Chapter 24 #3
For a moment, they were both silent. Sampath kept looking at her wrist, held gently in his. ‘I missed you.’
‘Sampath …’
‘I missed you so much,’ he said. His gaze was still fixed on her wrist. ‘Every time I saw something interesting, I wanted to show it to you. Every time someone said something funny, I thought, “Kalpana would have liked that.” I thought about you all the time. Every minute, of every day.’ He finally looked up and met her eyes.
‘It’s like my world was missing an integral part of it without you.
’ His eyes were full of emotion; pain, longing. All the things she felt right now.
She would have dearly loved to kiss him again, but she knew how that went. She turned her hand over, so that her fingers rested on his forearm. ‘When I kissed you before, you rejected me,’ she said. She hadn’t meant it to sound accusing, but it did.
‘I had to. It was an awkward time. Because you’re my client.’
She couldn’t take her eyes off him. ‘I’m not your client now …’
She stroked his arm with her fingertips and saw his chest expand in response. A fleeting smile touched the corners of his mouth. ‘No. You’re not.’
He rose on his knees to kiss her. The moment his mouth met hers, she felt her world shift. This time, he was definitely kissing her back. There was no imagining this. She ran her free hand up his chest and over his shoulder. He put his arm around her and pulled himself closer.
As the kiss deepened, she wondered how she had ever mistaken anything else for this.
This desire … that was burning in her belly and spread through her whole body until it pooled in the hollows of her hands and the curl of her toes.
She laced her fingers into his hand. His body pressed against her knees.
She parted them and he pulled her even closer.
She was so close to the edge of the sofa now that she was about to fall off and land in his lap. She had no objections to this. She put her injured hand up to brace herself, pain shot up her arm and made her jump.
Sampath pulled back. ‘Are you okay?’ He looked down at her arm, which was now resting against his chest. When he looked up again, his forehead was creased with concern. ‘You’re hurt and you’re tired. Do you need some time to recover? Should I … go?’
‘No.’ She gripped as much of his jumper as she could.
‘I missed you too and I’ve only just got you back.
You have no idea what these past few weeks have been like.
I’ve been so unhappy. I wasn’t even bothered about Marcus.
All I could think about was you.’ She shook her head.
‘I’m definitely not ready to let you disappear again. ’
His smile was a thing of such beauty that she couldn’t believe she was lucky enough to see it.
He helped her to her feet, being careful of her painful arm. ‘I don’t want to disappear again either,’ he said. ‘You’re sure you wouldn’t like a bit of alone time, though? You’ve had a hell of a busy afternoon and I can always come back in an hour or two.’
She reached up and stroked his face. She was so relieved that he was here with her that she had to keep touching him to make sure he was real.
‘No,’ she said. ‘Not letting you go. Not for an hour. Not for a minute.’
Sampath smiled again, a more mischievous smile this time. He lowered his face and looked into her eyes. ‘So, what do you suggest we do, then?’ His voice had dropped a fraction lower and his eyes were twinkling.
Kalpana grinned. He was teasing her and she loved it. Who knew that being in love was meant to be fun? ‘Well,’ she said, trying to dampen back her smile. ‘I could do with a little lie-down.’
He moved closer and placed a soft kiss on her jaw. ‘Really?’
She laughed and tugged him towards her bedroom. ‘You could help me with that.’
When she’d got him into her room, he stood at the foot of her bed, looking around. She had a shelf with copies of her books on it. He leaned forward to examine them.
She flopped onto her bed and groaned with relief. For all her talk, she was exhausted. Maybe, if she could hold onto him to make sure he didn’t disappear, she could actually have a little sleep …
Sampath lay down next to her. ‘Kalpana, you’re practically dropping off. Have a nap. I’ll stay with you.’ He stretched out an arm.
She moved closer and put her head on his shoulder. ‘You promise?’
He loosely curved his arm around her, then held up his free hand. In it was one of her older books. ‘I promise. I’ve got an excellent book to read.’
She snuggled in. ‘That’s all right then,’ she said, sleepily.
They lay there for a moment. Sampath bent his knee, propped the book up against his thigh and began to read. Kalpana closed her eyes. She could hear his heart beating. Sampath’s fingertips stroked her arm, where he was holding her. It was the gentlest, most comforting thing. She closed her eyes.
She was almost asleep when he pressed a gentle kiss onto the top of her head and whispered, ‘Kalpana. I think I’m in love with you.’
‘I think the feeling’s mutual,’ she murmured and fell asleep, listening to his beating heart and the rustle of the turning page.