Locked - Part 4

 

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Chapter 4



Khushi’s POV


“You love novels? Which ones?” Akash asks over the table as we all dine together. I don’t understand how my sister can share all these details with a stranger. I would never!! But that’s her life and we both never intrude in each other’s decisions until its utmost necessary.

“Romance novels” Payal shies.

“Romance” Akash repeats and me and Arnav share a quick glance for our silly sibling’s crush over each other. “I am a romance fan too” he adds.

“He is” Arnav mentions patting Akash’s back and turns to Payal. “He watches a lot of romantic movies and not to mention, with lots of tissues along.”

“Tissues?” Payal curiously asks.

“Yup.. He cries every time the leads separate”

“Bhai Please” Akash shies.


I want to laugh but I control it. Akash can really be that sensitive? Could be. He is much softer than Arnav. Both brothers are so different from each other. If one is domestic, the other is wild and needs some taming. Not to mention I will pick the wild one if asked. Silly me!! Here I was giving advice to Payal not to fall for anyone and I myself don’t miss a chance to drool this man sitting before me. I shrug my thoughts and focus back on the conversation.


“Payal does that too” I interrupt. “But with lots of tissues, she also empties the entire ice cream bucket. Right Payal?”

“Khushi, stop teasing me.”

“What about you?” Arnav asks sipping some water. His gazes at me are always intense than the previous ones. “What kind of movies do you like?”

“Action” I lie.

“No wonder you are always ready to fight” He teases while I just smirk. I am not a romance movie fan but I love to watch movies with happy endings.

“That’s not true” Payal interjects. “Khushi loves comedies too. And she cannot stop laughing if she starts once. But the joke really has to be good.”


Arnav seems impressed by that too.

“You can ask me you know” Arnav mocks looking at me again. “My choice of books or movies.”

“I don’t have to ask. I know that already.” I grin.

“Itne acche se jaanti ho mujhe?” He teases. (Really? You know me so well?)

“She is guessing Bhai” Akash jokes. “So Khushi what movies you think Bhai loves?”

“Serial killer movies”

Arnav stares at me curiously. I wipe my lips and turn to Akash and Payal instead. Actually his gazes are burning my body so I am forced to shift my focus for a few seconds.

“Serial killer movies?” Both Akash and Payal laugh. “And why do you think so?” Akash queries.

“He uses his looks to kill women. I am sure he is always surrounded by women..” I add pretending we both never met before.

“Obviously” Akash nods. “Bhai is a charmer”

“Shut up Akash” Arnav snaps.

“Come on Bhai. We all know how much women love you but Khushi, my brother might be surrounded by women all the time because of his looks, but he never takes advantages of them. He is quite sober and innocent in that terms.”


A part of me is impressed but I don’t meet Arnav’s gaze though I know he is waiting to see my reactions. I pick the plates and head to the kitchen.


****************


Arnav’s POV


If Khushi Gupta thinks she can tease me anytime and walk away without giving me a clean chit, she is so wrong. I have already told her, that during Di’s wedding the women I was surrounded with were only to plan hiding the groom’s shoes. I had no interest in any of them otherwise. It was Khushi who managed to grabbed my attention that day and ever since then I have compared every single woman I have met, with her.

I return to the kitchen and help her finish the chores there. This is not something I have enjoyed doing but with her in that same room, boosts my interest. We do our respective tasks in silence. Akash comes in and tells he and Payal have planned a movie for tonight and wants us to join them in the living room after finish. We agree.


“Bedtime stories, huh?” I tease Khushi who suddenly freezes.


She is washing the vessels and I am wiping them dry. We had forgot the cleaning of utensils task to add in our to do list. So, while having lunch we planned that too. Payal and Akash would do the afternoon dishes and me and Khushi the dinner ones.

Now at my question Khushi frowns, clearly conflicted what to reply.

“You dreamed of me in your bedtime stories?” I be more specific to my previous query.

“No” She snaps. “Never”

She hands me another cleaned dish and I wipe it dry.

“I heard you blabbering about this today afternoon to yourself”

She goes silent for a few seconds, her cheeks turning red.

“Oh yes. I do remember now” She passes me a mocking smile. “Once I saw you in my dream after seeing you in your sister’s wedding and guess what?”

