Arnav smiled at the phone after his brief conversation with Khushi. The girl was a mystery, unknowingly drawing him to her. He had seen many women, but none like her. Her sheer innocence and the purity of her soul made him wonder on the fact that the Almighty still created people like her. She was like a lotus, growing in the mire of the corrupt world, yet so beautiful in all senses. She was slowly invading his senses, stealthily and gently, without even any realization on her part. The moment Arnav had seen her at her celebration of her birthday, he had sensed some sparks between them. Although he knew it was mere attraction, he could not get a hold over it. For the first time, he felt like he was drawn towards a woman without any seduction from the other end, which was very atypical for him. And then when he had seen her almost sans her clothes in her room, he felt certain strong desires for her. If he wasn't standing in her room under the roof of her house, he would have acted upon his desires and taken her then and there. The mere thoughts of making her "his" made him very jubilant. When he had seen her in his office, he had to try very hard to stay away from her. But every time he tried to keep away from her, the more he was drawn towards her. And he had no option but to shoo her away from him. Little did he know that he would be the one at loss by distancing her from self. He had missed her more, ever since she moved to another department. Her image of wishing him for a safe journey was still fresh in his mind. She was perfect in all senses.
But then, he had shielded his heart years ago, for he knew that love brought pain with it. And to strongly support his views, that was what happened to Aakash. Arnav's smile dimmed slightly as he thought about his brother's heartache. Love was a painful hell. And that was when he had been affirmative about his way of life. Initially, Aakash had kept warning him when he saw his little brother living the Casanova way of life. But circumstances turned tables around when Payal left Aakash and walked away with another man. Soon, Aakash too picked up the habits of his brother and gave into drinks and women. Another example of pained love was his Mom's sister's daughter - his first cousin - Pooja, who married the man she loved, only to find out that he married her for her wealth. When she refused to give in to his demands, she had been beaten up and harassed mentally and physically. One fine day, she had been found hanging from the ceiling fan. Love had defeated her, and she gave up on life. The man she married vanished in thin air, and no one ever heard of him. Heck, he did not even turn up for the funeral. Had she not been in love with that horrible demon, she would have been alive. Love, for Arnav, was a baseless concept. In fact, love didn't exist. In his theory, only lust did. And people fell in love only under a pretext of fulfilling their bodily desires.
Of course in lonely nights, Arnav would feel like his conscience reprimanded him for his living. When he heard of his batch mates getting married and starting a family, his life felt very shallow and hollow in comparison to theirs. But then, somewhere in the depth of his heart, he had sealed all emotions. He had vowed that no one would unlock the chest of his emotions. And so, he continued to shut himself from such "horrendous" thoughts of love by channelling himself into meaningless sex with multiple women. He never forced anyone, but pleasured those who were willing to warm his bed to an endless peak till she screamed his name from the bottom of her lungs. This was his life - a disgustingly rich sexually satisfied hunk of a walking Greek God. But this girl... No... Woman, in fact, a very attractive woman named Khushi Gupta had made Arnav question himself about locking himself away from the senses of attraction and love. Khushi attracted him, and her innocence rose desires in him that he had never known of. The desires only increased a multiple fold when she tried running away from him. He had never had any woman say no to him, ever. But Khushi; she was different. She was someone that made Arnav question his living. She seemed to be the one who would make life worth living. She seemed to be someone with whom he would think of spending the rest of his life with... And that thought unknowingly made him smile. It felt like the beast was falling for the beauty, after all. But the beauty was in love and was engaged to the prince charming - Rohan. Arnav's smile vanished completely. "Whoa! What is wrong with me? She's engaged dude! Off limits! Seems like the jet lag is taking a toll on you. Just sleep for some more time and get her out of your system" he muttered to himself. He knew that he was no match for a woman like Khushi. He was a horrible man who had done horrible things, and she was perfect from head to toe. He smacked his forehead and hit the bed to shut his eye for a few more hours, only to keep dreaming about her.
