TWENTY-THREE

“He cooks!”

“It’s so cute.”

“It’s hot.”

“He indeed is a multi-tasker.”

I regretted the moment when I opened my mouth and detailed every feature of him, I came across with two nights before. They came last night after their small trip to the farmhouse. They showed me the pictures while I showed them how my tongue worked.

“He is so arrogant. He just wanted to prove that he could win every challenge.” I made a sour face as I told them that I won the challenge by not giving him anything and they still were swooning over the part that he cooked for me.

“But still…” Areej rolled her eyes. “He cooked. That’s what I need. If he had ever cooked for me, I would have married him the very next second.” She added the last part with enthusiasm.

You wouldn’t if you ever come across that dark side of him.

I just thought about that as he was scary and they all knew about that. But they were scared of his rage and anger and I feared more about the darkness that his eyes consumed. As if the forest was drowned in the darkness of the night without any light of the moon and the dawn was nowhere to see. It was stuck in that darkness and I was scared that he would consume me in that darkness too. But you know the frightening part, it was that I wanted to see what was in that deadly silence of the forest.

It's not that I would cure him. I wasn’t a doctor nor a therapist. People can’t cure people. Doctor just prescribes medicine but we have to take them on our own. Therapy can’t be helpful unless you force yourself to admit that you need therapy and act upon the ways to cure it.

“I would ask Muzamil Bhai to cook for you so that you can marry him.” I cohered mischievously.

“Yeah, you both are annoying.” Suzi gave me her support as we both hid our smiles when Areej’s face turned the light shade of crimson. She felt cute at that time as she was dumbfounded for a moment.

“He is more annoying than me.” Areej rolled her eyes as she put one of the fries in her mouth. It was evening as the sun had almost given the chance to the moon to lighten the earth while we were sitting around the kitchen table eating fries with mayo and ketchup. I loved everything that I could eat with ketchup so basically everything that people say isn’t good for health.

“Yeah, you know better. You both went to the same college.” Suzi intervened as she was acting like a newscaster.

“I didn’t even look at him in college. He was four years senior than me and he was the playboy in college.” Areej gave the explanation as I hummed at the new information.

We seated like that as we had nothing else to do. It also made my mind to roan around other things but not him. That night when he wiped my chin with the tissue, I knew it wasn’t a good feeling to be dependent on someone like that but he made me feel like a baby who didn’t have any tension of the world and I could just swim in the lullaby of his groans and touch but it soon evaporated when wiping my chin his dark side came again. He remembered something as I could tick on Jameel because he was cold and distant again as he just ordered me to come towards the car. The rest of the ride back home was silent and uncomfortable with his dark aura invading the leather scent inside the car.

He dropped me off at the mansion and stormed his car away leaving me alone in the mansion without anyone to talk to. This could be his punishment to make me stay away from his family. But I was glad I didn’t have to see him after that as I couldn’t focus on anything else when he was near at the distance of even hundred meters.

“No…what the f**k…No…” I was putting the leftover salad in the fridge while Suzi was washing dishes when Areej almost shrieked. Her face was getting pale as we both left our chores and walked towards her only to get pale ourselves.

There was a news circulation on social media that the bachelor billionaire Farzan Shah son Fahad Shah was soon getting married with Areej Mirza the heir of Mirza Industries.

“People don’t know that he has married to me. Don’t worry. Everything would be alright.” I tried to soothe her by rubbing her shoulder while looking at Suzi had concern all over her face. The one thing Areej never wanted to do in her life was to marry Farzan Shah. He wanted to be in love first and he was fart behind even from the L of love.

“No…the news is circulating rapidly. If he wanted to negate it. He could have done that and the news couldn’t have spread like that.” Areej took a long puff of air as we heard foot steps behind us.

“Did you see that?” Areej asked as soon as she turned around to find dad coming downstairs with blank expressions on his face as if he knew that was coming.

“Yes.” He simply answered without any words that could give Areej any kind of hope.

“I have to talk to my father.” She grabbed her bag and stormed out of the kitchen leaving us behind.

“If Areej doesn’t want to marry him then why he is forcing her?” I asked as we all sat in the lounge thinking about Areej.

“He asked Areej to answer honestly why she didn’t want to marry him and she said the thing that he found the lamest, love.” Dad took a sigh as he added further. “And then he said that if she ever falls in love with someone then he would let her go. For him it was possible but marriage isn’t a small thing. You can’t do that with anyone. He is smart in many things but he is a zero when it comes to morals and love.”

