‘Yes, no…I mean…’ Sighing, she tried again. ‘I’m aware that I know nothing about you, Mr Patel,’ she finally said, ashamed of how much she had based her assumptions of him on what she read in the gossip news. ‘Just as you don’t know anything about me.’
He was silent for a few seconds, and she knew he was wondering if she was being cheeky or genuine. ‘I’m branching out into real estate. All this sex symbol stuff and adoration of millions has gone to my head,’ he said, and Tanya grinned, hearing the humour in his voice.
In the rear view mirror, she caught a quick glimpse of that dimple in his cheek. Which was just as attractive as the self-deprecating tone of his words. ‘As soon as I finish the last movie I’m contracted for, I’m walking away from acting.’
By the time Tanya pulled the Audi into the quiet suburb, night had fallen. The neighbourhood was every inch the paradise of suburbia that she had imagined. And of course, the media didn’t even know that he owned a house here or that his daughter was being brought up here.
His quiet declaration about quitting acting still ringing in her head, Tanya switched off the engine. She stepped out of the car and opened the door for him.
He stretched his long legs. And pressed some cash into Tanya’s hands. ‘Find yourself dinner, Ms Singh. I shouldn’t need you for a few hours at least.’
Tanya was listening to the radio after scarfing down her peanut butter sandwich when Mr Bollywood stepped out of the house. His buttons were undone, there was a grease mark on his jaw, and his hands were coated in something black. Before she could open the door, he rapped on the window on her side, and she lowered it.
Tanya smothered a smile with the utmost effort. His thick hair stood up wildly in several directions. ‘Is something wrong, Mr Patel?’
‘No, Ms Singh. But my ex-wife is out getting ready for the trip and we have a four-year-old-needs-cheeseburger crisis. And I can’t leave her.’
This time, Tanya laughed. She switched on the ignition and keyed in a search for fast food joints into the GPS device. ‘Be back in a few,’ she said, and proceeded to make a U-turn.
She was dropping off the cheeseburgers at the front door when her phone rang. Smiling at the little girl who grabbed the bag from her fingers like a hungry lioness, Tanya said, ‘Hello?’
Her cousin Jessie’s loud squeal startled her so much that her fingers slipped over the touchscreen, clicking the speaker on. The phone slipped from her fingers and landed on the plush carpet with very little noise.
But Jessie’s invasive and overexcited questions were loud in the ensuing silence.
So…Tanya, what did you think of the surprise? Tell me, is he as hot as we used to think he was?
Her gaze colliding with his flinty one over the little girl’s head, Tanya froze as she cringed at the blatant curiosity in Jessie’s words.
It was one thing to gossip about an actor, a hero that was a fantasy. But to hear Jessie’s questions when he stood two feet away from her was, his emotions slowly but surely inching out of his face, completely another.
Do you know why he’s in London? Is he back together with his ex? Please tell me you clicked a pic of him. I know you’re not supposed to but…
Tanya? Are you there?
Her breath hitching in her throat, Tanya picked up her phone and finally clicked it off.
The vicious scowl on his face speaking volumes, John opened the door. ‘Get out.’
Swallowing at the banked fury in his gaze, Tanya stepped out into the clear night, cursing Jessie and her juvenile blather.
An hour later, Tanya pulled out of the driveway with John in the backseat. Every inch of her thrummed with growing tension, waiting for him to say something.
Finally just before they were about to hit the motorway, she heard his icy command. ‘Pull over and step out, Ms Singh.’
She had barely stepped out of the car when she felt him as a solid presence next to her. In the relative quiet and dark of the street, every sense of hers became hyperaware as he locked her against the car with his wide frame.
‘Give me your phone.’
Shaking, Tanya met his gaze, her gut twisting into knots. ‘Sure but first…let me explain.’
‘You have two minutes before I call the police and lodge a complaint against you and your business.’
‘No, please. Don’t do that. My cousin, Jessie, she… didn’t mean it the way it sounded.’
‘What did she mean then?’
‘I used to have the biggest crush on you. Used to. A long time ago. My brother, who owns the business-’
‘Thought it would be ok to violate a confidentiality agreement? I specifically hired your company because a friend recommended you. Do you even have a business licence?’
