38. Sujit
SUJIT
I knew Aarti wouldn’t willingly meet with Manoj.
Which meant he had something on her. He had either blackmailed or threatened her.
I trusted Aarti to hold her own, and I saw her walk away without a look of worry on her face.
That knowledge did little to calm the feeling of restlessness and unease inside me.
I was furious that Manoj had the guts to put Aarti in this position. And I was irked that Aarti had chosen to deal with him without confiding in me. She had clearly voiced her mistrust for him on our last night in St. Martin. She should have trusted me and told me about this.
I was so consumed with Aarti that I forgot why I was at the restaurant with Kitty. I tried to be present at the table, nodding to her chatter and laughing at her jokes. But my mind remained occupied with Aarti, and I knew Devi saw it too. She didn’t mention anything, though.
When we dropped them back home, I promptly instructed Imran to drive me to Aarti’s.
I needed to make sure she’d emerged out of her dinner meeting unscathed.
I also had to finally confess how I felt about her.
A sudden, unexpected feeling churned my stomach, and Imran saw it as I readjusted myself in the backseat.
“Everything will be okay, Boss,” he said with his usual silly grin. “Today’s the day.”
“Whatever you think is going to happen, Imran, I assure you it isn’t,” I teased back with a straight face.
“Oh yeah, it’s happening.” That wide grin again. “Should I wait or leave, Boss?” he teased as we entered the portico of her magnificent building.
“Depends,” I said as I opened the door to step out. “I’ll let you know.”
Ignoring the anxiety and anticipation coursing through me, I rode the elevator to her floor. I couldn’t wait any longer without telling her what she meant to me.
I rang the doorbell, and I knew she saw me on the camera. But instead of unlocking the door with her phone like she usually did, she answered it in person this time, in a mini satin cami dress and a short robe.
“Sujit,” she said. “I wasn’t sure you were coming tonight.”
“I said I would,” I reminded her. “Can I come in?”
“Yes.” She drew the robe close over her thin camisole and stepped aside.
“I had to make sure you were okay.”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” she said without inflection.
“I saw you with Manoj.”
“You don’t need to worry about that. Or him.” She sighed and continued, “He called me yesterday, saying he had pictures of me from the party.”
I opened my mouth to express my displeasure, but she quickly added, “He wanted to meet and blackmail me into being seen with him. Or ending my friendship with you?—”
“He—”
“I don’t know what he wanted. I never let him finish. But he’s finished, believe me. He doesn’t have the means to hurt me in any way. Nor the balls.”
I smirked. “That means he’s worried.”
She frowned. “Worried about what?”
“His entire life is unraveling before him. It has begun, and he’s running scared. That’s the reason he contacted you. You were his last hope. That column in the tabloid was his way of using you to irk me. Now that his hands are tied, he was trying to use you to get me to help him.”
“Yeah, little did he know that this house cat is actually a tigress in the wild.”
I grinned, then turned somber. “You should’ve told me, Aarti. I would’ve taken care of it immediately. You would’ve never had to see him at all.”
“I wanted to see him. I needed to look him in the eye and tell him to fuck off. And to stop fucking with you forever. After today, he won’t hurt you. I promise you.”
“He won’t. Not anymore.” I told her everything I had planned with Vinay.
She gaped at me with wide eyes. “I…well…that’s…I…”
“You didn’t think I had it in me?” I filled in the blanks.
She returned a sheepish look. “Something like that.”
“He’s always tested my limits. But this time, he crossed the line.”
“This time?” she asked with a tentative look.
“He came after you, and I couldn’t allow that.”
She took a startled step back. “What are you saying, Sujit?”
“I like you, Aarti. A lot,” I said with my gaze planted in her eyes. They widened, then softened instantly. “That’s what I needed to talk to you about. I like you and need to know how you feel about us.”
She fiddled with the delicate diamond ring on her left index finger like she did when she was anxious or musing about something.
“Manoj tried to throw me off,” she began. “By saying you have an ongoing affair with Devi. That’s the reason she’s divorced.”
My heart bubbled with rage, but I saw Aarti roll her eyes.
“As if I was going to buy that BS from him. By the way, your date was as pretty as you said. Like an angel,” Aarti added with a warm smile.
“It was Kitty’s birthday. Ever since her father walked out of their lives, it has been our ritual to celebrate with a dinner at Marco’s followed by ice cream at her favorite creamery.”
“Her name is Kitty?” she asked with a suspicious cock of her head.
“No, it’s Katyayani. It’s a mouthful, so I call her Kitty. And Devi’s marriage ended because her husband broke her trust and chose to be with another woman.”
She smiled. “You don’t need to convince me. That trust I keep talking about, I don’t say it lightly. I trust you completely, Sujit. I can’t believe Manoj thought I’d buy it.”
“It was his last hurrah. He would’ve tried anything to create a rift between us.”
“If he were even a slight bit smart, he would’ve known…”
I held my breath for her next words. “Known?”
“I like you, Sujit. I like you enough that I had a heartfelt conversation with my father and sought his blessings before returning to you,” she confessed.
My heart leapt off a cliff as I stepped toward her. “Is that the truth, Aarti?”
“How did you not know?” she cried with incredulity and frustration.
“How did you not know?” I asked in return.
“I knew,” she said. “But you’d said it would displease your family, and I wasn’t sure if you were ready to take the brunt. To stake it all.”
I laughed. “My family will be relieved that I am happy. And despite the pathetic attempt in the tabloid, the truth is that the world isn’t really interested in my personal life. It never was.”
“It will be once AccessEd becomes the big thing it’s destined to be,” she said matter-of-factly.
I beamed at her staunch conviction. “Maybe. Until then, I’m free of that burden. But you…whatever your brother said. I am ready to take the chance, Aarti. I am ready to stand by you and face whatever filth the world throws at us.”
“I don’t care about the world. But I do care about you. And our families. I don’t want to hurt anyone close to me in this process.”
“Are you scared?”
“No. For once, I’m certain we won’t live in the shadow of Sameer and Tara anymore than they’re living in ours. And I like you with an intensity I’ve never felt before, and I don’t want to give it up without a fight.”
“All right, then.” I heaved a deep sigh of relief. “I want the happiness that you give me, Aarti. But I need you to be absolutely certain about this. You have more to lose in every way than I do. I need you to be sure that this is what you want. I don’t want you to regret us later.”
She scoffed and took two confident steps toward me. Then, without warning, she pressed her mouth firmly against mine. Her fists tightened around the lapels of my jacket and tugged at it as her tongue breached my mouth, rendering me helpless. Before I could remember to breathe again, she retracted.
Taking one step back, she smoothed my lapels and said, “Is that certain enough for you?”
“Good god, Aarti!” I cried and raked a hand over my head. I loosened the tie to release the heat rising up my body.
She cocked her hip and crossed her arms. Her breasts burst upward and out over the silky satin dress.
“I need to make just one call before we do this,” I said and hurriedly touched the second number in my favorites.
“Imran, you can leave.”
I heard his gentle chuckle as I tossed my phone on the couch without disconnecting it.