Discordance

Chapter Forty

He didn't say anything for a while, but she too had learned his little idiosyncrasies because his palm splayed out over her ribcage had tightened infinitesimally. She felt him huff making the small hair at the nape of her neck rise. Why had she asked him for his opinion? Abhimanyu was smart and she hoped he would guide her a little, but she was lying to herself because while she valued his opinion, she was slowly beginning to have faith in his love which might be a decision she could come to regret yet her heart soared with hope that he would be gentle with it.

"I can't give you an impartial answer monkey." He murmured stonily before brushing his lips over her neck making her almost forget her question "I would ask you to never talk to them ever again, so you never have to be hurt by them. I am livid that they dared to hurt something that is so precious to me" oh, she opened her mouth to speak but no words came out at that.

"But since you asked, I would say maybe we can start with your brothers?"

"We?" she stammered out, turning around to look at him only to find him staring into the oblivion.

"Yeah I don't think I feel comfortable leaving you being alone with them and maybe I never will be." Nobody had ever batted for her like her husband did, rishi bhai with all his flaws tried every time he saw that injustice was meted out, but his concern never made her feel wrapped up in a warm cocoon like Abhimanyu's did.

"Maybe we can meet them outside, just your brothers and us?" he asked but her brain was hype fixated on the word "us", she had never been a part of an us before, it had always been her against the world but now she was an us. She turned her head around to nuzzle her nose into his chest, the need for physical touch of one form or the other has started to become a necessity to her, and she felt the loss keenly if he was around and not touching her.

"Abhimanyu I am sorry you missed the dinner with your family." She mumbled, while she was selfish in her need for him, it had been running in the back of her mind that maybe she had caused this rift between him and his family.

"You are my family monkey, first and foremost, and it wasn't your fault Anisha was bitchy. Don't worry about it" he stroked a thumb over her cheek and the gesture always made her face heat up, the way he looked at her felt painful in a way like it was excruciating to him but in a nice way, just like she was sore right now but it in the most wonderful way. The thought was so out of character that she immediately felt her face turn bright red as she choked on thin air.

"Whatever you are thinking, I want to know" he teased, and she was sure her face reflected whatever she was thinking because she pulled her face away back to the front and closed her eyes leaning her head back on him.

He was running his hands over the sides of her waist, and she almost felt delirious with need because to want him all the time was surely a sign of some illness? Thankfully Abhimanyu dropped it and went back to making random conversation with her.

"So, do you want to go out tomorrow? To see a little bit of the city?" If she was being totally honest, she desperately wanted to say no, wanting to spend the time with him lazing around and playing in the pool.

Dropping her chin to her chest, she pouted, crossing her arms under her chest, what a weird conundrum to be in.

"Tell you what, we go out after a small swim when we wake up and we can do like 3 hours of sightseeing and see how you feel after." That sounded reasonable enough, yet it somehow made her burrow her back into him, tugging the hair on his thigh stuck to hers making his grunt loudly in her ear, but it felt like the good kind of a grunt.

"Ok, you win. We'll see how you feel tomorrow and if you still don't want to go, we can always come back and sight see." She was always nervous when he made plans for their foreseeable future because in her mind this still didn't feel permanent but if she said it to him, he would probably be hurt. She could see how much he was trying for her daily and she was incredibly appreciative of his efforts, but she was always waiting for the other shoe to drop on her head and knock her out. He was so special to her that if she hurt him, it would destroy her but just the thought of him hurting her made her want to not exist because god couldn't be cruel to her to show her this life, give her a little taste and then take it away.