Updated (Ch 17) Aastha and Shlok FF - Match Made In Heaven *pg51 - Page 20

wow, that conversation near the lake was so intense and so brilliantly written. Aasta had him spot on, and he was struggling big time! i love that she told him she was not jumping for joy when she realised she loved him...both their emotions and feelings were explained beautifully. Im so excited for the next update.

chap 11

awesome update
loved it
want to see shlok develop true feelings towards her

awesome update
loved it
finally shlok developed feelings for her
loved the last part
continue soon
thanks for the pm

Just read the last 3 chapters...awesome! I really love this story! Please pm me when u update!! And update soon!

Originally posted by: pt311288

nice update dear
continue soon
though i rilli hate shloky attitude here
and now make shlok pay for his mistake ...

Originally posted by: ruhakhan

wow dat was such an awesome update

shlok loves her and he has realised it bt will never admit to it

and astha showed him the mirror and he did nt want to accept this fact

dats y he walked away

do update soon

Hi,

Waiting eagerly for the next update!

Here is the next chapter.

Match Made in Heaven - Chapter 13

Astha watched Shlok walk away with an odd sinking feeling which wasn't so bad, actually, because, really, what had she been expecting after all?

She sent a trembling smile after his retreating back, and sighed heavily.

'You aren't fooling anyone,' she thought to herself, wrapping her arms around her middle in an attempt to comfort herself.

'You were only expecting the impossible. Only expecting everything.'

She sank down to sit on the grassy bank, and watched him until he was out of sight in the gathering darkness.

Astha appeared in bedroom an hour later, looking pale and cold, and grubby in her stained salwar.

Astha stripped off her salwar, and showered in water made as hot as she could stand it, before she retreated to her bed, and drew the curtains tight against the world. She lay in her bed for a long time, trying to remain very still as gradually, everything went silent around her.

All she could think of as she stared into the blackness was how incredibly stupid she was. Honestly, could she have picked a worse man to fall for? Astha squeezed her eyes shut against an unwanted wave of hot, stinging tears.

'Shlok Agnigotri, of all people - God, you stupid, stupid girl!'

She rolled over onto her stomach, intent on smothering herself with her pillow, and smothered a yelp when something hard dug into her chest.

Her hand came up to tug out the offending object, and her fingers encountered the crystal pendant 'he' had given her.

Torn between wanting to rip it off, and wanting to hold it and cry like a baby, she clutched it hard in her palm until it actually hurt, half hoping to feel it break in her hand.

She finally opened up her fingers, and let the pendant drop back against her skin. As much as she wanted to pull it off and hurl it away, she couldn't make herself do it.

"I only wanted it because you touched it," she heard his voice saying again in her mind.

"Shut up, Shlok," Astha whispered into the silence.

"Just shut up."

***

Astha skipped breakfast on the next Saturday morning, successfully avoided any contact at all with Shlok, and made it out onto the garden just in time to meet the gardener. She had to instruct him as to how she wanted the new plant pot to hung .

As she stood there telling the gardener where exactly she wanted the pot to be hung, she almost forgot about her problem.

"No not there, just to the right, little bit more. You know what it's ok, I will get on the ladder and hang it."

"But mam it's too high, you might get hurt."

"No I will be careful," she stated with a smile.

Inside the house, Shlok saw his petite wife climb the ladder and make her way up to the second floor balcony to hang the flowerpot. The he saw the ladder shake and as she tried to hold on to the ladder to avoid falling.

His heart was in his throat as he watched her waste precious seconds trying to steady the flower pot and then try to lurch frantically to one side to hold onto anything not to fall.

The sickening crunch of breaking bone could be heard even from inside, and Shlok felt his heart stop as Astha's head fell to one side, and she slid sideways off ladder, hanging by one arm for a moment, wavering, before falling through the air to the ground below.

Shlok never knew how he got to the garden as quickly as he did, but before he knew it, his boots were crunching against gravel, and then rough green turf as he ran across the ground to get to her.

***

Astha squinted around the dark, silent hospital room, and sighed, the sudden pain in her left side at the simple action causing tears to come to her eyes.

She lifted her sheets, using her left hand to gently probe her ribs through the thin gown she wore. Her chest had been wrapped tightly in bandages.

Astha dropped the sheet with a curse, trying not to breathe too deeply, everything about her left side felt bruised and raw. Her hand rose to grasp the crystal around her neck and she panicked as she felt nothing but smooth skin.

"Excuse me nurse"

The plumpy woman came tearing in out of nowhere, looking half asleep "What? What is it?" The woman moved forward, her hand over her heart.

"Oh it's you, Mrs.Agnigotri " she gasped. "What are you doing sitting up? Lay back, now, lay back I say!"

Astha did as she was told, feeling rather ill.

"You're positively green, you should have known better than to strain yourself that way!"

"My pendant, where is my necklace?"

The nurse stilled, and frowned at her. "Necklace? What necklace? You didn't have any necklace other than your manglasutra, oh, dear. You must have hit your head in the fall harder than I thought."

"Oh no! It must have fallen off out there when I fell." Astha sat up again, only to be pushed down. A trickle of sweat rolled down her cheek, and she bit her lip against the pain in her side.

"Now sleep, and get some rest, my dear, everything will be better in the morning, you'll see."

Allowing her head to sink back onto the pillow, Astha forced her eyes to remain open.

The older woman clucked her tongue, and pulled the blankets up to beneath her chin.

"Was my husband here, earlier?"

The older woman's brow wrinkled into lines of concern.

"Well, Mr. Agnigotri was here to see you on Saturday."

"Saturday? Well, what day is it, exactly?"

"It's Thursday, dear, you've been out for almost a week."

Astha yawned, and at last closed her eyes. "I lost my necklace, he gave it to me, you know. I have to find it."

