FF: New York times with Maan&Geet Thread 4 09/13 - Page 70

She was light, airy and buoyant ever since that night, like a wisp of cumulus had permanently moved beneath her feet. He'd left without a word, like a phantom of the night, after secretly loving and holding her the entire time she'd struggled to fall asleep. There was a strange joy that came from predictability, life's meaningless pleasures like waking up to a steaming cup of coffee that guaranteed bliss or her Daadima's hugs that hit the exact spot every time she needed it. It was how she felt when she knew she could take the elevator down to find him in the coffee shop in front of their apartment building. He'd been there every afternoon since that weekend, for she volunteered at the animal center right next to it.

The old grey times that now seemed like a past life came back to her.

She was 15 then and he'd been 17 when he'd first exhibited similar unyielding behavior. She remembered clearly in the days that had followed her last hospital visit, he'd demanded a kiss - in compensation for the black and blue he had taken from her then boy friend - and followed her like a lost kitten. He would keep his distance, never too careful to approach her or annoy her with incessant phone calls. In reality he would only follow her from home to the tuition center and back; the rest of the time, they were at school any ways. She smiled as he remembered his bike and her cycle with which he tried to match the pace with. He'd continued being the silent stalker for an unbearable week, when she'd gone feverish with the constant pair of eyes following her. The night she'd not turned up at school, he had sneaked into her room like a thief despite the guards at their Khurana mansion. She had panicked and had immediately broken into a sweat, breaking the fever. Oddly, with no time, she'd calmed down having him seated next to her on the bed. He'd brushed her hair aside and tipped her chin to face him.

"You don't have to be scared...I wont do anything to you" He'd said with a smile on his face, while he caught in the corner of his eye her hand stretching the short nightdress that didn't quite reach her knees. She couldn't look him in the eye for fear of giving away something that she had fearfully carried around since the time she'd seen him go limp underneath the hockey stick, although he was brawnier than the boy who was thrashing him.

He'd taken the shaky hand and held onto it for a long time. She'd gone immoveable as a stone with the painful silence that had ensued. However his gaze never left her anxious face and he kept at it until she would see him.

"I will leave if you want" He'd motioned towards the window through which he'd climbed in, but fearing he truly meant to leave her alone, she'd clutched on his arm in force. It had been all that he had wanted to feel and his face lit up with an unknown joy seeing her face scrunch with worry.

"We can't kiss...we didn't even profess our love to each other" She'd said with her pulse in her throat, rapidly racing like the thousand thoughts that created a whirlpool in her head.

"Only immature kids do it...we are beyond all that" He'd said, when she raised herself to lean into the pillow, he'd plopped right behind her. He settled close and her hands fidgeted in her lap as her feet again had picked up moisture from her pores. Lord! Why was he doing this to her? She screamed mentally, when his face cupped one cheek and he leaned in closer.

Her eyes had told him that she liked him just as he did and it did wonders to his courage. Before he knew, he was feeling her lips.

What compelled her to meet his lips, she didn't know. But the moment was inexplicably explosive. She wanted it to stop and freeze and yet she wanted to feel his palm on her arm and his lips on her mouth. He tasted mint and lemony, his breath was balmy from the mouthwash. She failed to comprehend the laws of attraction then and it later came to her that there were none, except a raw pull that roped them together. There was no theory or logic why she chose him for her first kiss, when she'd been obstinate about it with her current...oops ex-boyfriend.

"You have to open your lips" He nudged her by her shoulder, when all they had exchanged until then were just soft pecks.

"I don't know...what if I don't do it right?" Her eyes had turned liquid, her face draining color, from what he'd asked and he backed out in surprise realizing what she had revealed. It was her first kiss dammit! And he instantly felt the pressure in him mount up many folds.

"We won't find out until we kiss" He'd said pretending his former composure and had waited longer this time around before he caught her lower lip.

"Don't use your teeth" He'd whispered, taking in her lips and tracing a wet line over her succulent mouth.

She'd tucked in her stomach, despite it being flat and she'd felt awkward moving her arm around, not knowing the right way to hold him. He'd tasted divine and she was beginning to lose herself amidst the mix of self-consciousness and delirious haze, when he'd pulled away.

"Wait...lie down, that way you will relax" He'd said. She looked horrified and at that he added, "I promise I won't do anything"

She had frightfully laid herself on her back and he moved in with her onto her bed. Holding himself on his elbow he bent down and she shut her eyes fast and tight, waiting for the sparks to surface wherever he would hold her. She waited...and waited...and waited...

"Why aren't you kissing me?" She asked in a low voice, with her eyes still squashed into the pits of her skull.

"I won't...if this feels like a caterpillar crawling on your skin" He seemed genuine and his face looked sorry. Embarrassment crushed her that second and she turned away.

"I have always wanted to kiss you...to know if this was just attraction or something more" She gathered herself to face him.

"You make me feel like jelly when lay your eyes on me...why do you do that to me?"

"I do?" she asked daunted with surprise. She wondered why, but that moment she felt it was the sweetest thing anyone had told her and above all she liked jelly too. How could a man, who can crush her with his sinful body feel like jelly from her one look? His declaration had oozed liquid strength inside her and she coyly smiled.

All that resolve to have her want him dissolved without a moment's notice when he saw her smile that up close, like he had achieved the impossible. His arm traced her waist on its own accord and he caught her lip once again. This time it was perfect as she suckled back on his lips. He'd kissed many girls before but she was opening up a side of him that he didn't know existed. It felt like his first kiss too, when she tremulously held his face as he kissed her. Like a flood of water had just hit him, he was floating...carried away into another world.

Her toes curled this time and her bent knees raised as if it was a barricade from keeping him from moving on top of her in the rush and heat that, she was sure, he was feeling within. She felt it on her lips as he sometimes crushed them in a fervency that belied his sangfroid. Their kissing orgy had extended for such lengths of time that she'd even smiled at how parched and insatiable it felt. Letting go of his lips did not seem like a good idea then and he hadn't either until he'd tasted every inch of her mouth.

And before he could leave her room, when he was lying next to her under the covers, as if she had surreptitiously reeled those words out of him, he'd whispered 'As crazy as it seems, this is beyond attraction and I think I'm in love with you Naini" he'd said.

"Abhi..." She'd called him then, making him chuckle at his new nickname but the frivolity melted when she'd acknowledged her love for him too.

She watched her wiggling toes as she sat by the window seat and peeking at the coffee shop that was floors below. The tingling feeling was all him and there was no way she could bring it back without him around her. She was lucky it was even happing after all these years of marriage. Their separation and the anguish were stirring the magic back into the air. It was only a matter of time before she would take the elevator down and see him sitting with his mac and headphones. And it would all start again, the ever watchful eyes, would turn and follow and straighten with sighting her...pooling tingles inside her body, just like the old days.

To be continued...

Let's just treat this as a silly update 😳 I couldn't help it. This Part will be a series of updates about Naini and Rishabh...THANK YOU all who have been reading without my PMs. It means a lot when you comment and press the LIKE button.