Cold Wars - a Lawyer-Cop Romance

Room

He moved along her bed and took a step backwards. Her hair was accessible to him now.

“What are doing, DC?” she said and turned her head around to ask him.

He just pushed her shoulders and made her turn further from her original position to get full access to her hair. Her straight black hair was fanned across her shoulders and reached around the middle of her back. Vishwa moved her hair around to make it proper and started braiding her hair.

Shankaree sat still for once, but definitely didn’t stop talking.

“How’d you know how to tie a woman’s hair? Girlfriend?” she asked.

“Do I have to answer that?” he countered. She chuckled and said, “I guess, no.”

She might’ve realized what he was doing, because she reached out with her free hand and asked,

“Are you braiding my hair? I don't want a brai..”

But before she could touch her hair, Vishwa grabbed her hand, with one hand still holding her hair.

“Stay still.” was all Vishwa said and let go of her hand. She took her hand back and was silent for a few seconds. He was soon done with the braiding and started tying the end with the hair tie.

“Don’t touch it and make it untidy.” He said softly, but the command was there in his voice.

“Yes, Mr. Grey.” She whispered.

Did she just say ‘Yes, Mr. Grey?’. Shankaree couldn’t believe what she had said. It had just slipped out. The way he turned her, started braiding her hair, held her hand tight, all reminded her of a stubborn man doing what he wanted. Just like Christian Grey, how in a scene he braids Anastasia’s hair, before doing unspeakable things to her, of course. She was reminded of that scene, hence the fifty shades of Grey reference. For a second, she was the spineless Anastasia, who was a character she didn’t like to be honest. She had no problems with the kinky stuff, she never judged people who did things with mutual consent. The character always seemed like she had no identity, and that’s one thing she didn’t want for any woman.

But again, she had called the DC, Mr. Grey. She had only meant to tease him, but when it came out of her mouth, it came out in a meek tone, like she wanted to submit to him. There was no mocking or taunting in her voice, she whispered it like she wanted more of it.

‘God, this is so embarrassing.’ She immediately thought after the words left her mouth.

“What?” was all he said. He said ‘what?’ the last time, when she called it ‘fifty shades of DC’ after he put her in handcuffs.

‘He didn’t understand the reference. Thank God.’ She thought and turned towards him. He was standing right next to her bed.

“Nothing.” She said, regaining her voice.

They both stared at each other and then there was a knock on the door. They both turned towards the door and Shankaree said,

“Come in.”

A young nurse entered with a small tray in her hands and smiled at both of them. Her eyes then darted solely to the DC standing beside Shankaree in that ridiculous t-shirt which surprisingly looked good on him. Only he could pull off such a crap colour like that, she thought. The nurse was smiling a bit too much at him and was ogling him. She didn’t like it. There. There was the truth, she didn’t like how the nurse had hearts in her eyes when she looked at him. For God’s sake, she was blushing.

‘Pale complexion and blushing, oops.’ She thought

Thanks to her dusky skin, no one discovers when she’s blushing. It definitely came in handy while dealing with the DC, because every time he was close to her, she felt her cheeks heat up. Again, thanks to classic Indian brown skin, it didn’t show.

The bashful nurse looked down, and walked towards them. She circled Shankaree’s bed to reach the other side and set the tray on Shankaree’s bed. For some reason, even though he was standing on the other side of the bed, the DC moved away and stepped back. She saw him sitting down on a nearby oversized chair, facing her.

“You’ve to take a tetanus shot.” The nurse said to her.

“Fine. Where?” She said.

“Arms.” She said while preparing the syringe.

Shankaree tried to roll up the sleeves of her shirt but it only reached to her elbows. She gave a pathetic look to the nurse and the nurse smiled at her, finding the humour in the situation. She rolled down her sleeves and started unbuttoning her shirt. She knew the DC was in the room but she didn’t want to tell him to leave. His presence was comforting to her, no matter how much she wanted to deny it. She unbuttoned her shirt down to her chest. Her cleavage was visible but she quickly dragged her shirt to the side, pulled it enough to expose her arms. She knew her shoulder and some of her chest was also exposed, with a red bra strap resting on her shoulders. She looked away from her arms since she didn’t want to see a needle piercing her body. She looked forward, then a little to the side when she felt his gaze on her. She glanced at him to check if he was watching her and quickly turned her head when she discovered he was indeed watching. Particularly, he was watching her half naked shoulder, so much that he didn’t even notice when she glanced at him. Looking forward, she spoke.

“DC..” she rolled out the words and said ‘deeceee’ like a song.

“Hmmmm?” he said, he sang back.

“You’re staring.” She said, still looking forward, away from him, and away from the nurse.

He coughed like something got stuck in his throat and she just smiled. She enjoyed his reaction. He was caught staring. Maybe to curb his embarrassment, he stood and said,

“I’ll go get some water.”

