Love Finds a Way !!!

Chapter 49

Tanish looked at his watch as he entered the lobby of the hotel his friend was staying in. He was five minutes early. Good timing. Considering the ever increasing traffic and jams in the city. But then Tanish was a fast driver and he liked being on time. He hated anyone who wasted even a second. He sauntered through the lobby and almost passed the girl who had just come out of a room and was locking the door when he paused and squinted. She seemed familiar. But he couldn't see her face as she had her back to him. Who was she? Definitely one of the staff. She put the empty jug on her cart momentarily providing her profile to him. And Tanish smiled.

Clad in her uniform which was a deep purple printed sari and her long hair contained in a neat bun at the base of her neck she looked different. But it was definitely her. Miss Pratiksha Kak. She was not only an old friend of Miss Kanak Sharma she even shared the same profession. Wow. What thick friendship? And fancy meeting her here. He hadn't forgotten her. But she had taken a backseat in his mind. As other important things had taken precedence. It was kind of difficult to forget someone who had stood up to him and matched him word for word. The problem was he had enjoyed that sparring with her. It took wits and guts to do that. And she had both. It would be fun to see if he could rattle her. Since surprise was on his side as he had seen her first it could just go the way he wanted it to. Or not.

"Well, well, well," Tanish said standing very close behind her, "If it isn't the 'old friend' of my 'new friend'," he said amused.

Pratiksha seemed to freeze on the spot. That voice. She knew that voice. Tanish Singhania? She whirled around to confirm. Of course, how had she even doubted it could be someone else. That lazy drawl. That mocking tone. Those layers of arrogance and sarcasm. It couldn't have been anybody else. He stood there with his now very familiar ****y smile. Clad in his black polo neck t shirt and khaki casual trousers with...sandals. He looked devilishly handsome. His hair was again styled at an angle and gelled to hold them together. He did like to look different didn't he, Pratiksha thought. But it suited him. It suited his personality. Wait, what was she thinking? Why was he here? Was he following her? If he was she would report him no matter what.

"What are you doing here?" Pratiksha asked as she got over her surprise.

Tanish shrugged.

"If you are following me around..." she said as she narrowed her gaze at him and would have finished when Tanish interrupted.

"Now why would I want to do that?" he asked finding it funny she had said something like that.

"Why don't you ask that question to yourself?" she retorted.

"Miss Kak," Tanish said lazily and Pratiksha gritted her teeth at the formal address, "you don't feel threatened by me do you?" he said and raised his eyebrow.

"No," Pratiksha said tightly.

"Good," Tanish replied, "I am relieved to know that," he said mockingly and Pratiksha wanted to whack that lazy mask right off that handsome face of his. "I hope you aren't carrying any hurt feelings from last time," he said pleasantly.

Pratiksha knew there was nothing pleasant about the man. He was absolutely downright irritating. She didn't know why he affected her so. She had met numerous men outside and here at work who tried to act smart all the time and she had always been able to keep them at an arm's length with politeness. But when it came to him she couldn't control the intense dislike or even anger that rose within her. What was it about him that made her react like that? Was it the mask he wore all the time? Could be. She hated pretenders with an intensity which wasn't funny. But the problem was somewhere she knew he wasn't pretending. This wasn't a pretense. It was a carefully crafted complicated part of his personality. He liked to keep the people in front of him in the dark. She remembered what Kanak had told her about Aarav. How he always read her thoughts easily but she never had a clue to his. And it seemed to be the same case with Tanish. He wasn't easy to read either with that bored look on his face all the time. Disinterested in everything attitude. Nothing fazed him demeanor. Strange, how much she had read him in just two meetings. What she meant was that though she had no clue to what he was thinking she could see beyond what he presented to everyone. Whatever that meant. But all of that did not state she should let him trample all over her. He was a witty guy if anything and very few men these days had that. And Pratiksha was a sucker for that trait. Only, Tanish Singhania wasn't a current favorite.

"Why are you here exactly Mr. Singhania," she asked just as pleasantly.

Tanish resisted the urge to smile. The formal tone suited her. She was a pleasure to interact with. He had been baiting her. But she hadn't taken it as yet. And she had recovered from her surprise at seeing him there remarkably faster than he had thought. Admiration for her rose a bit.

"To meet an old friend," he supplied the answer.

"You..." she started with a glint in her eyes when he raised both his hands in the air in mock surrender.

"Honest," he said.

"I hope you have a pleasant visit then," she said in a tone that suggested she actually meant the exact opposite.

"With having met you now, I am sure I will," he responded.

"Glad to know that," she said sweetly, "now if you will excuse me, I will go back to my work," she said proudly and turned back to her cart and took out the key to the other room.

"What? You dismissed me already," Tanish said as if wounded.

"You still don't want me to scratch that raw nerve I hit that day now," Pratiksha said maintaining her smile somehow. Damn but it was difficult. "Do you?" she challenged.

Tanish smiled mockingly. Amazing. She did have grit and gumption both. He found he liked that quality in her. It suited her. The challenge in her voice wasn't lost on him. He would have laughed had it been anybody else.

"Strangely, I recover pretty fast Miss Kak," he said as he put his hands in the pockets of his trousers, "and once a raw nerve is not always a raw nerve," he told her, "at least not for me. But it would be impolite on my part to stop a lady from trying," he said and shrugged with a half-smile and saw her getting irritated. She did look overly cute when she was all riled up. But he knew five minutes were done. And he needed to see the man he was here to meet in the first place. "Maybe another day," he said as if he was upset that day wasn't today. Then he took a step forward and stood almost in touching distance from her. He heard her suck in her breath but she stood her ground as she tilted her head back to look at his face. Admirable. "But you don't look really nice in this color," he said and pointed out her sari and Pratiksha's eyes widened at that but she didn't look away, "nor in the manner you tied your hair," he said and pointed at her bun, "green suits you sweetheart," he said with his lazy smile back on his face and at the endearment saw her mouth part slightly, and he bent forward, closer, "and hair that lovely, should be allowed to breathe a little," he said softly in her ear, "have a good day beautiful," he said and then straightening, inclined his head and then taking a step to the side walked past her.

Pratiksha didn't know what to say. What the hell had just happened? How the hell had he gained an upper hand? She turned to watch him walk, tall and proud down the lobby and vanish at the next turn. She felt her cheeks turn warm. It was definitely because of her anger she told herself. The nerve of that cad. How dare he? How dare he call her 'sweetheart' and then 'beautiful' too. And then she understood. He had wanted to unsettle her the way she had done all those nights ago. He had been unsettled by her comments that night at the reception. So it had been payback time. He had tried to intimidate her and when that hadn't worked he had gone ahead and used a soft voice and endearments to get the desired result. What a calculative man? She looked at her wrist watch. It had only been about seven minutes. Really? She couldn't believe it. She was sure it had been longer than that. She was angry at him. She hated him. Taking in deep breaths to calm her worked state of mind down. And stop herself from going after him to dump the pitcher on the man's head. She hoped she would never have to see him again. At least not in near future. Or else God would be responsible for her actions. With that she jammed the key into the next door and opened it.

Not realizing that the deep soft mocking tone had affected her at a lot of levels than she would have actually wanted. Not registering that the faint musk scent of the man who had the ability to get her anger to level ten in a matter of seconds had made a mark on her senses. It would be later. Much later. Maybe not even then. And destiny sighed.

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