by KASI, MV
There was another loaded pause. "I don't have a problem. And we do encourage interested visitors to test our products. But I'm warning you, you might get bored if you stay long."
"Don't worry. I'll entertain myself."
"I'm sure you will." He could hear the amusement in her voice.
"Goodnight and sweet dreams, Srishti."
"Goodnight Rana."
He loved hearing his real name from her mouth.
It hit him again that he was getting another chance with the woman of his dreams.
Holy shit, this is truly happening.
With that thought, he folded his hands behind his head to settle down on his pillow with the biggest and brightest smile he had since the last holiday he took.
CHAPTER 22
Srishti's day was really packed. As soon as she reached work, she started her meetings. And then, before she could blink, it was close to twelve o'clock, and she began heading back from a conference room to her office room.
She was excited, wondering if Rana had already come. She had told her administrative assistant to let him in, and to take him to the gaming area where most of the demos were held.
Keeping the door open, she placed her laptop on her desk and was about to head out to the demo area to look for Rana, but her phone began to ring.
It wasn't Rana.
It was Savera Technologies chairman's son, who was being a pain in the ass lately. She had already convinced his father who owned and ran the company to sign the deal that would benefit both their companies, but his son felt he wasn't included enough during the discussions, and wanted to renegotiate the numbers. After the contract had been signed.
She had always been polite with him so far, but he was grating on her nerves with his condescending and rude behavior.
"Mr. Saini, we have been through this already. I spoke to your father yesterday about the same—"
"I don't care what my father spoke. Look sweety, I know you put your father's and uncle's names in front of you to appear credible in the corporate world, and kissed my father's ass enough for him to believe you, and agree to whatever you said. But this deal has been signed without my involvement. I refuse to—"
"Mr. Saini," she interrupted him, her tone lethal and sharp. "I think we should get a few things straight. I'm not your sweety. I have a name. You can call me Srishti or Miss. Shah. And I'm the CEO of the company that your father has trusted enough to bring him out of his financial difficulties. He didn't do it because of my uncle or father. Or because I'm a kiss-ass. He did because my work and my company's accomplishments."
"But I was not present during the—"
"I don't care. This is a business deal. Treat it like one. Your father is the chairman of the company and he was present along with several other executives and a legal team, before he signed the contract. For some reason, you were excluded from the negotiations. Deal with it. And if you cause any trouble and try to break a binding contract, believe me, I won't hesitate to step on you to crush you."
He emitted an angry squawk and before he could respond with something derogatory, she ended the call.
"Asshole," she muttered, and checked if there were any messages left on her phone.
"Exciting day?" asked a man's voice from the doorway, making her head snap up in surprise.
Srishti stared at Rana.
He was standing in the doorway, dressed casually, smiling at her. He came closer, and then placed a bag that smelled so good that it made her stomach rumble.
"Lunch delivery," he said.
"Thanks," she smiled at him welcomingly.
"Does your office have a lot of security cameras?" he asked her, his look turning heated and hungry.
"A few. Why?"
"You can't be wearing something as provocative as that and expect me not to even kiss you."
"What?" she asked, looking at her usual business casual suit. Gaurav used to complain that her dressing was too masculine. But she had always felt more confident and comfortable wearing the suits while she worked. Which was most of the time.
"You are wearing glasses. And that too the nerdy, dark rimmed kind. It's every man's—heck—every boy's fantasy too—to see a hot girl in those kind of glasses wearing such suits."
She giggled. She couldn't help it.
"Well, the kissing will have to wait until we go to someplace private," she told him in a mock stern look.
"Spoilsport."
She smiled. "So, what's for lunch Mr. Bugati."
"Next time you call me with that name, wear a suit and these glasses. And bring a wooden ruler or a whip," he instructed, waggling his eyebrows.
She laughed and they sat down to have lunch while he chatted about his work.
***
Rana watched Srishti's face as she took him on a quick office tour after lunch.
He could feel and hear the passion she had for her company while she gave him a brief overview of different departments they passed.
Inside this building, she was the CEO Srishti Shah. A woman who was quite proud of her company and employees. She was so smart and fervent that he hadn't realized that more than an hour had passed while she explained the various products in the product development lab. And also the various games that her company developed.
She also introduced him to all her employees.
He noticed how she was quite easygoing and relaxed around them, maybe because she spent majority of her time with them. Most of her employees looked very young. She told him that they had been hired out of colleges.
"Our company is still small and growing each year. And so is our team. Most of these programmers are young and brilliant. And most importantly, they are hungry to grow and learn. I value that more than someone who is in it just for the paycheck, no matter how impressive their resume."
She stopped and introduced him.
"Rana, this is Tanisha. She's the head of the marketing team."
Tanisha shook his hand, smiling widely. "Please tell me you decided to get celebrities to visit our office as a new marketing campaign."
