PART 8
The music stops and everyone who had been watching them burn the floor with their moves and their sizzling chemistry applauds and they both snap out of the magic they had been bonded in.
Prithvi looks into her dark eyes and sees confusion and then embarrassment in them. He lets go of her hand in his but his other hand rests on her waist. She tries to move away a little but he simply tightens his hold and she looks at him shocked.
"Drink?" he asks her and she nods a no.
"One drink" he says again and she nods and he leads her to the bar and orders a drink for her and leads her to a place with a little privacy.
Damini looks at the drink in her hand, it was Champagne. A drink which was the symbol of celebration. Celebration it should be. The irritating, short tempered, good-looking man had just spent the last fifteen minutes dancing with her and not fighting. She sighed and smiled softly.
Prithvi, who had been looking at Damini without missing a beat, saw her smiling to herself and the glass of champagne in her hand.
"You have a beautiful smile" he can't help himself and she raises shocked eyes towards him, her mouth falling open in surprise and a breath hitching in her throat. Definitely celebration, she thought. Not had he danced without fighting or being pompous or rude but miracles of miracle, had complimented her.
"What? Why are you looking at me so shocked? Has no one ever told you before?" Prithvi asks her when she keeps staring at him with disbelief, not reacting to his compliment.
Damini closes her surprised mouth and shakes her head gently. "Why?" she looks at him questioningly.
"Why what?" Prithvi asks confused.
"Why the sudden change Mr. Saxena?" she asks.
The sudden change…Prithvi smiles to himself. The Gujral women were smart, he had to admit. Damini had caught him right off the bat, him trying to be nice to her. There was no way he intended her to know the truth. They deserved to be shocked when their precious Gujral Empire was brought to the knees by the Saxena brothers.
"You deserve an apology" Prithvi starts and Damini looks at him stunned. First dancing, then complementing and now apologizing? She just couldn't believe what was happening. She looked at her glass. It was still full, she hadn't taken a sip and neither had she drunk anything since entering the party. So, how come her mind was reeling?
"An apology?" she echoes, unable to contain herself.
"Yes…..for that day in my office…..I…I am sorry I lost control…..but your proposal was out of the blue and I was not ready for it" he finishes truthfully, fully avoiding the fact that her being a Gujal was the main reason for his angry outburst.
"Oh…I see….so without reading or waiting to listen, you just lost control of yourself?" Damini counters, one eyebrow raised.
Bewitching….Prithvi thought.
There was slight wind now and her saree pallu was flapping, pulling the soft material tighter to her body and accentuating her curves even more. She was looking at him, her head slightly tilted to her side and her silken hair flapping away from her gorgeous face, giving him a chance to look at it clearly.
She had abandoned the champagne glass on the ledge and her hands were clasped together in front of her. She looked absolutely ethereal. As per her last statement, he was losing control now too. However much he told himself that she was a Gujral, his enemy, the attraction was simply uncontrollable.
"Prithvi" she softly took his name, waving her hand in front of his face and moving a few steps closer, her soft perfume hitting his senses.
"Yeah" he asked softly, scanning her lovely face.
"My question?" she asked and he smiled.
"Yes…that" he sighed. Back to the conversation, he really needed to stop dreaming about her, especially as she was unattainable and out of bounds.
"So?" she prompted.
"Yeah….I flew out of control just at the mention of the offer……as I don't want to sell the company I have built with so much effort, pain and time" he replied, looking at her straight in the eye.
"But I was giving you control of it….to run it" she explained.
"At what cost? Being a puppet in your hand?" he asked bitterly and a look of surprise flashed in her eyes.
"You are the CEO….we were just going to be silent partners" she explained.
"Gujrals and silent" he scoffed and Damini looked at him curiously.
"What does that mean?" she asked.
"Nothing…..the simple fact that you are interested in my company is compliment enough….now I think of it, whatever the deal you have will never prompt me to sell it to you" he shrugged and looked away, trying to forget the picture of his father's pyre and his mother going into a Coma. He needed control.
"No one will ever give you such a deal" Damini says and Prithvi nods.
"True….but it's still not good enough to sign" he looks back at her.
"Then how will it be?" Damini asks the price.
"You know what…..we shouldn't talk shop……this party is just to know each other….right?" Prithvi tried to change the topic.
"Absolutely right" Inder's baritone answered Prithvi's question and he smiled thankfully at him.
"I knew you two would be talking shop……especially Damini" he nudges her shoulder and she gives him a wry smile. She loved Inder as a friend but sometimes he got on her nerves, just like now. Here she had thought that she had finally gotten to the reason for the Saxena's reluctance to sell their company but Inder had to interrupt.
