THE BEST PROPOSAL

CHAPTER 2.

UNEDITED

PLEASE IGNORE TYPOS AND GRAMMATICAL ERRORS.

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Kiara struggled to open her eyes as she pulled the comforter up to her neck while stretching her legs underneath. The more she gained consciousness, the memories of previous events of the day came back to her as she suddenly sat up straight on the bed, realising that she fell asleep while watching Aditya’s conference and waiting for him in his cabin, but now she was in bed and as far as she remembered, it wasn’t the bedroom attached to the cabin, Kiara looked around and spotted Aditya sitting in a corner of the room, on the floor by the floor-to-wall ceiling glass door, reading something. Kiara was confused as there was a sofa set on the right side of the room, still, he was sitting on the floor in a corner by the floor-to-ceiling sliding glass door.

In her own daze, Kiara didn’t even realise when Aditya noticed that she was awake and walked closer to her and sat down beside her on the bed.

“Did you sleep well?” Aditya asked staring intently at her as Kiara just stared at him blankly, still lost, as Aditya snapped his fingers in front of Kiara, ending her daze as Kiara looked around the room embarrassed.

“Where are you lost?” Aditya asked placing his hand on her shoulder as Kiara just shook her head, not sure about what to answer.

“Did you sleep well?” Aditya asked again as this time Kiara looked at him and nodded with a smile.

“How long did I sleep for?” Kiara asked rubbing her eyes in order to clear her blurry vision.

“Just a little over three hours.” Aditya replied casually but Kiara’s eyes widened in shock.

“Three hours? I slept for three hours?” Kiara was shocked as Aditya nodded but what she said next surprised him.

“I’m so sorry Mr Malhotra, I didn’t mean to fall asleep after I made you skip work, I’m so sorry for wasting your time, I know how important is each passing minute for you, I’m really sorry.” She apologised with all her heart as Aditya just stared at her, he didn’t think that Kiara would notice such a minor detail and apologise for it even when he promised her that the rest of his day after the meeting belonged to her.

“Don’t apologise Kiara, as I told you before, after the meeting I would spend time with you, and even though you were asleep, we were still together, so in the end, we did spend some time together.” Aditya explained as Kiara nodded, but she still felt guilty for wasting Aditya’s precious time.

“Anyways, get changed, I’ve placed some comfortable clothes for you in the bathroom, the gown must be uncomfortable.” Aditya said pointing at a door in the right as Kiara nodded.

“By the way, where are we?” Kiara asked as she slid the comforter off of her body while Aditya too got up from the bed and picked up the file that he was reading earlier, and that’s when she noticed that Aditya had changed into some casual and comfortable clothes too.

“He looks so different in casual clothes then in formals.” She thought to herself when she heard Aditya’s reply.

“It’s my house, or I should say, our house, starting today.” Kiara’s heart skipped a beat hearing Aditya address it as their house, his and hers.

“Oh!” It was the only thing that escaped Kiara’s mouth as she got up and went to the bathroom to take a shower and get changed.

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Kiara came out of the bathroom wearing Aditya’s sweatshirt that hung loosely on her tall, delicate and slender body, which lasted just above her knees, with water droplets from her waist-length, ink-black hair soaking the sweatshirt, as she walked near Aditya who was sitting on the bed, leaning against the headrest, reading his file, but turned to look at her as she walked closer to him.

“Your lower is way too big for me.” She whispered as she sat down on the bed beside him, covering her bare, naked legs with the white comforter while looking down as she felt Aditya’s hot, piercing gaze on herself, even though his gaze didn’t make her feel uncomfortable, she was still shy because, despite the fact that he was her husband, he was still a stranger. Being a model, she was used to wearing revealing clothes and hence she was also used to the constant gazes from people, which helped her differentiate between the people with wrong intentions and others, and that very experience made her let her guard down in front of Aditya, she somehow felt safe around him.

As Aditya noticed that Kiara’s hair was still wet, he without a word increased the temperature of the air-conditioner so that Kiara didn’t catch a cold, since she was his wife he was aware of his responsibility towards her and their marriage, and keeping her safe and healthy was one of them, and even though he didn’t think much of his action, Kiara, on the other hand, noticed his little gesture which made her respect and trusts her stranger husband, it made her believe that he wasn’t a man of just mere words, he believed in keeping them, and in their case, he was trying is best to make their marriage work and accept Kiara as his wife.

