In His Custody ✎ (MaNan)

✰ 38 - new feelings

Okay, I must confess, this part is going to give you either major school whiplash (like it did for me) or is going to make you feel super single! 

I'm sorry (not sorry) either way :")

Also haven't we all been wondering about Manik's POV? Hmm... :P

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Manik

As our lips remained dangerously locked, our noses briefly brushed, and I doted on being touched so intimately, feeling grateful for the opportunity to experience something magical with her – she gave me that chance.

At that stage of life, at least for five of my closest friends, I was someone special. All those platonic feelings put together did not hold the kind of gravity of being tenderly touched by a partner. A primal instinct to seize control overtook me. The grin I bore as she pulled me in dropped in a split second. Before I could even realise it, her face was caged by my large hand, cupping the side of one of her cheeks.

Her grip slipped from my shirt to the flesh over my heart that was racing against time, to be heard by her. Our mouths separated, and I gazed down at the delicate radiance leaving her skin warm and pink. She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen.

In a mellowed manner, our eyes scrolled shut and while basking in pure appreciation for her, I caressed those supple lips once again. Nandini had stilled at the unexpectedly thrilling gesture, and then as her dragged breaths consciously slowed to match mine, her smaller hands slowly inched upwards around my neck in a learned motion as she leaned in. Just the way I once showed her.

I cherished the uncontrollable spin in my head. Was it the rush of hormones? It had to be, that was warping my sense of rationality as I showered her back with ounces of devoted passion. Far more than mere words could express.

Even with her on my lap, and her flush breasts pressed on mine, there was an undeniable need to be closer to her. I gripped her waist, jolting her into my firm hold; it didn't feel sufficient. She had almost cradled my head in her embrace – that wasn't enough. There was barely space for a sheet of paper to be wedged between us, and the only way to be more impermeable would have been to strip down to our bare souls and let them engulf each other.

To show her the parts of me I didn't have the courage to show anyone else and to feel her unconditional affection and undue admiration evenly spread to the tainted parts of me I wasn't quite proud of. That sensation wasn't new, I had felt it more than once before in her proximity, but it had not been nearly as intense. It was as if the more time I spent with Nandini Murthy, the more those feelings kept growing.

The invisible boundary that I had put in between myself, and the rest of the world had resoundingly snapped in half somewhere in the last few minutes, and the foreboding fright that life would never be the same again had seeped against my will.

Because I did not have to be a Malhotra. I did not have to be the principal's son. I did not have to be Mukti's brother, I did not have to be the lead singer of Fab 5, and I did not have to be Abhimanyu's best friend.

In front of Nandini, I had felt like Manik.

Just Manik.

The most unfamiliar part of my own identity, the black hole in my innate darkness.

To silence the irritating voices in my head, I kept myself busy by letting the arm around her waist crawl up to the nape of her neck while trailing the other on her frame southwards. It met her hem and then brushed her bare, blazing skin. She let out a soft mesmerising sound, one that was completely involuntary.