The Fashion of Love | Adult F/M Romance [COMPLETE]

ch. 29 - July

She made a valiant effort to put her recollection of Ravi's rasping command to bed. Don't think about beds. Sora's imagination was a breeding ground of bad—marvelous—ideas in proximity to Ravi Misra. Kissing him in full view of the public was asking for more media coverage she didn't need, yet the compulsion to do so outweighed her fear of the risks. I signed on for this. Love shouldn't be a secret. If only her lust didn't feel so obvious.

Ravi squeezed her knee.

"You look like you could do with a cool down. I got you something."

Ravi reached down to the level below to retrieve a paper cup that he promptly offered to her. It was startlingly blue raspberry Italian ice, which she was only too glad to take off his hands in the heat of the day.

"It's sort of melted now, but it got hot while I was waiting and it made me think of you."

"What did I do to deserve this special treat?" Sora sampled a tangy mouthful using the handy red spoon sticking out of the candied mound and hummed her bliss, feeling calmer at once. There were days when her life was rife with a baker's dozen tiny treasures. Ravi remembering her love of Italian ice was today's number four.

"You called."

"You're moving up in my speed dial."

"There's more where that came from." He moved the icy confection aside to kiss her once again. She noticed belatedly how he tasted of tropical fruit and lemon zest, and poked at him accusingly.

"You had two!"

"Prove it."

Sora initiated another kiss, purely for investigative purposes. She had to get to the bottom of this mystery.

"Mango. Lemons."

She could just about tear her lips from his and it was taking every ounce of willpower she had.

He wrinkled his brow. "That's not proof."

"Maybe not, but it's a good enough excuse to keep kissing you."

"You don't need an excuse. You have an express invitation."

"Damn right."

The band struck up a sensual, twanging ballad as he dipped her backward to resume their earlier activities.

Ravi's phone vibrated against her ribs inside his jacket. He grunted. Work never ends, she thought, petulant.

"I should let you go. You're probably as busy as I am." She was unenthused about the workload sure to await her at home.

Ravi swept his hand down her side, alighting every nerve in his wake.

"There's no rush. Misra is chugging along fine without me."

"Is this about Narsi? You two still haven't made up?"

Ravi swiped a spoonful of melting raspberry ice.

"You can't really make up with a guy you've never gotten along with. Conflict is normal for us." The brothers were forever jockeying for their father's approval and he was determined to remain neutral, a stance which signified nothing when Ravi was the oldest. Ravi was the heir.

Sora readjusted her posture to sit hip to hip with him.

"What happened this time?" she asked.

"Narsi and I had it out in the boardroom because I want to be president. I want to be president, he wants me to go to hell. You can imagine how productive that meeting was." He was the petulant one, the pampered prince discovering what it meant to fight, to kneel.

"What did your dad say?"

"That Narsi had done a good job acting as steward in my absence and he was proud of his accomplishments. Next he mentioned some of the work I did at International that Narsi didn't know about. He said he was proud of his sons and wanted us to get along for the sake of the company legacy. 'Ambition should unite us, not divide us.'"

"Pithy," Sora granted. Manny had a way with words he did not have with fatherhood. "He didn't want to choose between his sons. I don't blame him. Can you?"

"There's a big part of me that feels like Narsi's in my way. I'm the heir apparent, the firstborn—that should be my job."

Sora crossed her arms. That was her nephew, after all. "Narsi's earned some credit."

"Even after the way he talked to you at the gala?"

"That's a separate matter." She shrugged. "He's my nephew, regardless of whether Hana and I are getting along. Moreover, he makes Imogen happy. He supports her work, he loves her. She feels secure now that they're together and expecting a baby, and that's what I care about. As long as I let him do all the talking, I get to meet my grand-niece or –nephew. I don't care what he says, I know the truth. It wasn't destiny that brought us together, Ravi; it's what we chose."

Ravi captured one of her hands to kiss the back of it. "Yes, it was. I'm just not sure how long I can keep this up at HM."

"What's the alternative?" Sora recalled the employee boilerplate contract from a long-ago gambit by her sister to stage a hostile takeover of the company. Hostile corporateering was the family stock and trade. "There's still the non-compete clause to work around if you decide to resign."

"Resignation isn't much of an option, but if I get fired, the possibilities are endless. Involuntary termination voids the non-compete. I spoke to Mykos about it." Mykos was House Misra's in-house counsel and the personal attorney for the family. He wouldn't lead any of them in the wrong direction, nor would he take sides should a court battle ensue.

"You want to get fired intentionally from your family company?"

"It's not that I want to; I'm not sure there's another way out."

"Manny might be willing to buy out your employee contract."

"Once I ask to be released from my non-compete that talk will break down."

"He'd take it personally."

"That's why I gotta get fired," he explained, like a madman she happened to be in love with. "We make it a clean break and go to our separate corners to cool off and we're playing happy family again by the holidays. Call it a risk of doing business." Ravi inspected his hands. "That's if my brother doesn't find out. If Narsi cops to this, he'll keep me under his thumb designing knee socks until I'm seventy. I won't make it."

Sora pulled his hand into her lap. His nimbler fingers intuitively entwined with hers.

"These kinds of decisions can't be unmade. This borders on chicanery and I'm not sure you can come back from it if going it alone doesn't work out."

"Maybe it's time for me to make that kind of choice. Nothing is ever permanent as it stands, everything inevitably snaps back to how it was. Something must change for good and maybe I'm it."