A Grigio Estoque Lamborghini Aventador stopped at the entrance. All the eyes inside the party looked outside. The people on the first floor were staring down from the balcony. Everyone was smiling and whispering about the grand look of the gorgeous car. The next moment the smile changed into fear.
A beautiful girl in a figure-hugging, burgundy silk cocktail dress got out of the car. Her matching shoes first touched the ground and then the long trail of her dress. Her beautiful brown hair was free-flowing. She had minimal makeup on, just lipstick and kohl. Else she had nothing on her face, not even face powder yet she was looking heart-stopping beautiful. Her face had pride written all over it. She had her nose in the air.
The whole atmosphere turned chaotic. Everyone knew who she was, and everyone was afraid of her. Stories of her anger, her indifference, her lack of sympathy, and her stone-heartedness were famous all over. No one saw her for five years but heard what she did and how she governed the Boucherlow Island office. All knew that she ran a tight ship and never tolerated a mistake. In short, she was a perfectionist.
She flung the keys to the valet and without looking at him received the token for her car. His hands were shaking with fear. The token slipped from his hand and instead of landing on her palm, it fell on the ground. She turned towards him with a jerk. He started shivering.
"Is this how you will drive this expensive car? When you can't handle a simple token how will you handle a car? You are fired," shouted Talindra.
"But ma'am…" started the valet but Talindra shut him up with her one finger.
It was a good thing that Edhelriel interrupted at the right time. "Talindra!"
"Hel!" Talindra hugged Edhelriel.
"Let's go inside," said Edhelriel to Talindra. She then addressed the valet, "You, drive carefully."
"Am I not fired?" asked the valet, frightened.
Talindra was about to scold him when Edhelriel held her hand and gestured for her to calm down. "Not tonight," said Edhelriel.
"If you get even a scratch on the car, I will kill you," said Talindra, stoically. There was no expression on her face, yet a chill ran down everyone's spine.
After all the drama, she moved ahead with Edhelriel, and two of her bodyguards opened the door for her. Everyone moved out of her way. The whole party turned chaotic, all were standing frightened but not Baraion. He could only stare at her with an open mouth. He froze. All that moved was his upper eyelids, his heart and the blood in his veins. She was looking out of this world. His heart started beating faster. He hated her but his heart was betraying him. It was ready to leap out of his chest and land on her feet.
She moved forward without even glancing at Baraion. She directly went into Drelduin's arms.
All his anger, all his hatred went out the window. His palms started sweating. She was looking mesmerizing. His mind raced towards their first meeting. The first time he saw Talindra, the same thing happened to him.
Baraion was staring at the oblivion thinking about his first meeting with Talindra. The way he kept staring at her always from afar, the way she looked, the way she fell in his arms, the way she helped him clear his name and how they became friends, all was fresh in his mind. He wanted to smile but the day of betrayal flashed before his eyes. His eyes turned red with fury.
The three girls around him whom he brought to the party to make Talindra jealous were unhappy as he was ignoring them and staring at Talindra. The girl in the black dress placed her hand on his shoulder and brought him back from his past. "You are again in your thoughts, what are you thinking?" she asked.
He smiled at her and said, "nothing Ekta dear, um… about your delicious lips." And pulled her closer by her waist and kissed her with all the lust and anger. He was kissing her but looking at Talindra. Talindra was in Drelduin's arms hugging him tightly, not looking at Baraion. His plan failed.
"Wow! You never kissed me like this before. That was amazing," said Ekta.
"Aw… thinking just about her? What about us?" asked the girl in blue.
"No, Samantha, about you too," he grabbed her and smashed his lips on her mouth. Again, he was looking at Talindra but now even though she was out of Drelduin's arms she was talking to him and not looking at him.
Without saying another word, he let Samantha go, pulled the last girl in his embrace and kissed her too. One by one he kissed the girls, but Talindra was least bothered by it. She didn't even glance at him. That made him furious. He wanted to punch something but settled on just clenching his fists. He already broke a glass in jealousy. He didn't want to show Talindra that he was losing his temper because of her.
He had his eyes on her, she talked to Drelduin, her father, Galhad but never looked back at him. He lost to her. She was now richer than him, in greater position than him. The party was given to celebrate her gain of power. All Baraion could do was grind his teeth in anger and jealousy.
Baraion averted his eyes. It was getting difficult to look at Talindra when she was mocking him with her grinning face. A winning smile flashed on Talindra's face. The twinkle in her eyes enhanced her beauty even more. Winning made her more beautiful, men were attracted to her but were equally shivering as they were frightened of her. Her devilish smile, twinkling eyes were stark opposite. Both were giving her a more menacing look.
Decades and decades of war were fought by their parents and Talindra finished it. She won. They kept fighting for years, trying to pull each other down, making plans to make the other fail but never saw a glimpse of winning. Talindra played one hand and swept everyone off their feet.