Rana grinned. "Oh, I'll be definitely visiting often."
"Wow, I so love my job," Tanisha sighed.
Srishti laughed. "Rana is here to look at the new games we are working on, Tanisha."
Rana smiled. "I already have most of the games. But I definitely need the new ones to hopefully beat your CEO in the game someday."
Srishti grinned. "I've been playing and developing versions of these games since I was twelve. I guess it will be hard for you beat me unless you know every sneaky treat we put inside the games."
"Twelve! No wonder you could beat me so easily."
Srishti smiled. "I'll have to step away for a meeting. I have an hour to spare at four. Will you still be around until then?" she asked.
"Yes. I'll be here still. We'll go out for a brief coffee break."
Her smile got wider. "Deal."
CHAPTER 23
A month later, Rana sent Srishti a text before flying back to Hyderabad.
Rana: I miss you.
Surprisingly a few minutes later, she replied back.
Srishti: I miss you too.
Rana: How about we rectify that tonight? I slip into your house with your favorite package.
Srishti: Are you talking about your infamous package?
Rana: Infamous? Try big. Or huge. Or magnificent.
He knew he was being cocky, pun intended. But he hadn't seen her for a week. Even before that when he was in the city, with their hectic schedules, he couldn't meet her as often as he wanted. It was a miracle they managed to be together for more than a handful to times since they became a couple.
Over the past month, both of them had been pretty busy. He had some brutal outdoor shoots, recordings and publicity tours to attend. While she had been busy with her product releases and a few acquisition deals she was working on.
He was desperate to see her. And so when he saw her next message, he grinned widely.
> Srishti: If you are free, come over to my place for the night. I have work, but I can manage it from home. I promise I'll take a few breaks. ;-)
He jumped at the offer.
Rana: I'll be landing in three hours. I'll head to your place directly from the airport.
***
The moment Srishti answered her door, Rana pushed her inside and shut the door behind him. The next instant his tongue was inside her mouth.
She forced herself to wrench away her mouth from his even as shivers passed through her body.
"I'm on a call with my mother," she said.
"Oh. Say hello to Mrs. Shah."
She paused. "I don't want to let her know you are spending the night with me," she said softly.
At that his shoulders tensed.
Crap. She didn't want to hurt his feelings. But she didn't want her mother to ask her too many questions or raise her hopes up about her and Rana.
She was still confused on how she felt about him. She didn't even know what she and Rana were to each other. But all she knew was that she missed him like crazy when he wasn't around. And that each time she heard the chime of her phone indicating a text alert, her heart jumped in anticipation.
And when he finally was with her, one look at his face, watching her with hunger in his eyes, she forgot why she shouldn't be with him.
Un-muting the call, she told her mother she had to go and ended the call.
As soon as she did, he picked her up and placed her on his broad shoulder to carry her upstairs to her bedroom.
It took them under a minute to get naked. Under a minute to prepare their bodies to join intimately. And then, a few minutes later, seeing his face straining to hold back his release, prompted her to explode with her own release. She gasped and clung to his broad shoulders to hold him tight as he began shuddering on top of her.
Afterwards, he rolled over and pulled her closer to him. Gently, his fingers began to thread through her hair as she wrapped an arm and leg over his body to hold him close.
Breaking the silence, she asked him what she had been dying to ask from a long time. "What did you think of me when you saw me for the first time in Sri Lanka?"
"That you were one hot piece of ass and I was willing to risk blowing my cover by hitting on you."
She laughed softly. "And now?"
"I still think you are one hot piece of ass—ouch!"
She had bitten his shoulder. "Okay, okay. Before I tell you more, tell me, what did you think of me?"
"Seeing your ripped shorts and t-shirt along with your unshaven face, I thought you were a bum. A very hot bum."
His chest vibrated as he chuckled.
"And later?" he asked.
"And later...I thought you are more than...nice. And I liked you. That one week we spent together, it was one of the best times I ever spent with any man."
"Same here. Not with a man of course. But someone I was attracted to. Although, now it makes total sense of why I've always felt that you seemed familiar. How could I ever forget your eyes and these dimples," he said, tracing them.
She smiled and pulled him even closer. "By the way, how was your trip?"
"Hectic but quite good," he said and then proceeded to tell her about various outdoor shootings he had done and the funny mishaps that happened while doing some of them.
They both texted each other regularly, so she already knew most of the stories, but she loved lying next to him, listening to his deep, sexy voice talking to her.
She giggled when he told her a funny story about how there was a costume mishap and he almost accidentally flashed his bum to a group of old ladies during a shoot.
He laughed. "One of the cheeky one told me that I can't just tease them and not show them the actual goods. Anyway, how is your work? Bagged the deal you were talking about yesterday?" he asked.
"I haven't heard from them, yet. I'm kind of stressed that I will let down my team who has worked very hard from the past two years to put this product out in the market."
