Chapter 9

Ranvijay entered the hotel room huffing… He was fit physically. At 35 years of age, he didn’t look his age at all. He was a fitness freak and had a great stamina. But she had changed that… his little sparrow had changed his life.

A couple of days prior he was a globetrotting businessman, a successful entrepreneur with absolutely no personal attachments of any kind. He loved female company… definitely!!

But now all he wanted was his little sparrow…

A couple of days earlier his best friend Prasad Mathur had hosted a merger party in a hotel downtown where he had been invited. He usually was too busy to attend these gigs but Prasad was his childhood friend. They were both from the same orphanage…

They both had run away from the home and roamed around the streets. Both had been together when they had their first fight with the gangs on the streets. Both had been together in juvenile custody when they were caught doing drugs and stealing wallets. Finally both had been together when they had been sent to a counsellor by two kind hearted lawyers. That had changed the course of life for these two 14 year olds. They had both decided to straighten and lead a better life. They had requested name change and overnight Pappu and Pintu became Prasad Mathur and Ranvijay Mehrotra. They were christened by the lawyers who fought for them. They had given them their surnames and also paid for their education in a boarding school. Both lawyers had no families of their own and had helped many juvenile delinquents like them. They had set up a small fund for Ranvijay and Prasad which they had got after finishing their graduation.

From there they hadn’t looked back. Each had worked hard and had risen to become successful in their lives… career wise.

Those Good Samaritan lawyers were dead long ago but Prasad and Ranvijay had kept their memories alive by running multiple charities across the city in their names.

Prasad was now married and had a year-old daughter. His wife Shweta had been working in his company and was now a stay at home mother to their daughter Tashvi. Ranvijay never had wanted anything more from his life. He stayed away from commitments and restricted the company of women only till the hotel bedrooms. He never took women home nor did he date the same woman again. He was never short of female company but he was extra careful and choosy. It was plain physical. Women threw themselves at him… But he saw the way Shweta and Prasad looked at each other or the way they adoringly glanced their daughter’s way… God… Tashvi pulled Prasad’s strings. Would he have it someday?

 Prasad and he always met on the second Friday of every month for drinks. It was an unwritten rule. No one besides Shweta knew about their rotten past as Pappu and Pintu. The lawyers had gotten their record permanently sealed. But these days Prasad almost never made it and he usually drank alone. Ranvijay was never the jealous type. In fact he never was known to have any kind of emotions. The world knew him as a ruthless businessman. But at times he envied Prasad…Nonetheless Prasad was his only friend and family in this world and he would never miss a chance of meeting Shweta and Tashvi.

He had prided at his achievements so far. He had single handed built up his empire from scratch. RM technology and RM designs were his pride. He had over two thousand employees. He had the Midas touch when it came to business or merger decisions.

But overall he was a ruthless trader… he fancied buying out smaller underperforming companies and turning them around into performing assets. The more the challenge involved the more he thrived. Of course, the aftermath of such a trade wasn’t always favourable for others. Since there were layoffs, a lot of people hated him. But he couldn’t help it if the enterprise had to function without booking losses… for him. Eventually he sold the functioning enterprise to a bigger entity for a huge profit. Usually a foreign buyer would be interested along with few Indian and foreign investors. The entire cycle of the trade would be complete and he would start fresh. That’s how he had made money for the seed capital for his RM conglomerate.

Prasad had once said Ranvijay was like an eagle… He had the powerful vision to identify the prey..i.e sinking companies. Then he would tear them apart with his strong intellectual talons and… he never surrendered to challenges of any kind. Never gave up without a fight. Ranvijay always prided himself in being the Eagle…a Giant Eagle… he felt he had the attitude for it.

However about seven years ago his pride was badly crushed. He was in the throes of a buyout when one trade had gone sour. It was poor judgement on his part. He trusted the wrong people. A few people from his office were involved. His vision had faltered leading to huge losses to investors. Though he too lost a lot of money in pay-outs, what affected him more was the companies involved went totally bankrupt and he couldn’t use his magic. Everything cascaded into loss of livelihoods and triggered a series of losses in the market. His reputation fell overnight. 

It took him years to salvage what was left of his image. The media had gone berserk and had even called him a cold blooded murderer. He refused to come out in public for about two years. Gradually when the dust had settled Prasad encouraged him to start fresh. He had plunged into his work and like a phoenix… risen from the ashes.

A couple of years back he had even started dating. Money power had kept media away from writing about his past. However they kept speculating about the women in his life. He was labelled a man whore but he had no problem with that. At least they didn’t prod into his earlier life.

