Mishti heard him asking his personal secretary to push the call ahead. He could have left her there and taken the call from home. Yet he stayed back.With her. That one truth warmed her up.
She sat there waiting, watching him speak into his phone, wondering if this was what it looked like when a man who claimed to have a stone for a heart started to soften.
Within the hour, Swati returned with the mangalsutra placed carefully inside a velvet-lined box. It looked whole again, flawless, ready to be worn as if nothing had ever gone wrong. Mishti was relieved the moment she saw it.
Even Karan noticed that smile back on her face, but he chose not to acknowledge how deeply it stirred him.
He settled the charges, and before Mishti could reach for the box, he took it himself. Thanking Motilal for the quick fix, he slid his arm around her waist and guided her toward the exit.
“You have wasted enough of my time already,” he said, although she felt it was more of a pretence than real anger.
She did not respond, just held on to her smile and walked beside him, allowing herself to be led.
Once inside the car, he placed the box in her hands and started the engine. Mishti opened it at once, her fingers trembling slightly as she lifted the mangalsutra out.
“Mishti. Seatbelt,” he said through clenched teeth.
Her focus had narrowed to that single thread of gold and black beads. The rest of the world barely existed. But on his orders, she immediately fastened her seatbelt.
Karan watched her from the corner of his eye as she turned back to the mangalsutra, lifting it over her head, trying to reach behind her neck to fix the hook. She struggled, her fingers fumbling, her patience thinning with every failed attempt.
Throughout the drive, he heard her sharp little hisses of frustration and the low muttering she directed at herself. It irritated him. Not the sound, but the reason behind it. Her desperation. Her refusal to let this go even now.
When they finally reached the mansion, and he switched off the engine, she was still at it, shoulders tensed, fingers stubbornly working at the hook behind her neck, showing no urgency in unstrapping and getting out of the car.
Karan exhaled slowly, unbuckling his seatbelt, and leaned toward her. Before she could react, he gently pulled her closer. His hands moved to the back of her neck, taking over the task she had been fighting with all this time.
For Mishti, the moment stunned her into stillness. The man who had tied this mangalsutra around her neck on their wedding day was doing it again now, in the soft intimacy of a parked car. Was she dreaming? She wanted to pinch herself. Or maybe touch something, touch him to confirm it’s real. But she did not know where to place her hands, how to steady herself when he wasthisclose.
They were almost pressed together in the confined space of the car. His breath brushed her skin, his nose grazed her hair and her earlobe. His stubble grazed against her shoulder.
Instinctively, Mishti clutched the lapels of his suit, holding on, partly for balance, partly because she did not want him to pull away too soon. She wanted this moment to last. Ever since their lip kiss, this was the first time Karan had got this close to her again.
The moment Mishti tugged at his suit lapels was when Karan became fully aware of how close they were. His fingers slowed, no longer rushing to finish the task. He knew he should pull away, let her handle this on her own. But something inside him screamed to continue what he was doing. The moment his nose brushed her jawline, the act itself became something else entirely. His lips hovered near her neck, the ache to press his lips to her skin, to breathe her lavender perfume, almost tempting him to give in.
In between his heart’s somersault, his fingers finally pressed the hook into place. Although the mangalsutra rested securely against her skin again, neither of them moved.
There was no longer any reason for his fingers to linger. No justification for the closeness. And yet moving away felt harder than it should have. Karan gently pulled away, not fully, but enough for him to see her face. Their eye contact felt too heavy to hold. But when he dropped his gaze from her eyes, it was only to her parted lips again. The urge to taste that strawberry glosson her lips, to suck them so deep and raw that they begged for oxygen, the mere thought of it all hardened him.
From a man who had married her for revenge, he was turning out to be a man who could control everything except his need for her. He knew she read that desire in his eyes, too. And that raw need to kiss her.Again.
As if wanting it too, Mishti inched closer, just enough for their breaths to mingle when Karan retreated abruptly, shocked by how deeply she had begun to affect him.
Lately, everything that affected her seemed to reach him too, whether it was her pain or her happiness. Just like today, the way he was bothered to see her so distressed over this one thing. He wondered where this botheration for her even began. Where and when did he cross that thin line? Was it when he started keeping an eye on her through the spy cameras in her cabin? Because there had not been a single day since she joined his company when he had not admired that beauty working at her desk.
Not willing to dwell on these thoughts again, Karan withdrew from her completely.
Although hurt that he broke their moment, Mishti still looked at him with a soft smile. “Thank you,” she whispered, for everything he did for her today.
But he did not answer. He could not trust himself to. Instead, he opened the door, stepped out of the car, and strode toward the mansion without waiting for her, wondering what the f*ck was happening to him?
***************
Next Day - KW Capital Office
Mishti just returned from a meeting and was about to settle back into her chair when the soft knock came at her cabin door. She turned around only to see Kanika stepping inside without waiting for permission. She did not bother with pleasantries.
“I need the Trinity report,” Kanika said. “The one with the investor flow and risk mapping. I have a meeting with Lexi Group this evening. Rajat is already expecting it.”
