🍁chapter twenty 🍁

As soon as Shantanu lifts his head and looks ahead, his eyes widen in shock, and an unintentional "Boss" escapes his lips.

Rudra and that girl were kissing, a sight that left Shan completely stunned. Shantanu neither moved forward nor backward, as if he had frozen in place. As soon as Rudra’s gaze fell on Shan, he quickly pushed the girl away and moved towards the shocked Shantanu.

Now, the girl who had fallen to the floor was staring at Shantanu with furious eyes. Shan quickly adjusted his expressions and turned to leave, but Rudra took long strides and grabbed his hand. Shantanu panicked and tried to escape. Rudra ignored the crying girl and dragged Shan into a bathroom.

As soon as they entered the bathroom, Rudra pinned Shantanu against the door, gripping his shoulders, and said, "What you saw wasn’t true, Shantanu."

Shantanu struggled to remove Rudra’s hands from his shoulders and said, "Let me go."

"Shan, please hear me out," Rudra tried to convince him again. Shantanu lifted his head and looked at Rudra’s face before calmly saying, "Don't lie and let me go." Shantanu felt as if he had caught his husband cheating on him.

The smell of cigarettes from Rudra was bothering him, but he didn’t say anything about it. Rudra moved even closer, resting his head on Shantanu’s shoulder and pleaded, "Shan, please trust me. I didn't do it instead she kissed me, that too forcefully."

Shan stood frozen in place at Rudra’s action. His breathing became uneven, and his heart started pounding fast. Seeing that Shantanu did not object, Rudra wrapped his arms around his waist.

"I was just smoking here. She came to me on her own. When I ignored her, she got angry and then kissed me forcefully. And at the same time you walked in," Rudra explained himself.

Shantanu's mind has already stopped working due to Rudra's closeness. He didn't understand a single thing which Rudra told him. Shantanu remained still, locked in Rudra’s embrace.

Rudra tightened his grip around Shan and requested, "Shan, say something." Shantanu snapped out of his daze and, realizing their close position, he was shocked again.

Taking deep breaths to calm himself, he tried to speak in a normal tone "Alright, I accept that what I saw was wrong. I believe you. Now, please let me go." Shantanu tried his best to look normal so that there would not be an awkward atmosphere between them like usual. Till now he understood one thing that Rudra always did what he wanted without caring about others opinions. There was no other option but to agree with him, or else Rudra wouldn’t let him go.

Rudra took a deep breath, closed his eyes, rubbed his face against Shan’s neck, and whispered, "Hmm… I didn’t do anything, that girl kissed me."

As Rudra's hot breath fell on Shantanu’s neck, his breath got hitched. He had no idea what Rudra was doing to him. His legs felt weak, and if Rudra had not held him tightly, he would have collapsed on the floor.

Whenever Prem comes close to him, he feels uneasy, but no matter what Rudra does with him, it never felt wrong to him. Shantanu's hands remained hanging down lifelessly. The scent of Rudra’s cologne was oddly comforting in such a situation.

"I trust you. Now please let me go; I need to go home," Shantanu again tried to escape from there.

"Why? Won't you have dinner? " Rudra asked, releasing Shantanu from strong arms and stepped back. Rudra's always expressionless face had a confused expression.

Looking at Rudra, Shantanu replied, "I've already had dinner, and I need to go home now."

"Hmm," Rudra responded shortly.

Now both of them were silently stealing glances at each other. Rudra felt strangely empty and wondered why he had let go of Shan in the first place. He wanted to pull him back into his arms, causing him to clench and unclench his fists repeatedly, looking around.

Shantanu slowly turned away, opened the door, and left. As soon as he stepped outside, he let out a sharp breath and muttered to himself, "Oh God ! What just happened? Boss is going to give me a heart attack one day ! Who convinces someone by hugging them like that? It felt like I was his wife and caught him red handed, and now he’s trying to win me over with sweet words. Whom is he trying to fool when the whole world knows he is one of the most famous playboys."

Lost in thought, Shan walked away, while Rudra followed him out some time later. But by the time Rudra stepped out, Shantanu had already driven away.

Rudra got into his car and started following Shan. When Shan did not return for a long time then Prem also went to the bathroom but was shocked to find Shan not there. Prem had Shantanu's phone number so he called him.

Meanwhile Shantanu’s phone was connected to his car, and he was listening to music while driving home. His mind was still occupied with thoughts of Rudra.

"Why is Boss like this? He keeps kissing everyone, and when someone catches him then he comes up with strange excuses. Why does it bother me so much that he kissed someone or doing with someone? It’s none of my business whom he kisses or sleeping. And why does Boss always feel the need to explain things to me? Everyone knows he’s a playboy. But more importantly, when he hugged me, why didn’t I push him away? Why did I like hearing his explanation? Why did I want to believe his lies? Why?? "

Shantanu's internal battle of his own feelings ended when he gets a call from Prem. After a moment, he answered the call,

"Hello?"

"Shan, where are you?" Prem’s worried voice came through the phone.

Shan closed his eyes before replying to Prem,"Sorry, sir, I left for home."

Hearing this, Prem became even more concerned as well as sad. He had arranged the team dinner mainly for Shantanu, and now he had left. Feeling disappointed, Prem asked, "Why?"

Shan lied smoothly,"Sorry sir, an emergency came up. You guys enjoy."

Prem had nothing left to say and just replied, "Okay," before disconnecting the call.

