Yes

Anika shuddered as those thoughts struck her. She looked into his eyes, and he smiled at her.

"Anika." Shivaay whispered.

But Anika was a goner. Seeing his eyes from so close after so long, with a different emotion lurking behind them, Anika felt a knot tie itself in her stomach. His one hand travelled up her arms and rested on her neck, his thumb tracing along her jaw. She took a sharp breath in.

"Anika?" Shivaay called out once again, his voice a mere whisper, urging for her to respond.

"Hmm?" She mumbled, still in daze.

Before anything could happen, they were pushed and their stupor was broken, their holds on each other loosening. As Anika realised what was happening, her cheeks heated up. Shivaay ran a hand through his hair, trying to calm himself down and not fire at whoever was responsible, while Anika walked away and left Shivaay behind, sighing.

---

It was a couple of hours later that Anika stood by the deck, leaning onto the rails, her eyes fixated on the lights from the island. Tiny specks in the absolute dark, managing to fight it off nonetheless.

Avni had told her that she was going with a few friends in the club under the deck, and would only be back later in the night. Anika had politely declined their offer to join and had moved to this place, not minding the cool sea winds biting at her exposed skin.

She suddenly felt a tingling sensation and looked at her right to find Shivaay leaning on the rails as well, his eyes observing the water below.

"You look deep in thought." Shivaay spoke, looking anywhere but her.

When he had walked on the deck, wanting to find a peaceful place to settle for sometime, he saw Anika standing there, her hair flowing in the air, eyes staring at something beyond and her face adorned with a serene smile. She looked nothing less than beautiful. He took slow steps towards her.

After she had helped him out and brought to light Tia's marriage and her plans to cheat on them, Anika was gone. No, she didn't stop visiting the Mansion, meeting up with Om and Rudra at some cafeteria every other day. She just managed to hide from him. Very well. And whenever he did manage to catch her off guard by coming back home in the afternoon or not going at all, somehow he never got to talk to her. Every member of his family loved Anika and that resulted in no chance for him to grab.

In this lack of communication between them, Shivaay realised the magnitude of his feelings for her.

He missed her charming, bubbly yet ferocious, adorable yet annoying self, buzzing around him. Now that she wouldn't talk to him, he felt lost. Unimportant, even. At first, he thought she didn't like talking to him but later realised that she was also aware of that something between them. He wasn't sure of her feelings, no, because she definitely had learnt at least one thing from him. To mask whatever went on inside her head. But he was positive that she knew what was up with him and so she started avoiding him.

He would have come for Aryan's wedding, yes, but probably not for the whole two week span. When he traced Anika's location, no part of him was anxious for her safety because he knew, he would have been restless if sonething had happened to her. That deep was what he felt for her.

So, he decided that if he wanted to give it a chance, to ask her to give it a chance, he would have to catch her off guard. On a bigger level this time. What better than an island she couldn't escape? It was only his luck that she was attending the same wedding as him, rather arranging it.

And with these thoughts in mind, he walked towards her, not meeting her eyes.

"It's... nothing." Anika shook her head lightly.

"You can tell me if something is troubling you." Shivaay finally looked at her, genuinely concerned.

"The Great Wall of Shivaay Singh Oberoi in in action, huh?" She chuckled lightly.

"Tell me!" Shivaay insisted, ignoring her attempt to divert the topic.

"I swear it's nothing. I was just thinking how the world is so big," she stressed on 'so', "and what I have explored is so less. Don't you think I could actually visit a lot of countries only by getting into this whole wedding planner thing a bit more seriously? Think about it, destination weddings are so in right now! But then, I will have to leave Sahil all alone, I can't really do that." Anika didn't know why she rambled out these random thoughts to him.

"Plus," she continued anyway, "it's not like I want to run away from these responsibilities. And then, I will have to have previous experience everywhere." She stopped talking suddenly, realising that she was talking about things that didn't make sense. She was surprised when she heard him hum lightly, looking deep in thought.

"I have an idea." He suggested, his brows furrowed in concentration as he thought of something.

"You could leave Sahil at the Oberoi Mansion. Everyone loves him just as much you do. Then, we could visit all the places you want. I have visited a lot of places, so I could help you find good destinations, hotels, build contacts. Think about it, I take you to places and you charm people like you usually do." Shivaay smiled lightly.

Anika looked at him with an amused smile. "Why would I travel with you?"

"Well, experience." Shivaay shrugged as if it were obvious.

Rolling her eyes, she closed her eyes, letting the breeze gently play with her.

"Thanks for the offer Billuji, I will think of it." With that she started to walk off. His suggestion had made her heart leap unnecessarily and she needed to get away. He would manage to get past every defence that she built against him and reach her heart.

She had taken only a few steps when he called her out again. She turned around, her feet feeling jumpy at his raspy voice. He turned lightly and his fingers smoothly grabbed her wrist, pulling her back.

She didn't realise what was happening until she saw him very close to her, looking at her deeply, his hands around her waist and his forhead pressed against hers.

"I was serious, you know? It is no hidden fact that there is something between us. In the last few weeks, it has only grown into so much more Anika. I am so sure you are aware of this thing too. I want you to give it a chance. I know this seems really out of the blue, but I can't wait any longer."

Anika only stared at him while he waited for a response.

"It's okay if you don't feel the same way, but I was sort of sure you do..." Shivaay trailed off, suddenly feeling very awkward under her blank stare.

Damn impulsiveness.

He mentally cursed himself a thousand times for telling her this without thinking of the possibilities, for being so lost in the calm of the moment, for making things so much more awkward between them. He could think of no excuse to escape what had turned into a very embarrassing situation.

Suddenly, Anika kept a hand on his cheek making him look at her, not really meeting her eyes.

Anika chuckled lightly as she saw Shivaay Singh Oberoi staring at the ground nervously. That made him look upwards with a questioning look.

He looked adorable with that confused and lost expression but Anika decided she liked her man with only tadi. Deciding to rile him up a bit, she pulled his cheek and cooed. "You look so cute."

That got a much better reaction out of him than she had anticipated. He looked horrified.

Anika had been trying to control but when he scowled, she burst into laughter while Shivaay stood there, still confused.

Fhat the wuck happened to her?

When she finally controlled herself, she grinned. "I was almost sure you didn't even realise, Stupid Singh Oberoi."

She pecked his nose lightly. To her amusement, Shivaay gave her an extremely confused look.

"Anika, can we speak in a normal lamguage?"

Anika sighed. "Mr. SSO, what I meant was, yes I do realise that there is something between us. Yes, I do feel the same way you talk about. Yes, I am willing to give us a chance." She smiled brightly at him.

Shivaay's face slowly formed a grin as he processed her words. Who knew being impulsive will turn out to be so good?

---

Lol, much like them, even my update was impulsive. So, what are your thoughts? Who expected that I would let this happen so early into the story?

Drop in what you felt about this update. I am quite anxious since I haven't even proof read once :P

BlackManiacx

P.S. 500+ votes in just 1.7K reads. The ratio keeps getting better with every book. XD Thank you so much <3

And, not to forget, Happy 2 years of Ishqbaaaz / ShivIka to all of you! :*