the woman that you've become.'

She glanced at him and saw the compassion in his eyes even as the warmth of his touch was like a soothing balm on her heart. But she steeled herself and pulled away. No matter what her relationship with Krish, he would always be the one whose father had destroyed her family.
He will always be the Enemy. Don't ever forget that, Maya!

* * *

‘Wake up, Sleeping Beauty!' Krish's teasing voice jerked Maya awake.

She shot up straight in her seat and came up close against Krish's face. Too close for comfort.

‘Have we arrived?' she asked, moving her head away so that her hair fell over her cheeks like a silk screen.

He moved away from her, taking care not to touch her. He seemed remote. Something had changed during the car ride. Initially he'd tried to bait her with his sexual banter and then, for some strange reason, she'd felt an overwhelming need to share a part of her past that she had always kept locked within her. She could feel a subtle but definite shift in his attitude. He was almost aloof, as if he was trying to keep a distance, raise a wall around himself. It suited her fine. She should never have gone blabbing to him about her parents—what was she thinking?

‘You should have woken me up earlier,' she grumbled as she got out of the car.

‘Seems like you didn't get much sleep last night,' he said with a sideways glance at her. ‘Anyway, I thought you might want to see this.'

Maya looked around her and found that they were on the top of a hillside, overlooking a valley. In the distance, the majestic snow-capped peaks of the Himalayan ranges glittered in the sunlight. The clear crisp air and the rolling hills in the near vicinity made for an enchanting sight. As she took in the breathtakingly beautiful green valley, she was amazed to see terrace gardens dotting the hillside. ‘Are we near Dehradun?'

‘Thirty five kilometres beyond…It's called Deovan. Forest of the Gods. This is part of the initial experiment that I started five years ago when I set up the Suvarna Hill Valley Project. The idea was to involve the hillside communities that are scattered in villages in this area. Along with a couple of NGO partners, we have been pretty successful in teaching organic farming techniques to the villagers.'

She quickly forgot her irritation as she gazed at the terrace gardens that spread out in the distance. ‘Wow, that's amazing.'

Krish said, ‘Currently, all the hard work is done by the two NGOs that the SHVP funds. We wanted to demonstrate to the village community that this wasn't just another business enterprise where people from the city would come in and profit without giving anything back to the locals. We wanted to gain their trust before proceeding with our own business plan.'

He turned around and strode to the car. Maya paused for a moment longer, breathing in the cool, clean air before joining him. ‘And what would that be?'

‘To set up super-luxury resorts across several remote hill stations. These would cater to tourists who are looking for spiritual rejuvenation. The resorts would be income generators for the local hillside communities. So, everything that is consumed by the resort guests would be produced locally. The staff for these resorts would be hired locally, except for a few administrative positions.'

As they took another sharp turn, he pointed out a solar power station that had been set up by the villagers with seed money from SHVP. ‘These villages had no electricity. But today the solar power station has completely changed the lives of the villagers.'

‘Unbelievable!' she whispered to herself.

‘What's so unbelievable?' he shot back.

‘Well…that the heir to the Dev gazillions would actually put together a project like this.'

‘You really have an annoying habit of pigeonholing people,' he said sharply.

Her tone was sarcastic. ‘Are you denying that the Dev name doesn't have its privileges?'

His eyes had darkened dangerously. ‘Are you implying that my father is financing this project?'

He veered off the road on to a green patch and killed the engine. ‘Here's a bit of advice for you—it's best to keep your opinion to yourself on things that you know nothing about.'

Maya knew she had perhaps gone a bit too far with her insinuations. She desperately needed to get out of the pressure-cooker-like atmosphere inside the car. Yanking the door open, she stormed out and instantly felt the cool breeze wrap around her. As she looked out at the pine-covered valley, the mist moved softly over the hills, exposing the green verge beyond like a veil being pulled away. Just like she was seeing a side to Krish that she hadn't known existed. His dedication to his project had taken her by surprise, more so because he seemed determined to make it a success without KD's help. Who was the real Krish—the playboy whose easy charm would give Casanova a complex or the do-it-yourself entrepreneur whose business philosophy had a humane touch to it?

It was surreal—one side of the hills misted over with rain while the sun shone on the other side. Fascinated by the play of sun and rain, Maya was totally oblivious to the light drizzle that had started. She was overcome with a feeling of oneness with nature; she felt alive, free, and yet connected to the world.

Krish and she belonged to two different worlds but somehow, in these serene surroundings, their differences seemed to fade away into nothingness.

She wanted to reach out to him as he stood some distance away. Make amends. She knew she'd been unfair, been too quick to judge. She glanced across at him—his back was towards her. Every muscle, every sinew of his body screamed
stay away.
She took a deep breath and approached him.

Oblivious to her, he picked up a stone and hurled it into the valley.

Before she could touch him, he turned around to face her. Feeling awkward, she pulled her hand away. ‘Krish.' Her voice quivered and the words on her lips dried up at the hard look in his eyes.

He muttered, almost to himself, ‘Such innocent eyes and yet…they hide something.' His whispered words floated between them as the raindrops started to fall harder and faster. His mesmerising eyes could discover all her secrets in a moment, she thought as she licked the raindrops from her lips.

Just as suddenly he strode away from her to the car and opened the door. ‘We should be heading back. In the hills, you never know when a drizzle can turn into a downpour. Besides, this is landslide country. You don't want to get caught in one.'

