Incense and Sensibility (The Rajes #3) - Sonali Dev Page 0,67
the bandhas, bringing awareness to them, tightening them, opening them up. By the time they were done she felt almost entirely insulated from everything outside herself. All she could do was hope that he did too.
He looked deeply relaxed, much less wound up than he’d seemed in all the time they’d spent together this week.
For another few minutes she sat there letting him soak in what he was feeling. How he was feeling had obviously taken him completely by surprise. Then she made her way to the kitchen, ignoring the way his eyes followed her, as though in walking away she was taking whatever he was feeling with her.
He joined her, eyes studying the room again. She wondered if he would leave now. She wondered if she wanted him to.
“You’ve done a great job keeping the place updated. It’s beautiful,” he said.
“Thanks. Last year we basically gutted it and rebuilt. Without the renovation, we risked it collapsing under us. The structural integrity was damaged. It was a huge . . . well . . .” Suddenly she was weary of not being able to hold her thoughts with him. “It was a huge undertaking.”
“I’ll bet.” He was one of those people who picked up on things far too fast. It had probably taken him seconds to calculate how much the remodel had cost and he was now trying to figure out if a yoga studio had enough business to be able to pay for it and still be financially viable.
“The alternative was to be shut down by the health department.”
“Come on, India, it was never that bad.” Mom came down the stairs a bit too fast, and India suppressed the urge to ask her to slow down.
“Mom! Did you need something? Why didn’t you call me if you needed something?” She tried to keep her voice casual, but Yash’s focus on her intensified. He seemed to register every single bit of the worry she was hiding.
Tara looked at India in that way she had of looking at her children when she was trying to figure out what was going on with them. “I’m fine,” she said before turning to Yash. “I’m Tara.” She folded her hands in a namaste and Yash returned it. Easily. No mocking in sight.
“Yash Raje.”
“No way!” Tara smiled one of her thrilled-with-herself smiles, which, heaven help her, seemed to thrill Yash. “I know who you are. I’m so sorry about the shooting.”
Instead of looking like someone had gouged out his skin the way he had every time someone mentioned the shooting, Yash nodded. “Thank you.”
“India tells me there’s still hope for your bodyguard.”
He slid a quick look at India, and she wished there was a way to telepathically stop her mom from talking to him about that.
Impotent pain was back in his eyes. “I am very hopeful,” he said, with so much conviction that India’s hands itched with the urge to touch him. “The doctors were able to perform surgery in good time and he’s young and healthy.”
“You should take India to see him. Her Reiki is very strong.”
India tried that telepathy thing again, but it washed right over Mom.
“I read that they removed the bullet from you. Good thing. You know doctors often leave bullets inside if they didn’t puncture organs?” The floaty expression that said Mom was about to launch into one of her macabre stories animated her features.
“Yes, it’s usually less risky than surgery,” Yash said, just as India was about to stop Tara.
Tara rubbed her hands together. “Our bodies being as magical as they are, the tissue wraps up the bullet and protects the body from it. I once had a student who fainted during a session. Turns out he’d been shot ten years ago and the bullet they’d left in his elbow had mushroomed into a lead-leaking bomb.” She poked a finger into Yash’s elbow and made an explosion with her hand. “Boom! It was flooding lead into his blood like a pump.”
Yash’s eyes shone. “Wow!” The smile he threw India lit a spark inside her. “What happened?”
Tara grinned, relishing the gore as much as her captivated audience. “They dug the bullet out of him. It was five times its original size. Then they pumped him full of drugs to absorb the lead. No permanent damage. Simen ended up going to nursing school.”
Yash looked like he was going to choke, but he held his laughter in and the spark inside India’s chest threatened to burst into flames.