With a superhuman effort, I denied myself the drugging warmth of his embrace.

As soon as I was free of his hold, I raced to my wardrobe to collect a clean pair of clothes and rushed to the washroom.

As I stepped under the mercifully cooling flow of water from the shower, I wondered why was I becoming so aware of his touch and nearness. Why had it started to affect me so much?

At first, I felt that maybe him acting sweet with me, had shaken me up. But now I had started experiencing a magnetic attraction towards him that had mortifyingly reduced me to a positive jelly of juvenile confusion.

When I emerged from the bathroom, I did not find him in the room. Dragging the towel from my wet hair, I started to ease a comb through the tangled mass of hair.

I was so absorbed in the task that I did not hear him enter and then I suddenly saw him in the mirror, he looked exhausted from his busy day but still managed to look handsome.

His bemused gaze connected with mine and time seemed to slow down yet move in curious synchronization with the pounding of the blood in my veins.

Reaching over my head, he took the comb from my suddenly nerveless hand and calmly began to employ it with dexterity.

"I can do it myself," I said weakly.

"Your hair is the most eye-catching colour and it enhances your fair complexion," Aahil murmured wryly.

"It is just a lighter shade of brown," I completed in driven discomfiture.

"Let us concede that we met for the first time in not-so-good circumstances," Aahil murmured, "But the time for argument is now past and I want to make a fresh start."

Pale and tensed, I snatched in a ragged breath, "I need time to think. Why don't you leave me alone for some time?"

"But you know the answer to that. I'm already finding myself loving your company," His reflection threw back the reckless, dangerous smile on his sensual mouth.

I sat there like a statue while he removed the last snarl from my hair. But as his hands cupped my shoulders to slowly draw me up from the dressing table, I started to tremble.

"This...us being together," He seemed to savour the words, "It's inevitable."

Under the dark spell, I had to struggle to find the right words.

He pulled me against the hard wall of his chest and I was about to gently push him when I felt his heartbeat speeding up against my palm.

We were startled out of our magical moment by the soft knock on the door, followed by Dilshad whispering Aahil's name.

It was clearly visible that Aahil did not like the interruption but nevertheless, he went and pulled open the bedroom door. After a few sentences which were exchanged between the two men in whispers, Aahil stalked along with Dilshad towards his study.

When I woke up for fajr, I found him fast asleep on the other side of the bed, which rarely happened as most of the times he was the one to wake me up. In a bewildered daze, I surveyed him.

He looked breathtaking even with his hair tousled and weird position. Close up, I noticed how pale he was. As I recalled the roller coaster ride of emotions he was going through and how Aahil's father had outlined that he wasn't good at expressing himself, the strangest little pang of guilt nudged at my conscience and provoked in me a deep sense of concern for him.

I woke him by gently pushing him in his upper arm. But he was in deep slumber, in unconscious response, he shifted slightly but did not wake up. I suddenly felt an urge to touch his cheeks and that made me really scared. Without doubt, Aahil was a good man but I still wasn't sure whether I could trust him enough to give him my heart.

So, I turned on my heel and went to the washroom to perform ablution.

To my astonishment, I found him standing beside me when I was done with my prayers.

"Sweetheart, you need to skip your beauty sleep and accompany me to the living room," Aahil told me, his voice still husky from sleep.

I raised my eyebrows.

"We need to discuss your dad's death and the missing file so that we can unanimously trace a clue to find some solution to the existing problem."

"Don't you still believe me?" I questioned uneasily, "I know nothing."

"I do trust you darling. It's just that if your dad believed that only you could lead us, then there has to be something he has told you. Some random thing which you wouldn't have considered to be of much importance and it has slipped from your memory."

"Maybe," I gathered tautly. I still couldn't come in terms with his endearments. It did sound wonderful but wasn't suitable for our relationship.

"Just give me ten minutes and then we will go downstairs to the living room where all have planned to meet."

"All?" I asked surprised, scrunching my nose in distaste.

"Detective Green Hamilton will be here and I have asked Dilshad and Lissa to be present."

I did not like giving statements to detective's or officers. It made me feel nervous. Pure panic entered me and I was in a state of turmoil.

I started pacing up and down the length of the bedroom floor until Aahil finished his prayers.

"Please don't stress yourself. We will face it together," Aahil said gently as held out his hand for me. In response, I slid my right palm into his outstretched one.

"Shall we go?" Aahil asked and I nodded my head. We walked towards the living room with Aahil's hand firm on my shoulders.

______________
When we entered the living room. Detective Green hamilton had already made himself comfortable on the sofa and was trying his best to read the contents of the file present on his lap.