CHAPTER SEVEN

T
HEY REACHED THE
secluded cottage, nestled amidst towering pine trees, just as the magic hour set in. Romantic. That was the word that popped into her head as she got out of the car and walked towards the porch of the compact cottage, painted a bright yellow with red brick tiles. Multicoloured petunias were in bloom all around. A large peach tree was brimming over with fruit and the chirping of birds as they settled down for the approaching night was like music to her city-traffic-deadened ears. The Himalayan ranges in the distance were like a majestic backdrop that made Maya feel as if she had stepped into an ethereal world. And the rainswept weather enhanced its romantic quotient by several degrees.

Inside, the living room, with its wooden beams and slatted windows, was stark in its cosy simplicity—a dining table, a well-worn couch, a couple of comfortable armchairs placed in front of a fireplace and a mantelpiece with some lovely antique knick-knacks. The main highlight of the room was a comfy window seat that overlooked the small garden in front and a spectacular view of the mountain ranges. Next to the living room was a bedroom with a four-poster bed, complete with a pull-down mosquito net, a teakwood closet and an antique writing desk.

For Krish, it was a bittersweet homecoming. After his mother had passed on, he had only been here a couple of times. Those were short visits on the way to the resort sites, to check in with the caretaker and to make sure that the house was being maintained as per his instructions. For a moment, as he had stepped into the living room, he had felt a wave of nostalgia wash over him. He was glad that he had been able to preserve it the way his mother had wanted. But he had no intention of turning it into a mausoleum. And that was one of the reasons he had chosen to stay here for this trip. It would also give Maya a feel for the lie of the land and its local flora, which would come in useful when she started work on the resort landscaping designs. She'd already had a chat with the caretaker, about some of the trees she had spotted on the way, when he served them a simple but delicious meal of hot off the stove
chappatis
, a vegetable curry and a sweet carrot
halwa.

‘Not quite on the same grand scale as the other Dev properties,' Maya mused as she gazed at the framed watercolours that his mother had painted and hung on the walls.

Krish raised an eyebrow. ‘You obviously don't approve.'

‘No, I'm surprised, that's all…It just doesn't seem to fit in with the Dev grandeur.'

‘It was never meant to. This place belonged to my mother. She'd come here to get away from it all. And she loved it just this way. She wouldn't let anyone make any changes to it.'

A couple of framed photographs of a teenage Krish with his arm around his mother graced the mantelpiece. Even though the pictures had faded, the close relationship that mother and son shared was more than apparent. ‘You came here quite often?'

‘Only during the summer holidays.' His succinct reply made it clear that the subject was closed.

Krish looked out of the window at the few lights twinkling in the distance. It was almost as if he and Maya were the only two people in the universe. And the crickets had begun a raucous orchestra to celebrate their isolation.

The space between them crackled with energy, making him edgy.

She caught his look and felt tension coil deep within her in an immediate response. Spying a bunch of old LP records, she asked, ‘Mind if I take a look?'

He reached for his laptop, pulled it out of its case and powered it swiftly. ‘Let's go through the resort plans instead. It will prepare you for tomorrow's site visit and give you some landscaping ideas. Come, sit here.'

He patted the comfortable couch on which he sat, the computer on the coffee table as his shoulders hunched over it. Maya's muscles tensed at the thought of making thigh-to-thigh contact with him on the cosy couch. The romantic charm of the cottage was getting to her, sending her body into high-alert mode. She tried to sound casual. ‘Wouldn't it have been better if we'd stayed in a hotel?'

Krish tapped the keys of the laptop and opened a few files. ‘The resort site is another twenty kilometres uphill. It didn't make sense to drive all the way from Dehradun, especially in this weather. You'll just have to rough it out here for a day or two.'

‘That's not what I meant,' she shot back.

He looked at her, the brooding intensity in his eyes making her skin tingle in warning. ‘So what's the problem?'

‘Nothing!' The
real
problem was this cottage—it had begun to feel more like a romantic hideout than the convenient business stop-over that he had in mind. The
real
problem was that her mind would seize up the moment she shared couch space with him.

She didn't realise that she was staring intently at the couch till Krish's amused tone washed over her. ‘Are you practising voodoo on that couch? Not planning to burn it to cinders or make it disappear, are you?'

Her voice wobbled a bit. ‘Oh, that would be inconvenient. Where would you sleep then? On the floor?'

He eased himself against the couch and gave her a look that made her shuffle her feet in nervous agitation.

‘And what gave you the idea that I'd want to sleep on that couch and not in the bed?'

‘Clearly, you don't have a chivalrous bone in you. Or you would have offered to sleep on the couch!'

‘What does chivalry have to do with sleeping arrangements?' His eyes danced merrily. ‘And what's so wrong about sharing a bed when we can both be comfortable?'

‘Don't be ridiculous!' she exploded. ‘We have an agreement, remember? Besides, I don't want…' Her voice trailed off as she shied away from finishing the thought.

He stretched out his hand and pulled her hard. She landed on his lap and squirmed to get away but he held her tight. She could feel the heat from his body radiating towards her. His delicious male scent mingled with his aftershave started a fresh assault on her senses.

‘Am I being ridiculous?' He caught her hand and thrust it under his shirt. She could feel his heartbeat, strong and heavy, against his hard chest and his warm skin made her own turn soft and tingly. ‘Tell me you don't want to touch me.' His rich, gruff voice sent shockwaves of sensation rocketing through her.

She felt as if she'd been jolted by a high-voltage current. She thrust at him with all her strength and leapt out of his arms. She could barely trust her legs to carry her to the far end of the room, but somehow she did and flopped down on the soft cushion covering the window seat. He was right—she wanted to touch him, all over. She yearned to wrap herself around him, feel his hands on her skin, the taste of his mouth on hers.
It's just a game for him.