Arhi FF:Mirage #2 Next thread link on Pg 151 - Page 88

"Get up, lazy bum! Stop curling up like a fur ball the whole day on my couch." Arnav ordered, holding out his hand to Khushi, who was sitting on the couch in the living room, wearing layers of woollens and shivering due to the chill of the winter.

"Where?" she managed to ask, accepting his hand. Khushi observed that Arnav was wearing a black vest and light grey track pants, ready for his workout sessions.

"Where else do you think I will go in this outfit?" he said pointing to himself. "Come to the gym along with me. You will stop feeling the chill after putting your muscles to good use. As it is, I know how strong you are." He exclaimed, rolling his eyes sarcastically.

Khushi protested. But he was in no mood to relent to her protests. Within a second, she found herself up against his body as he dragged her upstairs to the gym.

"Start running on the treadmill." He ordered Khushi, forcing her to step onto it, while he started the machine. "Look at yourself. You have become fat." He teased her mischievously. Arnav knew what would follow and he could never deny that he loved seeing her getting all flustered up and ready to pounce back on him when he teased on occasions like these. She was his lioness afterall.

"Haww! Did you just call me fat?" Khushi hissed out furiously, narrowing her eyes dangerously at Arnav's face.

"Then what is all this?" he said, playfully slapping across her butt, causing her to blush scarlet red. For some reason, Arnav was in a highly playful mood right now.

"Arnav!" she protested once again, glaring back at him with wide eyes. "Stop touching my..."

"What?" Arnav imitated an innocent face, pretending to be oblivious to what she was talking about, while at the same time trying enormously to control the laughter that was about to spill out from him. "Stop touching your what?" he asked mischievously, gliding his hand over her derriere.

Taking a step closer to her, until she was barely a breath away from his face, he whispered huskily into her ears, sending ecstatic shivers all over her body. "You have one sexy ass, Ms. Khushi Gupta!"

To say Khushi was scandalized would be an understatement. She had seen so many sides of Arnav. But this flirty side of him was something she never imagined him to be.

Giving it a light squeeze, he walked away from her to his workstation, leaving her completely bewildered and speechless at his audacity.

"Run for twenty minutes." He ordered her from his place while he began his kickboxing practice. "And stop staring at me like that, unless you want more of it." He winked, smirking at her.

Completely at loss for words, Khushi commenced her workout on the tread mill. For now she had to accept her defeat. She was too tongue tied to come back with a proper response to his remarks.

From the huge mirrors placed in front of her, she could see his reflection, the powerful kicks that he aimed at the dummy, making him appear absolutely delectable to her eyes. She couldn't imagine how a man like him could be so flexible. The stiff muscles of his torso made it appear next to impossible for him to do what he was doing.

Stop staring like that, Khushi! He's just Arnav. Not your Salman Khan to drool at so shamelessly! She mentally chided herself. Focus, focus! She reminded herself and began her workout.

After running on the treadmill for the whole of twenty minutes, she paused, completely exhausted with such a demanding physical activity after a long time. As Arnav had promised her, she felt the warmth returning back to her body as beads of sweat carefully dripped down her neck and back. Panting for breath and completely exhausted, she turned off the machine and went and plopped herself down on the bean bag at the corner of the room, facing Arnav practising some kickboxing moves.

Khushi couldn't help but stare in absolute amazement at the man of her life working out with so much conviction and focus. Keeping aside all her inhibitions, she once again, shamelessly let her eyes scan the entire of his body, lingering a bit longer than necessary at certain places. She had always been attracted to his inner personality, not giving that much importance to his physical appearance. But now she could clearly see that he was indeed a fine handsome man, blessed with an absolutely gorgeous body.

The way the biceps of his arms protruded out when he struck the target was so enthralling for a girl like her, who had never really been physically attracted to any man before. There was definitely something in him that made her stomach flutter with butterflies and excitement whenever she saw him. She realised that the adrenaline rush after strenuous running made her pay attention to things she never really bothered about previously.

Khushi had been so busy checking him out, that she had failed to notice him observing her from the corner of his eyes.

"Are you checking me out?" he asked aloud, continuing to face away from her.

"Huh... NO!" she replied a little bit louder than required, embarrassed at being caught. But then, she suddenly felt her defences rising up. "And even if I do, do you have any problem with it? I didn't know that it was illegal to do so in this house." she replied back instantly, doing a victory dance in her mind for giving him back, tit for tat.

"Oh really?" he asked turning around to face her, halting his kickboxing session, walking step by step closer to her, like a predator ready on the prowl for his appetizing prey.

Khushi could feel her heart pounding like a hammer against her chest. She felt it nearly pop out as he stopped right in front of her, letting his finger glide over her jaw and ending up on her chin, tilting it upwards to meet his own. "And what do you think about it?" he asked seductively, pulling her flush against him with his other hand placed over her waist.

Intense heat emanated from both their bodies and suddenly, the temperature of the room felt like that of a scorching summer day. "About what?" she stammered, her head suddenly turning hazy and foggy.

