CHAPTER 20
It took Prachi a while to find Milind because he wasn't in any of the rooms downstairs, though she checked inside all of them. Eventually her search took her upstairs to their private suite of rooms - where she found him reclining in one of the big armchairs with his bare feet resting on the low coffee table in front of him.
He had just taken a shower, she assumed by the dampness in his hair, and he was wearing nothing more than a white toweling robe. A glass of what looked like his favorite whiskey sat on the carpet by the chair - untouched by the look of it, because he seemed to have fallen fast asleep of all things!
Jet lag, she remembered, and felt her heart flip in sympathy because he looked so utterly weary, even in sleep.
Being careful not to wake him, she tiptoed further into the room and quietly closed the door behind her, then just stood there, taking a moment to lovingly drink in the sight of him.
This man loved her, she told herself warmly. This strong, proud man loved her so much that he had gone to his own brother and begged him not to marry her. This man loved her so dynamically that he had taken her over, married her himself, possessed and devoured her in his quest to hold on to her.
He had wrapped her in luxury, cocooned her in his dark, disturbing, powerful sensuality. He had fought for her, made a fool of himself for her in the eyes of his peers, and finally, and perhaps most beautifully of all, he had put his pride on the line a second time by letting Neev expose the truth to her.
The truth.
Her arms went wrapping around herself so she could tightly hug that precious truth.
A truth that deserved truth back in return, she decided as she stood there simply drinking in the lovely sight of him.
And suddenly she was remembering the last time she had found him stretched out in that chair like this. Only he hadn't been asleep then, just relaxing with a whisky.
It made her smile, because she could still hear her own teasing laughter as she'd strolled in from the bedroom with her hair in disarray over her shoulders because they had just made love.
'You look as if you've just been ravished,' she'd heard herself say teasingly.
'There's a wicked witch living in this house,' he had replied sardonically. 'She's insatiable. I need sustenance.' And ruefully he had lifted the whisky to his lips.
How long ago had that been? Two - maybe three weeks? And she also remembered how they had returned back into the bedroom without Milind finishing his drink.
She was filled with a sudden desire to recreate those special moments, and creeping quietly across the room so as not to awaken him, she disappeared into the bedroom.
He was beginning to stir by the time she came back, with her hair hanging loose about her shoulders the way he liked it and freshly showered and wrapped in a fluffy robe to match his.
Her heart was beating a little too fast, because it was taking a lot of courage to go over to him dressed like this, not knowing what mood he was in.
His eyes were still closed, but one long fingered hand was cradling the whisky glass now.
'Hi,' she murmured shyly, unsure of her welcome.
His eyes were slow to drift lazily open. That face, that beautiful dark face was grimly implacable as he looked up at her. 'Had your truth now?' he questioned flatly.
'Yes.' She smiled softly.
'And how was it?' He took a sip of his drink.
'Nice,' she admitted.
Then, before he had a chance to protest, she bent to take the glass from his fingers, discarded it on the coffee table and sat herself down across his lap.
'So may I kiss you for it?' she requested. 'Or are you still too cross with me to want me to?'
He didn't answer, that grim implacable expression staying firmly in place as he merely closed his eyes again.
And Prachi had to ruefully accept that he wasn't going to make this easy for her.
'I could always go away again, if you're really that indifferent,' she offered.
No comment - again, the ruthless devil. He didn't even flicker an eyelash.
'The trouble is,' she went on rather tragically, 'you're really much too old for me...' She decided to rile him out of his wretched apathy.
It didn't work.
'I know,' he agreed.
Her chest heaved in a small sigh. 'You have nearly nine whole years more experience than me of how to play these scenes. It isn't fair.'
The eyes opened, focusing directly on her. 'Are you asking me wait around for nine years while you try to catch up?' he enquired very dryly.
'What use would that be?' she sighed. 'You'll always be nine years better at it than me.'
'Well...' The eyes closed again. 'If it makes you feel any better, then I don't feel nine years older - I feel fifty.'
'Oh, poor old man,' she mourned. Then caught his face in her hands and kissed him.
It took him completely by surprise.
But he didn't really stand a chance anyway.
Though to be fair, he did try to put up a fight, going all tense, his hands snapping to her waist and trying to pull her away from him while his mouth remained utterly unresponsive against the coaxing pressure of hers.
But, having caught him off guard she was determined to keep him off guard, so she proceeded to press soft, seductive little kisses along the line of his lips until the tension began to leave him and his hands stopped tugging, and his mouth finally caved in and began kissing her back instead.
'What was that for?' he grunted when she eventually let them both up for air again.
'Because, old man or not, I love you,' she replied and saw his mouth take on a cynical twist that completely derided the claim.
