“I am observing her minutely. How concernedly she is dabbing and tenderly rubbing the towel on my chest. Her eyes are fixed on my upper torso but the tinge of red that is adorning her chubby cheeks indicates that she is very much aware of my intense gaze. Some droplets of water are trickling down the side of her neck shoring my desire to touch her. Unmindfully she bites her lower lip and my heart skips its beat. Her warm palm skims on the middle of my chest and it trails down towards my belly. Unknowingly a tremor runs through my every pore. She feels the shiver in my body and asks if it’s paining anywhere. My mischief mind nudges me to take the opportunity. I hum with a nod. Her pretty eyes are clouded with worry. She concernedly asks, where? I place my right palm on my heart and whisper, here. I am a good actor, indeed! My convincing moaning tone brings a deep frown to her forehead. She tries to move my hand from there and leans to observe the place minutely. Now, most of her body weight is on my upper torso. I was just waiting for this moment. At a drop of a hat, I plunge my body into the water so that she loses her balance and falls flat on me. As I thought, it perfectly goes in the same way rather a bit more. She not only falls on me but her entire upper body tumbles and slumps into the water. Now, we are totally submerged in the hot foamy water of the bathtub. I chuckle in my mind while encircling her soft body in my protective arms.”

The sudden fall startles Nandana and she clutches Aditya’s bare torso earnestly. She doesn’t know how to swim and the sudden lack of oxygen makes her panic-stricken. She tries to lift her head over the water level and gasps for air with a panting sound,

“Hahhh..hahhhhh…”

But the slippery surface of the tub makes it difficult for her to keep her body steady. She again plunges into the water. Aditya is smiling at her poor condition. Being panic-stricken she even forgets that it’s merely a bathtub and not a swimming pool. This time Nandana’s hand presses Aditya’s broken rib area and a sharp pang spreads all over his body.

“Ahhhh….ahhh…”

Aditya yells in pain and Nandana rolls down from his body, frightened. Now, Aditya is on her top and Nandana is almost sunk into the water. She feels breathless but the foamy water and the heaviness of Aditya’s masculine body don’t allow her to inhale properly. On the other hand, Aditya gets distracted for some time due to the pain and keeps closing his eyes to control it. He doesn’t notice that Nandana is struggling under his body. After some seconds, he opens his eyes and looks forward. He was expecting Nandana’s face in front of him as he thought Nandana may be reclining on the tub edge like him. However, his eyes can’t see the expected view and immediately they fall into the foamy water. In the next moment, he whiffs about the situation. Nandana is under the water and she is not moving. His heart sinks with fear. A dreadful scream comes out of his mouth,

“Nandanaaaa…”

His hands are insanely groping under the water to feel her motionless body. Ignoring the pain, Aditya grabs Nandana by her shoulders and pulls her out of the water. Her eyes are closed and her face is pale. Aditya leans her upper torso against the edge of the bathtub and sits up with difficulty. He gently pats Nandana’s cheeks while calling her with a worried voice,

“Nandana…Nandana…open your eyes…Nandana…”

But she doesn’t respond. Aditya feels her breath keeping his finger under her nostrils and his forehead lines with angst. He hesitates for a second and then leans forward to reach her face. With his left hand, he presses her nose and fuses his mouth to her lips to give her mouth-to-mouth air as due to lack of oxygen she temporarily gets choked. For almost 2-3 minutes he does the process until Nandana inhales sharply and starts coughing.

“Relax…relax…you are alright…nothing happened. Try to breathe normally.”

Aditya keeps fondling Nandana's back and helps her to recover from the trauma. After 5 to 10 minutes Nandana becomes a bit normal. She meets his worried eyes and nods to indicate that she is alright. Suddenly her eyes fall on Aditya’s shoulder and she yells in fright,

“Adityaaaa…”

.........................

“How did it happen? I told you that he shouldn’t stress his shoulder. Otherwise, the muscles will be torn again and it may affect his brain. And how his head bandage got wet? Was he taking a shower? Didn’t I instruct that for at least 7 days he shouldn’t take bath? Sponge bath was the only recommendation.”

Dr Sahani almost scolds Nandana. Aditya is lying on the bed having a fresh bandage on his head, shoulder and upper chest. Dr’s rebuke turns his jawline hard. He roars under his breath,

“She doesn’t have any fault. I insisted on a bath and she was helping me. It was an accident and I didn’t notice when my stitch started bleeding. But it’s fine. I am okay now. No pain is there.”