"About whatever you were staring at a minute ago." He whispered letting his lips brush her ears.

"I..." Khushi gulped down, feeling like she would explode any minute. She had always been proximal to Arnav, physically as well as emotionally. But the emotions that she was experiencing right now were something she couldn't handle very well. Sheer dominance and control were blazing in those chocolate brown eyes that towered over her.

"I'm waiting." Arnav smirked, enjoying the effect he was having on her.

"I think you are hot." She blabbered away, not knowing what was happening to her.

"Uh huh... And?" he ushered her to continue, gently lifting her left hand and placing it over his chest.

"And..." she gulped down, before continuing, "And I find your body very appealing. Those biceps there make me go all gooey, the same way they did the first time I saw you. No, not when I found you on the street. You were badly injured that time. But when we met in the woods in Shimla. Can I umm...touch them?" Khushi blabbered on and on, her eyes, now focussing their attention on his right arm.

Arnav tried his level best to suppress the laughter that was threatening to erupt from him any minute. How could a girl be so innocent yet mesmerising? He wondered to himself.

"Yeah, you can." He said and at that instant, he found a curious pair of hands examining the rigid and beautifully sculpted muscles of his arm and shoulders. He flexed them in glory, wanting his girl to know what exactly he was made up of.

Khushi hesitatingly gave those biceps a squeeze curious to know if they were as hard as they looked. "Whoa!" she exclaimed out in a dreamy voice.

"Oh, so now I know why you can't keep your hands off me at night. When such devilish thoughts are lurking in your mind, what more can I expect?" he whispered, nuzzling her hair, inhaling the faint fruity scent of the conditioner. He could feel her burying her face on the crook of his sweaty neck unable to meet his eyes and instantly knew that she was blushing the deepest hue of red.

Slightly pulling her head away from his body, so that he could gaze into those hazel eyes, he said with the straightest face that he could ever manage. "Ready for a shower..." he whispered dangerously, before he added, "together? I could give you a tour of all the other unexplored places of my body that you might find hotter than this."

"ARNAV!" Khushi pushed him away with all her might, as she ran downstairs, all possible scandalous images of them being naked together in the shower conjured in her innocent mind, scarring it permanently, leaving behind Arnav finally laughing like a maniac seeing her reaction, all by himself in the gym.

Priceless!

He absolutely loved teasing her like this.

o0o

Arnav was busy arranging the sheets of his bed, preparing to retire for the night, when he heard a knock on his bedroom door. Turning around, he found Khushi standing beside it. "You wanted something?" he asked.

"Arnav, can I sleep with you in your room every night? I don't like sleeping alone in that room." she announced, dragging herself forward and plopping down on the bed beside him.

"Scared?" he asked eyeing her carefully.

"No. Khushi Gupta is never scared of anything or anyone." She retorted back.

"Then?"

"I don't know, but I feel comfortable sleeping along with you. It's like you have become my new sleeping buddy. And I am so used to hearing your slight snoring for the past couple of days that I cannot lull myself to sleep without it."

"Sleeping buddies huh?" Arnav asked rhetorically, switching off the lights and sliding beside her, pulling the duvet over them.

"Arnav, can I ask you something? Answer truthfully okay?" Khushi asked, snuggling closer to him, as they lay beside each other, face to face. "Did you really mean it when you said you wanted to shower with me together?" she said it out aloud, something that had been nagging her for the entire evening. At first, she had dismissed it away as his casual flirting. But then, after pondering it over hours later, she had realised that there was some truth behind those casual words.

She couldn't deny the pattern of the last few days. He had asked her to move into his house. Day by day, he was getting more close to her physically, grabbing every opportunity to touch her. She had even noticed those few times he had suddenly backed away from her during their intense moments. That restraining self control he was exercising enormously in such situations was very evident on Arnav's face. Once or twice, she had even felt him being physically aroused by her.

He was a man afterall and it was really astounding her to know that a man in a position as his would have so much self control within him, knowing very well that he could easily take advantage of her any minute and that there would be nothing that she could do to stop him. But he didn't, and this definitely increased the admiration for him in her eyes.

But at the same time, she couldn't deny that he was expecting more from this relationship. He had wanted to take it to the next level and the signs were evident.

"Why do you ask?" Arnav asked back, wondering why this topic was suddenly brought up.

"I need to know. Tell me." She coaxed him for a reply.

For a change, tonight, Arnav was in a very good mood for a conversation after a wonderful day. So he replied back. "Honestly, at that minute I was just pulling your leg." He paused to let his right hand find hers, entwining their fingers, before he brought her knuckles to his lips and placed a warm feathery kiss on it. "Yes, someday, I would love to shower with you. Maybe soon. But only if you are comfortable with it."

A deep long silence followed it, while both were lost pondering over his answer.

"I don't know if I'm ready for this." Khushi finally admitted breaking the silence between them. "How can I be sure that we are not hurrying this? I don't want anything to happen to this relationship. Arnav, I don't know whether you feel like this, but for me, you are my family now. I cannot bear to lose you."

