Occu-pie-d by you

oh nakhrewaali

@oh_nakhrewaali

#8: Occu-pie-d by you

Priya awoke with a start, and blindly reached out to her side. It was 1 am and Ram still hadn’t come to bed. He was probably still on his international Conference call. She threw aside the covers and got out of bed with a worried frown. She had to have a talk with him about sleeping regular hours.

She went to his study, but, to her surprise and chagrin, he wasn't there. 

"This man and his insatiable sweet tooth!" she grumbled and walked into the kitchen. Surely enough, Ram was crouched in front of the open refrigerator, the light of the fridge highlighting his angular features. 

"Mr. Kapoor! " she whisper-yelled at her husband who jumped, startled. 

"You scared me to death. Why are you walking around the house like a ghost at 1 am? Why aren’t you asleep?"

She crossed her arms across her chest. "Why aren’t you? And I thought you promised your doctor that you won't mess up your eating schedule? "

"Promise-Shomise," he waved dismissively and picked up a plate stacked with a decadent-looking pie. 

"Mr. Kapoor, that is peanut butter pie, please don’t eat that, you'll get sick."

"But I am hungry," he said matter-of-factly, as if that was enough justification for his roguish behaviour, and walked out to the dining table. He scooped up a forkful and was about to bring it to his mouth when Priya grabbed the fork. 

"You are impossible, Mr. Kapoor! " she scolded him. He only gave her a challenging look as if to tell her he wasn’t going to be cowed by her scolding, and moved the plate out of her reach to the other side of the table. Exasperated at his childish stubbornness, she walked around to the other side, and he shifted it, pulling it closer to him. 

She stomped her feet and moved back to where he sat, but he smirked and moved it again. Stubborn man! Well, she was stubborn too. She would show him! She stretched across to reach for the plate, but lost her footing and fell straight onto his lap. Mortified, she tried to straighten herself, unconsciously bracing her hands on his firm chest, but only ended up sliding further onto his lap. She looked up at him, her eyes huge with surprise and her hair brushing against his face. She tucked her hair away hurriedly. That's when she realized how close they actually were. She felt his chest against hers, their hearts beating at an alarming rate and heat rose up her cheeks. From this close, his eyes looked bluer and so mesmerizing that it was impossible to look away. 

He was staring back at her, his azure gaze widened and fixed on her lips. In a bid to steady her, he had wrapped his arms around her waist, conscious of the fact that even the shapeless kurta she wore did nothing to hide her luscious curves. Suddenly his hunger for the pie was forgotten and he was aware of quite a different sort of hunger. He wanted to pull her closer, and taste those lips. He cleared his throat, trying to push away these decadent thoughts with a casual smirk, but her ragged breathing against his own was proving too much to resist. He continued to gawk at her like a schoolboy gaping at his first crush. 

Somehow he gathered his voice and managed to blurt out flippantly, "This is really cozy, Mrs. Kapoor. I must say scouring the kitchen for a midnight snack does have its share of perks. Although I will be numb if this continues any further."

She blushed, and he let out a triumphant whoop internally. He had made his prim and stoic wife blush and she looked adorable. He must do it more often. 

Then to his utter disappointment, she straightened herself and pulled out of his arms. That warmth he had felt was gone in a matter of seconds and he missed it.  

Priya turned away from her husband’s gaze, not trusting her reaction to his touch. That unexpected closeness had unnerved her. She didn’t know how to act around him anymore. So she did the only thing she knew. She called for help.

"Tarun! " she yelled and in a few seconds he arrived - her safety net. 

"Tarun, keep the pie away from Mr. Kapoor's reach, and from today, you are responsible for making sure that anything containing peanuts, even in the smallest amount, is not allowed in the house," she said in a firm, but respectful tone.  

Something stirred in Ram's belly at her authoritative tone. He couldn't help but admire it when she went into her Chandi mode, as long as he wasn’t the intended victim, he grinned inwardly. It felt like she was claiming her title of Mrs. Kapoor. Her concern for his well-being made him feel warm and fuzzy inside.

He was still staring at her when she turned around. Their gazes met and held and the air became charged with something. Tarun took away the plate and almost dashed out of the kitchen, his eyes decorously on the floor. Not that either Ram or Priya noticed, because they had no eyes for anyone other than each other.  

It was a few seconds later that Priya realized that they were alone, and cleared her throat awkwardly.

"I hope you will be careful before you eat anything from here on given all your allergies!" She tried to sound reproving, but instead her voice was warm and soft and lined with concern. God, how would she bear it if anything happened to him?

“And sweet stuff like pies are a complete no-no. Do you hear me, Mr. Kapoor?” she said, in a slightly raised voice, waiting for him to nod his acquiescence. 

“Good!” She set her lips in a firm line when he gave her a reluctant nod.

Then she walked away from the kitchen, away from the comfort of her husband’s warm presence, trying to ignore the hollow ache she felt and resisting the urge to pull him by hand and drag him upstairs with her.

As he watched his wife walk away, Ram groaned in frustration, recalling that almost moment they’d shared. He didn’t want pie anymore. What he wanted was a cold shower since his wife had made him uncomfortably hot all over.