Read Online Twelve Hours of Temptation by Shoma Narayanan - Free Book Online

cute, but he’s not really my type. Too chirpy. I like cynical brooding types.’
    She was giving him a frankly assessing look, and Samir wondered if he’d got his initial reading wrong. Maybe she was drunk after all. Whatever the reason, the way she was looking at him was enough to make any red-blooded male lose his head.
    Hurriedly, he got to his feet, reminding himself why he couldn’t touch her. She was young, probably drunk, and she was an employee—there was no way he could pull her into his arms and kiss her senseless the way he wanted to. Better to leave before things got out of hand.
    ‘I’m going to bed,’ he said when she gave him an inquiring look.
    ‘Ooh, good idea,’ she said, sliding off the bar stool. ‘I’ll come with you.’
    All right, so she was definitely drunk. For a few seconds he thought he’d heard her wrong. Then he thought he’d misunderstood—but clearly he hadn’t.
    ‘Melissa,’ he said as she followed him down the winding path that led to his cottage. ‘Your room’s the other way; it’s in the main part of the hotel.’
    ‘Of course it is,’ she said, laughing at him. ‘But I’m not going there. I’m coming with you.’
    She was feeling reckless—a combination of alcohol and the euphoria of being back in Goa. It had also been a long while since her last relationship had broken up. In the dim light of the bar Samir looked every inch a sex god, and resisting temptation seemed downright stupid.
    ‘Look, I don’t think this is a good idea,’ he said. ‘We’ve both had too much to drink, and...’
    ‘And we shouldn’t do something we’ll regret tomorrow?’ Melissa wrinkled her nose. ‘Samir, if you wrote your own ads they’d be so full of clichés you’d have to pay copyright to the greetings cards company.’
    ‘Melissa...’
    ‘Shh,’ she said and, leaning up, she kissed him full on the mouth.
    Her lips were inviting, warm and lush against his, and then there was her pliant body, pressed provocatively against his. Involuntarily, Samir found himself returning the kiss, his arms coming up to pull her closer.
    They were almost at the cottage, and later he couldn’t remember opening the door or switching on the lights. But he did remember carrying her to bed and undressing her. And drinking in the sight of her near perfect body spread out on the bed before making wild, passionate love to her all night long.

FOUR
    ‘And the award for the best copy goes to...’
    There was a long pause, and Melissa thought she’d keel over and die if they gave it to someone else.
    ‘Mendonca Advertising for their ground-breaking, story format ad for India’s most popular brand of baby soap. Come on, let’s hear it for them!’
    The hall burst into applause as Samir went on stage to accept the award. ‘I know this isn’t the Oscars, so I’ll keep it short,’ he said, smiling around at the audience.
    Melissa noticed that several of the women immediately sat up and began preening.
    ‘I’ve taken over at Mendonca Advertising only very recently. The people who really deserve the award are Brian Mendonca, the man who set up the firm, Devdeep Dutta, for a superb pitch that got us the account, but most of all Melissa D’Cruz, the talented young copywriter who wrote the ad for us.’
    The applause wasn’t overwhelming, exactly, but it was loud, and it went on till Melissa and Devdeep had accepted the award and returned to their seats.
    ‘Nice of him to mention Brian,’ Devdeep said in an undertone.
    ‘He could hardly not mention Brian,’ Melissa said tartly. ‘The agency still carries his name. Anyway, the ad was done long before Samir arrived on the scene.’
    ‘Congrats, guys,’ Samir said, coming to stand next to them. ‘Very well deserved.’
    Melissa gave a polite smile, pretending not to be affected by his nearness. She’d sneaked out of his room early in the morning before he woke up, and had spent the rest of the day avoiding him. There was the awkwardness, of