Lavender [2]: New Thread link posted on p. 1 - Page 80

amazing update dear...

vee is really something yar... n i really loved her...

Chapter 40: Giving up and Giving in...

[Music Selection – ignore the English part in the middle. I just couldn't find a version that had edited it out.]

She scrubbed her lips until they were raw before finally turning the tap off. She looked in the mirror and avoided her eyes as she applied Vaseline to her lips. When she thought she would cry again, she walked out of the bathroom, pulling her terry robe tightly around her. Just as she was about to turn the light off in the living room, her doorbell rang. For a moment, her heart stopped and she thought that the man from the lounge had followed her home.

She heard the knock again and thought of calling the police, but then the thought struck her that maybe Rajeev had returned for something and she approached the door, albeit cautiously.

"Who is it?" she asked, her voice coming out diminutive.

"Khushi..." she heard Arnav's voice and her heart that had previously stopped restarted now, except in accelerated mode.

"Go away." She still managed to get the words out as she turned to stand with her back against the door.

"Open the door... please..." he said again, the last word a whisper and she closed her eyes as she fought the melting in her heart.

He was not good for her... in any way...

"Please Arnav. I don't have the energy tonight. Please go away..." she still managed to say.

He was quiet for a moment, but then said, "V told me what happened when we got home. I just want to make sure that you are... ok..."

She felt her hand move towards the door-knob and pulled it back, clutching it to her chest tightly with the other one.

"I am... I am okay now."

There were several long moments of silence as she listened, her heart pounding, and then she heard footsteps... she listened as they grew more and more distant and when she could no longer hear them, she opened the door. He was no longer there.

She walked back into the flat and closed the door and stood against it once more, her eyes closed.

She felt the tears well up again and told her to stop being so weepy. It was over. Everything was over.

***

She saw Arnav's car leave from the living room window and slowly walked up the stairs. She was glad that everyone else in the house was asleep in their own wings and that their later arrival didn't disturb them. Arnav had yelled at her all the while in the car until she had finally told him what had happened when they got home. He had gotten her inside the house before heading right back out to the car saying that he will back soon.

It wasn't a stretch to figure out that he had developed something of a gargantuan soft-spot for his long-haired bow-tip lipped beautiful project manager. She should have seen signs before, it occurred to her now. But she had missed them somehow. Forgoing the demerits of doing something so foolhardy with an employee, she knew that if Arnav set his eyes on a woman, then the woman had no real choice but to fall for him, there were really no ifs, ands, or buts.

While she had no real investment in it one way or other usually, as he dated more often than not, for some reason his interest in this particular woman made her heart heavy. He was family and the closest thing she had to a brother. But there was another man, one who had already been hurt deeply in his life, who liked that woman... Who deserved her more because he seemed to be a man whose affections ran genuine and true... She couldn't bear it if he was hurt again... and that too by her family...

She climbed the stairs to the second floor, the weight of a ton settling into her legs. Once she made it to her room, she opened and closed the door behind her, leaving the room swathed in darkness. She managed to make her way to the mirror at the other end in the dark and turned on the little lamp there, its soft light unobtrusive and tolerable. She stared at her reflection and saw the little red marks and bruises spreading over her neck and arms and shoulder bone. She had been a wildcat tonight... and he had had to exert quite a bit of pressure to contain her...

Just as she ran her fingers slightly over the marks, she heard, "The biggest one is on your back." In her surprise and haste in turning around, she knocked her back against the bureau and the edge of the wood hit her just where she had bruised herself when she had been thrown against the wall earlier that night.

He emerged out of the shadows just by her balcony door and she remembered that she often forgot to lock it.

She found her hand by her throat as she watched him walk towards her.

She turned back around towards the mirror and closed her eyes, trying to contain her pulse that was out of control. She was sure that she was imagining things. There was no way that he could be here, in her room. He didn't even know where she lived... Even if he had come here at some point during the last 4 years upon Arnav's invitation, there was no way that he could know which one was her room.

"Right here..." he said and she felt his fingers just there where she had hurt herself, but the pleasure was so intense at his unexpected touch that for a moment she felt no pain.

"It's all black and blue..." he whispered by her ear and it was all she could do not to gasp as her stomach dropped to the pit of her belly.

"Why are you here?" she managed to ask despite the pulsing pleasure that was spreading over each inch of her skin.

He didn't say anything for several moments, but then spoke in another whisper,

"I am not here, Vaibhavi..." she heard and whispered, "What?" just as she felt his fingers stroke over the bruise on her back yet again.

"Open your eyes and see..."

She did. And indeed there was no one there...

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