New York Times Part 31 Updated in Thread 2 - Page 72

"Where are my pants?" she screamed and broke into another cough. The reaction was just as he had anticipated when he had dressed her up in one of her old kurtis that was missing its bottoms. It ran up to the middle of her thighs and fell short of her knees by many inches. The slits that towered up to her waist on the sides was what she was trying to piece together furiously and leaning forward slightly, she cried "Where is Geet?...I want Daadima"

He coolly placed the tray on the dresser that faced the bed and strode towards her.

"No need to cry now...they left this morning" He said opening up the closet "I tried to find your churidhar...but I couldn't" As if inviting her to take up his challenge to hunt down the long lost bottoms.

Turning to face her, he relented "Let us make you all better, then I will give you a ride to the airport myself" he smiled as he came closer to her. She took a step backwards for every one of his step that he took towards her. Giving a disbelieving nod, she now began accepting the image of Maan that was oozing into her consciousness. So he really had talked to her? She couldn't help shake the seed of doubt within her.

"Take me to the airport now...I want to go home" She said suddenly, looking raged and confused all at once. Her hand pulled back a stray strand, blocking her view of him, and yelled yet again "I want to go...I know this is all a trick to..."

He cut her off the same instant; he heard the word 'trick', hoping she wouldn't strew words to damage any further than what was already done.

"There are no tricks here...I just want you to be well and then anything...anything that will make you happy" he said with sad eyes. The black in his iris dissolving away something that she had seen there a moment earlier...Was it hope? She asked herself.

"Good so you will sign the divorce papers" She said with disturbing confidence as it was neither a question nor a statement.

"If that will make you happy..." he looked away for a second and then once again taking on her gaze, he said "And if you can strip away everything that is rightfully mine"

She sat back on the bed, realizing this would be a long conversation. Wheezing first and then she added "So you want a settlement?" She asked not sure if that is what he was hinting towards. It was unreasonable, she felt, when he had everything and more than what she was worth that second.

He couldn't help laugh up at her question. "You think so?" he raised a brow at that and then came to kneel in front of her.

"Promise me you will never think of me after I sign those papers" He tried to lower his head to meet her eyes just as she had.

"Not for one minute...not for one second...you can't love me...ever" He said raising his tone with firmness.

"See I told you this was a trick" she said, raising back her head with anger "You have some guts to think I love you now..." And just like clockwork, at the very mention of the last four words, her eyes started tearing up. A horde of memories came back to her, seeing him kneeling like that. She had married him at an age when she was far from knowing what the word 'marriage' had meant. But with time she had come to realize that it perhaps never meant anything to her. She didn't need to be married to him to start loving him. And ending it wouldn't make any affections for him go off like they were only driven by a switch. It was driving her crazy when her mind urged her why she was obsessed with wanting him to sign the papers she had filed for. Nevertheless, she knew if he really did sign the papers, it would only see to the end of her. Reeling in a fit of conflicting emotions made her wheeze more. The coughs wrecked her chest and throat like they burning down in flames. Her breath was struck somewhere down her lungs from the congestion.

When he saw her struggle with the wild sobs, he picked her up in a jiffy and dashed to the bathroom. He turned on the shower and with no time it changed into a steam room. Settling by the foot of the bathtub, he had her on his lap. Ignoring that she was still not dressed from the waist down, she rolled into a ball in his arms, like it was the only way she was going to survive...from all those thoughts that were sucking the life out of her.

Fifteen minutes later, she was beginning to breathe normal and slowly uncoiled in his arms whimpering that she was hungry. He gave a smile, taking well notice of her subdued resistance and got her back to the bed. Once there, she noticed the food tray, with a neat bowl of soup and crackers. Just the way she liked it, she mused. A single red rose, by a glass of hot tea with honey was arranged in the other corner of the tray. She looked back up at him momentarily, and the constant pleading look on his face, threatened to give a voice to the silent cries inside of her. When she felt it could go out of control, she slowly turned away and drank her soup.

A practical frenzy was building into her small movements out of hunger or wanting to get better and get out, he didn't know. Of course he hoped it was only the former and that she could perhaps may be stay back a while, even after she was fit enough to travel.

After she was done with the soup, she took to the tea and ignored the rose like it was invisible. It was only fair; he accepted and went to get her some cough syrup. The bottle, she nearly grabbed from the clutch of his arms and took in a mouthful; perhaps a dosage much more than necessary. But she thought the coughing and heavy heaving for all the time he was gone, had justified it all the same.

