Trisha might have been socially inept when it came to warmth, but she loved her patients and she would die for her family. Ashna might have been too shy with her feelings sometimes, but she would take the shirt off her back for anyone in need. They would both, along with Nisha, have bitten off the head of anyone who was being unfair to a woman because of her gender.

Why the hell were they doing this to Naina?

He went straight to her. “You all right?”

She gave him the subtlest warning glance, then looked away as though he were a bug she’d accidentally stepped on, inconsequential. “Why would I not be all right? I mean, I was until you asked me that. Is there something stuck in my teeth?”

Okay, fine, he deserved that. He wasn’t supposed to behave like her boyfriend around people, especially their families. That was their deal. He got that, but he was her friend too. He could damn well behave like a friend around anyone he damn well pleased.

She downed the rest of her glass, and idiot that he was, it made him think about their first time, and that made him think about how much he loved when they were both a little buzzed when they were together. That in turn made him want her so damn badly he didn’t know what to do with it.

“So I’ll take my leave then. It was lovely to see you all.” She threw a quick and very civil nod at his sisters.

Each of them returned it with varying degrees of awkwardness.

Vansh laughed, but it didn’t do a thing to relieve the tension in the room or the pressure filling him up to exploding. What was happening to him? One minute he was turned on as hell, the next moment he wanted to shake his sisters. “I’m sure it was lovely to see them.”

His sisters, all three of them, turned to him like lionesses. He could swear they bared their teeth at him. Naina just ignored the lot of them and picked up her bag.

“We need to finish going over those papers. We also need to look at the new numbers. Stay and we can finish up.”

“Excuse me?” Nisha said, raising both hands as though she had no idea what to do with him. “We have a dinner reservation.”

“I’ll take a rain check. Naina and I have to send some paperwork out tonight and send some numbers to Shobi Kaki by tomorrow. She’s helping with how to process overseas donations. We have to take care of this right now.”

“No we don’t. You go to dinner. I can look at it myself when I get home.”

“No! I want to help.”

The already palpable awkwardness turned intense. “Fine. We can do it tomorrow.” Plastering the sweetest smile across her face, Naina started to leave.