Pyaar ka Bukhar Collab: OS8 ObBros*SIDE EFFECTS* pg26 -annikaa

Annika put in the finishing touches on her plate, and looked at it with satisfaction. Glancing at the page on her phone, it almost resembles the plating in the picture. She wrinkled her nose with satisfaction. Shivaay will be impressed.

* Ratatouille

* Mushroom risotto

* Avocado gratin

Annika was cooking dinner tonight. Shivaay has been busy the last month, making up for all the slacking in the few weeks leading to Tia's exposure and exit. Things were still awkward between them, they were close but still weird.

She had fallen in love with him, and yet he remained an enigma. At times, he laughed with her, and she swore she saw Love, in those blue green depths, affection, and her inexperienced heart did not understand why at times her mere touch would make him jump and stand at a distance.

She wanted to do something nice for him, so she decided to cook. The best way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

"Pity this man here is as fussy as Gordon Ramsay on Hell's Kitchen !" she fumed. She'd been binge watching the famous chef's shows, Hell's Kitchen and Masterchef, on TV late at night, while waiting for Shivaay to come back from his late night meetings. After a few days , she started experimenting in the kitchen , new styles and methods. It became a new hobby of hers. Late night cooking.

One night , she had left one of her experiments on the counter to cool, while she went to speak to Dadi. When she returned, she found Shivaay cleaning it out with a spoon, every drop of it gone. He had complimented it a lot, had wanted to ask the cook for the recipe. She had celebrated inside, and this idea of dinner came up.

Believe me , she has already tried these 3 recipes at least 5 times before deciding on them. She has practised and practised the recipes and made Rudra and Om her first guinea pigs. While they were really diplomatic about it, she herself thought her dish was just meh. Then Dadi and Prinku thought she made a good effort and they had an impromptu kitty party.

Then, she went a step up, improved her recipe and cooked for Jhanvi aunty and Uncle Tej. On her 4th try, she stood nervously as they sized up her dish at the dining table last week. They took tasteful helpings and gave her their honest opinions, as the young girl hung on their every word.

They enjoyed it, finished it all, praised her effort, and advised her to go to slow on the fire, reduce the black pepper here, a little more salt there. She beamed brightly with the useful input, thanked them with her specialty gajar ka halwa, which they polished clean. Jhanvi had kissed her sweetly for her effort, shared a look with her husband, reminded of the nostalgia of early married life.

Now, she sent the fruits of her labour out to the dining table with the waiters. She held back nervously. She had heard Shivaay's voice a few minutes ago, back early from work today for the family dinner. Her heart was beating fast in nervousness, praying her experiment will succeed today.

It's okay Annika, even if he doesn't like it, it isn't the end of the world. Chin up!

With that morbid pep talk, she smoothed her pretty dress and joined the dinner table. Prinku came to tell her how awesome the dinner looked and smelled like, and the whole family beamed at her, knowing how much she has prepared for this occasion. Shakti Uncle cracked a lame joke about his attempt to impress Pinky with his cooking long ago, and earned him a pinch from the wife herself.

The family was laughing when Shivaay joined them, looking all fresh and spruced up after an invigorating bath. He smiled at every one , and met her eyes warmly. Gesturing her to come sit next to him, he leaned forward to smell the food in front of him.

"Wow! Dinner smells good tonight...! Exotic too. Remind me to have a chat with Rajeev (the cook), he has been pleasantly experimenting lately. I must compliment him! Hmm, ratatouille.. smells good. "

The family watched as Shivaay gathered a spoonful, brought it to his nose, smelled it and put it into his mouth. He pondered speculatively, like he was dissecting the tastes and spices, and found it good.

"Tastes good! Really... hmm.."

The test seemingly passed, the family relaxed and passed the food around, happy with the cute flush on Annika's face. In fact, she felt so full of happiness and didn't feel like eating at all. Just happy to see everyone enjoying her dinner. The Oberois were enjoying her cooking, especially The Fusspot Oberoi. Holding in her celebration dance, she watched as Shivaay dug into his meal heartily, for once with a smile of appreciation.

Rudra winked at her from across the table, Om gave her a two-thumbs up. Shivaay looked up and found Annika's plate empty. Clicking his tongue, he took her plate and served her a helping of everything.

"Try this. And this. You need to refine your palate. Learn to discern and discover new tastes, when you encounter a good dish, then you go and experiment yourself. THAT'S how you learn, Annika. This is good, Rajeev deserves a raise !"

" It must be his training, his experience and his refined palate ! You can't fake this kind of talent. It's either you have it, or you don't. This is way more sophisticated than your specialty, Aloo Puri..." Shivaay went off on an odd tangent, as Rudra frowned at him confusedly, and Om started shaking his head ..No, man. Just stop talking.. .

But Shivaay wasn't paying attention. The rest of the family watched in uncomfortable silence as Annika's face fell and lost her smile. Shivaay continued to extol the prestige of gourmet fine dining, as the entire family rolled their eyes at him in varying degrees.

Annika's face went dark with every sentence, and Rudra's face went comically tragic as he watched the calamity unfolding. "Shivaay..." Om interrupted him, "Will you just eat already?" to which Shivaay met with an offended look.

"Come on Om, you know how I feel about gourmet cooking, Annika is not a stranger , she needs to know what I like too, not just me being able to slam-to-perfection her favourite Aloo puri.." he muttered, to which Rudra rubbed his face theatrically. Annika set down her cutleries, got up and left without a word.

Shivaay looked shocked at her sudden departure. He turned wide eyed, to find everyone staring at him disapprovingly. Om blew out an exasperated breath, "Duffer Singh Oberoi," he turned to Rudra, "it pains me to say, your big brother is a Maha Duffer Singh Oberoi...I can't believe you Shivaay ! Do you realize.."