"Watch it" he spoke in a hurry, but she was already half way through gulping down the bottle before he could snatch it back from her. The severe whooping cough had made her crave for anything that could lessen the havoc that rumbled in her chest spasmodically.

Her silence that ensued from the time he had taken her into the bathroom, was stirring an arrogant hope that she might stay a while. He couldn't believe that he was ready to cling onto any positive reaction from her as a sign...but he couldn't concur that inaction on her part meant she didn't want to escape from him anymore. Just one sign...he keenly waited for.

Leaving her alone he went back downstairs, taking with him the food tray to clear up the dishes. On the way down, he heard the TV in the bedroom turn on and traces of ad jingles waft in the air. He kept away from the room the longest possible he could, which was only 16 minutes precisely and then ran up the stairs to reach the room once again. She was already slumped on the pillow, with her head rested in a dazed stupor. He helped her settle into a proper sleep posture and switched off the television as he slid down next to her, leaning back against the headboard.

It was impossible to ignore his presence beside her. When she felt so vulnerable with the proximity stripping her wounds raw, she was unable to stay down pretending as if in deep slumber. Despite his touch, instilling warmth that she was yearning for, her mouth wanted to say things that did not agree with the plummeting fancy in the seams of her. At that point of contention, she felt it was better not to act upon her impulse. Lying down still, with her back towards him, she tried hard to fall asleep.

He attempted to escape the realm of consciousness too, although sleep was still evading him. Thinking it was best to float in the moment, he picked up a book and gave it a read.

After three hours the clock struck 8.00 PM and he was the least surprised that he was still trying to understand the contents of the page he had initially started with. The words on the page were jumbling up together and going apart all at once, playing catch with his mind's eye. She did seem asleep, but involuntary shivers often rocked her, like now, she was shuffling around, while still on her side. This time he felt, it was a tad bit abnormal when she shook like tremors were coursing her body. When pulling up the sheets and tucking it to her sides didn't calm her down, he decided to turn to his last resort.

He pulled off the sheets, while quickly unbuttoning his shirt and hauled himself closer to her. His hands went around her, wrapping her in a blanket of his bodily warmth. Almost just as instantaneously, she turned around to nuzzle into the crevice of his neck. Her labored breath, stopped him in the middle of his movement, but her arm encircled him and slowly climbed his back. Like only a small whirl wind was needed to disturb the order of things, the juxtaposition of their bodies, had broken the thin film of defense she had from reaching out to him. He doubted if she sought comfort in nearing him, but she was proving him right, as seconds passed by. Gradually her shudders had died out, and yet she was tugging his collar tight...so stiff was her hold that her wrists trembled from the rigidity.

"Baby...are you ok?" he muttered as he tipped her chin up when he saw her eyes scrunched up as if she was ruefully struggling with something. Brushing aside her hair from both sides of her face, his hands cupped her face. As she turned to lie on her back, he, as a matter of course came on top of her gently. Her head went lax into the curve of his palm on one side, as a single drop of tear slip down her eyes.

"No...I'm here...I'm never leaving you...and I will..." He stuttered as he brought the words out his mouth in urgency "I will die before I will ever do that to you again...just trust me..." He urged her.

"I'm sorry baby..." he pleaded as he placed a kiss on her forehead while her eyes eased to set itself in a way welcoming the aid of words he was now offering her. Seeing her like that, a tornado of emotions overtook him. But in that troubled instant, she betrayed the turbulence she was fighting within and took his lips in hers. He slowly fell back to the bed, in profile with her and placed a kiss by the corner of her lips. Like rain on parched land, she was soaking with the calm he was infusing viscerally in her. She wondered if he had powers to raise the dead, for what she thought was lifeless inside her, was taking shape of a desire she thought was long dead and gone. As she felt his lips press and brush against the corners of her mouth in sweeping tenderness, her toes curled up in response. Her body plastered to the contours of his body, making him shudder with bittersweet ardor for her. They were swept into a trance almost immediately, as he lowered his hand underneath her kurti... the tips of his fingertips grazing her soft skin, leaving tingles erupt as it came in contact with it. Her need for breath seemed second to the want of his lips on her. And the smoothing kiss sparked a fire of dark desire in them...