Couple of days earlier…

He was bored in the party. It wasn’t one of those loud ones… in fact it was relatively toned down because of Tashvi. After catching up with his buddy and his family he settled for a scotch. Since Prasad was like family he hadn’t invited any date.  No casual hook up for him here. These days he barely even dated. He was extremely busy with work.

He settled comfortably on the far end of the ball room with a scotch in his hand. He never had more than two drinks. He could easily handle five rounds and not get drunk but he believed… that a person is always one drink away from telling the world what he really thinks… After the error in judgement seven years ago he had always restricted his drink to nil or max two.

As he stirred the ice in his glass… he saw her. She was in a pretty black dress which reached her knees. It hugged her figure and those legs… they were thin and never ending. He wondered how would they feel when they surrounded his hips as he… He was instantly hard. Now that never happened. He wasn’t a desperate guy. But tonight he was acting like he was sex deprived. He saw she had an I card and checked it was the event planning company. She was talking to the servers, bartenders as well as running to and fro to the kitchen. She was even working things out with the band for crying out aloud. She was pretty. She was fair with beautiful expressive eyes. Once when she was facing the light, he thought he saw brown colour in them. Her movements were sensual like a ballerina… because of those high heels. She had tied up her hair into a ponytail. He fantasised gripping that hair as she sucked him with her luscious lips… He was so hard now it hurt…

 She changed her expression every moment. Her eyes gave nothing away but it was like she lived moment to moment… just like a sparrow. His little sparrow. As the hours passed he was attracted to her with an increasing fervour. On an impulse he booked a room in the same hotel through Prasad. Prasad raised an eyebrow but said nothing. He knew Ranvijay was unpredictable.

As the party ended he saw she was tired and sitting near the bar. Before he changed his mind he approached her. His eagle vision read her body language as she saw him approach her. He knew she too was attracted to him… “I need company. Are you game?” he had asked her. He had seen her expressions change from shock to desire… he had then said “Come to 403 knock twice”

He wanted her badly… he had never craved for a female body like that before. He was on a constant state of arousal as he waited for her in the room. After an hour he started getting doubts… did he misread her? And then the knock had come…

He had said… “You are late, my little sparrow… “

He had acted unaffected but in reality he was going bonkers. He was thrilled like a little child who got his favourite candy. What followed was something even he had not expected. She was really innocent and when he had his release he knew he had to have her again. The only question was … how?

  He had an important early morning meeting the next day and had left her sleeping. She looked angelic as she slept and that stirred something inside his core. He shuddered at the waves of feelings crashing through him… NO that wasn’t possible. He was an emotionless man. This was just lust… he just had to get her out of his system.

He had seen her struggle and on an impulse kept money with a letter for her. He thought he wouldn’t see her after that.

But the next day he was shocked when she landed in his office. Her eyes swollen indicating she had been crying. That was his undoing… like a man possessed he had given her his proposition. Had invited her to his house. Somehow… her opinion of his house… of him… mattered.

She looked so innocent in everything she did.

He had then found out about her through his connections. Her name had shocked him and he had dug deep. He felt very guilty… of all the women in the world why did it have to be her?

When she had arrived at his home, he wanted to tell her everything. He could feel she was getting deeper in this… arrangement. But he just couldn’t. Also there was this important make or break tender coming up. A lot was at stake. He didn’t want any emotional turmoil at the moment. So he went with the flow… Something was happening and he was falling… falling for her.  He shouldn’t. He knew she would hate him when she found out who he was. She didn’t deserve him. But he craved for her like his next breath depended on it.

He even hired the company where she was employed, to plan the inauguration event of his latest acquisition Aspire Regency. He saw to it that she would be a part of it.

Then like a horny college student he had caught her in the storeroom.

As he worked and waited for her in his room he promised himself… he would tell her the truth about him after the tender on Monday. Then… leave the decision to her whether she wanted to have anything to do with him.

He just hoped she didn’t find out about him before that. He also hoped when all cards were on the table he would come out unscathed.

But then… wishes weren’t horses…

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Dear readers

That was Ranvijay for you. As some of you had guessed earlier he owned the hotel. I think you now know the reason for his nicknames for Namrata and himself… I also hope the reason for the title is now getting clearer.

What he feels for Namrata is beyond lust. But love stories can’t be plain vanilla can they? Keep reading how their story unfolds…

From now on it will be back to the narration from Namrata’s side as I had planned earlier.

 Keep reading #traded

I hope you can get the continuity. If not go back to chapter 8 and then continue with chapter 10.

Love

Priya