by KASI, MV
Mahi smiled flirtatiously. "While I'm really looking forward to compensate my mistakes with kisses, can we take a rain check? Maybe we can get back to this some other time when I'm a little more groomed and not about to collapse in exhaustion."
At that smile, he let her go immediately and moved a few steps away like she had a contagious disease.
She followed after him and pulled out the key from his fingers, while he stood in shock and disgust.
"Later. Nice...uh...catching up with you, Samrat," she said, waving at him cheerfully, before turning to leave.
The door closed behind her and she was gone.
Leaving him dumbfounded.
What the hell just happened? Did I just really grab a woman?
He felt off balance, as he always did when he saw her or was around her.
It was something that he hadn't ever acknowledged to himself, because he refused to waste even a second thinking about her back then. But now, he knew what it was.
He was attracted to her.
He realized that fact in horror and disgust. And at nearly thirty five, Mahi still had that raw charisma about her that the travel worn clothes and a tired face could not hide.
He cursed viciously, even though he didn’t usually swear. Not because he thought it was bad, but because he didn’t allow his emotions to get to the point where using bad words was necessary.
This is going to be a complete disaster.
Soulless - Excerpt
Right in the middle of the conversation, a man cleared his throat noisily and sat next to Anjali, facing Sia.
It was him again. Ajay
"I'm collecting my due. Dinner. Tonight. My treat," he said.
Sia jerked back in shock.
The damn man was everywhere. It was almost as if someone was conspiring against her and waved the temptation in front of her to distract her from her plans.
"Dinner? I don't do that," she replied haughtily.
"You don't have dinner?" Ajay asked, his eyes shining in amusement.
At that comment, Sia's eyes flared in slight annoyance, even though her face remained completely composed. "I do have dinner. But only with close acquaintances. "
"Well, we met twice already, so we are technically acquaintances. And we can get close, once we can get to know more about each other. Over dinner."
"No."
"Oh come on. What's the harm in having dinner at a public place?"
Sia sighed as though she found the whole conversation tedious. "Do you make it a habit to harass strange women for dinner?"
Even Anjali was giving Ajay a stink eye at his brazen behavior.
He let out an amused grin. "You are not a stranger to me, Sia. And by the way, normally women harass me."
Sia let lose an inelegant unladylike snort. But she did believe his cocky statement.
The waitress—who hadn't really showed up until then to ask them about how their food was— had rushed to their table now. She was gushing at Ajay, asking him what he wanted.
Ajay smiled pleasantly at the waitress and asked her about how her parents and brother were doing. And then, he placed his order. When the waitress left, he turned back to Sia.
"So...where were we? Oh yeah, you are refusing to go out to dinner with me. You are a very cruel woman. But I like that." He smirked slightly. "Since you won't have dinner with me, how about we watch a movie instead? My treat," he suggested.
His damn dimples came to play again, distracting her.
"I don't watch movies," she replied curtly.
Ajay widened his eyes mockingly. "Really? There is a lot of vacuum in your knowledge base then. You have no idea what you have been missing."
Sia sighed. "I think I'll survive."
"Ajay!" A man in a suit who had greeted them at the entrance of the restaurant called out. "How have you been? I've asked you to drop by for lunch several times after opening my restaurant. I'm glad you finally found the time to be here."
Ajay grinned, and got up from the booth to meet the seemingly the owner of the restaurant, and did the weird fist pump thing the guys usually did. "Well, you didn't tell me your restaurant was this good, and also attracted such interesting customers."
Sia heard a few loud snorts next to her. When she turned, she saw a group of men seated in the table right next to her. They were probably Ajay's friends.
Ajay grinned at them. "It's true guys. I—" He was interrupted by a loud commotion caused by a rowdy bunch of men, a few tables away.
Another waitress rushed towards their table with tears in her eyes.
"Sir," she addressed the owner of the restaurant. "Those men are really drunk. I've told them that there are families around and to keep it down. They...were being rude to me by throwing money at my face. And one of them tried to misbehave with me."
Immediately, the owner of the restaurant left to deal with the problem.
With a brief, "Excuse me," Ajay got up to follow behind the owner.
He joined the owner of the restaurant at the other table where a group of men were creating a ruckus. It was obvious that the owner was having a tough time controlling the group.
But when Ajay joined the group, and said something softly to them, immediately the entire atmosphere of the table changed.
It was quite fascinating to watch Ajay in a totally different persona.
Gone was the charming flirt who had just been trying to score a date from her. In his place was a man who looked ruthless.
She couldn't hear what Ajay was saying to those men, but the look he held on his face was cold and determined. As soon as he was done talking, the rowdy group of drunk men got up, and then, keeping their eyes downcast, they left the restaurant.
A couple of minutes later, Ajay began to walk back. She thought that he was going to join his friends at the table next to her, but he surprised her again by stopping at her table.
"Ok fine. Not tonight then. Have dinner with me tomorrow," he continued, as though the last ten or fifteen minutes of drama, with him scaring a bunch of goons didn't actually happen.
Seriously, who was this guy?
She found his contradictory nature so damn hot. She not only wanted to have dinner with him, she almost wanted to make him her dinner.
Stop that! Her rational mind yelled at her hormones in disgust. And before her unhealthy fascination for him grew even more, she made up her mind regarding what she had to do with him.
"No," she replied firmly.
"Why?" he asked with an exaggerated hurt look.
"I'm busy. And Ajay...you are getting repetitive. You've asked me out twice already."
He clutched his chest dramatically and staggered as though she shot him.
"You turned me down twice? You are a cruel woman. Did you know that?" he asked as he slid into the opposite seat, next to Anjali, who was now smiling at him in amusement.
A few minutes ago, Anjali had been glaring at him. How did he have that effect on people so soon?
Hardening her resolve, Sia gave him a cold look. "You have called me cruel before, yes."
"Did I also tell you that I find that particular characteristic in you, hot?" he asked.
She raised her eyebrow. "Yes."
"And yet, you keep turning me down on purpose. You really must like me. So why waste time? Come out with me for dinner," he reasoned.
She sighed. "There is no reason for us to have dinner together."
"Oh, but there is. Something keeps throwing us together. Once or twice is a coincidence, but three times...?"
She shrugged lightly. "That's why they are called coincidences."
"No, it's called fate. We are meant to be..." he said dramatically.
She almost rolled her eyes at his silly antics. But she kept an expressionless face. "Take the hint, Ajay. Don't ask me out again," she told him in a cold, dismissive tone.
There were a lot of "oohs" and "tough luck bro," from his friends on the next table.
Sighing, Ajay got up from the boo
th. "Ok fine. Until the next time then," he said.
"Not if I can help it," she muttered, and saw Anjali smile at her uncharacteristic behavior.
The damn man was really being thrown into her life at every opportunity.
If she was the superstitious kind, she'd think it was for a reason. Good thing she wasn't superstitious.
From the past three years, everyone had formed an impression that she was pretty scary in a, I-will- crush-your-balls-if-you-dare-to-even-look kind of way. But when it came to Ajay, during their interactions, he treated her as though she was like any other regular twenty four year old girl that he found interesting, and could ask out on a date.
Maybe that was his biggest appeal.
He brought some normalcy to her life, even if it was only for a brief while.
But she had to keep away from him.
Or he was going to ruin everything she had been working so hard to put into place.