* Just Enjoy *

N A N D I N I

The round bed was too small but I could hardly decipher the running thoughts in his mind as he was sprawled on that bed with his shirt gone and only a silken cover barely hiding half of his body. Manik Malhotra is a treat to watch. Anytime and every time. He was lying on the bed on support of his elbows and every time the superstar's eyes met this fangirl's, his gaze stayed a little longer than ideally it should.

I tried. I tried. And, I tried but I couldn't take my eyes off him and his godly body features. I squeezed the sides of my dress a little tighter as I saw the clouded lust in his eyes. Hell, I was already fucked to heaven with his inexplicable libido as if through my eyes he wanted to get into my bones. He was into drugs and I was into him so maybe, that's why I was so addicted to him - ruining me. His heart was the Devil's playground and I knew every girl who played here must have got infected like me.

Roll Sound

My eyes blinked in surprise as I realised my surroundings and took a step back when one of the crew members told me I was coming in the frame. My heart fluttered, cheeks were still red and heart on fire as I was almost daydreaming about Manik and his naked upper body and all the things that made me feel differently. My eyes clumsily moved to him but this time, the spark faded as my blurred vision cleared and I noticed the actress lying underneath him when he was still on the support of his elbows on her.

Rolling.

Camera.

And,... action.

A romantic song played in the background as Manik looped his mouth in the crook of her neck; his eyes constantly on my uncomfortable ones. I knew it was his job to act yet yet it stung but his orbs throughout were on me too darkened with lust and authority even though his mouth was on somebody else's body.

"Err.. cut!" The director snapped quickly running to them when the two people holding lights and microphone near the bed took a step back.

"Um Sir, you're doing a fantastic job..as always. But you should just stare at Rhea mam's face when you're making love to her and mam, excellent job. Just keep your eyes closed the way you were doing. I want more oomph factor. Passion burning in between you two." Manik, for once even didn't look at the director as his eyes all along were on me. He had a body to worship but it seemed like the only thing he was worshipping was me in his wicked games.

The camera was back to rolling as the light turned into romantic dim concentrating on the bed and so the song was on again. Manik pinned his lips on her bare shoulder with his eyes full of explicitly unhidden lust for me. Deep down, I knew that girl Rhea was wearing clothes underneath but even the virtual portrayal of them under one linen with his touch growing deeper on her sickened me but Manik seemed to watch every change in me. Starting from the hurt in my eyes which turned to embarrassment and then helplessness and slowly fervent disgust.

"Cut it!" The director was up again from his chair and I moved my lips in a slang.

"Umm Sir..." the director weighed his words before offending the superstar who basically had the authority to ruin not only this project with a simple 'pack up' but also his career.

"It-it is really going very good. But,"

"Mhm hmm?" Manik sat up giving her a space to breath whose cheeks were already brick red. "Spot?"

A boy went running to him with water and another sprayed a little product to make his hair glossier. Manik fixed his hair as his spot held the mirror and the director was looking for a cue.

"Um Sir, I'll go with the background a little, once more. Jay and Kritika see each other after seven years..."

"Mhm hmm." Manik responded still looking into the mirror fixing this and that. Rhea, the actress had her makeup artist touching up her makeup.

"Kritika, she isn't living a very healthy life after a dead abusive husband and lots of loan sharks chasing her. As the time passes, Jay and Kritika help each with their problems and their love is slowly rekindled. So,..in this love making scene, I want there to be nothing but purity and the need for each other. I want Jay to show Kritika how much he had missed her all these years and that he plans to never let her go this time." The director urged wishing Manik heard him this time when he was busy drinking his protein shake.

"Are we clear with the scene, Sir?" He fretted.

"Yeah." Manik nodded. "I got this."

Rolling my eyes, I crossed arms across my chest planning to look the other way. My insides were on flames when the girl again positioned herself underneath him and he gave her a smile.

"And, one last thing Sir, the camera is positioned this side by the way." The director gave me a sour look and I immediately frowned.

Jus as Manik showed his thumbs up, it was action mode after the board clapped and the more frustrated I appeared. Rhea glided her fingers up his bicep and squeezed his shoulder faking a moan while the fans were blowing their hairs gently. His eyes were too passionately staring into hers and I wondered if he was capable of feeling such passion in real life too. Why did everything reel have to feel so goddamn real that sometimes we want to pull the actress's hairs out for stealing a scene with a star we can't watch sharing a bed or even a thought with.

