Billionaire's 'lost' wife

Chapter 1 --The discovery

'Let us walk around the corner, next turn and we can talk', she said simply, pointing to an area beyond the pillared verandah. 'We would need privacy for this', her voice was clipped. He followed along, knowing she knew the landscape better. Less than 50 meters on, they took the turn and the garden on the first floor in the middle of this university building was a surprise, but he could easily see the old styled classrooms with pillared verandahs continuing where the garden ended. There was a staircase going down to the ground floor at the other end and sensing his interest she instinctively said, 'that one leads to the back gate, you can get both cars and cabs there.'

He smiled, so businesslike of her, as usual. No small talk, no prancing around, straight to the point. Hell, the lack of pretense was making him think twice about how to carry the conversation. She stopped near the middle of the garden where a small stone bench was draped with twirling wines. As she looked through her rather large bag, he decided he liked the color of her dress today- a nice salwar kameez (loose fitting Indian top and flared bottom). It was sky blue, the color he loved. How does she know? Has she done it on purpose?

He found himself staring at her profile and everything discussed on the dinner table last night came rushing in. From uncle's insistence on getting everything in writing to the lawyer walking him through various options. His cousin instilling the need to minimize media attention no matter the monetary cost. She found the papers and was holding them out for him to see. All he could see were the bright black kohl rimmed eyes.

Instinctively he asked, 'so how much are you fleecing me for?'.

She stared blankly for a moment and retorted, 'why don't you read it for yourself?'

'I hope it is not beyond a couple of crores, because despite all this make-up and advise from my lawyers and family, I will not pay you a penny more. '

'Cool, then I am signing it right away. Here, (she turned and put her signatures on various pages), I am done. Its your turn now. Read it and sign it if you feel like. '

'What is the hurry? Why are you trying to act so indifferent to me? You wear my favorite color, look so beautiful, what are you trying to do here?

The document was still in her hand, she felt a bit rattled, not understanding his behavior. All she could do was look at him in shock.

Taking a step towards her, he locked his gaze into her eyes unable to move away, 'remember once you kissed me.' He could smell her perfume, it was heady and her eyes were beautiful. They never realized when she had stepped back into a pillar and he was standing right over her. The eyes remained locked and instinctively his hands went up around her almost pinning her there. She was lost in his eyes and tried to ask her rational mind to return, which it refused.

He kissed her. Very lightly on her lips firing electric bolts through her body. Her eyes closed as  and her body shook taking in the sensations. Before any part of her logical mind could kick in, he moved away strands of hair to look closely at the column of her throat which had mesmerized him for so long. He could not hold his passion any longer and planted soft kisses along the throat. She moaned, her soft sigh was now directly in his ears driving him crazy. As he continued planting the kisses he reached the base of the neck and felt he was drunk and gone to heaven.

Suddenly she shifted and tried to pull her chunni (long scarf) up to cover herself. Their eyes locked again and he could feel her shyness. And suddenly something got stuck. As she looked down to investigate, his hand was stuck in her chunni  and as he moved his hand to extricate it she could see that it was his ring that were pulling cloth to itself. 

It was a diamond ring, an engagement ring! Passion evaporated and finally the rational mind kicked in. She looked up at him and said ' congratulations on your engagement.' He looked at her dumbstruck trying to remember what it was and then the memory of his very public engagement to someone else came flooding in. By then she had picked her bag and was already running down the stairs at the other end. The legal papers lay scattered at his feet.

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Author's note: I have used Indian dressage as that was she was wearing. The chapter is named 'discovery' because this is the first time the hero discovers his passion for his 'lost' wife. He had never ever thought he would have feelings for her.......

Hope you love the suspense and conflict :) Do share your thoughts.

The names will be revealed in the next chapter. Coming soon!