Alone in the dimness, I pulled a chair close to his bed and placed my bag on the floor.
Jai was larger than life and the definition of dominance—almost god-like. But right now, as I stood over him, Jai looked so mortal. The universe could take him away just as easily as it had given him to me.
My eyes traced the tape holding the IV tubing in place on his arm. I couldn’t keep my fingers from skimming the side of his face, grazing the short hair on his chin. I moved over his neck and shoulder, memorizing the outline of his frame. The pads of my fingers glided above the scratches on his arms. They seemed minor, but it still devastated me to see them. His skin felt cool from the lack of circulation.
I sat on the chair next to the bed and pulled his hand into mine, kissing the back of it. Rubbing his palm against my cheek to feel him against me, I silently thanked anyone who was listening in the universe that he was still with me.
Resting his hand back down on the bed, I propped my cheek on top as I set my eyes on him. The gentle sound of his breath lulled me to tranquility and my eyelids grew heavy. I let them fall, still lying on his hand, finally at peace.
Chapter XIV
Jai
It all fucking hurt. My body felt like it had been slammed into a wall repeatedly. My skin felt dry and cracked, like it would split open if I moved. The pounding in my head was blinding and my chest felt tight every time I inhaled, like there were bricks resting on my diaphragm.
The last thing I remembered was a black sedan speeding toward my car in the rearview mirror. I had gripped the steering wheel, trying to maintain control, but the force of impact had been too strong and had sent us rolling. My only instinct had been to release my seatbelt and throw myself over Amelia to shield her from the glass that rained on us. That would explain the current stinging sensation that spread from my neck to my back. Glass must have pierced me from behind. Better me than Amelia.
Where was she? Was she okay?
When I finally found the strength to blink my eyes open, it took me a few moments for my vision to focus clearly. White lights stung my eyes, making them tear up from the brightness. I squinted to limit the amount of painful light passing through my corneas.
I tried to move my fingers and toes to assess the extent of damage. I still had full feeling in my right arm, but my left felt numb. Fuck. Was I paralyzed? I tried harder to wiggle my fingers but only felt the burn of pins and needles. Slowly, not without pain, I turned my neck to look at my hand. My heart stilled. Claire.
Messy waves of blonde hair were scattered over the sheets, covering my hand from view, but I could feel her protective hold on my wrist. Long lashes kissed her cheeks, and her full, pink lips were pouted in the most adorable way as she slept deeply. The awful lighting did nothing to take away from her radiant beauty. Surely, she was part angel because I couldn’t help but feel her serenity wash over me.
Witnessing her at rest was such a contradiction to her fierce spirit when she was awake. Her mouth was enough to scare away the most threatening of men.
Her fire was perhaps the most attractive thing about her, but I enjoyed this glimpse of this version of her too—one who didn’t need to fight just to survive. No evil could touch her here as she slept next to me. Her mind wasn’t racing with a million reasons to push me away in this moment. My heart squeezed in my chest at her vulnerability.
The scratching sound of the nurse’s cart in the hallway interrupted her state of calm, causing her to stir. Blue eyes peeked out behind her heavy eyelids, staring in front of her in a daze. Sitting up, she wrang out her neck’s stiffness from sleeping at such a terrible angle. Her eyes finally settled on me before widening with alarm. “You’re awake!”
“And you’re here.” That crash had been hell, but waking up to her beautiful face was worth every twinge of pain.
Her forehead creased with concern, showing the little grooves that would one day deepen as her age grew to match the wisdom she already possessed. She was beautiful now, and I’d bet anything she’d be even more so as she grew older. Her looks were the type that only got better with time.
“How do you feel?” she asked softly.
“More alive than I’ve ever felt in my life.” I traced her face with my eyes. The soft skin I was itching to touch. The golden locks that framed it. The supple lips that I was dying to kiss.
She swiped her tongue along her bottom lip as if anticipating my desires, staring at my mouth…waiting.
