Page 19

She laughed softly. “Okay. I’ll talk to you later. Bye, Dad.”

She disconnected the call and slipped the EarPods into the small pocket of her running gear. The view of the ocean was breathtaking. For a moment, Trisha simply stood there, enjoying the breeze coming off the water before realising the boys were nowhere near her. She turned around, and the sight made her eyes narrow immediately.

The four men had stopped nearly a hundred metres behind her. And they certainly weren’t looking at the ocean.

A small group of women, clearly guests at the resort, had spread themselves out on beach mats a little distance away, dressed in bikinis as they relaxed under the warm sun. They were enjoying a leisurely break, chatting among themselves and soaking up the morning sunshine.

The exchange of glances between the two groups was subtle, but not subtle enough to escape Trisha’s notice.

Seriously? Trisha stared at them for several seconds.

Ayaan was taking slow sips from his water bottle, completely unaware of how ridiculously attractive he looked even while doing something as ordinary as drinking water.

Then Raghav reached for the bottle from his hand, took a few sips himself and splashed some of the water over his face, pushing his damp hair back with one hand.

Her eyes narrowed.

Then there was Vishnu.

He had bent down to retie his shoelace, but even that mere action had become an event. One of the women glanced his way a little too blatantly, and a moment later, another did the same.

And Krish?

Of course. Her infuriatingly annoying husband had chosen that exact moment to stand in front of the other three and begin his stretches, casually flexing his muscles as though he had no idea the women were openly checking them out.

Trisha’s jaw tightened. One single morning, and somehow, within minutes, the four men had managed to turn a harmless beach run into a display of their collective hotness.

Having seen enough, she jogged back towards them. By the time she reached the group, Krish was the first to notice her. He immediately stopped stretching when he saw the look on Trisha’s face.

“What’s happening?” Trisha demanded, crossing her arms.

“What is happening?” Krish blinked innocently.

“What were you four doing?”

“We were just enjoying the view, baby,” Krish replied with a grin.

Trisha stared at him, her eyes narrowing further. “I saw exactly which view you were enjoying.”

Ayaan immediately looked away, struggling to hide his smile. Vishnu coughed into his fist, while Raghav simply stood there looking far too calm as if he were the very definition of innocence.

The women had returned to their conversation, but Trisha noticed that their attention still drifted towards the men every now and then. She watched them for a moment before turning back to the four guys.

“You men will be men,” she muttered.

“Come on, Trisha,” Ayaan protested. “We just stopped for a break.”

“Really?” She frowned. “That was a very strategically located break, by the way.”

“That was a coincidence,” Raghav replied, his expression perfectly straight.

“Yeah, right. Of course it was.”

Ayaan spread his hands helplessly. “Alright, what were we supposed to do? Keep running until we collapsed?”

“You could have.”

Krish snorted, but the moment Trisha shot him a warning look, he immediately schooled his expression.