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Love To All My Readers ❤️
Just Caught Up With The Last 3 Episodes Of Ishqbaaaz, Which I Missed Because Of Other Commitments, And This OS Popped Into My Head.
Note: Not Much Thought Was Given to This Before Typing It Out So Please Ignore The Sloppiness, I'm Sleepy. Not Proof Read.
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Shivaay worked himself to exhaustion, checking and re checking every contract or deal paper he could think of, but still he dreamed. And they weren't good dreams, he stopped having those when she decided to leave.
"Tssk tssk, just 2 days left" Laughter black and vicious, a reminder that it was one day closer to the deadline
"Please, I can't She sobbed. "How am I supposed to leave him?"
"I don't care The said, her eyes echoing the same blackness her laughter had held. "48 hours or you can watch as I shatter his very existence"
"NO!! Please. I'll leave. I promise, I'll leave" She cried out as her legs turned weak and she fell to the floor.
Shivaay jerked upright with a scream of anguish stuck in his throat. His first instinct was to reach for his sleeping pills but then he remembered that those stopped working about a month ago.
Shoving back the sweat-damp hair on his forehead, he got up, knowing he wouldn't be able to sleep, no after of the demons that continued to haunt him, night after endless night, showed up.
Instead, he took a shower to get rid of the sweat and dressed. It didn't take long. There were so many hours of the night left to go. When he began to walk out of his room, he told himself to stop, but his feet kept moving forward.
He loved the night, the beauty and the peace of it. But since 3 months ago, the darkness haunted him, filled with a thousand echoes of nightmare.
Fighting those dark whispers, he kept his focus strictly on his destination. And then he'd arrived. Something in him relaxed. Blowing out a breath he stood contemplating on disturbing her or not.
That was when the bedroom door opened. "Shivaay?"
Of course she'd known he was there- she too could sense when he was close. And in some part of his soul, he'd counted on that.
"Don't ask me any questions tonight, Anika" He didn't look at her, feeling vulnerable in a way that panicked the egoistic part of him.
"All right" Soft footsteps. "Come inside before someone sees you"
Wary of her agreement, but needing something, needing her, he walked in. She took his hand, her brown eyes luminous in the dark. "Come on"
He let her lead him to the bed. "Sleep" She said, and crawled beneath the blanket.
Standing at the side of the bed, he just looked at her. She'd given her word so she'd ask no questions, but she'd know, she'd see too deep, to things he kept hidden because they shamed him so utterly.
"No questions tonight" She said again after an endless moment, and lifted up the edge of the blanket.
Shivaay hungered for the simple beauty of her touch. 3 months of torture. 3 damned months of sleepless nights because she wasn't next to him. He had no power, no will, to resist. He slide into bed beside her.
And when her arms came around him, when her fingers stroked into his hair, he buried his face in the curve of her neck and let the unexpected tenderness heal the wounds of the past 3 months.
Sometime before dawn, he slept in the arms of his wife. And unlike the nights he'd spent awake and restless, this sleep was utterly peaceful
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Anika woke up very aware of the protective heat of the man who slept curved around her and her cheeks flushed with colour at the closeness.
Yes that very closeness provided comfort unlike anything else. Last night when he had showed up outside her room, she had seen the demons that lurked behind the shadows in his eyes.
Hell, she was sure those shadows reflected the ones in her own. 3 months of staying away was as close to torture as it could get. Having to pretend that she was a divorced woman and live away from Shivaay was every nightmare of hers come true.
But she had done it, for him. For his family.
Last night after he got into her bed, he had held her and she felt his bone rattling pain, even though he hadn't said much, she knew he was close to breaking point.
Now, Shivaay's thighs was pressed against hers, his hand flat on her abdomen over her black night wear, his arm under her head, his face nuzzled into the curve of her neck- the reality of him was sensual heat under her skin and she revelled in being with him again
Part of her wanted to turn around, to rub her face against his chest, but a bigger part was scared to shatter the moment, to have him wake up and for them to go back to their plan. Back to pretending to hate each other.
A rumble against her back, his hand moving in lazy circles on her abdomen as he pulled her more firmly against him. "Morning"
She'd always dreamt of waking with Shivaay tangled around her, never thought that when it happened, it would be in a situation where she's have to distance herself rather than snuggle up closer.
"Morning" She managed to say, readying herself to leave the bed but his tightening hold halted her efforts
"Anika" he whispered, kissing the curve of her neck as he had done 3 months back, that night in the pool. "I'm sorry. But I can't do it anymore, Anika. I don't want to be away from you"
Tears threatened to spill and she had to blink a couple of times to get rid of it. "And you think I wanted to be away from you?"
His arms loosened and she turned to face him. She avoided his eyes choosing to rather focus on his beard, remembering the feel of it grazing over the skin of her neck and cheek.
"You were going to leave the city" He gritted out angrily and Anika sighed because she knew where this was going as he continued "If Chanda hadn't phoned me-"
She zoned out as she remembered how shocked she had been when one of the Oberoi's car had pulled up next to her and Khanna politely demanded she get into the car. Or else Shivaay Sir would come and toss her into it himself.
She had been even more shocked when he had shown her the property papers that he had gotten from Omkara and Rudra on Shivaay's orders and when he explained the new plan to her, she had choked on her own breath.
Anika snapped out of her thoughts and froze as Shivaay slipped a hand around her neck and pulled her to him, his green, furious, eyes focused on her own watery ones before moving to her quivering lips. "You leaving Mumbai wasn't part of the plan. You shouldn't have even thought about it"
Her heart thudded, but she didn't tell him to stop when he leaned towards her, was helpless as she craved his touch, craved the very essence of him.
His lips pressed over hers. A flash fire second of thought and then even thought was lost.
His taste was inside her mouth, a dark and richly masculine thing at odds with the gentle beauty of him. Protected by the feel of his arms, she pushed all worried aside and savoured the experience.
When his tongue swept against hers, Anika felt her throat lock. He did it again. Shuddering, she dared explore him in return. His growl poured into her mouth, making her nerve endings sizzle.
Shivaay was the one who broke the kiss. Blinking, Anika tried to steady her breathing, but his taste lingered on her lips making it difficult.
"It was necessary for a while Shivaay" She managed to answer his words from before he scrambled her brains.
"Yes but now the plan has changed. For 3 months I did as you asked me to. I stayed away from you, tried to make my mother see what I'd become without you. But no more, Anika. My mother isn't giving up her act! So now you will keep quiet and do as I say!" His words were so angry that Anika felt it pound inside her head.
His features turned grim suddenly as he said "Just a little more, Anika, just do as a I say for a while more. And then i'll give you every ounce of happiness you desire. Trust me"
She nodded, because she did trust him, would trust him with her life as she had done with her heart and body.
