Reverse Vows || AkshNav ||

Chapter 15 | Abhinav

The last forty-eight hours had been hell. I'd spent my entire Sunday at the office dealing with an unexpected crisis that took me away from Akshara, and when I had successfully handled that, hoping I'd get to go home, I'd faced a much more annoying situation in the name of: Kairav Goenka. But it was done. Akshara was done with them. I'd made sure.

As if that wasn't enough for the day, before I could leave the office, Abhimanyu had showed up. Everything was piling up, and I was slowly getting buried underneath it all.

So I was in my study at three AM, doing nothing but making myself miserable instead of going to bed—just a few doors down from her.

When there was a hesitant knock on the door, I snapped out of my thoughts.

"Come in."

First, her head peeked in, her shoulders and body hidden behind the door.

"Hey, Abhinav."

"Hey."

"Am I bothering you? Can I come in?"

If I'd been sure it wouldn't startle her, I'd have laughed out loud. She wasn't bothering me enough—that was the problem.

Just in case, I closed the lid of my laptop, hiding the email I had just received.

"Please, come in," I repeated, and she finally showed her entire body and stepped in, closing the door and leaning her back against it. I wasn't sure how long I could keep my hands off of her or how wise it was to be in a secluded room together like this, but I didn't care.

"I woke up," she said, softly smiling at me. "Couldn't go back to sleep."

Akshara was wearing black leggings and a light grey t-shirt that did nothing to hide her yellow lace bra underneath it. I had lost my tie somewhere when I'd walked into a quiet apartment, but I was still wearing the white button-up and black slacks I had put on that morning. She looked beautiful even disheveled, whereas I must have looked like a mess.

"What are you doing?" she asked when I didn't say anything.

"Something came up that I had to deal with."

She pushed herself off the door, slowly approaching with her hand behind her back. "You still have work to do?"

I gave a sharp nod.

"I didn't see you today."

Had she been hoping to see me? I didn't think so. "I was at the office. There was a crisis with a client, but I dealt with it."

"I thought you didn't work every weekend." She was a few steps closer, and I was aware of each and every one of those steps. Her gaze slowly took in everything in the room but me.

Rising from my seat, I rounded my desk and sat on the edge of it. I had to shove my hands into my pockets so I wouldn't grab her, but I needed to be closer. I sat still on my perch and watched her slow movements as she walked up to the bookshelves and strolled the length of them, pausing once or twice to check a title, her fingertips softly grazing each spine.

"No, not every weekend. Did you need something?"

She stopped perusing the books and focused on me. "If I'm bothering you..."

"You are not bothering me, Akshara. Did you want to talk about something?"

She lifted one shoulder in a shrug and kept her eyes on the books. "Nothing in particular. Like I said, I couldn't sleep."

"Okay."

She turned to me, keeping her back against the bookcase. "Will you go to bed?"

"At some point, yes."