But then it happened. Again.

Manik's eyes shot at me and my thinking process benumbed. All the rants going on in my heart got silent like the middle of the ocean. The way he was ogling me especially when that close to another woman, I don't know, was loud, hungry, hot or maybe, his wicked kink but he was leaving me breathless without even touching a part of me. His lips on her cheeks circled and the walls of my heart tightened because his eyes expressed that it was me who he was touching.

"Tsk. Cut it." The lights were on and director rose from his chair.

Sighing loudly, I murmured phrases stomping my way out of the floor. I was done with this drama. Was it so bad that I wanted the shoot to get over as soon as possible and the director to not snap a 'cut it' every time? Repeating the same torture was too much for my heart and so I decided to get away. I was not stopping him from finishing his scene but I couldn't watch him finish that. Period. Call it jealousy? There, call it.

Before I realised where I was loitering being mindless, I was already standing in Manik's luxurious vanity. Then and there, I wanted to step down but the decoration was so exotically done that I wanted to spend a minute, looking. It was too huge to be someone's vanity but how does one expect this industry's one of the biggest superstars to be average. Every wall hung huge photo frames and sketches of Manik from his different movies and his designed clothes were racked in a clothes hanger trolley. Funnily, the entire air inside smelt like him.

This was his world, I knew it was. You can take life out of Manik Malhotra but not the actor in him. The vanity table with a huge mirror had bulbs on its sides and under the yellowish shimmer, everything looked so royal. My thumb played with the brushes scattered on the table with little powdery makeup on them and a faint smile took over my lips.

'You're a beast, Manik Malhotra. A sexy one though.' Giggling to myself, I looked at the mirror.

The beat of my heart trembled as my reflection got coupled by another taller, godly one belonging to Manik Malhotra himself. He was wearing a plain yellow shirt with no buttons done probably because he was too drained and when I looked at our reflections together, side by side, I smiled because our reflections looked good together.

"Tell me about it." He smirked and oh, it was too sexy to think straight.

I turned around before he derailed my thoughts again, "Before you accuse me, I haven't stolen or touched anything in here." I lifted hands in defence but the gap between us shortly started fading as he neared cornering me to the mirror.

"Yeah?" He took another step closer and my back was pinned to the glass on the mirror.

"What you-you" It wasn't the first time he was standing that close to me but it surely felt like one.

"You can touch anything here." He took both of my hands and placed on his hard rock abs. "Like I said, you can touch anything here." The way he stressed upon 'anything' was soft, slow and husky and so Manikish.

He leaned over and my own clothes were too hot and too clammy on my body, an offending obtrusion when all I wanted against my skin was him. His breaths falling on my forehead were too lethal and the filthy sexual tension in between us started to intensify.

"God, I was waiting for this since the moment you walked in the studio." Listening to him undressing his lust for me was like a slow poison to my brain. He could hear the pounding of my small, bunny-like heart and was drawn like a moth to a flame, like a heroin addict to his needle.

"Your lips are trembling." His thumb caressed my lower lip. Manik was galvanized by a need, an eternal, insatiable need to consume my heart, my soul, my body.

His lips brushed against my ear and shiver ran down my spine. My breaths started becoming irregular as in a very tantalising manner, he fanned the crook of my neck with his mouth before he nibbled like it was his religion.

"Anybody could," I gulped breathlessly as he nibbled and savoured my skin like he was tasting the best wine ever. "walk right in, you know."

"I don't care. Not now, at least." He had no intention of stopping.

Manik saw too much, did too much. He was a hunter, taking everything that's precious and tainting white with black or with red of the fiery passion. Tainting me red was like his favourite part of our story and he knew he did it so brutally well.

"I wanted my lips on yours every time I saw you standing few hands away back there." he whispered with his sugary breath blowing on my pink lips.

Manik only wanted his lips on mine, my sweet breath mixed with his minty one, tongues dancing, skin sticking together. It seemed he wanted me so badly like I was the reason he stopped thinking about everything that had plagued him before I came into his life, lighting it up. He leaned over to crash his lips onto mine but my fingers pressed against his soft lips, stopping him.

