Naira blistered and looked on into the boiling coffee.How dare he order her around again !!

When the coffee had become warm enough, she poured the coffee into a blue mug and took hold of it and turned towards the hall.

She rolled her eyes and offered the coffee to him.

“Here.”She said, and moved the cup near his hand.

He didn’t raise his head from the newspaper and took the mug in his hand.

After giving him his coffee, Naira strayed around the house trying to find a way to escape. She was missing her room and the comfort it offered. Fifteen minutes of hovering around the confusing maze of rooms,she finally gave up. Her stomach growled angrily.

Naira moved towards the kitchen but found all the vessels empty of food. She stood dejected.

“What are you doing here ?!!”A deep burring voice, jumped her around in fright.

She sagged back. Oh, it was only him. He stood near the door, his right shoulder leaning on it.

“I’m hungry.” She replied petulantly, avoiding his eyes and looking around instead.

“Dinner is in the oven.” He said,coming into the kitchen.

Naira brightened up at that, and moved towards it. She opened the door of it, and took out a deep bottomed pan.

She placed it on the dinning table, and saw him slid down on the chair opposite to her.

Naira ignored him and sat on the chair happily opening the lid.

“What the hell is that ?!!”Her upper lip curled up in disgust.

“It’s called steamed crabs.”He muttered, picked up the fork from beside his hand and held up the slimy sea food thing.

Naira put both of her hands over her mouth to not puke all over the dinning table, looking at it’s ten tentacled arms.

” I’m not going to eat it.”She shouted more, and opened her eyes glaring at him.

He stopped mid chewing, and gave her an empty stare.

“Suit yourself.”He mumbled through mouthful, and went about devouring the disgusting slimy thing.

He looked laid back and thoroughly in his space. Without the sharpness and creasless cut of his formal suits, and with the light purple sweater t-shirt and track pants, he looked really adorable eating that abhorring dish.

Stop staring at him. She shouted at herself !!

Naira sighed feeling hunger claw at her stomach. She went to the fridge and opened it. After rumaging through the whole thing, she finally found a thing worth eating. A cadbury silk.

“Oh, my god. You have a silk !! ”Naira jumped around, delighted like a kid.

He ignored that and leaned back.

She also faded him out and sat down on the chair. She opened the wrapper and started taking bites of the delicious silk !!

She was taking her own time devouring the chocolate and letting it melt in her mouth before taking another bite. She could feel Karthik’s eyes on her as she licked her fingers for the melted mess she had created.

“Get on with it fast !!” He cleared his throat.

”We are going to sleep next.”He concluded in a gruff.

Naira coughed instantly at the casual way he said the words. Her eyes watered and her face turned red and puffy.

“We ?!! Sleep ?!! Together ?!!” She gasped out finally, after a bout of choking.

His face didn’t twitch any change of expression, except gracing her with a flat stare.

“Yeah.”He muttered, and leaned forward on the table.

”Together. All alone.In the bed”He whispered, his tone going more seductive. His eyes moving all over her face shining in mischievous darkness.

Naira’s eyes widened, and her mouth slackened. He pushed back his chair and got up. His hands went into his track pockets, and his legs turned around towards the kitchen door. He stopped abruptly by it, and turned his head to the side.

“Hurry up !! I will be waiting.”He flung the words over his shoulder, and walked away.

Karthik grinned, shaking his head, thinking of her cute face, wide eyes, pink cheeks, and an adorable flaring nose.It was fun to see her all flustered up and disturbed. He moved towards the hallway and slid down on the chair and waited for her to come out of the kitchen.

Fifteen passed but still she didn’t come out, Karthik got up and moved towards the kitchen again. His body froze when he heard a voice of a vehicle. His car.

He hurried up to the kitchen, and saw that it was empty, his gaze turned towards the opened glass window pane.

Oh, This girl is going to be the death of him !!

He hurried up to the front door, and punched in the code. He moved fast and walked outside.

His gaze zeroed in on a moving car. He sighed and smiled when he saw her in the driving seat, but it died, when he heard a loud screech, and saw the lost control of the vehicle.Karthik broke into a run now.

Karthik cursed, pulled at his hair and turned to his drive way. He got into his BMW, and charged up fast on the road.

His heart thudded hard, as he followed the Red Audi. It was a little distance away, but breaking fast on the road ready to collide with something. His skin coated in a thick sweat and his mind roared up in panic. He swirled the car to the side, and moved it forward, beside her car. Both of the vehicles now breaking into a danger run.

His frantic eyes caught her sight, her hands clutched tight on the wheels, her face looked frightened.

“Pull in the breaks.”He shouted through the blasting wind.

Her wide anxious eyes caught his to the side. They turned desperate looking at him.

“Pull in the breaks !!”He shouted yet again.