"Don't worry, baby. I'm sure your security drone will definitely kick ass," he said, stroking her back.
After a while, they dressed in comfortable night clothes and had a take-out dinner that she had ordered. And then they moved to the living room where she put on movie.
While he began to watch, she pulled open her laptop and started going over a new deal, making notes and running some numbers to see if she could tweak them some more.
Rana laughed next to her as a comedy scene played in the movie.
During the next few hours, she continued working while he watched T.V, flipping from movies to news and then some documentaries. And every now and then, he leaned towards her and kissed her cheek or her ear or simply touched her hand.
And in return she when she took short breaks, she sat on his lap and stroked his stubble.
After a while, when his movie got over, he looked at her.
"What are you working on?"
"My company's possible contract with another company called Magic Tech."
She rubbed her tired eyes.
"Problems?" he asked.
"Yeah. Some."
"Want to share them with me?"
She stared at him to gauge his sincerity of his question.
He looked entirely serious. Unlike Gaurav who would get irritated or worse zone out when she was eager to share a major part of her life.
"Yeah. I spoke to their CEO many times regarding how the contract would benefit us both. But he is too nervous to take a risk because my company is too new."
"So you are crunching numbers to show him why it's worth taking a risk?" he asked.
"Yeah. Trying to."
"Hmm...Magic Tech... Are they are into 3D animation software?"
"Yes." She was surprised that he knew.
"It's one of the companies I've invested in. I know a few people there. If you want, you can send me the numbers and I can ask someone to evaluate them again, before passing the information to the CEO and the board."
"You invest in tech companies?"
"Yep. As a venture capitalist. My portfolio has about 40 investments in tech companies around the world, some of which are start-ups."
She was shocked when he named a few of them that were quite recognizable.
She was staring at him with her mouth open.
"See. Not just a hot body and handsome face," he teased, taking out his phone to type a message to someone.
She pulled the phone away. "Wait. Before that, there is something urgent that I need to do first," she said, climbing on his lap once again.
"What?" he asked huskily.
"This" she said, kissing him hard, with everything she had.
He kissed her back and then, he pushed her away. "Behave, or your busy work night, will be replaced with some other kind of busy night," he said.
She laughed and went back to work while he placed the call.
Later that night, when they went back to bed, he listened when she truly began to discuss about her work. He gave her an honest feedback and even made good recommendations that were quite intuitive.
It was the most perfect night she could ever imagine. Even as she floated in her happy land, at the back of her mind, a little voice kept whispering, don't get too used to this...
CHAPTER 24
Srishti made some free time on a Sunday afternoon to visit Rana at his work. He had been to her office a lot of times over the past three months, but she had never seem him work.
Luckily, he was currently shooting for a movie and the outdoor shoot was held in Hyderabad.
He was supposed to receive her when she arrived, but since she was caught up in an important call that ran longer than expected, she arrived late to the place.
Not wanting to disturb him while he worked, didn't call him.
She gave her name and ID to one of the security guards at the shoot and was allowed to enter.
She was quite fascinated with everything going on around her. Sh
e knew there would be other people involved in a shoot. But looking at the sheer number of people, activity and the expenses involved around, she was quite taken aback.
People wore headsets and carried clipboards, talking loudly, coordinating with other people. A man received her as soon as she entered the restricted area behind a tape. He introduced himself as Rana's manager.
"Rana is going to be here soon. Meantime, would you like something to drink, madam?" he asked.
"No. I'm fine. I'll just wait here," she replied.
The shoot was held at the Riding Club. A lot of patrons who frequented the place were also gathered to watch Rana in action.
"Usually most actors get doubles for such scenes. But since Rana loves riding, he insisted he do the stunt himself," the manager said in an impressed tone.
Rana did mention to her that he had enjoyed riding since he was a little boy.
"Oh, hear he comes!" someone announced loudly and excitedly.
The crowd standing behind the restricted tape went wild.
Based on the noises that were made, Srishti expected to see teenage girls as his screaming fans, but she was quite surprised that some of the women were in their twenties and thirties.
Shielding her face from the sun, using her hands, she looked in the general direction of where other people were looking. At first, she couldn't see anything. Then there was a cloud of dust and then she saw a large black horse. On top of it was Rana.
And he was shirtless.
She could hear bells chiming loudly. For a moment, she was so confused that she thought it was her mind-blowing, ear-ringing physical reaction to him.
He looked larger than life with his confident riding. Both the animal and man on top held such grace that soon there was absolute pin drop silence around. A minute before his arrival, it was so boisterous that the sudden silence added to the awe.
Rana rode the horse until a distance and then pulled to a stop, with the horse rearing up on its hind legs.
Her heart almost stopped, and for a moment she was worried he would be thrown off the animal. But Rana had a confident look on his face as he faced one of the cameras.