Page 2 of Driven By Desire
“Adi,” Spinning from the kitchen sink that now had a stream of red running down the drain, Krish fumed, “I’ve had an incredibly shitty day. Pooja’s school called telling me she got into a free for all with another child which had me leaving in the middle of an incredibly important pitch we were preparing at work. On reaching the school, I was informed by the principal that she’s been suspended for a week. Chirag called to say he was delayed with work in Mumbai for another three days which means, my friend, that you’re on babysitting duty for the rest of the week once you’re done with your schedule at college.”
He paused to take a breath before the top of his head blew off in a toxic mix of anger and frustration. It didn’t work.
“I, then, spent the next six hours completing that pitch with a sulky thirteen year old whining in the background which meant I had to take the time again to drive her in peak traffic to maasi’s house. I dropped her off there to spend the night so I could continue working from home to be ready for tomorrow and just made it home in time for your girlfriend to crash land on me. Thanks to that, I, now, not only get to spend most of the night in the emergency room but I also get to give the most important pitch of my career tomorrow looking like a car crash victim. So, I really don’t give a flying fig if Peter Pan in the living roommeantto hurt me or not.”
Dropping the bloody towel in the sink and pressing the fresh one to the still bleeding gash on his forehead, he started to storm out of the kitchen only to be brought up short by the sight of his unwanted, flying guest in the doorway. Her stricken expression caused a momentary pang of conscience which disappeared in the next burst of pain to assault his head. Brushing past her, he made it almost to the front door before his overdeveloped conscience reappeared.
“Bring your friend along.”
The terse order had Adi swallowing nervously. “Why?”
“Why? Because she fell out of a tree and it’s probably a good idea to have her checked out as well.”
“I’m fine.” That ‘come have sex with me’ voice wrapped itself around him causing his temper to spike even more.
“Forgive me if I don’t have much faith in your judgment or common sense.” Turning away from her, he muttered, “Make her get into the car or I will.”
That ominous pronouncement silenced all argument and had the two of them trailing behind him.
---***---
A messy mix of guilt and temper stewed within Max as she sat, seething, in the backseat. The man was a boor. An arrogant, obnoxious, narrow minded boor. Oh, all right, so what had happened was basically her fault but he didn’t have to make such a big issue out of it. If he would just give her a chance to apologize they would all feel better but he was more interested in behaving like she was the devil incarnate. Peter Pan! He’d called her Peter Pan! He was insufferable and if she was Peter Pan, he was definitely the beast from ‘Beauty and the Beast?” No that didn’t fit. The man was annoyingly good looking even under all the blood flowing down his face…..Hell, it would come to her. She was never good at thinking of witty repartee when she was angry. She was still mentally sifting through her repertoire of fairy tales when they pulled into the Apollo hospital a couple of streets away. Pulling out the hair tie she had dangling around her wrist, she bundled her hair into a messy ponytail and followed the two men into the emergency room. One look at Aditya’s brother and the duty doctor swung into action and got him to settle down on one of the beds so he could examine him. Curtains were pulled quickly hiding both Aditya and him from view. She was just wondering where she could sit and stay out of everyone’s hair when the curtain swished open again and Adi and a nurse walked towards her.
“Max, I’m going to go fill out the required paperwork.” Gesturing to the nurse, he added, “She’ll help you get your check-up started.”
“Sure.” Nodding, Max smiled at nurse.
“If you’ll follow me, madam?” Leading her to the bed adjacent to the one in which they had the ‘beast,’ the nurse had barely settled her in before a duty doctor walked up.
“Hi.” A warm smile that reached his eyes, average height and curly hair. All in all, the young doctor was a package that made the white coat look pretty good. “Would you like to tell me what’s wrong?”
Responding instinctively to his engaging smile, Max smiled, “I had a bit of a fall and they thought it was best I get checked out. I feel fine though.”
“How did you fall?”
Flushing slightly, Max tried to think of an answer that wouldn’t make her look like a freak. “I sort of lost my balance.”
“While walking?”
“No, actually-“
“Bloody, buggering hell!” The angry growl had the doctor almost dropping the file he had in his hand. “She fell out of a fucking tree.” 6 foot 2 inches of bruised and bloody male shoved the curtain aside and rose from the bed next to them like an avenging God. “And landed on me.”
Max couldn’t quite control the shiver of awareness that ran through her at the sight of him towering over them. His formal white shirt had been unbuttoned for his examination and hung loose revealing a very impressive chest. The smattering of hair that covered it didn’t do much to hide its ripped magnificence. Swallowing to wet her suddenly dry throat, Max’s gaze took in the strong, chiseled planes of his face marred only by the scowldirected at her. The scowl and the deep, angry gash on his forehead. Everything about this man was angry. Even his injury seemed to glower at her accusingly.
“Sir, I think you should lie down.” The doctor’s quiet voice had her blinking out of her stupefied trance and looking down at her feet.
“Fine.” Brusquely shrugging off the doctor’s helping hand and climbing back into his bed, Krish stared stonily up at the ceiling. “Just don’t let her fob you off with stories about tripping and falling. And you might want to check her head.”
“Did she hit her head when she fell?” Turning back to Max to begin his investigation, the doctor missed his muttered, “Hopefully. A good hard whack on the head might knock some sense into her.”
Guilt at his battered appearance fading under the ire that rose with his words, Max tried to concentrate on the questions the doctor was now asking her. When he finally told her what she already knew, she nodded quickly and stood. “So if I’m okay, can I leave now?”
“There is just one thing that’s bothering me.”
Surprised because she felt absolutely fine, Max asked, “What?”
“How do I call and ask you for a date if you leave without giving me your number?”