Dr Sahani hums dissatisfiedly,

“Hmmm…understood! But this kind of frequent accident can lead to serious complications. Being an adult you both need to understand it. We, doctors, are not magicians. Anyway, I have changed some medicine. It’s recommended to take complete bed rest. No shower, no stunt.”

Dr’s last word makes Nandana amused. She makes a suppressed sound while trying to control her laughter. Aditya glares at her and replies with equal jest,

“I prefer to choose any other place rather than my bathroom to pull a stunt. Practically someone else pulled the stunt. I just got trapped.”

Dr Sahani perplexedly moves his eyes to Aditya and Nandana and asks,

“Means?”

Finally, Nandana has to stop the topic.

“Nothing, Dr. He is joking. Henceforth I will definitely take extra care of him even if I have to be strict. (She rolls her eyes at Aditya) But Dr, I wanted to discuss something. Can we?..”

She gestures to follow her as she doesn’t want Aditya to know about it. Dr Sahani comes out of the room and Nandana leads him to the living room.

“Dr, as you know Aditya has been attacked twice but you don’t know that last night someone again tried to kill him. SP Bhosle wants him to be shifted to some unknown place so that, he can be safer. So, we were wondering to move to some other place. Is it possible? I mean won’t it be harmful to his health, right?”

Nandana asks concernedly. Dr Sahani wobbles in negative.

“Not really but make sure he doesn’t exert himself. And proper medical care is a must. If it is a matter of safety then you can go. I won’t stop you. And yes…one thing…”

Dr Sahani dithers. Nandana frowns in worry and asks,

“Yes, Dr. You can tell me without any hesitation. I will try to follow your every instruction.”

Dr Sahani takes some moments to gather his words.

“Mr Oberoi is under some mental pressure. Which I can smell. Though I am not a psychiatrist I would recommend you try to keep him happy. If he demands…I mean any private moment with you…don’t deny. A wife’s love can heal a person’s wound much more effectively than any medicine. I hope I can make you understand.”

Dr Sahani’s words spread an instant red tint to her face. She bends her head and nods. Dr Sahani writes the prescription and leaves. Only then, Ayan enters with a worried face.

“What happened Nandana Ma’am? Why the Dr? Is everything ok? Aditya Sir!...”

Nandana doesn’t let him finish.

“Yes, everything is alright. I called you for something else. Ummm…last night a goon intruded in the bungalow and again tried to attack Aditya. SP Bhose suggested moving Aditya to somewhere else where nobody gets to know about him. I don’t know anything about Aditya’s property except the farmhouse. What do you think? Where should we shift him?”

Ayan doesn’t take any time and instantly suggests,

“Panchgani…Aditya Sir used to study there in a boarding school. After that, he bought a bungalow over there. He wanted to start a hotel but things didn’t get materialised. But that bungalow is in a good condition because we have kept a caretaker and a gardener over there for overall maintenance. It will be a good place to stay.”

Nandana thinks for a while and affirms,

“We will leave tonight, Ayan. And I want you to get us over there. Nobody should know where we are.”

.............................

Nandana takes out Aditya’s clothes from the almirah and dumps them on the couch. Then she tries to pull down the suitcase from the top of the almirah but she hardly reaches it due to her short height. Aditya was observing everything but till now, hasn’t enquired anything. However, Nandana’s struggle to get the suitcase brings a mischievous smile to his lips.

“Have you ever seen a rabbit jumping to get the carrot kept on a table?”

Nandana turns at him with a frown. She tries to measure if there is any sign of teasing on his face. But Aditya makes a poker face and again says,

“Why don’t you take help from your Snowy and Moose? I think they will do a better job than you.”

Nandana walks towards the bed where Aditya is sitting and asks annoyedly with rolling eyes,

“What do you mean? I am short? I can’t pull down that tiny suitcase?”

“I didn’t mean anything. I was just wondering how did you drown in a bathtub? I mean, really?”

His voice has explicit jest. Nandana gapes in surprise and rushes toward Aditya with balled palms. But before she could reach the bed, her leg gets stuck with the floormat and she stumbles to directly land on the bed.

“Nandana…”

Aditya yells and tries to support her but he also loses his balance and falls on Nandana’s body because of his injury. Their eyes get locked. Aditya huskily mumbles,

“I think we are getting accident-prone. But I don’t mind sleeping…oops slipping with you.”