Chapter 50

Smiling, he crossed the perfectly maintained lawn in a few strides, his eyes fixated on her while she sat on a secluded bench, smiling softly at the ground. He sat down next to her, as close as he could, his arm around her shoulders, and she looked up at him with a big grin.

"Can I assume Sabrina had some good news?" he raised an eyebrow.

She giggled. "Yes. She negotiated with the publishers and now, the release of my next book has successfully been postponed for one year, as you asked."

"Good," he replied, smirking surreptitiously.

"Will you tell me why you wanted that now?" she demanded, slightly annoyed.

Arnav chuckled. "You'll have to wait a few more hours, Khushi."

She looked away, sulking, but he still kept his eyes trained on her. Khushi Singh Raizada. Finally. After two years of waiting, he was finally his wife. Frankly, it had not been easy at all for him to wait so much. But he had complied, hoping that no one would mess anything up again.

He had had to wait for Anjali and Shyam's wedding to be over, and that had taken another week, thanks to the Jha family insisting on completing all the rituals that had been in their royal ancestry for ages. Then, when he had gone to Lucknow with Khushi, Ulka and his parents to officially ask for Khushi's hand after the newly-wed couple had flown off to their month-long honeymoon, and there had been the whole debacle with Tanishq who was not very willing to forgive him and grant him the permission to marry his baby cousin. And he had to admit he admired his cousin-in-law's courage because he knew that Tanishq was usually a shy and sweet man who barely ever got angry, and it also actually made him realise how deeply he must have hurt Khushi.

Finally, when things had settled, the elders had started off consulting a priest to set a date for the wedding and the stupid old man had discovered that they could not even think about it for the next nine month-period, otherwise something terrible' would happen. It didn't matter that Arnav did not believe the bullshit. Buaji arranged an array of frantic prayers for everybody, Garima insisted on taking the evil eyes off him and Khushi at every given opportunity, Pavitra cleanly refused to help him with changing their minds and so did the fathers. So, Arnav was forced to settle for it. Nine months of painful waiting, and he thought he would have been able to marry Khushi then, but he was still not that lucky.

When it was decided they were not getting married yet and some problems surfaced in the company, Arnav decided it was time he returned to London to get his hold on Raizada Communications back, possibly with a few quick detours to New York. That would probably help keep his mind off the disappointment too. He wished Khushi could come too and she was going to, but just on the day they were supposed to head to London, Anjali returned from a prolonged honeymoon and announced that she had gotten pregnant. And obviously, she wanted her bestfriend to keep her company while she stayed at the Jha's ancestral mansion in Udaipur, as they had demanded. For friendship's sake, Khushi had stayed back - very reluctantly, of course - and he had returned to London. They spoke everyday but Khushi was getting bored. He was always busy with work and she had nothing to do but to stay around with a moody Anjali - who got a major part of her entertainment from her own husband actually, but she still refused to let go of her friend - and sight-seeing and shopping. She really needed something to do. So, without telling him in the beginning, she set off on a journey', taking his advice.

Once, Arnav had told her she wrote well, that he really loved her way of writing, that she had a unique way with words. The memory had come back to her one night, when she was talking to him, reminiscing the old days when they had first met and she had secretly started working on it. Finally, when he had paid her a visit in Udaipur - which he did as often as he could - she had shown him the first draft of her novel, and she had expected him to make some fun of it, not take her very seriously, maybe read a few pages and put it aside. But no. He had been very surprised but he had surprised her even more by patiently reading her book, finishing it in one night, while she nervously sat next to him, fidgeting. And he had loved it, he had suggested a few ideas to improve the story and he had even offered to find her an agent and a publisher. She had agreed for the agent, but not for the publisher. She didn't want to be published because she was related to Arnav Singh Raizada and he had respected that. A couple of weeks later, after she had polished the draft, she had joined him in London to meet her new agent, Sabrina Lloyd, who had helped her from then on. It had taken her some time to get her novel accepted. She had received so many rejections that she had almost lost hope but then, just a few days after Anjali had delivered a beautiful daughter, a publication house had contacted her to inform her they were accepting her.