“So, what is it that you wanted to talk about?” Aditya asked as he kept his file, that he was reading, aside and turned his head to look at Kiara, who was now playing with her fingers, with her gaze fixed on her fingers.

“Look, Kiara, I’ll be very honest with you, the only reason that I got married today is that my grandfather forced me to, he is in the hospital right now recovering from a heart attack he suffered two days ago, if not for him I had no intentions of getting married right now.” Kiara finally looked at Aditya, carefully listening to whatever he had to say, as he continued.

“The women I was waiting for at the Church, was someone that I was going to enter into a contract marriage with for six months, starting today, and truthfully, we weren’t even going to get married in the Church, we were there just to click some pictures as an evidence to prove it to my grandfather that I indeed got married, and for which I was going to give her my own majority shares in one of the MALKOP’s leading subsidiary company, but when I accepted your proposal and we got married in the Church, I promised myself that I’ll do everything in my power to make this marriage work, I promised to be the best husband to you and work my best to gain your trust.” If in the morning, when Kiara had no idea what she was going to do after breaking up with Anant in front of the Church in that white wedding dress and ending her two-year long friendship with Subha, someone would have told her that she was going to end up marrying a stranger, someone who would be so honest and clear about his intentions, she would have laughed till she couldn’t breathe, she was ready to face the worst when she decided to marry Aditya randomly by just hearing his conversation with Karam, she didn’t know who he was at that moment, it was only when she reached near them that she realised who she was making the offer to, but the luck turned out to be in her favour and she ended up marrying the most powerful person in India, excluding the politicians, and, listening to whatever Aditya had to say, Kiara couldn’t stop herself as tears welled up in her eyes, but Aditya continued.

“I know that you are trying and putting in your best effort to make this marriage work, and I appreciate that we both know this fact very well that no one claps with only one hand, similarly, only one person can’t make a relationship work, both individuals need to put in their efforts in order for a relationship to work, therefore, all I’m asking for you is to have faith in me and trust me, trust is the most important thing in a relationship, it holds the power of destroying a relationship in seconds, I promise to trust you and be honest to you about each and everything, and expect the same from you, we can work on everything together, but these two things are the foundation of every relationship, and I want the foundation of our relationship to be strong and breakable, I don't care about your past, all I care about is your present and future, our present and future.” Kiara nodded hearing Aditya as tears flew out of her eyes uncontrollably as she was left speechless, from whatever she had heard about this man from the media and people around, to the man she was with were completely different with some similarities, even when she practically offered to marry him, she didn’t expect him to be so open, clear and considerate to her about their relationship, and this only made her determined to work hard and become someone that this man could proudly call his wife, she was determined to become someone who wouldn’t bring embarrassment to him, for her, proving it to herself that she could still achieve her dream wasn’t her only goal anymore, her goal now was to fulfil her dream and become someone that her husband could proudly call his wide with facing any kind of embarrassment. It was the first time that she was crying in a while, she herself didn’t understand why she couldn’t control her emotions in front of Aditya.

Kiara was once again lost in her own thoughts while staring at Aditya as he gently cupped her cheeks and wiped off her tears using his thumb bringing Kiara back to reality.

As she felt his warm, rough hands against her cheeks, Kiara came back to her senses as she took Aditya’s hands in hers and looked directly into his eyes.

“Mr Malhotra, I promise to be completely honest with you in our relationship and trust you with all my heart, all my doubts, fears and concerns are now gone, and I promise to become someone that you are proud to call your wife, just give me some time and have faith in me.” Kiara was determined and Aditya knew it, it was clear from her eyes and voice, and this was something that attracted Aditya to Kiara, she was fearless and determined to achieve her goals.

“I trust you, and that’s why you shouldn’t cry.” Aditya assured her as he freed his hands from her grips and wiped her tears once again.

“I usually don’t cry this easily, but it’s the first time in my entire 23 years of existence that someone has shown so much trust in me and is ready to invest their time and emotions in me, I just couldn’t hold myself back.” Her voice broke as she expressed her feelings to Aditya, who in return just pulled her closer, hugging her by wrapping his arm around her shoulder and caressing her cheek with his free hand as she comfortably lay her head on his shoulder.