Chapter 8
Sameer grimaced after listening to this latest report.
He was sitting in the conference room with his team and no one had anything positive to report.
He had put up a team of his best people together to tackle the property issue with Raashi.
For starters, he had wanted to find out what exactly she had in mind for the land.
Then he wanted his team to try and acquire it from her by offering her an obscene amount of money that was far more than the original price of the land.
But, so far, a week had passed and his team hadn’t reached anywhere.
After the first few tries they couldn’t even get past her assistant and after that the only time they had managed to speak to her was when Sameer had himself provided them with her cell number.
However, that had been the wrong thing to do.
It had annoyed her even more and she had asked his business manager to ’Buzz Off’ after his third call to her.
Apparently, she didn’t want to sell the land ever and as he had rightly guessed she was never going to sell the land, especially to him. She had conveyed her message to his business manager in pretty clear and strong terms before asking him to ’Buzz Off’.
Sameer smiled. He was left with no other option. He would have to approach her himself. He had to face the lioness in her den and that was the only way forward.
Raashi rubbed her tired eyes. She was having a tough day with the staff at one of her restaurants. She had missed lunch, surviving on coffee since breakfast and now this inventory report. The numbers were swimming in front of her eyes.
The silver lining to the otherwise challenging day was that the phone calls from Sameer’s office had stopped.
Last week every second call she’d answered was from his office.
Their constant phone calls and pleas to sell the land had frustrated her no end.
She’d been in a black mood for days and had been this close to injuring someone or something, thanks to his team’s annoying persistence.
But it looked like they had finally backed off, which was a good sign.
The phone on her desk buzzed.
“Yes, Jiya, what is it?” Raashi said, impatiently into the phone. She had specifically asked Jiya not to disturb her for the next hour in order to catch up with her workload. Instead, this was the third time Jiya was calling in ten minutes.
“Uh Raashi...”
“I often wonder if you deliberately ignore my instructions, just to aggravate me up for making you work as my assistant. Do you want to prove to me that it was a bad idea? Because right now I am sure it was indeed a very BAD idea.”
“Raashi...” Jiya whispered into the phone.
“And why are you whispering?” Raashi asked, getting more agitated by the second.
“You know that dream guy you described to me the other night, six feet tall, golden skin, chocolate brown eyes, ruffled dark brown hair. He is out here, waiting to meet you.”
Raashi’s head spun. There was only one guy in the whole world she knew that fit that description to the tee. With great difficulty she managed to get his name out of her mouth.
“Sameer Sehgal,” Raashi said.
“You actually know him!” Jiya remarked, stunned.
“Not now, Jiya. Tell him I am busy.”
“I did and he’s not listening.”
“Then tell him again and this time mean it!” Raashi disconnected the line and pinched the bridge her nose.
Damn, damn and damn! After complete silence from his office for more than a week, she had begun to believe he had let it go.
But she should have known better than to believe that Sameer would back off so easily.
She knew what he was like. He was relentless in the pursuit of something he wanted.
Case in point his successful seduction of her.
He saw her, he wanted her and he had seduced her.
She cursed herself for letting her thoughts go there.
She was not thinking of that right now. She was way too drained to face him and she just wished he would get the message and go away.
But her wishes weren’t coming true today as the next moment the door opened and Sameer coolly walked in, with Jiya following reluctantly behind, her hands raised up.
“I’m sorry, Raashi. He just won’t...”
“Take no for an answer,” Raashi completed for her. “Don’t worry, that’s so typical! Thanks Jiya. I’ll take it from here.”
Sameer whirled around to look at Jiya. She was cute with dark hair and naughty, dancing eyes.
He smiled at her, “You’re her sister, right?”
Oh! Bloody Hell! Now her kid sister looked fascinated by Sameer.
“I sure am,” Jiya chirped.
“No wonder you looked familiar. By the way, what are you doing working for Raashi? I thought you were studying in New York?”
Jiya gave her a pointed look that most definitely meant - I need an explanation on how this hot guy knows so much about me.
Then Jiya turned to Sameer and gave him a dazzling smile as she replied, “Yes, Economics. I have a semester break actually.”
“Wow and you agreed to work with your sister on your holiday? That’s awesome. Wish my sisters could be more responsible,” Sameer told her.