Khushi quickly got ready and ran off to office by taking a cab. Mr. Arnav Raizada would fry her in hot oil if she was late. Suddenly realization hit her hard. She was no longer working as his Assistant. An even harder realization hit her that he was not going to be around in office for the next few days. She cursed herself for mooning and fascinating over a man who treated her so cruelly and humiliated her in front of her whole office. He had not only commented on her character but also maligned her reputation in front of the entire staff. Her colleagues kept eyeing her from the corner of their eye and it hurt her, considering the fact that she was not at fault. Her thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of her phone and she saw Rohan's name flashing on it. "Yes Rohan, what happened?" she asked him in a monotonous tone. He had spoken to her about Arnav Raizada and ever since she had weird thoughts invading her brain. She was happy for Rohan and Anjali, but his imagination about a bright world full of sunshine and rose petals made her nauseous at times. She too had waited for love like every other person, but Rohan's point of view of looking for love in every damn thing sometimes irritated her. "I'm leaving back to London now" he said in a panic-stricken tone. Khushi was alarmed and her gut feeling told her it had something to do with Anjali. "What happened to you? You were alright when I left for work. Is everything okay?" she asked him in an equally worried tone. Getting tensed on trivial matters was unlike Rohan, and she knew his sudden departure had to be regarding something urgent. "Anjali met with an accident. She seems to be critical. I've got to go." He said in a cracked voice. Khushi understood his fear, and that he had to see her under any damn circumstance. After all, she too had lost her Mother in an accident and she knew the fear creeping in his veins. "Travel safe, and call me when you reach." "Yeah" he said in a hurry. "She's going to be fine. Don't lose hope" Khushi said to him before he cut her call, to which he just sighed into the receiver and then dropped the call. Rohan had seen a lot of hardships and he deserved happiness. She leaned against the headrest of the cab and prayed for Rohan and Anjali, hoping for the best.
She reached office and in no time, she got busy. For the time being, she had to work under Aakash's guidance, in another cabin with a team of six members. The event was in three days and she had felt the pressure of the work building on her within an hour of taking up the task. No doubt, the team with which she worked was efficient and managed every single task with ease. But the strain killed her. Her Team Lead soon announced a break and she ran to grab a cup of coffee, taking advantage of the little time-out she got. When she returned she saw Aakash in the corridor talking to someone over the phone. She smiled as she saw Aakash grinning as he spoke. He was so different from Arnav Raizada in all aspects and she wondered for a second if they were truly brothers from the same parents. He saw her smiling at him, and he nodded at her with a smile. She slightly flushed in embarrassment as he caught her looking ardently at him. As she walked past him, she heard him say, "I'm glad you'll be back in two days Arnav" She stopped in her tracks. Listening to Arnav's name made her heart slightly flutter. She felt like he was right next to her, whereas he was miles away from her. She felt like a crazy teenager, whose heartbeats increased as she heard his name. Aakash turned to look at her and asked, "You wanted to talk, Khushi?" She nodded her head in a No and walked away.
Arnav was lying down in bed, with his eyes closed and talking to Aakash. Apparently, he had spoken to Mr. Paulos and told him all about the charity auction that was to be held in three days. Mr. Paulos had been delighted and had offered to put aside all his work and attend the event. He had been quite known for his charitable deeds and did not miss out on anything that involved some good work. He always believed that no one would remember the various accomplishments and degrees when you die. But if one would do a good deed with a selfless intention, then he would be remembered even after generations. Aakash was delighted when Arnav told him about Antonio's visit. It was a privilege to have him over at the event, and Aakash was just discussing about Mr. Paulos' accommodation facilities when Arnav heard him whisper, "You wanted to talk, Khushi?" Arnav opened his eyes and sat up on the bed. Her name brought back all those thoughts he had this morning. He knew he should not be thinking about a woman who was betrothed to another man. But his mind was contradicted by his heart. Heart? He inwardly laughed and wondered if his heart of flesh and blood still existed and worked fine, even after plastering it with layers of cold, ruthless arrogance. But somehow, the petite woman seemed to have cracked the plastering, since he had begun to feel warmness in his chest, after so many years. He felt like the Grinch whose heart grew warmer and larger after knowing the true meaning of Christmas. He smiled to himself as he imagined Khushi scurrying away like a meerkat when Aakash would have questioned her something. "Khushi is around?" he askd Aakash, who told to him that she went away. "Arnav, I hope you remember what I said to you the other day. Mr. Gupta's partnership means a lot to this company and..." "Yes Aakash, I remember. Don't worry. I will not misbehave. In fact, she would never give me any chance to even look at her. The minute she sees me, she runs away from me like a deer from a tiger" Aakash smiled at the imagery Arnav used. After wishing him for the rest of his stay in Greece, Aakash dropped the call and went back to work.
