Hues Of A Bloom- Chapter1
Neil’s back hurt. His eyes burned and he was too tired to the bone but yet he stayed stubborn. He had to complete the work for the big meet tomorrow. He cannot yet trust any of his employees with this. It was too important for him to let that get messed up completely by others. He had been at it since the morning and now at 3AM of the next day he still was working relentlessly. He could take a break but he didn’t.
A sudden commotion at his door turned his eyes and attention to it. His forehead lined and his jaw hardened. He had warned his secretary for complete silence near his cabin, hadn’t he. The back of his neck prickled in irritation and his attention snapped out completely of an important figure he had been dealing with since an hour now. He had been summing up a few important numbers to note down prior to the meeting. Now he lost the trail of thought and also the sum up of the figure. A tendril of irritation crawled up his back. The pen fell off his hand and moved onto the mahogany table.
He sighed heavily and craned his neck to side and lifted up the receiver of the phone. His fingers dialled a connecting number to his secretary.
“What’s the problem?” He bit out.
Maria faltered before replying.
“A…a…a certain Ms.Khanna is here, boss. She wouldn’t listen and says it’s important for her to meet you and…” She went on anxiously.
Neil’s back straightened. His body locked and his face arranged into a grim set.
“Send her in.” He ordered curtly, and cut her blabber sternly.
He put down the receiver and waited for the door to open. It precisely opened in five seconds. Quite in a hurry wasn’t she, and he wondered why. A cold smile lifted up the corner of his lips.
His eyes immediately locked into a light brown large gaze. A second more of staring deeply into those specks of gold he finally took in her appearance completely. An oval face. Long black hair. A tiny waist and an equally thin short frame clad in a light grey t-shirt and blue denim jeans and in that she looked nothing of an age less than a teenager. A face quickly forgotten in a crowd. She was nothing spectacular. He cannot consider her beautiful or even pretty. Neil had seen her in parties. She had been a hotel heiress once but now she was nothing. He felt very satisfied about it. Looking at her fully now he didn’t know what was so interesting in her that she had then held such a popular magic of being a perfect hostess. For him though, she looked a complete bore and a drab.
His assessing eyes went up lazily and he caught a stiff look come across her face and he almost smiled at the uncertain and trapped expression she presented to his stare right now.
“I don’t usually encourage vagrants in my office, Miss Khanna, but for you I’ll make an exception.” He drawled, twirling the pen around in a circle on the table while talking.
His eyes strayed to her face and narrowed into slid when she didn’t flinched nor she either drew back. She stared back at him blankly. It bewildered him. Her eyebrows were thin and she had a fair complexion. A deep flush rose over her cheeks at his sharp scrutiny. The flush deepened and he followed the trail of it moving down over her jaw and then down to the slender neck. His eyes strayed down to the blush but he lost the focus of it when it disappeared under the t-shirt starting from her collar bone. His mind circled into annoyance. Confounding clothes.
Neil shook out of such a disturbing thought.
The irritation sparkled into a sizzle of an irritation at her continued silence.
“Speak and leave. I don’t have time for this. Though I don’t know what to do with a spoilt bratty princess who barges into my office anyway she wants these days.” He said in lazy irritation and a sneer curled up his lips while she paled a little. He didn’t care and went on snapping at her in a low quiet insulting tone….”Next time of this shouldn’t repeat. You’ll face the security or better a restraining order instead.” He concluded, sounding harsh and colder by the minute to his own ears.
She didn’t flinch or wince at words. She didn’t run away crying with tears streaming down her face and she held her ground staring back at him timidly in silence and serenity. Usually women would run or dissolve into tears at his silent anger. She wasn’t giving him the reaction he needed as her eyes locked with his now in what seemed to be in a staring battle. He was greatly amused. The light in her eyes penetrated deeper into the layers of his gaze disturbingly.
She had this elfian like charm around her and he didn’t know until he finally felt it. It surprised him. Her silence was magnetic and alluring. And when she moved he suddenly became very much aware of one thing. She wasn’t aware of her own charm and confidence and that made her look too young and innocent. The thought made him immediately feel like a jackass for snapping at her like that. Usually he held more manners with a woman but this one came knocking at his door at a really wrong time. He was too tired, hungry and haggard to deal with this demure princess right now. She still stood across at him like a stone statue. He didn’t know what to make of her.
She dis though finally open her mouth. Her hands unfolded from under her chest and she glanced down at a file in her hand.
“You bought my boutique.” She stated in a quiet voice.
Soft. Mousy and soothing. Her voice was like a whisper of a breeze. Her tone was different yet firm. Though her words were spoken with confidence. She seem to be sure of what comes next out of her mouth. Hmm, he observed thoughtfully.
Neil’s eyes finally moved up to her moving lips. Soft. Peachy and luscious.
Yes, he did indeed bought the estates and also the houses. The family he destroyed had nothing now but well nothing. He had felt a great rush then while he destroyed his father’s rival company and wealth into shambles.
Neil sighed. He leaned back on the chair and he tilted his head to the right side and smiled an unseeing one.
“Yes. I did.” He replied softly and smug while slicing her a hard look…”How are you doing now?” He mocked her cruelly.
Her expression remained neutral. His eyes fell over her delicate hands. Her nails were polished red. Beautiful. He got himself out of such an acute observation while looking up at her.
And then she did something out of the blue and unexpected.
Well, she sighed.
A breathy one.
And it brought her scent permeated around his cabin. Sweet roses. The smell wasn’t overpowering. It annoyingly didn’t bring in any headache but made him very aware of her presence in his space.
She looked up and stared straight into his eyes before she spoke the words meekly.
“Not good.” She replied.
