Page 22 of Love Locked
At this point, she only wanted to ignore his haughty ass. For the rest of the flight, avoiding his piercing gaze was challenging. Still, she did it. After the pilot announced the landing, she began gathering her bags, and as the jet touched down, she quietly departed from the stairway. After disembarking the jet, they went to the black Land Rover waiting near the runway to take them to their next destination. The two men standing next to the vehicle placed their belongings in the trunk and waited for them to get in. Thinking that one of the males would take the wheel, she opened the back door to get in when she heard Kabir’s irritated voice.
“Sit in the front.”
“What?” She frowned.
“I said, sit in the front. I’m driving.” With those words, Kabir proceeded to open the door for her. She wordlessly did as she was told, as she didn’t want to get on his wrong side more than she already was.
After slamming the door, he turned to sit in the driver’s seat. The chilly wind blowing around them rendered Kyra’s lightweight jacket useless. The weather was highly unusual and unexpected for the first week of December. All she could do was hope that the car heater would be adequate for the bitter cold.
Kabir paired his phone’s Bluetooth with the car’s audio system and switched the car on as they began their drive to Roopganj. When Kyra heard people discussing stock market strategies in full detail, she was convinced she was living in her own personal hell. She glanced briefly at Mr. Grumpy Jerk to check if he was joking.
He wasn’t.
Her inner-eighteen-year-old self would have hunched over and cried silently, rocking back and forth. Something was going to get broken before the end of this journey, and she had no way of knowing what it would be. Her stupid crush on him, maybe.
????
After nearly an hour and a restroom break, Kyra yawned as the car travelled along a gorgeous uphill route surrounded by breathtakingly beautiful landscapes. On one side, the valley’s grasslands provided a stunning backdrop against the mountain ranges. Roopganj, the scenic touristic destination, was roughly four hours away, and she was thrilled to be in such a gorgeous place.
When they were close to a fuel station after some more minutes of driving, Kyra leaned over and turned off the boring talk. An eerie silence filled the entire car. She leaned back and laid her head on the headrest since the stock market talk had become too much for her to handle.
“Kyra… I was listening to that podcast.” His brow furrowed deeply like she’d just stepped on one of his favourite toys.
“We’ll have to compromise because I can’t listen to this for the next two hours.”
“Believe me when I say this is compromising.” He switched it back on.
“No. This is pure torture.” She growled and again turned it off, switching it to the radio.
The beats of a peppy Bollywood dance number filled the car, and he clenched his jaw. Keeping his eyes on the road, he wondered whether she was going to punch him in the face, given how agitated she had become. He had received such reactions from women before when he acted like a dick.
Mira and Kyra were sisters and were quite alike. He found Kyra to be sensible like Mira. She rarely threw temper tantrums, so he was surprised to see her like this. Currently, he was seeing a totally different side of her. She wasn’t exactly lacking in resolve, he thought. People change. She might have changed in the last few years.
She had always been a sweet little girl. Things had changed for him since they had met at the Alibaug retreat the previous year. He kept a safe space between them because of it and was still maintaining that distance. Given the ten-year age gap between him and Kyra, it was evident that they were at odds, and moreover, he didn’t want to jeopardize his bond with Mira.
Kyra kept looking outside the window at the passing signboards. She perked up instantly when she saw the one she was waiting for.
“I want to stop, Kabir. The next gas station will be on the left after 1 km. Pull over there.” Kyra commanded, breaking his mental resolve to ignore her.
“We don’t need to stretch this trip by stopping for another break, princess. We’ll soon reach the destination,” Kabir replied calmly as if he had anticipated her response.
Her anger was triggered by his shitty attitude. The man behaved like a robot, refusing to acknowledge the necessity of peeing, eating and drinking. She was ready to snap when she bit back the response and instead reminded herself to be a better person.
“Kabir, I need to pee. Pull over.” Kyra said sharply, her cheeks flushing a slight red.
She had a stern glint in her eyes as Kabir squinted at her. She looked authoritative as fuck. He would have actually rocked back on his heels if he’d been standing at what that one command did to him. She looked like the perfect combination of a princess and a teacher, fulfilling all the parameters he could think of for an attractive woman. Maybe he had never found that combination intriguing before, but hell, he did now.
He gave her a skeptical glance as he cleared the useless thoughts and swallowed forcefully. He had seen today’s weather forecast, and it wasn’t good. The entire weather app was red, depicting rough weather and a heavy snowstorm. He wanted to get to Roopganj before the weather started acting like a demon out of control.
Kabir sighed deeply. She thought he was clueless about her little trick. He was not born yesterday. The bathroom break might just be a reason to make him stop. He might be stubborn. He might ignore her. But he wasn’t a monster and would prove he wasn’t as predictable as she thought. With that, he turned to the next gas station without her having to remind him.
Kyra praised her lucky stars when Kabir stopped at a fuel station with open parking, 2 shops, and a small food stall. She stepped out of the car smoothly and inhaled the crisp air. She thought she would’ve erupted inside the car, in his company. She went to the restroom even though she didn’t actually need it, as that was the reason she had asked him to stop.
While washing her hands, she took a quick glimpse in the mirror over the sink and was pleased with how attractive she looked. She had long, dark hair in a ponytail, but it was a little windblown. Her skin looked surprisingly fresh, and the silky tendrils escaping her ponytail provided a lovely framing for her face.
She had thought she looked pretty this morning. She wasn’t sure how she turned sexier over a few hours. But she was feeling more attractive than usual as she left the restroom and was not going to overthink it.
It had started to get super chilly outdoors. She shivered violently when the cold wind blew past her. Her last sane thought when she saw Kabir was that she should have brought a heavy winter jacket with her as well.
