Man of Power Ch. 31

[Up to chapter 30 are covered in the first 2 Man of Power books. Now we start with Book 3. That's why Chapters are numbered from 1 onwards.]

Chapter 1 -- Vikas is Back

"Good morning, Sir." Parineeti stepped into his office with a cheerful smile.

She stood there a minute to let Vikas see her in her new outfit. She was wearing a tight fitting tank top with a floral print, and a matching miniskirt which was not reaching past her mid-thighs. She had high heels on which Vikas could see as she walked around his desk to approach his chair.

It was not evident in her demeanour but Parineeti's heart was beating very fast. She had not seen her boss for about 5 weeks and she didn't know what had changed in the meantime. Before he went on his honeymoon, he and Parineeti had become close enough that they could kiss now and then. But that was before he went on his honeymoon and mostly before his wedding.

The car ride from the wedding venue was a fond memory for Parineeti. She was riding with Vikas and he had called her his second wife in his new wife's presence. Parineeti recalled that moment regularly, especially late at night in her bedroom. The fact was though, that she and Vikas had not had a single kiss after he was married.

Parineeti really wanted to resume their previous relationship. Even after his marriage, she still held her desire to be his personal, not just his personal secretary, but his personal in every way. This morning she had changed 7 times trying to find the perfect outfit for her first post-honeymoon meeting with him. She didn't want to dress slutty, but she knew how visual men are and how often subtlety is lost on them.

After several attempts she had finally chosen the tank top and miniskirt. This skirt showed her long, shapely legs but wasn't totally slutty. Her big boobs were well supported by the top and there was a small amount of cleavage, just enough to draw the eye but not so deep she would look like the heroine of a c-grade movie.

On her approach she was very clear. She had to be bold and behave like she did before his marriage. She had sat on his lap a few times and she had started to establish a routine of kissing him when saying goodnight. She had not had much time to fully establish that routine before his wedding because they were both so busy. Now, she wanted to continue all that and make it so a good morning kiss and goodnight kiss were part of their daily routine. She was sure she could build it from there.

Still, approaching him now, the last two feet before getting right next to him, Parineeti could feel her legs shaking a bit. In her head, she had already practiced this many times, how she would walk up to him, turn to left, lower her butt on his lap, put her arm around his shoulders...

Also, in her head, she had imagined this going various ways. From the best scenario where she ended up bent over his desk to the worst where he chided her and told her he could not keep her on as his secretary under the circumstances. Last night she had dreamt that he had given her a contract to sign whereby she became fully his property.

The mental practice came in handy and Parineeti smoothly lowered her butt to her boss' lap and put her right arm around his shoulders.

"Hello Sir." She smiled at him, her heart still stuck in her throat.

"Hello darling." Vikas closed his arms around her slender body and pulled her close.

Now, Parineeti lost her nervousness. She leaned in and kissed Vikas on the lips. It was a slow, casual kiss with lips open and tongues touching but not going into hot, heavy make out territory.

"Hmmm, you are becoming a better kisser." Parineeti smiled as they parted "Your wife's been teaching you?"

"Something like that!" Vikas grinned.

It was deliberate that Parineeti had mentioned his wife casually. She wanted to hint that she was happy to be on his lap and kiss him while knowing well that he was married.

"How was your honeymoon?" She asked while staying on his lap.

"It was good. How was your holiday?" Vikas kept his arm around her and caressed her back.

"Very nice. Thank you. Jackie said she will thank you herself personally." Parineeti grinned "You know what that means!"

"I do indeed." Vikas remembered how slutty Jacqueline was and how she expressed gratitude with a full-on make-out kiss.

"You asked me to bring bikini pics of me." Parineeti said tongue-in-cheek "Do you want me to email them to you or show you now?"

"Well, we have a lot of catching up to do. Let's go out for lunch and have a proper catch up." Vikas said.

"Sure, Sir." Parineeti could hardly contain her excitement "I will make the reservation. SpiceKlub?"

"Yes, that's fine."

Chapter 2 -- Rhea Tells Her Friend

"Sonal! You bitch! Give me my phone back." Rhea screamed chasing her friend around the desks.

"I will." Sonal said, climbing on a desk and staying out of Rhea's reach "I just want to see your wallpaper."

Before Rhea could reach her Sonal turned on Rhea's phone screen and looked at her lock screen wallpaper.

"Oh!" Sonal said in a perplexed voice "Who is that? I thought you had your new filmstar crush on it."

Rhea didn't reply and Sonal gave the phone back.

"Who is that?" Sonal persisted "Is it a hero from the South Indian films?"

