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Chapter 2
" Miss Dixit is one of our most experienced staff members." Raja fixed an ingratiating smile to his full lips but his dismay was obvious. " Perhaps you think she seems a little on the young side, but she's actually a good deal older than she looks!"
Bani flushed to the hairline. The beautiful Miss Khandelwal giggled. The thick silence pulsed like a wild thing in a room that now felt suffocatingly airless. She concentrated on Jai's shoes—hand stitched Italian loafers. She remembered him barefoot and in trainers. That was the only thought in her mind but it speedily flowed on into another. She remembered a teenage boy, not a full grown adult male. She knew the adult only from pictures in newsprint that fractured her peace for days afterward. But how much more disturbing to be faced by Jai in the flesh… and without any warning whatsoever. Her stomach felt cramped and she could not have opened her mouth had her life depended on it.
Raja cleared his throat uneasily. " I'm afraid that there isn't anyone available this morning. If it wasn't for this…" he scowled down at the clumsy plaster on his foot".. I would have taken you around the Country Roads property. As it is…"
" Jai.. if we don't get a move on, I'll be late for my booking,' the companion complained petulantly unfolding lithely from her chair to reveal a height very little short of Jai's six feet three.
The woman was a model..a very well known model, Bani recognized belatedly, her dazed eyes scanning the impossibly perfect bone structure. She had seen that same face on countless magazine covers. And what had Raja said her name was? Like a sleep walker, she moved forward and extended her hand." Miss Khandelwal.."
Manicured fingers brushed hers only in passing. Bored grey eyes flicked dismissively over her. She slid her hand into Jai's in a gesture of possessive intimacy and curved right round him to whisper something in his ear, her other hand moving caressingly up over his chest to curve finally to one broad shoulder.
Bani went rigid and stared. Then abruptly she looked away, but every nerve in her body screamed as she did so. For a split second, as her own fingers had closed tightly in on themselves, she had been tempted to thrust their bodies apart. That insane urge shook her inside out.
" If you'll excuse me I'll brief Miss Dixit." Raja closed a taut hand around Bani's elbow and practically pulled her out into the corridor.
" What's the silent act in aid of? Don't you know who the bloke is. That's Walia Industries.. That's who he is. I mean you just stood there gawking at him. God why does the richest client we've had in months have to come through the door the one and only day Salil's away sick?" Raja groaned in disbelief. He fell abruptly silent as the door behind her opened.
" Since we're in a hurry Miss Dixit's services will be adequate," Jai asserted flatly.
Adequate?? Bani's teeth clenched. Fierce resentment backed by a rolling tide of humiliation she didn't want to admit to, flared through her.
Thirteen years ago she had been unceremoniously dumped and she had done nothing to deserve the brutally dismissive reaction of Jai's to her, in front of her boss and his girlfriend. Was it embarrassment? Or was he like her, fighting off a distressing surge of adolescent memories? Don't fool yourself Bani, a more cynical voice urged. Even at 19 Jai Walia didn't have a sensitive bone in his body…
Rigid backed Bani descended the stairs and walked out through the crowded front office. He legs felt rubbery. As she emerged out onto the pavement Jai drawled from behind her, " We'll use the limo."
" Of course," she muttered under her breath.
" So tell us about this house," Meera Khandelwal invited thinly as Bani sat stiffly.
" Bani's mouth opened and closed again. She knew practically nothing about the property in the Country Roads complex. Since Raja had never allowed her to deal with what he termed the 'superior residences' on the agency books, she had had no reason to bone up on them. Starter homes and apartments were generally her field. But had she been in her right mind she would have checked out the facts before she left the office.
A glossy brochure landed squarely on herb lap. " Time to mug up" Jai said very drily, his mouth twisted expressively.
" You're not very efficient are you?" Meera remarked in cutting addition. " High powered sales routine are painful but complete ignorance is something else"
Bani flushed but raised her chin." I'm sorry, I haven't dealt with this particular property before.."
" It's a farmhouse," Jai slotted in gently. " But don't worry about it. We can read too."
The buzz of a mobile phone broke the tense silence. Bani didn't even lift her head. But her attention was not on the brochure. It was as if her whole brain had gone into suspended animation. She flinched as Meera gave an explosive little shriek of annoyance and shoved the mobile phone back into her capacious bag.
" I can't stay. Karan needs me now. I could scream but you know Karan. He's done me too many favours. You might as well let me out here. I can walk to the studio faster than you can get me there in this traffic! I'll try to get away soon."
" Relax it's not important. Jai murmured soothingly.
" If you had been on time maybe this wouldn't have happened, Meera exclaimed resentfully, looking at Bani accusingly.
" Perhaps you would prefer to cancel and make a fresh appointment?" Bani suggested with an eagerness she couldn't conceal.
" No I'll keep this one," Jai drawled.
