Leo's Desire (Written in the Stars Book 2)

by Sundari Venkatraman

  12

  Meena raised her head to look at the entrance to their home when she heard Anya’s shriek of joy as she welcomed Chaahat home after her six-week stay at Raheja Health Resort. “Chaahat, you simply look gorgeous.”

  The two young women walked in, bringing a smile to Meena’s face, with Dev following right behind. He had gone to pick his sister up after her extended stay at the resort. And yes, her granddaughter looked so lovely, unlike how she used to be, a sick little urchin.

  Meena got up to meet her granddaughter mid-corridor, giving her a tight hug. “Aajaa beta. I can see that the Ayurveda treatment has done you a lot of good. You shine like a newly minted gold coin, my dear Chaahat.” Daadima gave her a loving smile.

  “Don’t I, Daadima? I can’t believe it myself. Believe it or not, I was ready to run away from there after the first few days. Luckily for me, I have your determination to have my own way. That’s why I stuck on. And my health began to turn around after one whole week. My energy improved and then it all began to make sense.” Chaahat grinned at the three of them.

  “What you need is a new set of clothes,” Anya declared, eyeing her sister-in-law admiringly.

  “Yeah, that’s exactly what I was thinking. Why don’t I fly you girls to Mumbai tomorrow? You can both shop the day away,” said Dev.

  Chaahat laughed joyfully. In fact, she had never laughed as much as she had over the past few weeks. She had even made a lot of friends during her stay at the resort, her confidence having grown day by day. It had been her idea to spend an extra three weeks to get to her ideal weight and also get into the perfect fitness routine that would help her through life. “Actually, Dev, I don’t plan to buy too many clothes. I need to get a modelling job, like yesterday. They might have different ideas. Don’t you think it makes more sense to find out what I’d actually need before going shopping?” She wasn’t too keen on spending more of her brother’s money. She had already blown up so much.

  Jai walked into the house just then. Seeing him, Chaahat squealed, “Jai, what are you doing here?” She ran up to her twin and hugged him hard.

  At 6’4”, Jai was tall and lean, appearing a total nerd, what with the thick framed spectacles he wore and the longish hair that flopped on his face as well as trailed his narrow shoulders. He hugged Chaahat right back before pushing her to arms’ length and studying her from the top of her shining head to the tips of her dainty toes. “Wah! What brought about this transformation? You look fantastic.”

  Chaahat grinned from ear to ear. That was some compliment from her twin who spoke so less. He had his nose buried in books most of the time. Nowadays, he had added typing away on his laptop as one more activity that kept him aloof from everyone. “I thought you were living up the mountains in Shimla. What made you descend from your heaven?” she teased him.

  Jai smiled. “Aah! Nowadays I work with Dev, as his farm manager.”

  “Huh?!” Chaahat stared at him, dumbfounded, before turning around and gawking at Dev as if to check that she had heard right. Shaan had been Dev’s manager when she had left for the resort. If Jai had taken his place as the manager, where the hell was Shaan? “Dev? Now that you’ve hired Jai as your manager, what does Shaan do?”

  Dev shrugged, hiding his smile. “Shaan’s back in Delhi, running his family business.”

  “What?! Delhi? When?” Chaahat was ready to blow her top, her temper rising like a rocket. She had taken Shaan’s advice and gone to the retreat, and had been eagerly waiting to show off her newly acquired healthy body and looks to him. But the bastard had simply disappeared. So much for missing her. Didn’t the night they spent together mean anything to him at all?

  “Shaan left on the same day you went to the retreat. Some family emergency, he said.” No, Dev wasn’t going to share any extra information unless asked. Isn’t that what both of them had told him? Chaahat had been clear that she wouldn’t send Shaan a message through her brother. Shaan, okay Nishaan, had also insisted that Dev should share his details only if Chaahat asked directly.

  Chaahat felt terribly disappointed, no, heartbroken. Shaan had disappeared. She had his local number. But would it still work now? No, she didn’t care. He had her number. He could have called her any time during the past six weeks. Chaahat conveniently forgot that she had switched her cell off and left it in the resort office and as good as disappeared off the face of the earth herself.

