Na Jaane Kyon...

Tum chupa na sakogi main woh raaz hun

Naina felt a sharp pain, along with a stiffness, making her jolt awake. She looked around, to realize that she had fallen asleep on the chair sometime towards the morning. With a tired sigh, she moved her stiff body, massaging her neck which was hurting because of the angle. Her eyes fell on the view across the glass door... darkness had given way to dull grey clarity, but the brightness of dawn was missing because of a thick cloud cover though the fury of rain had lessened considerably... as compared to previous night. It was then that the memories of last night flashed in her mind, making her sit up with a jerk, pain and stiffness forgotten.

She was left shaken by the storm of emotions that had risen in her last night.

She quickly picked up her phone to check the time. It was almost seven. There was a notification too. She opened the message box to see Sameer's text

'Naina, I'm leaving. Don't want anyone around to see me here so it's better that I go now, before people wake up. Luckily got a cab. Will get my car picked up later during the day.'

The time of message showed ten minutes back. She got up and went out to the terrace, to check the streets. He must have left, because there was no cab. His car was parked across the road. Coming back inside, she rubbed her neck. More than this pain, what was troubling her was her own reaction yesterday.

Naina shivered as she recalled the way she had fallen on him. The impact had left her numb for one moment, and burned her the next. She had no idea why, and how, such feeling had crept in. Pressed against him, she should have been repugnant by the proximity... but the havoc it had brought on her senses was far from disgust. In past, even the thought of someone coming close to her would make her skin crawl... the same skin was covered with goosebumps yesterday. She didn't know why her defences didn't feel threatened when he touched her... which had happened quite a few times now. As she thought of previous instances, her eyes widened. Almost every single time, it wasn't him... the physical contact was initiated by her, knowingly or by accident. Naina gasped, recalling each of those occasions... her holding onto him to save herself from a fall, landing on him when her hair got stuck in his button, sleeping on his shoulder on the plane, grasping his arm in Jaipur, slipping on him yesterday. In fact, she had herself held his hand yesterday on the road, to bring him home. None of these times, Sameer had shown any inclination to prolong the contact, or touch her back. Even when his arm was around her last night, he kept a towel between them, not touching her directly. Only once he had offered his hand for help... just offered, it was her who accepted it. For the first time, he had held her wrist yesterday, to make her eat. She trembled when she thought how she had been checking him out at dinner time. What if he had raised his eyes and seen her doing so.

She let out a shaky breath. Till now, if she noticed someone looking at her the way she was staring at him, or someone touched her, or even tried to come near her, she had loathed the person. Here she was, doing the same to Sameer. Wouldn't he find her actions distasteful... wouldn't he hate her for throwing herself at him like this? But then, none of his actions showed any disgust. On the contrary, he was caring and understanding. She couldn't deny that his concern for Ayush was genuine, but he respected her as well. She had come to know of his reverence for women, so it was natural that he thought of her reputation and honour, hence the way he protected her in Jaipur, and left early today.

Now it was upto her to keep her image intact in his eyes. The slips that happened yesterday, shouldn't happen again. She would keep her distance... and behave with him the way an employee was supposed to, with her boss. Nonetheless, the image that flashed in her mind was a complete opposite. She couldn't shake off the sight of his shirtless, toned chest, or flexing muscles of his back. Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried to block the image, but it got more vivid. Scared, she opened her eyes immediately. Keeping a hand on her wildly drumming heart, she tried to reason with herself... that it was happening because this was the first time she had seen a man without a shirt. Except for some actors on screen, she had never seen anyone like this, that too, so close to herself. Even her father was always in a vest, when he wasn't wearing a shirt. Probably that was the reason she had been rattled. It had to be. Pushing away the fluttering she felt even now at the memory of touching his back, she steeled herself to see him as her employer, and maybe Ayush's friend... nothing else.