RUDRA PRATAP RATHORE’S POV
The courtyard was louder than usual.
Drums. Laughter. Shimmering lehengas brushing marble floors. Servants running in and out, trays balanced on fingertips, kids screaming, flowers being thrown in the air like confetti full chaos.
Aarzoo’s doing.
If there’s one thing she loves more than annoying me, it’s hosting people.
“Bhaiya! Aayna aa gayi!” she whispered near my ear before skipping off toward the entrance like a five-year-old.
I didn’t react.
Didn’t even look up from the steel glass in my hand.
Until I heard someone say—
“Woh dekho, Aarzoo di ki dost…kitni seedhi-saadhi lagti hai na?”
And then I looked.
Simple sky blue lehenga. Silver embroidery. No makeup. Just a bindi and a dupatta clutched tightly in both hands.
Hair loose. Anklet chiming with every step.
She wasn’t loud. Wasn’t trying to be noticed. But my eyes still found her.
Ya Shiv... yeh toh bachchi hai.
Chubby cheeks, wide eyes, and the kind of innocence you can’t fake.
I looked away immediately.
This wasn’t the kind of softness I was supposed to feel. Especially not for some girl my sister dragged in from her hostel.
I sipped my chai. Ground myself.
But phir bhi… I watched from the corner of my eye as she walked beside Aarzoo. Shy smile, nervous fingers adjusting her dupatta again and again.
And when she tripped slightly on the edge of her lehenga, holding Aarzoo's arm for balance—
Something in my chest moved.
I ignored it.
---
Later that evening, I was in the backyard near the tulsi pot when I overheard Aarzoo talking in her dramatic low-whispers with that same girl.
“I knew you like him! I told you, na, you stare at Maan like he’s a slice of chocolate cake!”
“Di! No no, it’s just a crush, okay? He’s so tall, so confident… and he always opens doors for me.”
I stiffened.
Maan?
My youngest brother?
She likes him?
Hmph.
Aarzoo giggled, “Then tell him, silly!”
“No! He’s too old for me. I mean… he’s like what, twenty-four?”
I scoffed silently.
Twenty-four? That’s a child, darling.
She sounded heartbroken about it too. Like age was some great tragedy.
And I don’t know why it irritated me. Maybe it was the way she said his name. Or the way she laughed shyly after saying it.
I left before I heard more.
---
That night, in front of my shivling, as I poured water over the black stone, I paused.
Not to pray.
Just to ask myself
Why the hell do I care who she has a crush on?
She’s not mine.
But then again…
She came to this house under Aarzoo’s protection.
Which means she’s mine to watch over.
And that’s enough… for now.
---
YOU ARE READING
Only His✔️
RomanceI thought monsters lived in nightmares. Then I met him. Rudra is powerful, feared, and impossible to defy. When he took me into his mansion, I thought it was to save me. I was wrong. His kindness hides chains. His touch burns like fire and freezes l...
