Chapter 52

EPILOGUE-1

3 MONTHS LATER

"You have got everything packed?" Manik asked her.

Nandani glanced up from the suitcase she had been struggling to zip closed. A smile tugged at her lips.

Manik's tall, lean frame in her doorway never got old. The way he looked now, in jeans and a polo shirt, dark hair falling over his face, and that knowing look in his eyes, would probably be branded on her mind as long as she lived.

"I think so. Thanks for offering to drive us to the airport," Nandani said.

He crossed the space between them, the door drifting closed behind him as he leveled her with a wry look. "My girlfriend's, No my fiancee is moving across the country. You really think I would have it any other way?"

His gaze caught on something behind her. He lifted the little wooden bridge from the empty shelf. "Tell me you are not leaving this behind."

"Hell no." Nandani took it from him, setting it carefully on top of her luggage. "I did not want to check it in my bag in case it breaks. It is coming on the plane with me."

She turned to look around the empty room.

"Are you okay?" Manik murmured.

"Yeah. Hard to believe the school's over," she replied.

"I am sure Mukti will remind you every day how glad she is," Manik replied, his mouth curving in the half-smile that got her every time. "Have to say, it has been a good year. Changing schools, I was not sure what to expect. But I had a hell of a welcoming committee."

Nandani's heart kicked in her chest as she remembered her birthday party. The shock of seeing him again after so long, and her unpredictable response to him.

As if sensing her reaction, Manik pulled her into his arms.

"I did not mean to kiss you that night," Nandani murmured.

"Technically I kissed you." His eyes were full of mischief.

"Technically, I asked you to," she amended.

"Technically... I need to have you once more in this room before we go." His smooth voice turned into a groan as his hands smoothed down her back to grab her ass.

"There are no sheets on the bed," she whispered.

His slow, smug grin had her wet. "We have been doing this for months, smart girl. Since when do we need a bed?"

Manik's touch roamed her body, lighting fires everywhere. She opened under him, kissing him back with the extra desperation that came from knowing she would not see him for another month.

Even though they had a plan for visiting each other while he was finishing his engineering internship, and she was in New York, it would not be easy.

Fortunately, Nandani knew how to go after what she wanted.

And Manik...

Manik would not be denied.

Without moving his mouth from hers, he pulled off her skirt. His fingers dug into her thighs and she moaned. "Harder."

He complied and she wanted him to mark her. Wanted to see him on her skin for days. Weeks.

Her fingers played with the edge of his hair until she could not take it. She stroked down his chest, his hard abs, struggling with his belt and jeans until he pushed her clumsy hands away.

"Relax. I have got you," he murmured in her ear.

There was zero hope of relaxing. But in less than a minute, the guy she loved more than anything was inside her, filling her.

Her head bowed back as the sensations took her over. Nothing had ever felt as good as Manik's personal brand of taking and giving at the same time.

He built her up with his touch, his body, his murmured words of wanting and promises of everything they were and could be. When she came, clenching around him and gasping his name, he groaned into her shoulder. Manik shook inside her, around her. He was her tower of strength and her undoing.

"Are you coming?" Mukti's voice hollered from downstairs as Nandani braced against the wall, struggling to catch her breath.

Manik's low chuckle in her shoulder had her lips curving.

"Yeah! One sec," Nandani called back.

Manik and she cleaned up, then he drove her and Mukti to the airport.

"Knock them dead," Manik murmured, arms around her waist just before the security line. "We shall talk all the time. It is going to be fine." Nandani nodded, swallowing.

"I love you," he said solemnly.

"I love you too," Nandani managed. She stood on her toes, pressing a hard kiss to his lips.

Manik's gaze was full of emotion and the same humor he always carried when he finally turned away. He then hugged his sister, and bid her goodbye.

Nandani fought the tightness in her chest as Mukti and she passed through security and took their seats in the boarding lounge.

"Is it still weird for you? Now that I am engaged to your brother?" Nandani asked.

Mukti looked up from her fashion magazine. "Not weird, exactly. More like sometimes... I wish I too, had someone."

Nandani squeezed her arm. "You will, Mukti. You have not been with a guy all year." Mukti's gaze flicked past her and she made a noncommittal noise.

"You haven't, right?" Nandani straightened. "When? Oh my God. The guy from the club in New York. I completely forgot! Did you sleep with him?"

Mukti's dark eyes blinked up at Nandani as she shifted. "There wasn't any sleeping."

"Mukti!" Nandani's mouth fell open. "How could you not, tell me this? Was it..."

"Good?" Mukti closed her magazine, dropping it back into her lap with a loud sigh. "Yes, it was good. Except..." Mukti played with her hair. "He was not good. He was pretty fucked up."

"He did not hurt you?" Nandani asked.

"No. But he made me feel things, I never had before," Mukti said.

Nandani studied her friend, trying to make sense of the way she was acting. She had seen Mukti's crushing on a guy mode, and this wasn't it. The fact that she had kept this inside had her wondering if it had been bugging her all along. "You have never called him?" Nandani questioned her.

Mukti shook her head. "I do not have Lucifer's number. And even if I did, I would not call. We did not exactly part on good terms."

Lucifer. The way Mukti said his name made Nandani wonder what the hell had happened between them.

"Maybe you will run into each other," Nandani was hopeful.

Mukti snorted. "Don't wait for the romance to bloom. How many people live in New York?"

"Eight point five million people," Nandani admitted.

"Right," Mukti retorted. "You do that math."

But Nandani could have sworn there was something in her eyes besides the usual fire.

An announcement calling their flight crackled over speakers, interrupting her thoughts.

Mukti grabbed her hand, and whatever troubled emotion she had been feeling was whitewashed with a blinding smell as she shouldered her handbag. "Come on, San Francisco girl. Our future is right on the other side of that gate. New York beckons us. Don't keep it waiting."

A/N: Hi, Readers. Do you want Epilogue-2? I need a loud yes if you'll want.