'Where's Neev?' he asked then, as if he automatically related the word 'love' to Neevs' name where she was concerned.
'Gone,' she said. 'Back to, Ayesha, the woman you said you loved. Though why I should believe a single word you say when you lie so well as you do, I don't know,' she added sagely.
'Ah.' He was beginning to catch on at last. 'So he told you it all, did he?'
'He feels guilty,' Prachi explained. 'Because he forced you into having to beg him to let me go.'
'Beg?' he said in protest. 'The liar. I threatened to kill him if he didn't put a stop to his stupid games, but I object to being accused of begging!'
Prachi just shrugged. 'Well, Neev saw it as begging. And...' her dark eyes took on a lustrous quality of wicked, dangerous teasing '.....I rather like the idea of you begging him to jilt me so you could jump into his place.'
'I'd watch my step, if I were you, Prachi,' he warned quietly. 'Because I am still damned angry with you.'
'Mmm,' she acknowledged. 'But I've bought you a present,' she announced. 'A peace-offering, if you like, for my not appreciating the lengths you were prepared to go to get me....'
And with white teeth pressing down into her full bottom lip, liquid dark eyes pleading with him through a penitent sweep of the long lashes, she waited for a response.
It was a look he had seen before. It was all pure female guile - that look. Maddening, teasing, playful, inciting - and it reacted on his senses like the siren's song that had been luring men to their deaths through the ages.
He let out a sigh - the mark of his own imminent death at this beguiling woman's hand. 'Go on,' he conceded. 'I'll fall for it. What kind of present?'
Instantly her hands went to the knotted belt holding her toweling robe together.
But one of his hands closing over hers stopped her. 'What are you doing?' He frowned.
'Unwrapping your present,' she said softly. 'I'm your present. If you still want me after the blindly stupid way I behaved today, that is...'
His big chest heaved on a short tense suck of air, his eyes closing, then opening to reveal eyes gone almost as dark as her own as he muttered something hoarse beneath his breath.
'Oh, come here.' He reached for her then, pulling her against him. 'Are you really so blind, Prachi,' he sighed, 'that you really can't tell when a man is heart and soul in love with you?'
'I suppose I must be,' she conceded sadly. 'But I'm heart and soul in love with you, too, Milind!' she added urgently. 'I've been in love with you for so long, in fact, that I can barely recall my life before you took it over!'
'Good,' he said, and caught her mouth in a short, hot, masterly kiss. 'Keep it like that,' he grimly commanded. 'Because I'm very possessive of every single moment in your life!'
'And you think I'm not the same with you?' she said, then continued on a sudden flash of blistering possessiveness, 'So if I ever see you so much as peck Ayesha's cheek again,' she warned fiercely, 'I shall walk out on you and never come back!'
'The woman is a pain in the neck,' he grimaced. 'She was a pain in the neck while she had her silly crush on me a couple of years ago and she was a pain in the neck today. I missed you terribly....so I took an earlier flight back and was going to surprise you. But she had left a distressed message on my voicemail asking me to meet her at the hotel
. She was trying to talk me into forgiving Neev for the way he'd used you!' he said grimly.
'Why the Marriott?' Prachi frowned. She still couldn't work out why Neev had moved out of Mishra Mansion.
'I was jealous of Neev so I asked him to move out. I didn't want him staying here in the same house as you, reminding you that he was the one you loved and not me,' he said stiffly. 'They came back from honeymoon on Monday and checked into the Marriott, but they are only here in Mumbai for a short time.' His hand came up to gently smooth a frown from her brow. 'They are going to live in the States,' he explained. 'Neev is going into partnership with his father-in-law. And to be honest,' he added heavily, 'I think it will do him good to get out from beneath my shadow.'
'You still haven't forgiven him, have you?' she realized.
His big shoulders shrugged. 'Beneath all that surface charm he's not a very nice person, you know.'
'I know,' Prachi sighed. 'But I think he's beginning to realize that himself, now, if it's any consolation.'
'The only consolation I need right now,' he said soberly, is the assurance that I am what you really want, and not just the guy who caught you on the rebound from Neev.'
'Oh, don't,' she murmured as she saw the ache of real uncertainty glint across his eyes. 'I'm sorry if what Neev and I almost did hurt you, Milind. But I can't think of a way to make that memory go away. Except to say that from the moment I saw you after Neev and I got engaged I was more obsessed with you and what you thought of me than I was with anything else - and that included Neev. So, maybe I was already falling in love with you without really knowing it,' she suggested anxiously. 'Maybe I was even too frightened to look any closer at why you disturbed me so much in case I had to face what a terrible mistake I'd made!'
To her surprise, he started smiling. 'At the risk of sounding arrogant,' he drawled, 'I am man enough to know my own worth. All I needed was time with you. Time I didn't think I was going to get...'
