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“Are you leaving?” he asked hopefully. “On your way out perhaps?”
Raashi Gadde, his sister-in-law’s younger sister and horrific pain-in-the-ass tossed her thick braid back and grinned. “No, just arrived.”
“Then I’m leaving,” he told her baldly. There was no way the two of them could co-exist under one roof for more than a few minutes without plotting each other’s murder.
“Good. The air was feeling a bit polluted.” Raashi buffed her nails on her oversized sweatshirt and examined them. There was really nothing to look at. They were plain, unvarnished, and looked to be bitten to the quick.
“If you have a problem with that, try not to fart so much,” he retorted, going to walk around her and out of the room.
He walked right into his brother. Fucking hell!
“Harsh.” Agastya’s stern face told him he’d heard most of the exchange.
“Anna.” Harsh tipped an obnoxious salute at his older brother knowing it would piss him off further. “See ya.”
“Stay,” Agastya said, his tone one that was laying down the law. Too bad that Harsh had very little time for the Kodela laws. “We were thinking of having a family dinner. Priyanka and Aarush are also joining us with Aadhya and Ram.”
Harsh glanced over his shoulder at the nasty, little goblin who’d infiltrated his home. “Good for you. Have fun with your new family.” And wow, had that family grown!
Ignoring Agastya’s frustrated ‘Harsh’, he ran up the stairs that took him to the second floor which housed his suite of rooms. Changing quickly into ripped jeans and a white t-shirt, he grabbed his phone and wallet and headed out.
He walked past the dining room and heard the gales of laughter streaming out from it. Harsh paused at the open door, glancing in. Even his father had joined them for this ‘family’ dinner. Talk about miracles but he supposed the Golden Child of the Kodela house could pull any miracle off. Including getting Suryakanth Kodela to do something as mundane as eat with the people he called family.
For a microsecond he considered joining them, soaking in the laughter and cheer, even contributing to it. Maybe for one evening, he could fit in, he could be accepted, he could stop being the cuckoo in the nest of the Kodela family.
And then she looked up and saw him hovering at the door like an orphan with his grimy nose pressed up against the window. And she smirked.
Fuck this shit. He was out of here.
Two
RAASHI
She wanted to go home. Raashi glanced around the room, the bright, happy faces, the chattering hordes, and she wished desperately to be anywhere but here. Well maybe ‘hordes’ was an exaggeration. This was a group at best. A flock of chattering magpies. Why were they so noisy? Hadn’t they said what they needed to already? This dinner had already lasted three hours.
Her head was starting to ache and her single glass of wine was starting to make her feel more than a little giddy and not in a good way. She’d always avoided alcohol for this reason. She was a lightweight and even a tiny amount went straight to her head.
“Akka,” she whispered to her sister who sat beside her. “I’m going to step out for a bit of fresh air.”
Veda glanced at her, concern shadowing her big eyes. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” Raashi tried to smile reassuringly but it felt like more of a grimace. “Just stepping out on to the verandah for a bit. I’ll be back.”
She slipped out before anyone could stop her. She smiled at the guards who lined the hallways waiting for the VIPs they guarded to finish for the night so they could head home to their own families. Honestly, Raashi found the whole thing vacuous and nothing but posturing. Maybe Suryakanth uncle and Agastya needed protection but the rest of them, especially him, surely didn’t? She bet he loved the boost it gave his image though.
She was still thinking dark, nasty thoughts about him, the wine adding an extra filter to the whole thing when she stepped out on to the large wraparound verandah. She could look down the driveway from here, all the way to the gate. She glanced longingly toward it, her way out of this night, her escape route.
As she watched, the gates opened and a yellow Lamborghini drove in, followed by a black Innova. It roared to a stop at the front of the house and Satan got out of it. She groaned. Her timing was shit. She should have stayed inside with the magpies.
He hadn’t seen her as yet. She saw him hug his security who got out of the Innova, a total bro hug that involved backslapping and loud, unintelligible bellows. To his credit, and she really didn’t want to give him any credit, they seemed to genuinely like him. But then didn’t everyone?
Except her.
She supposed she just had a stronger bullshit factor and was less distracted by a pretty face. It was a very pretty face, she accepted grudgingly.
Harsh was done with his bromance and now turned towards the house. She saw the exact moment he spotted her on the verandah. She saw the instinctive hitch in his step before he covered it up with his usual swagger.
“Well. Well. If it isn’t Anti Rapunzel up there…Or is it Anti Juliet?”
