by Mahi Jay
‘Nina, I gather you and Aadith Varma are old friends,’ remarked her boss cheerfully.
Nina was startled. Their past had been stormy to say the least and they could certainly not be labelled as friends, she thought darkly.
A frown marred her face as she clarified, ‘Well, more like neighbours really.’
Her boss continued as if she hadn’t spoken. ‘After the success of the Tiwary account, to land a prestigious client like Mr Varma within the span of a week is a definite coup. Consider your promotion a done deal,’ he said appreciatively.
Something roiled in the pit of Nina’s stomach. She did not like where the conversation seemed to be heading.
‘Mr Varma was very impressed with your work and mentioned that he was looking forward to collaborating with you. I trust you to do a wonderful job with this account as well,’ he finished.
Nina knew she would have to try something quick to get out of this mess.
‘I would love to work with Mr Varma, but I doubt I could fit another client into my current roster. I am totally swamped at the moment.’
Her boss stared at her in surprise. He had never in all the years she’d been working there heard her turn down a client, and a high-profile one at that. He looked at her speculatively and conceded, ‘Of course, I don’t expect you to juggle in your new client along with all your old ones too. Someone else can take over your less important ones so that you can devote all your attention to the new account. At least initially,’ he added.
Nina caught onto it like a lifeline ‘I’m positive my other clients would feel miffed if I abandoned them suddenly, so maybe I could work on this new account during the drafting stage and leave the execution to Dev?’ she enquired on a hopeful note.
Mr Samuel’s face hardened with irritation. ‘In case I haven’t made myself clear, let me. Aadith Varma wants only you to work on his PR campaign, so there’s no question of you working on it until only halfway through,’ he said in a tone that brooked no further argument.
Nina noted the unspoken reprimand in her boss’s eyes and the warning it carried, but chose to continue unheedingly. ‘Wouldn’t it be better if—?’
Her boss broke in before she could even finish the sentence. ‘With your promotion up for approval I’m sure you will put in your very best work on this. That will be all,’ he added dismissively.
Nina had worked her butt off for years to get where she was. To make VP had been her goal for so long and now, when it seemed to be within reaching distance, this new hurdle had sprung up. She acknowledged that there wasn’t really a choice any more. Nothing and no one was going to take it away from her. All her years of hard work were not going to be wasted over an egotistical jerk like Aadith, she vowed.
Mr Samuel was still watching her keenly, but Nina could not even bring herself to voice her consent. She just nodded her head and rose from the chair. Just as she reached the door her boss promised, ‘Nina, turn this around successfully and you will be made VP effective from the next quarter.’
Nina was furious with her boss, with Aadith and mostly with herself for letting them push her into a corner. She dared not open her mouth in case she said something she would regret later. She grunted her agreement and strode out of the room in a red haze of temper. Point Aadith, she thought sourly. But the game was not over yet; it was just beginning.
As Nina was about to enter her cabin Mrs Dutta waylaid her with a huge bouquet of sunshine-yellow roses. She had an adoring look on her face as she handed Nina the accompanying card. Nina waited until the door had closed behind her to look at the card. It simply said,
Welcome to the team-A
It carried only a mobile number on the other side.
Nina was only slightly mollified that he had remembered her favourite flowers. Back in Pune when they had been neighbours, there had been a beautiful yellow rose bush in his garden. Nina had often admired the flowers and occasionally borrowed them too from his grandmother. No, she wasn’t surprised that he had sent her the flowers, for she knew he would employ every trick in the book to get his own way. She was only astonished that he remembered which ones she liked.
The cad probably never let himself forget a thing about a woman. But then he’d need to, going by the rate he went through them, she thought bitterly.
Even with the gift of flowers, she couldn’t forgive that he had gone to her boss!
How dared he? That conniving lowlife.
She snatched the phone off the table and quickly dialled the number off the back of the card. When a deep sexy voice answered it after the first ring, Nina raged, ‘You’re a lying cheat! How could you pull such a cheap trick on me?’
Aadith chuckled and shot back, ‘I’ve been waiting for your call. Now my day can end on a happy note.’
‘How dare you use my boss to get to me?’ she said with unabated anger.
‘I did warn you I’d use any means to get you to work with me, didn’t I?’ he asked, unruffled. His voice didn’t show a trace of emotion other than amusement.
‘Why me?’ she asked starkly.
‘I doubt you need me to tell you that—you’re the best in the industry, and I want only the best.’
Nina flinched at his statement. Professional pride warred with deep-seated anger at his statement. While her parents had always found her work frivolous and trifling, to have Aadith acknowledge her brilliance and success gave her a long-needed boost of accomplishment and happiness. But she didn’t want it to mean anything to her. He had a way with words and could charm the very devil, if he wanted to, she acknowledged grudgingly.
But his arrogance made her hackles rise. ‘You always get what you want and it doesn’t matter who you ride roughshod over, does it?’
Aadith felt his temper rise. It was not as if he were ruining her career. In fact it would gain her a lot of mileage in the industry and give a wonderful boost to her career. But he didn’t feel like belabouring the obvious. He chose to ignore her ranting completely.
