She lazily stretched her right leg out through her the cozy blanket , clutching on to the edge of the blanket ; which was pulled half way up to her face , just leaving her eyes out to take in the delectable view right in front of them.

She was free to stare at the gorgeous , tanned , half bare , still partially wet body of Mr Khanna , as much as she liked , as long as she wished to. He was hers after all....for now and forever. That gave her the right to shamelessly go drooling over that Greek god like body of his , without any guilt whatsoever.

"Are you planning to stare at me all day long ?" he intervened ,still very much looking at the mirror and drying his wet hair.

"Do you have a problem with that ?'' she replied without looking away and without moving an inch from where she was.

" Absolutely not" tossing the wet towel away he briskly walked over to the bed and adorned her with a series of soft kisses starting on her forehead , moving slowly along her nose and ending on her plump pink lips. Having kissed her an uncountable number of times by now, he still couldn't get enough of her or her tantalizing scent.

" Don't you have clients waiting for you at the office today ?" she tried coercing him to leave , still not budging an inch from her place.

"That can wait......." His finger leisurely traced the stray tresses away from her face and tucked them back into the space behind her earlobe, where he placed another soft peck , making her breath go heavy and slow. He knew exactly where her weak points were and never failed to maneuver them to his favor. As her breathing went slower and heavier , he trailed down her neck with deeper kisses , taking his own sweet time with each one of them , making her chest heave and toes curl.

"What do you say .....you let me stay in today and I make up for coming late every day of this month" he whispered in her ears in a deep and husky voice and placing another kiss on her earlobe.

" As tempting as that sounds .." she bit her lips and gathered herself together , using the last of her self resilience to stop herself from melting away in his arms "..you have clients waiting for you at your office Mr lawyer Khanna." With her draining away will power she managed to stop him before he could go any further down her bare and now puckered shoulder line.

" What kind of wife tells her husband to go away on their anniversary ?" he complained still trying to get his way with his wife.

" The kind you are married to and the anniversary is tomorrow , dear hubby" she pushed him away once again.

"How unromantic !! Wives ask their husbands to give them time and here you are pushing me away ."

She laughed at being called 'unromantic' by the very person who had no idea about romance before he met her. " Aww!! My handsome husband , please try to come back early..... I will be waiting with batted breath for you. There I said it......is that okay or should I throw in some more sickly sweet words ?" she pushed away her grumpy husband who didn't want to move .

"Fine. If I go , you go too. Why are you still in bed ? That's not fair to me !" He tried to pull her out of those warm blanket.

"I am on a leave today. So I can sleep in while you mister have work to attend to" saying so she snuggled herself back into the blanket.

" Why? Are you feeling fine ?" he asked concerned.

" I am absolutely fine Neil. Just wanted a day off work ,that's all."

"You should have told me then .I would have postponed my meetings . We could have had spent the day together. Mom, Dad and Bebe are anyways out of town and won't be returning till tomorrow. What will you do alone in this house ?"

" That's the whole point . I will have an entire day to myself. Some me time ."

" Oh !! Got it ! Fine . Have your alone time. Won't intrude on your time but do you still want me to come back soon ?" he smiled slyly.

" Definitely" she smiled back.

Placing one last quick peck on his sleeping wife's forehead Neil finally got up to get dressed .

.............................................................................................................................................

Avni got up and about her day , an hour after Neil left. She had her whole day planned out . There was so much she wanted to do and so much she had to do. Her family had gone out of town to attend some family friend's wedding . The whole house was empty except for the house helps. Though she loved her family to death , she loved her personal time off too and Neil always let her have it without much trouble except for days like this when he insisted on being the kid in the relationship.

It would be one year to their marriage tomorrow. They had waited 6 months after their engagement to get married . It had given them time to test their compatibility and their parents the time to plan their dream wedding. She couldn't believe how fast the last year had flown by. With Neil everyday had been an adventure. They weren't one of those couples who were dreamy all the time, instead they would argue half of the day and then spend the rest of the day trying to make up to each other. But then that's how they were before too and she loved the fact that nothing between them had to change. The only thing that had changed was that Neil had become more romantic than she ever was.

