A/N. It's a really short update. You've been warned. :)

The evening sky was all kinds of beautiful. But not as beautiful as the woman staring at it. They had gone over a lot of their likes and dislikes. Most of which he was already aware of. Her love for books, music and art. Her favorite food, color. Her idea of an ideal date. Her idea of unwinding. Her idea of a vacation. She loved to travel, she was huge geek and she was a neat freak. All the things he was well aware of.

He didn't know how he ended up collecting and remembering bits and pieces of her, but he was surprised that he knew quite a lot about her. In making a conscious effort to keep her at bay, he didn't realize just how much he was aware of her. How much had seeped through the cracks in the walls he had put up against her. And how unknowingly she had become a quick fixture in his life.

When he had seen her holding the photo album, he had felt a pang of intense longing. Something he had felt in her presence in the these past five years more often than he allowed himself to admit.

He knew the night from three years ago, had flashed through her head just as it had through his. She'd been there for him in the moment the way no one ever had.

It had been so difficult to reconcile Simi with the little girl who had been dotted upon by her parents, who had been loved so much that he was sure the resulting void couldn't be filled just by him. He knew what it had been like to live without a mother, but at least he had had his sister. And his father. They had loved him a little extra to fill in the void his mother had left in his heart. But his little niece was robbed of the love from both her parents at the tender age of three! How cruel did life have to be!

He had been angry and resentful. Unable to deal with the loss of his sister, unable to deal with the loss of his best-friend and mentor his brother-in-law, and unable to deal with the fact that something this brutal could happen to his precious niece. He had always been her favorite, the fun uncle. He was there to spoil her when her parents took turns been stern or being the bad cop. His duty had only been to be a co-conspirator, to sneak in as much candy to the child as possible. But now suddenly he was stepping into her parents shoes. Shoes he'd never thought he'd be able to fill. And he had no clue how to deal with it. He was too afraid to mess it up for Simi. Too afraid to do something wrong and end up hurting her. So he ran. Ran from all the responsibilities. Ran from confronting his grief. Ran from his precious child.

It was Aisha that had the courage to knock some sense into him. It had been Aisha who had made him see how wrong he had been. It had taken a lot of learning and effort on his part to learn to become a parent. He was essentially a single parent, raising his child with a lot of help from his father, her nanny, tons of books on parenting, counselors and of course Aisha herself.

They had a weird non-relationship since that day three years ago. Not to mention, something had shifted between them since that day. Not only had he kept his distance from her, but he had felt her withdraw a little as well. She completely stopped trying to reach out and be polite to him. Instead she had become this antagonistic presence in his life. Not letting her dislike of him stay unknown. Sometimes he thought she would deliberately iterate why she loathed him. She did slip up on occasions. Especially when they both happened to spend time around his family together.

For him it was the other way round. That was the first time he had felt a pang of longing. Standing there, holding her as if his life depended on it, he had felt such longing as he had never before. He didn't want to let go of her. He wanted her to stay there in his embrace forever. To see her looking up at him with that smile of reassurance, warmth and comfort. To be deserving of care from her. Fierce longing. So fierce that it left him shook. He had forced himself to put some distance between them. Remind himself of all the reasons it was never something he could do. And though he had set the boundaries back where they had belonged, he was never really able to rebuild that wall again. Those cracks just remained there, and his appreciation for her only grew over time.

"I will call my parents in an hour and talk to them the way we discussed. Do you want to go over it again?"

Her voice jerked him back to reality. She turned to look at him, and he had to blink a couple times to gather back his thoughts.

"No. I trust that you've got it under control. Unless you feel like you want to go over it again?"

She shook her head. "The more I rehearse it the more guilty I feel about lying to them. I think it's better not to go over it again."

Guilt shot through him as he saw sadness consume her face, and her eyes getting misty. He didn't know how or when he walked up to her and put his arms around her.

She tensed a little in his arms before relaxing into the embrace. He ran his hand through her hair, trying to offer some comfort in any way he could. Slowly he saw her body shake with what he assumed were sobs. Guilt ate at him as he held her while she cried. Cried with the pain he knew he had caused her. She was about to lie to her parents in the biggest way possible. And it was all his fault. When her body finally stopped shaking she pulled away a little to look up at him. Her face showed sadness and confusion and a bit of resentment. He sighed as he held her close with an arm around her waist and used his other hand to wipe away the tear tracks on her face.

"Don't beat yourself about it. Push whatever guilt you are feeling about lying to your parents onto me. Vilify me as much as you want, but try to spare yourself. Remember you don't have a choice in this situation. I have taken away all the choice. I'm the bad guy, so go ahead and put the blame on me."

He saw confusion engulf her face with something else he couldn't quite name. Something that was making his heart race and stirring his arousal. The absolute horrid timings of his arousals around her had always been a nightmare for him. This was no different. She was glued to his body from waist down as he held her to comfort her. As he held her to make sure she transferred the blame and guilt to him, just as he deserved. But here he was lusting after her instead of feeling pure guilt. He knew the exact moment she realized this, as her eyes grew a little wider, her fingers that clutched at his shirt twitched and her mouth let out a tiny gasp of recognition.

It was like a match had been lit between them. Charging the air with heat. He saw her face getting warmer as they stared into each other's eyes. There was no escaping it, the guilt in his mind was almost instantly replaced by pure desire. He let his other arm join the first one at her waist. Not pulling not pushing, just holding her there. He had promised her she would be the one leading any physical intimacy between them. So even if it killed him, he would wait. Even though he was almost a 99.9% sure she wanted it, he was going to let her initiate. He would wait.

He let his thumbs brush her waist in what he hoped were soothing strokes. He wanted to let her know it was okay, whatever she decided to do. He wanted to let her know he was feeling what she was feeling. He felt something change in her eyes and he knew what was coming. He knew before it came as his eyes closed in anticipation even before her lips met his.

A/N.

Yes. I know!! I know it's been long since the last update. But life got in the way. The whole pandemic situation hasn't been easy and things changed in a way where I felt blocked while writing this.

I hope everyone is doing well. I received so many messages asking about updates, I'm really grateful that most have been really polite.

Want to thank all the readers who've given so much love to this book. You're the biggest reason I continue to write this!

Love,
AnjaaniWriter