“I’m glad. I meant it, by the way.”
“So, it’s not just because you’ve been trying to distract me from remembering that I almost broke a man’s face?”
Aditi gasped loudly, looking about the room in an exaggerated action before glancing at him again.
“You did?” she asked in an affected voice, eyes glittering with mischief. “I didn’t see that. I thought we were just hanging out. Like friends do.”
If he hadn’t been won over by her before, her charming attempt to make him smile, ignoring that he’d misbehaved in her place of work, had him wanting to go down on his knees for her.
“Why do you insist that we’re friends?” he asked instead.
“Because I like you, of course.”
It was that easy and she was unafraid to say it.
“Doc?” he called, his voice soft, his affection for her evident in the way he uttered her nickname.
“Hmm?”
“I like you, too.”
It may have felt like a big step for him, but all she did was giggle.
“I suspected it,” she teased him, shaking her head like he was silly to think this would remain hidden from her. Likehecould remain hidden.
“Hug me a little longer? I think I need it to be calm.”
The look she bestowed upon him, full of gentleness and understanding, had him leaning in and nuzzling into the nook of her neck.
“You don’t ever need a reason to ask me for a hug,” she whispered, embracing him. She stroked his head like he was a young boy she was protecting instead of an adult man who generally towered over her and outweighed her by at least thirty kilos.
He thought she would talk even more to occupy him, but apparently, she knew exactly when to say something to calm him,and when he needed the comfort of silence. The comfort of being held. The comfort of just. . .her. God, she was so easy to love.
His breath halted and his heart skipped a beat, the revelation hitting him with the force of an avalanche.
L. . .love?
The absolute shock that ripped through him had him breaking out of her embrace, shooting up to a standing position. He looked down into her concerned face, and he saw his future.
Every moment of every day belonged to her.
All of him belonged to Aditi.
She’d claimed him so thoroughly that he had no way of escaping it.
This was it, he realised, cupping her face so that his large hands covered her soft cheeks. His sights roamed over features like he was seeing her for the first time, the seed of hope within him germinating in her warmth.
This was what he’d thought he could avoid.
But how did one avoid the sun when it shone so brightly?
How did one avoid the rainbow that dominated their sky after a rainstorm?
How could Rian have ever avoided Aditi, when she was the shelter he’d been missing all his life?
In awe, he bent towards her. He wasn’t certain if he kissed her or if she raised her lips to meet his. All he knew was that a pack of bloodthirsty wolves licking at his feet couldn’t have pulled him away from her at that time. He brushed his lips against hers in a slow, long caress, going back again and again to place the sweetest kisses across her mouth, like she was the most delicate and precious thing he’d ever held.
For him, she was.