Moments (IPKKND Secret Romance #2) (aka Our Moments)

Chapter 10: Arnav

14th December

Arnav jogged down the stairs, mentally making a list of clauses to add to the contract his legal team was working on while rolling up the sleeves of his shirt. His eyes unerringly found Khushi when he looked up. She sat on the floor next to her sister, both of them surrounded by pink roses. She smiled at him briefly as he approached before turning her attention back to Payal.

"Arnav-bhaiya," Hari Prakash approached, "Anjali-didi is waiting for you in the kitchen."

Arnav exchanged another quick look with Khushi before walking away, finding his sister bent over a pot in the kitchen.

"I made kheer for you, make sure you eat it," Di glanced at him, "We're all going to the temple for about an hour, but Khushi-ji is staying behind. We'll drop Payal-ji home but you'll still need to drive Khushi-ji home when she's finished with the floral arrangements. Make sure she doesn't take a rickshaw home."

Di stopped what she was doing.

"And Chhote, I know you two don't get along, but please be nice to her. She's fragile right now, that's why I invited her to help with the wedding. She's using it as a distraction from her ... from the engagement."

I know Di. I'm trying my best.

To his sister, he said, "I'll leave her alone if she doesn't come near me."

Arnav took the kheer to his room, where he ate it while waiting impatiently for his family to leave. When they'd gone, he waited another ten minutes before venturing back downstairs. Khushi was still playing with the flowers, frowning as she looked between her efforts and the pictures in the magazine that lay open next to her.

"Hi."

He sat next to her on the floor, taking a pink rose from the pile next to him and absently toying with it. Khushi smiled at him.

"Arnav-ji. What are you doing?"

"Helping you."

She looked skeptical, "What do you know about table centerpieces?"

"Well ... I know they have to be made out of pink roses," he teased.

Khushi smiled and snatched the rose off him. "Arnav-ji, you don't have to waste your time here. Don't you have anything else to do?"

"No," he took another rose from the pile and tapped it to her nose, "I have nothing else to do."

Blushing, she turned back to her work. She was recreating one of the arrangements in the magazine, and as far as he could tell, she was doing an amazing job.

"Why didn't you go to the temple with everyone else?"

"Oh ..." Khushi's blush intensified as she studied the table, "I didn't ... I mean ... I ca-can't ..."

What the hell ... Why can't she ... Oh.

Arnav spent the next twenty minutes helping Khushi. He turned the pages of the magazine so she lost her place, hid the scissors, and exchanged the pink ribbon she was using with an orange one. He told her she looked beautiful when she was angry, watching as a blush stole across her cheeks and turned her nose red. She was quickly distracted from the earlier awkwardness.

He stole roses after she carefully counted them out and hid them behind his back, enjoying her confusion as she tried to work out what was happening. When she realized, she tried to reach around him to retrieve the stolen flowers, but Arnav blocked her every attempt. She practically climbed over him, calling him every name she could think of as she stretched, and they landed in a tangle on the floor. Khushi's laughter disappeared as she stared down at him, the moment becoming charged with the desire that lay unexplored between them.

His sister's words came back to him. She's fragile right now.

It was time to go.

"I'm going upstairs, Khushi," he gently untangled himself, "Come and get me when you're done."

She watched him leave.

*****

Author's Note: Shyam doesn't exist in this AU, but Khushi still has a broken engagement to deal with. I will reveal what happened, don't worry!