"Dr. Anjana i told you , you are coming with us" manik stated firmly, over the phone "even doctors need a break" he added with slight humour.

Then he listened carefully.

"if you want i can talk to your seniors" he said after hearing her.
"now, that's good! Thank you" he smiles "i will send my driver to pick you up tomorrow"

With that he hangs up, relieved that now since dr. Anjana will be there 24*7 in Udaipur, he will have to worry a little less for nandini.

" manik, your coffee" he hears nandini's hesitant voice at the entrance of his study. He swivels in his chair to face her with a smile. She comes in smiling shyly and places the coffee mug on his table.

"thank you" he says .

"are you done??" she asks hesitantly, so that he doesn't feel that she is interfering.

"no, sweetheart, there is still hell lot of work to be done before we leave in the morning" he says softly and her face falls. She feels disappointed. This feeling is so new, this compulsion to always keep him close, crave for his undivided attention, this is weird, she cannot keep him tied to herself, this is not rational.... Suddenly her chain of thought breaks as manik tugs on her hand, lightly.

"come here" he gestures her to sit on his lap and she follows more than eagerly. As she sits, he wraps his arm around her.

"kya hua?" he asks softly caressing her cheek with the back of his hand.

She leans in his touch, closing her eyes. This makes him smile and his finger wanders off to her lower full lips, tracing its edge. "how is the baby?" he asks caressing her lips. She smiles but says nothing.

"nandini???" he whispers as her eyes are still closed but her breathing has caught up. She opens her eyes and finds herself staring into his chocolaty brown eyes which are looking sensually at her. She is the first one to look away. He rests his palm over her belly.

"nandini, please talk to me. tum mujhse share ni karogi ki tum kya feel kar rahi ho toh mujhe kese pata chalega??" he requests and he feels that she is going to talk but before she could utter a word, his phone starts ringing, nandini shuts her mouth and looks at him dejected. He reluctantly picks up the call, making a puppy face, as it is his secretary. Nandini tries to get up from his lap but he holds her in place. She sits and starts fiddling with the button on his shirt, absentmindedly, but her cute gesture makes manik smile. But she is oblivious to it, busy in her thoughts.

May be all these feelings are because she is less busy these days, since she has shared her workload with mahi. Hmmm this is the reason. An idle mind is devil's workshop. It's good that she will be busy from tomorrow in the wedding , then these feelings will shift in the background.

She will have so much work to do!....oh my god did mukti pack her footwears?? I forgot to ask her completely. Oh no! How can be i so careless, papa's medicine?? Nandini!! Stop thinking about sex all the time! There are more important things than that! I was never like this...must be the pregnancy hormones!

Manik hangs up the call. "sorry! ab bolo kya hua??" he asks softly but nandini's mood has changed by then.

and oh my dear readers, this is ,what is called the great MOOD SWING

"kuch ni hua...i have got a lot of work to do...bye!" she says dismissively and gets up from his lap. Manik gets confused by her behaviour but before he could say something, she is out of the door, and he receives another call which distracts him.
......
"ok nandini, i give you a thumbs up, you can board the flight" Dr. Anjana says after checking nandini's blood pressure. They were in the private lounge of the terminal. Manik smiled in relief while nandini rolled her eyes at his extra careful approach towards her.

Manik grins at her and takes her hand and they all head towards the plane. All of the seats on the plane have been booked by malhotras for the family and friends. Everyone takes their place, so does manik and nandini.

Plane takes off and beverages are served. They are busy in discussions and plannings. All in all they had kick started the journey on a high note.

Soon they landed in Udaipur and were escorted to the fort-turned-resort were the wedding had to happen.

"wow this is better than i thought!" Dhruv commented while they were exploring the place.

"yeah the ambience is so royal!" alia spoke.

"royal toh hoga hi Jhansi ki rani ki jo wedding hai" cabir chipped in , in his usual i-am-born-to-tease way.

"cabir for once tu kuch different try kar...bore ho gye hain hum sab" mukti gave him tu-badal-jaa wala look and cabir looks thoughtful for a minute and his face falls. Mukti panics thinking her words got into his head, rest of them didn't notice as they are walking ahead.

"naah mujhse ni hoga!" cabir declares putting his arms round her shoulder and with the mischievous spark in his eyes. Mukti breathes a sigh of relief and then rolls her eyes , cabir grins "tumlogo mein se kisi ko agar ek din bina tease kiye nikal dun toh mujhe indigestion ho jaega!" he says and mukti scrunches her nose in disgust.

Cabir laughs out loud attracting the attention of others.

"what's so funny?" manik asks.

"your sister is funny" cabir remarks and gets a punch in his gut from mukti.

"hey my wife is not funny, she is scary" abhi quips and runs for his life as mukti takes off after him.

"listen dude...correction needed...wo abhi tak teri wife bani ni haiiiiiii" cabir shouts after them.

"whatever!!" abhi shouts back , then increases his speed as mukti misses him by just an inch. Suddenly abhi sees families on the other side of the passage and he haults abruptly, making mukti crash into him. He holds her in time and saves her from falling. Their eyes meet and fireworks happen, but abhi recovers in time before anyone sees them and pulls her to a side away from passerbys' eyes.

Suddenly mukti remembers his words and starts hitting him softly "main scary hun?? Haan tell me, i am scary?? Toh kyu shadi kar rahe ho mujhse!" she is blabbering all the time and abhi doesn't protest, he has a smile on his face. Mukti stops hitting him, when there is no resistance from his side. When she looks at him , he is staring intently at her, she blushes automatically.

"what ? aise kya dekh rahe ho??" she asks.