He got cut off by Pinky Oberoi, "Shivaay, I didn't teach you to behave like this ok? This girl has been after everyone to taste her cooking for 2 weeks now. One after another. Everyone except me, even Shakti Ji was asked. And everyone says her cooking is good. It's your turn now, and then it will be mine. So you behave yourself and eat it, and you tell her it is nice, because it's the proper thing for a supportive husband to do, do I have to teach you these things??"

Shivaay's shock was hilarious. "Annika made all these?"

"YES, SHIVAAY !! " the family chorused back. And each went into him for completely missing her efforts to cook for him. She had tried a lot, and did really well, and he should be more sensitive and appreciative. He was touched that his family was finally getting around to seeing her as one of their own, especially his mom. But Om is right, he did make a mess of things.

Promising his family he'll make it up to her, he strode to the kitchen. She was putting away leftovers of the dinner with a glum face. He stood in between her and the fridge, trying to get her attention. With a frozen face, she went around him and continued her task. When he picked up the last containers from her , she turned and left the kitchen.

Thwarted, he quickly followed her to their room. He found her muttering to herself by the poolside. Exasperated with the lack of privacy , she hastily avoided him and found herself near the pool. Shivaay hated it when she turns her back to him so he was trying to get her to turn back, a tug war over possession of her hand became a little scuffle and with a shove backward, Annika sent herself tumbling into the pool with a splash.

A laugh escaped him. She heard it. She stood up, spluttering and even hangrier.

Featured VM by blackorwhite "Ek Ladki Bheegi Bhaagi Si"

"Forgive me... the dinner was delicious. I appreciate your effort to do all that for me..Thank you..."

Shivaay caught her to him , feeling intoxicated by the look in her eyes. She is mesmerizing, when she is blushing and soft like this. He held her close to her, and she gasped. Nothing but the sound of her rasping breathing, he felt his control slipping. He needed a distraction. Fast.

"Come. Today, you'll show me, how to make mushroom risotto. Now..." Blinking in confusion she made a questioning sound. " Yes, I don't know how to make this one, because I find my risotto always turns out lumpy. Yours was perfect. So you're going to show me... Okay..?"

She nodded blankly and he led her to the kitchen. He watched close by as she prepared all the ingredients she needed. As she picked up the knife to cut the condiments, his hands found its way around her from behind, to lend a helping hand. Helping hands.

Rudra and Om heard sounds from the kitchen, and wondered if Shivaay was cooking. Rudra sauntered to the kitchen archway, saw the scene before him in a split second and silently pulled Om back out behind the wall, undetected.

"O !!" he silent screamed at his flabbergasted brother.

"Some major Oberoi swag is being served in there !! " Rudra whispered, to a confused Om. Om peeked around the wall and gaped at the sight of Shivaay cutting mushrooms with his arms around Bhabhi's waist, who has her eyes closed shut. Both of them pulled back, eyes wide with shock. Giving each other a high five, they scampered out of there.

Shivaay was first just covering her hands as she cut, soon he found her movements faltering and slowing, so he took over the slicing and dicing, still standing flush behind her. His body heat was wrecking havoc on her senses, especially that curious and frightening hardness pressing against her lower back.

He stood by, maintaining skin contact here and there, as she lit the fire on the stove, finding the kitchen extremely crowded, as every movement got her bumping into him. As she slowly stirred the rice and the broth, as she'd seen on TV, her technique won her his murmur of appreciation. After a nerve wracking 30 minutes, her risotto was ready, plated, and ignored.

Shivaay was drawing circles on her forearm, inching towards her shoulder. She lowered her lashes as he slid her hair to one side for access to her bare shoulder. His breath fanning her skin, soon replaced by his lips, he slowly placed butterfly kisses until her nape, where he sucked hard and made her wince with the unexpected sensation. Grasping her shoulders, he turned her to face him.

His mouth hunted for hers, but she kept evading, making their noses collide in a nudging game. He managed to plant a few short kisses on her lips before she would break contact. Frustrated, he carried and perched her onto the kitchen counter, and stood between her legs , inside her arms. Having nowhere to turn anymore, he claimed her lips in a deep wet kiss, swallowing her gasp of shock with the tight body contact.

Lost in the fuzz of passion, she looked wide eyed and innocent when he broke the kiss for air. Realizing she has relinquished the reins to him, he lowered her from the counter, clasped her hands and they made for their bedroom in silence. Risotto forgotten.

He locked the door behind her, stood appreciating her guileless expression. He picked up her hand and twirled her around, and she danced pliantly in his arms, their bodies moving fluidly, instinctively, like no other dance partner he ever had. Aroused like never before, he gently swayed with her , burying his head in her neck, making her dizzy with electricity.

If dancing was this sinful, she swore to dance with nobody else. So preoccupied with what his mouth was doing to her, she didn't feel her blouse loosening and falling. Shedding his own shirt, they shuddered with the shock of skin to skin contact. Inhibitions thrown to the winds, they tussled and connected, finally all the tension and attraction reaching a physical crescendo.

Annika craned her neck and arched her back with Shivaay's possession. Unsure if it was pain in her face or pleasure, he froze until she opened her eyes to meet his. When she finally met his eyes, he was pleasantly shocked to find impatience in hers.

God, this woman is sexy.

Shivaay flipped her over him, again surprising her. Their eyes locked , and he felt humbled by the love shining from hers. Picking up rhythm, he drove into her as she rocked with passion.

The last thought on his mind was, how he has to make more time for this new hobby of hers, Late night cooking.