CHAPTER 13
The following morning, a ray of sunlight snuck through the parted curtains and he slowly opened his eyes. His gaze went to the woman who was deep in sleep. He was glad it was a minor injury but recovery was going to be slow and somewhat painful.
He looked at the time and it was almost eight in the morning and he barely got a few hours of sleep and he was stiff all over. He needed to get away and the only thing that would help him feel better was some exercise.
Ashok headed downstairs in the next ten minutes to find the twins working on their breakfast. He spent some time with them before giving the staff instructions on caring for Isha. He needed her to eat something and take another pain medication if she woke up while he was away at the rowing club.
Shortly after, Ashok pulled into the parking lot of the rowing club a lot later than his usual workout time.
He let the engine run of his custom sports car and its distinctive rumble mixed with the sound of artificially created waves.
He built the place three years ago when he couldn’t find another way for him to do what he loved the most regularly.
The clubhouse was buzzing with morning activity, staff training the enthusiasts, the familiar chatter of rowers preparing for their workouts but he didn’t mingle with anyone except on race days.
His keycard gave him access to his private path that most members would never see and it led to where his private boat bay.
Money bought him the perfect setup, but it couldn’t buy the feeling he got when the oars bit into the sea water on that first stroke in the ocean. That, he had to settle.
When he was at the rowing club, cutting across the waves on his single Kayak, Nothing came to mind.
Not the board meetings, not the quarterly reports, nor the constant decisions that come with running his companies.
Just the rhythm he’d loved since he was a young boy who grew up along the ocean all his life.
The sun was already warming the water as other rowers glided past in both directions. His perfect rowing sanctuary, alive with the community he built around his passion. Just as he was falling into the rhythm, the beautiful face of the woman he had been spending time with flashed before his eyes.
A shudder passed through him when he felt the tightness in the chest that he experienced when he saw her on the floor, right after she had fallen.
Why the heck was he thinking of her?
Twenty minutes out to his usual turning point, he still could not push away thoughts of her. He had woken up dreaming of her, touching her and kissing those lips to satiation but that was it.
He let out a frustrated groan. The most expensive workout routine ever, and it had proven to be worth every penny until that morning.
Why was he not able to focus?
A few hours later, he watched her from the doorway of the home office, completely absorbed in her case meeting despite the way she kept wincing in pain every time she moved her injured shoulder by habit.
Nina and Varun, were seated across from her desk, legal briefs and case files spread between them. Most people would have taken the doctor’s advice to rest, especially after a fall like that the night prior. Not her.
She never did anything halfway was what Ravi would say about her, and even when she was supposed to be taking it easy, she was hard at work. It was maddening and fascinating at the same time how she went from wanting to leave and deciding to stay. The moment she casually said they should marry.
He smiled, running his fingers through his hair. He never thought of marriage but if there was a woman who’d convinced him to get married was her. What got to him in the moment when she asked him to marry her, wasn’t just her stubborn determination to address a situation but the sparks in her eyes.
As he stood looking at her, he could not believe how she went from being a complete sociopath with the kids to jumping in the pool with them. He knew something changed for her and she has made him want to care about her, protect her like she was his.
She was the kind of woman who made everyone around her want to step up their game, just to keep up with her. And damn if that wasn’t the most attractive thing he’d ever seen, those beautiful eyes and the feel of her pillow-like lips still haunted him, making him hard night after night.