I stood in the kitchen in a daze, trying to prepare breakfast. Without realising it, I had been staring at the wall in front of me for a while now.

"Zaira—what should I do? I am so madly in love with you."

Once again, his words rang in my ear and I felt myself blush furiously. With a shake of head, I looked away.

And that's when my gaze fell on the smoke coming from the toaster. Quickly, I lunged for it; only to pull out the burned toasts which I let go with a shriek after feeling the heat burn my skin.

"I am so madly in love with you."

Argh!! Stop it—!

I dropped to my knees with a groan to pick up the charred goods but instead of doing that I hid my feverish face in my trembling hands. The intensity with which my heart was hammering against my chest these days, was very soon going to make me hypertensive.

Further speculation was interrupted by the realisation that he might come in any minute. It had been a while since he came back from his morning jog and would be out of shower any minute now.

With a quickened pulse, I pulled away my hands and got up on week legs. Giving a final pitiful glance to the wasted food in my hand, I kicked open the dustbin to discard them and was so absorbed in my mourning that I didn't hear his footsteps behind me.

"Did they burn—" I had only felt the hot brush of his breath against my exposed neck and it was enough to make me jump up in a fright. I gave a yelp at his voice and had to clamp my mouth shut to quiet down.

"Sorry—Didn't mean to scare you—" He said with an awkward chuckle to the back of my head and it took every last bit of my strength to not become a puddle of raging emotions, while I slowly turned around to face him.

His mouth still had remnants of earlier smile but my gaze lingered on the water dripping down his dark chestnut brown hair, making them appear even darker.

"What's for breakfast?" He questioned, turning his gaze towards the stove. Instead of coming up with a reply, I was finding it difficult to tear my gaze away from the gleam in his hazel green eyes; wondering did they always shine this bright—

"Pancakes for you, I am guessing—" His eyes found mine and I felt my heart skip a beat.

"I think I am so madly in love with you."

With a gasp, I whipped my head to the other side; moving away to create as much distance from him as possible.

Ya Allah! Why can't I stop thinking about last night?!!

I whimpered internally; plating his eggs and sausage and getting out more bread.

"Do you need hel—" He suddenly came to my side, reaching for the bread but I flinched away with a jerk. The proximity had caught me off guard and I accidentally dropped the packet, in process.

His hand paused mid-air, as he gaped at me startled. In return, I could only watch him through quivering lips.

"I am in love—"

That's all I could hear, even while he eyed me in shock—opening his mouth to say something, but turned away with a frown.

"Sorry—I—that— suddenly—" I tried to explain in broken sentences when he bent down to pick up the forsaken food.

When he looked up, there was an inscrutable look on his face—which made the hair stand on back of my neck.

For a long moment, he didn't say anything but then his gaze flicked down from my eyes and when they returned, there was without any doubt a faint glow in his eyes.

"You're still wearing it—" He remarked plainly but there was a shadow of smile in his voice. I gaped at him dumbfounded before following his gaze to my neck. Without meaning to—my hand involuntarily shot up to clutch the necklace.

"That—I—I didn't get a chance—to take it off." I stammered with a frown and colouring cheeks. Still clutching at it unconsciously, I shied away from the look of delight in his eyes.

"Hmm." I heard him say at last before he stalked out of the kitchen, leaving me trembling with a million emotions.

————————————

For the nth time, I looked up up from my phone and stole a quick glance at him who was immersed in his MacBook, completely oblivious of my shameless ogling.

With a sigh, I returned my gaze back to my phone, wondering if he had found out that I was awake last night. It was really hard to not react immediately after that but it was even harder to open my eyes and face the truth at that moment. So, after fighting an internal battle for what I hoped to be a lot more than a few minutes, I got up and returned to my room; acting ignorant of whatever passed before that.

While I had to spend a sleepless night; spellbound by his secret confession; the culprit was here still on loose going about his usual business without facing any penalty. So unfair.

Feeling a sudden rush of anger, I looked up but what I didn't expect was for him to look up at that moment too. My heart skipped a beat at this sudden eye contact and I could feel another episode of arrhythmia coming as I averted my gaze.

In attempts to calm down my crazily beating heart, I fixated my gaze to my phone but was still conscious of his every move. That's why when I saw him close his laptop and get up from the corner of my eyes, I couldn't help but look up.

However, what almost made me go into cardiac arrest was when he came to stand over my head with a smug look on his face. I gaped at him in anticipation and had to gulp to be able to breathe again.

"Hi." He greeted casually and the next few seconds passed in a blur. He slumped on the couch next to me before straightening out my legs and resting his head on them.