Meanwhile, in a large apartment, a young man was on a call while arranging his clothes and files.

"Brother, you left without telling Mom. She’s going to be really angry," a worried voice came from the other end.

The young man sighed and replied, "Arpita, why are you stressing? I told you, I’ll handle everything."

"Brother, how can you be so chill? You left for India without telling Mom, and now you’ve joined RS Enterprise! What’s going on in your head? " Arpita was deeply worried, and rightfully so—her brother had joined Rudra’s company despite knowing that Rudra hated him and their family.

Archit calmed her down, saying, "I know exactly how to handle Rudra. You don’t need to worry about that." Then, with a sly smile, he added, "Now it's someone else's turn to suffer. He made me suffer enough but not  anymore."

Arpita was confused by tangled talks of her brother and asked, "Brother, what are you saying? I don't understand."

"You’re still young. It’s better if you don’t understand these things," Archit replied nonchalantly.

"Hmm," Arpita pouted in disappointment.

Meanwhile, Shantanu had reached his home. After changing his clothes, he went to the kitchen to cook something, as he hadn’t eaten properly earlier due to Prem's awkward behaviour.

Just then, the doorbell rang. Shantanu closed his eyes in frustration because he had already guessed who it would be.

"Oh no, not again! I don’t want to face him anymore. So much has happened already—why is he here now?"

The doorbell rang again. Having no choice, Shan moved toward the door, and as he opened it, he found Rudra standing there with poker face as usual. Seems like he followed him from the hostel to here.

Forcing a smile, Shantanu asked, "Boss, you're here?"

Rudra, with a blank expression, stared at Shan and, in a commanding tone declared, "I’m staying here tonight."

Hearing this, Shan gritted his teeth in frustration and asked, "Do you have a meeting today as well?"

Rudra calmly replied, "No." Without moving his eyes from shantanu's face.

Shan narrowed his eyes at Rudra's words and gave him a weird look. Rudra's deep blue eyes were staring at him as if they could pierce through him. Shan unwillingly stepped aside, cursing Rudra's intimidating demeanor in his mind.

Rudra entered the house as if it belonged to him. He removed his shoes, took an extra pair of slippers from the shoe rack. Then without asking Shan, he went straight to the bedroom and later on bathroom.

Shan stood there with his mouth open, watching Rudra moving here and here like the owner of the house."I am feeling like a guest in my own house," he muttered, pulling at his hair before heading back to the kitchen.

After coming from the bathroom, Rudra goes to Shaan's bedroom again, takes out an extra blanket from his wardrobe and lies down on the sofa. Shaan looks at Rudra with irritation while he is lying on the sofa. "There is absolutely no shame in this person. Grumpy, arrogant, ill-mannered, rude, crazy, mad, bastard, is my house any kind of hotel, so whenever he feels like it, he can come..," Shantanu mutters to himself while gritting his teeth. Shantanu had no desire to ask Rudra to eat, but Rudra is his boss and all these things may prove costly to him in the office and moreover, in the presence of someone, Shaan cannot eat alone like a shameless person.

After a while, Shantanu goes to his room and brings the clothes which Rudra had worn that day when he was drunk. Shantanu makes a weird face before offering the clothes to Rudra.

Rudra removes the blanket from his face and looks at Shaan, then Shaan moves the clothes forward and says "Will you sleep in these clothes,"

Rudra sits on the sofa and asks "Are my clothes not good?" Shantanu rolls his eyes and thinks "How did this guy become such a big businessman? How can someone sleep in such tight clothes? " But hiding his actual thoughts, he puts a forced smile on his face and says, "Boss, you must be uncomfortable in your office clothes. Wear these, they are of your size." Rudra looks at Shaan for a moment and then at the casual clothes in his hands. Rudra's facial expression fluctuated for a second then he recovered his poker face again.

Shantanu placed the clothes on Rudra's lap and went back to cook his food.

After some time, Shan and Rudra were having dinner and there was an awkward silence between them. Shantanu was not feeling good at all, so to break the silence, he asked normally "Boss, who else is in your family?"

Rudra stopped eating his food and looked at Shaan and spoke in a deep voice "Why do you want to know this? "

After listening to Rudra's words, Shan's mouth remained open in surprise and he was looking at Rudra as if he had seen a ghost.

Rudra takes a look at Shaan and asks in his normal voice "What happened? Why are you looking at me like that? Why do you want to know about my family? Do you have any work with them ?"

Rudra's behavior wasn't entirely his fault because, until now, if anyone had ever approached him, it was always with some motive. Rudra and his family had a great reputation, so people often tried to build connections with them for favors. No one had ever truly tried to understand Rudra—at least, not without a hidden agenda. There are tons of female and male who wanted to get tangled with oberoi's for their benefits and most easy target was Rudra for them.

Shantanu was still in shock and blinked his eyes twice and said "I have no ulterior motive behind this, boss"

Shantanu was now getting angry and he felt like throwing Rudra out of his house right away. Shantanu starts eating quickly by puffing his mouth, which caught Rudra's attention. "Eat slowly otherwise the food will get stuck in your throat.." Rudra warned him.

Shantanu paid no attention to Rudra's words and continued eating his food hastily. Rudra could not understand why Shantanu is so moody and strange. At one moment, he seemed to care so much about Rudra, and the next moment, he would puff up his cheeks in annoyance and doesn't listen to him at all. Right now, he was sulking like an infant for no reason.

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