"Raichand house, Quick!" I mumbled at my driver struggling hard to catch a breath. A wave of terror passed down my spine as I snapped into the backseat of my car almost in a stupor. My hands were cold and breathing heavy. "I hope he is fine" my heart made a silent prayer as the car sped down the foggy road.
A feeling of acute anger beckoned my senses as I recalled what all I came to know a few minutes ago. Last night someone made a fatal attack on Abhay! He was bruised, beaten and almost blown to death. And behind this bloodshed was no one else but Jeh! I wouldn't have believed all this if Angad and Ruhi had shot a plain accusation on Jeh as both of them can be really bizarre at times, BUT I had to believe them for they had a proof! They captured Jeh in his fit of anger when he attacked Abhay and showed that clip to me. It literally blew me as I saw Abhay flinch in pain. It felt as if someone hammered a nail in my heart. I almost fluttered seeing him bleed so profusely.
But what came as a much bigger blow to me was Abhay's candid confession in that cataleptic state. As Jeh unleashed his outrage on Abhay and threatened him to stay away from me, Abhay openly denied following the suit. He informed Jeh that he would never leave my side as he LOVED me! My heartbeat grew wilder with every word Abhay spoke in the clip. Though Abhay's voice broke continually as he cringed in pain, but his eyes were firm. Firm enough to convince me! Convince me of his love. His words and the intensity with which he spoke them, made a cold wave of shiver grip my heart. I felt a sensuous twitch between my thighs. His confession of love made me feel splendid of my own self. As If HIS saying all this, had dawned upon me as a realization of my own beauty and serendipity. I felt like the most complete woman on the face of this earth. I am beautiful because he thinks so….I am worth loving because he loves me!
That very moment I felt like surrendering myself into his arms. I wanted to touch him…to hold him…to kiss him….to just be with him forever! But much before I could come out of my ecstasy I heard another wince and another stream of blood! If Abhay's words were firm enough to make my heart sink, so were they to make Jeh squirm. He was so angry that he hit Abhay's forehead with a rod!
A sudden jerk broke the chain of my thoughts. We had reached Abhay's place. My heart sank at the thought of going inside. What would I say to him, I had no clue! Since so many days I craved for Abhay to confess his true feelings to me, and now when he had confessed, I was just out of words. My forehead had already begun to sweat. I hesitantly pressed the doorbell and waited for someone to arrive. Within a few seconds I was greeted by Mrs. Raichand with a pleasant smile on her face. Seeing her so calm, I felt an unexplained respite dawning upon me. If she was so relaxed, it certainly meant that Abhay's condition was not that serious.
"Thank god…" a sigh of relief touched my lips.
"Aunty Abhay? Where is he? Is he ok? I hope he is doing fine! Can I…can I see him?" I think all my concern for Abhay blurted out in the form of my restlessness and impatience.
"Relax Pia! Abhay is fine. He is in his room. Though wounds were really deep but now he is better" Mrs. Raichand's words lessened my tension to some extent.
"Aunty I am really sorry for what all happened last night. I really apologize to you on Jeh's behalf. I just couldn't believe that things went so wrong between Abhay and Jeh" I felt really embarrassed in front of Mrs. Raichand due to Jeh's behavior.
"It's Ok Pia! It's not your fault and so there is no need to feel sorry for something at which you had no control. And that too for a guy who is really not worth you and your friendship. You are a really nice girl Pia. Jeh seriously doesn't deserve a friend like you" Mrs. Raichand's words came as a surprise to me. I never understood why she is so sweet to me. Even when I and Abhay were caught in the library she only had good things to say about me. Though she could have put the entire blame on me to prevent Abhay's reputation but rather she defended me as someone would defend their own daughter. She's so different from Jeh's mom who supported Neil during that party rather than Panchi despite the fact that Neil was at fault. Strange!
"Pia, Abhay is upstairs, in his room. Go and meet him. I am sure he will feel much better, and so will you" I felt embarrassed hearing Mrs. Raichand's sarcastic remark. I quickly walked towards the stairs stealing gaze from her.