  She straightened her shoulders valiantly, saying, “Forget it. But how did Mom and Dad agree to Jai working for you? And Dev, was there too much fuss about my not going back?”

  Dev grinned. “Nothing that I couldn’t deal with. Just now, both of you kids are in my charge. You’d better listen to everything I say unless you want me to throw you back into the lions’ cage.”

  Jai’s laughter was unexpected—not loud or raucous—but soft and wholehearted. “As if!” He both adored and admired his elder brother.

  But Chaahat didn’t pay any attention to Dev’s reply after having asked the question. What did anything matter now that Shaan had vanished from her life? The others didn’t stop her when she walked away to go up the stairs. She desperately needed to be alone as she was hurting deep within while tears threatened to overwhelm her. How could Shaan do this to her? She had but gone away for six weeks and the man had absconded from her life. She felt so betrayed, more than she had ever felt in her whole life.

  She had so looked forward to seeing the expression on his face when he looked at how she had turned out. He had made love to her before, in the pathetic state she had been in. And Chaahat had been so sure that he would want to love her all the more now. But there was no Shaan to share her joy with. Had he been pretending to a non-existent concern when he spoke to her about leading a healthy lifestyle?

  Chaahat fell across the bed and buried her face in her pillow, crying silently into it. Her slender shoulders shook with grief, all her hopes and dreams dashed away in a single blow. Shaan wasn’t interested in her, not personally. She had been only a passing fancy, a one-night stand.

  Dev walked into his sister’s bedroom, not bothering to knock on her door and was not really surprised to see the state she was in. He went and sat next to Chaahat and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Chaahat, what’s wrong? Is it Shaan? Do you…”

  “I don’t care.” Chaahat sat up on the bed with a jerk, rubbing a hand across her reddened eyes. “Do you hear?” She was shouting now. “I don’t give a damn about that moron. To hell with him. I…”

  Dev pulled her into his arms, pressing her face into his shoulder, a hand brushing her back soothingly. “Shaan had to leave because his father suffered a heart attack. It was so sudden. There was no time for me to even tell him that you were at the health resort. Then there was your warning, that you’d rather not send a message to him through your bro. And Chaahat, to be fair to him, you’ve had your phone switched off all this long. How could he have contacted you?”

  Chaahat lifted her head from her brother’s shoulder to look up at him, hope stirring in her eyes. “What happened? How’s his father now? Do you know?”

  Dev smiled. “Yeah, his father’s much better. But Shaan has taken charge of their family business. He…”

  “You talk to him regularly.” It was a statement of fact, not a question.

  “Yeah, I do. You see, we became good friends when he was working with me.”

  “And he doesn’t know that I went for my treatment?” Chaahat’s face flared with mischief. When Dev shook his head, she said, “Good. Don’t tell him.”

  Dev looked at her curiously, not saying anything to that. After all, he had just now lied to her—a white lie, but still an untruth. “Shaan has given me a few contacts for modelling agencies that create portfolios and help find opportunities in the fashion industry,” he said instead.

  Chaahat stared at her brother, a look of awe on her face. Shaan had not forgotten her, not even during a family emergency and his having had to take over his family business. Her heart b
eat a wild tattoo as she looked forward to their meeting again. Meet, they will, if she had anything to do with it. “Isn’t he the best?!” Chaahat’s voice was a whisper.

  “That he is,” agreed her brother. No, he didn’t plan to tell Chaahat who Shaan actually was. He had only told her what he did since he couldn’t see his sister unhappy. And it was obvious that Nishaan was as much interested in Chaahat as she seemed to be in him. His ex-manager had called Dev every other day and the subject of their discussion had always veered towards Chaahat. And yes, Dev hadn’t been left with much choice but to admit that his sister had gone to the retreat for treatment, listening to Nishaan’s advice. Dev grinned to himself as he recalled the other man’s exclamation of triumph and joy.

  Nishaan got up abruptly from the bed and pulled on his shirt, his face turned away from the naked woman sprawled on the bed.

  “What’s wrong? Why are you wearing your shirt?” Mita sounded totally frustrated. They had just arrived at her home. It had taken her the whole of three hours to persuade the handsome hunk to take her to bed. She had just got naked and comfortable while he had only removed his shirt. And that gorgeous body! What she wouldn’t give for a night in his arms!

