Page 65 of Addiction

He assessed her. Dressed only in his grey shirt, her legs and feet bare, and not a spot of makeup on her face, she looked stunning.

Still, he had to ask. “Are you okay?”

“Yes.” Her brow furrowed. “Why wouldn’t I be okay?”

He arched a brow. “It was your first time.”

“Oh. You mean that.” She gave him a shy smile. “I am more than okay then.”

He sat next to her feet. “When I woke up and didn’t find you in the room, I thought you’d left.”

She looked in the front, beyond him. “For a second, I’d considered it.”

He pressed her knee, forcing her to look at him. “Why?”

“I owed you a debt, and I paid it today. You hadn’t put a time stamp on oursituation. The sensible thing would have been to leave and to end it.”

Her words made his chest feel heavy. “Then why did you stay?”

She exhaled. “I think my sensibility flew out of the window the first time I kissed you.”

“What are you saying exactly?”

She didn’t reply for a moment as she stared at him. “To be honest, I am so conflicted, and it’s not about you. It’s me. I am scared to be in a relationship. Meeting you during our training sessions, chatting with you, missing you when you’re not around, all of that was easier. But now that we have slept together, it feels like I’ve taken a gigantic step forward. It was one thing to dream of making love to you. To crave it and you.The reality, however, is so much more poignant. I don’t know what to do next and how to behave. I don’t know how to proceed, and I’m so damn scared of it all.” She sighed. “I thought about leaving, but in the end, I couldn’t because the truth is that I didn’t want to leave you. And that bloody scares me even more.”

His heart clenched. She looked so damn innocent and vulnerable sitting here worrying about their future when that ought to be the least of her concerns. God, she was adorable, and he loved her so much.

His heart stopped before it began to beat with renewed vigor. A new kind of euphoria filled him, taking over every corner of his heart and filling his soul with delight.

He was in love.

He, Armaan Oshnov, had fallen in love with this sweet, innocent girl, who he was certain wasn’t yet ready to hear these words from him.

“So, you like chocolate ice cream,da?” he asked instead.

Her brows creased. “Um, yeah, doesn’t everyone?”

“Chocolate’s great, but I prefer vanilla.”

“Are you serious? Sorry, I’m not trying to be prejudiced, but I don’t know of a single guy who likes vanilla flavor ice cream.”

He shrugged. “In the orphanage, ice creams were a rarity. And the only ones we got to eat were those orange ice candies or vanilla, and vanilla it was for me. I had never even tasted chocolate ice cream until Alexander brought us to Russia.”

She dipped her spoon in her ice cream tub and held it for him. He allowed her to feed him.

“Heavenly, isn’t it?” she chirped.

“It is, but vanilla reminds me of childhood, of the cool winds of Rishikesh, of the holy waters of the Ganga, and of being free. We didn’t have much, but we had each other.”

He stretched her legs in his lap and began massaging her feet.

She shut her eyes. “Chocolate ice cream and a foot massage. I am in heaven.”

He pressed his thumb in the arch of her left foot. She moaned. The sound made him hard instantly. He breathed out, controlling himself.

He needed to show her more of himself, those hidden parts of him that even the world didn’t know of. He had to expose his own vulnerabilities to show her that she was not the only one scared of this evolving situation between them. That he was scared, too, of loving her and losing her. That he wanted a chance, one chance to prove to her how happy he could and would make her. But for that, he had to tell her everything, things which he hadn’t discussed with anyone other than his siblings. Details the media were dying to find out but had never been told. If any of this came out, then it would create a frenzy and violate Karina’s safety, whom they were still searching for. But he had to trust Navya for her to be able to trust him back.

“Mihir met Alexander a few years before he adopted us…” Armaan began. Navya’s eyes popped open.

---