INTRICATE

CHAPTER 12

V E D A N   S H E K H A W A T

"Mr. Shekhawat? Hello?"

Vedan snapped out of it when Meenakshi, his assistant, went to grab a water bottle. He gave her a look of disbelief. Sure, his mind had been going places it shouldn't have, but that didn't warrant the idea of dumping water on his suit! The conversation he just had with Samaira, if it could even be called that, was unlike anything he had ever experienced. Vedan had done his fair share of dirty talk, but fuck, it wasn't with anyone even remotely like her. She was his nemesis!

"Were you seriously going to dump water on me?"

Meenakshi shrugged. "You didn't give me any other option."

"If you wanted options, then you should have tried shaking me like a normal person." he deadpanned, placing his phone face down. His assistant simply smirked. "Where's the fun in that?"

He rolled his eyes. When Vedan joined the office, he wanted someone who would keep him in check, so he hired someone who would do just that. As it would turn out, his assistant was a little too good at putting people in their place. He had seen people with children do wonders and having three of them below five trained Meenakshi for anything that she could possibly face in the professional environment. 

She placed a folder before him. "You need to sign this."

"Where's the rest of it?"

Almost as if he had taunted the document and signature gods simultaneously, a massive bundle slammed onto his table. He took a deep breath. At least Meenakshi had the courtesy to offer him a sympathetic smile before dumping it. "There it is."

"Perks of directly becoming the COO."

He chuckled as he started skimming through the first one. "Yeah, yeah, I got here because of nepotism. Get all the jokes out of your system now."

"No, I have a lot of time for that," she said, plopping down on the chair opposite to him. Of course, she did. "I'm curious about something else. Who were you on the phone with?"

He kept reading. "It wasn't work-related."

"Is this your way of telling me that it's none of my business?"

"I knew I hired you for a reason."

Meenakshi laughed at that as she crossed her arms. "Either way, you should know. If there's anything that I've learned in the extra twelve years that I've had on you on this planet, then it's the fact that the look that you just had on your face never leads to anything good."

He chuckled lightly. "And what look is that?"

"Do you really want me to point it out?"

"Please do."

"You looked smitten like you couldn't get enough of this person. Judging by your lack of a dating life, I can safely assume that it's someone new to me, but not to you because you seemed very comfortable. Disturbingly comfortable in fact." 

Smitten? With Samaira? God no. "You couldn't be more wrong."

"Is it? Then tell me who it is."

His eyes darted up to her. "Why?"

"Why not?" she challenged. 

Vedan looked away before bringing his gaze back to her. As annoying as it was to admit, Meenakshi was right. He had nothing to hide. There was no reason for him to withhold her name. "It was Samaira."

"Ah." she said in realization. There was no other reaction. 

"What? You don't have anything to say?"