Page 136 of No Boss
He watched her, a smile stretching across his face.
The car left the paved road.
Dust lifted under the tires as the path opened ahead. The horizon stretched in gold, wide enough to make everything feel suspended.
Meera leaned forward.
Colour rose into view.
A hot air balloon, vast against the sky, tethered and swaying.
Her breath caught. “We’re going up in that?”
He stopped the car and turned toward her. Amusement lit his face, the look of a man who had been waiting for this moment.
“Yes. Unless you’re afraid of heights.”
She turned to him. “I’m not afraid.”
He held her there for a beat, then stepped out.
She followed him with her eyes as he walked around the car. He opened her door, one hand rested on it, the other extended toward her, palm up.
He had made a decision and was now simply waiting to see if she would make hers. To step into something with him. To cross from where they had been to wherever this was going.
She looked at his hand, then at his face.
Her fingers slipped into his. He closed his hand around hers, a tingle ran up her entire body. She stepped out.
He didn’t step back, though. The space between them barely existed.
She tilted her face up.
His gaze moved over her unabashedly. Her face. Her hair touched by the breeze. Every detail taken in as if he had decided there would be no more distance, no more looking away.
His thumb moved once across the back of her hand.
She felt that everywhere.
With a small tilt of his head, he guided her forward.
A uniformed man worked near the basket. He gave Abhinav a nod and returned to his task.
“Why a balloon?”
He glanced at the sky, then back at her. “I wanted tonight to be… worth remembering.”
Up close, it looked massive. Fabric breathing with the wind. The basket grounded, ropes drawn tight, holding it in place.
They walked toward it.
The field stretched on all sides. Open. Empty.
She slowed. “There’s no one here.”
“No.”
She turned to him. “You booked the entire field.”
