As soon as Omkara walked up to the family, his eyes met Shivaay and Rudy's, the three brothers having a whole conversation in a short series of glances.
Seconds later, Rudy put an arm around an animatedly talking Soumya, who was trying to tell a completely bemused Smrithi about a dress she'd seen in a Neiman Marcus window display during her recent US stint, and gently dragged her away while she was still talking. He knew it would result in him having to listen to a torrent of strong words from his lovely wife's even lovelier mouth but it was the least he could do for his O and bulbul Bhabhi. And Rudra Singh Oberoi had some extremely well thought out ideas about shutting that lovely mouth for a considerable amount of time.
On the other side, Shivaay had a short conversation with Anika and both of them discreetly moved away from Gauri, Shivaay taking Dadi with him while a smirking Jhanvi walked off with Anika, who yanked a still reeling Smrithi after her. Jhanvi had gone with Anika after giving her elder son a discreet thumbs up' sign, leaving him shaking his head and smiling.
Once the entire family scattered and walked off in different directions leaving Gauri and Omkara as alone as they could be surrounded by a crowd of enticed onlookers who were loath to leave this high intensity drama brewing in front of their eyes. It was not every day you found that a person you thought was a normal, everyday middle class young woman turned out to be related to one of the richest families in the country. This was as close as they could come to discovering royalty in their midst.
The Oberoi brother however, didn't seem to have any problems with being in the public spotlight. It was probably an everyday thing for him. Surprisingly, even Gauri Sharma seemed different since the arrival of the Oberois. She was no longer the silent, unassuming and easy-to-miss student Gauri Sharma. She stood straighter, her entire bearing different, seemingly more authoritative and in command of herself than any of her classmates had ever seen her in the past two years.
She seemed an entirely different person around the famous family and this man who was looking at her with a half-expectant and half-worried expression on his face. The crowd was astonished to see Omkara Singh Oberoi looking at their classmate with what they finally realized was puppy dog eyes. A few quick witted ladies in the crowd realized what they were seeing was akin to an Abominable Snowman sighting and quickly made good use of their phone cameras for posterity's sake.
Even as pictures were clicked and uploaded onto various social media websites with alacrity, they all were witness to Gauri's less than happy reaction to the puppy dog eyes. To their collective shock and awe, Gauri simply narrowed her eyes at him in reply and walked off, clearly dismissing him, an Oberoi, like she did it every day. The sound of gossip and rumors flying around the group of onlookers started to slowly rise as speculations became wilder and wilder. Omkara smirked to himself because he knew that no rumor or piece of gossip could get wild enough to approach the truth, which was probably wilder than anything they could ever dream of.
Even as he contemplated ways and means to pacify his little chiraiyya who was deservedly miffed with him, Omkara could feel a tension headache start behind his eyes as he once again heard the annoying clacking of high heels, signaling that the witch he'd almost ripped into for being his wife's nemesis over the past couple of years, was on the prowl once more.
"Omkara... you just left me there. I understand that you're worried about the way your family was behaving around this girl, but don't you worry! I'll take care of it. I saw how you made them walk away as soon as you got here."
"Ms. Mehta... Thank you for your concern. I am sure I can handle it from here"
With that clipped and surprisingly even-toned dismissal, which really did take a lot of restraint on his part, Omkara was about to walk off in the direction his wifey had disappeared to when he once again felt the claw-like hand grip his arm.
"Please... call me Sania. We're friends now and I want to help you."
"I'm sure you do... but you're not my friend Ms. Mehta. I don't even know you and I am sure neither does Shivaay. This is regarding my family and I would thank you to leave this and us, alone."
This time, Omkara caught her hand that rested on his arm, deliberately pulled it off him and let go of her hand sharply before moving away, making it clear to Sania and everyone else watching, that he did not in any way want her touching him. Shaking his head and clenching his fists at having wasted precious time dealing with the social climber when he could've been going after his wife, Omkara stalked off in the direction he'd seen Gauri go.
Sania Mehta was left standing in front of a crowd she'd just told ten minutes earlier that she was so close with Omkara Singh Oberoi and that they were definitely more than friends. They'd all seen and heard the way Omkara had acted with her and now, she had nowhere to hide. Everywhere Sania looked, she saw a sea of faces looking at her, a whole lot of cameras pointed at her and the whispers about her rustling among the very people who'd stood and watched her eviscerate so many hapless students during college hours for two years now.
The power she had felt while being the inflictor of pain and humiliation was nowhere present, now that she was the focus of their judgments. Even as she stood there, the crowd began to disperse, driving the fact home that none of them were remotely interested in even her humiliation. Now that the Oberois had dispersed, there was nothing keeping them from going back to their routines.
With nothing else she could do, Sania stalked all the way to the auditorium, angry tears streaming from her eyes at having been ignored by the Oberois and a crowd full of college students... and also to give herself the appearance of a jilted girlfriend, while a bunch of plans already forming in her mind to make the most of the situation. Quickly calling a couple of boys she'd dated on and off, she instructed them to follow and catch up to Omkara and keep her updated on his actions. She had his entire family to charm and couldn't be in two places at once... but she was Sania Mehta and she could have eyes and ears wherever and whenever she wanted.
Just as she walked into the auditorium to grab a seat for herself that was right next to the Oberoi family, her phone pinged softly with a notification from one of the guys she'd sent to trail Omkara.
Omkara on the other hand, had no idea where he would be able to find his wife. His brilliant plan was to just stroll around looking quite unsuspicious while he kept an active lookout for his wife... but Gauri's Shankarji was apparently quite unhappy with his little bhakt today because just as Om was about to start looking for her, he spotted Gauri's signature embroidered dupatta fluttering behind her as she made her way quickly around a building on the far right of him. He could recognize that dupatta anywhere... that piece of fabric had a very special spot in his heart for reasons he wouldn't divulge under pain of torture.