"No!" Rhea had to answer "It's my jiju."

"He's very handsome." Sonal said "I saw him at the wedding, but he looks different in casual clothes, very sexy though."

"Isn't he?" Rhea agreed "He's like a filmstar himself."

"Where is the photo from? Looks like a beach."

"Yes, it was on his honeymoon. You do remember I was gone for a month?"

"Of course." Sonal said "But I didn't know you were going with him on his honeymoon.

"I did. We all did. He took the whole family."

"Wow! That's amazing. Where did you go?"

And for the next one hour Rhea told Sonal all about her trip and how wonderful her brother-in-law was.

"You love him, don't you?" Sonal said.

Rhea paused at being caught like that but then nodded "I am pathetic, aren't I?"

"Can't say that." Sonal said "He is awfully handsome. And from what you have told me he's very sweet as well. He is very rich and powerful but he takes care of the whole family."

"Exactly! You do get him. He's so wonderful."

"Yeah, not many men like that around." Sonal said "Usually men get a little power, they become dictators."

"Not jiju, he's not a dictator." Rhea said "More like a benevolent king."

"Dude, you are totally in love with him." Sonal said.

"I know." Rhea sighed "But can you blame me?"

"No, can't blame you really." Sonal agreed "If I met someone like that I would go crazy for him to0."

"Even if he were married?"

"Well, he's only married to your sister." Sonal pointed out "Saali aadhi ghawali, no?"

"That's what I keep telling him!" Rhea said excitedly.

"What does he say?"

"Nothing. He just keeps being himself, charming, sweet, sexy, but completely appropriate."

"That's a shame when you clearly want him to do you."

Rhea turned her phone screen on and held it in front of Sonal.

"Ok, ok," Sonal said "I get your point. Now turn that off. It does something to me. Actually, send a copy of that photo to me."

"Why? Are you sweet on him suddenly?"

"It's not like I want to push him down on that wet sand and ride him like a stallion," Sonal said "but he is easy on the eyes."

"Sonal, what will I do?" Rhea moaned.

"Nothing!" Sonal said firmly "He's your brother-in-law. Your sister's husband!"

"What would you do if he was your brother-in-law?"

"I would climb in his bed one night and pretend like I am my sister."

"My sister sleeps with him, you know?" Rhea reminded her.

"Not in my head." Sonal shook her head "In my head, he sleeps alone and completely nude."

"You little slut!" Rhea elbowed her "You are totally picturing jiju naked."

"Will you introduce me some time?"

"Sure. But then don't blame me if you fall in love with him, too."

"I don't fall in love, baby, I fall in lust." Sonal said "That's more my style."

"Yeah, I know. Did you fuck that one, what was his name, Nakul?"

"Haha, yes, but I have had two more since Nakul." Sonal said proudly.

"You little tramp!"

"Well, you were gone for a whole month." Sonal protested "I had no entertainment. It's not I had a hunk of a brother-in-law to snuggle with."

"Oh, Sonal, I forgot to tell you," Rhea said excitedly "One night, I did get in the bed with him."

"Really? Wow."

"Yes, this was on the ship. Kajal and Jiju were watching a movie, and I just..."

Chapter 3 -- Who is Vansh Chaudhary?

Vansh was not a big fan of irony but even he could not deny that his life was full of it. He had always been a shy kid who had grown up into a shy adult. This shyness of his had always directed him towards things that could be done alone or indoors, or both.

His parents had got him a small camera for his 12th birthday. It had very quickly become his obsession. He spent so much time with it that it was inevitable that he would become good with it. His parents were very proud of it and their house was full of photographs that he had taken.

The irony was that the parents who were very proud of his photography skills and could not stop talking about it to relatives, had been horrified when he had expressed an interest in joining an art school to become a photographer. What, he would become one of those people who carried around a camera bag in a wedding and took pictures of people while they were trying to eat in peace? What would people say? And those people were always starving. None of them ever seemed to make any real money. It was such an uncertain field. No, no, Vansh must do something more practical and useful that would get him a job and a career -- like software engineering. If he wanted to carry on taking photos on weekends for his own pleasure, why, there was no harm in that. No harm at all.

Computers like the camera was another thing that could be done indoors and mostly alone or with other humans far away by means of the internet. Vansh had excelled at it. He had passed the graduate degree with distinction and then postgraduate degree with first class.

Another irony in his life was that even in the early stages of photography when he realised that he might be able to get some real skill with camera, he wanted to become a fashion photographer. The allure was, of course, the pretty girls that he would get to photograph and, hopefully, date. But he was still pathologically shy and while he was great behind the camera, just holding the camera did not give him the courage to talk to them.

