Restless Billionaire (22 page)

 
          
Sebastian
couldn’t be making it any clearer that he was already over their relationship
and now it was all about the baby, meeting her family and leaving her in India.
Every time she felt like crying Aneesa cursed herself—she’d known exactly what
to expect all along, from the moment she’d made the masochistic decision to
stay in England.

 
          
They
were in the first-class cabin of a commercial flight and even though Sebastian
was beside her, he might as well have been a million miles away. He’d been
brusque to the point of rudeness with her for the past couple of days, had made
no attempt to come to her bed and was utterly engrossed in his laptop—as if it
held all the secrets to life itself.

 
          
Aneesa
wondered slightly hysterically if she just opened the emergency door and
parachuted out would he even notice. Instead she reclined her seat and pulled a
blanket over herself and tried to sleep.

 
          
When
Aneesa curled up in a ball in her seat facing away from him, Sebastian finally
looked over and sighed deeply. Her long black hair was spread out, making him
want to run his fingers through its silkiness. The curve of her bottom under
the blanket was an enticement to rest his hand there, caressing the tempting
line. And her scent was a constant reminder of her innate sensuality which
called to him like a homing beacon.

 
          
His
hands curled into fists as he tried to curb his impulses around her. He put
back his head and closed his eyes and wondered if he’d ever feel normal again.
He smiled grimly—normal for him anyway. He valiantly blocked out the images
that ran through his mind like movie stills of the life he’d always led. He
also tried not to remember the way his perfectly unflappable and
cool-as-a-cucumber housekeeper, Daniel, had been all but inconsolable saying
goodbye to Aneesa, making her own huge brown eyes fill with tears too.
Sebastian had felt like an absolute heel, when she was the one that wanted to
go home!

 
          
He
just had to endure a couple of days and then he would make his excuses and go
home.

 
          
To
Aneesa’s relief, the press in Mumbai hadn’t got wind of her return so their
arrival went under the radar. She felt so brittle now that she couldn’t have
handled the media intrusion along with the prospect of Sebastian leaving in a
few days. He hadn’t said how long he’d stay but she could well imagine he was
already itching to get back.

 
          
Mumbai
greeted them in all its hot and steamy, chaotic glory. Horns
beeping,
traffic narrowly avoiding sacred cows and mopeds whizzing by carrying entire
families with serene looks on their faces. A beautiful baby with black kohled
eyes smiled up at its mother in an auto-rickshaw.

 
          
‘You
really love it here, don’t you?’ Sebastian asked from the other side of the
car. Aneesa nodded. She couldn’t look at him, she felt too emotional. So she
just said, ‘
It’s
home.’ But she knew that as much as
she loved Mumbai, the minute Sebastian left, it would be flat and empty. Her
home was where he was now, and she would never be the same again. In that
moment she hated him for doing that to her.

 
          
He
asked then a little gruffly, ‘You should tell me a bit about your family …’

 
          
Sudden
fire within her made her face him and for the first time she let her
guard slip
. ‘What’s the point? I’m sure you’ve just carved
out the minimum time required to meet them to be polite and have made sure you’ve
got plenty of time for business meetings.’

 
          
Aneesa
flushed. Immediately feeling contrite and terrified that he would guess where
her turmoil stemmed from Aneesa said, ‘Forget I said that. You didn’t deserve
that….’

 
          
She
looked away for a moment and then back, and tried a smile even though it felt
forced. Haltingly she started to tell him of her beloved indomitable
grandmother who was now apparently clinging onto dear life to see her first
grandchild born and had not a word of judgement about

 
          
Aneesa’s less than acceptable status as a single mother.

 
          
She
told him about her beautiful younger sister who was determined to become a star
just like Aneesa albeit without the scandal as she’d declared sunnily to Aneesa
on the phone. And about her overweight younger brother who was determined to be
a chef, much to their father’s chagrin; he just wanted him to love cricket and
be a famous cricketer.

 
          
By
the time her voice faded away she was smiling fondly in earnest, unaware of the
tightening in Sebastian’s face.

 
          
‘You
love them very much.’

 
          
She
looked at him and tried not to let the intensity of his blue eyes distract her.
‘Yes. I do … But for a long time I took them for granted. I’m lucky that they
have loved me so unconditionally.’

 
          
Just
then she looked past Sebastian out the window and said excitedly, ‘We’re here!’

 
          
Sebastian
felt an uncustomary sense of claustrophobia and trepidation crawl over his
skin. As the car pulled into a neat driveway he saw a big house emerge, and
lined up outside was a veritable welcoming party.

 
          
Aneesa
jumped out and suddenly a smaller, younger version of herself with a streak of
black hair launched herself at Aneesa with a squeal—her younger sister. Her
younger brother who was indeed overweight was more nonchalant but one could see
that he, too, loved his sister, hugging her with typical teenage awkwardness.

 
          
And
then her parents … The emotion on their faces nearly made Sebastian want to
climb back into the car and drive far, far away. He’d never seen so much naked
love
and affection beaming from anyone.
And this was their disgraced daughter?

 
          
Aneesa
was aware of Sebastian hanging back and she was also aware that he was looking
a little green around the gills. She could imagine all too well that this was
not a scenario he was used to.

