Because she wasn't going to forget that kiss! She had been completely overwhelmed at that time, responding to the kiss in spite of herself, and now that she had come to know that the man doing the kissing had been Manik Malhotra, the multibillionaire of the worldwide Malhotra's chain, she felt that the kiss was more...huge!
"Yes. I'm fine now. Thank you" she said stiffly. Couldn't he get over with this quickly?
"Anything wrong Nandini?" Manik asked with a mild frown.
"You behaved badly this morning too, you know" she launched straight into a preemptive defense as she frowned at him. "For instance" she continued before he had time to interrupt "if you hadn't kissed me, I wouldn't have called you those names!"
"An opportunist, an idiot and a pervert" he reminded her silkily.
Nandini winced. No, Manik Malhotra certainly wasn't going to forget that in a hurry.
"Well...yes" she agreed reluctantly. "But I was upset. And frightened. And, slightly hysterical and...I shouldn't have called you those names, I realize that, but I don't think that you should fire me because of that! It wasn't as if I was screaming and shouting all over the place. I just panicked for some time, that's all. I don't like lifts. I have never liked them. I don't like dark much either. But I really think you kissing me was much worse than anything I did to you-"
"Nandini, could you please back up a few sentences?" Manik interrupted in a quiet but firm voice. His tone had become serious.
"To which one?" Nandini asked warily.
He shook his head impatiently. "The part about me firing you" He stood up to move around the desk, tall and powerful in the small office. "You think I called you up here to fire you?" He was frowning darkly.
Nandini was confused. "You mean you didn't?"
He leant back against the desk, looking at her confused expression. "As a matter of fact, no" he told her. He was slightly bewildered. "My managers deal with that sort of thing."
Yeah, yeah. Managers like Russell Tails, Nandini thought with an inward groan. Because even if Manik Malhotra didn't intend firing her, she was sure that Russell would find a reason for doing it because of her earlier remarks in the staff room.
"Why is it that every time I mention managers...I noticed a certain...restraint between you and Russell Tails earlier" Manik explained slowly.
Restraint. She wished she knew the answer of this question herself. She didn't know why but Russell had taken a dislike for her from the moment the man from the management had taken her to the third floor and introduced the two of them. As far as Nandini knew, she had never met him before, so it eliminated the chances of any past encounter due to which Russell might hold a grudge against her. Also, there wasn't anything she had said or done to the manager, because she needed this job too much to be anything but patient, completely compliant and agreeable to anything he asked of her.
And wow, Manik Malhotra, in the short span of time he had seen them together, had noticed that restraint. The man had eagle's eye! No wonder he was so successful, thanks to his exceptional observation skills.
But then, she couldn't tell him what Russell had done with her. He had deliberately shifted her to the lingerie department so that she would get embarrassed by the every now and then obnoxious remarks of her male customers. He had wanted her to get angry when a male customer shamelessly checked her out from top to bottom so that he could pounce on her at that moment itself and sack her for not handling the customers properly.
CHAPTER 4
Start from the beginning
