Page 29 of Wicked Trap

And now, he also knew how she felt in his arms.

Touching her was a mistake. And he hadn’t expected his body to react to mere touching. The soft swell of her breasts, the sweet smell of her hair and her eyes flashing fiercely at him aroused him in ways he had never been before. He was only moments away from her discovering the effect her closeness was having on him.

She would have been all the more outraged and pissed and called him a pervert.

He shook his head again.

His brothers would be highly amused too if they ever come to know that he got a damn boner from simply touching a woman. Right from the age when he became aware of the opposite sex, he always had his pick from the vying attentions of beautiful women. He had become jaded early on since he was so used to having sex as a mere bodily function that a simple touch or banter didn’t cause an extreme physical reaction like it did a while ago.

Hell. Maybe it’s just been too long.

He convinced himself that it had been close to two months since he had sex. Finding out the truth about a devastating loss and betrayal wasn’t exactly conducive to wanting to have sex. And the longest dry spell of sex was only the reason why touching or arguing with his pawn was arousing him. Not because he thought she was the hottest and the most passionate woman he met.

Fuck.

It irritated him that his fiery prey who was only meant to be a pawn in his game, fascinated him.

Forcibly pushing away thoughts of his fiery neighbor, he went back to the kitchen where the aromatic fish curry was simmering.

It had been close to five years since he last cooked. He had been relying on his personal chefs or mostly ate out or went to his mother’s home to eat her delicious home-cooked meals.

But thanks to the plan which needed him to pretend he came from a modest background, he now had to cook his own food again. But it wasn’t that hard. It was easy to get back to cooking since he had plenty of experience during his younger days in New York.

While his mother struggled to make ends meet by working as a nanny while also studying for a teaching degree, he often helped her in the kitchen. He learned how to cook, and she enjoyed teaching him as well. It was the only time she laughed and felt happy. Both his brothers were away from home most of the time because they had quit school and worked as construction labor to help with the household income.

He had wanted to quit school as well to help like his brothers did, but his mother had begged him not to.

“Not only me, but your father would also want you to finish your education and make us proud. Please, baby. Don’t drop out of school. You are so smart and intelligent. It’s my dream to see you graduate from a reputed college.”

He had agreed with his mother, only because he couldn’t see her disappointed and heartbroken. And the day he graduated from Harvard, she had broken down and shed tears of happiness.

His degree didn’t mean much to him beyond his mother’s happiness. By then, he had already been earning in the millions. And both his brothers who had no formal education were billionaires.

The only reason he did it was because he would do anything for his mother’s happiness.

But Ma wouldn’t want you to choose the path of revenge.

He frowned as a voice from a deep, forgotten conscience whispered inside his mind.

He knew his sweet mother was the kind to forgive everyone, including the people responsible for the cold-blooded murder of her husband. But he wasn’t willing to forgive or forget.

He would hunt those bastards down. And he wouldn’t rest until the entire truth came out.

And the person who would lead him there was his fiery pawn.

Tanvi Shetty.

CHAPTER 8

“Sorry, Miss Palki. No one is allowed to meet the chairman without a prior appointment.”

Tanvi was standing at the huge reception area of the Prism building. She was dressed in her friend’s borrowed business suit and had enough makeup to hide her identity or the fact that she was leading a protest in front of the company building only a couple of weeks ago.

Luckily, none of the security seemed to recognize her, and they didn’t stop her from entering the building premises. But her biggest roadblock was getting an on-the-spot appointment from a busy chairman.

She smiled at the receptionist. “I understand,” she said. “But you see, it’s really urgent. I need to speak with the chairman about something confidential. Tell him Mr. Girish Shetty sent me here.”

The receptionist seemed to have recognized her father’s name. Even though the woman looked uncertain about the protocol, she dialed a number and murmured the information given to her. There was a momentary pause while the other person was speaking.