your mind let me know.’
Mallika blinked at him, uncharacteristically at a loss for words. It was like being hit by a train, she thought, confused. She’d been so focussed on what he was saying, on trying to stay professional, that she’d forgotten quite how attractive he was. Then he’d smiled and taken her hand, and the feel of his warm skin against hers had sent her long-dormant hormones into overdrive.
We like this man, they were saying excitedly. Where did you find him? Can we keep him? Please?
Gingerly, she slid her hand out from under his and gave him what she hoped was a sufficiently cool and professional smile.
‘I’ll tell you if I change my mind,’ she managed as she pulled together her scattered thoughts.
‘The salary is negotiable,’ he added.
She shook her head. ‘It’s not about the money,’ she assured him. ‘But thanks for letting me know.’
Darius knew when not to push—and he also knew he wasn’t going to give up so easily.
Mallika looked as if she was all set to leave, and he glanced at his watch. ‘It’s almost eight-thirty,’ he said. ‘I’m starving, and I’m sure you are too. D’you have time for a quick bite?’
Perhaps he could get to the bottom of her sudden withdrawal and convince her otherwise.
He was almost sure she was going to say yes, but then her phone pinged and she gave the display a harassed look.
‘I need to go,’ she said, her attention clearly torn between him and whoever had just messaged her. Her expression was distracted as she stood up hurriedly, her short curls swinging around her cheeks. ‘Thanks for being so nice about everything.’
She put her hand out, and Darius got to his feet as he took it. ‘Nice’ wasn’t the impression he wanted to leave her with. ‘Nice’ suggested she’d forget him the minute she stepped out of the hotel. And he wasn’t going to let that happen.
‘I’ll be in touch,’ he said, keeping her hand in his a fraction longer than strictly necessary.
She didn’t reply, but she blinked once, and he realised that she wasn’t quite as unaffected by him as she was pretending to be. It was a cheering thought, and he smiled as she walked away.
He’d found her intriguing—an unusual mix of the ultra-competent and the overcautious. And the attraction between them had been hot and instantaneous—if it hadn’t been a work meeting he would definitely have taken things further. As it was, he was forced to let her walk away with only a tepid assurance of being in touch later.
The smell of freshly baked bread wafted past, reminding Darius of how hungry he was. He glanced around. Eating alone had never appealed to him, and if he stayed Mallika’s boss might see him and come across to ask where Mallika was. He felt strangely protective of the intriguing woman he had only known for a couple of hours.
Mentally he ran through his options. Going home and ordering in. Calling up a friend and heading to a restaurant. Turning up at the excruciatingly boring corporate event he’d earlier declined.
The corporate event was the least appealing, but it would give him an opportunity to network with a bunch of people who could be useful to Nidas in the future. It wasn’t too far away, either, and if he left now he’d be able to get there, hang around for an hour or so and still get home in time to catch the last bulletin on his favourite news channel.
He was handing the attendant his valet parking ticket when he spotted Mallika getting into an expensive-looking chauffeur-driven car. She was talking on the phone, and he caught a few words before the doorman closed the door for her and the car zoomed off.
‘I’ll be home in twenty minutes,’ she was saying. ‘I told you I had a meeting, Aryan. No, I haven’t decided. I’ll talk to you later …’
Whoever Aryan was, he sounded like a possessive control freak. Darius frowned. He hadn’t asked Mallika, but he could have sworn she wasn’t married. No mangalsutra necklace or rings—but lots of married women didn’t wear those. And the way she’d looked at him for that one instant …
Darius shook himself. He was rarely wrong about these things, but meeting Mallika seemed to have seriously addled his brains. He was missing the obvious. She’d hardly have asked him to pretend to be her date if her boss knew that she had a husband.
Restored to his normal confidence once he’d figured that out, he tipped the valet parking attendant lavishly as he got into his car. Not married, and probably not in a serious relationship either. Hopefully this Aryan was her interior decorator, or her tax advisor, or someone equally inconsequential.
‘What d’you mean, she wasn’t interested?’
‘She doesn’t want to change jobs,’ Darius explained patiently.
He and Venkat had joined the Nidas Group on the same day, and had spent the last decade setting up the businesses they now headed. Darius was the stable, intelligent one—the brains behind most of what they’d achieved together. Venkat was a typical sales guy—competitive, pushy, and notoriously impatient. Outside of work he and Darius were close personal friends, but right now Venkat’s expression was that of a bulldog being asked to let go of a particularly juicy bone.
‘Why does she not want to change jobs? Did you tell her how much we’re willing to pay?’
‘I did,’ Darius said. ‘She said she doesn’t need the money.’
‘You need to meet her again,’ Venkat said flatly. ‘I have absolutely no clue about this fund management stuff, and if you’re leaving we’ll go under before you know it. This girl’s really good, and she seemed keen until she met you. I’d have thought it would be the exact opposite—girls usually fall for you on first sight. What in heaven’s name did you do to put her off?’
‘Told her that she’d be working with a bunch of total scumbags,’ Darius said, deadpan. ‘Look, I’m not prepared to let her go, either, but it will be better to give her some time to think things over and change her mind. I’ll make it happen. But in the meantime I’ve got a bunch of other CVs from HR. Some of them with equally impressive track records.’
Venkat grunted. ‘I’ll go through the CVs, but you need to work your magic with this girl. Otherwise you can jolly well put your exciting plans on hold and stay here until you can find someone to replace you. I’m terrible at all this HR sort of stuff—you’re the one who gets everyone eating out of your hand. Make this Mallika an offer she can’t refuse.’
Darius bit back a sigh. Once Venkat decided he wanted something he was like an unstoppable force of nature.
‘I’m a businessman, not a Mafia don,’ he said drily. ‘Let me do it my way. I have an idea on how to win her …’
THE FLAT WAS DARK when Mallika let herself in, and she felt a familiar pang of loss as she put the lights on and surveyed the empty living room. Nothing was the same without her parents, and having a brother who’d completely retreated into his shell emphasised her loneliness rather than reduced it.
It had been a gruelling week. Her job involved meeting builders and visiting construction sites and then spending hours hunched over her computer, calculating the possible return she’d get from each investment she made for her fund.
The Mumbai property market had been at its volatile best