“Good morning!” a high-pitched voice broke our moment. An older woman waltzed to the other side of my bed and set about fussing over the monitors that I was hooked up to. Claire released my hand and sat back in her chair putting more space between us, much to my disappointment.
“Glad to see you’re awake, Mr. Sethi. How did you sleep?” the nurse asked, her voice much too chipper for the early morning hour.
“Just like spending the night in a five-star hotel.” I winked at her.
Yet another victim to my charm, she blushed, her cheeks reddening brighter than a cherry.
“Your vitals look good. How’s your pain?” She eyed me over the rim of her thick-framed glasses.
“What pain?” I smirked, making her chuckle. “When can I go home?” I was ready to get the hell out of here. Being tied down to a bed was torture—unless the blonde ballerina next to me was doing the tying, of course.
“You have some considerable bruising on your ribs, so you need to rest,” the nurse said as she inspected the tubing attached to my arm from across the bed.
“I’m fine,” I protested. I moved to slide a foot off the bed, but the crushing pain in my torso halted me.
The tiny force of nature in scrubs pushed me back onto the bed and fluffed the pillow around my neck for support. “None of that now. I’ll put in an order for more pain meds to dull some of that discomfort,” she said, typing something out on the bedside computer.
“I don’t want them.” Although drugs were my business, I didn’t take them. I didn’t like the feeling of being out of my wits. I needed to be clear-headed to be successful and sense danger coming.
Before the nurse could argue with me, Claire’s soft voice filled my ears. “Jai, please. Just take them,” she pled.
I stared at the distress in her eyes. She was worried about me. Guilt ate at me that I was the reason for her concern. I nodded, eager to erase her anguish. “Okay. I’ll take them,” I reassured Claire.
“Good boy,” the nurse chimed. “You can only go home today if you listen to her.” She smiled in approval at Claire. “I hope you’re hungry. Breakfast will be here soon.”
The nurse scurried out of the room, leaving us alone again. “I should text your family,” Claire said, standing up. “They’re worried sick about you.”
Before she could move away to get her phone, I grabbed her hand, pulling her closer to me. “It can wait.”
Our eyes locked and her head moved closer to mine, as if the gravitational force between us was too strong to resist.
She closed in the last few inches from me on her own, meeting my lips with hers. I sucked her bottom lip between mine, appreciating how its fullness felt in my mouth. I moved against her lips, showing my gratitude for her presence, slow and soft. I ran the tip of my tongue along hers, tasting her deliciousness. Cherries. Plump and juicy.
She stopped our embrace only to let out a large sigh. “I was so worried.”
Her admission disarmed me, and I cupped her delicate face in my thick hands. “You don’t need to worry about me, baby girl. I’m like a cat with nine lives. A large one. A large and ferocious one. That bites.”
She chuckled softly. A lock of her hair came loose in front of her face, billowing with every exhale. I fingered the strands, feeling their smoothness, before tucking them behind her ear.
The nurse returned and rather noisily set a tray of pancakes and coffee on a rolling
table. Claire backed away, allowing her to slide it in front of me. “Enjoy,” she said before leaving us again.
“Mmm. That smells wonderful,” Claire moved in slightly, inhaling the steam from the tray.
I held my knife and fork and cut a piece of the stack. Holding it up to her, I motioned for her to eat.
She waved her hands in front of her chest. “No. That’s for you. You need your strength.”
“Come on. Let me take care of you now, baby girl.”
She lowered her head and took a mouthful of the sticky fluffiness on the fork. A drop of syrup smeared on the side of her mouth, out of reach of her tongue, which darted out to lick it off.
I couldn’t help the loud groan that came in response. “At the rate you’re going, I’m not going to have any motivation to listen to Nurse Ratched’s orders to rest.”
She swatted me gently on my bicep before falling into a fit of giggles.