"You have her fragrance on you." It seemed like each word I spoke drove him insane.

A gasp fell out of my lips as he pinned me more into the glass grinding his hips on mine and hands on either sides. He had a dark look in his eyes as he bit his bottom lip and eyed me up and down before his lips dropped dangerously low until they grazed my ear with a seductive whisper that wanted me to hide in him.

"Erase her existence from my body. Make me smell like Nandini Murthy." My eyes were shut as he was beginning to slide his hand under my dress to grab my thigh. Every second, his breath was on my lips and I knew he liked it when I was starting to wrap my hands around his neck.

Like every movie comes to an end, someone had to knock the door and we half-heartedly parted even though I wanted to drop on the floor at the lack of oxygen. I still was not over this proximity and now that my cheeks were burning and his lingering touch on my thigh still felt crisp, I didn't know what to think or say or do.

A spot girl ducked her head inside, "Sir, your shot is ready."

❃

This project being Grey Petal's home production was a plus for me because I happened to know many of the people on the set and so watching the shoot was no biggie. The shoot was over and I was talking to few important people associated with the movie about next day's budget since I was the marketing head. Technicians were wrapping up their goods and the actors were in their respective vanities.

My phone vibrated in my hand and I knew it was a text from Aaliya asking when will I return. But it was not. It was the superstar himself. In the text, there was only one exclamation sign '!' typed but my mind traveled thousand meters away from the conversation with the man. Excusing myself, I, quickly, typed two dots '..' and just as the reply came in a matter of few impatient minutes, my mind was completely blown.

Manik : meet me at Grey Petals in 10.

The studio was almost adjacent to his office but because of the shoot, it probably was empty and looking at the time now, no one would be diligently working there this late. So I did what my brain told me.

Nandini : seems like u r very tired so u dont see the time rn :/

Tapping phone on my chin, I waited impatiently for it to chime flashing his name.

Manik : Is that a no, sugar?

Sugar. It made me bite the inner walls of my cheek without knowing it's hurting.

I typed and deleted each alphabet I wrote every time trying not to offend him.

Nandini : All I'm saying is, my boss should be happy with his dedicated-to-work employee who's been working till this late and now she wants to go home and get into bed.

Nandini : her own bed.

Manik : This late the employee should be taking care of her boss at which she's failing horribly. So no, boss is not happy.

Nandini : my boss is someone difficult to be pleased.

Manik : Oh only if you knew the ways, sugar.

Manik : Your boss is pleased very easily.

Manik : So meet me. You've got 6 mins left.

Nandini : oh we r not. It's late.

Manik : Are you rejecting me, Ms.Murthy?

My heart thumped.

Nandini : Reverse psychology, I see.

Five minutes passed and there was no reply and suddenly as the screen lit up so did my world.

Manik : I'll cross you exactly in 30 secs and you've got these 30 secs to make up your mind. Either be a good girl and walk straight to the office without acting up or stand there amidst all and watch me grab your chin and kiss your brains out till you collapse on the floor forgetting what oxygen feels like.

My jaw dropped. Maybe it was because he wrote his entire daddy kink to me that was making it so hot this time.

Nandini : oh no u won't definitely do that. U don't want to make it to the headlines tomorrow.

Manik : Allow me to shock you, Murthy. ;)

Lifting my head up, I noticed Abhimanyu calling the chauffeur to get the car near the exit which also meant Manik would follow him in no time. Part of me wanted to see how he fulfils his threat but the rational part asked me to not give into the hands of those insane hormones. Thus I left even before Manik's shadow could touch the floor.

❃

I was standing outside the gate of the office premises lying to the security guard that I needed to take one important file home. He told me that the biometric device wasn't functioning so instead I needed to put my signature on the register. My heartbeats quickened thinking how he verbally managed to trick me here, alone

The entire building was dark and I carried on walking trying not to stumble across anything. Using my hands to measure the distance of walls and cubicles, I went deeper.

His demands welcomed me in the conviction, like he was taking me in and rescuing from myself. He was holding me hostage for him freeing me from thousand other absurd struggles of the world. His fire extinguished what was ablaze and ignited the ashes in an eternal flame. I daydreamed of him with my ear pressed against his chest listening to his irregular beats and the smile on my face crossed seas and mountains.