There had been a flurry of activity, she had to give the novel a few finishing touches, discuss the illustration for the book covers with the creative team, work on the promotions, and so, Arnav had willingly given her another couple of months. Things were working out so well, Khushi was ecstatic, and well, everybody was. Still, within a week after the book release, things went even better; for Khushi's career, that is, not at all for their wedding. Because before they had realised it, she had become a worldwide best-seller, her book was already getting nominated for awards, every magazine and newspaper wanted an interview, the publishers wanted to sign a contract. Eventually, Arnav had personally taken the responsibility of her PR management and where he was very willing to wait for the wedding, his little soon-to-be wife - who should have been the happiest - was starting to regret it. He had had to explain to her that this was her opportunity. And he really didn't mind it, he had always admired her writing and her articles and now that she was having her chance, he was not going to let her drop it, especially not for him.

He finally convinced her to accept the world tour the media was requesting and it lasted for around six months. Finally, Khushi herself realised that he had been right. Somewhere, deep inside, she had wished to be this famous one day. The wedding plans started soon after the tour. There was a lot to do. Sheesh Mahal was booked for the next three months and the monsoon was following up quick after that, so the wait was further extended but it gave them ample time to plan and prepare everything. Khushi released another book meanwhile, which also made it to the best-selling list, and there they were now, finally married. Her next book was due in eight months but that impeded Arnav's mysterious plans. He had told her to ask Sabrina for an extension, which she had finally gotten them.

Grinning, he wondered if it would be wise to tell her about his plan. She chanced a peek at him, caught him staring, and looked away at once, her cheeks red. He chuckled, anchoring her firmly to his side. Khushi tried to disentangle herself crossly.

"Leave me! I am not interested in sitting here with you."

He chuckled. "Just because I don't want to tell you?"

She pouted, scowling at him. "Yes."

"It's a surprise, Khushi."

"But you know I don't mind spoilers!"

Arnav shoved his tongue in his cheek as he narrowed his eyes at her, thinking, while she batted her eyelashes at him. He laughed. "Okay, fine. I'll tell you." She squealed and punched the air before hugging him. He waited until she had calmed down again. "You do know what comes after the wedding reception, don't you?"

She frowned, genuinely baffled. "What?"

"The... honeymoon?" he grinned maliciously. Her eyes widened immediately and colour rushed up her face as she spluttered in shock. He shrugged amusedly. "That's why I asked for the extension."

"What?" she croaked. "W-we... we are g-going f-for... one year?" He winked flirtatiously, making her blush even more. An incomprehensible mumble left her lips and he raised his brow.

"I didn't get that."

"What do you intend to do with me?" she whispered, reddening.

He snorted cheekily. "We'll see."

She bit her lip shyly as he bent and brushed his lips against her cheek. When she recovered from the initial shock, she looked up at him. "Where are we going?"

"Where are we not going would be a better question." Her jaw dropped open at the response. He took her hand and held it tight. "I want to compensate for every minute we had to spend apart, Khush, and I know you had always wanted to travel the world. Yes, you just went on a world tour but it was very quick and you had a schedule full of interviews, I knew you didn't get the time to visit around. So this is my wedding gift to you. We'll go wherever you want to go, all over the world. Just the two of us."

She watched him in awe, speechless for a moment and tearing up. "Thank you," she finally muttered. He was just leaning towards her, wanting to kiss her for the first time as his wife when Payal's shrill voice interrupted them, calling for Khushi. Arnav groaned, Khushi giggled.

"See, this is exactly why we need time to ourselves," her husband grumbled under his breath. "Whenever our families are around, they are interrupting."

Payal called again.

"Like last night," Arnav fumed. "It was supposed to be our suhaag raat, for f**k's sake! But everyone was obsessed with playing bloody antakshari. Seriously? And they even had to drag us in?1''"

Flushed, she smiled and gave his hand a little squeeze. "They don't know, Arnav. They just want to spend as much time as they can with us because we are almost always far from them."

He rolled his eyes and turned his face away. Then, abruptly, he snapped his head back to look at her, grinning. "Two more hours, and you will be all mine." Her nose scrunched up in confusion, making him chuckle. "We are leaving for our honeymoon in less than two hours, Mrs Raizada."

She gasped. "So soon?"

His expression darkened and his nose flared. "Why? Do you want to stay here with the cock-blockers?"

And her bursting into loud laughter made it even easier for Payal to find them and drag them back to the reception. But he simply sighed in defeat and helped a hysterical Khushi to calm down and walk back to the Sheesh Mahal ballroom. Two more hours, he counted.