“Won’t you talk to him about that?” I wanted to find a solution for Areej but dad just nodded his head making me more disappoint.

There was one thing that I could do and that was to talk to him personally. Although there were 0.1 percent chances that he would listen to me and 99.09 percent chance that he would throw me out but I wanted to give it a try. He said he would let Areej live her own life but still she would be married to him.

Areej wasn’t like me as I was married to him because of someone’s fault. Most probably because nobody wanted to have me but Areej deserved to be love.

*

It was late at night and I almost hit my head on the table in order to not fall asleep while waiting for him. I was waiting outside his room as I finally stood up and walked towards his room. I walked inside his room to turn on the heat as I thought he always forgot to turn the heat whenever he was in the room.

I looked around his room as everything was perfectly placed in its respective place when I had seen some guests who used to come in live for days like Safwan. I never met them but when I used to go and clean after they had gone the room was turned into a mess. They were educated but still they weren’t educated enough to know what cleanliness looked like.

His room was cleaned by Suzi but still whenever I had seen his room it was always like this in its perfect shape.

I closed the window so that the gush of cold wind couldn’t enter the room while I turned on the dim light soft the room. It was not like I wanted to make a romantic environment for the talk that could kill me but the beautiful small chandeliers hanging down the wall in every corner that enhanced the beauty and lessened the darkness of the room.

“What are you doing?” I knew I was waiting for him but still his voice made me jump on my feet. I abruptly turned around with my hand on my chest as my heat almost flew out of my throat.

“You scared me.” I mumbled with accelerated heartbeat as he was standing ahead of me with his coat hanging down on his elbow. Few buttons of shirt were open as his tie wasn’t anywhere to be seen. His hairs were a little disheveled as he had run fingers in them. He was looking tired with his eyes turning a little pink but still there was a smirk invading his full plump lips.

“Glad to hear that. But would you care to tell me why are you turning my room in a romantic place. Should I expect something?” His smirk grew as he gently placed the coat on the stand beside the L-shaped couch.

“No…no…” I turned beetroot as I wanted to run away and hide from his mischievous eyes. “The room was cold so I did…” I pointed my finger to the window and lights but he didn’t even look at me. His eyes were fixed on me as the way he looked at me made my spine shudder with tingles running downwards to itch my toes.

“I like it cold.” He muttered as the moment he entered the room he was looking frustrated and tired and now he had all his attention towards me.

He started taking steps towards me as if I was his prey and he was my predator who wanted to do all the sinful things with me. The things I didn’t know about but the way he was looking with his eyes darkening with every step I was sure it was something useful.

“I wanted to talk.” I mumbled as my back hit the edge of the bed giving me the hint that I couldn’t move away from him anymore. He was just a few inches away from me.

“I am listening.” His hands were inside his pockets the whole time as the moment he took another step I couldn’t help but sit on the edge of the bed. I thought he would stop but he started leaning in further.

“Areej doesn’t want to marry you.” I explained while wetting my dry lips by licking them with my tongue only to get his eyes darker. His knee parted my legs ever so gently as he stood in between them making me gulp. I couldn’t do anything else as I walked myself in the territory of my predator.

“I know that. What do you want?” He was leaning as I couldn’t help but lean back with his every move. I could feel from near that he was very tired as if he had been working whole day non-stop.

“I want her happy.” I generously added as my back hit the soft mattress while his one hand was placed on one side of my head while his other hand was placed beside my waist. He hadn’t even touched me yet.

“She will be.” He grazed his nose with mine as he took a deep breath. He was exhausted.

“No…she doesn’t love you. You don’t love her.” I was getting angry now. Why can’t he get this small point?

“I can’t sacrifice my power for this stupid thing that doesn’t even exist.” He added gently as his eyes were closed with his nose still grazing my small buttoned one.

“You believe in that but she doesn’t. You shouldn’t force her?” I pushed him away as he was expecting that so he bulged back only a few inches. I gulped as his eyes were opened now showing a wave of frustration in them. ‘

“Did she send you here?” He asked as I shook my head in no when he added further. “She is allowed to do anything. We would never get physical anyway.” He said as the marriage wasn’t a big thing.

“It’s not about getting physical. It’s about marriage. She wants to live her life and she wants to find her love too. If you don’t believe in that it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It does I believe in love even if it’s not written in my fate. Everyone deserved to be loved.” I was breathing heavily as I never talked for such a long time and also, I was angry.

“Fine. Make me believe it and I won’t marry her.”

•~•

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