She passed it over, their fingers brushing briefly. “Anything else, Boss?”
“Not for now.”
Throughout the day, he called her in four more times—each request more trivial than the last. The quarterly report he’d already reviewed. A question about the Singapore timeline they’d finalized days ago. A presentation that didn’t need revisions. Each time, his gaze drifted to her bare wrists before returning to her face. Each time, something in his expression tightened almost imperceptibly.
By the third visit, Ishani became acutely aware of the pattern. The timing. The lingering glances. A strange suspicion formed in her mind, but she dismissed it immediately. Raghav Khanna didn’t send romantic gifts. He didn’t play games or pursue employees. He was direct, controlled, focused solely on business.
And yet.
She found herself touching her wrist absently throughout the day, feeling strangely bare without something she’d never worn. The bracelet remained in her drawer, but its presence weighed on her, like a question waiting for an answer.
As the day wound down, Kavya stopped by her desk once more.
“Are you going to wear it?” she asked, nodding toward the drawer.
“I haven’t decided,” Ishani replied truthfully.
“Whoever he is, he has excellent taste,” Kavya said with a small smile. “And he’s clearly not giving up. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.”
When the office finally emptied and silence settled across the executive floor, Ishani opened her drawer again.
She took out the velvet box. For a long moment, she simply held it. Then she opened it.
The silver bracelet shimmered under the overhead lights. Whoever had chosen it understood quality. And somehow, understood her.
She lifted it from the box. The metal was cool against her fingertips. After a brief hesitation, she slid it onto her wrist.
It settled perfectly.
The clasp rested exactly over her pulse, glinting with each heartbeat. She turned her wrist slightly, studying it. The silver complemented her skin. It looked like it belonged there.
That was what made it dangerous.
Gifts came with expectation. With intention.
She did not accept things she could not return. She did not encourage what she did not intend to entertain. And yet, alone in the quiet office, she found herself staring at the bracelet longer than necessary.
A small smile touched her lips before she could stop it.
Behind a pillar near the conference room, Raghav watched. He had not meant to stay. But when he saw her open the drawer again, he hadn’t left. His eyes fixed on the silver against her skin. On the way she examined it. On that fleeting, unguarded smile.
A slow satisfaction moved through him.
She had refused it all day. And now, when she believed no one was watching, she wore it. Not out of obligation. Out of want.
He stepped back quietly before she could sense him.
Ishani removed the bracelet after a long breath and placed it back inside the box. But instead of returning it to the drawer, she slipped it into her bag.
As she rode the elevator down, her fingers brushed her bare wrist. She felt the absence immediately. And that unsettled her more than the bracelet itself.
Raghav’s face flashed through her mind. His focus. His quiet attention. The way late nights at work had stopped feeling like work at all.
She was disappointed, she realized. Just a little. That there was no reason to stay back tonight. And then the thought came—uninvited, reckless.
What if it was him?
She shook her head slightly. If it wasn’t Raghav, then this flutter in her chest had no business growing roots. Some excitement was better left unexplored.