Oh no!
Okay, this time they weren't stuck in a lift but other than that, this situation was almost similar to the one in the morning.
The streetlights had gone out too, so it was pitch-black outside. The only light in the room was the red glow given off by the gas fire, thank god gas line was still working! And she was completely alone with Manik. It was exactly similar to the morning's situation. The only difference was that this time, she knew who he was.
Nandini swallowed hard as her eyes adjusted to the dark and she saw him moving towards her. That made her realize, that this situation was different in one more way...they were alone, together, in her flat, with her bedroom, only a feet away.
"I guess that wasn't one of your parents?" he asked dryly.
"Both my parents are dead" she responded quietly. Saying this still pained her. There were countless memories of her happy childhood when they both had been alive, especially memories of their Christmases and other festivals together were enough to make her sentimental. Her parents had taught her to celebrate all the festivals. They had played with colors on Holi, visited mosques on Id, burst crackers on Diwali, had fun at Baisakhi and decorated trees on Christmas.
But these memories were quickly overshadowed by the sad memories of her mother's death and then even bleaker years because of her father's marriage to Sakshi. After the arrival of Soha and Sakshi, nothing had ever remained the same.
Nandini blinked as she felt the hot sting of tears in her eyes.
It was shocking, and frustrating, because she didn't give into tears easily. Earlier, it hadn't been like that. But later, she had forced herself to become strong after she had come to know that such an emotion would be used as a strong weakness by Sakshi and Soha.
God, her condition was no different than Cinderella's, she realized with a sniff. Actually, it was. There was no Prince Charming in her story who would love her, cherish her and protect her. There wasn't any fairy godmother who would wave her magic wand and she would reach the castle where her prince lived.
"Nandini, are you crying?" Manik asked immediately as his hand reached out and touched the dampness on her cheek tenderly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry with my stupid question" he murmured softly. He sounded absolutely sincere.
"You didn't" she reassured him quickly. "It's just that, my...I mean, Christmases are like that, aren't they? Wonderful family time for some people, and, lonely for others? I bet you have a huge family back in-" she stopped. She didn't know where was his family right now. As far as Ella had told her, they had homes all over the world.
"India" Manik replied with a smile. "My entire family stays in India."
"Yeah, right, so, they must be waiting for you so that you all can celebrate New Year together."
She had made her voice light deliberately. First, she didn't wish to sound like a damsel in distress and second, because he had moved closer. Somehow, the awareness that had cracked between them in the kitchen had intensified a lot more than that. She didn't wish to give him a wrong expression by speaking in husky tones.
Her heart nearly stopped when she saw him grin. He still hadn't removed her hand from his cheek. "Yes, my family will be together. We have the habit of celebrating all the festivals together" he said affectionately. "But I doubt they will wait for me before starting the celebrations."
But Nandini was sure they would wait. Because all things kept aside, deep inside she knew that Manik Malhotra was a nice man. And with his charm, warmth and lively sense of humor, he must surely be popular in his family. What had Ella told her? That he had four younger sisters. She could only imagine what it must be like to have so many siblings. She had always wished for a sibling, either brother or sister. Then she wouldn't have felt so lonely after her father's death. At least there would have been a support system to save her from the horrible treatment of Sakshi and Soha.
She was really astounded at the twist of fate. She was honestly wondering what this wonderful man was doing here, with her, when there were so many people he could be with rather than...Oh! Of course. Here, he was stranded with her, the situation hadn't been in his control. He wasn't here because of his choice. It was just by chance.
Manik frowned as he sensed her slight withdrawal. Taking a step closer, his other hand moving up to touch her other cheek as well, he looked down at her intently.
She couldn't make herself look anywhere else. His brown eyes had, as if, imprisoned her, again. Breathing wasn't easy now.
"Nandini, don't run away" he said huskily.
She swallowed hard before moistening her suddenly dry lips. "Why would I run away?" she whispered.
"Because of this" he murmured, than his head lowered and his lips touched hers.
It felt as if they had never been apart. Nandini fitted perfectly with his hard body as he curved her against him. Slowly, her arms moved up to his shoulders and went around them as she responded back to his kiss with an intensity she didn't know she had.
