Chapter 53

Chapter One Hundred Ten: Tangles

The heat in the forest, as the day slowly retired to the late afternoon, was immense and Lord Arnav had removed off his coat and unbuttoned a few buttons of his pale shirt.

He had draped his coat over his shoulder and he was walking forward, his heavy boots crushing the scattered dry leaves on the forest floor, when he was overcome by heavy fatigue.

Sweat drenched his body and his shirt was beginning to stick onto him. The hair that fell on his forehead was wet too and he deeply inhaled and exhaled to calm his heating body.

And to make matters worse, he was hungry.

Since he hated having breakfast, he had skipped it in the hopes of returning to the Castle with the hermit in time for a plenteous lunch. But what with the girl's intrusion and the carriage disaster……………..he remembered with clenched fists.

It was precisely at his time, as he kept trudging along, his coat held over one shoulder, that he heard a flutter of wings and something perched on his other shoulder.

He looked at it from the corner of his eye, knowing who it was by the mere flutter of the familiar wings, "What brings you back to me? Had enough of the village miscreant?"

The parrot squawked and flapped its wings, fanning Lord Arnav's face for a moment to feel the cool before crying, "Green Heart! Green Heart!"

Lord Arnav did not stop walking, "What is Green Heart?"

"Green Heart!!"

"Yes, what is it?" he asked causally, stepping over a root.

"Green Heart caught in Green braches!"

Lord Arnav stopped, confused, "What?" And then he frowned at the bird, "Is it a green female bird, this Green Heart?"

"Green Heart!" was the only thing the parrot said and Lord Arnav shrugged and kept on walking.

And then he saw the tiny strip of a gown in the parrot's claws, pressed on his shoulder and he stopped in his tacks, his fingers reaching for the piece of cloth. But before he could touch it, the parrot had taken off and flown in the direction of where he had come from.

A sudden wave of apprehension coursed over him. Was Kushi hurt? Was she the Green Heart he was referring to? Green branches?

And then without another moment's wait, he was rushing back, his coat slipping down his shoulder and falling onto the ground, forgotten by its master as the man raced back the way he had come, leaping over roots and circling trees to catch up with the flying parrot that was still in sight.

Almost an hour of running finally led him to a tree where Fortune perched and pointed his beak towards an oak tree further away and, panting heavily from the frantic running, Lord Arnav squinted up at its high branches.

His eyes shone with a relieved light when he saw her, alive and well, struggling in the tangle of vine creepers that grew around the tree.

"What are you doing up there?" he demanded, looking up at her.

Kushi stopped struggling and stared down, surprised, and then her frown returned, "Oh, it's you. What do you want?"

"Just curious as to what the village monkey might be doing tangled in forest vines," he smirked.

Kushi gaped at him, "You! How dare-" And then she looked away, "Have you come here to offer a hand to aid me?"

"Must I?" he asked cunningly, "I think you are best left up there than down here eating one's sane patience away."

Kushi still didn't look at him, and grumbled, "Of course. Besides, I am nothing that you must care about."

He stared at her, remembering the echo of his words that had led to their separation a few hours ago.

He sighed, "You are very spoiled, do you know that?"

"Not as spoiled as you," she muttered and resumed her struggles in the vine.

She heard some shuffling underneath and looked down to find him trying to climb up the tree.

"What are you doing?" she asked, alarmed.

He looked at her. "Something I will soon regret," he grumbled as he prepared to climb.

"No, I prefer being up here than down there with a heartless man like you," she said.

"Is it?" he asked casually, and stepped away from the tree, "Fine, suit yourself."

And then he was walking away, but he had barely taken a few steps when a loud yelp and the snap of breaking branches sounded in the air.

Turning around, in one swift move, he was beside the tree but the vine had grown around the tree in such a way that the fall was a skewed one, and his calculations of where she would be assuredly falling went awry.

Before he had realized his folly and his feet had taken the few steps to correct the mistake, the vine-tangled girl had hit the leaf-scattered ground, inches away from his reaching fingers.

"Kushi!" he yelled and leapt forward but his senses jolted and he stood still when he saw that she was not on the ground.