He looked front at the fast moving disappearing flat road.

What she said next, made Karthik’s blood run cold.

“I can’t. They don’t work.” Naira shouted back, her tone sounding extremely petrified now.

His thoughts turned wild, and his heart stopped beating altogether, looking at the speeding car.

His eyes brutally blinked several images of her bloodied figure.

Karthik came out of the trance when he saw at a distance, the road stopping, and a large wall appear out of nowhere. The Red Audi sped towards it.

His breath turned into painful hacks. A new kind of chill ran all across his body.

No. No.

He finally got to her side in his BMW, he moved the car closer to her Audi.

“Open the car door.”He shouted.

She glanced to the side, her eyes flowing. She nodded her head in a relief.

Karthik opened the door, the vehicles collided, jerked, it rattled his body, and his teeth chattered hard because of the collision. Even then, he moved out, clutching to the top of the car, he looked at her wide eyed shocked face, and jumped in, into the Audi.

The BMW went wild to the side of the road, and hit the concrete divider hard and destroyed itself in a loud painful crash.

Karthik embraced her body, and pushed the other side of the door, and flungout both of their bodies out of the car, and they hit in a roll onto the cold concrete ground. The Red Audi banged into the wall !!

Their bodies rolled on the ground, and slid down into the grass at the sides of the road. Karthik closed her body with his, trying to take every hit of rock and hard concrete on his body.

His heart almost came out of his throat, his breathing turned heavy, every inch of him shook in a manic tremor.

He felt a tug on his T-shirt and moan of pain and a gasp.

“Oh, my god. Are you alright ?!!”He heard her voice, call him out in anxious fright and worry from under him.

He moved away from top of her, and slid his back on the ground still straining to breath hard.

He got up from the ground in a smooth glide. He moved forward but she caught hold of his right hand from behind him.

He closed his eyes, breathed hard and turned around. His eyes strained to see her face.The large hazel brown eyes blinked back at his in a heavy concern.

Karthik’s eyes narrowed in on her touch, a bile rose to his mouth, when her hand all bloodied came into his vision, and he moved back in a sudden abruptness, he took her hand off from his wrist with the other hand. Naira’s eyes widened more when his grip on her hand turned painfully tight.

He stood there looking down at her. His empty eyes straying to the silky long tresses, down to the forehead,worried eyes, nose, rounded cheeks,luscious red lips and determined chin in a slow swipe, and his mind started erasing out the moments.

Since from here to the moments spent with her in his house, to the choosing of their engagements, to the kiss in the forest, to her being in his office and to the first time he ever saw and felt her.Everything went in a back step, forgetting, freezing and killing, as he took several steps away from her.

He saw her frown, and look down at his moving feet that were taking him away from her. His eyes strayed to a large cut on her arm, blood just started oozing out of the wound and he started to not feel anymore.

He could have stopped it happening. It was all because of him. He got dangerously closer again, didn’t he ?!! He should have learned from the old burns and scars, but he was a yearning selfish bastard. First his mom. Then his dad. Now her. He was a curse to the people he loved, he knew it still he went for her !! It was his mistake !!

He turned around, and wiped off her lovely face, sweet scent, and her innocent stuttering breath from his mind. She seem to follow.

Thankfully he had his phone in his track pocket, he took it out and dialled Swayam’s number.

Fifteen minutes into the walking, Karthik and Naira tread their way to the main road, his Car stopped just there, and he got into the backseat. He could feel her warmth from behind him, she was still talking, but as the car clicked shut, she stopped abruptly, pulling at the handle fiercely.Naira moved fast. Her hand clamped on the car handle and she moved it to get in, but it didn’t budge. She frowned and pulled a little, because it seemed like it got stuck.

She blinked hard and moved back a little, her breath getting stuck in the back of her throat, a little of understanding crept into her skin. She hesitated and her eyes reluctantly went to the glass.

He sat in the middle of the cushioned seat in a cut out manner. His left hand lay sprawled on the back of it, as he leaned back. 

Karthik’s stare turned glacial, when she looked through the glass and into his eyes.

“Get a move on, Swayam.”He ordered.

But Swayam hesitated.

“But, Sir, how can we leave her here ?!!”He asked.

A second more hesitation, the car jerked forward, and Karthik’s hand fisted hard by his side looking at her disappearing forlorn face.

Punishment.

The car jerked to a start.

Naira kept her gaze still stuck to his blanked out eyes, unable to believe that he wasn’t letting her in still. The car moved slowly and she panicked like hell now. No no, he wouldn’t leave her here now, would he ?!!

But as his face disappeared along with the zoom of the car, Naira kept staring at the empty space. A heavy breath escaped her lips in disbilief. She saw the car ripping on the road in a speeding charge leaving only dust in its wake. Her left hand went up over her mouth staring after it.