" Miss Dixit is one of our most experienced staff members." Raja fixed an ingratiating smile to his full lips but his dismay was obvious. " Perhaps you think she seems a little on the young side, but she's actually a good deal older than she looks!"
Bani flushed to the hairline. The beautiful Miss Khandelwal giggled. The thick silence pulsed like a wild thing in a room that now felt suffocatingly airless. She concentrated on Jai's shoes—hand stitched Italian loafers. She remembered him barefoot and in trainers. That was the only thought in her mind but it speedily flowed on into another. She remembered a teenage boy, not a full grown adult male. She knew the adult only from pictures in newsprint that fractured her peace for days afterward. But how much more disturbing to be faced by Jai in the flesh… and without any warning whatsoever. Her stomach felt cramped and she could not have opened her mouth had her life depended on it.
Raja cleared his throat uneasily. " I'm afraid that there isn't anyone available this morning. If it wasn't for this…" he scowled down at the clumsy plaster on his foot".. I would have taken you around the Country Roads property. As it is…"
" Jai.. if we don't get a move on, I'll be late for my booking,' the companion complained petulantly unfolding lithely from her chair to reveal a height very little short of Jai's six feet three.
The woman was a model..a very well known model, Bani recognized belatedly, her dazed eyes scanning the impossibly perfect bone structure. She had seen that same face on countless magazine covers. And what had Raja said her name was? Like a sleep walker, she moved forward and extended her hand." Miss Khandelwal.."
Manicured fingers brushed hers only in passing. Bored grey eyes flicked dismissively over her. She slid her hand into Jai's in a gesture of possessive intimacy and curved right round him to whisper something in his ear, her other hand moving caressingly up over his chest to curve finally to one broad shoulder.
Bani went rigid and stared. Then abruptly she looked away, but every nerve in her body screamed as she did so. For a split second, as her own fingers had closed tightly in on themselves, she had been tempted to thrust their bodies apart. That insane urge shook her inside out.
" If you'll excuse me I'll brief Miss Dixit." Raja closed a taut hand around Bani's elbow and practically pulled her out into the corridor.
" What's the silent act in aid of? Don't you know who the bloke is. That's Walia Industries.. That's who he is. I mean you just stood there gawking at him. God why does the richest client we've had in months have to come through the door the one and only day Salil's away sick?" Raja groaned in disbelief. He fell abruptly silent as the door behind her opened.
" Since we're in a hurry Miss Dixit's services will be adequate," Jai asserted flatly.
Adequate?? Bani's teeth clenched. Fierce resentment backed by a rolling tide of humiliation she didn't want to admit to, flared through her.
Thirteen years ago she had been unceremoniously dumped and she had done nothing to deserve the brutally dismissive reaction of Jai's to her, in front of her boss and his girlfriend. Was it embarrassment? Or was he like her, fighting off a distressing surge of adolescent memories? Don't fool yourself Bani, a more cynical voice urged. Even at 19 Jai Walia didn't have a sensitive bone in his body…
Rigid backed Bani descended the stairs and walked out through the crowded front office. He legs felt rubbery. As she emerged out onto the pavement Jai drawled from behind her, " We'll use the limo."
" Of course," she muttered under her breath.
" So tell us about this house," Meera Khandelwal invited thinly as Bani sat stiffly.
" Bani's mouth opened and closed again. She knew practically nothing about the property in the Country Roads complex. Since Raja had never allowed her to deal with what he termed the 'superior residences' on the agency books, she had had no reason to bone up on them. Starter homes and apartments were generally her field. But had she been in her right mind she would have checked out the facts before she left the office.
A glossy brochure landed squarely on herb lap. " Time to mug up" Jai said very drily, his mouth twisted expressively.
" You're not very efficient are you?" Meera remarked in cutting addition. " High powered sales routine are painful but complete ignorance is something else"
Bani flushed but raised her chin." I'm sorry, I haven't dealt with this particular property before.."
" It's a farmhouse," Jai slotted in gently. " But don't worry about it. We can read too."
The buzz of a mobile phone broke the tense silence. Bani didn't even lift her head. But her attention was not on the brochure. It was as if her whole brain had gone into suspended animation. She flinched as Meera gave an explosive little shriek of annoyance and shoved the mobile phone back into her capacious bag.
" I can't stay. Karan needs me now. I could scream but you know Karan. He's done me too many favours. You might as well let me out here. I can walk to the studio faster than you can get me there in this traffic! I'll try to get away soon."
" Relax it's not important. Jai murmured soothingly.
" If you had been on time maybe this wouldn't have happened, Meera exclaimed resentfully, looking at Bani accusingly.
" Perhaps you would prefer to cancel and make a fresh appointment?" Bani suggested with an eagerness she couldn't conceal.
" No I'll keep this one," Jai drawled.
Udne Ki Aasha
Kumkum Bhagya
Arjun
