Chapter 2 #2
She had met him at a club a few weeks after their first meeting.
She was out partying with Keya and some of their close friends, Rithwik and Aditya, when she had stepped out off the dance floor and felt someone watching her.
She had turned around and found herself looking straight into Sameer’s eyes.
He was with Sheena’s elder brother, Kabier.
He had waved at her and she’d responded back.
She had gone with Keya to meet them. Kabier, like Sameer, had also only recently returned to the country and had taken over the telecommunications and software arm of the Sehgal business and was Keya’s boss, then.
They had spoken very briefly to the two men.
And for the rest of the night, every time she looked at him, she’d found Sameer watching her.
It had made her slightly uncomfortable, but, well, she had to admit she couldn’t get her eyes off him either.
He was divine to look at and so attractive.
But why of all the beautiful women she had heard he dated, would he be even mildly interested in her?
Probably curiosity, she had concluded and brushed it all off.
Back in those days she had never made anything of the first few meetings with him. They were as casual as she supposed they ought to be. He was Sheena’s cousin and she was Sheena’s best friend. That was the only connection she had with him.
It was the third time that they had met, that changed the equation between them.
They were on board Rajiv’s yacht, a few weeks before Sheena and Rajiv got married.
It was a weekend party and though Sameer had come with a date, he hadn’t paid much attention to her.
He had been more attentive to Raashi the whole time, talking to her, dancing with her.
And she had enjoyed the attention, and she’d liked being with him.
He was funny, smart and oh, so charming!
It was late in the night when they all started playing a game that was the Tequila version of ‘Spin the Bottle’, you either drank a shot of Tequila or dared to accept a challenge.
The rules were simple yet naughty. If you chose to drink, you had to rub salt on a part of your challenger’s body and lick the salt from that very spot, before downing the tequila.
Towards the end of the game, she was paired with Sameer and he had chosen to drink a shot.
He had stood observing her silently from top to toe and she had felt herself go warm everywhere.
He had taken a turn around her and then another one and stopped right behind her.
Then before she knew it, he had moved her hair to one side and rubbed salt on the side of her neck, just above her bare shoulder.
Stunned, she had turned sideways in his direction to tell him, “No!”
And he had said, “The rules state that I choose which part of your body I get to lick the salt from and I choose this.” And then he had bent his head and sucked the salt off her neck.
Raashi still remembered the volatile impact of his lips and tongue on her neck.
She still recalled, how he had continued to suck on her neck, a few seconds longer than needed.
She had shuddered and she knew he had felt it.
He knew because he had lifted his head, given her a mischievous wink and then gulped down his shot.
That was the very first time she had felt her heart beat at double the pace. That was when she realized that she was crazily attracted to him. That was the first night she had dreamt of him.
The next morning, she had been standing on the deck of the yacht, near the railing, observing the sea waves splashing gently, when Sameer had approached her and made his intentions clear.
He had acknowledged that he was attracted to her and had arrogantly told her that he was going to have her in his arms and his bed, very soon.
She had brushed his declaration away and had continued to stay away from him as much as she could.
She had no desire to sleep with him and be one of his many conquests.
She did not do casual relationships, especially because she was no expert on men.
She had only ever exchanged a few not so memorable kisses with some of her very few boyfriends and she was sure, in fact, certain, that if she did let Sameer in her life, it would be volatile.
He would sweep her away and she would lose herself and her heart in the process.
But, fate was such that she crossed paths with him more often than she wanted to. First, Sheena got married in Goa and then Keya married Sheena’s elder brother, Kabier in a whirlwind marriage.
All throughout, Sameer had pursued her with a single-minded determination.
He was always near her, never straying far.
At times he would whisper something in her ear when she least expected him to be near or touch her arm or caress her cheek or neck, whenever he could.
And on other times he’d just have a normal conversation with her, talking about mundane things.
He was breaking all the walls she had built around herself and despite knowing his intentions towards her, she had started accepting him in her life.
He had slowly and steadily softened her heart and there was nothing that she could have done to prevent it.
On the contrary, she had enjoyed his attention.
Finally, on the night of Keya and Kabier’s reception, she had given in to him. On looking back at that encounter with him, which she had done so many times in the last few months, she always cursed herself for being so vulnerable and having allowed him to seduce her.
She had been especially low that night as both her best friends were married and had their own lives.
And though she was genuinely happy for Keya and Sheena, she wasn’t sure that she herself could ever be as lucky as them.
She had been lost in her own mind, thinking all those depressing thoughts when Sameer had come and whisked her off, first to dance with him and then later to his bed.
That moment just before she had kissed him, she had looked into his face and thought that perhaps she could also find her own happiness, like her friends, with him.
The past months that she had spent with him had crossed her mind in a flash and she had realized that she had fallen for him.
And so her heart glowing with happiness, she had taken his hand and let him take her to that hotel room.
But, her happiness was not long lived. What had been a magical night for her had been nothing but a one-night stand for him. She had woken up and had been horrified to find herself all alone in a hotel room with Sameer nowhere in sight.
Naively, she had waited for him, thinking he would return soon until she’d finally accepted that he had walked out on her without a word.
In the end, she had left the hotel disillusioned and hurt.
Still, some part of her had hoped that he would call her.
But he never did. She was not a fool; she had understood the situation for what it was.
She had become just another one of Sameer Sehgal’s conquests.
He had destroyed her self-esteem thoroughly and surely.
So, keeping her own pride intact, she had never called him and had astutely avoided any public occasion where he would be present.
Try as hard as she could, Raashi couldn’t help remembering the despair and the complete lack of self-confidence she had felt at his rejection, She had given into him that night believing with all her heart that he liked her and cared about her and that they could actually build a relationship together.
But, of course, he hadn’t felt the same.
Had she truly meant nothing to him? Had the night not been as magical for him as it had been for her?
Had she dreamt the way he had made her feel?
Was it her inexperience that had put him off?
Why had he not called? Why had he so thoroughly rejected her?
She had so many questions and no answers.
She blamed herself for letting him seduce her.
She had wanted him as much as he had wanted her that night and she hated herself as much as she hated him for that night.
It had all been a game to him, a game to seduce her and she had fallen victim to his carefully planned seduction.
She had asked him to stay the night with her because she was finally ready to let him into her life.
She had finally accepted what she felt for him.
She had assumed that he was also ready to take their relationship to the next level and see where it went from there.
And mainly, she had asked him to stay because she did not want to feel inconsequential, like she was just another one-night stand.
But, he had done exactly that. He had used her and left her and she had never felt more humiliated in her life than she had that morning when she had woken up alone.
In the days following that fateful night, Raashi was heartbroken.
She had not slept at all, eaten even less, hardly answered any calls, and barely lived, until the day when Sheena had come home to check on her, worried that something was wrong with her.
One look at her and Sheena had hugged her tight and Raashi had poured her heart out to her.
Sheena had wanted to confront her cousin, but on Raashi’s insistence, hadn’t. And since Keya had been away on her honeymoon, they had decided to keep this incident only to themselves.
Slowly, Raashi had come around to being herself again.
She had let Sameer Sehgal make a mess of her life, but she had come out of it stronger.
She was never going to let him get close to her ever again.
He was dangerous and judging by the way she still responded to his touch, she had to stay away from him at all costs.