Somehow, those words had hit home and stirred up some unknown feeling within him.

"Khushi, are you happy with me?" Arnav asked back, caressing her cheek.

"Yes."

"Then whatever you do from your heart will always be right for us. You can always tell me if you feel that we are going too fast. I would stop and wait for you. Okay? See, this was why I provided you with a separate room after you moved in to this house because I didn't want you to feel compelled by me in any matter whatsoever." Arnav replied followed by another long silence between them.

"Khushi?"Arnav called out, breaking the silence this time.

"Hmm..?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"Ask. I owe you an answer too."

"Why do you love me?" Arnav felt let it out, something that had been nagging him for the past few days. Since it seemed to be a night of confession of inner conflictions, he decided even he would join this.

Meanwhile, Khushi was absolutely startled by this sudden question. She hadn't even in her wildest imaginations thought about the possibilities of this question being popped up by him.

"I love you because..." she paused for a while, trying to gather the right words to verbalise her feelings. "Because deep down inside your heart, you are a really good guy. You have been my strength and support when I was weak and all alone. You have made me realise that good people still exist in the world. I feel safe and secure with you at all times. You are the one person who understands me the most. I can share my joys and sorrows easily with you. And with you, I don't have to pretend to be someone else. Even though for some reason, you haven't vocally expressed your love for me, but I always feel loved and special when I'm with you. Does this answer your question?" she asked caressing his shoulder and back. She didn't know why he had asked this question, but if this was in anyway going to help their relationship, then so be it. Afterall, a healthy communication was the key to all successful relationships.

Arnav couldn't help but ponder over every word she had said. He didn't really know that he meant so much to her. She revered him so much in her life and he could only laugh at his cruel fate for making him everything but what she had described him. And then, he felt a tear roll down his eye, awed at the love she had for him. He just wished for time to freeze, so that he could hold on to her feelings for him for eternity.

To be loved was the greatest feeling in the whole world. And Khushi's love for him was so pure, unadulterated and selfless.

"Arnav, are you crying?" Khushi asked alarmed at hearing a low sniff from him.

"No, I'm not." He retorted, hoping that the tear would simply roll down to the pillow, eliminating every trace of its previous existence. "What makes you think so?" he asked, pulling her closer to him so that she practically lay on top of him. Burying his face in her hair, he inhaled the sweet fragrance, finding relief in her, as she embraced him lovingly.

"Good night Khushi. Sweet dreams." He whispered.

"Good night Arnav." She replied back, dozing off instantly to his warmth.

As he stared ahead at the darkness ahead of him, he could only hear Khushi's words floating in his mind that would probably be etched for eternity in it.

For me, you are my family now. I cannot bear to lose you.

Because deep down inside your heart, you are a really good guy.

o0o

As Lavanya climbed the stairs to return back to her bedroom, she could hear voices resounding from the living room below her. One was undoubtedly her father's while the other seemed like his personal manager's. She couldn't exactly comprehend what they were talking about, but from the tone of her father's voice, he did sound a bit upset.

She retraced her steps back, so that she was now standing at the bottom of the stairs with a better view and audibility of the two men talking.

"Are you sure that it wasn't any one of my servant?" Hari Kashyap's voice boomed across the room.

"Yes Sir. Absolutely sure." The other man timidly replied to him.

Thinking that it wasn't anything significant related to her, Lavanya began her ascent upstairs, only to be stopped mid way by her father's voice calling out to her. Nothing went amiss Hari's Kashyap's sharp eyes.

"Princess, wanted something?" he asked.

"No Dad. I was on my way to my room." she replied back.

"Ok. Good night!" he replied and turned back to his manager. But something crossed his mind and he called out to his daughter once again. "Princess, did you by any chance know the security code to my study room? I know you have no idea about it, but I just wanted to confirm it with you."

Lavanya felt her heart leap out of her chest as the words struck her. Her father had never known that she used to visit his study room every weekend when he wasn't at home. It was strictly off limits place and now she feared about the consequences, if he knew she had disobeyed his words.

"Why are you asking Dad? Any problem?" she asked turning around, trying to mask away her fear as much as possible.

"Just like that." He replied not wanting to involve her in any of his problems. Throughout her childhood, he had always shielded her from every problem, promising to himself that he would do everything in his power to protect her. And this was a petty issue, he decided to himself. He couldn't bother Lavanya with it.

"No Dad. I don't know." She lied blatantly on his face, and rushed upstairs before more interrogation could follow.

"And how many guests were there at Lavanya's party?" he asked, turning back towards his manager, resuming their earlier conversation.

"About 200, Sir. Her whole college batch was invited. So it could be any one of them too. We checked the CCTV footage, but we found no suspicious activities. Even the servants say everything appeared to be normal."

"So then where did the file disappear?" Hari Kashyap sighed out aloud at the mysterious case presented in front of him.