‘Of course, I do.’ Even as fear twisted her stomach, Tanya still couldn’t silence the tremble in her legs as he stood glaring at her.
‘I know how it sounds, but it’s not-’
‘I heard her telling you to snap a pic, Ms Singh. Are there cameras in the back that you haven’t disclosed too?’
Damn the man and his hearing. Tanya couldn’t believe this was happening. He had every right to be angry.
‘No, no. Please, let me explain.’
‘Give me your phone.’ He didn’t wait for her to hand it over to him. Just grabbed it from her grasp. His jaw tight, he waved it in front of face. ‘If I find even one picture of Neena on this, I’m suing you and your brothers for violation of privacy.’
‘I was in there for barely a minute.’ Shaking, Tanya quickly ducked into the car, and pulled her licence. ‘Look at it, Mr Patel. What you heard, it’s true. But you don’t know the whole story. Don’t understand why she was being so...’
‘What is the whole story?’
It should have been hard to talk about Sunny. She should have hated him for forcing her to. But once she started, the words came easily. ‘My husband…he…died twelve months ago suddenly. I…was devastated. I don’t know how I made it so long without him…My family, they have been trying to get me to join the living again. I think, when they saw your name come up in the client list, they jumped at the chance. I think they just thought it would make me laugh. Remind me of the person I used to be. You have to believe me. I would never betray a client’s confidence and especially a child’s.
If you like, you can file a complaint against me with the chamber of commerce, for all I care, but not the business as a whole.’
His brown gaze glittered, the moon casting silver shadows on the planes of his face. ‘Is that why you are hiding behind this job?’
Whatever she had been about to say stilled in her throat as Tanya saw the genuine emotion in his eyes. Clutching the cold metal of the door behind her, she said, ‘I’m not hiding. I just...’
As if sensing how fragile she felt, he leaned against the car next to her.
‘What happened to him?’
Her throat felt just as raw as it had that afternoon. ‘He had a brain aneurysm…He was just twenty six years old, was always on the go, used to play cricket, had this incredible amount of zest for life…And then just like that, he drops in the middle of the day and is gone before I can blink.’
Dragging her tight arms from around herself, John took her hand in his and clasped it tightly. Tanya struggled to pull her hand away but he held on and finally she relaxed. And the pressure on her chest relented.
‘How long were you married for?’
Now his grip loosened but his long fingers traced her skin absently. Every inch of her focusing on his touch, on the tingling of her skin to the sensual strokes, it became easier to speak. ‘Six months. We…’ It should have felt wrong to speak of Sunny while John touched her, but Tanya couldn’t summon a reaction she didn’t feel. It was so much easier to speak to John about Sunny than her brother or Jessie or anyone else. And she didn’t question the why of it. ‘I don’t think we even got quite used to being husband and wife, you know. But I knew him my whole life, and that’s who I miss. My best friend…’
When his arm came around her shoulders and pulled her towards him, Tanya didn’t resist anymore.
He held her in a tight hug that arrested the sob rising through her like a tide. Shaking, she threw her arms around him and clung to him. And as though a match had been lit, a fire had been started, the moment went from comfort to something else. Feelings and sensations she hadn’t thought herself capable of ever again assaulted her from every side.
A violent tremble started in the pit of her stomach, spreading through her like a quake. His thighs were rock hard against hers, the buckle of his belt dug into her belly. Her fingers crept into his hair, she felt the shudder that rocked through his muscular frame.
He was so hard and hot, and it had been so long since she had felt anything, that every inch of her thrummed with a keen awareness of her own body, of the world around her, and the breathtaking embrace of the man holding her as though she was the most precious thing in the world.
John stiffened as his body roared with an inferno of heat and lust. The crisply tailored suit Tanya wore had teased his curiosity since he had seen her standing stiffly at airport, but now he knew.
Now he knew what lush curves hid under the suit. Knew that her long legs were toned and that her butt was curvy and taut. Knew that her waist was tiny, not even spanning the width of his whole hand and her hips lushly wide. Knew that that scent of her that had teased him incessantly was lilac. Knew that with her breasts pressing into his chest, her slender shoulders melting in his embrace, she made a perfect fit for him.