FF: D for Desire Th# 1 (Ch 1 - 14) - Page 23

6

Arnav rushed into the emergency with Khushi, still whining, in his arms. He laid her down in the bed but could not move away as Khushi held on to her hand tightly. Arnav was anxious; he was never good at these things. He tentatively laid his other hand on her hand to reassure her.

The middle-aged doctor with silver hair started examining her ankle while enquiring about the incident simultaneously. Arnav hated the indifferent look in the doctor's face; it only made him more worried.

"Where actually is it paining?" The doctor frowned as he kept checking.

"My left feet?" Khushi sounded confused.

The doctor examined the left feet again and said to Arnav, "There is nothing to worry, Mr. Raizada. It is nothing serious. Your wife has just hurt herself a bit. Did you try to walk, Mrs. Raizada?"

Neither bothered to clear the doctor's misconception as one was somewhere between embarrassed & confused and the other one was somewhere between relief & frustration.

"Would you like to try taking a few steps .. my dear?" Arnav asked in an unlikely sugary tone.

Khushi swallowed hard as Arnav's eyes were to freeze her on spot. She could almost hear him grinding his teeth. She smiled nervously as she got down of the bed and took a small step. As she took a few more steps, her nervous smile was replaced by a huge grin.

"I am fine. I can walk. Yeay!"

The doctor chuckled a bit.

"I will write her some pain killers, just in case, Mr. Raizada."

Arnav nodded slightly while his eyes were still set on Khushi who was grinning, inspecting her feet. Arnav could see her mentally dancing – she really did think she would be a limp! With the prescription in his hand, Arnav strode out of the room. Khushi understood his temper and followed him quickly. She almost ran to stop him in the corridor. She blocked his path, her ankle still in pain.

"It was really paining a lot." She panted. "I really thought I broke my ankle."

Arnav just stared at her.

"Come on! I panicked! What would have happened if really turned limp?" She visibly shuddered at the thought. "Should not you be happy too I am fine?"

Arnav stared at the puppy face in front of him and shook his head slightly. She was crazy.

"You made me pick you up twice and my trousers are ruined." He pointed at his knees which were all muddy now.

In the next instant, Khushi blushed hard. Before he said it out aloud, it did not really occur to her that he practically was in his arms, that too twice, moments ago. Arnav noticed the flush that suddenly took over her cheeks.  He started enjoying her embarrassment while his anger was subsiding exponentially.

Khushi looked at everywhere but him, the feeling of embarrassment still occupying her.

"I am sorry. I just got scared."

Arnav could not control a faint smile as she held her ears and finally looked at him. He was lost in her for a moment - she looked so cute in her green sari, hair all disheveled, cheeks red, lips pouty, eyes pleading for peace - pulling her earlobes with her delicate fingers.

"What is happening to me, " Arnav groaned silently, "I am supposed to be mad at her now."

Khushi blinked.

"Did you say something?"

"No. Let's go, Khushi."

Khushi's eyes widened slightly. And she could not but smile. This was the first time he had called her "khushi". Only Khushi.

"There is one little problem."

"Now what?"

"Do you have my shoes?"

"I think I have .. but in my car. Wait here. I will get the shoes."

Arnav could only take a few steps but Khushi called out to him.

"So are we at peace now? Have you forgiven me for ruining your trousers?"

"Is that important?"

"Yes. When I am wrong, I always make sure I have mended it right."

"Fine. Peace."

"Your face does not say so. You still look very grumpy."

"That is how I always look, Khushi. Shakkal hi aisa hian."

"I am still not convinced."

"Let it go, Khushi.."

"Come on. Just say something convincing so I know you have accepted my apology."

"Are you serious?"

" Yes. I need to know you are not angry with me anymore. I cannot stand it when I am responsible for it. If you have really forgiven me ..  awww."

Khushi shrieked in shock and her mouth rounded as Arnav without a word came forward, picked her up in his arms and started walking out of the hospital.

Arnav smirked at her rounded mouth. Her adorable "O".

"I do not believe in words Ms. Khushi Kumari Gupta. I hope this suffice to convince you."

Khushi was tongue tied for the first time today. She tried and failed to respond.

The other two times both of them were so worried about her feet that nothing else came to their mind. But this time they were both completely conscious about their closeness. Both were driven insane by the close contact as they were practically breathing each other. Her softness was melting him while his toned body was sending shiver down her spine. None of them said a word and kept trying to act all normal.

As Arnav made her sit in the car, he also fixed her seat belt before she could reach for it again.

"I hope you are convinced now, Khushi." Arnav turned on the ignition.

Khushi blushed again and did not reply. She knew that was a bit over the top even by her standard.

Arnav smirked inwardly as Khushi did not respond. He was half-expecting a sharp reply from her side but as she did not he knew she was embarrassed.

As they reached their hotel, Khushi got down from the car immediately. She walked to Arnav's side and smiled at him.

"Thanks."

Arnav just shrugged mildly.

"The party was good. And you have done a lot for me today. So .. thanks again."

"You are welcome."

"Bye, Arnav."

As Arnav watched Khushi turn to leave, a feeling of pure bliss strangely started warming up his heart. His name never sounded so pleasing to his ears before.

"Khushi," he called out.

She turned.

"Yes?"

"So .. are you done with your scoring?"

Khushi gave Arnav a genuine smile.

"I need to think straight first, Arnav. Good Night."

And with a slight smirk Arnav drove off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arnav gulped down a glass of water as he was trying to remove the floating images out of his brain. Had he not woken up, who knew what he would have ended up doing. Even the thought of that stiffened his body. This girl was driving him insane – and not in the way he had anticipated her to.

Was not he supposed to be mad at her for scoring him as if he were some random product in quality checking? Was not he supposed to loathe her for irritating him to his core? Was not he supposed to ignore her for being a crazy girl with stupid ideas?

But all Arnav Singh Raizada could think of before sleeping was how cute she had looked with her fingers on her earlobe and how soft she had felt in his arms. And now she crawled her way into his dreams! He just could not brush away the images of her crawling over him like a lioness, tearing off the buttons of his shirt, biting into his flesh mercilessly.  Arnav was having a hard time fathoming the fact that he actually was fantasizing a dominatrix in action and that too a seemingly innocent, naive one.

Arnav tried to sleep again but he just could not shut his eyes. She was all he could see and he could not take it any longer. He decided to go for jog a little early. He stopped in his tracks as his phone beeped. A two-word message sent from certain Ms. Gupta flashed.

 "What next?"

Arnav re-named the contact to "Khushi" before typing out a reply.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Khushi was drained off all energy twisting & turning in her bed for hours. She did not dream anything tonight because there was no need to dream at all! She just could not sleep for a minute and she was literally daydreaming Arnav all through. She thought a lot about what happened after they had left the party. She could not decide if to continue with her scoring plan. This guy was unpredictable. It was all plus & minus and then again minus & plus for him. She shivered each time she remembered how his chiseled body had felt against hers. Seeing him from a distance gave her wild dreams. Now who would save her? She finally decided to pause the scoring at 23 – as it had been before they left the party. She would resume scoring tomorrow – if she got to meet him again. She wrote & re-wrote the message a good number of times before finally typing in two words and sending the message to a particular "Laad Governor".

After two minutes her phone beeped. She was surprised to see a reply so fast, at around 4 in the morning.

"Dinner tonight. At your hotel."

And Khushi finally went to sleep with a smile reading the reply SMS - contented.