Vansh had left Pune in the hope that he would be able to find a better job in Bombay. The truth was that he wanted to live alone and have a social life which he could not do in Pune where he had to live with his parents. So, after doing a few small IT jobs in Pune for a couple of years, he had gathered enough courage to lie to his parents that he had received an offer for a good job from a company in Bombay. They had been a little sad but Pune and Bombay are hardly 3 hours drive away and they had accepted the fact that their little bird had grown up and wanted to fly. Vansh had moved to Bombay.

In Bombay, he had struggled for a while, holding on to the hope of becoming a professional photographer. He visited many studios and newspaper offices to see if anybody would hire him. While having a degree in photography is by no means a requirement in the photography profession, it can help one to produce some kind of background which gives the potential employer some confidence into the candidate. Vansh had no background and simply producing example of his work somehow didn't seem to get him the jobs he wanted. He did get some offers for freelance work and he gave it a shot but the work was not well-paid or regular. He was eating into his savings and feeding his camera the same thing. But it could not go on forever.

After he missed the rent payment twice in a row and the landlord gave him a printed eviction notice, Vansh had to accept that he will need to find a job in the field where he had the qualification if for no other reason than to keep body and soul together. He still wanted to live in Bombay and for that he would need money. Somehow the hopeful air of the city had infected his spirit and he felt like some day he would be able to realise his dreams if he just stayed in Bombay.

The job that Vansh found was another great, and cruel, irony in his life. He found a job in an ad agency. It was a medium sized ad agency and Vansh would have given his first-born to get a chance there. In fact, he had tried it in within the first week after he moved to Bombay, but was told that without relevant qualifications they would not even consider his application.

But, the second time, when he came around, desperate for money to survive, they had been happy to accept his application and make him an offer on the same day. Because he had applied in the IT department this time. So, Vansh was working in his dream company just two floors down from his dream job, stuck in a job that he could do really well but hated with his guts. Even in a life so stacked with irony, this was not the supreme irony of his life. That honour was reserved for his girlfriend.

Everybody knew, including Vansh, that Hina was way too hot for him. By rights, she was way out of league. Yet, she was his girlfriend, because of the simple fact that he was a photographer even though he wasn't. He had come across her in the last stages of his struggle. She had been rejected as a model from the same modelling agency where Vansh had been rejected as a photographer. They had literally collided on their way out and bonded over their similar misfortune.

Hina had been struggling in Bombay as a model for more than twice the length that Vansh had been trying to get a job as a photographer. As a model you didn't need qualifications but you did need a shitload of luck. Hina was gorgeous but also smart. She had found a job as a waitress in the very first month that she had landed in Bombay from her small village via Delhi. It had taken her a long time to make this journey from J&K to Bombay for reasons similar to Vansh's own story.

She was determined to make it big in show business but each year as her age rose, her hopes became a little more unrealistic and her struggle became a little more desperate. She had come to Bombay when she was just about to become 30 and while she didn't look more than 22, she was competing against real 22 year olds who looked 18. Now after a couple of years while she still looked stunning, her competition was getting more fierce not less. But she was a realist. She worked her waitress job to pay for her food and rent, and took advantage of the shift timings to continue her struggle. Now it had just become habit. She took rejections in her stride and still continued to register with any talent agency she found promising and paid the registration fee willingly.

It's not that Hina didn't know how the industry worked or that she was unwilling to pay the price for fame and fortune. She knew that even to get a good portfolio made a girl had to sleep with the photographer. To get an actual modelling gig, a girl had to sleep with...well, whoever was calling the shots. But she was not prepared to sleep with just anyone. If it were a photographer, it would have to be a good photographer, if it were a producer or agency head, she better have a chance at getting the job before she would spread her legs for them.

The problem with this thinking is that there are more of the models and fewer of the photographers and talent agents. This dynamic is so skewed in their favour that even a crappy photographer with a half-room studio that he sleeps in at night can "date" two or three different girls a week. For bigger ones where Hina aimed, she could not even get her foot in the door. She had assessed this situation quickly and managed to get her portfolio made by a photographer who was not completely crap. She had slept with him twice, showered like crazy after each time, and then never headed that way again.

Sadly, that portfolio which cost her money every time she got copies made, had been tossed into too many wastebaskets around the town. It was after another such wasted and soul-breaking afternoon that Hina had met Vansh while coming out of the agency after hearing "Sorry, we are not looking for amateurs at this time. Leave your headshot, we'll call you."

[End of Chapter 3]