Office Affairs |Sidneet|

29. tough decision

Avneet's POV

Siddharth slept like a log, and it caused me a great amount of displeasure. Normally that might not be a problem. I generally preferred not to share a bed with someone who tossed and turned or woke up constantly to go the bathroom.

But now-now I wanted him to be less peaceful and more alert. He wasn't, though, which meant I had a 'tough decision' to make.

He was on his back, head tipped to the side. He looked serene, all the traces of stress he normally carried in his face scrubbed away by good sex and restful sleep.

I, on the other hand, was full of stress. With my phone in my hand, which I held under my pillow just in case, I realized how simple it would be for me to quickly get a shot of him sleeping. He was barely covered by the sheets. All I'd have to do was lift them slightly, take a quick pic, and head back to sleep. It wasn't even that dark in his room. I probably wouldn't even have to use the flash.

I stared at him mournfully, debating my choice. He had been good to me tonight, but how long would that last? And what would I have when it was over to protect myself? Protection. That's what Anushka had said. I didn't even have to use the photo if I didn't want to.

All I had to do was take it.

My hand, which was holding my cellphone overtop over Siddharth's sleeping body, shook violently. I was anxious and scared. And also felt more than a little queasy. It was clear to me then.

I couldn't do it.

I knew it would be so easy, and that it would be over so fast, but I couldn't bring myself to betray Siddharth like that. When Anushka Sen, former Communications Coordinator at Nigam Industries and allegedly a former lover of Siddharth Nigam, had said what I had to do, it had seemed so easy. Just take a compromising photo of him and everything would pan out. She could get her life back, I could get security, and we could take down Siddharth Nigam together for his crimes of power.

But it wasn't that simple.

First of all, I thought I had feelings for him. Serious feelings. The kind of feelings that cause you to pause before doing something that could push the object of your affection away. He had said that he cared about me too. If I did this there would be no going back.

More importantly, though? I was beginning to reevaluate everything that Anushka had said about Sid. He wasn't some sort of evil corporate bastard who took women, chewed them up, and spat them out. He was a human being, just like the rest of us. And while I might have believed that Siddharth the billionaire god was capable of such cruelty, I didn't think that Siddharth the human was.

So I slipped my phone back under
my pillowcase and slowly slid back down into his embrace. I pressed myself into his heat, feeling how right it felt to have my body pressed up against his. I smiled sadly, realizing that I was somehow going to have to fix this situation. But that was a later problem.

Now? All I had to do was go back to sleep and wait for the morning.

I woke to someone stroking back. Lifting my head from the pillow, I looked up to see that I had never been on a pillow at all, but Siddharth's chest. It was his hand tracing circles on my back. It was his warmth enveloping me. I was so happy.

"Good morning," he murmured,
eyes still closed.

I rested my head back on his chest. "Good morning."

"Did you sleep well?" he asked.

My memory flashed to the night before when I'd sat over him, debating whether or not to betray him. "Not that well."

He pulled me up further onto his chest, wrapping both arms around me and holding me close. "That's a shame," he said. "I paid a lot of money for this mattress."