I wait for her to complete but I could sense she was going add some nonsense.

“That was the best dream of my life. You were in a red boxers and dancing like a cartoon.”

“What the..” I sprinkle some water on her.

“You…” she sprinkles some on me. I repeat. She repeats and soon I grab her arms and haul her to my chest.

“Arnav?” She struggles after a minute of silence and eye lock.

“I dreamt of you too” I drawl. “You in that same Lehnga, against the backdrop of a wedding. You seemed to be the bride.”


I don’t know why I am saying this? I have no plans of marriage any time soon though Di keeps pushing me but ever since I have met the woman haunting my dreams, again, marrying doesn’t seem to be that bad!


A shiver moves through her which she swallows and fakes a smile again. She has great patience and control over herself. Wish I had that too. I do have it but when I see her, it is gone even before I realize.


“I saw that dream too” she fakes being shy. How easily I am able to read all her tactics, her expressions. Hard to believe this is really the Arnav Singh Raizada who hardly looked at a woman twice. I am happy Single!!

“You did?”

“Uh hmm” She nods, settling comfortably in my arms. “I was in bridal lehnga, wedding background, standing on the reception stage and then you…”

“Me?” I pull her close. I am in her dream? That seems to be a lie but I like it that she considered my role in her dream.

“You are …” she bites her lower lip. Damn her!!

“I am what?” I growl.

“You come to me… and… Congratulate me and my husband on our wedding”


What? She pushes me away and my jaw drops.


“You are making this up, aren’t you? There was no such dream” I groan.

She continues cleaning the dishes.

“But it can happen some day in reality. Now that we four know each other, you think I will not invite you on my wedding Mr. Arnav Singh Raizada??”

Can I just kiss her? That might force her to offer me the role of being her husband in that dream.


“You said something?” She asks, as if listening to my heart talk.


I throw away the cloth I was wiping the dishes with, and glaring at her, I walk out of the kitchen.



***************

Khushi’s POV


It’s so much fun to tease Arnav and I don’t know why I am even bearing his tantrums. He left the wiping of dishes job and I had to do that on his behalf after he stormed out of the kitchen. Now we are watching movie, trying to divert our attention from the pandemic news outside which has really made us so sad and confused right now but Arnav is nowhere seen. He didn’t sit with us for this Sci-fi movie. When asked Akash, he said Arnav was busy making a few calls. I suddenly feel cold by the chilling AC temperature in the room and decide to bring my Shawl. While returning back, I see Arnav speaking to someone on the phone.


“We need to contribute Aman. I don’t care how much, but I want to help as much possible to the people in need. Talk to the team and see how much funds we can release for assisting the hospitals for the necessary equipment and what about the transport arrangements for the migrants?”

I know eavesdropping is bad but I can’t help notice how much he is involving to contribute to the nation during this covid times. I am proud of what he is doing. Soon, he hangs up and turns around.

“Sorry, I heard all that” I apologize.

“That was no secret”

“I know but its really cool you doing all this. In fact, I wish to help too”

“Sure, how do you want to help?”

“Food packages. Have you thought about that?? Due to the lockdown and no work to do, there are so many poor people who don’t get meals daily”

“I am aware” He nods apologetically. “My team is planning an aid for such people too but we can’t cover the whole country. I wish we could”

“No help is small help Arnav. If we all do our part, contribute even a handful, it will be enough to support the whole country. This awareness amongst the people is must. The situation is so worse that people are hardly able to think of their own families max”

“Everyone will want to protect their families first Khushi. No wrong in that. But I get your point. Though many are coming out and helping, we need more help to save our country from this situation.”

“Right.”

We both go silent for a minute as if thinking how to tackle this.

“I will ask my team to arrange some food packets on a daily basis until the lockdown and distribute it to the needy people.” I declare.

“And I will ask my HR team to spread the awareness through social media about the contributions we all need to do.”

“Cool” I smile. “We too have a few followers, me and Payal will put a similar note too on our social media accounts”

He smiles.

“This is just the beginning. We have a lot to do and we will.” Arnav asserts and I agree. We have a lot to do for the nation and its people.


