Page 5 of Every Move You Make
She smiled at Sameer and rose onto her toes to kiss his cheek.
“Hello, big brother,” she said. “I missed you too, you know.”
Sameer made a face. “The house feels so empty. With Rishi and Mehak in their own house and Rhea married, we miss having you at home.”
Shauna grinned. “What? Your two little hellions don’t make enough noise for you?”
Sameer’s expression softened. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Just because I have my own twins now doesn’t mean you’re any less special. You were my baby first. You and Rhea—always.”
Her chest warmed. Sameer was nearly ten years older than Rhea and her, while Rishi was a year younger than him. They had treated them both as their babies all along, and they were extremely protective of Rhea and her. She smiled, thinking how impossibly lucky she was to be wrapped in this kind of love, to belong to a family that never let her forget she mattered.
“Okay, while I agree with Kabier and Sameer that you need to slow down,” Keya said lightly, “tonight we arenottalking shop.” She leaned in and pressed a warm kiss to Shauna’s cheek. “We’re all here together in this beautiful resort in the Maldives. Hence, we’re going to relax, take it easy and celebrate. And let me tell you once again how happy I am that you’re here with us.”
Keya dragged her away from Kabier and Sameer and toward the table at the center. Keya was always radiant, warm, and effortlessly kind. Shauna had always liked her. Even before Keya had married Kabier, she’d been best friends with Sheena, Kabier’s sister. Keya, Sheena, and Shauna’s sister-in-law, Raashi, had been close since school, and those three women had been woven into Shauna’s life for as long as she could remember. And now Keya and Raashi were family to her.
Keya was warmth and light and goodness, so unlike…
She shook her head sharply. No. She wasn’t going to think about Keya’s awful brother right now. She wouldn’t lethiminvade her thoughts. Not tonight. Not when she was finally free from work and among family and friends. She wasn’t going to think ofhim,or Singapore, or how he’d left her so deliciously wrecked afterthatnight.
Instead, she let herself be drawn into the circle of family and friends as she hugged and kissed everyone present. Most of her close ones were here. Her parents, Jai and Rita, were here, along with Kabier’s mother, Mina. She met all of them first before heading down the table toward everyone else. Kabier’s sister Sheena and her husband Rajiv had flown in from Dubai to celebrate this happy occasion. She met them all, Rithwik and Aisha, VJ and Diya, Aaryan and Sanjana, Dev and Avantika, Aditya and Sabrina, and Damien and Aaliya. So many of them had traveled from far and wide to be here. Even Rajiv’s sisters had made it from Dubai with their husbands. Ananya and Mihir, Navya, and Armaan, and Reina and Vedant were also here. She greeted them in turn, until Keya dragged her to the end of the table, where her brothers sat with their wives.
Rishi stood and gave her a hug. “How are you?” You were gone too long this time. I’m so glad you’re here. I hope you’re staying in Mumbai for a while now.”
“I have no plans to travel at the moment,” Shauna said.
In fact, she had something on her mind. Something she needed to discuss with her grandfather. She squinted as she looked around the table. Where was he, though?
“You need to slow down. Sehgal Media isn’t everything, you know,” Rishi said.
She groaned. “Not you too.”
“I agree,” Raashi, Sameer’s wife, said. “You need to look after yourself and take a break from work. You’ve made Sehgal Media your priority, which is not right. You need to relax more and spend time with all of us.”
Her forehead furrowed. She absolutely hated it when they all kept discouraging her from moving forward at Sehgal Media, knowing very well that it was all she had ever wanted. On some days she even resented her brothers and Kabier for never supporting her. She never understood why they all disliked herworking at Sehgal Media, when they all ran different verticals in the Sehgal Corp. themselves. What was worse was that even her father and grandfather had never truly supported her decision to build her life around Sehgal Media. They only accepted it reluctantly because she was adamant that it was what she wanted. And this was also one of the main reasons she worked so hard—to show everyone that they were wrong and she truly was working where she belonged.
“Will you all let her breathe?” Mehak, Rishi’s wife, said, rocking a pram back and forth. “Let’s all just enjoy being together tonight.”
Shauna gave her a grateful smile and then reached into the pram to lift her niece Ruhaani, Rishi and Mehak’s six-month-old baby girl. She cooed at the baby. Ruhaani yawned and promptly shut her eyes.
Mehak shook her head. “You’re so good with all the kids. Look how quickly she fell asleep in your arms, and here I’ve been trying for half an hour now.”
“I love all your babies.” She looked around. “Where are the rest of the kids? I can’t believe no one is running around tonight.”
“They’re all busy creating chaos in the resort’s kids’ zone,” Keya said from beside her. “The nannies have their hands full. There are so many children that it’s like a madhouse in there.”
Shauna had witnessed firsthand how her cousins, brothers, sister, and all their friends had married and settled down. Most of them had kids of their own now. Her chest tightened. They had all been fortunate to find the one person who loved them irrevocably. At one time, she’d hoped to find the same kind of love for herself. At one time, she’d thought she’d find it with…
No. She wasn’t going down that road again. She wasn’t thinking abouthimagain. He wasn’t for her. He’d made that abundantly clear all those years ago.
“Come, let’s sit,” Keya said. She cast a wistful glance at the two empty seats next to Shauna.
“Hey,” Raashi said to Keya as Shauna took her seat. “It’s okay. Akash told you he couldn’t make it.”
Shauna’s heart lurched. God, what was wrong with her? Why did even hearing his name send a sharp ripple through her? Why did it feel like a door she’d locked firmly shut was suddenly being jolted open?
Fuck. She exhaled a deeply, forcing her mind to focus on anything buthim. Nine months. It had been nine long months sincethatnight, and six months since she’d last seen him, yet she still hadn’t been able to forget him or what had happened between them. The memory of his hands, his mouth, the way he’d undone her so completely, clung to her like a ghost. Some nights she still jerked awake, breathless and hot, her body aching with a need she didn’t dare name as she relived every charged second of that night. A night that never should have happened. But it had, and now her body refused to let her forget it.
Damn Akash Karia for ruining her so completely. She hadn’t been able to date properly after that night. She’d tried so hard to go out with other men, hoping another man’s touch would erase Akash’s hold on her. She’d tried and failed miserably.
