Silence.

For a full five minutes, she didn't say a word.

No teasing smile. No subtle shift in her legs.

Just frozen.

Her eyes were still on him — but not in the same way as before.

She was processing.

Zayan Raizada.

The name echoed in her head.

The Zayan Raizada.

Mafia empire.

Billionaire hotel chains.

Asia's most untouchable bachelor.

Tabloids never got past his bodyguards.

CEOs stood when he entered rooms.

And here he was... smirking beside her with a glass of wine in hand.

He took a slow sip, and without even looking directly at her, said—

"I know I'm hot, sweetheart, but five straight minutes of staring? I think I deserve at least your number."

Her throat tightened.

She blinked, coming back to the real world.

"Oh— no, I wasn't staring! I mean, I was... but not like that— I mean... you're—"

He finally turned to her, eyes gleaming.

"Go on. Say it."

She exhaled sharply, almost like a confession.

"You're Zayan.

Zayan Raizada."

He raised a brow.

"Guilty."

"Like... the mafia Zayan?" she whispered, voice dry.

"The billionaire who makes ministers sweat? That Zayan?"

He gave her that maddening, lazy smile.

"Is there another?"

She bit her lip, stared at her tray, and finally extended her hand.

"Zoya. I mean— I'm Zoya. Sorry, I just wasn't expecting... you."

He didn't shake immediately.

Just looked down at her hand.

Then wrapped his fingers around hers — slowly, deliberately — and held it longer than necessary.

His touch was warm. Confident.

"Zoya..." he repeated, tasting the name.

He leaned closer, his voice dropping into a quiet hum.

"Hmm. Pretty name. But too long."

She blinked. "Too long?"

"Yeah. I'm shortening it."

He let her hand go — slowly — like he wasn't done holding it.

"Zoya's too sweet for that mouth of yours."

"I'm calling you... Zoey."

She raised an eyebrow. "You just renamed me?"

"You got a problem, Zoey?"

She looked at him for a long second, smirk fighting to rise on her lips.

"Depends. Are you always this bossy?"

"Only when I want something."

His eyes dropped to her mouth again.

"And right now... I want dessert."

She coughed, choked slightly again — and he smirked wider, watching her squirm.

Zoya managed a shaky breath, her fingers still tingling from his touch.

He leaned back with that same infuriating smirk — the kind only men with power and danger could carry.

But inside her head?

It was chaos.

"Zuzu kaha fas gayi tu... yeh banda toh mafia nikla. Mafia, Zuzu. Tere ko goli na maar de kahin..."

She gulped down some water, avoiding his eyes, pretending to fix her tray.

He tilted his head and asked casually — voice silk, tone lethal:

"So Zoey... are you just Zoya, or do you have a surname that goes with that sharp tongue?"

Her heart sank.

This was it.

She hesitated, then inhaled deep — surrendering.

"Zoya Kapoor."

The silence that followed wasn't soft.

It was sharp.

Like static before lightning.

Zayan turned to her, full now. His brows raised ever so slightly.

His entire energy shifted from playful to... intrigued.

"Zoya Kapoor?"

"Wait—The Zoya Kapoor?"

She froze.

Didn't answer.

He narrowed his eyes, voice dropping to that signature cold calm—

"Journalist of ScoopLine Digital?"

"The one who lit my PR team on fire for three years straight?"

Her hand flew to her face before she could stop herself.

She dragged her palm down in disbelief.

"Not journalist. Editor-in-Chief," she muttered.

"Same difference, sweetheart. It's still you who called me 'India's most charming criminal.'"

"Every time I took a girl out, your stupid magazine turned it into a sex scandal with hashtags."

She cringed harder.

"That wasn't me personally writing—"

He cut in, calm and amused.

"You approved it, didn't you?"

Zoya looked down at her untouched dinner.

She wanted to melt through the seat.

Literally disappear.

Because the man she'd publicly humiliated in headlines for months was now—

—sitting next to her, grinning, wine in hand, and eyes sharper than bullets.

And she?

Was wearing tiny shorts, braless under a crop top, and had just moaned in her fake sleep 20 minutes ago.

"Nice going, Zuzu. Very professional."