‘Nina, I’m not going to dignify that remark with an answer.’ He swiftly decided to move towards less touchy subjects. ‘So, was this actually a call to thank me for the flowers?’ taunted Aadith in a more intimate tone of voice.
Nina felt bewildered for a second. More than the change of topic, what threw her was her body’s instinctive response to the sexual challenge in his voice. It seemed to caress her. She felt even more appalled when a tremor ran through her body.
Nina strove to rein in her wayward thoughts. ‘Oh, the flowers,’ she said in as offhand a manner as she could manage. ‘Mrs Dutta was very happy with them. Looks like you’ve added yet another fan to your club!
‘By the way, Mr Varma—’ began Nina, but he interrupted her.
‘I thought I asked you to cut the Mister.’
‘All right. Aadith it is. I understand I have no choice left but to work with you but I am not a pushover. Not everything is going to be an easy victory for you. I can play as dirty as you, so consider yourself warned,’ stated Nina clearly.
‘Well, Nina, you’ve thrown the gauntlet down and I’m so ready for it. Bring it on,’ said Aadith boldly.
And she hung up to the sound of his mocking laughter.
CHAPTER TWO
NINA LAY AWAKE fretfully going over the day’s events. She knew she should handle this turn of events in a mature fashion but a part of her was worried if she would come out of it unscathed. The first time she’d been close to Aadith had been bad enough. The whole incident had made her feel gauche and stupid. She definitely didn’t want an encore. It had only served to make her very wary about men. For a long time she had not been able to get her nerve up to actually have a relationship. It had taken a lot of prodding from her friends to get her back into the dating scene. She couldn’t say she had been a roaring success even then. Having been determined to get to the top of her career, she had let work take precedence. Her only previous relationship had been half hearted and blessedly short, she thought ruefully.
Nina was determined to keep things strictly professional with Aadith, not that he would be interested in anything else, she mused wryly as she drifted off into a fitful sleep.
As soon as Nina got to work the next day, she took stock of all the work she would have to delegate to others if she had to make time for Aadith. She did some serious juggling around to free herself enough to take on the new workload. She retained Gaurav Tiwary’s account since it was a relatively new one and needed her expert attention.
Since that day so long ago she’d developed a defense mechanism to ignore everything but the barest minimum news about Aadith, so she knew she had to get herself up to date about his entire media history. She set to work on it briskly. It had been a long time since she had let herself take in news of him and as she did so she found herself perplexed by the sheer number of women he seemed to run through. The Aadith she’d known had had a lot of girlfriends but nothing like this. Now the women never seemed to last more than a month. She wondered if the industry he worked in had changed him so.
Nina gathered from Aadith’s personal assistant that he was reshooting a couple of scenes to finish his current movie. She arranged with him to pencil her in for lunch with Aadith at the studio. Having visited various studios occasionally, to meet with clients or to be with them during interviews, she was familiar with the frantic chaos that was the norm on movie sets.
As she gracefully walked across the set later on that day, she garnered more than her fair share of attention. Her shiny coal-black hair was pulled back into an austere ponytail. On another woman it might have made her look severe, but on Nina it only served to draw attention to her big brown eyes. A pert nose and luscious lips completed a startlingly pretty face. In a white button-down shirt and slim-fitting grey trousers she stood out from everyone on the sets, who were all dressed rather casually.
Merely watching Nina walk towards him dressed primly with just her lips painted a sultry shade of red sent a sizzle of awareness coursing through Aadith. He’d never thought formal clothes could look so sexy on anyone but the way those pants hugged her derriere made his mouth run dry.
‘I’m running late. Can you hang around until I finish this?’ he asked, striving for a steady tone.
The movie was an elaborate period drama and Aadith was in his costume. An Indian prince … Clad in rich, bejewelled robes that faithfully outlined his wide shoulders, powerful chest and long legs, he simply looked magnificent.
Nina felt breathless just looking at him. ‘If it won’t take too long I can,’ she muttered and discreetly parked herself out of his line of vision and watched him.
It seemed to be a scene where Aadith came to know that someone had betrayed him and he had a war of words with them. He was utterly ruthless and emanated an aura of power that surrounded him like an invisible cloak. He looked dangerous and predatory, she thought warily with a slight shiver.
Nina had never watched any of his movies so watching him perform was spellbinding. He totally captured her attention, leaving the others in the scene fading into the background. Her eyes didn’t leave him the whole time.
It was another half-hour before the director called it a day. By then adrenaline pumped through him. He’d been constantly aware of Nina and to have her watch him with such rapt attention had given him a serious high. He hadn’t been able to stop himself from showing off for her. He excused himself and headed to his vanity van to change into his street clothes. He was in a hurry to join her.
‘I bet even his dentist is a pretty young thing,’ drawled an indolent voice behind her. Nina turned around to see the director, Vinay Parek, grinning at her.
‘Trust Aadith to end up with the most beautiful woman in the business to work with!’ he exclaimed enviously. Nina smiled slightly at his compliment and extended her hand to introduce herself.
