Shoma Narayanan - An Offer She Can't Refuse

‘My whole night is dedicated to you,’ he said.

Promptly Mallika thought of all the things they could get up to together. Her cheeks flushed a little and she took a hasty sip of water, hoping he hadn’t noticed her confusion.

‘So, how much has Venkat told you about the job?’ Darius asked.

‘He told me about how you and he set up the share trading division,’ she said. ‘And how you got a real estate fund going, and that you now want to concentrate on the venture capital side and hire someone to manage the fund for you.’

‘That’s right,’ Darius said. ‘The fund was an offshoot of our investments business and it’s been doing well—we’ve consistently outperformed the market.’

She seemed interested, Darius noted as he began telling her more about the role. She was frowning in concentration, and the few questions she asked were focussed and showed that she’d done a good deal of research on the firm and on the job. He asked a few questions in turn, and it was clear that Venkat hadn’t been wrong. Mallika knew pretty much everything there was to know about running a real estate fund.

‘Does it sound like something you’d like to do?’ he asked finally.

It was as if he’d shaken her out of a daydream—her vibrantly alive expression dulled, and her shoulders slumped just a little.

‘I love the sound of the job,’ she said, almost unwillingly. ‘But the timing’s not right for me. I have a lot going on right now, and I think maybe it’s best I stay where I am.’

‘Do you want to take a day to think it over?’

Mallika shook her head. ‘No, I … I think I’m pretty clear that it won’t work out. I’m so sorry—I know you have a busy schedule, and I should have thought this through properly before agreeing to meet you.’

She looked so genuinely contrite that he impulsively leaned across the table to cover her hand with his, making her look up in surprise.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ he said, masking his disappointment. ‘I’m meeting other people as well, but if you do change 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?

So much for a dispassionate admiration of his looks, she thought, trying to quell the seriously crazy thoughts racing through her brain. There was good-looking, and there was scorching hot—and Darius definitely fell into the second category. The first time she’d grabbed his hand she’d been too worked up to notice—this time a simple touch had sent her hormones into overdrive.

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?’