Page 65 of Wicked Trap

She slowly walked out of her bedroom and then towards the small living room. She couldn’t see much. She jumped as thunder rumbled loudly along with lightning flashes.

The sounds of someone trying to open the door continued.

With her heart thudding, she went to her door. And then with a quick move, she unlocked it and pulled it open. She held the bat up in an attack position, but there was no one outside her door. With her heart thudding, she took a step outside to see if the intruder was running away.

Her heart almost stopped when she saw a shadow in front of her apartment. She automatically swung the bat towards it. But before the bat landed on someone, it was held in a tight grip. She tried to yank it to attack the man.

“Fuck. What the hell are you doing, princess?”

With her heart racing, she stilled. Lightning once again flashed, and she saw that it was Arjun standing in front of his apartment door. He was holding the bat with a frown. He was most likely trying to unlock his apartment door in the dark when she swung the bat towards him.

“T-there’s a s-storm,” she tried to explain. “The p-power went out, and I-I heard someone. Two men followed me outside the office. I-I thought they came here and were trying to break into my apartment and...” She couldn’t continue.

There was a momentary silence. “Come with me.”

She felt his warm hand wrapping around her wrist and tugging her towards him. She didn’t resist. He held her close to him while he tried unlocking the door. She leaned closer to him, trying to absorb the warmth of his body while chills began in hers.

He managed to unlock the door. Then holding her wrist, he led her inside and stopped near the couch. He sat down and pulled her next to him before wrapping his arms around her. Her head was against his broad chest.

She opened her mouth to protest, but she realized she was trembling hard and her teeth were chattering. It must have been the shock of thinking she was being attacked.

“Shh, you are safe, princess,” he said in a soothing tone.

Her eyes welled up because she was reminded of her mother, who used to comfort her during storms using similar words.

“I-I hate the storms,” she said.

The image of her mother lying at the bottom of the stairs in a pool of blood flashed in her mind. Her body trembled even harder.

The arms around her tightened. “I don’t like the storms either,” he said.

She didn’t believe him. The normally cocky, arrogant man she knew for the last few weeks hardly looked like the kind to be bothered about silly storms, let alone hate them.

“There was a huge storm on the night of my father’s funeral,” he said.

She was shocked by the information. It sounded as terrible as her experience with storms.

She took a deep breath. “My mother fell down the stairs on a stormy night. I-I was the one to find her. There was so much blood. She was nine months pregnant at the time.”

She didn’t know why she was telling him that. Maybe because he shared about losing a parent too. And also because being enclosed in his comforting arms, she felt a strange sense of security that she could share the worst of her nightmares with him.

“How old were you then?” he asked.

“Eight. But I still remember that night clearly and often have nightmares.”

There was a momentary silence.

“Is that why you keep the lights on in your apartment during rainy nights?” he asked.

“Yes.”

She waited for him to make a sarcastic, arrogant remark about her fear of storms. But he didn’t. He just held her in his arms.

The heat from his body seeped into hers, making her feel warm. Her trembling stopped. But as she continued to be held in his arms, she slowly became aware of him.

Thunder rumbled outside, and lightning continued to flash. But she wasn’t scared anymore. Her heart slowly picked up speed and began to beat faster. But it wasn’t because of the storm. It was because of the man who held her.

She wanted comfort, and she also wanted to feel alive. And the only man who could make her feel alive was him. He made her angry, he made her weak, and he made her feel uncontrollable desire. He made her feel everything.

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