I was almost there! I stood outside Abhay's room trying to catch my own breaths. It felt as if a sudden force of inertia had gripped my legs. My heart thumped hard against my chest as I slowly slid the door of Abhay's room. He was there, lying on his bed. As soon as I exchanged a look with him, I felt all my emotional defenses kneeling down. He looked artistically toned as he lied on his bed wearing a black colored full length lowers from his night robe and a skin fitted white shirt with a few strands of his honey blonde hair falling into his hazel eyes. His shirt was unbuttoned at the top, showing off his well toned chest muscles. His sleeves were rolled up, too, that made his bulging arm muscles visible. I couldn't think of anyone else even from my far acquaintances that remotely resembled him. He was simple, Yet complicated, a strangely erotic combination. He was plain harsh from outside, Yet there was so much more to him. Somehow, he seemed to savor life and love within him much more than others appeared to, and that was one of the reasons I felt so passionately attracted to him.
"What are you thinking?"
I felt my insides jump a little as Abhay's voice brought me back to reality.
"Uhhh nothing!" I stumbled.
"Nothing?? Are you sure?" Abhay's tone was more sarcastic this time.
"Yeah I am sure! I was just looking...i mean just looking at your wounds. They are really bad! How are you feeling now? You haven't even bandaged them! Did you see a doc?" I inquired almost everything in a stretch.
"I am fine Pia. But I wonder why are you so worried about me?…well I think, as far as I know Pia, according to you I am not even worth making friends with or worth trusting! Then why so much concern for me?" Abhay asked coldly.
"Oh gosh! I can't believe it! Even in this condition, his bigheadedness hasn't gone. What does he think of himself that he keeps on giving this stupid attitude to me?" I felt irritated at Abhay.
Once again an uncanny silence fell between us. As our eyes lingered on each other for a second, I felt the heat in my neck and breasts; I flushed and turned away before he could notice. And almost simultaneously, Mrs. Raichand entered the room.
"Pia will you do me a favor" Mrs. Raichand asked as she came near.
"Yes of course aunty! What's it?"
"Actually Pia I have to go out for a while. Will you please stay with Abhay till I get back? I don't want to leave him alone!"
Mrs. Raichand's words made a drop of cold sweat pass below my neck. I was sure another stretch of uncomfortable silence awaited me and Abhay. But of course it was clear that I had no option. So I respectfully agreed to stay back.
"Thanks a lot Pia. I will be at peace now. I will make sure that I come back as soon as possible. Till then will you please help Abhay applying this herbal medicine?" Mrs. Raichand handed over a bowl of some green colored paste to me.
I was really surprised at Mrs. Raichand's words. Herbal medicines! Who uses such stuff these days? "Raichands are really strange creatures!" I thought. But still I decided to remain mum and greeted Mrs. Raichand with a smile as she left the room. And all over again I and Abhay were left alone, amidst all those heavy breaths, racing heart-beats and the uncanny eeriness. But now I was feeling atleast better than what I felt when I came.
"Buck up Pia! You are not here to take his attitude or hear his rubbish. Now you know the truth. So you have all the right to ask him everything. Today he will have to confess it at any cost! He will have to tell that why he left you alone when he still loves you so much!" I geared myself up to bombard Abhay with all my questions which I made sure, I won't let him escape today.
"Abhay!" I cleared my throat and tried to sound firm "Remove your shirt"
"What!"
"I think yesterday's attack has affected your brains. That's why aise dumbo ki tarah act kar rahe ho! I said remove your shirt! Didn't' you hear that? And please don't even try to bring any dirty thoughts in your mind, Ok! I am doing all this because your mom has asked me to apply this medicine. Is that clear?"
Hearing the stiffness in my voice Abhay nodded as his face grew scarlet red due to embarrassment. I have to confess I loved him like that.
He slowly removed his shirt making his bruised bare chest face me. My heartbeat had already begun to lose control. A sense of drowsiness dwelt upon me as I looked into his hazel eyes. We were really close. So close that I could feel his warm breaths falling onto the skin of my bare neck. Neither I nor he spoke a word. Or should I say neither of us felt the need. He just kept on looking at me as I slowly applied the medicine on his chest. Once or may be twice, his chest muscles flexed slightly due to pain. But still his eyes were stuck upon me.
