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INTOXICATION
Chapter 1.
A STRANGER'S KISS ...
December, 1969
The alleyway was dark and semi-shrouded in darkness, with the only light being afforded by the ineffectual pale glow of the half moon, hanging low in the western horizon. A tall, well built man clad in a dark overcoat walked down it with an almost unnoticeable limp in his gait. The pale light from the moon slanted on his face and illuminated it just enough to reveal a pair of penetrating, icy gray eyes. Despite the limp, his gait was graceful and fluid and there was something almost predatory about it.
An hour later, Ritz Bar and Restaurant.
Ex Major Raizada sat on a leather stool with an arm resting languidly on the bar counter. Picking up a shot glass filled with Grey Goose, he tilted his head back and poured the potent liquid down his throat with a single expert flick of his wrist, perfected no doubt due to frequent practice. Hearing the opening strains of loud music erupting from the other end of the pub not too far from him, he swerved his stool and gazed at the gaudily dressed troupe of cabaret dancers with a dispassionate eye.
Signaling the bartender for a repeat, he turned towards them again. There was a new main dancer tonight, his piercing gray eyes noticed lazily.
And there was something about her eyes that made him feel like he had had a shot too many. Thickly kohled expressive eyes, framed by fluttering coy curtains of eyelashes drowned in cheap mascara. They were accentuated by liberal application of glittery eyeshadow, that seemed to have been applied by an inexperienced, hurried hand.
Even such cruel ministrations singularly lacking in good taste failed miserably to mar their startling beauty. Clear, luminescent and looking incongruently guileless, they were at odds with the suggestive little dance she was performing to the seductive words of a catchy Bette Milder song.
She was of medium height with the kind of figure that made the disreputable audience consisting mainly of shoddily dressed leering men to shake their drunken stupor off and undress her mentally. Several times over.
Arnav watched her over the rim of his shot glass with a strange, intent look in his eyes as she shook and swayed her skimpily clad body in keeping with the titillating beats of the music and adjusted her features to adequately portay the risque wordings of the song.
The corners of his gray eyes crinkled almost imperceptibly.
"A novice"
The performance was over and Khushi was scurrying down a dark corridor to a dingy, damp little changing room. Most of the girls had stayed behind to flirt with the patrons and a lot of them were leaving the bar with them after having settled on a price for a night. Her feet, tottering in impossibly high stilettos were hurting badly and all she wanted to do was to go home and put them up. On the way there, she was stoppped by the manager, a taciturn man who had never been heard talking in more than monosyllables. Handing over her pay to her, he had expressed his satisfaction with her debut performance in a dispassionate, unenthusiastic manner.
She had almost reached her room, when she heard the faint, faraway sound of the clock tower strike eleven times. Her heart beats accelerated in sudden panic.
"11:30. He had asked me to be back by11:30. He won't listen to any excuse, any reason as usual...", she thought frantically with a sudden shiver running down her spine.
"Someone walking over my grave.."
She was totally unprepared for the dark form, clad in a dark suit, leaning casually against the wall next to her door. Legs crossed, hands in pocket, his large muscular form gave every appearance of being supremely relaxed while his features were half veiled by the darkness.
Suppressing a shriek, she came to a sudden standstill and glared at him furiously.
"You scared me!! Who the hell are you and what do you mean by lurking in the dark like that?, she said, looking half fearfully at him.
With the lazily menacing grace of a panther, he straightened up and slowly sauntered towards her. Coming to stand very close to her, his gray eyes pierced down into hers and he said unsmilingly, "I was waiting for you"
"Why?, she asked with her heart lurching, stepping away from him.
Totally unexpectedly, he snaked an arm around her bare waist and roughly pulled her against him.
"Why do you think?, he asked huskily, with his hand caressing the smooth skin of her slim waist.
Pursing her lips, she put both her palms against his chest and pushed with all her might but to no avail.
"I am not a wh***, you ba*****, every dancer is not a wh***", she bit out, her lovely eyes flashing magnificently in fury.
Tightening his hold around her waist, he pulled her even closer and studied her face with his eyes flickering with sudden humor.
"Tut tut, what a nasty, filthy little mind you have and what shocking language!', he said softly.
"Do I look like a man who would...umm...solicit a wh***?
After pretending to think carefully for a while, she looked back at him and said, "Yes", causing him to break into sudden laughter.
His incredibly attractive husky laughter caused her heart to skip a beat and in spite of herself, she couldn't help staring at his face that was quite close to hers. He was very handsome, a part of her brain noticed. Very potently and dangerously so, she thought, acutely aware of his body pressed close against her.
As she gazed in his gray eyes, he sobered up and drawled, "You are hurting my feelings".
With her lips curving in a bitter smile, she batted her eyelashes and said in a saccharin sweet tone, "So sorry. Maybe you are here, because you fell in love with me while watching me dance and being the pure hearted romantic that you are, you wanted to present me with roses..or something".
As the corner of his mouth lifted in a smile, her expression changed with the speed of lightning and she hissed out fiercely, "Let go of me right now, or I am going to scream and make sure that you are never allowed inside Ritz again..".
"Threats don't work with me, they never have. They bring out the worst in me in fact. If you really want me to let go of you, say it nicely ", he said with a glint of steel in his eyes.
Inhaling sharply at his arrogance, she opened her mouth angrily to retort, only to have her full red painted lips captured firmly by his.
As she gasped, he deepened the kiss and aggressively thrust his tongue inside to thirstily drink the sweetness of her mouth. With the palm of one hand, urgently caressing her waist and almost bare back, the other fisted her hair to tilt her head back. Bending her willowy body back a little, his hard muscled body pressed against her soft pliant one, as he continued to kiss her hungrily and with a wild abandonment that caused her heart to pound painfully and a forbidden fire to ignite deep inside her.
After a while, he raised his head, his eyes intoxicated, his breaths ragged.
"Say it nicely", he said in a soft tone that was at odds with the dangerously intimidating glint in his eyes.
With her eyes widening with fear, she whispered, "Please".
With a suddenness that made her stagger, he let go of her and turning his back walked away from her.
It was the next day just before her performance that she came to know who he was.
"He is Major Raizada. Ex Major Raizada, rather", Lily had said, applying blush with a heavy hand.
"Don't you remember that notorious case that had happened around 7-8 years ago? The army major who had just returned from the war and found his wife in bed with his best friend", she continued with her hand hovering over the dressing table to pick a lipstick.
Khushi's hand, holding a lipstick stilled over her lips as she frowned in remembrance.
Now she realized why his face had seemed so familiar. It had been all over the newspapers for over a month. Then the whole story came back to her and her heart squeezed in sudden fear.
"Didn't he..."
"Yes..", said Lily, glancing at her.
"He had taken his service revolver out and shot dead both of them. .."
INDEX..
1. A STRANGER'S KISS :URL Not Available
2. SHADOW OF A ROSE :https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/fan-fictions/3770901/intoxication-1-part-5-on-pg-126-link-to-new-thread-and-teaser-pg1?pn=38
3. THE FALLEN :https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/post/95272031
4. A MOTH'S DILEMMA: https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/post/95451391
5. SCARRED : https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/post/95667665
LINK TO NEW THREAD AND TEASER: https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/post/95723154
Arjun
Cricket
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