I gawked him in a trance, who was now busy trying to find a comfortable position.

"Wha—what are you doing—" It wasn't possible to recognize my own voice which was trembling in shock. I stared down at him who had finally become comfortable and had shut his eyes while turning to his side. I almost pushed him away when I felt his warm breath tickle my stomach.

"Taking a nap?" His response came in a hum.

"You—You— can't—"I stammered, feeling at a complete loss of senses.

"No?" He questioned, perking his head to meet my gaze. I could only gape at him horrified who seemed to be quite contented with this scenario.

"—No!" I quaked out to find him shoot me a smirk before snuggling closer and wrapping his arms around my waist. I almost jumped away from the contact but his solid yet, gentle hold grounded me. Almost all at once, I felt a million electricity bolts exploding through my body. I thought I would pass out from the never ending tingles shooting through my body.

"Oh—but I just did—" I felt his mouth move against the sensitive skin of my waist; separated only by the thin fabric of my shirt. I jerked in my seat with a gasp and clapped a hand to my mouth to stop from letting out any weird noise.

"Rayya—n!!" I gasped out through the slits of my fingers and pushed the other shaky hand to his shoulder. Yet, he didn't stir for a moment.

"Hmm—you can either push away or let me sleep for a while—I haven't got much sleep for a while, thanks to someone—" If the vibrations of his voice wasn't making it impossible for me to make any sensible moves, I wouldn't have been able to keep quiet at all.

After a few moments, when he had stopped moving and all I could feel was his warm, damp breath against my tummy; I pulled away the hand from my mouth and clutched at the arm rest.

I couldn't move but only stare at his seemingly sleepy figure on my lap with a growing sense of anger. With tears prickling the corner of my eyes, I bit down on my lips and glared through clenched teeth at the hateful man in my lap.

'He definitely knows that I know—and he is getting back at me like this—jerk!'

And only when I felt his breathing had evened out, did I allow myself to feel the softness of his hair with a trembling hand.

——————————————

I was busy boring angry holes into his back, who moved around the kitchen with the swift and easy motions of a Pro. I knew I was a novice in kitchen, because I had never before needed to cook for myself, until I came here.

I had offered to help but he turned me down saying I do it every day and since it was the weekend he should be the one to prepare dinner.

Still sulking from the events of afternoon, I was wondering why couldn't the weekend be over already. I had to yet, face one more day of torture and already I was beginning to regret my words from last week.

'Have to clear my exams quickly and leave through the backdoor—before I let this devil eat me alive.'

As if he heard my thoughts, he whipped his head to meet my gaze. Immediately, I averted my eyes to the glass of water in my hand.

However, thankfully the anger from before was still fresh and alive in my memory. So, when I felt him coming towards me, I looked up with a glare raising my chin at him in declaration of war.

But to my utter humiliation, it turned out that he was only reaching for the spices on the shelf over my head. I heard him chuckle while moving away and with an internal groan, I turned my gaze down in embarrassment.

"Shorty." I heard him whisper.

With a jolt, I looked up to find a sly grin on his face.

"You—! You really need to stop looking down on me!" I announced through gritted teeth. At this, he turned around and literally looked down at me. I could only gape at him wide eyed, unable to get out any word.

"You—you—dare do it again?!" I cried out enraged but he only shot me an evil grin.

"I might be short—! But I can take you on—! And—and if you think I can't fight back—" My words got caught in the back of my throat when he started to stalk towards me. It felt like déjà vu and the muscle memory made me inch backwards until my back was touching the edge of countertop. I gaped at him trembling in fear when he bent down to my face, leaning in closer and caging me in his embrace.

"Rayyan—if you do anything—I'll kill you—" The words coming out of my mouth sounded more like a plead than a threat which I was trying to go for. At my words I noticed the flicker of hurt cross his eyes which was immediately replaced by a hardened look.

"Is it really that hard for you to believe that I am in love with you?" He whispered with a straight face but it was impossible to miss the crack in his voice.

I gaped at him, stunned by this unexpected confession but could hardly feel anything besides apathy as I shirked away from his penetrating gaze.

"There's no such thing as love. You're mistaking physical attraction for it—" I returned indifferently, still not daring to meet his eyes. Not even, when I felt him inch closer to the exposed side of my nape. His warm breath tickled my bare skin while his hands found mine and intertwined his fingers through mine.

"If that's what I desired, then I would have already devoured every inch of you by now—and there was nothing you could have done to stop me—" He whispered against my neck and before I could protest any further, a sharp pain piercing through the skin of my neck made me gasp.

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