His hands moved caressingly down her spine and above as he deepened the kiss. She felt vibrant, alive. Something she had felt before when her parents had been alive, but not in this way. This feeling was so much stronger and so beautiful. She felt completely attuned to him, feeling complete in herself.
"My beautiful, beautiful Nandini" Manik whispered as his lips followed her creamy throat, pulling her more tightly towards him.
She was drowning or maybe she had drowned already. She didn't know. Her legs went weak as his lips returned to hers. His lips skimmed along her ears, cheeks, eyelids, nose, forehead than back to her lips again. The sensuality- Nandini blinked, dazed, as the lights came back as suddenly as they had gone off. Brighter than before.
Her lips were still against Manik's. Except now they both had stopped kissing and were staring into each other's eyes. She flinched back with a jerk. What was she doing? She stared at him in horror. Accepting a lift from this man had been a mistake, even if the circumstances had forced her to do so. But allowing him to kiss her- and kissing him right back- was pure madness!
"Nandini" Manik murmured, his voice slightly gruff from the passionate kiss as he reached for her.
"No!" she flinched back again.
Manik looked at her quietly for a long moment. "What are you thinking?" he finally asked.
Oh he really didn't want to know what she was thinking! All she knew was that if she didn't move away from this man right now then they would end up on her bed.
Because, she acknowledged for a millionth time, he was so breathtakingly gorgeous. His hands could work magic and his strong shoulders could bear any burden. His gaze could imprison a girl forever and his lips were meant for sensual kissing. She wanted to-
Stop it, you fool! She reprimanded herself. It was one thing knowing how attracted she was to him, but it was entirely something else to act upon that attraction! She took another step back, deliberately ignoring the rise of disappointment in world's most beautiful brown eyes.
"I'm cold and hungry" she said stiffly, knowing she was lying about being cold- she was so hot that she felt as if she was about to melt. "And I'm sure you must be too. I'll go and change and till then-"
"I'll cook dinner" Manik completed her statement ruefully as he pushed his hair from his forehead. She remembered with red cheeks that she was responsible for getting it in front when her hands had been in his hair.
She sighed in relief when he stepped back, grateful that he wasn't going to point out that they had been in each other's arms for the second time in less than twelve hours. Also, he wasn't pursuing the subject of the kiss, or rather kisses they had shared right now. "That's good" she murmured and turned to leave.
"Nandini" he called softly.
Why was it that whenever he spoke her name, her heart refused to function at a normal pace? Was he going to talk about the kiss now? Tensed. She turned.
"I realize this is probably a stupid question-" Manik said with a sheepish grin, " but do you have a jumper that might fit me?"
Actually, she did. One of her father's jumpers. Sakshi had removed all the things belonging to her parents. She had sold half of them and had donated the other half to the charity. Fortunately, she had been too busy in her kitty parties and get togethers to pay attention to these matters. So, she had been able to rescue some of her parents' stuff-some of their souvenirs like her father's favorite coat, favorite pen, book, first frock he had gifted her mom, their wedding album, family albums and several other belongings.
It had been difficult to hide those things with Soha breathing down her neck but she had somehow managed to do so. While leaving for New York, it had been one of the riskiest tasks to pack those precious things since Soha had kicked her out of her own room. She had even banned her from entering in it. In fact, she kept the room locked whenever she went out. Luckily, she had never been able to find out the stuff she had hidden beneath the floorboards. Nandini had managed to get her hand on that stuff by sneaking in the room through a window when both Sakshi and Soha had gone out in one of their social events.
At times, she wore her father's jumper whenever she felt lonely. Somehow, it made her feel closer to him. The jumper was too huge for her. It reached to her knees and she had to turn the sleeves back several times in order to see her hands but she didn't care. She wore it and slept in it whenever she felt low, especially after a break up. The jumper would fit Manik perfectly.
She nodded. "I'll see."
