ShivIka FF: PROMISES- The Final Promise: I Love You (Pg 39) - Page 27

To understand how both Anika and Shivaay were feeling at that moment, one might like to think back on a time when one was wronged by a close friend. The anticipation of the confrontation, the preparation, the devastation, the forethought and the pep-talk to yourself as you approached them, ready for a fight. Ready to yell and scream and cry and possibly even throw a few blows.

Only to have the friend sincerely apologise for the wrong and knock the wind out of your sails before you can so much as open your mouth.

It makes all of the wasted time and heightened emotions beforehand seem kind of... embarrassing?

And so it was that as Anika and Shivaay silently reflected on their actions earlier that evening, their emotions were warring between giddy elation and a burning humiliation.

Neither was willing to be the one who broke the silence, though both knew that it had to end soon. There was too much to discuss. Too many things to say. The tension was palpable, almost suffocating.

Shivaay coughed.

"Water?" Anika stood up, Shivaay mirroring the action almost reflexively.

"No!"

"I promise I won't throw it at you. It's just for you to dri-" her eyes watering, Anika threw caution to the wind and threw her arms around Shivaay's waist, hugging him so close she could feel his heart racing against her cheek as she laughed through her tears. Her heart singing with relief. With hope.

Shivaay reeled, eyebrow raised. He didn't know what he'd been expecting, but it hadn't been such a bold display of possession. He thought of everything he knew about Anika. Wild, fiery, irrepressible Anika.

He smiled, wrapping his arms around her to return the hug.

Of course this was what Anika, his Anika, would do.

"Anika?" he asked softly as he felt her arms loosen and she began to pull away.

"Yes, Billu Ji?"

"Are you seriously still going to call me that?"

"Are you seriously still going to tell me I can't?"

Shivaay felt laughter bubbling in his chest, as he so often had around Anika. Realising that there was no reason for him to hold it back anymore, no longer any reason to pretend her was anything but delighted to be around her... he let it out.

This time Anika really did pull away, taking a step back and opening her mouth wide in mock-surprise. "It laughs?!"

"It does." Shivaay smiled. Not a smirk, not a sneer. No. A smile.

"Billu Ji, are we dreaming?"

Shivaay reached forward and tugged a piece of Anika's hair. "Ow!"

"No, we're not."

"I can't believe Tia just..."

"Yeah," Shivaay ran a hand through his hair, "me neither. But I mean, maybe if I'd been paying the slightest bit of attention to her, she wouldn't have."

Anika blushed, looked down. Shivaay placed his hand gently under her chin, tilting it upwards until she met his gaze. "Hey," he whispered because he needed her to know that he meant his next words, that the truth of them sank into her heart. He didn't want anything as toxic as doubt to poison what was flourishing between them, what was already blossoming into something beautiful. "What happened with me and Tia, it wasn't your fault. It was my fault and it was Tia's fault. You didn't do anything. I fell in love with you on my own and I would have done that whether I was engaged to be engaged or not."

Anika froze. "Anika what's wrong?"

"You..."

Shivaay realised what he had just said and jerked his hand away from her, stepping back and spinning so she couldn't see his face flush scarlet.

A slight hand on his shoulder, urging him to turn back around.

She looked dazed. "Did you mean it?"

"When have I ever said anything I didn't mean?"

"I'd like to think," she let out a small giggle, "that most of what you've said to me since we've met you didn't actually mean."

"That you're crazy? That you talk too much? That your brain is probably in your knee? That you have a mental age of 5?"

"That despite all of that, you love me?"

Shivaay didn't say anything. What could he say to that?

"I love you too."

The words hung in the air between them for a moment, neither quite believing that they had just been said.

An then Anika smiled, her face lighting up. Shivaay felt his own cheeks aching with the breadth of his own grin. "Do you think that's ridiculous?"

"Do I think what's ridiculous? How quickly we fell in love?"

"No," she shook her head, pouting slightly in a way that made Shivaay want to lean down and nip. "It's perfectly logical that you would fall in love with me. I am a freaking delight. But don't you think that it defies all common sense that I would fall in love with you?"

Shivaay quirked an eyebrow at the woman who had somehow stolen his heart. Who he couldn't quite believe he was finally free to adore. "I'd like to think I have my good points. For one thing, I have a pretty excellent memory."

