Chapter 7
7
A rmaan went straight to his study the second he entered his house. The study in all their homes was like a common room for the three of them. They ended up there on most nights to have a nightcap and to catch up on the events of the day, or at times, to simply sit in silence. It was perhaps one of the few places in the house where even their staff had restricted access. Tonight, it was just Mihir and him. After London, the three of them had gone to Russia for their shareholder meeting. Just this afternoon, Mihir and he had returned to Dubai while Vedant had gone back to London to complete an important business transaction.
As expected, Mihir was seated in the study, drinking vodka and looking at the rolling waves of the sea through the glass doors. They needed to talk, and that’s why Armaan had sought him out. Armaan had information that he needed to share with his brothers.
Mihir looked up. “Where have you been?” His brother’s Russian was definitely more pronounced after spending the last week in Moscow.
Armaan gave him a naughty grin. “Hello, brother. As you can see, I was out.”
Mihir leaned forward in his armchair. “You were with her, weren’t you?”
“Maybe.”
Mihir studied him in that quiet, cool way of his. He had always been too reserved and never voiced his displeasure openly. But the glacial looks he sent him were enough for Armaan to know when his brother was mad at him. And judging from that added tick in Mihir’s jaw, he was hopping mad indeed.
Armaan exhaled. When he’d decided to pursue Navya, he’d done so, knowing that Mihir wouldn’t approve of it. But this was his life, and for the first time, he was craving a woman this badly even though he barely knew her. Just because that woman happened to be the sister of Mihir’s nemesis wouldn’t stop Armaan. Like he’d messaged Navya some time ago, she was his, and he was going to claim her soon. She and he were going to happen; he felt it in his bones. He also knew that she’d make him work for it, and he was going to enjoy every minute of it.
Before Navya, he’d never had to chase a woman, but pursuing her was a thrill like no other. Being with her was exhilarating. It was a high he never wanted to come down from. Like a drug, he was beginning to crave his next fix of her. Seeing her tonight, looking absolutely stunning in that golden sari, had confirmed that. Not only was she beautiful, she was also smart, witty, and fiercely protective about her family. Everything about her resonated within him.
He liked that she kept him on his toes, waiting and wondering what she’d say or do next. He enjoyed seeing her skin flush when he teased her. He loved the way her pupils dilated and how those soft breaths escaped her pouty lips when they were close. He even loved the way she rolled her eyes when she was annoyed.
He loved how stunningly innocent she was. The more he met her, the more he was becoming certain of this fact. Her reactions to him were all so simple and basic, like she was unable to hide what she felt around him. His heart stuttered. Fuck, he barely knew her, and already he was getting addicted to her.
Even thinking about her made him feel alive. Like a powerful magnet, she was drawing him to her, making it harder for him to leave her side. He wanted to be with her and understand why she affected him so deeply. He wanted to hear her laugh and be the one making her laugh and smile. He wanted to do a hundred different things to her in bed. Bloody hell, he was losing his mind.
He focused on Mihir, who was still watching him carefully. Armaan took off his jacket and folded the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows before sitting on the sofa.
Mihir poured vodka into another glass and handed it to him.
“You need to be careful, Armaan.” Mihir drank his shot. “I worry that you will get hurt.”
Armaan downed his vodka. It was smooth and strong, just how he liked it. “Why do you think I’ll get hurt?”
“Because I’ve never seen you so impatient while at work. Because I’ve never seen you so restless like you’ve been the past week. You were so damn jumpy the whole time we were in Russia. Like you couldn’t wait to leave. We returned home just this afternoon, and already you had plans to go see her.”
“Brother, you know I like women!” Armaan quipped. “Don’t make more of it.”
The last thing he wanted was Mihir on his case. His feelings for Navya were too new, and he wanted to figure them out by himself first before answering questions his brothers would ask.
“Is she truly just another woman to you, or is she different?” When Armaan didn’t reply, Mihir continued, “You haven’t been yourself since you met her. I knew you would have pursued her four years back too, that’s why I was more than happy to agree to Rajiv Mehra’s terms. I’d hoped she never ran into you again, but now that she has, I can see you’re determined to claim her, and you won’t rest till she’s in your bed.”
“I still don’t see what is there to worry,” Armaan stated.
Mihir sighed. “She’s her sister. After seeing my example, I thought you’d be smarter than I was. But here you are, making the same mistakes with yet another Mehra woman, just the way I did.”
“Stop worrying, Mihir. I like her and that’s all there is to it.”
