Cloaked Intentions

Chapter 10

Sanskar was busy talking to some of the guests at the party thrown by Shekhar Gadodia at his house. Casual chats came easily to him, it was when they got personal that he truly clammed up a bit, without letting anyone know about it of course. He had been talking about something, when he realized the that the person in front of him had his attention elsewhere. He turned around to see where the man was looking, only to find it leading to Swara.

She was dressed in a soft pink shoulder less dress that ended around her knees. He didn't understand much about women's clothing but it looked like one of those that had a princess like feel to it. But one thing was sure, she was looking bloody gorgeous in it and he wasn't the only one who had noticed, based on the comments that fell on his ears, even as he looked at her.

He strode over to her, rankled in part by the comments and the gawking that she was receiving from the other men at the party.

"What the hell are you wearing?" he asked curtly, covering her a bit from the vision of most around there, by standing it front of her.

"Why? Am I not looking good?" she asked innocently

"Everyone is gawking at you!" he said as his jaw tightened

"Is this your way of complimenting me?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

He gave her a sheepish look before softening and saying "You look nice"

"Just nice" she said frowning

"Fine! You look pretty. Is that better? Happy?" he said joining his hands in front of her

"Hmmph! You are really stingy at giving compliments" she said pouting at him "You don't have to worry. No one will gawk at me now. My arch nemesis is here to take care of that" she said with a quick glance away from him

"Arch Nemesis!" He said with an amused smile "Since when do you have one?"

"Since she decided to make me one" she said making a face.

He looked in the direction she was glancing at only to see a girl around their age, or may be a few years younger. She had long black hair. She looked delicate and, from what he could make out, wore a black body hugging shoulder less dress that ended just above her knees. Swara had been right about one thing, the men in the room had indeed been gawking at her instead now.

A choking feeling around his neck made him turn around to see Swara tightening his tie.

"I was just fixing your tie" Swara said with an innocent look on her face

"Yeah! Right! Fixing my tie!" Sanskar said annoyed as he loosened it up a bit so he could breath "So who is she?" he asked

"Why?" she said raising her eyebrow, seeing him roll his eyes, she answered "That is Ragini Bajaj". He raised his eyebrow, prodding her to say more. She sighed adding "She is the daughter of Tarun Bajaj"

"Tarun Bajaj" he repeated, his eyebrows furrowing a bit as if trying to remember "Why does this name seem familiar?" he mused almost to himself

"He had some partnership with Baba and if I am not mistaken also with Ram uncle before..." she trailed off

He nodded "Why do I not remember him though?"

"Because you never paid much attention to it. You were more bothered with your stupid video games" she said annoyed "He wasn't over at our houses much anyway"

"I need to meet him" he added quietly. Seeing her questioning look, he explained "So far, all I have had to go on are the case papers. I still don't have any clarity on what was going on at the time to cause this" seeing her nod, he continued "I cannot ask Bade Papa about it. He doesn't even know I am investigating this again. He is worried about me staying here as is, he would never give me any information"