Neela Maa was the only thing missing from her perfect little home. Neil had insisted time and again to get Neela Maa to shift here but Neela Maa being the independent person she was had never agreed with her loving son-in-law . But Neil had made her agree to the condition of visiting them once every month and that had been the best gift Avni could have ever asked for.

As for their work life , everything had progressed slowly but eventually. Neil had been able to expand his firm by making partnership with better and bigger companies . He had also been managing his father's business whenever he found the time. Avni had also been helping out in anyway she could in the family business. On the other hand her career as a writer was finally moving ahead. She was a full time editor now and had also written her first book which was almost ready for publication. Aarav had been a real friend inspite of everything that transpired between the two. She was glad that he had also found someone who cared for him the way he deserved to. The fact that he had moved on with his life was a relief for her.

The door bell rang putting a brake to avni's flowing thoughts. Her package must have arrived. She ran down the stairs to get the door before the servants could.

.................................................................................................................................................

It had been later than when Neil had planned to arrive to surprise Avni. The meeting had dragged on for hours making it impossible for him to plan any surprises. It was already late and he was tired . He parked his car in the driveway and as he stepped out he noticed something unusual ; right at the center of their garden a semi translucent white tent was set up. The tent had been lit up with small lights on the outside . Throwing his suitcase inside the car he walked up the tent with his tiredness seemingly fading away and his smile reappearing.

He stepped inside the tent to find his lovely wife inside it. She had worn a off white shimmery saree; something that never really enjoys wearing and something that he had always loved seeing her in , since the very first time he had helped her put it on. After all it was one of the many times he had found himself falling for her. She looked so breathtaking that he couldn't take his eyes off her. Avni had to clap her hands dramatically to jolt him back to reality again.

"What's all this ?" he asked settling himself next to his wife .

" A surprise ? Isn't that obvious ?" she laughed .

" Yes but why today ?" he got rid of his coat to settle more comfortably. He noticed she had made arrangements for dinner on one end of the huge tent.

" Because its our anniversary tomorrow , duh !!" she smiled lighting up the candle she had set near their dinner place. " Tomorrow there will be so much going on that we won't even get time to breathe ; you know how our parents are. They love celebrating everything . I am sure there is a big party planned for tomorrow." Neil nodded his head in agreement knowing very well how his mom was.

" So I thought why not give ourselves a little 'us' time" she laughed again blowing off the matchstick. Neil walked upto to her and held her from behind , wrapping his arms around her bare waist . Snuggling his face next to hers , he kissed her on her rosy cheeks making them more blushed.

"Dinner is getting cold" she elbowed him gently. He sat down next to the small dinner table and pulled her to fall on him. He closed his arms around her before she could escape " I love you" he whispered into her ears " and I love this ....'us' time."

After Avni's constant reminder of how much efforts she had put into the preparations , Neil freed her of his grip only on the condition that she feeds him the first bite. As soon as the dinner was done and the last of plates were sent out, Neil laid back comfortably in the makeshift bed and Avni curled up next to him without any words . They stayed nuzzled next to each other without any exchange of words between them. It was just perfect ; the cool breeze , the twinkling lights and the stars above minutely visible from the semi-translucent tent roof and them next each other.

" Happy anniversary" Neil whispered as the clock the struck 12 and kissed her on the forehead. Before he could do anything else Avni had turned away to get something hidden at the corner . She pulled out a wrapped present that she had been hiding all along. She handed it over to Neil wishing him . " open it"

Without any ado , Neil excitedly tore open the wrapper to see a book inside. " Your first book got published !!!" he screamed with excitement "why didn't you tell me before ?"

" I was waiting for the right moment" she smiled content ; this was exactly the response she wanted to see the first time anyone saw her book. " Turn it ."

'THE BOY NEXT DOOR' read the title of the book with silhouette of a guy holding a girl standing on the waves.

" Is that us ? Is this ?" he failed to get any coherent words out.

" Not really. Our story is for us to keep. Its just that you have inspired me to write this and I wanted the cover to be a homage to our love." She looked lovingly at Neil who was adoring the cover with his hands as though he could travel back in time into that very moment through that picture . " Do you like it ?" she asked expectantly.

" I love it. This is the best gift ever ."He pulled her into a massive hug , still holding on to the book in one hand. This time Avni made no effort to free herself from him .

She broke away moments later only to kiss him on his lips before letting the night fade away in his embrace.

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