"No…..not her….just us" Prithvi smiled, noticing her wry smile.
"Okay you guys…..enough in the corner….lets go…back to the dance floor" Inder says and puts his arm around Damini's waist and drags her with him to the floor where Damini after a while starts enjoying the dance with Inder. Prithvi watches from the side lines, thinking why the woman he was so attracted to had to be a Gujral, his adversary, the one he was trying to bring down.
"No Rosh…..it's impossible for me to come with you to Paris" Varun was trying to be reasonable with Roshni, the one he had met at the perfume launch where Sameer had dragged Prithvi and him.
"Why not? You are a businessman….just find some business in Paris" she pouted over the phone.
Varun really liked Roshni, even if she was unreasonable at times. Meeting her one would never know that she was such a famous name in the modeling industry. She was down to earth, happy and full of energy. Varun had been incessantly attracted towards her because of her innocence and childlike quality she had retained in spite of the big bad world of business she was in.
Though right about now that very naivety and innocence, was giving him a hard time.
"Rosh….really….my business doesn't extend to Paris" he replied sighing.
"Then take a vacation….come on Varun" she said softly and Varun closed his eyes. He liked the idea of the vacation, in Paris, with Roshni filling his days with incessant chatter and night with her parties. He smiled at the picture in his head.
Then that picture was replaced by the picture of his elder brother and he shook his head sadly.
"I can't ….especially at this juncture…..I need to be here Rosh" he tried to argue softly.
"Fine then…..if you can't come to Paris then how about my birthday party ….in Alibaug" she bargained and Varun laughed. She was a hard nut to crack. Now he understood that the whole Paris thing had been a sham and the whole purpose was her party, which she wanted to invite him to.
"Fine…..I will" he replied and she whooped in joy.
"It's next week …on the Saturday……and you have to stay" she ordered and then hung up happily.
Varun sat with the phone cradled close to his heart. He was falling for this beautiful girl. His mind and heart both knew that but his mind warned him that he had no time for these things as their mission to bring the Gujrals to their knees was paramount. In spite of that, he didn't want to think of it tonight. Tonight he would think of Roshni.
After that night, Sameer hadn't seen Avni anywhere in the discos or the parties he went to. He had tried to ignore her thoughts but somehow, each girl he met, he compared to her and she always fell short of Avni. It had never happened to THE SAMEER SAXENA. He had never thought about any girl so much but he couldn't get Avni out of his mind.
Finally he got up and rapped at Varun's door.
"Yes bhaiyya" he asked when Sameer entered, disturbing his thoughts about Rosh.
"Chotte….ahem…how are you?" Sameer asked casually and Varun's eyebrows shot up. His brother was asking him how he was at 9:30 in the night. What was wrong with him?
"I am fine bhaiyya but you surely aren't……what's wrong?" he asked outright.
"Ahem….nothing " Sameer lied and sat next to Varun, wondering how to ask about Avni.
"Come on bhai…..out with it….what is it?" Varun asked.
"Well…Ok…..don't laugh….but ahem…..you know Roshni" he starts and Varun nods, "Well the girl with her that day, Avni……can I get her number?" Sameer asked hopefully and Varun bursts into laughter.
"Wooooo…the Sameer Saxena, the stud is asking me for a girl's number….I can't believe it" Varun laughs hysterically which irritates Sameer.
"Enough already Chotte…..it's not that funny….you seem to know the girl who knows her…..so what is the big deal" Sameer snaps.
"N….Nothing….nothing bhai……fine…I'll stop" Varun bursts into a fit of laughter again and Sameer seethes.
"F…Fine….you are in luck….I don't have the number but I have this invite….for her exhibition….maybe you can meet her there" he hands him the card for Avni's exhibition, which Rosh had for some reason invited him to and which he was not going to anyways.
"Wow….artist" Sameer whistled. This was getting better and better. Instead of calling her, he would get a chance to meet her again. He liked his younger brother and gave him an impulsive hug.
That night Sameer and Varun slept with a smile on their faces, dreaming about the two beautiful girls they were attracted to. Prithvi on the other hand, in his dreams gave into his attraction to Damini. At least there there was no revenge……only his imagination took wings.
The smile on the three brother's faces was a treat to watch for Suman, when she came for her nightly rounds to look at her three boys, who were trying to get her happiness back by giving her every luxury in the world. Whereas all she wanted was to see them happy.
"Sleep like this always my children" she prayed to the almighty and asked for their happiness which they had lost somewhere because of her.
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