Hurrying behind her, Omkara's longer strides caught up to her in just under a minute, his hand easily gripping her wrist in a gentle yet insistent grasp. Turning her around and pressing her back against the uneven brick surface of the building, Omkara stepped closer to Gauri, his arms caging her body in, his eyes catching and holding on to her simmering gaze as he tried once again to silently apologize for picking that stupid fight with her that morning.
"Chodiye humein! Jaane dijiye..."
"Gauriii... ek minute meri baat suno to..."
Her name came out as a sigh, his voice sounded tired enough for her eyes to flash to his in a concerned gaze as she tried to figure out why her jatadhari sounded so put out. Their little arguments happened now and then, they were common enough to not affect him like this... and as far as she knew, nothing had happened since her leaving the house till he got there, to make him sound like this.
Automatically, she squirmed till he let her wrist go, and rested her cool palm against his forehead, checking for a fever.
"Kya kar rahi ho?"
"Aap theek hain? Humein nahin lagta ki aap ki tabeeyat theek hai. To check kar rahe hain ki aap ko bukhaar hai ke nahin"
Her palm slid down from his forehead to rest on his stubble, caressing his cheek subconsciously as she spoke to him. Omkara moved closer to her, his arm going around her waist as he pulled her body to his, bending down to rest his forehead against hers.
"Ab tum mere saath ho to main bilkul theek hoon. Aaj subeh ka drama Rudy ka idea tha... mujhe pata tha pehle se ki uske stupid idea ko sun na bhi nahin chaahiye tha mujhe lekin kya karta... time nahin tha aur tumhein distract karna pada. Sorry, meri chiraiyya. Maaf kardo?"
She smiled and nodded, her eyes closed in enjoyment of her husband's proximity as she felt his breath fan her face, his hands at her waist and his warm build acting like her own personal space heater. Her hands went around his neck in response and she stood on her tip toes to reach his lips. Omkara pulled her closer in response to her invitation, fitting her soft curves securely to his body while his lips meshed with hers, both of them sighing softly in pleasure at the contact.
What started as a soft kiss, quickly built into a wildfire, as was usual for them... with Omkara pushing Gauri back against the wall and resting his weight on her as his lips made their way from her mouth to her throat and her neck, placing kisses, licking, sucking and biting... revisiting a lot of the places where he'd left hickeys just a few hours previously. The frustration of not being able to explore more of her skin due to her wearing that hated high neck kurta finally brought him out of the haze that had descended on them, and made him aware of their situation and just where they were.
While they were husband and wife, and were definitely going to reveal this to the entire college and others present in a while, being an Oberoi constantly in the public eye was a whole different ball game. A slight misstep would cause a media circus and there was no way Omkara wanted to expose Gauri to any such fiasco because of his failure to control himself in a public area where they could be easily spotted. He quickly yanked his hand out of her kurta and helped her set it right while her hands busied themselves redoing the buttons on his kurta. Fortunately, neither had become so involved that they'd messed with the other's hair yet so that was a small relief.
As he pulled back from her slightly, knowing that putting that little distance between them was essential to their remaining sane for the rest of this little tryst, a cheeky grin lit up Omkara's face.
"I know ki main bohot irresistible hoon... magar tumhein abhi kuch ghanton ke liye apne aap ko thoda control karna padega. Apne aap ko sambhal logi na? Ya main kuch karoon?"
Gauri, who had still been lost in the after effects of the romantic haze that had descended upon them earlier, snapped out of it at his query to mock glare at him and stick her tongue out before she flicked her own nose with her thumb in the characteristic Salman move.
"Hum Dabangg Gauri hain... control to aap ko karna padega. Kar paayenge aap?"
The challenging expression in her eyes, the confidence dripping from her tone and the slight tilt of her chin brought the fire back into his own eyes as Omkara moved predatorily toward his wife once more.
"Nahin hoga to... kya kar logi tum?"
As her husband's eyes dilated and he moved to cage her against the wall once more like a panther cornering its prey, Gauri knew she was in for it and settled back against the building to enjoy every bit of what her creative jatadhari had planned for her.
The passion and need glinting in his eyes made Gauri want to melt in the face of its intensity. Both Gauri and Omkara knew in the back of their minds that this was neither the place nor the time to be behaving in such a manner but their emotions were getting the better of them at the moment. But they would never find out exactly what might have happened because a slight rustling sound to their left broke the haze, snapping both of them out of the intense moment in a flash.
Omkara moved back from Gauri to investigate the source of the noise while Gauri righted herself and followed her husband a few seconds later to render him any assistance that he might need. Unfortunately for them, they failed to find anything or anyone, narrowly missing one of Sania's ex-boyfriends, who heaved a sigh of relief at having escaped detection as he quickly sent the pictures he'd taken of Omkara Singh Oberoi and his little dirty secret, to Sania.
In the auditorium, Sania Mehta's phone pinged with a couple of notifications and her eyes widened in shock as she saw the pictures that she'd received of Omkara and that backstabbing witch Gauri Sharma. Whatever she'd planned before was now scrapped as a newer and even bigger plan took its place in her mind. A wicked grin twisted her lips as Sania revised her dreams of making Omkara Singh Oberoi hers. There was no way she would take something that had been touched by Sharma. Oh... she would take him away from Gauri and leave her humiliated and rejected... Of that, there would be no doubt.
This was what she needed to take that two bit, no good Sharma out of her life... she would disgrace her and do it in such a way that what should have been Gauri's most unforgettable day of her pointless poor life, would become her most unforgettable nightmare. And Omkara... he would also face her wrath. They said Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned... well, they hadn't seen what Sania Mehta was capable of yet.
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
Anupamaa