•••
Claire spent the better part of the morning with me. Much to my disappointment, our make-out sessions never turned into kinky hospital sex. She was paranoid about my injuries and pulled away any time our kisses escalated. I would have let Nurse Ratched amputate my left foot if it had meant Claire would hop on my dick and ride me until the damn heart monitor exploded from a system overload. The longer I went without burying myself inside of her sex, the more desperate I became. Worst timing ever to get myself into a fucking car wreck!
And since she had heard the medical staff demand that I rest, she’d taken it upon herself to make sure that I heeded their orders.
She had only one class to teach today, which she had nearly bailed on, but I’d convinced her to keep her commitment. Shyam would be here soon to help me get home, and I was sure by now he had found out the real reason behind the car crash, and I didn’t want Claire around to witness his rage. There would be no holding my brother back once he started on me.
As if on cue, the door slammed shut and all I noticed was the fury blazing in my brother’s eyes.
“Hey, bro. Bring me any flowers today?” I couldn’t help the wise cracks that left my mouth. It was a nervous habit of mine to be a smart ass when I really should have been uneasy about a situation. This was one of those times.
Shyam lunged for me, nearly launching his body onto the bed on top of me. Grabbing the fabric of my hospital gown, he pulled my chest up so I was face to face with him, though my body from the waist down stayed on the bed. Pain shot through my chest, my ribs feeling like they were piercing through my skin.
“Shut up, you son of a bitch.” Spit flew onto my face as his face moved in so close that our noses nearly touched. “You nearly killed my wife,” he seethed.
“I know you’re angry, but—”
He shook me hard. “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me about Leonid?”
“Because I was handling it,” I managed to say through gritted teeth. The pain was so agonizing that I broke out into a cold sweat that coated my skin.
Zayn had visited me soon after Claire left to let me know that Leonid and his men were behind the crash. The driver had been one of their Brothers stationed in America. My informant, Mikhail, hadn’t heard about the plans until after they had been unsuccessfully enacted.
Until now, Zayn had kept the situation with Leonid quiet from Shyam—that was, until Amelia had become a target too. Anyone around me was now a target, as well.
“She’s my goddamn wife, and you kept this from me? Were you ever going to tell me that you were involved in a war with the Bratva?”
My body slammed back down after he released my gown from his grip. “I said I’ll take care of it,” I groaned out in distress.
“The fuck you will! I left this business to keep her safe, and here you are inviting danger back into our lives,” he bellowed with his finger in my face. I hoped these hospital walls were sturdy enough to contain this level of commotion, or a lot of patients would be quaking in their beds right now.
“Look, I should have told you, but I figured that if I held back on his supply, he’d get the message that he couldn’t fuck around with me.”
“But instead, he decided to fuck around with me and my wife. This shit doesn’t only affect you, Jai. He’s not going to stop until he’s taken all of us down. What if Meena and Dylan had been in the car too?” He circled his index finger in the air and roared, “THIS. This doesn’t only involve you. If, God forbid, he comes after my children, I will kill you myself.”
My stomach churned thinking of Leonid murdering my niece and nephew, or maybe even worse—kidnapping them and using them for the same job that they had once intended for Amelia. I had seriously fucked up.
“Leave the business,” Shyam said, glaring at me.
“What?” My mouth gaped open in disbelief.
“You heard me. Leave it. Give Leonid all of it.”
I searched his face for any hint of humor but found none in his lethal scowl.
“Are you fucking crazy? This is our family legacy!” Our father had built this business with his own hands and he wanted me to throw it away? Hand it over to that scum? Maybe it was easy for him for to say that now, since he had left it without ever looking back. He had forgotten how he’d earned his millions in the first place.
“Don’t include me in this shit. You’re lucky Amelia walked away without a scratch; otherwise, I would have made sure you never lived to see another day.”