But what she actually did, once she reached the privacy of her bedroom was sit down heavily on her bed and think of what had just happened between her and Manik. She liked him- a lot. And, somehow, despite her rudeness to him this morning and her rejection of his job offer, he seemed to be attracted to her too.
It wasn't right. Her love life may have been a disaster so far, but no matter how pathetic had been, she had never indulged in going nowhere physical relationships, which this one was undoubtedly going to be.
A few days from now Manik would return to his family in India, and she would be left alone to pick up the pieces of her broken heart. Sadder, and probably no wiser, either. Because she knew very well, that if she let her guard down, than she would fall in love with this man...completely and irrevocably.
The best she could do was to keep everything on a light footing. It was nothing else but circumstances that were pushing the two of them together and those circumstances- along with everything else!- would quickly pass. For Manik at least. Just keep remembering that, Nandini, she told herself firmly as she stood up to change her clothes.
"Here you go" she handed over the dark blue sweater as she entered the kitchen a couple of minutes later. She purposely didn't offer any explanation about what a man's jumper was doing at her home. They had already become far more familiar than a normal employer and employee, that too temporary, should be and she had no intention of increasing the familiarity any more.
"Thank you" he said stiffly. Apparently, he hadn't liked her lack of explanation. Well, too bad. She had no intention of telling this man anything more about herself.
And, it was better this way, she told herself firmly. The delicious aroma of the sauce he was cooking filled her nostrils. "Hmm...that smells wonderful" she said appreciatively.
"I hope you like it" was all he said.
Nandini felt a pang of regret as she heard the coolness in his voice. Quietly, she moved to set the table. She had wanted to put some distance between them and going by his behavior, she had succeeded. And really, it was better to leave it that way. But, it hurt. And she couldn't understand why. She had met this man thrice in the last twelve hours and they hadn't had any pleasant conversation as such. Then why, why was his frigidity hurting her? That too when she wanted it! Did she really want it?
But hadn't she already been through enough in the past? True, she had felt bad when every relationship she had had ended. But honestly, she hadn't been hurt. Maybe a bit in case of Harshad, but she was sure it would be nothing compared to the hurt she would experience if she did the stupidity of falling in love with Manik.
"I should have asked instead of assuming, right?" Manik asked a few minutes later as he watched her from across the table.
"About what?" Nandini asked with a frown as she pushed her food around on the plate without tasting it. She had seen that some frigidity had lessened from his voice.
Manik sighed and took a tip of his wine. "You're an exceptionally beautiful woman with a great sense of humor. You're twenty three, twenty-four years of age-?"
"Twenty seven" she corrected, tensed. Where was this conversation going?
"Really? You are twenty seven?" Manik was clearly surprised.
"Yes. So?" Nandini asked warily. Strange he had missed this piece of information while going through her employment file.
"You certainly don't look twenty seven" he murmured. "Anyways, it was arrogant and stupid of me to assume that you were single. You already have someone in your life, right?"
Nandini's stomach gave an uncomfortable lurch. Why was he asking her such a personal question? What did it imply?
Nothing, she answered her own question. It implied nothing.
"Don't bother" she said slowly. She had no intention of telling him anything about her disastrous love life. "This is good by the way" she pointed towards the pasta.
"Then why aren't you eating it?" Manik asked with a dark frown.
Yes, why wasn't she? Good question. Because she had lost her appetite the moment he had spoken to her coolly. Because though she knew very well that they were professionals and she shouldn't give a damn about what he thought of her at a personal level, yet, she wanted to know, and she didn't want him to think wrong of her either.
"You know Nandini, I'm actually curious." Manik said, the coolness was back, more than the last time. "Why did you leave the job of Malcolm Hawkins? I can understand if you say you wanted a change of environment after working in his company for three years, but then why would you choose to work in a position where the payment you receive is not even one-fourth of what you earned there?And since you absolutely refuse to talk about it" he continued before she could speak, "Does it mean you were asked to leave the job by the mutual consent of you both?"
Asked to leave? Malcolm had humiliated her in front of the entire staff before showing her the door. Mutual consent? She hadn't had been able to get in a word when Hawkins had been screaming the place down!