 
          
She
turned back to him after hugging her parents and took him by the hand.
Squeezing it gently, she silently said to
him,
Just go with it
, much as he’d done with
her when they’d seen his mother. She brought him up to her parents. ‘Papa,
Mother, I’d like you to meet Sebastian Wolfe.’

 
          
THREE
days later, sitting at the dinner table, Sebastian couldn’t quite believe that
he was still there, amidst the organised chaos of Adani family life. As soon as
he’d been pulled into the house, it had been taken for granted that he had to
stay. And not only that, but Aneesa’s parents had clearly gone out on a limb
and challenged their conservative beliefs to put him and Aneesa in a room
together.

 
          
She’d
looked at him miserably once they’d been alone in the bedroom. ‘I had no idea
they would do this. I’m as shocked as you, believe me. But if I cause a fuss
they’ll get embarrassed—’

 
          
He’d
waved a hand. ‘It’s fine. It’s not like we’ve not shared a room before.’

 
          
‘No,’
Aneesa had said, avoiding his eye. Evidently she hated this as much as he did
and just wanted him to return to England so that she could get on with her own
life and having the baby.

 
          
Something
in her demeanour had made his voice sharp. ‘Look, I’ll stay a couple of days
and then I’ll have to return anyway, so we can put up with it till then, can’t
we?’

 
          
She’d
shrugged insouciantly, making something even more caustic rise from his belly. ‘Sure.
I can if you can. I won’t have a problem with
this
.’ She made a flippant gesture to the king-size bed.

 
          
It
was in that moment that Sebastian realised how deep
was the
chasm that had formed between them
. It had started the moment she’d
announced she wanted to come home. And even though every beat of his pulse
cried out to touch her and he ached all over with wanting her, he couldn’t
touch her.

 
          
Now
as he looked around the dinner table and took in the affectionate bickering
between Akash, Aneesa’s brother, and Amrita, her sister, he found that much to
his surprise, he felt … comfortable. There was something incredibly soothing
about the inconsequential chatter, the fact that they could bicker and tease
until Amrita would lean over and pinch Akash’s cheek affectionately. His whole
life he’d felt on the fringes of things, on the fringes of his own family, and
yet here, even though these people were little more than strangers, he felt
included in their warmth in a way that stunned him slightly.

 
          
Aneesa
came out of the kitchen at that moment holding a steaming bowl of vegetables.
When she put it down she affectionately ruffled her brother’s and sister’s
heads. They all touched one another all the time … and earlier he’d seen Mr
Adani pinch Mrs Adani on her bottom when he’d thought no one was looking.

 
          
Sebastian
could remember rough-housing with his brothers growing up and his fragile
mother’s sporadic bursts of being affectionate, but it had never been
consistent enough to depend on. He’d certainly never witnessed any kind of
affection between his own parents. Their family housekeeper had been motherly
but he’d never really felt comfortable when she tried to hug him and he’d get
embarrassed when she got emotional after taking him and his brother on their
monthly visits to see their mother.

 
          
He
realised now that he’d always been intensely uncomfortable with any kind of
physical intimacy that went beyond the bedroom, and yet with Aneesa, from day
one, it had been second nature to touch her, or hold her hand. And he hadn’t
even noticed.

 
          
Watching
everything with shrewd black eyes sunk in a wizened face was Aneesa’s
grandmother, who they all called Beeba. She hadn’t said much to Sebastian but
she looked at him all the time and he had the uncomfortably prickling sensation
that she saw something that he didn’t.

 
          
As
Aneesa came around the table Amrita said, ‘Your belly is nearly a proper bump,
Neesa. Is the baby kicking yet?’

 
          
Mrs
Adani chided Amrita and Sebastian felt something fiercely possessive rush
through him, almost as if Aneesa’s bump was
his
.
And yet, it was … but it wasn’t, and he felt a wrenching sensation to realise
that. And then
he
wanted to know if
the baby had started kicking.

 
          
Aneesa
deflected the attention and sat down beside Sebastian, and her delicate scent
wound around him, making his body tighten. He seriously questioned whether he
should ask to be put in a separate bedroom that night as the past few nights had
been torture. He’d lain awake while Aneesa lay curled up as far away as she
could get, and had had to grit his teeth to try and curb his insatiable
desires.

 
          
Gritting
his teeth again, he smiled in answer to something Amrita had said with a
flutter of her long black lashes and tried to block out the welling sensation
of something elusively precious slipping out of his grasp.

 
          
Aneesa
lay in the bed that night and tried to ignore the fact that Sebastian lay just
inches away from her. After his initial reaction to her family which had been a
bit like a deer stuck in the headlights, he’d somehow relaxed into their unique
way of being and interacting. She’d seen him observing everything going on
around him, as if fascinated, but not bored, or daunted.

 
          
Amrita
already had a crush on him. He’d been her audience along with Aneesa when she’d
tried out a Bollywood routine she was perfecting for an audition. Her parents
were in awe of him, and Beeba, well, she just watched him the same way she
watched everyone. And even though Aneesa wasn’t in a traditional relationship
with him, he’d already been tacitly accepted by her family on a level that
Jamal never had been and she could see now how abrasive her ex-fiancé had been
within her family.