A/N: This part took a while to write, and that's because of a hectic couple of weeks at work and home and ill-health. So, thank you for your patience. I have tried to incorporate your feedback, so do tell me if it works.
Chapter 3 was not supposed to end where it did, but go on for another couple of scenes. However, if I'd written on it would have been too long and I couldn't have cut it or the upcoming two scenes without compromising its essence. So here it is in its current form. I hope it's worth the wait.
Enjoy!😊
Chapter 3
They argued until Kirit's 'farmhouse' came into sight. Or rather Ananya argued: Kabir drove in silence, a hint of a smile on his face, glancing every now and then at Ananya's lap on which she had abandoned his phone with its roadmap, to free her hands to make a point - the same one she'd been trying to make ever more emphatically for the last half hour.
"...You're not listening. " She drew breath now to accuse him. "Why would we need to pretend to be girlfriend/b..boyfriend," she stuttered over the word, "when we have never been that and are not in that kind of a relationship? Tell me...why?"
She turned towards him to pin him down. The abrupt movement dislodged his phone from its precarious perch on top of her thigh so that it slid into a more comfortable lee.
Ananya barely noticed. All her attention was focused on dragging an answer out of Kabir. Why was it so necessary for them to play this role? Was it a professional need or...She simply had to know.
"Well?" She prompted when he continued to stare straight ahead, not affected in the slightest by her growing frustration.
He finally relented, and flashed a quick smile at her before returning his gaze to the road.
"Like I said, Ms Kashyap, our relationship or lack of it doesn't matter. What matters is that we armour ourselves with every advantage we can against Kirit. Call it gut, or plain logic, but I'm convinced that the pretence will give us that edge. You'll just have to trust me on this. Trust me and play along. Can you do that, Miss Kashyap? Tell me now...Right?...Or left?"
What? What was right or left? Ananya's forehead wrinkled as she tried to decipher that bit. Another evasive tactic for sure.
Right?" He made no effort to mask his impatience. "Miss Kashyap, or left?"
He could try to confuse her, but he wouldn't succeed. She opened her mouth to tell him so. But just then he seemed to suddenly lose his patience and reached for her lap, and all that emerged was a hiss as his fingers brushed against her inner thigh and the air left her lungs.
Her wide eyes swung to his face, but could read nothing, no reaction. Not by so much as a flicker of his lashes did he betray any effect.
"Right it is!" He noted the direction on his phone, which was now propped up against the dash, and swung the Land Rover into the right fork.
He'd been reaching for his phone then. Ananya tried to drag air silently into her lungs. But all she managed were a few shallow breaths. Her mind was otherwise occupied, exerting all its influence on preventing her hand from stealing down and soothing her inner thigh where his fingertips had scorched the tender skin clear through the denim. She shot him a look, and reassured that his attention was engrossed by the road, finally looked down. Much the same. No burn marks, no smoke, despite the fire. Damn! What was she thinking? She shook her head to clear it.
"Here we are, Ms Kashyap, we've reached." The tension in his voice pierced through the haze.
Ananya blinked and finally saw their destination.
It was a mansion. There was no other way to describe it. 'Farmhouse' was a deliberate understatement. Ananya had expected grandeur, but this was on another scale altogether. Under the combined illumination of the floodlights and the full-moon it gleamed like some of the greatest monuments in the world.
Then the security machinery at the tall wrought iron gates swung into action and grabbed all her attention. It was a comprehensive check that put the airport security check to shame. Between the questions, the boot check, explosive check, electronics check and a baggage scan, Ananya was left with the impression of seeking entry into a nuclear facility.
"Take our fingerprints and our phones, why don't you?" She smiled sweetly at the poker-faced guards who were now restoring their bags to the boot of the car.
"Miss Kashyap..."
She shot him a glare, then shrugged.
"Ok, fine. I won't say anything. But you have to admit this is too much. Treating us as though we were spies or thieves or terrorists."
"I wonder what could have put such a thought into their heads?" Kabir held her gaze, his lips curving into a smile.
"Alright. Point taken." She mumbled, dragging her eyes away from that sinful mouth, and immediately exclaimed at the grandiose vista that was unfolding beyond the bounds of the windscreen.
"God! What is that!"
"Yes." Kabir's foot eased off the accelerator as the full-effect of the architecture at the end of the drive hit him square between the eyes. "Isn't it like...?"
"Connaught Place," Ananya finished for him.
"Exactly!" He agreed, and was struck by a thought. "You're doing it again," he wagged a finger at her for stealing his words, then grinned and shook his head. She was incorrigible!
xxx
One step inside the white door, and Ananya felt as though she'd been transported into another century in another country or onto the sets of a TV show. The butler might've had something to do with it with his impeccable demeanour and English accent. Or the room they were shown into to wait for their host.
"Do you think that fireplace is real?" Ananya's eyes were glued to the large marble fireplace gleaming white in the light of the crystal chandelier.
"Miss Kashyap, I have no doubt at all that everything in this house works exactly as it's intended to."
Ananya raised her mobile and clicked a few photos in rapid succession, and was pointing it at the columns just by the doors, when they swung open.
"Kabir Sir!"
At her bitten-off exclamation, Kabir swiftly shot her a warning glance before turning back to face their advancing host.
"Hello Kirit." He stepped forward to greet the man.
"Kabir! Welcome!"
There was an odd note in his voice; Ananya couldn't quite tell if it was pleasure or gloating or something else altogether. Nor could she see his face because Kabir's back blocked her view. Then, Kabir stepped aside and Ananya got her first good look at the man who had dominated her research of late.
