By the time I’m done, I take one last look at myself in the mirror and step out of our bedroom, expecting to find either Mom or Raghav waiting for me. Instead, the entire villa is quiet. Where did they suddenly disappear?
I think they must be outside. I reach for my phone, intending to call Raghav, when Haider appears at the entrance. “Raghav has sent me to pick you up,” he says.
I frown. “What kind of date is this? He couldn’t even come to get me himself? He was here barely an hour ago. Where did he go?”
Haider doesn’t answer. Instead, he raises two fingers to his lips and pretends to zip them shut, then makes a small locking gesture.
Message received. His lips are sealed.
I let out a defeated sigh. There’s absolutely no point trying to extract answers from Haider once Raghav has instructed him to keep quiet. Giving up, I follow him out of the villa towards the waiting car. As always, Haider steps ahead and respectfully opens the rear passenger door for me.
I merely look at it for a second before shaking my head with a quiet sigh.
“Oh, stop being so formal, Haider.”
Without another word, I close the rear door myself, walk around the car, open the front passenger door, and settle into the seat beside him.
A faint smile tugs at Haider’s lips, and I know exactly why. He knows I’m not the kind of woman who expects to be treated like some high-and-mighty boss’s wife, sitting in the back while everyone else chauffeurs her around. To me, Haider isn’t just Raghav’s bodyguard anymore. He’s family.
The drive passes in comfortable silence. I keep stealing curious glances out the window, trying to guess where Raghav has planned to take me, but every turn makes me moreconfused. Then, to my surprise, the car slowly comes to a stop at the Shivtara Mata Temple.
I stare through the windshield before turning towards Haider. He quietly gets out, opens my door, and waits.
Holding my dress carefully so I don’t trip over it, I step out, still trying to process everything.
Raghav has planned a date... here? Of all the places...
My heart begins to beat a little faster. I lift my gaze towards the temple perched above, almost a dozen stone steps away. And that’s when I finally see him. He’s standing inside the temple courtyard with his back to me, dressed entirely in black once again. Black shirt. Black blazer. Dark jeans.
An involuntary smile curves my lips as I glance at Haider, who simply inclines his head towards the temple, silently telling me to go ahead. I nod back, gather my dress once again, and begin climbing the steps slowly.
Perhaps he senses me the moment I enter the temple courtyard, because the very next second, he turns around and our eyes meet. As always, his gaze slowly travels over me, from the top of my head to the hem of my dress, taking in every little detail as though he’s committing this moment to memory. The admiration in his eyes is so raw that my breath catches somewhere inside my chest.
I’ve seen Raghav look at me like this many times before. But today… it feels different. I lower my eyes for a second and walk towards him.
“So...” I ask, stopping just a step away, “Thisis where we’re having our first date?”
Instead of answering, he closes the remaining distance between us. His hands don’t reach for mine, nor do they settle on my shoulders. They go straight to my waist. Both his hands slide around it, holding me possessively against him. Every coherentthought inside my head disappears. My heart melts first, and the rest of me follows.
I lift my eyes to meet his.
“This place is where everything truly began for us, isn’t it?” he says, and I couldn’t agree more.
This is where it began.
“You have no idea what you did to me that day.” He absently strokes my waist as he continues. “The first time I saw you at that club in Mumbai, you stole my attention. Somehow, every thought I had kept circling back to you since then.” His gaze moves over my traditional attire once again. “But when I saw you here, wearing these clothes that mean so much to this land and to me, I realised, for the first time in my life, that I had a heart. And that heart was beating for you. Only you.”
My heartbeats stumbles.What did he just say?
“So yes, this place is special to me.” His fingers tighten ever so lightly around my waist. “This attire is special to me.Youare special to me.”
I smile until my cheeks begin to ache. Raghav… the man who once hid every emotion behind silence, is standing before me tonight, laying his heart bare, piece by piece.
“So what better place could there be than this?” he asks softly. “But I didn’t bring you back here to relive the memories that unknowingly brought us together.”
No? Then why?
Before I can say anything, his hands slowly release my waist. His palms glide unhurriedly along my arms, leaving goosebumps in their wake until they finally reach my face. He cups my cheeks with both hands, his thumb brushing beneath my eye as he holds my gaze.
