A ping from my phone brought me back from my thoughts.

Bhaiya: Dadi wants you and Kartavya to come home for dinner this Wednesday.

Me: Why?

Bhaiya: What do you mean why gudiya? We want you to have dinner with us. And It's been so many days since we saw you and Kartavya didn't have lunch with us the last time either when he came home.

Me: Acha fine we will be there at 6 in the evening. Bye, good night.

I went into the bathroom to do my night routine and decided to tell him about the dinner later. I was wearing white silk pajama shorts and a matching button-down shirt. I walked out and saw him sitting on the bed reading a book. When he saw me walking out he stopped reading and looked at me with a strange expression on his face, soon the expression turned into desire.

There was a fire in his eyes that was making me weak in the knees. His expression was making my body feel things I never felt before, there was this fluttering in my stomach as if thousands of butterflies were taking flight in my lower abdomen. It was so strong I didn't know how to control or stop it.

Releasing a breath I moved towards the bed and tried real hard not to concentrate on his stare. I sat on the bed and started playing with my fingers.

"Aap mujhe aise kyu dekh rahe hain?" I asked, trying not to meet his eyes.

(Why are you looking at me like that?)

"Like what? Like I want to kiss you senselessly or like I want to devour you raw." His voice was deep. My breathing turned irregular hearing the desire in his voice. An audible gasp left my mouth when he came so close to me that I could feel his breath on the side of my face. I turned to look at his face and noticed his eyes turned almost black with how they darkened.

"What?" I breathed, it felt like I have a whole fucking zoo in my stomach.

"You have no idea what this little pajamas of yours is doing to me." He whispered in my ears his lips brushing against my ear sent shivers down my spine and goosebumps appeared all over my body. "All I want to do is rip this little shirt and shorts and have my way with you."

His gaze was fixed on my lips, my lips parted in anticipation. My tongue darted out to lick my lips, his eyes followed the moment and became hooded. His right hand was moving sensually on my thigh. I closed my eyes, unable to keep them open any longer. I felt a light brush of his lips on mine. My heart skipped a beat.

I parted my lips a little more to return the kiss when a ringing of the phone caused me to jerk away from him. He closed his eyes and cursed under his breath. Turning around he took his phone and answered the call. My cheeks felt hot. I was blushing so hard, even my ears turned red and I felt hot.

"What?" He barked, whatever was said on the phone had him alert. His expression turned scary. He looked like he was ready to murder someone. He jumped up from the bed and made his way to the closet still listening to whatever the person was saying.

"Do I look like I care about the equipment right now Mihir, I want the bastard caught and the fire to be put out immediately. Make sure our workers are safe." So he was talking to Mihir no the correct word was yelling, he was yelling on the phone, and with each word, his anger rose. Fire? My eyes widened. What happened and where is the fire? "Don't worry I'll bring Bhai and Karthik with me." He said and hung up the phone.

I quickly stood and waited for him to come out. When he came out of the closet he was dressed in his usual attire except for a coat and a tie. He stopped in front of me and looked at me with a cold expression.

"Is everything okay? And where is the fire?" I asked

"Yeah, it will be. It's in one of our branches, you don't need to worry about it." He caressed my hair oh so gently.

"I don't think I'll be home tonight and I will probably return in the early hours of the morning. Good night." He bent a little at his waist and kissed my forehead before walking out of the room while calling someone on his phone. I was rooted to my spot, stunned he kissed my forehead. This was the first time he showed any affection. Bringing my hand up to where he kissed I can still feel his lips on my forehead. I fell asleep with a smile on my face.

******

"Anika, Where were you last night, do you know how worried everyone was for you?" Bhabhi asked while we were in the kitchen. She was preparing Aarav's lunch box while I was making tea for everyone.

"Bhabhi I'm so sorry I completely forgot to inform you about my plans yesterday. They were made spontaneously and I didn't have the time to inform you." I turned to look at her. "My friends dragged me to a karaoke night and I didn't hear my phone ringing."

"It's okay next time just shoot me or anyone else a text or call. Do you know how worried Kartavya was-" As soon as I heard his name my mind recalled last night. How we have been so close to kissing if it weren't for the call. All night I had trouble sleeping, he was all I could think about. As he said he hadn't returned home till the early hours of the morning and Bhabhi told me the men of the family were in Dadu's study. So I haven't seen him yet.

"Oh hello madam, kis baat ka itna muskurana zara hume bhi toh batao." I didn't know I was smiling until Bhabhi pointed it out. When I looked at her she had a mischievous smile on her face. "Zarur devar ji ke bare mein soch rahi hogi. Hai na?"

(Why are you smiling so much, please tell us too)

(Must be thinking about my brother-in-law. Isn't it?)

"No Bhabhi I wasn't thinking about him," I said, biting my lips from smiling like a fool.

"Good morning my beautiful Bhabhi's. What's for breakfast today?" Kavya was standing on the threshold of the kitchen with a very sleepy Aarav by her side.

"Good morning, Kavya." me and Bhabhi said in unison. Aarav looked up as he heard my voice and bounded towards me and clung to my legs. "Good morning to you too little prince." I kissed both of his cheeks and picked him up and placed him on the counter. He placed both of his chubby palms on my cheeks and kissed them. Seeing this Bhabhi and Kavya let out an aw.

"Look here comes chachi ka chamcha. No kisses for Bua." Kavya tickled his stomach. He let out a squeal and kissed his Bua. " Okay I'll go, I have to get ready for college, bye."