I felt my senses melting in the warmth of his bosom, as I almost rested my head on his chest now. I closed my eyes to feel his closeness, his breath, his tenderness, his fragrance. He too wrapped his arms around my waist and held me gently. Time came at a standstill. Finally, after a year, that seemed like ages, we were back together...in each other's arms. Life couldn't get better than this.
In his arms... my tiredness, my longingness, everything eased as if it didn't ever exist. After minutes of silence, I whispered..."I love you Abhay".
Hugging me, Abhay tightened his grip over my waist and slowly made me look into his eyes keeping a hand under my chin. Tears had welled up in my eyes. While his one arm was encircling my waist, with his other hand, he tucked the strand of hair that fell on my face and obstructed his sight. He moved a bit forward and gently kissed my forehead.
"I love you too Pia"
There was silence again. Our eyes were locked in each other's for quite some time and then I hid my face in his chest once again, as he wrapped his arms around me. The relief we got like this, was not possible anywhere else. Our eyes were closed, hearts were cherishing, faces were smiling, and our togetherness sank into our bodies.
"Why did you do this Abhay? Why did you lie to me? Panchi has told me everything. You are not dating her. Neither were you dating Misha nor that girl who came along you on the first day of college. Panchi told me everything that happened with us in the past one year. The way she was cheated by those vampires, Siddharth and Maithli, and how you came to our rescue. And after that you went missing for an entire year. Where had you vanished Abhay? And how did you get frozen under that ice in the jungle? Please tell me Abhay" now I almost pleaded Abhay to clear my confusions.
"Pia even I didn't want to stay away from you. I can't tell you how it felt being away from you. Life had no meaning at all. It wasn't the cold of the ice that froze my senses but the pain of our separation. But I had no option as Maithli had cursed me. It was her curse that neither let me die nor come out of that spell alive. It was when you came to my rescue that I could free myself of her curse. But I decided to stay away from you as some other supernatural creatures are still behind me. During my fight with Siddharth a warewolf came in between and lost his life. Now his family is behind me and they want to kill me. That was the reason Pia I decided to keep you out of this mess. I wanted you to be safe" Abhay confessed to me with a genuineness in his eyes that had convinced me much earlier.
"Please Abhay don't do this anymore! I would prefer dying once at the hand of that ware wolf than dying a hundred times being away from you"
As soon as I said so, Abhay broke the hug and kept his finger on my lips. His gaze was so gripping that I didn't realize when a tear escaped from my eye. Abhay slowly came closer to me and sucked that tear. My face turned hot as his lips touched my cheeks.
"I promise you Pia, from now I will never let you go anywhere. I am really sorry for all the pain I gave you. But, not anymore! Just because I want to keep you safe, I can't give you so much of pain. If protecting you is my responsibility, so is keeping you away from every ounce of hurt. I am not that weak Pia. I can protect you while keeping you close. From now we will always be together, no matter what!"
As Abhay spoke those words I couldn't believe what I heard. I gave a weak smile as I reality dwelt upon me. Everything was quiet and peaceful. Now, I just wanted to feel the passion of this moment. Without uttering a single word, I just kept me head near his heart, closed my eyes and lost myself into his arms!
Abhay's POV:
I am sorry Pia for doing all this to you. Whatever you saw or heard in the past one day, nothing out of it occurred by a chance. It was all part of a plan. My fight with Jeh, I getting hurt, Angad and Ruhi coming to exactly the same spot where I and Jeh were fighting, nothing was a co-incidence! I let Jeh hurt me, because I knew that this was the only way to bring you closer to me and away from Jeh. I knew when you will come to know of my injuries and my pain, you will be back. I am sorry Pia that once again I lied to you. I had to do this to keep you away from Jeh. To protect you from that ware wolf. But yes, one thing I can promise Pia, whatever I just said to you that will always remain a truth. From now I will never leave you alone!…for now, I know, that much before anyone else could kill us, we would die if we will remain away from each other anymore!
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