I leaned forward and took him by surprise by kissing him. That same thing flared between us and I knew then, that whatever happened between us later, this moment was always going to be special.

He felt wonderful as he kissed me back, his lips exploring mine and his hands running over my back. I snuggled closer to him and it felt amazing.

But anyone could come in and see us and I wasn’t quite ready for that. Reluctantly, I pulled back and got up from the sofa. He got up too. He looked disappointed but understanding.

‘I’d better go to my room,’ I said.

‘No, stay,’ he said quickly.

I shook my head. ‘Papa could come home any time now,’ I reminded him.

‘So? We’ll just be two people sitting together and watching TV,’ he said.

‘Really? You think he won’t be able to read what happened on our faces?’ I asked him wryly.

‘I hope not!’ he said, eyes widening.

‘Still, I don’t want to give them anything to work with at the moment,’ I said.

Raghu stood up, held my shoulders and tugged me closer. I put my arms around his waist. It felt good, so good, it was like something had opened up in my heart and spread the warmth through my body.

‘This isn’t a friendly hug, FYI,’ he said.

I looked up at him. He raised an eyebrow.

‘Which makes it all the more important that I go back to my room now,’ I whispered.

‘Fine,’ he said reluctantly, letting go of me.

I was not really in the mood to go back to my room after this delicious moment, but I knew that the longer I prolonged it, the harder it would be.

‘Good night,’ I told him, leaning up and kissing him swiftly before I walked away.

I turned to look back at the end of the corridor and saw that he still looked surprised as he grinned at me. I winked and walked into my room, wondering if I had ever felt this happy before.

I shut the door and twirled. I called up Nisha and only when she answered groggily did I realize that it was late. But I had to tell her. I simply had to.

‘Raghu and I kissed,’ I told her in a loud whisper.

‘What?’ she mumbled.

I debated hanging up, but I wouldn’t be able to sleep without talking about this with her.

‘I said,’ I enunciated slowly, ‘Raghu and I kissed.’

‘WHAT?’ she shrieked.

I put the phone away from my ear briefly before bringing it back to my ear. ‘I think my eardrums split.’

‘But this was eardrum-split-worthy!’ she continued in the same excited voice. ‘What happened? How did this happen?’

I told her everything and she listened in silence. Complete silence.