Raashi had decided to come and visit Janak first thing in the morning. He was the only one who could give her an insight into Sameer’s plans and maybe even help her to get Sameer to back off.
Janak leaned against his desk as Raashi lowered herself into the chair in front of him.
“I think you’re working way too hard these days. You need to go out more, have fun!”
Raashi raised a brow. “God! Not you too. Jiya says I’m a workaholic and a bore. She has been repeating the same thing every single day ever since she has returned.”
“Oh! Jiya’s in town. I didn’t know that,” Janak said.
“She just got in last week. Didn’t she call you?”
“That girl is too restless for her own good. She spoke to me for fifteen minutes, talking nineteen to the dozen and never once mentioned that she was in town.” Janak shook his head. “Anyway, you tell me what’s bothering you?”
Raashi sighed deeply and leaned forward.
“You somehow always know when something is bothering me, don’t you?”
Janak smiled at her affectionately waiting for her to speak.
“I want to know what Sameer wants with my land and what it will take for him to leave me alone?”
Just as Janak opened his mouth to reply, there was a knock on his door and before Raashi could as much as blink, Sameer walked in.
He momentarily froze as he laid eyes on her. Seeing her here was an unexpected surprise. A very pleasant surprise indeed, especially considering the way he couldn’t stop grinning.
He looked her over. He liked that she wore her clothes with such a confident grace. She was dressed formally today in a short pin striped black skirt and a dark red shirt with black pointed heels. From where she was seated, legs crossed primly, facing his grandfather, he could make out her long shapely legs. He had a momentary flash of those legs wrapped around him as he had moved inside her. He inhaled, clearing his head of the vision and walked towards them.
“Good morning,” Sameer said. His eyes moved from Raashi to his grandfather and then back to Raashi.
Raashi couldn’t bring herself to look away from him. He was one of the few men she knew, who filled a suit just perfectly and today his charcoal grey suit looked like it had been stitched to his body. She had always been a sucker for men in suits. Correction, she was a sucker for Sameer in a suit. No, she was an idiot − that’s what she was to even think that. She cursed herself.
His dark eyes met hers and held them.
Try as much as he could, Sameer couldn’t bring himself to look away from her. He remembered how she felt in his arms, warm and soft, her mouth crushed under his, her hand weaving through his hair. And looking at her staring right back at him, he knew that no matter how hard she denied it, he made her emotions stir. From the far corners of his mind he heard someone call out to him. Raashi looked away instantly. Sameer turned to look at his grandfather, who was standing beside him now.
“Hi, Sameer!”
“Hello, Grandfather!”
“So both of you decided to give an old man some attention today,” Janak put his hands in his trouser pockets.
“Grandfather, you have my attention always.”
“So, does that mean you are not upset with me anymore for gifting the land that you covet so much to Raashi?” Janak queried, knowing that Sameer had been upset with him.
Sameer turned to look at Raashi. She was watching him carefully, waiting to hear his response.
“There is nothing to be upset about. You did what you had to,” Sameer assured his grandfather.
“If that’s the case then why did you leave so early from my birthday party?” Janak asked gently.
Sameer’s eyes widened. He never thought that leaving early with Natasha that night would cause his grandfather to think that he was upset with him. That was not his intention. He never wanted to hurt him in any way.
“I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I’m not angry with you at all. I just left that night because Natasha had to be somewhere else and she insisted that I join her. Forgive me for making you think otherwise.”
Janak smiled.
Raashi had wondered why he had left the party so suddenly. It was not like him to skip such a major event in his grandfather’s life. She knew how fond he was of Janak. But then perhaps Natasha was important to him as well. God! Natasha! She had to remember that Sameer was with her. She hated herself for kissing him, for forgetting that he was dating someone else.
