Chapter 85

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He had been standing still, with his ears pressed to the door for over 10 minutes and it was beginning to worry him now. He could no more hear her cries. Was she ok? What was taking her so long?

"Nandini are you ok?" he shouted, banging on the door.

Sitting there on the floor she had lost track of time. His voice, shook her out of her reverie. She opened her mouth to reply but nothing came out. She cleared her throat and replied in a feeble voice "Ho gaya, do min."

When she did come out a minute later, he couldn't help but gape at her. "Tum andar nahane gayi thi ya rone gayi thi." She was still in the same clothes, only her face was a bigger mess than it was when she had walked inside. She had been so lost that it completely slipped out of her mind that she was supposed to take a shower. She raised her eyes and looked at him with such innocence that could easily put a lamb to shame. No point in scolding her, he realized and took her back inside.

Adjusting the temperature, he turned on the shower and within seconds, water started dripping off her. With his fingers, he gently removed the damp hair off her eyes and tucking them behind her ears, cleaned the stains of tears and vomit from her swollen face. He was trying hard to avoid making an eye contact with her, but then he couldn't keep off for long as she kept on flapping her lids against the force of water, her gaze fixed at him.

"Ab yeh bhi mujhe hi karna parega, what would you do without me!" He remarked in a dismissive tone, while rubbing her tender arms clean.

"Die!"

He stopped, before the clouds in his eyes became obvious to her. "Change and come fast. I am ordering some food."

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She came out in a long bathrobe, wrapped snuggly around her petite frame. She tiptoed close to Manik, who was sitting on the bed, staring at the dark hills through the glass panels of their master suite and handed him a spare towel. Without probing further, he stood up and began patting her hair dry.

This is how they functioned. He had to dump all his anger on her and she had to fall back on him for the smallest of things. He sought acceptance in her, he needed to be assured again and again that his anger would never drive her away. And she depended on him for dear life, as if her whole existence was defined by and around him.

He became a hulk and she became a baby. Call it the design of destiny or the conspiracy of their stars, even in a wretched state, one had the power to heal the other.

"Aur tum? you are also wet."

Two mins ago he was wondering how absentminded she was today and here, he himself had forgotten the wet clothes on him. He quickly stepped into the bathroom and emerged in a pair of track pants, bare from his waist up.

He was searching for a tshirt to put on when he felt her warmth on his cold skin. Slipping her hands through the tiny gap below his elbows, she drew him in a tight hug from behind. The sensation of having her so close, pressed against skin of his back, still moist from the shower, sent shivers down his spine.

"Nandini, leave me, I need to order food." He said sternly.

"I don't need food, I need you." She showed no signs of backing off. Standing on her toes, she leaned on him and rubbed her cheeks on his shoulder blades.

"Nandini!!!"

"Kya hua Manik? Is the note wrong?" she asked innocently, planting a kiss on his shoulder.

What would he tell her...that the storm raging inside him was far from over...that he was just on the brink of breaking down and didn't have the strength to safeguard her emotions. How would he tell her that he needed her more than ever, and yet he wasn't sure, he could love her the way he always had... it was one thing to shout at her, but he couldn't let his anger flow through his affection. But then how could he stay calm when she was so dangerously close. He was a mess, his body was dying to respond to her arousal but his mind wanted to run as far away as he could.

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