'You said that on the telephone in Hong Kong,' Prachi recalled.
'I also said I was in love with you, only you chose to believe I was talking about Ayesha.'
'I'm sorry,' she murmured.
'Don't be,' he grimaced. 'To be honest, I was never more relieved than when you misunderstood that conversation. I thought if I could make you jealous of Ayesha, at least I stood a chance of making you love me,' he stated. 'Besides, it also meant I could at least hang onto a bit of my pride, as well.'
'While you spent the following weeks ravishing me,' she added accusingly.
'Now that's a moot point,' he mocked, 'as to who actually ravished who most of the time.'
'Now, now,' Prachi protested. 'Be careful who you malign, because I have a witness!' And to prove it she held out her wrist where Minnie Mouse still kept perfect time.
Milind have a hoot of laughter and then suddenly, all humor left his eyes and his face went completely still as he looked deeply into Prachi's eyes. Prachi saw what looked like a sliver of pain dart across his face as if her remembered something that was painful to him and saw a film of what looked like tears in his eyes.
'God! I love you so much Prachi. I have done ever since I saw you that day in the office when you dropped all those bloody files. Do you know what I went through today when I read your letter,' he said shakily bringing a trembling hand to his eyes as if to blot out the picture from his memory.
Prachi felt a stab of pain right through her heart and thought, this man - this strong, proud man was on the verge of tears because he thought he had lost her. She leaned forward and feathered gentle, soothing, little kisses on his eyes, his cheeks, his forehead, his nose and finally his mouth.
'I'm sorry, Milind...I promise, I will never, ever leave you again! I can't live without you, Milind. You are my life,' she said in a shaking hushed voice.
'Sshh, Prachi' he kissed her, long and soft, and so deeply Prachi felt herself melting into him.
'Come on,' he whispered as he scooped her up in his arms and headed towards the bedroom.
'Where are we going?' Prachi asked, as if she didn't know!
'To unwrap my present,' he said with a wicked grin before he fiercely claimed her mouth with his again.
He carried her to their bed and gently laid her down on it, claiming her mouth as soon as he had joined her on the bed.
Prachi's hand slipped into his robe and found his tightly muscled shoulder, and gripped. Breathing gone haywire, mouth hot on mouth, the kiss deepened and became something else entirely - seduction at its most intense.
'You're too good at this,' she murmured unsteadily when he eventually let their mouths separate.
'I get even better,' was his conceited reply and he untied the belt on her bathrobe and helped her slip it off. His hands skimmed her body, lighting fires as they went, then fed the flames on their way back up again. Long fingers slid into her long hair and held her head while he kissed her again so passionately that Prachi felt she was going to black out so she merely clung to him, needing his strength when her limbs began to shimmer with a sultry kind of heat.
Milind got up and untied his bathrobe and discarded it on the floor before coming to lay down beside her again. He felt Prachi's fingers against the chest and his breathing became tight, his heart thumping against his solid ribcage, her fingertips felt enlivened by the rasping sensation of flesh.
Mouths joined again, hotly, hungrily, her arms looped around his neck. They lifted their mouths and in one urgent moment, everything changed yet again. They looked deep into each other's eyes and it acted like a gentle calming, everything slowed to a long, lazy touch, with a teasing medley. She kissed his eyelids, his cheeks, his arrogant nose, and smiled softly when he returned the honor.
'Beautiful,' he whispered, stroking his fingers through her silken spread of her hair. 'You take my breath away.'
'So do you,' she softly confided.
He laughed softly. Then suddenly he wasn't laughing, he was kissing her hot and deep, the whole thing becoming charged again. Caresses became bold, more intimate, until they were touching each other with an urgency that could only be assuaged one way.
They became one and moved to the rhythm of their bodies until it took them both to a place beyond anything they had ever experienced before.
The woman was a witch. His witch. His Prachi, was the fiercely possessive thought Milind had with his face pressed into the side of her throat afterwards.
Prachi closed her eyes and just let herself float on a lazy sea of satiation. A smile touched her mouth, though she tried to stop it.
'Shh,' he breathed against her throat as if he was afraid she was about to speak and spoil the moment.
But that was her very last intention; she felt too good, too at peace, too at one with this man of hers. It was a beautiful knowledge. And just as beautiful to know from that lazy 'shh' that he was feeling the same way about it.
Milind wrapped his arms around her, bent his knee across her thighs as if to make sure she didn't decide to stray, and whisperd 'I love you' with a lazy kiss pressed to her throat and then the top of her head.
This was it, Prachi thought. The real truth. I love Milind and Milind loves me. It really was as beautifully, gloriously simple as that.
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