"Don't worry, dear just rest now."

"I can't sleep," she mumbled, and then she went and made a liar of herself, drifted off, despite her best efforts to remain awake.

***

"Sleeping beauty"

"What?" Astha opened her eyes, and found herself staring at the hospital ceiling.

"Ah, now you're awake. It figures, " came a familiar, cynical voice.

She frowned, and turned her head on her pillow, hope rising hurtfully in her chest.

"Shlok?"

The tired looking man sat forward in his chair next to her bed, and rested his forearms on the edge of her bed.

Astha tried to blink away the fuzziness of sleep, and stared at him. He raised one black brow and smirked at her.

"You look... done in."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Astha closed her eyes again.

"You can open your eyes, I know you're awake."

She pressed her lips together, and allowed her eyes to snap back open.

"You know what? I'm glad you're here!"

"Of course you are," said Shlok dryly.

"I am - and I'll tell you why!"

Shlok crossed his arms over his chest.

"Because I want to tell you to your face that I think you're the most impolite, argumentative, egotistical, ill-mannered ass in the entirety of Great India!"

Astha glared at him, waiting for him to retaliate. She saw his eyes narrow on her suddenly, looking icy and unreadable.

"Where is it?"

"Where is what?" She looked down, and remembered her necklace was gone.

"Oh - I guess I lost it."

"You lost it? That's a bloody lame excuse. More like you lobbed it, after I told you off last week."

Astha felt her jaw fall open in outrage. "You bas-"

"Shut up."

"I -"

"Astha, shut up - just shut up, or I swear I'll.."

She turned over onto her side, facing away from his with an extreme effort. Her bruised side protested the movement, but she gritted her teeth, and allowed her hair to slide over her face and hide her troubled expression.

"Please, try to control your enthusiasm at the fact that I've been sitting here with you for the past six hours," he muttered nastily at the back of her head.

Astha rolled her eyes, but remained silent. She was still angry with him for thinking she'd have willingly thrown away his gift. And that, after she'd told him she loved him!

"Look at me, Astha," he finally commanded softly.

She clenched her jaw and remained on her side. She'd lay there until she rotted if she wanted!

"Fine. But I've got something to say, and you're bloody well going to listen."

Astha stayed silent.

"Raj challenged me that a girl like you would never fall in love with a guy like me."

Astha frowned when he paused.

"You can imagine my dislike of his 'challenge'. So I set out to win the challenge."

Shlok stared at the floor in disgust.

"I knew you were lying about something, I knew you hadn't changed!" Astha sat up in her bed, ignoring the burning pain as she stretched her muscles.

"Why did I listen to Joti?"

"What are you going on about?"

"You! You were playing me, from that first day, you, you dirty little ass face!"

"God, Astha, what did you expect? I'm Shlok Agnigotri, for God's sake! Of course I was playing you! I wanted you, and I decided I was going to have you."

"And you, being who you are, always get what you want," said Astha bitterly.

"Yes." He turned back to her, frowned, and shook his head. "Lay down, won't you? You look half dead as it is."

"Nice to know what you really think of me. I told you I loved you, how could I be so stupid?"

"While I may question your intelligence at times, I don't think I can question your feelings, Astha. You're the most honest, innocent, kind hearted person I know. And it took me some time to realize you couldn't lie to me."

She looked up into his black eyes and swallowed.

"You've got to understand, Astha everyone in my life lies."

"Are you trying to make me feel sorry for you?"

He narrowed his eyes cunningly. "Is it working?"

Astha growled, and lay back, rolling onto her side again. "Astha."

"Next you're going to be telling me you love me," she snarled into her pillow.

He sighed angrily behind her, and she picture him running his hands through his hair.

"I don't love you, Astha. It's impossible for me to be able to love you or anyone for that matter."

"Whatever."

"It's true. I - the reason I left you like that the other night, was because I started to feel something for you - it scared me, Astha, it scared me more than anything."

"More than the sight me falling to my death?"

"Don't start." He moved behind her, and she could feel him staring at her back.

"I do love you," she murmured hopelessly.

"Love is only a worthless word, Astha," Shlok scoffed in his usual manner.

"It sucks your emotions from you, and then it kills your spirit. There's no way I'm ever letting it trick me - look at what it's done to you, after all. It's making you crazy! It isn't worth going through the pain."

Astha silently wondered to herself if she'd ever learn to keep her big mouth shut.

"Well?"

"Well what?" She asked, annoyed.

"Aren't you going to say anything?" Shlok walked around the bed and stared down at her expectantly.

"What do you want me to say, Shlok? It's okay that you won't take the risk? That I'm not hurt, or confused by the fact that your actions always say one thing, and your lips another?"

"You're just being dramatic, now. I should have known better than to try and reason with a 21 year old girl," he snapped scathingly, his eyes flashing, "and one who's a bloody stubborn as hell at that!"

Closing her eyes, praying for patience, Astha counted to ten. Then to twenty.

"I don't have time for this," he finally drawled viciously, irritation coloring his voice. "Come and talk to me when you've grown up a bit, I'm in no mood to play hide and seek with you anymore."

She listened to him walk away, and only opened her eyes when his heavy footsteps had faded.

A silver glint caught her eye, and her brow furrowed. She pushed herself up on her elbow, and plucked a shiny object out of her tangled sheets.

A tiny, hissing silver snake entwined around a braided leather necklace fell against her hand.

Astha curled her palm around the ornament, the metal was still warm from Shlok's skin.

She thought for a moment that the clasp must have broken, but it was closed, tight and secure.

Shoving the necklace angrily beneath her pillow, she lay back on it, and stared at the ceiling, feeling poisoned by her emotions, and more confused than ever.

To be cont..

Beautiful and emotional! Thanks for this update