Her mouth tightened and her chin rose defensively. "I've no intention of answering that."
His eyes narrowed. "Why not?"
"Because it's none of your business!" she snapped. She took a breath. "Thank you for the dinner but I'm sorry. I really can't eat any more." Not that she had even tasted it! She stood up abruptly and turned to leave. Damn the table manners!
"I spoke to Hawkins" came the cool voice.
Her heart stopped beating. Slowly, she turned. Manik too had stood up.
"You spoke to..." she whispered.
"Hawkins" he coolly completed the sentence for her.
"When?" she couldn't find her breath.
"After you rejected my job offer. I wanted to know why you left, and why didn't you have any reference."
Her legs began to shake. "And what did he say?" she asked faintly.
This couldn't be true! This was just a nightmare! This wasn't really happening!
"Something about crossing the boundaries." His gaze sharpened. "What does it mean Nandini?"
Crossing the boundaries! Yeah, right. Except Malcolm hadn't told him who had crossed which boundaries! Well, if he hadn't told, then she wouldn't tell either. Let Manik think the worst of her. She wasn't going to change her decision.
Nandini glared at him. "You had no right to speak to him!" she said angrily.
"As your present employer, I had every right to clear my doubts about my employee." Manik said arrogantly.
He looked every bit the formidable businessman who was absolutely sure of himself. This face was what he showed to the outer world. Tenderness didn't work when you had to make your mark out there. And the arrogance that came with success, well, what could she say...even that suited him. The hard face was decisive and nobody in their right mind could say no to him. She had, because she was an idiot!
But Malcolm hadn't told him anything. The man was clever, she thought angrily. He had managed to show her as the guilty one by giving an impression that she had made moves on her boss because she had designs on him and at the same time kept himself out of the picture when in reality, the entire movie revolved around him. Still, she couldn't take the risk of telling the truth to Manik. She knew she could trust him. But she couldn't trust her luck. If things came out in the open, the consequences wouldn't be good.
"I don't wish to talk about this" she said firmly and without waiting for a reply picked up her wineglass and went in the sitting room. She switched on the television and swore. Of course, the snowstorm had cut the signal. That left her with no choice but to connect it with the DVD and watch a movie.
She sensed Manik the moment he walked into the room but avoided looking up as she chose a movie from her collection. Luckily, she had a really good collection. Both she and her father had been movie buffs. Her father had a rare collection of all Hollywood and Bollywood movies from the fifties. Whenever a new movie released, no matter how good or bad it was, her father always managed to get the tickets of first day, first show. Those would be their 'Father-Daughter Movie Dates'...one of the most beautiful times of her life. But, after her stepmother and stepsister had arrived, those dates had, well...stopped. They had tried taking Soha with them once or twice but she had created so much ruckus that they had given up. And after that, Sakshi had always managed to find an excuse to keep her father engaged in some or the other way. She still remembered vividly, their last date had been on her 16th birthday. Her father had especially picked her up during the school hours and they had spent the entire day together watching movie, shopping, visiting fair and playing hoopla etc.
She had, and still did, cherished every moment of that day because by then, spending time with her father had become a rare luxury and somehow she had known that there wouldn't be other such date. Her sixteenth birthday's date would be their last one. And she had been right. Shortly after that her father had become ill and she had watched him deteriorating right in front of her eyes during the next two years.
She had nearly had a nervous breakdown when Sakshi had all but trashed her father's movies and songs collection. If she would have donated it, than it wouldn't have felt so bad. But throwing it away as if it was nothing but garbage, that had been unforgivable.
Finally, she chose to watch 'Miracle on 34th Street', a Christmas movie which was her father's favorite. She had bought the CD of this movie the moment she had started earning for herself.
Nandini deliberately kept her gaze averted as she returned to the couch though she knew Manik had already sat on one end. The movie proved to be a good conversation killer as for the next two hours they both watched the film, or pretended to do so. Because the truth was that her mind wasn't on the film at all. All she could think about was that Manik was going to sleep on this couch and if the situation of the storm improved by tomorrow morning, than he would leave and be out of her life... forever.