"you know you are scary..." he starts and when he sees that she is going to protest, he keeps a finger on her lips, effectively haulting her. "you are scary, you know why?? because i am always scared to lose you. I am scared that i will hurt you. I am scared that may be i am not good enough for you...." he wants to say more but this time she puts a finger on his lips, silencing him. And without removing her finger, she tiptoes and kisses him over her finger. Her tender gesture, brings tears in his eyes.

"i love you mukti. Please never leave me alone" he pleads and a lump forms in mukti's throat as she tries to control her emotions. Right after harshad's incident, no one had ever made her feel so wanted, so much loved. How can she make him believe that she loves him more than he loves her?? That her need for him was greater than his need for her?? Probably , in future she will get opportunity to show her love.

"Mr. Abhimanyu Murthy in 3 days time , i will be tied to you for lifetime and even after that, like vikram- betal , and you will have to bear with me...here i am thinking you will run for the hills rather than bearing my tantrums and here you are pleading me not to leave you!! How ironical!!" she says to lighten the atmosphere as emotional talk is not her forte. He smiles on her words.

"we will see who runs for the hills Ms. Malhotra. Ooops !! or should i say would be Mrs. Murthy!" he says playfully and she smiles and blushes at the same time.

"abey ye mukti aur abhimanyu kaha gayab ho gye??" cabir enquires and this is heard by mukti and abhimanyu.

"might be romancing somewhere!" Dhruv says.

"shut up you two! They must have gone downstairs..." as he is saying this his phone starts ringing displaying a reminder "nandini k medicines ka time ho gya..i will go and check" he says and leaves from there, and others too disperse. Mukti and abhimanyu release the breath that they had been holding till now.

"come let's go back, before anyone spots us" abhimanyu says and after checking, holds her hand and they walk out together, confidently.
...........
Manik comes in the central hall and looks around but nandini is no where in sight. He decides to go and check his room, but just as he is turning, he spots neyonika frantically passing orders to the staff and manik gets worried for her so he approaches her "mom why are you stressing yourself? I have paid these people enough money only so that you and dad don't waste your energy on such petty issues as flowers and food!"

"beta, i know, but you have to understand ki sabkuch in logo par ni chorr sakte, otherwise they will fess up and hum larki wale hain toh sab kuch ka dhyan rakhna hoga beta. Main ni chahti ki koi bhi problem ho"

"mom koi problem ni hogi...trust me. aur haan maine mukti, abhimanyu, amma-appa, apka aur dad ka room, sab check kar liya...mujhe sab perfect laga but fir bhi agar kuch kami ho toh mujhe btana ok?"

"ok beta" neyonika smiled.

"aritosh!!!!!" manik called from his spot.

"yes sir" aritosh the manager of the event management came running.

"when is franco arriving??"

"sir his flight will land shortly" he replied hurriedly.

"make sure all the arrangements are done properly. A single mistake and your company will lose the recommendation" manik spoke strictly.

"don't worry sir, everything will be taken care of" aritosh gave a sincere smile. Manik nodded and he left.

"mom don't take stress . main hu na."

"yes beta. I know tum ho toh mujhe kisi baat ki chinta karne ki jarurt ni h" neyonika caressed his cheek lovingly.

"acha mom, nandini kaha hai??"

"beta uski tabiyat thori kharab ho gyi thi...u know due to flight...so dr anjana ne usey rest karne ko bola hai...she is in her room"

"ok mom...but mom pregnancy mein ye normal hai na...i mean vomiting and all?"

"yes beta ye normal hai..4th month start hoga na toh ye theek ho jaega.
Don't worry"

"ok" manik replied satisfied, just then his phone started ringing. He excused himself from neyonika and walked away from there attending the call.

"don't disturb mukti , mail me the papers , i will get her signatures and then send you the scanned copies."

Manik was talking when he reached his room. he unlocked the room and entered without making noise. He saw nandini sleeping on the bed with her back towards the door.

"is that all?" he asked over the phone and after listening replied "aditya, unless it is urgent, don't call me, just keep in touch through messages .ok?"

"good" manik replied and cut the call. Nandini heard his voice and got up from her sleep.

"hey, ab kaisi tabiyat hai tumhari??" manik asked sitting beside her on the bed. She smiled and slowly sat up on the bed "i am fine. Don't worry"

He kissed her forehead lovingly "do you need anything?" he asked softly.

"yes. YOU" her reply floored him and a blush crept up his cheeks.

"you know ,sometimes , you take my breath away" he replied shyly.

"i am glad to hear that, mr.Husband" she replied with a smirk.

He smirked back "its like you directly speak to my cock. It replies to your every word"

This time, it was nandini's turn to blush and she looked away from his eyes.

"i want juice, yes ..juice" she stammers as manik starts closing the distance.

"just now you said you want ME. ab kya hua?" he asked with a tinge of humour.

"kuch ni hua. I am feeling thirsty" she said unconvincingly.

"shall i feed you my juices??" he asks suggestively.

"manik!!! that's such a gross thing to say!" she chides him and he laughs heartily at her outrageous expression.

"ok, ok, i will order juice for you" he said controlling his laughter.

"Samantha, get juice for nandini" he said over the phone and cut the call.

He decided to tease her more.

"you know, nandini, i was serious about the juice thing" he said lasciviously.

"last time toh you stopped me, ab kyun bol rahe ho!" she said pouting. Manik smiled "don't remind me yaar...kitni mushkil se maine tumhe roka tha, tum ni samjhogi!" he said lost in the memory of the night of their love making two days ago.

"we can do that again" she suggested shyly.

"oh yes, mrs. Malhotra we will, tonight!" he smirks. They heard the knock on the door.

"but now time for the other juice" he says and grins, before getting up to open the door.

Nandini was stuck , pinning all her hopes on the word 'tonight'.

oh how much promise he infused in just that one word!!
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