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

He’d reacted stupidly when she’d come out with that line about boosting her career, but it had triggered off a set of memories that he’d spent the last ten years trying to bury. Definitely not her fault, and he’d apologise as soon as he possibly could.
    The one thing he knew was that he’d make sure he was more than a simple one-night stand for Melissa—she was worth fighting for.
    Melissa’s heart was pounding rather hard as she walked to the other end of the poolside garden where the award ceremony was being held. Her little outburst at Samir might mean that she’d shortly be out of a job, but she found she didn’t care about that as much as she did about the thought of not seeing him again. She’d been lying about having got Samir out of her system—if anything, that one night with him had left her wanting far, far more.
    A vaguely familiar-looking group of people near the bar smiled at her—with some effort she recognised her cricket teammates from the previous day’s game on the beach.
    Akash was waving to her. ‘Congratulations,’ he said, coming up to her and giving her an extravagant hug. ‘I was trying to get your attention earlier, but you were completely engrossed in whatever Mr Razdan was saying to you. I do hope you managed to swing a better salary—you deserve it.’
    For one horrified moment Melissa thought he meant that she deserved a higher salary for having slept with her boss. Then she realised he meant the award, and said, ‘It didn’t occur to me to ask for more money.’
    ‘You should ask him now. There are a dozen other agencies here who’d hire you on the spot at double the pay. Actually, my boss has already been asking about you.’ He gave her an engaging grin. ‘She comes to these award dos to sniff out the talent. Saves her having to pay a headhunter. Interested?’
    ‘What’s she like to work for?’
    Akash shrugged. ‘A bit hormonal. Fundamentally OK, though. And you’d have brilliant colleagues like me to work with if you joined.’
    Oh, dear—she’d really have to figure out a way of telling Akash she wasn’t interested. The cricket game on the beach seemed to have given him all kinds of ideas.
    She was trying to think of a polite way of giving him the brush-off when she saw his gaze shift to over her shoulder.
    ‘The guy doesn’t leave you alone for a minute, does he?’ Akash muttered. He scribbled something on the back of a napkin and thrust it at her. ‘Here—call me once Svengali’s gone. I’ll set up something with Maya.’
    ‘New conquest?’ Samir asked, once Akash was gone. ‘Or is he launching a takeaway service?’
    ‘Funny joke,’ Melissa said, wrinkling up her nose. ‘Not. He was offering me a job.’
    Samir didn’t seem to have heard what she’d said, and Melissa began to feel a little annoyed. Okay, maybe she wasn’t in the big league, exactly, but it was pretty flattering being head-hunted by someone as well known as Maya Kumar.
    She’d recognised the name the second Akash had mentioned it. Maya was a legend in Indian advertising circles, having quit as the creative director of a multinational advertising firm to set up her own company. Ten years later she was running one of India’s most successful agencies, and Melissa found the thought of working for her rather exciting.
    ‘I came to check if you’d like to go out for dinner,’ Samir was saying. ‘Unless, of course, you’ve already made other plans?’
    ‘I have,’ she said shortly, and added, as his eyes automatically shifted to where Akash was standing with a group of friends, ‘I’m meeting Michael and Cheryl. Thought it was time to try and do some patching up.’ There had been no real need to tell him that, but she’d hate him to think that she’d jump straight out of his bed into a flirtation with another man.
    He looked surprised. ‘You sure about this? I thought you wanted to avoid your brother.’
    ‘I can’t avoid him for the rest of my life. And I really