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Jiya popped her head forward. “Is something wrong with your tea, Mr. Bali?”
He squinted at her. She sounded and looked too innocent. All his senses went on alert. Fucking hell. She was the one who’d ruined his tea. He was certain, and her next words confirmed it.
“You didn’t reply to my question, Mr Bali?” Jiya pushed. “Was the question also boring or mundane? Or was it simply not good enough?”
He stared at her. She was throwing his own words back at him.
“The tea was just too hot, that’s all,” Rohan replied calmly, refusing to play whatever game she was hellbent on involving him in.
Around him, people were staring at the two of them, looking confused. Akash was the only one who understood what was going on. He covered his mouth, trying to hide his laughter. Fool.
Rohan gave him a scathing look. Akash immediately sobered up and called the housekeeping staff to clear the mess Rohan had created.
Rohan faced the team member who was presenting the financial reports of a very prominent client’s portfolio. “Apologies. Please continue.”
The meeting continued. A staff member placed another mug of tea in front of him. He eyed it warily. He looked to the side and found Jiya’s naughty gaze on him, daring him to give the brew a try. He ought not to rise to the challenge she presented, but alas, he didn’t listen to the sane side of his brain. He lifted the mug and sniffed it as if that would give him an answer, whether the tea was salty or not.
Her lips quirked as he took a sip. The warm liquid coated his tongue, and he sighed in relief. It was fine. Jiya shifted her chair to look away from him. She didn’t look his way for the rest of the meeting, but his focus remained fixed on her, exactly as she’d intended.
He should’ve known that Jiya wasn’t going to give up on him so easily. He, however, hadn’t expected this sort of reaction from her. He’d expected tears and anger. Not playfulness and mischief. But with her, he ought to expect the unexpected. Now each time he sipped his tea, he would wonder whether she had mixed salt in it. And considering the copious amounts of tea he consumed in a day, it meant that he’d be thinking of her a lot.
Bloody hell. He already thought about her most of the day, and now she’d ruined his tea time also for him.
20
Two days passed, and nothing out of the ordinary happened at work...thankfully. Jiya had once again ensured that she stayed away from him. She never crossed his path, and by the same random fate, he hadn’t seen her even once while he had gone to her floor. Not that he had gone on her floor to get a glimpse of her. He hadn’t, he told himself.
He missed her…a lot. But he would get over her. He’d been surviving before he’d met her, and with time he’d return to that state again—of being devoid of emotion, of being empty, he reminded himself.
That morning he took the elevator from the helipad down to his office floor, a paper cup with tea in his hand. Rohan entered his floor and walked in the direction of his office. He checked the time. He had an important meeting in the next five minutes. Some government officials were coming to his office to discuss a new drug his Pharma company was researching to battle the side effects of chemotherapy. He exited the elevator. This meeting would mark…someone crashed into him.
“Fuck!” he cursed as piping hot tea spilled on his chest. His pristine white shirt was stained yellow.
“Shit. I’m so sorry,” Jiya apologized, her expression not apologetic at all. “I think you should go get cleaned up.”
She stared at him for a short second—a short second was all it took for all his senses to come alive, for him to remember the first time she’d spilt something on him and how she’d kissed him after that. A yearning began in his chest. Her delicious scent wafted down his nose. His eyes coasted down her face, taking in her lips…lips he desperately wanted to taste again. His gaze moved lower and latched on to the red hair spilling down her shoulders. His fingers itched to take hold of those soft silky strands and pull her to him, to touch every inch of her. He ached to hear his name spill from her mouth, and he longed to… He stopped himself.
Without a word, Jiya swung around and dashed into the elevator he’d just stepped out of. His senses realigned, and he realized he just had a few minutes left to change out of his messy shirt and make himself presentable for his meeting.
Bloody hell.
He had no time to even process why she was on his floor. He dropped the paper cup in a trash can and headed straight to his ensuite, flinging his jacket on a stool. He unbuttoned his shirt and wiped himself before turning to his built-in wardrobe. He opened the cupboard and rocked back in shock. Fuck. Not a single white shirt was pristine anymore. All of them had a huge cross mark in red…lipstick.
He shut his hanging jaw. Unbelievable. She was fucking unbelievable. He didn’t know whether to laugh or to be mad. This was why she’d been on his floor. He’d thought she’d perhaps accepted his rejection and was going on with her life. But no, she’d been plotting and planning instead to wreak more havoc on him. Jiya was… She was too much. And this, right now, had gone too far. He stared at all his ruined shirts. What the fuck was he to wear now for the meeting?
“Rohan, where are you?” Akash’s voice came closer. “Everyone is waiting for you in the conference room. I just came to…”
“No fucking way!” Akash cursed, looking at him and then at his wardrobe, and then he started to laugh. “Oh my God. This whole act reeks of Jiya. I knew she was capable of doing anything, but this...this is next level.”
Rohan swung around and crossed his arms across his bare chest, glaring at him.
Akash continued to laugh, ignoring all the anger radiating out of Rohan. Finally, a few seconds later, he sobered up. “That day at the races, I warned you not to anger her. I told you that Jiya can be diabolical in getting payback. I’ve grown up with her. I’ve seen her pranks. But this…”
“Enough. I get it, okay?” Rohan tossed a hand out. “She needs to stop this at once.”
“Good luck with that,” Akash said, sounding serious. “She’s in love with you, Rohan, and she refuses to believe that you’ve suddenly stopped feeling for her. She’s hurting, and from what I’ve seen, so are you. You’re irritable and annoyed on most days and have been nothing but a huge grump since you decided to let her go. This was how you were before her, and we all in the office were used to it and had accepted it. But after letting her into your life, you became more amicable, you smiled more, and you looked…happy. So, just talk to her and end this for both of your sakes. You two belong together.”
His heart lurched. Akash didn’t know about his past. Hell, his own brother knew only bits. How could he explain that being with him would end in disaster for Jiya? That he didn’t know if he could be any different from his birth parents. If they reached that point, what if there came a time when he hurt her or their children irreparably? No. He’d never let it come to that because he’d stay away from her. That was the only solution to this.