In fact, she had fallen into a hole, that had been covered by dry leaves, probably an animal trap intended by hunters.

"Kushi?" he called into the hole and, as the dust of the open hole cleared after her fall, he saw her look up from within the hole where she lay on a bed of dry leaves, her hair disheveled and her gown dusty, but her face was flushed and her eyes searching, trying to remember what had just happened.

The sight she was in was amusing but he wanted to make sure she hadn't broken any bones, "Are you alright?"

Kushi was still tightly tangled in the creepers but she looked to where his voice had come from, and their eyes met and she frowned. "Why should you care!" she grumbled and then she tried to sit up but yelped in pain and lay back down.

His eyebrows slanted with concern and before he had thought it out himself, he had leapt into the hole which was not too deep but could be deep enough for one who fell from the top of a tall oak tree.

Kushi was appalled to see his tall shadow looming over her face, as he approached her, and she asked, "What are you doing here?"

She didn't like this at all. Was he going to break more of her bones for all that she had told him these past few hours?

He crouched beside her, "Does your back-?"

"I didn't break any bones, if that is what you are eager to know," she interfered, "The creepers held me inches away from the hole's ground before I hit it so my bones are well but my back is sore." She seemed to be talking to herself again.

"Well that is sad," he said, returning to his humor, "a few broken bones would have taught you to be more respectful in your speech towards me."

"I would be respectful if you were one who deserved it," she said through gritted teeth, as she lay there, staring up at his face.

"So you need no help?"

"No."

He paused and then tilted his head, "May I ask why you climbed the ridiculous tree in the first place?"

"I was hungry."

"Oh," he smirked, "And I guess your appetite's extinguished after the accident."

"No, I had my fill of grapes before I got tangled in the vine," she stated triumphantly.

He cocked an eyebrow, "If you were so hungry, could you not have used the vittles my family had packed you off with for your home?"

"I could have avoided all this, of course," she said grudgingly, "If you hadn't gone and crashed the carriage and smashed the food basket along with one window!"

He frowned down at her and then he was contemplating whether to leave her there as punishment when his eyes fell on the unharmed grapes on the creepers that were wound around her.

His hunger, that he had been suppressing all this while, ravaged his mind again and he cast a glance on her face.

She was staring at him and she didn't like the expression on his face especially because it had something to do with the rounded grapes on her form.

"Are the grapes good?"

She frowned, "Why don't you climb the tree yourself and see?"

His eyes glinted evilly, "I am the Master of an Empire. I climb stairs, not trees."

"You're right," she muttered mischievously, "Besides, how can you climb a tree with that heavy ego on your back."

Rage flashed through his cold eyes but he didn't say anything.

Instead, he leaned down at her feet, and without touching her with his hands to keep her still, knowing that astonishment would keep her immobilized for him, he opened his mouth and bit the rich violet grape that was on the creeper around her ankle.

Fire rocketed up her leg, when his warm mouth had touched her tender ankle.

She inhaled heavily to calm herself but felt her strength slipping when she felt his mouth beside her knee. Though there was a gown between his mouth and her skin, she could feel the burning heat of his lips as though she were without cloth.

"No! What are you doing!" she managed to word.

"I'm hungry too," he said in a low voice and resumed picking on the grapes upon her body with his mouth.

"You're the Master of an Empire," she tried to reason with him to try to stop this sweet torment which she could take no more, "You are not used to eating forest fruits without having them washed well."

"Hunger in a Man does not make him pause to think of cultural norms."

Kushi gasped, feeling his mouth near her thigh. Warmth swirled in the pit of her stomach and she groaned, "Please stop. If you're hungry, I will try and pluck whatever fruits I can find as soon as we get out of this hole."

"My hunger cannot wait," he stated simply, and his mouth was around a rich round grape near her waist.

She groaned, "No! Stop this……..." she tried to move her arms to push him away but the constricted creepers made any movement impossible.

"Do you want me to stop?"

"Yes, please!" she cried into the air, feeling his mouth near her shoulder.

And then fire exploded.

One last grape had remained in the crook of her neck, the only exposed part of her skin where the grapes were to be found. He had thought of stopping the torment with that one last fill but the moment his wet mouth had pressed on neck, his hunger found new delight.