“You have sisters? How many?” Jiya asked him.
Raashi folded her hands angrily on the desk in front of her. Her sister had no boundaries. None whatsoever. She was interacting with Sameer, who was a perfect stranger to her, like she had known him for a long time.
“I have two sisters. They’re twins and about your age. But they’d never agree to work for me and definitely not on their holiday,” Sameer told Jiya.
This was all Raashi needed. As if it wasn’t enough that Sameer had appeared here unannounced, now his words would encourage Jiya to rebel against her.
Right on cue Jiya threw her hands in the air.
“Heard that, big sis? No one works during holidays. And how many times do I need to explain to you that this is not my cuppa...”
Raashi leveled her sister with an angry glare, disliking her boldness in front of Sameer.
Seeing her sullen expression, Jiya changed tactics.
“Anyway, since Raashi’s assistant is on leave for a few days, I decided to pitch in.”
And then Raashi’s mouth dropped in utter shock as Jiya gave Sameer a naughty wink before she said, “By the way, you are way too assertive for your own good.”
“Usually works for me,” Sameer said, smiling at her.
Raashi was thoroughly annoyed now.
“Well, if you’ve finished with the small talk Jiya, I’m sure you have a lot of work to do,” Raashi snapped at her.
Jiya flashed her a defiant look and left, shutting the door behind her.
“My, aren’t we in a swell mood today,” Sameer stated, coming to stand in front of her desk.
Raashi leaned back in her chair and looked up at him, trying desperately to calm the rapid beating of her heart.
He looked great as always. He was dressed in a blue suit with another one of his signature white shirts with a red patterned tie.
As usual his hair was ruffled and Raashi clenched her fists tight, resisting the suddenly strong urge to run her hand through his tousled hair.
Sameer casually folded his arms in front of him.
“Like what you see?” he inquired, cockily tilting his head to one side.
Ignoring his remark, Raashi asked, “What do you want, Sameer?”
“I want my land back,” he stated, his tone flat.
She arched a haughty brow.
“For starters, Janak gifted that land to me, so it’s mine. I think I made my position to you and your minions very clear. I am not selling.”
“That’s my land and grandfather should not have given it to you in the first place.”
“Well, that’s just too bad then. Because he did give me the land and now it’s mine,” Raashi retorted. What was the point of this conversation?
“Name your price,” Sameer stated coldly.
“Excuse me?”
Sameer placed his hands on the table, towering over her,
“You heard me, Raashi. Everyone has a price. Name yours and let’s get this over with.”
Raashi couldn’t believe the gall of this man. Hadn’t she made it abundantly clear to him that she wasn’t selling the land? Yet here he was standing with a devil may care attitude forcing his hand when he was well aware of her stance on the situation.
He straightened as she stood up to face him.
“Go to hell, Sameer!”
Sameer crossed his arms on his chest.
“Ah, now I get what this is about,” he said. “You’ve just found a convenient way to get back at me for my indiscretion concerning you, isn’t it? So, how’s that going for you, enjoying your vengeance, Raashi?”
The silence that followed his statement was deafening even to him.
She was furious and he could see that. He watched how a torrent of emotions crossed her face, how she flipped an irate hand through her silky soft hair pushing them back from her face, saw how her chest rose and fell angrily.
He could see how the cream silk shirt she was wearing hugged her curves.
He was enjoying her discomfiture. He wanted her perturbed.
He hated her calm and cold fac?ade when he was around her.
He waited with bated breath for her to reply because Raashi wasn’t the type to simmer in silence.
Oh! This man. He drove her insane! She wanted to hit him. Why did he have to provoke her like this?
She rounded her desk and stood in front of him.
“Get Out! This discussion is over,” she gritted out.
“Ah! You don’t like the truth, do you?”
“I said. Get. Out.”
But Sameer wasn’t through with her yet.
“Tell me, Raashi, how does it feel having the upper hand? Knowing that you have something that I so desperately want. Knowing that you’re just doing this to exact a fitting revenge from me.”
Her eyes flashed in fury. “You know of all the things that I regret the most in life, that night being almost at the top of the list, what I regret even more is meeting a bastard like you.”
He was so damn full of himself and right now she wanted nothing more than to slap the smirk that was beginning to form on his face.