The words said so quietly should have brought him an immense wealth of satisfaction but coming out of her mouth so demurely and sad he felt it go into him like a straight out punch to the gut. A painful one. He gulped hard. It jarred, stirred and rubbed wrong into his mind and with it brought a deep annoyance into his thoughts.
What the hell was she doing here? What was this? A pleading? A game? A tactic? What?
He couldn’t possibly read into her before drowning himself into a round of observation of the little movements of her body. The blink of her wide eyes. The twitch of her full lower lip. The parting of lips in wonder while observing and taking in expression she had going on now while looking around his office. The great curiosity and wonder while fidgeting her hands nervously. The heavy flow of the thick curtain of her hair while she turned her head to the wall. All these movements were a little naive and young. He thought that the once princess hotel heiress would come here glaring, fuming, snapping and pissed off at him but now looking at her manner, he was thoroughly and completely bewildered. He was thrown off the loop here. She was nothing like the women he knew.
What the hell?
Neil got up abruptly and he shook her off his mind with some difficult. He walked around and turned towards her. Her eyes widened at his sudden move. He moved closer and looked down coldly into her eyes. He cursed at the wrong move because now he could feel the warmth and softness of her body just an inch of distance from his restless one.
“What do you want?” He bit out gruffly.
Her eyes stayed widened and her peach lips parted a little and he could see a line of small and straight even white teeth. Great she was cute of not adorable.
She blinked twice and he observed her eyelashes. Thick. Black. Heavy and curled.
“It’s wasn’t my father’s.” She replied in a whisper.
Neil frowned.
“What?” He asked sharply.
Her red lips parted to reply and his eyes drew to those flaring up in interest. His heart skipped a beat finding the luscious colour wet after she licked her lower lip.
“The boutique. It wasn’t my father’s.” She replied even more quietly.
He frowned in real confusion.
“Whose was it then?” He asked her exasperated.
Talking to her in whispers was really strange. Even if the conversation was stiff and formal, he felt every word exchange with her too intimate and personal.
She looked deep into his eyes curiously. Whatever she was trying to find he didn’t give her that. The walls moved up firmly in his eyes before she could see into mind more.
A flush again covered her cheeks, nose, ears, jaw and it ran down her neck rapidly. Damn, she shouldn’t do that. Everytime she did blush he felt a jerk in the flow of his blood. It pumped faster and warmer and excitedly into his veins with a new vigour. Damnation again, this was danger territory that he shouldn’t venture into.
He wondered at the trail of this conversation. It was pointless. If she was here to beg back the little shop then she was wrong to assume so of him ever giving it back to her.
He lost her eyes when she looked down at her feet awkwardly.
He didn’t like that. Not having her eyes on his. He didn’t like that at all.
“I bought that boutique with the money I gathered from since I was fifteen.” She let out a little information about her life a little anxiously.
He stared down at her bent head a second more now while taking in her words, voice and hesitance.
Neil’s face cleared of the frown. Well, he was surprised there now but he didn’t believe her. The property was listed in her father’s name and everything of his was Neil’s now. Anger came swift and it hardened his form.
“So?” He asked her in an uncaring voice.
She looked up into his eyes and her surprised face came into his vision. His body relaxed feeling her eyes on his and the anger ebbed away from his mind looking down at her face intently.
She still tried to see through into his eyes. Neil let her observe his profile. He gave away nothing.
“You don’t believe me.” She said a little too timidly and she tilted her head to stare into his eyes…”Or that you don’t want to believe me.” She concluded quietly again.
Neil stiffened at her observation. He covered it and lifted up his lips mockingly.
“What’s the difference?” He asked her instead.
She leaned and observed his face features again and he let her eyes move gently over his jaw.
“Apparently a whole of difference.” She said a little strangely and evasively.
Neil didn’t know what to answer to such an observation. He remained silent.
“Fine.” She sighed in finality and drew back.
Neil stiffened when a familiar look moved across her face. Seems like she was done with him.
“What is?” He asked her bemused.
He straightened more when she suddenly moved into his space and leaned closer to his body. He turned to stone when her left hand lifted up and she placed it right over his heart. It abruptly skipped and raced at her furtive touch. Though he was wearing thick clothes her touch burned right through into his coat and shirt and branded an imprint into his soul. A silent hiss of a breath escaped his lips. She didn’t know what her touch was doing to his senses. They ran amok, wild, frantic, territorial and possessive at the warmth of her body. His eyes narrowed into cold hard shards while catching her fleeting serene brown wide stare. His eyes nettled her into his gaze.
“You seem to have locked lot of things here ” she observed to herself more than talking to him. Her eyes drew down to her hand which moved over his chest….”You should let it go before those turn into poison.” She murmured quietly and moved back.
Her hand fell of his chest and the place where her fingers were pressed warmly on his chest suddenly turned into ice. She looked around his office one more time before she turned around and left as quietly as she came in.
He stared hard at her until her slim elegant figure disappeared across at the front desk while he observed her walking slowly and silently through the glass wall of his cabin. He stayed quietly frozen to the floor until his feet and eyes hurt with the effort to stay at a rigid place.
He felt drivelled by a chit of a girl. He sighed annoyed and a little drained and also very much dazed. His mind blanked out with the cleat immensity of her face fully embedded in his mind now.
Her scent lingered around and her warmth stayed back in his cabin much longer than that.
She either must be a better actress or that she was a witch to fool him into her magnetic allure.
Neil concluded the later as his lips involuntarily murmured the word.
“Witch.” He let out.
He turned around to work but the memory of the woman stayed back in his mind like a slow warm burning ember.
Her wide luminous questioning eyes. Her luscious lips. The freshness of her face. Her porcelain blushing skin. The tantalizing smell. The warmth. Her body. Her innocence…..
Witch indeed…
Credit to: Blue