Entwined - A RuNak SS

Part 3

"Stop wriggling"

The words cascaded over her befuddled brain, and instead of feeling alarmed, she felt a wave of warmth wash over her.

Before she could make sense of her surroundings, she felt the steady rhythmic beating of his heart and for some stupid reason, it calmed her.

As her senses slowly returned, she became acutely aware of his strong arms cradling her, keeping her secure against him as he walked. A quick sideways glance told her she was being carried to the bed, "let me go" she feebly argued.

He chuckled in response, "not a chance" he muttered, his voice a gentle murmur as he looked down at her, his gaze momentarily softening with concern that she couldn't quite comprehend.

Even in her lightheaded state, her mind threw up all the insults, all the disdain all the hurtful words thrown at her.

Suddenly overcome with the need to put some space between them, she tried to inch away in his arms.

That halted him in his tracks.

"I'm only trying to help you, Jhanak"

The softness in his tone made her look at him again, and she bit back on the words she was about to spit out in defence "Nahin Chahiye Aapka help".

Neither of them said anything and the only sound in the room was the sound of the curtains ruffling as he let her down on the bed carefully, taking extra care that it wouldn't hurt her.

She made the mistake of looking into his eyes then and found that there were pools of concern and something else she dared not name in his brown orbs

And that confused the hell out of her.

He had made his disdain and hatred abundantly clear so what was all this concern.

Feeling the need to take some control back and to salvage her quickly disappearing sanity, she wriggled a bit farther away, "I don't need your pity, sir ji. You should leave now" she bit out gingerly, closing her eyes tightly shut, hoping that the only defence she knew would save her from any future troubles.

"This isn't pity and I'm not leaving you like this" 

Her eyes flew open at that, and though there was a wave of slight happiness that spread across her chest, she clamped down on that very quickly.

Don't be stupid she scolded herself.

Tightening her jaw, she fixed her gaze on him, "then what is it, sir ji?!

She didn't wait for an answer, "oh right, you're worried I would frame you for hurting me. You're worried I'd slam a case on you by staging this so that I can extort money out of you."

Ouch.Ouch.Ouch

Those words hurt Anirudh more than he had cared to admit.

Because he knew he probably deserved this.

Probably?!

Ok fine, he completely deserved this. And no matter what he said, he knew he couldn't make amends with just words.

But he could at least start there.

Sighing, he straightened up, "I'm sorry you think that way, Jhanak" he said earnestly, making sure that he selected his words carefully, "but I promise you, I don't think you would ever do something like this" he completed, looking into her eyes, hoping that if she didn't believe the words out of his mouth, she would at least believe the truth in his eyes.

She looked at him as if considering the weight in his words very carefully. He waited for her to say something. She didn't, she just looked away.

"You fell unconscious. I'm going to go call the doctor. You stay here, ok?" He said, and with one last look at her, her turned to go to his room - in his hurry he had left his phone on his bed.

Jhanak chuckled humorlessly, "surely a maid does not need such attention from her master"

Ok this was stopping right now.

He turned around and retracted his steps back to her. He knew that she was aware of his proximity to her, but was resolutely looking away.

He would have never done this 2 days ago. He still didn't know why he was doing this, but he bent down slightly so that he was eye level with her and extended his hand to her face.

The thought that he was overstepping boundaries stopped him, and his hand froze.

Was this too much?

The dejection on Jhanak's face threw any doubts and questions out of the window.

It was not just important, but essential for Jhanak to stop thinking of herself as a maid and to start believing that she deserved better things.

And it had to start right now.

Emboldened by that resolve, he hooked a long finger under her chin and turned her face to meet his - her eyes went round and he knew that he had her entire attention, "listen to me very carefully, Jhanak" he said slowly, emphasising on each word to convey that he truly believed it, "you.are.not.a.maid - you deserve much better"

He hoped she caught on to the silent promise of the words he had chosen to leave unsaid as he withdrew his finger from her chin.  She looked like she wanted to argue, but she only just slightly nodded.

The lone tear that slipped out of her eyes told him that no matter how much she wanted to fight him, somewhere deep down, a tiny part of her wanted to believe in what he had just said.

And that was enough.

For now.

******* To be continued *********