  Nishaan swiftly pushed the shirt buttons into their holes before picking up his jacket. “I’m sorry, Mita. This isn’t going to work.”

  “What? Why?” She was screaming by now as she rose to her knees on the bed, pressing her body to his.

  He stopped her hands, holding them tightly as she tried to pull open the buttons again. “No, Mita.”

  “Are you gay?”

  He smiled. “No.”

  “Impotent then?” There was a look of horror on Mita’s face as she pressed both her hands over her mouth. How could God be so cruel?! Nishaan Ahuja was too handsome, too rich. How could he be impotent? What was wrong with Creation? Wouldn’t…

  Nishaan burst out laughing. “I don’t think so. I wasn’t, the last time I had sex.”

  “And when was that?” she asked, managing to grab his shirt and pulling the tails out of his pants.

  “No, Mita. I’m not joking here. Let me go.” He eyed her naked body, not feeling even a little bit of lust stirring in him. She actually had a gorgeous figure, better than Chaahat’s if he looked at it clinically. But he felt nothing, absolutely nothing. It looked like Chaahat had spoilt him for other women.

  It had been more than a month since he had returned to Delhi. His father was much better, though yet to join work. Today was the first time Nishaan had agreed to go partying after getting back home. Mita had thrown himself in his arms from the moment he had walked into the disco, until the time he had agreed to accompany her to her apartment.

  Well, why not? He wasn’t promised to Chaahat or anything. In fact, before his life at Wadhwa Farm, Nishaan had had longer affairs with women than the one-night-stand with Chaahat. But…but what a night! His face lit up when he recalled the way they had made love.

  Mita stared at Nishaan’s face, watching the myriad emotions crossing over it. With a huge sigh, she gave up, flopping back on her bed. “Get out, Nishaan, now. Before I do something drastic and make a bigger fool of myself.” She was only half joking. It looked like his fully covered body managed to arouse her to fever pitch while her nudity didn’t seem to affect him at all. She sighed again, feeling jealous of the unknown woman who obviously had a powerful hold over him. Lucky bitch!

  “I’m sorry, Mita. No hard feelings. You do realise that it’s not personal?” Nishaan apologised like the true gentleman that he was as he thrust his feet into his shoes.

  “Just go,” she said, before burying her face in her pillow. Maybe she should thank her lucky stars that she wasn’t in love with him and only lusted after his body.

  Nishaan left, shutting the door to the apartment softly behind him. Instead of feeling upset about being unable to perform—his body had just refused to co-operate—he felt happy. It looked like he had already met the woman who he wanted for his life partner. Another week or two and she should be out of that health resort. And he knew for a fact that she would appear more gorgeous than she already did, his Chaahat.

  13

  There were three modelling agencies whose contacts Shaan had shared with Dev. Chaahat vetted all three and zeroed in on Amber Modelling Agency that represented a small number of international models who seemed to get all the best contracts around the world.

  The agency had only twenty-three names in their portfolio, out of which thirteen were women and the rest of them. men. If Dipika Sanyal, the head of the agency, decided to take Chaahat on board, she would be lucky indeed, or so said the other girl who had come in for an appointment as well. And the girl, who looked barely eighteen, seemed absolutely confident that Chaahat didn’t stand a chance. “By the way, I’m Tina.”

  The Chaahat of earlier would have lost her nerve, seeing the other girl’s punk hairstyle, nose-ring and tattoos galore. Tina had a reed thin figure, though her gamine face was extremely attractive. It didn’t really matter as Chaahat had decided to give it her best shot. If they took her in, fine. If they didn’t, then someone else would do it.

  She had shifted into a studio apartment at Bandra that Dev had purchased for her outright. He had shut her up when she tried to argue with him and she was truly glad of his support. As for Shaan, he hadn’t called her yet.

  But some guy called Nishaan Ahuja had sent her a friend request on Facebook. Strange! The profile picture looked a lot like Shaan’s. She wondered if he was Shaan’s cousin or something. The guy had no less than 4,500 friends. But Chaahat was keener on finding Shaan. She had searched for him, high and low, on social media. She had even tried to run through Nishaan Ahuja’s friend list to see if Shaan featured there. But she gave up after some time as the list kept extending endlessly.