I should have been more careful, but what kind of message would I have sent to Leonid if I had given into all his demands? “Bhaiya, please.” I used the brotherly name that I had spent my entire childhood calling him, hoping he’d remember those days and forgive me. “I’m sorry. She’s my sister too and I will fix this. I swear to you.”
“How?” he barked. “Stop doing business with him forever and piss him off even more?”
I diverted my gaze to my bedsheets, unable to bear the disappointment in his eyes. “Zayn told you everything?”
He clenched his jaw while tightening his fists at his sides. “I should fuck you up just for turning my brother on me.”
“I promise, I’ll fix this.” I needed him to have faith in me.
“How?” he demanded again.
“I’ll kill him.” It was the only option to put an end to all of this.
He locked his eyes onto mine, remaining silent as he considered my words.
After what felt like forever, he spoke. “Don’t fuck it up,” he said, before turning away to walk out the door. He called out before leaving, “Get your shit together. I’m taking you home.”
Chapter XV
Claire
I knocked on the door to the penthouse on the top floor of the most stylish, and secure, apartment building I had ever seen. I knew it was different than anything I had ever stepped foot in when I was greeted by not one but two security checkpoints, one at the front desk and another before taking the elevator up. Luckily, Amelia had granted me clearance through the security team as a “family member” without having to present any credentials.
A good-looking woman dressed in a maid’s uniform answered the door.
“How may I help you?” she asked as she eyed my cut-off, acid-wash shorts that hit high on my thighs and vintage black t-shirt with a Bengal tiger print over the front and slash marks on the sides. “Vintage” was perhaps too generous a term when it was probably the hand-me-down of a hand-me-down from the late nineties that I had found at the Goodwill.
Unable to hide her disdain for my appearance, she scowled, waiting for me to answer.
Unfortunately for her, I was immune to her judgment. I shifted impatiently, looking beyond her glossy, dark hair, into the apartment. “I’m here to see Jai.”
“Master Jai is in a meeting, young lady.” She was no doubt only five years older than me, yet her condescension wasn’t lost on me.
He
r annoyance flared higher when I remained visibly unaffected by her attitude, even though inside I felt the sparks of jealously ignite. Jealous that she probably spent most of her day prancing around Jai’s house, bending over in her too-short dress to get him items from the lowermost shelves. And now that Jai was on bed rest, she probably took advantage of the situation and found any opportunity to lean over him, fretting with his bandages or bedding or whatever else she could pretend to adjust to his comfort. The bitch was thirsty, and her sexy boss was the Nile.
“Look, either you can let me in willingly or I can text your boss and tell him about the hard time you’re giving me,” I said, holding my phone in the air.
Her nostrils flared at my tone, probably because she hadn’t expected someone younger than her to show her up. Instead of waiting for her to step aside, I pushed past her and let myself inside. The soles of my motorcycle booties thumped against the polished onyx floors. I clutched the paper bag of bagels and cream cheese that I had brought for Jai to my side.
Overhead chrome fixtures hung low, offering a seductive mood with dim, strategically focused lighting, even though the afternoon sun was in full blaze just beyond the windows. Black wood paneling lined the walls, adding to the dark mood.
The living room was spacious, with three black leather sofas arranged in an open square in front of a white marble fireplace. The white rug underneath the furniture brightened up the space, but still preserved the masculine vibe.
The only hint of feminine decor was over the fireplace—a large abstract painting. Black brushstrokes on white canvas. Curved lines contoured the shape of what was meant to be full breasts. Short strokes created pebbled nipples that dotted each breast. The lines narrowed, creating the thin waist of the model. Sharp angles showed the tension in a neck that was strained as a faceless head turned away, peering out of frame. It was such a simplistic painting, yet so erotic.
Deep voices broke my salacious trance. Arguing. I followed my ears, leading me up the stairs next to the living room and down to the furthest door at the end of the hall. It was ajar, so I stayed back just close enough to make out coherent words. One of the voices sounded like Jai’s. The other reminded me of that man, whose name I had never learned, from the hospital.
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