He shook her hand and said, ‘I know who you are. As you know news travels fast in the industry and there is no such thing as a secret.’
Was there a warning couched in his statement? wondered Nina as she swiftly changed the topic.
‘I rarely watch movies but I enjoyed your last one. It was refreshingly honest.’ Vinay’s eyes lit up instantly. She couldn’t have chosen a better topic to keep him engaged.
‘So why did you choose Aadith for this role knowing his reputation was directly contradictory to the character he would be playing?’ queried Nina curiously.
‘We’ve been friends since our film-school days and it was he who offered to finance the movie when I was desperately in search of a producer. Besides which I think he’s insanely talented and can pull off any role convincingly,’ he said, staunchly loyal.
After watching his performance today she could well believe it, thought Nina.
‘Not to forget the added advantage of comforting the women who fail to capture his attention,’ he said, wiggling his eyebrows comically and grinning from ear to ear.
Nina burst out laughing. For someone with a hat-trick of successful films behind him, Vinay was surprisingly unpretentious.
Aadith frowned in annoyance when he caught sight of Nina and Vinay laughing together. They appeared to be remarkably intimate for virtual strangers, he thought disapprovingly. She had never spared so much as a smile for him and now here she was cosily chatting up his friend. Aadith didn’t stop to consider his next move.
He strode swiftly towards Nina and slipped an arm around her waist. She almost yelped in surprise.
Her heart began to hammer furiously. Being so close to him, she couldn’t help but breathe in the clean scent of him. His hair was still damp from the shower and his warm male scent completely enveloped and intoxicated her.
‘I see you’ve met Nina. She’s an old friend of mine,’ said Aadith, smiling fondly at her.
Vinay’s eyes widened in surprise. ‘Oh. I didn’t know you two knew each other before.’
‘Well, we were neighbours for a while,’ interrupted Nina chillingly.
But Aadith was not to be deterred. ‘And after all these years she’s back in my life again,’ he declared, looking at her as if he couldn’t believe she was there with him.
‘I’ve already kept her waiting far too long so we’ll head for lunch,’ he said, dragging Nina away before she could do more than wave goodbye at Vinay.
‘How long are you going to keep using the stale we’re-old-friends line?’ demanded Nina hotly as he steered her towards his car. ‘We were no better friends then than we are now.’
Gesturing to his chauffeur for the keys, he opened the door of a sleek sports car for her. Nina winced inwardly. Being close to him was bad enough but in a tiny, enclosed space it would be sheer torture.
His eyes glittered as he turned towards her and said tersely, ‘I was merely looking out for you. If we let it be known that we are old-time friends, the press would make less of it if they happen to see us together,’ he finished coldly.
Nina snorted derisively. ‘Rather they will just add me to the long line of your just-good-friends list.’
Aadith laughed shortly and muttered, ‘You don’t give an inch, do you?’ Nina shrugged and chose to leave it at that. There was an uneasy silence between them.
Nina looked at his long and elegant fingers resting casually against the steering wheel. She could not help but wonder how they would feel against her hot skin. She fought against her wayward thoughts and looked up to see him watching her intently. She coloured instantly and could not have broken away from his gaze if her life depended on it. Her pulse started drumming and her mouth ran dry. Nina parted her lips slightly to run her tongue lightly over her lips.
Aadith drew in a sharp breath. His gaze fastened hungrily on her moist, parted lips. His body was throbbing with desire. Had they been anywhere else but in a car, in the middle of the road, nothing would have prevented him from hauling her firmly against him and pressing his lips against hers. Her heart lurched when she saw him staring at her with a burning intensity that sent molten heat coursing through her veins.
A blaring horn from the car behind broke the moment and Nina hastily looked out of the window. In no time Aadith manoeuvred his car into the compound of an exclusive restaurant renowned for its discretion. Nina couldn’t help wondering how many other women he had taken there previously.
The maître d’ escorted them to an intimate table set for two in the far corner of the room.
Hoping to put things back on a more professional note, Nina started off by enquiring, ‘What exactly are you expecting out of this current assignment?’
‘My soon-to-be-released movie is a period film in which the hero is a die-hard romantic who wouldn’t hesitate to give up his life for the woman he loves. An until-death-do-us-part sort of romance. With my current image people are going to find it tough to accept me in that sort of role. Moreover, since I’m also co-producing the movie I have a lot riding on it,’ stated Aadith simply.
‘When is the movie due to be released?’
‘For Diwali,’ replied Aadith.
‘That doesn’t leave us with a lot of time,’ muttered Nina thoughtfully. She didn’t waste much time before she started elaborating the plans she had thought of earlier.
‘Since it’s a love story and everyone loves a happy ending I thought we could organise a contest where people from all over the country could write to you about how much they love that special someone in their life. The best couple of entries could be chosen and you could help the winners plan and execute the perfect way to show their love. After which some well-placed articles and photos of you in romantic locations with the happy couple, and quotes about you longing to find your very own happily ever after, could go a long way to restoring your romantic-hero image,’ finished Nina excitedly.
‘Only you’d have to stay clear of trouble until you lose your notoriety,’ she offered as an afterthought.
