Page 24 of When Love Trespassed

“I didn’t mean it literally,” she muttered, dragging him out through the French doors of the living room and toward the mango tree. Her pulse thumped with each step. She stopped beneath its shade.

“So,” she said, glancing around to make sure Lakshmi Aunty wasn’t around to see or hear them. “What about the kiss? Didn’t you already say you thought I was your date?”

“I didn’t have a date,” he said firmly, locking his eyes with her. “It was Varun who had set up some blind date nonsense for me. I’d refused him and never really went through with it.”

Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Wait… a blind date? So, you kissed someone you didn’t even know? That’s your idea of blind dates? Kissing them without a Hi or a Hello?”

“I don’t kiss blind dates,” he muttered angrily, his eyes locking with hers. “In fact, I haven’t kissed anyone since my divorce.”

She blinked, clearly taken aback. “But you kissed me.”

He paused, clearly thrown off-guard by her words. Yes. He’d kissed her. A woman who wasn’t his wife, nor his girlfriend. It was a first!

But before he could find the right words to explain, she continued, “Well, now I know why. It all makes sense. Since you hadn’t kissed anyone in so long... no wonder.”

“No wonder what?”

“Nothing.” She shook her head, clearly not wanting to spill anything out.

Shaurya leaned in, gripping her arms.

“No wonder what, Nandini?”

She hesitated for a second… and then sighed.

“No wonder… that kiss felt a little outdated.”

Shaurya looked at her like she’d just told him he was a century-old fossil. “Outdated?” he echoed.

She nodded, biting her lower lip to hide a smile. “Yeah. Like one of those old flip phones you probably used in college. By the time I got to college, they were in museums.”

His jaw clenched. “You’re comparing that kiss to a flip phone?”

“Yes,” she said matter-of-factly. “You know how with a flip phone, you had to snap them open first? A little awkward. A little clunky. And only then you could finally talk. That kiss felt the same. Like all setup, a little mechanical, a bit stiff… and the actual connection came a bit late, like the signal took time to warm up.”

Shaurya blinked, trying to mentally decode the metaphor.

Nandini gave a little shrug, feigning nonchalance. “I mean… it wasn’t bad. But I expected more from a man who struts around like he trademarked arrogance.”

His brows rose.

She tilted her head and continued her blabbering. “And now that I know that kiss happened because you thought I was your blind date —a total stranger—I gotta say… besides being grumpy and hot, you’re also reckless.”

The moment she uttered those words, he took a step closer to her, the shift in the energy immediate. Nandini barely had time to react before her back met the rough bark of the mango tree. She gasped softly, realising she was suddenly caged in. His body loomed close, his scent filling her senses.

“Hot?” he asked, his voice dangerously low.

Nandini’s eyes widened slightly at her slip of tongue. Oh no. Her mouth opened, but nothing came out.

“Did you just call me hot ?” he repeated, a hint of that maddening, smug smile lurking on his lips.

Nandini swallowed hard. Her brain screamed at her to respond, but his nearness, his smirk, that infuriating confidence—none of it helped.

Summoning all her strength and what little pride she had left, she slipped out from under his arm and turned toward the house, her cheeks blazing like she’d swallowed the sun whole.

“Hot and outdated,” she shouted over her shoulder, not daring to look back.

She disappeared inside the villa before he could recover from her comeback.

Shaurya stood frozen under the mango tree, stunned.

Hot and outdated?

What kind of deranged, contradictory insult was that?

Was it even a thing?

He stared at the empty spot she’d disappeared into, still reeling. The woman had just compared his kiss to a damn flip phone.

A flip phone? Seriously?

He’d handled hostile boardrooms, negotiated with egotistical billionaires, and even delivered keynote speeches with cameras flashing in his face.

But apparently, nothing could ever prepare a man for being compared to a discontinued mobile device by a woman who’s second name was trouble.

He ran a hand through his hair in disbelief, still trying to wrap his head around what happened.

It wasn’t just the outdated part. Sure, that jab had hit his ego like a slap with a velvet glove.

But it was the hot part that got under his skin in an entirely different way.

That one reckless word, spoken out like an afterthought, refused to leave his mind.

Of course, people had complimented him before.

He wasn’t a stranger to admiration or attention.

But this? This felt different. It came from her—this maddening woman with a smart mouth and stars in her eyes.

And for reasons he couldn’t quite explain, he didn’t just like that she thought he was hot. He loved it.

Hell, it had been years since anyone had made him feel this unbalanced.

Unprepared. Like he’d walked into a negotiation without reading the contract.

And now here he was, arguing about metaphors involving flip phones and kissing techniques with a woman who could burn down his calm with one sentence.

She thought his kiss was outdated?

Fine.

Let her think that.

Because one way or another, he was going to change her mind.

With interest.

He looked up at the mango tree and muttered under his breath, “Flip phone, my ass.”

Then, with a shake of his head, he turned and walked back to his villa.