We both shared our ideas with Akash and Payal and soon shutting the TV off, we got back to work. Each one of us were doing our best to bring awareness and contribute. Payal made coffees for us to help us stay awake. None of us wanted to sleep until we completed our respective tasks. After many phone calls, social media posts and a lot of brainstorming on which part of the cities were strong affected and with what sorts of problems, we finally ended up jotting down plans and gave instructions to our respective teams and interested social workers to implement it under our virtual supervision.

It was 01:00 am when I urged Payal to go sleep after she finished her task. Akash had a video conference with their US clients, so he headed to his room too leaving me and Arnav there for another hour. I had begun to doze too and Arnav finally shut his laptop.


“Lets go.. We did a lot today”

“Right. We will continue this tomorrow” I yawn and stretch on the couch but when I meet Arnav’s eyes, I realize he hasn’t stopped drooling me and it makes me feel conscious. I stop twisting and get down the couch, only to yelp in pain and fall back on the sofa. “Ouccchh”

Arnav rushes to me in no time.

“You okay?”

“I don’t think so. I got a leg sprain” I hiss in pain.

Arnav kneels down.

“Let me see”

“No” I pull away before he can touch my feet. “I have a spray in my room. I will apply it”

He doesn’t argue.

“Fine. Take my hand”

I hold his hand and try to get up but the pain intensifies.

“I can’t” I flop back on the couch. What have I landed into?

“How sad” He taunts. “How will you climb the stairs now?”


Oh! I know why he was grinning. Me and Payal took the top floor bedrooms and gave these Raizada brothers the one on ground. Now he had the perfect opportunity to tease me.


“Want to shift your bedroom down? I will be happy to occupy yours” He teases further.

“No thanks. I can manage to climb the stairs. You don’t have to bother”


I try to get up again, this time without his help and I am about to fall when Arnav holds my waist not letting me collapse. Our eyes lock as my soft body presses to his rough one. His thick black hair, sculpted cheekbones and perfectly etched lips, sensually wicked, impacts my body in innumerable ways. As if he reads me noticing him, a faint smile crosses his lips and then leisurely the man bends down and carries me in his arms so gently as if I am a pigeon feather. Words choke in my mouth. I am unable to frame sentence and tell him to drop me back down. He climbs the stairs and soon kicks my room door open. It’s dark and chilling. I had left the AC On. I fist his shirt trying to suppress the rising shiver in my body. He drops me to the bed.

“Where is the spray?” He asks.

“Uh?”

“Spray Khushi Gupta. Where is it?” He grins at my speechless form.

“Yea.. Uh.. over there” I point to the side drawer.

He quickly opens the drawer and gets the spray. Kneeling down, he forces me to keep my hurt feet over his thigh. He touches my ankle gently and then gives it a soft press.

“Where is the pain? Here?”

“Little left..”

He complies.

“Here?”

“Yes.” I hiss gripping his shirt again, over the shoulder blade. He sprays the medicine and I yelp as it burns my skin.

“Sshh.. Hogaya..”


He palms my cheek and I cannot help leaning my face to his touch. He is sexy-as-sin right now. But my control overpowers the sweet innocent desires bubbling inside my body. I quickly pull away from him and grab the quilt.


“Thank you and good night”


He nods and rising to his feet, he puts the spray back in the drawer.

“Good night”


The next minute, he is out and I finally take a sigh of relief. My emotions are slipping, aren’t they?


To be Continued.

NEXT PART 

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________________________________________________________________

A loyal, workaholic Myra needed a one-week break from her hectic office schedule and she told only one lie to her over-demanding Boss. That if she didn’t take this one-week off, her relationship with her boyfriend would end forever. Tables turned when her boss demanded Myra’s picture with her boyfriend when she goes on that vacation with him. That one lie decided the fate of her Job.


Crazy, wasn’t it? But Myra believed she could pull this off. So now, she wasn’t just spending her hard-earned savings to fake a holiday alone, but she also had to hunt down a man who would act like her boyfriend Just for a Click.

Did her mission succeed? Did she say farewell to the man who saved her Job or was there more to her one-week fairytale?

A short contemporary romance with a surprising twist. 

Number of Pages: 104

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