He could have been a greying Omar Sharif, so entirely did he resemble the actor. A grander version, albeit, with carefully waved silver-grey hair, perfectly groomed moustache, and a suit cut like no other that Ananya had ever seen, complete with a cravat (what was it with media moguls and cravats?) a white carnation tucked into his button hole, and shoes that shone with a muted, liquid gleam. A rich and powerful Omar Sharif.
And then her eyes travelled up to his, and she found herself plunged into the depths of vileness. There was no way she could have controlled the shudder.
"And this is my...colleague Miss Ananya Kashyap," Kabir was saying. Was that a pause before 'colleague'?
Reluctantly Ananya placed her fingers in the big-knuckled hand, so at odds with the trim body, that demanded hers. And immediately understood the reason for her reluctance.
"Enchanted." He smiled at her.
And then, instead of shaking it, he brought her hand to his mouth, his grip too strong for Ananya to snatch her hand away without creating a scene. Ananya endured the lingering press of fleshy lips and bristles on the back of her hand. But when his eyes paused at her breasts on their way back up to her face, her free hand curled into a fist.
"Magnificent house, Kirit." Was it her imagination or did Kabir sound strained?
The diversion worked, and with a pleased smile, Kirit waved them to a seat before launching into a topic that was so obviously close to his heart.
And Ananya found herself free to surreptitiously rub away the traces of his touch on her jeans.
"Not quite Lutyens, I thought," Kabir interjected and settled back into the sofa picking up Ananya's hand from where it curled in her lap to interlace his fingers through hers and pull it onto his thigh.
Wide-eyed Ananya stared at him until he raised his lashes. And found herself held by eyes burnished with the hard edge of anger, which softened instantly into such tenderness and heat that she forgot to breathe. Still holding her gaze, he turned her palm over and raised it to his mouth to brush his lips against the inside of her wrist just where her pulse throbbed insistently, before turning back to Kirit.
"That's right he didn't design CP..."
It took a while for her breathing to level and her mind to break through the fog. Ananya made an effort but was only able to float in and out of the conversation registering an odd word here and there like "Georgian, Colonial, Ionic, Raj...150 crore".
And then Kabir's thumb insinuated itself into the web between her thumb and index finger and stroked absently, insistently, sending heat fireballing up her arm and up her body to explode from her lips in moan.
"Unhh..."
Ananya jack-knifed up and away from Kabir. And realized from the silence that the conversation had stopped, that Kabir was staring at her, and that Kirit's beady eyes were narrowed on her.
"Ananya?" Kabir's eyebrow quirked innocently.
Ananya gritted her teeth and dazzled both men with her smile.
"Um, excuse me please while I freshen up. It was a long journey..."
Instantly the frown cleared and Kirit became the urbane host again, pulling the bell cord to summon the help. In a matter of minutes, they were being led up a flight of stairs to their rooms.
xxx
Kirit had put them in adjoining bedrooms. Ananya's was all cream accented in dark peach and trimmed with gold. A four poster bed dominated the room, which was also tastefully furnished with antique cream-painted dressing tables, chairs with curved legs, a dresser with a jug and basin, a chaise longue at the foot of the bed, and Ananya's large, trendy bag beside it.
They could have been pieces of junk, rescued from the local yard, for all the attention Ananya gave them. Her narrowed eyes did a quick 360 degree sweep of the room, barely resting on the expensive antique furniture before moving on, and halting eventually at the dark peach curtains on the opposite wall.
Ananya flung her rucksack on to the chaise longue and strode towards the curtains. It took just a couple of strong tugs to pull back the drapes and unbolt the large glass doors, and then Ananya was out onto the balcony.
For a moment she was alone outside staring at a vast emptiness punctuated by the pools of light cast by the lamps in the garden below. And then light streamed golden on to the balcony next to hers, and after a couple of clicks a door opened and Kabir joined her.
"Kabir Sir..." She clutched his upper arm.
"Yes, Miss Kashyap? What's the urgency?" His voice was pitched so low that only she could hear it.
"There's no signal. No internet. My phone's not working...we're completely cut-off!"
"Yes, I know."
How could he be so calm?
"That's why they didn't bother taking our phones at the gate," she fumed. "They knew they'd be useless."
"We may not be able to call from them, or text, or use the internet," he corrected her, "but it won't stop us recording information."
"But what good is a recording, if we can't send it out?"
"We'll just have to find a way. He's a media man, Miss Kashyap, a media mogul! Is it possible that he'd let himself be cut-off? I don't think so. We'll just have to find out how he's keeping in touch."
"There's so little time..."
"Miss Kashyap, I'm confident that we'll get the proof and find a way to send it out. If all else fails, we'll just carry the proof out ourselves. Don't forget, we took Madhaonath down without any electronics. This will be a piece of cake!"
Incredibly, there was a note of finality in his voice as though he'd dealt with the problem and didn't want to discuss it any further. His next words bore out Ananya's impression.
"Now, Miss Kashyap, is this what you summoned me out here for with such urgency? How disappointing! And here I thought you might have called me outside to enjoy the moonlight, perhaps hold hands, and whisper sweet nothings like all boyfriends and girlfriends..."
Ananya shook her head, exasperated, but unable to stop smiling at his silliness.
"Sir, you're ..."
Whatever she was going to call him remained unsaid at the sound from her room. Startled, Ananya clutched Kabir and froze as she waited. After a beat, the sound repeated and Ananya let out the breath she didn't know she'd been holding - someone was knocking on her bedroom door.
Edited by tvbug2011 - 9 years ago
Itti Si Khushi Sab TV
Cricket
Bigg Boss 19