Kushi froze the moment she had felt his hot breath on her neck, and then when his burning mouth had pressed on her tender skin, she lost all sense of where and who she was. All she knew was she wanted him to find more grapes on her skin even though they would not be there.

She closed her eyes as he bit the grape, a drop of the violet juice falling on her fair skin. After having devoured the grape, he licked the drop on her neck with his burning tongue and she moaned.

Lord Arnav was lying along her length, when he had come to take the grape from her neck.

He looked at her when he had licked the drop of grape juice off her neck. Her cheeks were red and her lips trembling, while her eyes remained closed, taking in the torture he was meting out to her.

Her moan had undone him and he had leaned down to taste her neck again, to hear that moan again, when the parrot squawked overhead from a tree branch.

The spell broke and he moved away from her and she stared at him, her gaze dazed under the heated moment's aftermath but shocked too as realization seeped into her consciousness.

He stood up and was about to walk away when he realized she could not get up because she was tied down by the creepers. He crouched down beside her and she gazed at him wide-eyed, afraid he might commence on the torture again.

His hands had reached towards her and she had nearly yelled "No", when his fingers circled around the creeper near her waist and he slowly tried to ease it off her, without hurting her.

It was not an easy process.

"You need to stand," he stated.

She tried to sit up and he helped her to her feet. She was unsteady on her feet and leaned against him for balance. He appeared unaffected but she didn't know how hard it was for him to stay expressionless.

When she was finally poised in her equilibrium, she moved away from him, and his fingers were reaching for the creeper binds around her again.

Slowly, tenderly, his hands pulled at them, not letting them snap against her skin lest they hurt. He unwound them, circling her where she stood according to how easily the creepers around her could be undone. Occasionally, his fingers brushed against her skin and she would gasp inwardly and he would try to be more careful next time, more for his sake than for hers.

Soon, the creepers no longer tangled her but lay on the bed of dead leaves in the hole they were standing in.

Her eyes were on the mess of the vines by her feet, unable to look into his eyes and he was looking towards the rim of the hole, trying to focus on how to get out than on the intense aftereffects of all the slow turning and touching.

Suddenly Kushi cried, "Oh, my dress!! It's ruined!"

Lord Arnav looked at her and saw her turning about, trying to look over her shoulder to the rear of her gown, and he saw that the grapes under her had crushed with her fall and the back of her gown was drenched entirely in the violet gluey juice.

He shook his head, "You invite hazards, don't you? One after the other!"

She stopped looking at her gown over her shoulder and shot him a look, "Well, good you mentioned it because you seem to be a recurring hazard in my life. Over and over again, popping up everywhere to wreck my life."

He gritted his teeth, "Don't start with me, again, Kushi Kumari Gupta."

"I would not want to start anything right now," she said hotly, "But I would be really thankful if you could get me out of this wretched hole, Lord Arnav Singh Raizada!"

Glaring at her, he moved to the end of the hole and climbed out. Then he leaned forward and stretched out an arm towards her.

She stood staring at the hand for a moment, not wanting to touch it, but she found her dusty hand slid into his dirtied one. The warmth in his hand assured her and he closed his fingers around her hand, securing her for the hoisting.

Then he lifted her up and they were out of the lurid hole at last.

She moved away, wanting to be as far away from him as she could be, and he looked to the parrot perched on a low branch nearby, wanting to divert his own muddled up emotions, "Come Fortune, let's go. We've wasted precious time already because of someone's festival stunts."

She looked at him and opened her mouth to respond but stopped herself in time.

She was not wanted with him but she was scared to leave the forest now especially because the sun would set any moment now and she would not reach home before it was dark.

Lord Arnav had taken a few steps forward, away from her, when he stopped and looked over his shoulder. He saw her standing there, beside the hole, dejected eyes cast upon the ground.

"If you will stay quiet and not mess with my head, I will escort you back home as soon as we find the hermit."

Kushi looked up, her eyes shining gratefully, but he had already walked on, and she retrieved her tiny box from beside the tree and rushed after him, Fortune encouragingly nodding at her as he sat perched on Lord Arnav's shoulder.