In a rush, I felt like someone pass my side but as I called out, there came no reply. Perhaps it was the darkness and my mind not getting along that well. Pushing the door to his cabin open, I switched the yellow chandelier on and the surroundings against started smelling like him. It was funny that few months back how I dreaded entering this room but looking at how things have changed now flutters my heart. Manik probably hadn't left the studio because I still could see from the window that the hustle and bustle was still there while my sharp fingernails drummed on the glass.

'Meet me in ten' I mimicked him giggling to myself.

Leaning over the table, I was doing nothing particular other than scribbling a few lines on the notepad when serendipitously, I felt a hand move around my waist from the behind and someone's weight on my back. Turning my face sideways, I noticed Manik standing close with his mouth brushing against my shoulder.

"You're not quite the punctual type, are you?" I asked staying locked that way.

"Sorry, I was caught up." The vibration of his words landed on my lips since he was speaking so very closely.

Rotating slowly, I had my both hands on his chest while his were on the lower line of my waist. He had this tender mixed with cocky look on his face that was forcing me to dive into this sea of danger when specifically I don't know how to swim out of it.

"So, is this a rendezvous?" I asked keeping my tone alluring.

He tucked few strands behind my ear, "Call it what you want."

He leaned over to press his lips but I moved back, "Why do you want me? Is it because I'm the only person who doesn't fall at your feet begging for sex?"

His hand moved through my open hair and a gasp fell out of my lips as he grabbed a handful pulling my face closer, "Because ever since I kissed you, you always danced on my tongue like the darkest thought I ever had." His breath was shallow as those dark hazel eyes constantly flickered between my eyes and trembling lips.

"So I am just an addiction then?" I blocked his chest once more as he tried killing the distance.

He inhaled in displeasure. "Why are you wasting time talking?" His thumb brushed over my collarbone in circles trying to seduce me in any manner he could.

"That doesn't answer my question." I repeated.

"You know, you're cute when you're bossy and by cute, I don't mean to pull your chubby cheeks. Instead, I want to lay you on this desk and kiss you till the only name you remember is Manik." I inhaled a jagged breath as he kept running fingers throughout the length of my hairs and the thumb of his other hand massaging my shoulder.

Seeing me raise an eyebrow determined, he sighed rolling his eyes. "Fine. I want you and I can't be gentle about it. The desire to have you is so much that it..it has started to consume me. I need to kiss you so badly. One of those kisses where I'm pressing you against myself as much as I can and my hands are in your hair and moving down your back, clutching to you in any way I can." He cupped my face bringing his lips closer and all my eyes were looking at was his hungry lips. "I want to kiss you as deep as possible and thinking to myself you're mine. Mine. Mine. Mine." His grip around my face hardened and my heart started blasting inside.

"What if I don't want to kiss you?" I let out a whimper as his cold fingers touched the side of my thigh and I wanted more.

"Life is too short to pretend like we don't want this." His breath started having dense circles on my wild hormones.

"Why are you wasting time talking?" I asked crying a moan.

"I know..." Smiling, he pulled my waste crashing his lips onto mine and I bunched the back of his collar not caring if my nails made marks on his nape.

I squeaked into his mouth as he picked me up placing on his desk with our lips still glued. It was no passionate kiss. It was purely out of hunger and nothing about it was soft. Our lips were moving too fast to be in sync as if time was limited in our hands and the appetite, giant. Parts of me knew he didn't love me yet but that didn't make him any less irresistible to the woman in me. As we continued kissing, the world was fading away  and I realised he was standing in between my legs brushing his fingers on my bare thighs.

"You drive me so wild.." he moaned into my mouth pulling me closer and closer.

His mouth moved to my neck and there he was sucking the sweet spot that could drive any woman insane. It was like I was under his spell and the magic was dark and deep. Parting our mouths, panting, he took a moment to look at my face.

Irritated at the pause, I hissed. "What?"

He brought his eyes on top of mine and I could never deny such intensity, "I want you."

Impatient, I grabbed his collar pulling him over me and that pretty much served as his answer. His hands carelessly threw the articles and lamp from the table not separating our lips and I was getting irked at his lack of concentration. His hand straight went to the zip of my dress and within no time, the cold air was tickling my bare back as he pulled my dress down till my bust exposing me in my pink bra.