"And why aren't you ready for school, mister?" Bhabhi raised an eyebrow.

"Mamma, I don't want to go to school today." He placed his palms on her cheeks just as he did on mine and said in a cute voice.

"And why is that?" she asked

"I saw this amusement park on the TV and they were showing all these cool rides. I want to go, mamma, please can we go?" Aww, why is he so cute? I want to squeeze his cheeks.

"But baba, you have an exam today right and you have prepared for it. We can go on the weekend. In Fact, we will take everyone." She tried to make him understand

"Even Chachi and Bua." he looked at me.

"Yes, even Chachi, Bua and your Kartavya Chachu will also come this time. Isn't that right Anika." I looked at her with a raised brow. When he looked at me for confirmation I nodded my head with a smile. "Now go get ready." Satisfied he jumped from the counter giving a heart attack to Bhabhi and me and ran away. "God this kid is going to give me grey hair before I even hit forty." Laughing, we went out of the kitchen.

"Yeah Dadu we know, We'll handle the Oberoi's don't worry." Aviraj bhai said. They were discussing the fire. Kartavya was silent. He has been this way since they came to the dining table.

"We lost some of our employees and so many were injured. I don't get it Bhai what did he gain by doing all this? Is this because he got 50% of the deal and not the complete deal." Karthik was frustrated in fact everyone was. For the first time, even Dadi was silent who wouldn't usually sit quietly.

"He gets 200 million dollars out of the deal and he still did this. How despicable can he be?" Maa said. Something I learned from Avni Bhabhi was that the men in this family share each and everything with their wives. Maa worked in the company until Kavya's birth. So Maa knew about most of the business deals.

"Are you okay?" I asked Kartavya when I noticed he was not eating his food.

"Yes, I'm fine." he still did not start eating his food. "Everyone, listen this has come to an extreme level and gone out of hand and we have to be careful. No one will leave the house without the guards and will inform someone where you are if you are going. Bhabhi, Karthik, Kavya, and Anika be careful at all times, never trust anyone. If you feel something off about something or someone even if it is about your bodyguard, call Daniel or Andrew immediately" Everyone was quite shocked by what Kartavya said. And started to argue but Dadu shut them up "Bhai and I will handle the rest okay." Aviraj Bhai nodded.

******

I was pacing in the bedroom, I just returned from work when he came into the room and I stopped and stared at him not knowing what to say. But one thing was clear, I was pissed that he didn't think it was necessary to tell me about adding more security details for me.

"Why didn't you tell me about adding more security details for me." I snapped. He looked at me in exasperation and buried his hands in his pockets.

"Anika after knowing what he did you still want to argue about the security." He was trying to be patient with me but his anger was taking over, he ran his hand through his hair.

"No, I'm not arguing, I just want to know when you do something that concerns me." I hoped he would understand how to talk and discuss things. And not just make decisions for me and expect me to follow them.

"It's about security Anika. I would have increased it even if you said no." God, why can't he understand?

"Listen. I wouldn't have said no to the security after last night. Imagine my surprise when two other men who I didn't know started following me. I told Amar to take them away. That's when he told me they were my bodyguard and asked if you didn't tell me. Do you know how embarrassing it was? I'm not asking anything extreme It's just that you should communicate with me about things like this, that's how relationships work. You communicate with each other. You could have just said 'Anika, there will be two more bodyguards with you.' and I would have said okay it's as simple as that." I told him in a more calm voice.

"So you have no problem with security." he was looking at me with a smile. "All you want is to inform you and communicate with you before I do anything that concerns you?"

"Yes, I don't. But don't think I'll be okay with all your ridiculous demands. I will only accept if they are reasonable enough." I can't keep a poker face seeing the smile on his face.

"You know I thought you would go crazy about the security thing and blow up." Walking towards me he stopped a few feet away from me.

"And why would you think that?" I was getting excited when started walking towards me. He took one more step towards me and I took one back.

"Because you are stubborn you want things your way." He took a loose strand of my hair in his hand and he rubbed it between his fingers. "And you put up a fight for Andrew and now I knew you would throw an even bigger tantrum."

"Excuse me. Did you just say I throw tantrums?" I narrowed my eyes on him.

"Yes, you do and you are dramatic too, when you are comfortable with that person." He said leaning closer to me, his hard chest slightly came in contact with my breasts, my chest was rapidly moving up and down due to my fast breathing. He slowly buried his head in the crook of my neck and placed open mouth kisses on the crook of my neck and moved upwards towards my jaw.

"Kartavya." I breathed out and closed my eyes. His lips moved downwards and he found my sweet spot. I let out a loud moan and clutched his jacket tightly in my hand. He started nipping the spot and soothed it with his tongue. "Kartavya, please." I don't know what I'm begging for but I am.

He stopped abruptly and moved back. I felt coldness wash over me as soon as his warmth disappeared. Shocked, I opened my eyes to look at him. He was looking at me with a huge grin. I blinked a couple of times not believing he was just teasing me.

"Why did you do that?" I asked, trying to regulate my breathing. He was still standing there with a sexy smirk on his face and bit his lower lip.

"Do what?" He asked innocently.

"Nothing ." I shook my head.

"Will you tell me how you know Neel? You couldn't say it during the party." His question stopped me in my tracks. I turned to him to find him already looking at me. Does he want to talk about that now?

"Okay let me just take a shower." He wants me to tell him about his rival after just after literally making me lose my self-control. He nodded, moving towards the door to go out.

Ugh, infuriating man. Huffing, I brushed past him to the bathroom.