Fifteen more minutes later,Karthik got out of the car, marched upstairs, flung open the door and entered into his study. He slid down by the door, trying to take deep breaths, but nothing passed down his windpipe.

He wanted to hurt something.He pulled hard at his hair. He had almost died watching the car go uncontrollable on the road. She shouldn’t matter to him this much. The vision of her death shouldn’t matter to him, but it did.

He moved towards the library wall. He took out a file, opened it.The file contained the information given to him by Swayam weeks back.Several of Naira’s photographs fell to the ground. Karthik stared down coldly. He took out a lighter from the rack. He slid on his knees, and picked up a smiling picture of her.

He clicked on the lighter, and a slow flame surfaced up. Karthik put the photograph over the blue flame. The corner end started burning up, and he threw it on the other ones. The slow burning immediately caught fire. The images started to turn into a slow ash.

His eyes caught the smiling eyes in one of the images. His yearning for her doubled and a moan of pain rose up from his throat. His nostrils flared looking into the softness of the hazel eyes, his stare sting sharply in a pain, a last vulnerability slid down the corner of his left eye in a drop of a tear and fell onto the black ash.

His bruised fingers rubbed the ash on the floor in a caressing whisper one last time and a second later he wiped off his eyes with the back of his hand.His body hurt all over because of the fall from the car, as he slid up painfully off the floor, but he froze in a lock down. A dreadful thought crept into his mind.

Just a day ago he took out the Audi. Nothing had been wrong with it then, Karthik kept thinking. How did the breaks fail suddenly. His heart stuttered sensing a ploy.

Somebody tampered with the car. But how ?!!

He unlocked his phone.

“Swayam, get to know if anyone tress passed into the mansion premises, and also I need to know why the gates were open. I don’t like delay in this. Get me the information right away.”He grated out through clenched teeth.

If someone was behind this, swear to god, he would be going into the depths of hell to find out who it was !!

What ?!! Her hand from her mouth went over her forehead and she moved around in a circle still in a trance.

He left her all alone and cold in the unsafest of place just like that ?!! What happened just now ?!!

Stupid fool that she was, she shouldn’t have taken his car out of the garage and drove it off the mansion, and this all wouldn’t have happened. The rustling of leaves jerked her around. She peered into the black woods in fear.

Naira determined her will. He wouldn’t leave her here like that. He will come back to get her. She kept her eyes glued to the road, waiting and waiting. She shivered feeling the extreme cold of the night.

Still he didn’t come. Nothing but empty concrete flat surface stretched. Not any other vehicle came to her rescue. At least, she thought she could get a lift.

Shivering attacked her body and the cold permeated into her bones. She sat down on a large stone beside the road wrapping the thin Sari end around herself more.

Finally a long black shiny car moved along towards her. He came, her mind cried out and rush of joy spread all over her and warmed a little of her body as she stood up hurriedly and stumbled.

It came and abruptly halted right before her. Naira, through the dim light of the car looked in the back of the seat and the slow smile from her lips wiped away looking at only emptiness.

She looked at the front seat and saw a tall and broad black suited man have his hands on the steering wheel.

Naira stood staring unsurely.

“Get in, mam.” The man said.

“Where is he ?!!” She asked in a very small voice.

She already knew the answer of it, but still there was hope that the man would say otherwise.

Naira only got silence. She stared at herself in the car window. She was surprised to see her face controted in extreme pain.

“It’s getting colder. You need to get in.” The man said again.

Naira nodded her head and got in.

Immediately she sagged down on the seat in relief as her legs gave out on her. A clear warmth surrounded now as the car heated up inside.

“He doesn’t know you came here, does he ?!! He didn’t send you ?!!” She asked again.

A complete silence surronded for a while, but she finally got the answer.

“No.” The man said.

Naira felt a deep rush of warmth hit her eyes. A hot lone tear escaped her left eye and travelled down her cool cheeks.

He abandoned her. Gave up on her. He gave her a look filled with such blistering ice that Naira felt like looking at her own father, that scared the day lights out of her.

Half an hour later,the car stopped at her house. Naira got out. She hesitated and bent down to the car window.

“What is your name ?!!” She asked the man behind the wheel.

“Swayam.” He replied.

Naira smiled a little.

“Thank you,Swayam, very much.” She said very softly.

“I’m not going to say anything about this, you know.” She reassured him, understanding already that Swayam went against his boss’s order. If she said anything about it, he for sure would lose his job.

A thankful look came into Swayam’s eyes.

He turned to the front and started the car. A second later it zapped away on the road and disappeared into the night.

Precap : She calls him….The frustration and disappointment.
The gajar ka halwa and the wait !!
Their fight !!