He put an arm around her waist, pulled her close to him again and began whispering in her ear. "Number 1- he seems to care about his family. Possibly an act in order to take over the family fortune but even if fake, is still sweet and to be respected."

"Are you serious?" Anika gawked up at him. "You remember that?"

"It was written by you, about me. Of course I remember that. I have a list of my own, you know?"

"About me?"

"About you. Would you like to hear it?"

Anika was tempted, oh so tempted. The low growl of Shivaay's voice in her ear causing her stomach to start fluttering, start burning with the promise of something secret... She almost gave in. Almost.

But for now, she wanted her cat to play her game. "No," she stated and she could tell from the twitch of his eyebrow that she had surprised him, "I already know all my best qualities. I'm kind and hardworking and I'm very logical and I'm quite pretty and I can hold my own against the angriest of tiger-eyed businessme-"

And with that, the angriest of tiger-eyed businessmen cut off the rest of Anika's rambling with a kiss.

Anika decided that she quite liked kissing Shivaay. She wasn't a total prude and had of course kissed boys before, but they'd always been the rather tame and innocent brushes of youthful crushes. Nothing like this.

Shivaay Singh Oberoi's kisses demanded more from her, gave more to her. One arm snaking around her waist, the other hand fisting in her hair to tilt her head upwards. His tongue demanding entry into her mouth, dancing with hers. His hand stroked up her waist and brushed the side of her chest, sending a shudder through her body. She clutched at his shirt, pulling him closer. He groaned and deepened their kiss in a way that reminded her that he was older.

So much more experienced.

Anika tore herself away from him, leaving Shivaay swaying. His eyes half closed, disoriented.

"Sorry." He muttered, though the smirk on his face would suggest there was not an ounce of sincerity behind the sentiment.

Anika folded her arms. "I enjoyed that." She admitted.

"Obviously."

"No, not obviously. Shivaay," Anika hesitated, "have you realised that we actually don't know each other very well?"

"Huh?"

"We've spent most of our brief acquaintance alternating between yelling at and ignoring each other, interspersed with moments'." She made quotation marks with her fingers at the last word.

Shivaay frowned. "I don't want to be your friend, Anika."

"And I have absolutely no intention of being yours. But now that there's no rush, maybe we should take it slow? I mean, there's no doubt we have so much chemistry we're practically combusting, but a relationship has to have more than that. Doesn't it?"

Shivaay nodded slowly, understanding where she was coming from. "Okay, so let's take it slow. Let's get to know each other."

Anika's smile was so bright it almost blinded him. "I'd like that."

"Are you free tomorrow at 8?"

"8? Erm, I suppose so. What for?"

"A date." He shrugged. "If we're doing this, let's do it properly. But you know, we do have a slight advantage over other new couples."

"What?" Anika asked, her heart doing somersaults at Shivaay referring to the two of them as a couple.

"You've already met my family."

"Oh crap on a coalfire." Anika hissed. "How are we going to explain any of this to them?"

Shivaay shrugged again. "It'll work out."

Anika rolled her eyes. "Of course it will, after all nothing could go wrong in the life of Shivaay Singh Oberoi."

"Well, has it?" he asked, and then, because they did have an advantage and because he knew that nothing Anika did or said during this self-imposed "probation period" would change his single-minded, Calculator Singh Oberoi level determination to love her and make sure that her love was his...

He kissed her again.

And this time, his Anika didn't pull away.

SEQUEL: THE GAME

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5az4Q1BaSG8[/YOUTUBE]

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Lol, that ended quicker than I thought it would, but I feel like this is the right place to end Part One: Promises. Shivaay and Anika's main story ends here. Part Two is going to be an IshKara story but with Intermission Chapters from Shivaay and Anika, and of course they'll be making regular appearances in the Oberoi mansion even throughout the main Omkara and Ishana story. I've decided to do it this way because this way when I do write about ShivIka it can be full of humour and romance as opposed to having to write about all the boring, dryyy AF family drama in the aftermath of Shivaay revealing that a) Tia has run off with another man and b) he's now going to be courting Anika. It's why I ended it this way, laying the foundations for them to build a relationship rather than jumping in with a proposal.

Now that it's over with, all that's left is for me to say thank you. Thank you all SO much for reading and commenting and encouraging me to keep writing. I hope it took you on a journey with the characters of Anika and Shivaay and that you enjoyed reading it even half as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Do please let me know what you thought of the story now that it's complete, and I do truly hope to see you all again for Part Two. :)