Mihir looked him in the eye. “Are you falling in love with her?”
“Love?” Armaan scoffed. “Lust would be the right word here. I’ve barely met her thrice.”
Mihir gazed into the distance. “Sometimes even one meeting is enough.”
His brother looked lost and sad. When he saw Armaan observing him, a curtain dropped on his face. And just like that, he was back to being the stony, cold-hearted man the world knew Mihir Oshnov to be.
“Promise me, you’ll be careful, da ?” Mihir said.
Armaan nodded. “I will. Now, let’s get to something important. I have news.”
Mihir frowned. “Is this about Karina or Ivan?”
The whole of last week, none of them had been able to focus on these two issues. Once in Russia, all three of them had gotten so inundated with work, meetings, and site visits that focusing on anything else had been impossible. O-Corp was a huge empire, and running it took all of their combined energies.
“I’m calling Vedant.” Armaan lifted the iPad and video-called his brother in London.
Vedant answered on the first ring. “Hey. I was just going to call you.”
“Mihir’s here too. What happened?” Armaan asked, worried about Vedant’s serious tone.
“You go first,” Vedant said. “It’s late in Dubai, and if you’re both awake, then it means something has happened. Tell me.”
Armaan shifted the iPad, so both Mihir and he came into the frame.
“It’s about Dorab,” Armaan said. “Like we’d planned, one of our men was driving him in a car when he regained consciousness. Since we’d deliberately left him unbound, he tried fighting our guy, who then let him think he got the better of him. Dorab found his passport in our guy’s pocket, stole the cash he had on him and escaped. I’ve had someone trailing him since then. He went straight to a small, dingy hospital, got himself admitted for his wounds and is now on his way to Delhi. I have two guys on the plane following him. Let’s see what he does next.”
“Well, he took the bait… so far so good,” Mihir said. “Let’s hope we can get something conclusive from that fucker.”
Armaan focused on Vedant. “What do you want to talk about?”
“It’s Ivan,” Vedant said. “He’s disappeared. After he didn’t show up at the shareholder meeting, I had a feeling something was up. I put some of our men on him but they couldn’t find him anywhere. Even the staff at his homes don’t know where he’s gone.”
“I don’t like this,” Mihir said.
“If I know him correctly, then that fucker is up to something,” Armaan added. “And whatever it is, it won’t be nice. We all know that he wants O-Corp. Hence, his silence and absence are definitely worrying.”
“As a precaution, I’d like to increase the security around us,” Mihir said.
“I’m not afraid of him, and we already have enough security,” Armaan countered.
“Which you seem to take for fucking granted.” Mihir looked at Armaan. “You only took Arlo with you when you went running to her.”
“Who her?” Vedant asked.
Armaan ignored him. “Mihir, Arlo is enough, and you know I can fight.”
“Not against a gunshot, you can’t.” Mihir glared at him.
His brother worried way too much.
“Mihir, we moved to Dubai because it is one of the safest cities in the world. No one is getting shot here,” Armaan said. “Plus, we are powerful in our own right. Only a fool will try to get on our wrong side.”
“And we’d be fools to underestimate Ivan’s desire to gain control of O-Corp,” Mihir shot back.
“Guys, can we get back to the her Armaan went running to?” Vedant asked. “Is it who I think it is?”
“Yes,” Mihir growled.
“Yes,” Armaan snapped at the same time.
“Whoa,” Vedant raised his hands up. “Wrong timing to get involved with the wrong woman, brother.”
Armaan gave Vedant a hard look. “I don’t need a lecture from you too. Mihir’s already giving me a tough time on this, as you can see.”
“And yet, you’re not going to listen to either of us, are you?” Mihir stated.
“Look,” Armaan said, cooling his tone down a notch. “You’re right that we shouldn’t take Ivan for granted, and we won’t. But I refuse to live in fear, especially when we have no solid evidence that we are in danger. Visibly increasing our security will send a message to the world and to Ivan that we are scared. There are too many people who hate the fact that three poor orphan boys from a remote city in India have become the richest men on the fucking planet. We have enough problems to tackle right now before adding ourselves to more peoples’ hit list.”
“He’s right, Mihir,” Vedant said. “We cannot show weakness to the world at large. The reason we’ve been so successful this far is because we are known to be ruthless, and the fact that we’re not scared of anyone. We don’t know what Ivan is up to right now, so I’m going to put all our resources into finding him and learning that.”
When Mihir still remained silent, Armaan said, “You know we’re right, brother.”
