[Steel]

Rakesh had to hold back a laugh as he walked into Kusha's office the next day. Bingo. Bullseye. It looked like he had scored a direct hit.

To the untrained eye, it might look like the lovely, confident woman behind the desk had the same dismissive expression of hate and disgust she had always worn when looking at Rakesh. But he knew better. There was an obsessive edge in her eyes now. Kusha still hated him, but after he had questioned her choice in men, she also felt like she had something to prove. An axe to grind. And that was why Rakesh was here today. He wanted to strengthen that reaction and mold it to his purposes.

That was exactly why he had sent his audacious request to Kusha last night.

"Mr. Kumar," said Kusha icily, "Welcome. Before we continue, I want to address the inappropriate remarks you made about my personal life yesterday. Let me make one thing perfectly clear. In order for me to work on this project, you and I need to have a professional relationship of utmost respect."

Rakesh sat heavily in the chair across from the beautiful, arrogant woman he planned to make his depraved submissive slut. She wouldn't be making demands from him soon... just asking sweetly. Begging. But for now, it didn't pay to be hasty. Pushing too hard too fast would spook her.

"I'm an unfiltered guy," said Rakesh in a flat voice, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed over his unbuttoned chest. "I say what's on my mind. But I recognize that I run in social circles that might be a little less... polished than yours. So if you felt uncomfortable over what I said, then I'm sorry."

"You didn't make me uncomfortable," said Kusha sharply, leaning forward on her elbows with an intense expression.

"Then what's the issue?" asked Rakesh, raising a questioning eyebrow.

Kusha glared at him for a long moment, then blinked and shook her head, moving on quickly from the awkward exchange without even extracting a real apology from Rakesh. "...Anyway. I called you here today to give you some options for design elements. Let's get right to business."

Rakesh smiled and stroked his chin. "Excellent. I wanted to pick your brain on the design for my trophy case. I think that just having hooks in a glass case is a little, I don't know... boring? I was hoping you might have some fresh visual ideas."

Kusha's face had hardened into an angry scowl as he talked, and Rakesh had to repress a smirk. Kusha really was too predictable.

"I made myself quite clear in my response to your insane suggestion last night," snapped Kusha, playing with a lock of hair distractedly as she stared daggers at the infuriating man across from her. "I'm not designing anything of the sort for you. You can commission someone with looser morals to build your disgusting monument to misogyny after I'm finished. I won't have any part in it."