You Can't Fight a Royal Attraction by Ruchi Vasudeva Read Free Book Online

back.
    He indicated a door. ‘Kitchen and dining that way.’ Then led her in the opposite direction. Down a corridor to, ‘My study.’ He added, ‘Read “no trespass” zone.’
    Really, he seemed to be taking the privacy thing to heart.
    She followed him inside, curious despite herself. Blue and cream curtains and a handmade rug in a similar print lent an elegant look to the room. Two blue leather cube seats were placed next to a large dark wood antique desk that dominated the space. ‘It’s adorable.’ She ran her fingers over the surface. Smooth. Warm. A modern minimalistic lamp somehow fitted in with it. The military precision with which his laptop, papers, notepad and yellow sticky notes were kept made her raise her eyebrows.
    Her glance alighted on his chair and she gave a squeal, startling him. ‘Oh, this is gorgeous!’ Curled feet, carved arm rests, and yet the back and seat were done in soft black leather. It was a delightful mix of antique and modern.
    The contrast between the inside and outside made her do a double take. This was his space, she could tell. The space of a man who catered to himself and didn’t bother about appearances. No wonder he didn’t want media attention. From what it looked like, he didn’t need anyone’s affirmation of what he was.
    She ran a hand down the back of the chair and almost closed her eyes in sheer pleasure at the touch, then gave in to temptation and sat down in it. ‘Wow! This
is
comfortable.’
    ‘Extra seven inches of back height,’ he told her.
    Well, she was sunk in it. Cocooned practically.
    A blue and red paper flag on a
canna
stick caught her attention and she got up and went to the window. ‘What’s this?’ She picked it up, the thin paper rustling as she did.
    ‘Oh, that! The kids gave it to me for signalling.’ He opened the windows, filling the space with light as sunshine spilled in. She saw a stretch of ground beyond. ‘They play cricket here.’ He added, ‘When I’m thinking, I put this up and they know they’re not supposed to play then because they do make a lot of noise, which disturbs me. But when I’m typing then an earthquake wouldn’t matter. So I put the flag down and they carry on.’
    ‘That’s pretty ingenious!’
    He smiled. ‘Kids are usually. And it works.’
    ‘So this patch is yours.’ She peeped out. ‘Quite a stretch.’ And so lonely, she thought. All around the sea, the trees and the handful of people she guessed belonged to the fishing village they had passed. Even the resort they had passed was quite a drive away.
    ‘Do you entertain here?’ she wondered, glancing at him speculatively. The press had recently been filled with his name linked to one or other of the Bollywood bimbos. Yet what girlfriend would agree to be holed up here without nightclubs or bars?
    ‘If you mean women…’ he followed her easily—were her thoughts that transparent? ‘…prefer to go to her place. Easier all round.’
    ‘Why easier?’ she asked. She might as well since they had come this far. ‘Easy to get rid of?’ she hazarded a guess.
    ‘You’re learning not to ask unnecessary questions. I like that.’
    ‘Do you like being alone so much then?’
    ‘Women love the limelight.’ He said, ‘My last date, for instance, a budding actress, walked out on me just because I refused to entertain a woodpecker impersonating as a reporter.’
    She smiled involuntarily at the expression. ‘You’re that bugged about privacy?’
    ‘Yes. I have a closet of skeletons I’m allergic to displaying.’
    Her curiosity was aroused, but she could see the teasing light in his eyes and knew he had led her on deliberately, so see-sawed between giving in to the obvious questions or keeping her peace. ‘You have to be the strangest man I’ve met,’ she complained instead.
    His mouth quirked. The glint in those sherry eyes was different when he was really tickled. A wicked glint, she saw too late. ‘Possibly, but surely not more