He took a moment to see the hot mess I was, "You're beautiful."

My cheeks turned crimson and head started spinning when the back of his fingers reached my bare back drawing aimless lines.

"You called me beautiful for the first time." I whispered and he brushed his nose against mine.

"I call you that every time; only you don't hear it." I closed my eyes as his hands pulled my dress further down till my upper abdomen and thumbs caressed underneath the line of my bra as he laid me on his desk.

My shaky fingers started undoing his buttons and he watched me like he loved the tense hunger on me. Too naive yet not that saintly. When my fingers became all clumsy, he held my fingers steadying them doing it under his guidance.

"I have always wanted to see what lies underneath this dress." He pecked me bringing stars to my vision.

His shirt was soon tossed on the floor and I had the opportunity to officially stare at those muscles and broad chest which were calming my nerves. This doesn't happen to a fangirl, does it? His fragrance was consuming me and each touch taking me to the moon. My hands roamed on his body with full entitlement whilst Manik dipped his mouth in the crook of my neck and the way he was sucking on there, I knew I'd be having too many purple marks to cover the morning after. My fingers tugged his hairs from roots as his hand fondled my naked waist. The air was filled with moans and groans and our bond was glowing in the dark like that of a firefly. 

I was too sharp to sense the change in his movements so my brows creased when I heard his phone suddenly buzzing to life.

"I'm gonna ignore it." He came back to my lips but the continuous ringing was not quite soothing.

It rang again. And again. And, then again.

Hissing, he pulled himself away bringing it out of his pocket and closed his eyes. "I'm sorry I just need to take this. Work call." He was breathing heavily, standing.

"Are you joking right now?" My flushed face with disbelief was noticed by him.

His face fell before he quickly came over to peck me real quick, "2 minutes. I promise."

Groaning, I tossed a blank sheet his way but he was already stood facing the door, talking on his phone.

Five minutes later when he was finally done, he turned around and much to his surprise I was fully dressed. Flashing him a smile like nothing happened before, I tried walking out of the door until he blocked my way.

"Wait-" he was utterly confounded.

"Ahh your shirt is there by the way." I pointed back at his swivel chair.

Just as I stepped aside to leave, he moved briskly obstructing. "Wait, why are you leaving? We were just getting-"

"Started?" I finished on his behalf. "Well Boss, you've had your chances and now I'm off. Bye." Dancing my fingers, I waved him plastering a super fake grin.

Before he could react hastily, I dashed out of the door, sprinting when he was yelling behind ordering me to stop. He was probably taking time to wear his shirt but it was clear he'd hunt me down. It was fun having Manik Malhotra chase you for his needs when he could have fifty other girls to wrap around his fingers in the most literal sense.

"I can't believe you can be this psycho." He snarled taking long steps towards me. Laughing high-pitched, I began running.

"I don't believe you're seriously cockblocking me!" He tapped his foot and I pressed the button of the elevator which exclusively was of boss's.

The door opened with a chime and I thanked my stars for helping me run away before Manik could catch. Repeatedly, I pressed the button inside to force the door close but unalarmed, I screeched as a sports shoe stepped in and flinching, my back touched the metal behind.

"Your share to have fun is up, Sugar." He walked in and my eyes averted to the door shutting behind him.

"Calling me Sugar makes you sound like you are my sugar daddy or something." He stifled a laugh and my senses focused on one arm that he kept beside my head and the other on my waist.

"Mm I like the sound of that." My skin shivered as he squeezed my waist.

"What's playing in that mind, huh?" I asked pressing his forearm.

"Like to know?" His hand was pressed to side of my cheek as he rubbed his nose on the other.

I was selfish wanting to bask in his darkness because the way he was seeing me made me feel like a fiction. His touch was enough to deafen the negativities of the world. His feel was enough for me to be happy. He was enough for me to grow as a person, to smile, to cry, to laugh, to run, to dance, to care, to be strong, to live. He was enough. A thousand times. His lips are like my heroin and those eyes, pure art.

As the door opened with a chime, a mischief occurred. Manik Malhotra, you kept me bent barely dressed on your desk to get the call and now you're not getting it so easily.

Playfully pushing him aside, I jogged out of the dense air which was suddenly to thick to cut in. He had all his buttons pressed but still he was not giving up chasing me. Funny, with us it's always chasing each other around.

