Page 34 of Born in Ruin

Ishaan put the car in gear as the light changed, an angry thrust of his hand, the veins in his arm popping with the force of both motion and emotion.

Mayukhi turned away from him, looking out of the window. “I hate you,” she said for the third time that evening.

“I hate you too,” he said, his voice a low murmur that vibrated with unspoken emotion. “I hate you too.”

NINETEEN

Ishaan

Ishaan’s hands tightened on the steering wheel as the events of that evening flashed through his mind. Irresponsible, immature, unbelievably stupid…but even as the words ran through his head, he remembered Dhrithi’s bright smile and Mayukhi’s laughter from earlier.

He turned to say something, anything to make things better, only to find Mayukhi fast asleep in the passenger seat. Her head lolled at an uncomfortable angle, her mouth was slightly open and her hair fell in a tangled skein around her face, some of it slipping into her mouth.

Ishaan pulled up at the side of the road and leaned over to adjust her head to a better angle. She was going to wake up with a bad catch otherwise. The minute he put the car back into gear and slipped into traffic, she mumbled something under her breath and moved back into the earlier, uncomfortable position. He shook his head, muttering under his own breath. She was as stubborn in her sleep as she was when she was awake.

They were turning into the road leading to her home when a strangled, rattling roar of sound erupted in the quiet car. Ishaan’s head swivelled towards Mayukhi to check if she was okay. It took him a moment to process what was happening.

That rattling, roaring, grunting noise was coming from the animal he was engaged to. She snored like a lion trying to rattle its cage. Laughter bubbled in his chest but Ishaan forced himself not to make a sound. He pulled into the basement of her building and parked in an available visitor’s slot.

And then, as silently as he could, he pulled out his phone and filmed her snoring. You could never have too much ammunition, he thought gleefully. Once he had what he wanted, he reached over and shook her shoulder, calling her name to wake her up.

Mayukhi snorted before making a snuffling noise and turning on her side, her seatbelt cutting into her cheek. Ishaan shook her again, leaning forward to call her name again.

“Kraken, time to wake up.”

“Kill it!” Mayukhi shouted loudly, frightening the daylights out of him. She talked in her sleep as well as snoring? If he’d been planning to actually marry her, he would have had to insist on separate bedrooms. Jeez, what a shitshow! The building watchman walked up to the car and banged on the window. Ishaan gestured to him to give them a minute.

“Kill it now,” Mayukhi mumbled again.

He needed a damn cigarette. Ishaan sighed and unbuckled his seatbelt. He got out and walked over to Mayukhi’s side. Opening the door, he unbuckled her seatbelt and grabbed her before she could tumble out like the boneless eel she was at the moment.

A second later, his arms were full of soft, warm woman, her hair, silky and smelling of a weird combination of citrus and cigarette smoke from the crowded bar hit him full in the face. For the briefest moment, he had the most bizarre urge to bury his face in it and hold her close.

Instead, he shook her gently. “Kraken, time to wake up.”

Gentle wasn’t working. Mayukhi unleashed another lioness style snore right in his face. He shook her harder, bracing one hand against the back of her head so it didn’t roll too much with the motion. Mayukhi’s hand came up in a flash of motion, the palm connecting with his cheek with startling precision for a drunken, slumbering, lioness.

Ishaan swore under his breath as he shook the hair out of his eyes. Giving up on waking her up, he swung her into his arms, kicking the car door shut behind them. He strode for the elevators, Mayukhi’s dead weight in his arms. The security guard ran ahead to punch the button for the elevator and Ishaan made a mental note to tip the man later.

He made it to her floor without banging her head on the walls or throwing out his back. Using his elbow to punch the doorbell for her floor, he waited, taking the moment to catch his breath. This looked a lot easier in the movies. Real life was a true kick in the ass.

The door swung open to reveal her mother whose mouth dropped open at the sight of her daughter, unconscious in his arms.

“She’s drunk, not dead,” he snapped before the other woman could let loose the shriek he could see building in herexpression. Mayukhi, for once obliged him, with a roof rattling snore.

“What have you done to my daughter?” Shantanu Chatterjee’s furious shout had Mayukhi snuffling a little but still not waking. She mumbled something under her breath but didn’t stir otherwise. This woman gave ‘sleep like the dead’ a whole new meaning.

“She’s drunk,” Ishaan repeated, stepping around her still gaping mother and entering their flat. “Where’s her room?”

A helper hurried forward from the kitchen to lead him through the hall when neither parent moved fast enough. Luckily, the room wasn’t too far away. The helper held the door open for him to enter and then disappeared. Ishaan lowered her into her bed, straightening to give his groaning back some relief. And then Mayukhi moaned…a deep, husky sound that had him freezing in place.

His hands braced on either side of her on the bed, he stared down at her sleeping face. She looked so peaceful, not an emotion you usually associated with Mayukhi Chatterjee. She was a thunderstorm in human form, thunder and lightning packed into one lean, toned body.

“Ishaan!” The husky murmur had a thrum of desire swarm through him. He swore under his breath and pushed away from her. Mayukhi’s hand snagged in his tie, halting his movement. He was still untangling himself from her when the bedroom door opened and he heard her father’s outraged voice.

“You couldn’t wait to bring her down to your level, could you?”

Ishaan’s hand closed around Mayukhi’s clenching fingers and he gently untangled them from his tie. He straightenedand stepped away from the bed, his gaze meeting her father’s furiously outraged ones.

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