“Ivan knows that losing even one of you will end me,” Mihir said quietly. “You both are the most important people in my life, and I refuse to put either of you at risk.”
Armaan’s heart melted. “I feel the same, you know. I am who I am because of you both.”
“Same,” Vedant accepted.
Mihir lifted his jaw. “Then promise me that neither of you will take risks, and neither of you will be at places that are even the slightest bit unsafe. Both of you will reduce your socializing to a minimum. No going out at night until this matter of Ivan is tackled. If you can promise me that, then I will agree to whatever you both are suggesting.”
“Alright,” Vedant said.
“Okay,” Armaan accepted.
“You’re definitely okay with what I’m asking for?” Mihir reconfirmed with Armaan.
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?” Mihir asked. “So, you won’t be showing up at the events she’s attending? Which means you’ll drop your pursuit of her?”
Armaan gave him a wicked smile.
“Fuck. That smile,” Vedant muttered. “He’s up to something. I know it.”
Mihir sighed. “Armaan, you just promised?—”
“You said no going out at night, and to reduce socializing. You never said I couldn’t meet her in the daytime, brother. I’ll ensure I do that in a safe environment.”
“Bloody fucking hell,” Mihir cursed. “You can be so bloody stubborn and foolish.”
Armaan fanned a hand down himself. “Hey, I have many flaws. But I am still awesome. You know that.”
“You can be an asshole as well,” Vedant deadpanned.
“Listing one of my flaws doesn’t make me less awesome, da ?”
Vedant laughed, and even Mihir smiled. Just like that, the tension between and around them evaporated.
“But, honestly, Armaan,” Vedant began. “You’re playing a game with the wrong woman.”
“She knows I’m after her. She knows I don’t do serious. This is temporary.” He lifted a shoulder and dropped it. “Nothing bad is going to happen.”
Something beeped in the background. Mihir tapped on his phone and grimaced.
“Now what?” Armaan asked. “Why are you scowling into your phone?”
“Well, our social media team just sent me this photo,” Mihir said.
Armaan’s phone beeped at the same time as Vedant’s.
Armaan lifted his phone and opened the message Mihir had sent on their chat group. It was a media photo of Navya and him at the fashion show from earlier tonight. They were seated in the front row, looking lost in one another. His finger was on her lower lip, and he was looking at her like she was the most wondrous thing on the planet. His heart tripped at the memory of that intense moment between them. Bloody fucking hell.
Vedant barked out a laugh. “Are you sure it’s just casual, brother? The picture speaks otherwise.”
Mihir didn’t say a word.
“I need that picture gone, Vedant,” Armaan said. He didn’t need Navya to be in the spotlight with him. No one needed to know he was after her. She’d be hounded by God only knew who, if word spread that he had his eye on her.
“Consider it done,” his brother replied.
“Vedant, come home,” Mihir said. “I’d feel infinitely better if the three of us were in the same city.”
“My negotiation with the British bankers is at a crucial point,” Vedant said. “I’ll try and conclude that business and come to Dubai as soon as I can.”
“Alright,” Mihir agreed. “Just ensure you take your bodyguard with you everywhere you go, and that too only during the day time, don’t forget that.”
At Vedant’s nod, Mihir said, “Let’s call it a night.”
They disconnected the call. Mihir gave Armaan a speaking look, which Armaan returned with a naughty smile and a cheeky wave as they both retired to their own wings of their massive home in Arabian Palms in Dubai. They’d bought this house because it had three separate wings connected in the center by all the common rooms—the study, games room, living room, dining area, kitchen, and the huge garden that opened into the beach. Armaan stood at his bedroom window, staring at the sea as he thought through the events of the night.
He’d left the fashion show soon after Navya made her exit. It was on the way there that his team had called to inform him about Dorab. He pressed the back of his neck. The next few days were going to be rough, and they’d all have to be more careful than before. Maybe his brothers were right and this whole thing with Navya ought to be aborted. The timing was off, for sure. His phone beeped.
It was her.
“I belong to no one, and I will definitely never be yours.”
A smile spread on his face. What was he thinking? The fire between them burned both ways. She needn’t have replied to his earlier text messages. The fact that she had meant that, this late into the night, she also was thinking of him. There was no chance in hell that he’d leave her alone now. He began to type a message.
“I’m happy to know you’re awake and still thinking of me. Go to sleep and dream of us. I know I will.”
He saw her come online. She began to type a message, but then she went offline again. He grinned.
No matter how tough his next days were expected to be, they were also going to be brighter because of her .