Arnav plopped himself back on the bed. He hadn't thought about anyone for this long. But when it came to Khushi, it was different and a first for him. It had not even been twenty four hours and he had already spent most of his time thinking about her. Never in his wildest dreams did he think that he would miss her, of all the people. Every time she looked at his arrogant face with her innocent eyes, his heart couldn't help but beat a little faster than usual. Perhaps, it was because she refused to swoon at his feet like every other woman, and that gave him the rush to chase her till she gave into his charm. After the perks of being a rich hot guy was that everybody loved him, and he always got what he wanted. Every time his heart drew him towards her, he wanted to bang his head hard and keep away, but his brain had decide to stop syncing with any of his organs when it came to her. Maybe if God could come down from the heavens and tell him personally, he would understand. But deep down, he knew it was best to stay away. The last thing he wanted was to complicate matters with this attraction, love or whatever thing it was. He got out of bed and got ready to go downstairs. Mr. Paulos seemed to be a little busy finishing off his pending work before he was to leave, along with Arnav, to India in two days. Arnav made himself comfortable as he sat down at the sofa, right next to a huge shelf of books. However, he was soon occupied as Heleena came and sat next to him. She wore a spaghetti-strapped long turquoise colored gown, the slit up to the knee. Arnav sensed trouble as she sat leaning onto him, with her finger tracing his arm. "Arnav Raizada, finally a pleasure to meet you in person" she said as she inched closer to him. "Same here Ms. Paulos" he smiled and picked up a business magazine. "Heleena" she said to him, wrapping her hand on his arm, continuing, "Ms. Paulos is too formal" she said as she flirted with him outrageously with her seductive smile. Antonio shot her a disapproving look, and she was almost forced to let go off Arnav. Arnav walked off after passing her a polite smile, leaving her in a fit of rage that she masked with her smile. "This ain't over" she thought to herself, almost deciding n what she had to do next.
"What?" Khushi frowned and whispered to Gauri, the girl sitting next to chair, as she kept staring at her from the corner of the eye. Gauri was a pretty, bubbly and a chubby girl of Khushi's age who was a graduate in commerce. Her smile was infectious and her attitude was extremely friendly. One could not but help befriending her. "Nothing" Gauri whispered back and smiled to herself. After a few moments, when Khushi looked in Gauri's direction, she caught her looking at her again. This time, Gauri smiled sheepishly as she was caught staring again. "Are you going to tell me what is making you stare at me?" Khushi asked again with her brows raised. "You used to work as Arnav Raizada's P.A. right?" Khushi looked back into her file after nodded her head. Gauri nudged her by her elbow, drawing her attention yet again. "You both were, erm, together right?" Khushi frowned in irritation at the word "together" Gauri further explained in hesitation. "We heard about you and Arnav in the elevator." Khushi flushed to a shade of red in embarrassment. That incident would keep embarrassing her for the rest of her life. "I wouldn't blame you" she spoke, cutting Khushi's train of thoughts. And continuing, Gauri said in enthusiasm, "I mean, just look at Arnav Raizada. That drool-worthy face, those pinkish kissable lips, those long legs that would be even longer than Amitabh Bacchhan's legs." Khushi rolled her eyes. Did every woman have to whine about how good looking Arnav Raizada was? First Ananya, now Gauri. Surprisingly, Khushi did not feel any anger towards Ananya when she thought about her. Time heals she thought, now looking at Gauri who kept chanting Arnav's name. It had taken Khushi a lot of time to get her focus off Arnav and to concentrate on work. But now, Gauri distracted her again, and her mind was back to thinking about Arnav. "Gauri, have you finished the report I asked for?" the Team Lead asked her in a louder tone, and Gauri fell silent after she smiled in embarrassment. Khushi mentally thanked the TL for her neat timing of making Gauri shut her mouth, allowing Khushi to focus back to work, after a struggle of shooing away Arnav's thought though.
The day passed almost in the blink of an eye. Khushi took leave from work and proceeded home. Her home seemed slightly empty as she did not find Rohan around. She missed him, but she also knew that he was wanted somewhere else. She plopped herself on the sofa, after quickly changing into her regular clothes, and closed her eyes. Her fingers massaged her aching neck and shoulders. The next two days would be living hell in office and she had to be prepared for the severe blows of work pressure that were to hit her. Her tired body and the mental exhaustion put her to sleep.
"Mmmhhh" Khushi moaned as his hand brushed across her chest. She bit her lower lip as she felt his fingers circle her perked up tips on her swollen mounds. His hands crept under her T-shirt and she felt the rough edges of his fingers cause electric sensations throughout her body. She found herself getting moist at her intimate core as he caressed her beneath her bosom, his touch growing bolder. His other hand crept below, attempting to touch her where she needed to be touched the most at the moment. When she felt his fingers at her south, her eyes flew open. To her dismay, it was just a dream. Her throat went dry as she recollected her dream. Her off-recent sinful dreams would scar a nun for the rest of her life. But just because she was a virgin and was saving herself for the man whom she wedded, it did not mean she had no knowledge to the pleasures of the flesh. It's just that she had never experienced it. She wiped off all her thoughts, looked around and noticed that the room was dark. She had fallen asleep in the hall and she did not realise how late it was. Her Dad wasn't back from work either. She rose from the sofa, made some salad and proceeded to her room to sleep. She needed lot of rest since the next two days would be demanding for her, in terms of work.
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