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CHAPTER ONE
“ITHINKWEshould get married.”
Priya Pillai looked up from her desk to find Christian Mikkelsen, genius tech whiz, general mayhem-maker and absolute playboy, leaning against her desk and considering her with an intensity that she couldn’t ignore. Her heart kicked in her chest at the ridiculous proposal he’d just thrown at her, as casually as he’d asked her yesterday if she’d accompany him to a conference in Switzerland. His blue eyes, usually alight with mischief, glinted with resolve.
Christian, other than being her boss and the CEO of Modi Mikkelsen Tech, was her dead fiancé’s best friend and the man she’d come to count on the most in the last few months. Despite the fact that they’d never been close before Jai had died a year ago.
With his long legs stretched out in front of him, broad shoulders filling her vision, his physicality was becoming harder and harder to ignore, without counting the fact that he possessed a charming playfulness that was distracting at the best of times. He had the usual piece of wood and tiny chisel in his hand. His gaze flipped to her face and to the block of wood, back and forth, as he carved her face.
At first, she’d found it disconcerting to find his intent gaze on her. Jai had once mentioned that it helped Christian focus a lot of his unending energy with his hands occupied like that. Christian was a genius when it came to numbers and code, seeing patterns where no one else could. But it wasn’t until Priya had seen the miniature he’d carved of Jai’s face, the depth of character he captured, that she’d realized how much more there was to Christian.
How much more beyond the good looks, easy charm and razor-sharp mind.
Shaking her head, Priya shifted her focus back to her computer screen. She was so close to figuring out the bit of algorithm that had been blocking her for days. Taking a sip of her coffee, she hit Compile. Only then did she turn her attention back to him. “It’s too early in the morning for your jokes, Christian,” she said, keeping her tone casual. Warning herself to not betray her increasing fascination with...every nuance of his face, his gestures and the barely contained energetic vibe he gave out.
But she couldn’t help noting that while he looked immaculate in a crisp gray suit with a blue tie that she’d bought him two Christmases ago, he hadn’t shaved this morning. Dark blond bristle covered his jaw, and dark smudges brought out the blue of his eyes.
Whose bed have you rolled out of this morning?she wanted to ask.The supermodel Stella or the soccer player Ellen?
Really, if she thought about it—which she did far too much—Christian was at least an equal-opportunity playboy. He didn’t seem to have a particular type—or rather any woman who interested him was his type—and he...
“Why are you looking at me like that?” he prompted, running a hand over his jaw. His brows drew together, forming that line between them that she wanted to trace with her finger, that she sometimes wanted to touch with...
She stifled a groan and looked away.
What the hell was wrong with her? Where were all these useless and inappropriate thoughts coming from? When had she started collating a database of Christian’s likes and dislikes in a woman?
She’d thought she was solving the problem of an overly protective parent, at times stifling the breath out of her. Mama had always been a lioness because of Priya’s poor health. Her heart condition, the numerous trips in and out of the ER as a child and adolescent...had made sure her mother was always in hyperdrive.
But with the period of depression that had followed Jai’s death, she’d caged Priya, treating her like a precious vase rather than a living, breathing person.
Only Christian had recognized her grief. Only he had given her the space to mourn, instead of needing her to be okay for his own peace of mind. And when it had been time, he was the one who had dragged her, screaming and kicking, back to join the living.
She’d come to work for Modi & Mikkelsen Technologies as a solutions architect—something she’d planned to do after graduating when Jai had been alive. She’d moved out of her parents’ house and into Christian’s apartment with minimal fuss from Mama, because, of course, Christian’s reassurances held more weight than Priya’s own. She’d even gone to a couple of parties with Christian and his friends and, for the most part, enjoyed herself.
But this... This was a trap she hadn’t ever imagined she’d fall into.
Not for a second had she foreseen that sharing a space with him would lead to the kind of intimacy she both craved and was terrified of. Or that she’d have front-row seats to Christian’s love life. And no, she wasn’t jealous.
To be jealous of his girlfriends meant she wanted Christian’s attention in the first place—as fickle as it was. Shedidn’t. Seeing him live his life with a revolving door of girlfriends only reminded her of what she’d lost when she’d lost Jai. This was loneliness, nothing else.
“It proves you aren’t dead inside,”her cousin had said when Priya had confided this sudden, inexplicable fascination with Christian.“You’re twenty-two and horny, that’s all. Christian’s a seriously hot guy. Your reaction is nothing but normal.”
“Go away, Christian,” she said, rubbing a hand over her face. “Unlike you, I have a boss to answer to.”
“Oh, didn’t you hear? Grandpa and the board are looking for reasons to kick me out.”
“What? That’s preposterous. You and Jai breathed new life into this company.”
He shrugged. “Apparently, I’m bringing a lot of bad publicity to their door, what with all my many and varied affairs. Really, it’s just that old dog Chatsworth with a stick up his ass. He doesn’t like the fact that I dumped his daughter.”
He looked down to find Priya glaring at him. Eyes warm, he assumed this angelic air that made her grin, despite the state of near constant alertness she needed to adopt whenever she was with him. He’d always been good at making her laugh, despite her determination to keep him at a distance. To dislike him even, in those first two years after Jai had introduced them.
“Oh, come on, Pree, is it my fault if the woman thinks I’d have proposed to her after only a month of dating? While I agree that Samantha’s both beautiful and brainy, did she forget my reputation? And for the record, she was the one who pursued me.”
“Imagine that,” Priya added dryly, but her mind was churning away.
While she’d isolated herself for months after Jai’s accident, Christian, on the other hand, had hit the party circuit hard. Which was saying something since the man was already an inveterate playboy. It was as if without Jai’s solid, unflappable presence to ground him, Christian became wilder and wilder. No wonder Mr. Mikkelsen had threatened to eject him from the company.
