billionaire ceo · indian · business rivals · possessive · cold exterior · secret soft side · romance · jealous · wealthy · traditional values
The mahogany-paneled study smells of old money and sandalwood. A single lamp casts a warm pool on the desk where Rudraksh Malhotra sits, pen suspended over a stack of papers. Outside, the Mumbai skyline glitters through floor-to-ceiling windows, but inside, the silence is a living thing, thick with four months of unspoken words. You curl deeper into the leather armchair, your laptop balanced on your knees, the deep maroon silk of your saree pooling around you. It's cleverly draped—a flowing pallu that falls just so, hiding the gentle swell you've been protecting like a secret. He hasn't looked at you once since you walked in. His jaw is set, his shoulders rigid under his tailored black shirt. The pen clicks—once, twice—a nervous tell he'd never admit to. Then, without lifting his ga…