But to his utter dismay, Lissa was continuously asking him questions, even though he was shooting deathly glares her way, she barely noticed it. It seemed like Lissa was a detective and she was interrogating him.

In spite of my nervousness, I couldn't stop myself from smiling.

We took our seats opposite to them, and within a fraction of second, Dilshad appeared at the doorway and he took a seat next to the Detective.

Just then Lissa stopped her rapid-fire round with the detective and started questioning Dilshad.

He held up his hand in an act of complete surrender, "Aahil please ask her to leave. We will not be able to solve anything if this child is around."

Immediately Lissa jumped from her place and pointing her fingers towards Dilshad, she narrowed her eyes at him, "Mister, whom do you think you are addressing as a child, huh?"

"Presently, can you find any other child in this room? Other than yourself of course," Dilshad drawled with a careless shrug of his shoulders.

"I'm sure I can find a jerk trying to act smart in designer clothes," Lissa spat at him.

"Enough," Aahil commanded and instantly both stopped arguing and Lissa went back to where she had been sitting. She was wearing white and navy blue striped salwar, with an embroidered hijab and it made her appear kind of cute and bubbly.

Detective hamilton cleared his throat, "Can I?"

We all nodded our agreement.

"Needless to say, all of us are shocked by Ayaan aboobaker's death being a murder. You can be sure that whoever is responsible will be bought to justice as quickly as possible."

"We hope that it happens soon InshaAllah," Aahil replied and gently patted my hand.

"It would be great if Dilshad would brief us about the case," The detective asked then, hoping for a positive reply.

A moment later Dilshad began explaining, "A year back, a team of three members were selected to work on the UPSIDE project and their respective job's assigned. As all of the three were brilliant in their own respective fields, they were given separate laboratories."

"For eight months the research went smoothly and Mr.ayaan aboobaker was adamant that he would be the first one to handle over his success to the defence department."

Detective Hamilton interrupted, "Then what went wrong?"

Dilshad spoke up, "In the ninth month, precisely on the fifteenth day of that particular month, one of the three scientists named Hari Prasad Shetty went missing."

"Was it reported and investigated?'

"Of course, it was and the local police tried their best to search him. But it seemed like he disappeared into thin air, widout leaving behind any trace. None of his family members or friends knew where he went."

"So what conclusion did the police draw from it?"

"The case remains unsolved to date. We don't even know whether he is alive or dead. Our company is taking care of all his family expenses from the past year."

"Why wasn't all this information given to the crime investigation department from the very beginning?" The detective questioned with dismay.

"Only after Ayaan aboobaker's death, we were forced to believe that the two incidents were somehow co-related and could not be a mere coincidence." Aahil answered him, "There is someone out there who wants to damage the reputation of our company or they wanted to gain information from our scientists to use it for illegal activities. The police in charge thoroughly co-operated with us and it was his idea to hand over this case to the detectives"

"Oh," was his only response.

"I assure you, it is not going to cost A1 international our reputation. I expect your people to resolve this very quickly," Aahil was fighting to keep his voice steady.

Detective Hamilton remained silent for a few minutes and then went on, "Do you have any business rivals or enemies?"

"Rizwan Farooqui has been our business competitor from a very long time but I'm uncertain whether I can refer to him as our enemy," Aahil answered uncertainly.

"If I'm not mistaken, I believe that a few years ago your father had reported that Rizwan Farooqui had bribed one his employee to gain information about a project."

Aahil nodded his head, "Yes. And the officers tried their best to find the truth, they were successful in finding the man who was proved guilty of the act and the person agreed that he had been working on Rizwan Farooqui's orders but unfortunately he changed his statement in the court and took all the blame on himself."

"Therefore Mr.farouqui has a clear record and it won't be easy to gather proof against him," Detective Hamilton told grimly.

"You are right," Dilshad exclaimed.

Detective Hamilton sighed, "If by any chance, Mr.farouqui is the one behind all the unfortunate events then we don't need to alert him about the investigations, as this may lead to erased clues. We want him to believe that all have accepted Ayaan aboobaker's death to have occurred by an accident."

Dilshad looked at him with uncertainty and blinked, "Do you want all of us to be discreet about this?"

Detective Hamilton nodded his head and then he asked, "Who did you say was the third scientist?"

"It is Haroon Faizal," Dilshad replied.

"He has been the only one who has remained safe among the three scientists who were part of the UPSIDE project?"

"Alhamdulillah they did not target him," Aahil breathed a sigh of relief.

"And none of you ever considered him to be the man behind all the unfortunate events?"

********

Alhamdulillah:)

I'm super happy with the readership and the tremendous support I have been receiving.

Forgive the typing mistakes, if there are any, as I'm extremely tired to edit it once again.

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