Using no mind, I ran and ran finding an opportunity to hide myself somewhere he won't be able to find me. Rooms were locked in this floor except one entering which, I fell on the floor immediately crying for my dear life. My shoe was badly tangled in the wires and looking around in the dim lighting, I perceived it was the CCTV room which was why there were switched off computers and wires everywhere.

Getting up, I wiped the dusts from my hands but Manik's voice nearby didn't let me wrap up the funny business.

"Where the hell are you?" He ducked his head inside while I hid behind a computer desk rubbing my forehead which I just knocked.

"Are you even here?" He sounded confused as I pressed palm against my lips trying hard not to burst chortling. "Did she just vanish?"

Then he was gone and it was time for me to cut the crap because if he seriously left, he most definitely was never going to talk to me again. Things couldn't be seen clearly in that mess of wires so since I wanted to leave, my leg obviously had to get entangled in the jumble.

Groaning, I used my hands to free the clutter when unexpectedly his hands clutched my waist spinning me up in the air in circles. Throwing my head back, the sound of my laughter filled the quiet room but his solid arms refused to put me down.

"Stop..stop." It was difficult speaking in between that crazy laughter. "Stop my head is spinning."

Manik finally put me on the floor with his lips grazing my nape. His shallow hot breathing scissored my skin with that fiery touch as he rubbed my shoulder shoving my hair aside.

Nervously, I giggled. "What's gotten into you today?"

My nose drew in a sharp puff as his fingers worked on my zip pulling it down. Manik Malhotra always took what he wanted.

"I thought I made you angry this time." I whispered liking whatever he was doing.

Closing my eyes, I tried gathering words. "Manik-I..this place,"

"Shh" he kissed my shoulder ravenously and my eyes closed counting the beat of my heart as I stood holding the edge of the table for support.

Maybe it was the dark unknown atmosphere but my brain just wouldn't let me settle and feel the fire between us. Not knowing how else to react I decided to let him take the charge and do to me whatever he wanted.

My throat started drying up and body too sweaty so I chose to open my eyes. Looking around when he was still pleasuring, my eyes took a tad bit time to settle in the dark but there was this one particular thing that pricked my eyes like thousands of thorns when my eyes fell on the little CCTV screen stuck at the corner of the wall above and amongst the several tiny boxes in the screen, I could find Manik loitering in the corridor looking for me in one. My world came crashing.

If Manik was there on another floor then who was it still unzipping me?

My mouth dried and although I should have acted bravely doing all those to him like done in movies but this is real life and I am no hero. I was just a girl who was too scared at the moment to even find out. I was scared of the consequences.

Turning my face with tears gushing out, I saw that someone who was impossibly close to me guarded by a hood. Gathering as much force I could when whole of my body was quivering petrified, I pushed him away placing hand on my chest so my dress won't slip away.

"Who are you?" Grasping whatever was near my hand as I advanced to hit him, he threw a heavy file to my face and I was down on the floor.

Like a coward, I could only see him run away not turning back even for once and gagging, I clutched knees closer to my chest shivering for my life. How could things turn this way? Who was he? Why was he doing that to me?

My mind blasted me to get the fuck out of there the soonest I could but with a nonreactive body like that it was not easy to move an inch. With thousands of fears crossing my mind, I was only crying and crying biting my hand but I knew I had to get my shit together. What if he comes back again?

'No I-I can't be here.' Talking to myself and repeating stuffs in my head madr this close to being lunatic.

Clutching my elbows tight, pricking nails into skin, I walked out of there sweating, shivering and stumbling even on plain floor. My feet stopped as I leaned against a wall holding my head thinking to myself what could have happened had I not seen the footage at the right time. It felt like my heart stopped pumping blood.

'But he.. he touched me...' I cried to myself looking at my arms searching if his filthy marks were still there.

"Murthy?" Manik's voice startled and I began running in that direction wiping my face.

He appeared quite tired so when he saw me, he could only shake his head in disbelief.

"What now? Saw a zombie in the dark or you're done running for the night?" He snickered but I just stood there quietly, cautiously looking around.

It would have been better had I told him but how could I place the words if my own brain was too clumsy. Breathing hard, I made sure to stand by his side so no one could touch me again and he creased his eyebrows playfully.