  Chaahat got up to go for her meeting with Dipika Sanyal when the receptionist called her name. “May I come in?” She walked in when she got an affirmative reply and was startled to see the stark white room she was in. It was empty except for a few props and lighting equipment. There was a woman there, who she presumed must be the head of the agency and there was a man who was sitting on a stool behind a high-tech camera.

  “Hello, I’m Chaahat, Chaahat Wadhwa.”

  “Hi Chaahat. I’m Dipika. And this is Krish.” They obviously didn’t stand on formality.

  Chaahat shook their hands in turn. There were no chairs. Another girl walked in just then, with a measuring tape, a pen and a writing pad. Dipika nodded to her, taking the pad and pen from her. “This is Smita,” she introduced, “who will take your measurements.”

  Chaahat stood in the middle of the room for the next fifteen minutes as Smita measured her from head to foot, including the size of her shoes, and Dipika made notes furiously.

  “Okay, now Smita will get you a set of clothes and shoes to match. You can go into the room there,” Dipika said, pointing to a white door that Chaahat hadn’t noticed before, “and change into them. Pooja will come in to help you with different hairstyles and make up. We will create a portfolio for you with Krish taking the photos. Are we clear so far?”

  Chaahat’s jaw dropped. Just like that! She didn’t know that the vice president of Ahuja Constructions had promised to sponsor the agency’s upcoming fashion event in Delhi, if they could make Chaahat Wadhwa a part of it.

  For the amount promised, Dipika Sanyal would have agreed to use any donkey for a model. But she had got truly excited when she set her eyes on Chaahat. The girl might be a bit older than the others who entered the fashion modelling world, but she had a perfect face and figure. It was a win-win situation.

  Though long and tiring, the photoshoot went of smoothly, with lots of changes in clothing, hairstyle and make-up. Chaahat was enthusiastic as all kinds of clothes looked good on her. Dipika was amused to note that the otherwise cynical Krish was also excited with the photos when they eyed them on a large screen.

  “You got yourself a winner, Dip,” he told his sist
er, his eyes on the model on the screen in the mini theatre where Dipika and he were sitting together, sifting through the photos, deciding on the best ones to post on their website as well as on social media.

  “Aren’t I lucky? I almost feel guilty about the sponsorship.” Dipika grinned at her brother who was also her business partner.

  Krish laughed. “The girl’s hardworking, which is something to be said. With her kind of looks, I wonder what took her so long to get into this profession.”

  Dipika shook her head, not having a reply to that. She had met the punk haired Tina with the tattoos too, for exactly one minute. “We can create art on a clear canvas, not on those that are already worked so heavily on. Capish?” Tina frowned at the head of Amber Modelling Agency, an incomprehensible look on her face. No, she didn’t understand a word. But she got the message clearly that she wasn’t going to get a chance. She did wonder what had happened to the other woman who had been waiting with her. But no, she was sure that she didn’t get a chance either. She left, popping a chewing gum into her mouth. What the hell! This wasn’t the only fashion agency in Mumbai.

  It took all of three months and a week for Chaahat to be readied for the full-day fashion show at Neemrana Fort-Palace, a 5-star heritage hotel about a 100 km from Delhi. Her stint at Ayurvedic therapy had helped Chaahat remain centred under all circumstances. While most of the models were nervous and stressed just before they walked the ramp, there was a sense of calm surrounding her at all times.

  It looked like Dipika had a lot to thank Nishaan Ahuja for. He had recommended an excellent model for her agency while also being the biggest sponsor for the event. And she was also excited with the idea that the man himself would be present at the show from the beginning till the end.

  Krish was equally enthusiastic with the project. He usually preferred his travel photography and did the model photoshoots only because it helped him make excellent money on the side. But this time round, the model was extraordinarily brilliant and even better than that was the lack of tantrums. He didn’t know that Chaahat had come a long way from her tantrum throwing days as she grew in confidence by the hour. The yoga and meditation that she continued to do every day, kept her completely grounded. She was a happy human being nowadays.