Page 146 of No Boss
She lingered in the corridor, pressing her lips together, holding back the emotion rising too fast within her.
Chapter 27
For three days, Abhinav made an honest effort to behave like a reasonable human being.
It failed.
He had called. No answer.
He had messaged. “When can I see you?”
Silence.
He had sent a time. A place.
Nothing.
Two more messages.
Nothing again.
The woman had, quite deliberately, decided that the basic rules of human communication did not apply to her. And there was absolutely nothing he could do about it in a Haveli that now functioned like a very well-decorated surveillance system.
He had tried to work. It had refused to cooperate.
Because the real problem was that he had claimed her. Not in a physical sense. In a deep, irreversible sense when a feeling settles inside you and becomes a fact.
And once that happened, distance stopped making sense.
She was already his in every sense that mattered to him. Being asked to maintain space felt absurd. Like being told to breathe less because other people were present.
He ran companies across continents.
Yet he could not function in the same Haveli as Meera Chauhan without losing all efficiency.
He needed her close. Within reach. In his arms long enough to make her listen. To make her stop disappearing into polite smiles and unanswered messages. To remind her that she had said yes to him and not to a set of traditions designed to test his sanity.
Now he stood at the window. Below, in the courtyard, she sat with their mothers and a circle of aunties, discussing menu options as if her life had not turned inside out three days ago.
She looked… calm.
That, more than anything else, was the problem.
His jaw tightened. He turned away from the window.
Enough.
He sat at his desk, picked up his phone, and stared at it for a long moment.
Then he typed.
“Hidden courtyard. Three in the morning. I will be there tonight. I will be there tomorrow night. I will be there every night until you come, Meera. If you want to test that, don’t come tonight.”
He read it once. Thought of softening it. Dropped the idea.
He sent it and placed the phone down.
Waited.