Before he even turned, the nurse said, “We have mineral water in the cupboards.”

She was about to needle Shankaree when she stood straight and pointed the DC to the cupboards.

“Well, hot water.” He said.

“There’s an electrical kettle also in the cupboards. You can boil water in a minute.” She said and smiled at him.

“Of course.” He said, lowering his eyes, completely unable to get rid of his shame.

“There’s also tea bags and milk powder. We have it in all the rooms here.” She basically chirruped. She was trying to get noticed by the DC.

‘God woman, keep it in your pants. Wait, oversized cushion chairs, mineral water, electric kettle, tea bags and milk powder. How fancy is this hospital?’ Shankaree thought.

The DC went straight to the cupboards to get whatever he wanted to get while the nurse returned to her actual task. She gave her the tetanus shot and pressed a cotton ball on the spot she injected Shankaree with the needle. Shankaree was rubbing the area with the cotton ball and the nurse starting putting her things back on the tray. Without looking up, she asked,

“Your husband?” Shankaree could see though her peripheral vision, the DC had turned to look at her from the cupboard.

“God, no.” she scoffed, her eyes still on her arms.

“Boyfriend?” the nurse further asked.

Shankaree snorted this time and said, “No.”

The nurse wasn’t done prying, she asked again,

“Friend?” she paused. “Or brother?”

Shankaree finally looked at the nurse who was eagerly waiting for her answer. The nurse’s face had lit up, like she was excited to hear the answer. Shankaree turned her head and looked at him, who was looking at her with a kettle in his hands.

“I don’t know who or what he is.” She said with a cold voice. The DC lowered his head like he felt guilty.

‘Good, you should feel crap like I’m feeling right now.’ She said in her mind.

The nurse noticed the tension between them and slowly left the room without making any noise. The DC kept the kettle on the table and walked towards her.

“I’ve brought you food. Don’t want you to die of starvation.” He said occasionally, glancing at her shoulder. Without the thin bra strap, her shoulder was bare on one side.

“I’ll die of embarrassment before I die of starvation.” She said and pulled her shirt back to cover herself. But her plan backfired when her shirt exposed her chest and some portion of her bra while it covered her shoulder. The DC quickly turned away, and walked to the table and started unpacking the food.

“What’d you bring?” she asked, she was excited about food, like always. She tried and failed to button her shirt up with one hand because her hand with the IV drip still hurt when she moved it around.

“Pulao, Paneer butter masala, kofta and Naan also.” He said, and turned to the cupboard again. He took out a plate, large enough to fit everything he had just said.

‘What all things are in that cupboard?’ she wondered.

“You bought me vegetarian food, DC?” she teased him.

“You haven’t had any food for the past 12 hours. It's easy to digest veg meals and now you need some carbs for energy.” He said and turned.

She was still sitting there, shirt opened and cleavage exposed, defeated by shirt buttons. He looked away from her and unpacked some portions of the food and put it on the plate and brought it to her. He still wasn’t looking at her. Either he was shy to look or he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable by looking at her cleavage.

“DC.” She said in a low voice.

“Yes.” He said looking upwards.

“Look at me.” she said, in the same low voice.

She saw him swallow, like he had a lump in his throat, and slowly looked down at her face. His gaze was only on her face. His gaze didn’t wander off to her body, it was locked on her face with a soft gaze.

“You’ll have to button up my shirt.” She said without taking her eyes off him. She wanted to be confident when she said it. She didn’t want to be vulnerable or give him any idea that she was vulnerable. He glanced at her chest once and quickly turned his gaze away.

“I’ll ask for a nurse to help you, ok?” he said and turned to walk away.

“DC!” she called him again.

He turned around and looked. She shook her head ‘no’ at him. He came close to her and let out a breath. His hands moved towards her with hesitation. His gaze was constantly shifting. He looked away most of the time in some direction and only occasionally looked at her chest. He finally touched her shirt but immediately took it away like he touched fire. Hesitantly, he took the placket, one in each hand, once again. He started buttoning her shirt with his large hands, carefully, not at all touching her body.

All the while, Shankaree just looked at him, watching him do it. At first, she watched his hands buttoning, then she looked at him. A part of her thought it was absolutely crazy for her to ask a man to button her shirt. But this was just any man, this was a man she was attracted to. A man who watched her and, for a moment she wanted to believe that he was also into her. But she knew better. She knew he was only staring at her body. But after he tied her hair, brought her food and watched her like that, her messed up brain wanted this. She blamed her periods brain and the constant changes in emotions. She wanted to enjoy it all before it faded away next hour, maybe the next minute. She understood he was trying really hard not to touch her, and that he was trying his maximum not to look inside her bra or shirt. He slowly buttoned her shirt, running his beautiful hands over it, while she just looked at him. She might not be able to have him, but she could have these brief moments.