New PriDa FF~ THEN I MET YOU~ Part9Page37updt 1/5

Prithvi Balraj Saxena was a formidable name in the security business. He had risen to be a formidable competitor within the last four years and Top Notch Securities was a name to reckon with. It was a result of the revenge the saxena brothers had planned against India's toughest businesswoman, Ila Gujral. The idea was to beat her in her own game by taking over the Gujral Empire.

Prithvi moved a tired hand over his face. He was exhausted and his eyes were aching with the stress of driving late night. He could have stayed the night in Pune but he had missed the last flight out of there to Mumbai and had gotten the bright idea to drive back. He wanted to be near his mother. The last few days had been a scare. Their mother had been through so much after their father's death that it scared the brothers.

She had broken down completely after she had heard the news of his sudden demise and then on the day of his funeral she had simply fainted and later slipped into a Coma. Losing their father and watching their mother struggle everyday had been traumatic for Prithvi but he had no choice but to be a pillar of strength to his younger brothers. Finally she had recovered slowly after almost a year and now she was coming to terms with the reality and gravity of the situation.

Prithvi sighed tiredly. He wished he could close his eyes for a second but knew that he had to reach home. Sameer had called and told him that Suman wasn't feeling too well and he had scrapped the plan to spend the night in Pune and had rented a car and started the drive back to Mumbai. He wished he had rented a driver too.

At that precise moment his cell phone rang and he picked it up without looking at who the caller was.

"Hello" he said tiredly.

"Mr. Saxena" a voice inquired on the other end and Prithvi's heart slammed hard against his ribcage. He feared unknown voices, as one such voice had told him about the loss of his father and then about his mother's comatose condition.

He took a deep breath to calm himself from the irrational fear and spoke into the phone, "Yeah"

"Inder….Inder Malhotra" the voice introduced himself.

Prithvi closed his eyes in relief for a second, thanking the powers above that it wasn't anything to do with his family.  "What can I help you with Mr. Malhotra" he said more calmly now, once his heart had stopped beating so furiously.

"Mr. Saxena, it's about business…..I got the number from one of my business associates and you come highly recommended so I thought of setting an appointment with you." Inder replied.

"Thank you….I do take pride in my work….well as I am travelling right about now…….can you call me tomorrow in my office and then we can go from there" he told Inder who agreed and he cut the call after exchanging goodbyes.

Business…..Prithvi had never thought that he would ever own a business of his own….actually that wasn't correct….he had always thought that he would own a business of his own…..a stud farm….India's most renowned stud farm, which would rise to International standards. That dream had surely been trampled upon.

"Stop it Prithvi" he warned himself with a shake of his head from going into these thoughts. He didn't want to think about what could have been. He just had to focus only on one thing. His mission.

Slowly the lights of Mumbai come into vision and he heaves a sigh that the drive was about to come to an end. He was really tired and he needed to sleep. He pushed one hand through his hair and pressed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger.

Suddenly there was a honk of the car from behind and Prithvi swerved on the road and slammed on the brakes. His temper short up and he controlled the car, stopped it from hitting the dirt road and slammed on the brakes, making a 180 degree turn, forcing the car behind him to stop too.

He got out angrily from the car and walked towards the car behind him and rapped on the driver's window. The tinted window rolled down to reveal the stricken face of the driver.

"What do you think you were doing?" Prithvi bellows at the driver.

"Sir…I…." he stammers in the face of his anger.

"You what? Wanted to kill me by your careless driving?" he asks.

"No…I was just trying to" the driver tries to explain but Prithvi is in no mood to listen.

"Trying to……you don't try on the road" he snaps, cutting him short.

Just then the passenger side window rolls down to reveal a beautiful face with big kohl lined eyes, framed by shoulder length dark hair and lips which were puckered in disdain. Prithvi blinked once at the vision and then the vision spoke.

"He was trying to save you from killing yourself" the girl spoke and her brown eyes sparkled with irritation.

"Really?" finally Prithvi found his voice.

"Really" came the tart reply.

"Care to explain" he hadn't only recovered his voice but his temper and his chocolate eyes turned black with the tempest raging in them.

"You were swerving and he thought that you might have slept" came the logical reply.

It dawned on Prithvi that it could be a possibility as he was tired and had this urge to close his eyes and he must have.

"I don't think so" he snapped back, refusing to admit to his weakness.

"Well then Mister…..are you drunk?" the beauty asked and that irritated the hell out of Prithvi.

"Novices on the road….calling others drunk" he retorted.

"Look…..obviously you didn't need our help……so sorry for giving it to you" she said and looked pointedly at her watch, "I am already late for an event so please….if you will step away" she asked with a raised eyebrow and Prithvi's intense gaze latched onto her deep brown ones.

He had this sudden urge to open the door of her side and see this stranger properly. Without a second thought, he pulled the door and strangely it wasn't locked and the light came on inside the car.

"What are you doing?" a shocked expression comes into her eyes but Prithvi is busy looking at her. She was dressed in a light baby blue saree with delicate diamond jewellery around her long swan like neck and her delicate wrists. Her hands were holding the door, trying to pull it close from his grip. They were beautiful long fingers, a few wearing rings and the nails were colored pink.

"Raju….call someone" she shouted instructions to her driver and then looked back at him, her eyes huge and her baby pink lips parted. He felt like bending down and tasting those lips. AT that thought he snapped out of his crazy reverie and let go of the door.

"Shoot….am …am sorry" he raised his hands in front of him, apologizing for his behavior.

The girl slammed the door and he heard her lock the door and instruct the driver to drive away and throwing him a contemptuous glance she sped away into the night.

He was surely losing his mind. What had come over him…..he had no idea. He had actually opened the door of her car to look at her and then had this insane urge to kiss her. He must be going out of his mind. What was wrong with him? He wondered in the middle of the road and when another car honked, he walked towards his car and drove back home….the sleep vanishing from his eyes.

A dead tired Prithvi reached home, a bungalow, which they had bought recently and went straight into his mother's room.

"Maa" he whispered softly but there was no reply. He tiptoed into the room and found her sleeping peacefully and placed a kiss on her forehead and headed into his room, straight into the shower.

He closed his eyes against the onslaught of the warm water, trying to wash away his tiredness and the beauty's face jumped into his closed eyes and he remembered her lips. His eyes shot open and he shut the shower and got out of it.

He was going crazy…..he was thinking about a stranger and not at all chaste thoughts. Finally he lay on the bed and tiredness took over him. All he dreamed was about the beautiful stranger.