"Can you-" I gulped trying my best to look brave when all I wanted in actuality was to crash on the floor, bawling my eyes out. "Can you drive me to Aaliya's? Please?"

He wanted to pass a narcissistic comment but restrained himself. "..I can."

❃

We were silent in his car and being terrified, I was scared to even look into the road apprehending flashes of that black hooded man everywhere. Time and again he looked towards me dying to throw a sarcastic remark but I was lost in myself.

"Wonderful!" Alarmed, I watched him. "I mean, seriously? You were the one who walked out on me when I was this close to giving us one hell of a night and now you're the one who's ignoring me? Girls can be full of shit sometimes." He shook his head rotating the steering wheel.

Sniffing, I looked around into the dark streets and quickly closed my eyes as I still was feeling that asshole's lips on my nape and fingers on my shoulder. Going home, I wanted to sit under the shower till I run out of water but this wasn't how it was supposed to be. Manik and I took a step ahead today and I was to celebrate this.

"You still have your zip open." With one hand, he tried to help me but frantically I swatted it away.

"Don't-don't touch me." I scooted closer to the window coiling my body.

"Relax!" He mouthed nonchalantly. "I was trying to help." Since I gave no answer, rolling his eyes he continued staring into the road ahead.

No matter how much I tried, I couldn't stop letting those tears roll down my cheeks. I felt so powerless. So helpless. So unsafe. Just as the car abruptly came to a halt, my eyes broadened and thoughts attacked my brain when I gazed his way clutching cloth on my chest.

"There's something wrong with you." He uttered observing my physical expression.

"J-just keep driving." I looked away with my eyeballs constantly moving.

"You don't tell me what to do." Grabbing my chin little harshly, he spun my face his way and I couldn't deny that gaze. "What's wrong?"

I bit my bottom lip closing my eyes, "..there.. I-I was.." I bursted into tears leaning my head down bunching the dress on my knees. I needed to get it out of my system because my whole body was aching.

Manik didn't hold me close hiding my face in his chest or ask me to stop crying but he kept staring at my state contemplating things in his head.

"Someone...someone in that room in a.." I sniffed and tears gushed. "He..he... my.." I tried pulling the straps of my dress more on my shoulders fearing they'd slip though there was nothing wrong with my dress. He watched everything in silence.

He breathed. "Touched you?"

Those two words sounded like calm before the storm. Those tender eyes were no more soft. They had wrath written in capital.

With no guts to answer to that, I gulped looking away and he offered me a bottle of water. "Why didn't you tell me then and there?"

Fiddling with the bottle, I muttered weakly. "I was scared."

"Now he will be." Patting my head once, he pushed the gear to the topmost refusing my every plea to not take me back to that place.

"Manik please stop." I cried, begging.

"Don't be stupid. We can trace that bastard with the help of cameras there. You don't need to run away." His swatted my arm.

On his reddened face, his eyes were narrow, rigid, cold, hard pairing dangerously with that tightened jawline. His knuckles were already white on the steering and the way he was taking the turns felt like he had plans either to die or to murder. That particular look on his face, those veins popping out of his throat reminded me of an angel whose halo was on fire. The whites in his eyes turned a pure black and that lethal stare felt painful and piercing, as if his glare was tearing my heart apart with a blinding teal light. With one look, the verdict was told - he was going to set the world on fire.

Thunder roared in my heart as we were outside the gate which was locked by the guard who was not in sight. Blowing the horn only once, Manik ferociously hit the gate with his car making an earth crashing sound not to break the gate but to get the guard running to open it.

The guard didn't get to finish his salute as he drove insanely ignoring how I was pressing his forearm to calm him down. The area was huge and we needed to drive past two islands of fountains and statues to get to the main building.

"Manik stop. It's Manik-" He halted a car with blankness on his face and it was not because I was begging or pressing his arm. The redness was replaced by a pale unambiguity.

I didn't want to tear my eyes from him; scared of the outcome but something about the stillness on his face provoked me. Unbuckling, Manik stepped out gawking ahead and fighting with my fears as I too turned to that direction, I shrieked covering my mouth sinking back into the seat.

In no time, I came out standing beside Manik who was still looking ahead like all the stars in the sky died.

The whole of Grey Petals was on fire, burning before our eyes.