Flood Tide
There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
~ You're not afraid tor try again ~ you're just afraid of getting hurt for the same reason ~
"You've got a son Mr. Agnihotri", the nurse was indicating his son lying in an incubator. He looked so small and so helpless. "Will he be alright?", he swallowed nervously. "Ofcourse", the nurse smiled.
"You may see your wife", she said pointing towards the private room, where Swati had given birth to his son, their son. Nodding his head in gratitude to the gentle nurse he took for a rush, heading towards Swati's room to find her lying with her back towards him. She didn't even turn on his call.
"Swati, sweetheart what happened?", he shook her shoulder but she shrugged his touch. "Tell me did something happened to you?", he asked in a helpless voice. "This is what happened to me?", she turned like a virago on him, pointing towards her baby belly.
She was wearing clean clothes, her hairdo was perfect and not a nick seemed to be out of place in her attire. "God my figure is ruined forever, what will I do", she wailed. "Oh this, I thought something disastrous must have happened to you", Shlok sighed and rolled his eyes at her.
"What do you mean, it's all because of you, I didn't want the child in the first place, I had to go through so much pain and now I've got such a long caesarian section scar on my belly", she was sputtering with anger. "But still dear you didn't have to go through pain of normal delivery", Shlok said consolingly.
"Normal my foot, I am not going through pregnancy again, it's decided", she pouted. "Okay dear, as you say", laughingly Shlok messed up her hair, while she shrieked at him for destroying her hairdo which had taken her two hours to do...
"Shlok, won't you hold the baby", Astha's voice brought him out of his reverie. Sighing he looked at his baby son, wrapped in fresh blankets and cooing in Astha's arms. Astha looked deliciously disheveled, with her fat braid lying over one breast, and her curls sticking to her temples with perspiration. But to him she was the most beautiful sight anyone could envision, wearing a white nightie and glowing with pink color.
An arrow of lust darted across his midriff and his groin became to swell indicating fresh arousal on it's way. Astha chose that moment to raise her eyes from the baby to Shlok's face and her gaze darkened at seeing him looking at her with dilated pupils, which clearly indicated what he was feeling...
"It's feeding time miss", the nurse asked of her, totally oblivious of the passionate tension stretching between those two individuals. "I know", Astha answered to the nurse without taking off her eyes from him. "Excuse me Mr. Agnihotri, you'll have to give her privacy", the nurse was saying to him. The gynecologist and the two maids had already left leaving them with the nurse.
"I am not leaving, you go ahead do whatever you want, I'll look the other way", he dragged the chair to sit on it. "But", the nurse began to say in a disapproving tone but Shlok threw a lethal stare at her and helplessly she turned back towards Astha at once to look for her answer. Astha nodded her head in approval, putting a finger on her lips, asking her to do just as Shlok said...
Shrugging her shoulders the nurse helped Astha in making the baby latch on her breast and suck powerfully. The tiny mouth sucking at her nipple was arousing waves of motherly tenderness inside her. So that's what being a mother felt. So powerful, yet so tender. So prideful and so joyous, she thought and tears of happiness began falling from her eyes...
Sniffing Astha looked with gratitude towards Shlok who was looking at her with a strange yearning look in his eyes. It was the look of a helpless child, yearning for happiness and love yet being afraid to take a step towards those feelings, lest they will fade away.
"Come here", smiling genuinely, Astha waved one finger at him. The nurse had already left, throwing a disapproving glance at both of them. They were both alone, a couple of crazies. What the world thought of them, they didn't care. Like a magnet Shlok got up from his seat, walking slowly towards her, as if hypnotized, his glance still fixed on her feeding milk to the baby...
Astonishingly Astha felt no embarrassment at seeing him looking at her feeding their baby. They both had made the baby. It was totally natural that they should also share everything in accordance with their baby. Shlok bent to his waist as he reached near her, peering close to the baby's face. The baby opened his eyes a mere slit for a moment to look at his father, than closing them again, went on sucking at the teat in his mouth.
"He's got your eyes", Astha whispered into his ear. He closed his eyes to capture that beautiful moment of seeing them together like this. A single tear left his eye, which Astha swept away with her free hand. "Shh, it's okay you can touch him", this time it was she who was consoling him...
Shlok brought out a trembling finger and caressed lightly on his son's cheek. It was so soft and fragile, he was afraid to the core that it would vanish any moment. He snatched it back in one instant and was about to move back when Astha caught his arm halting him in the movement...
"Come here, don't be afraid", she looped her free arm around his neck, drawing him down in her embrace. Testily, he sat back on the edge of the bed, his arms s hanging and his fists clenching at his sides. "Shh, I am here", she caressed the tensed muscles of his back with her free hand, until he began to relax in her embrace.
Sighing he brought his head down and placed his forehead at her shoulder like a supplicant. How many seconds, minutes, hours or years they stayed like this, they didn't know. The room was silent except for their breathing sounds and the little sound of the baby sucking at her mother's teat...
Seeing Shlok like this so endorsed in her motherly love, it seemed she got not one baby at her hands but two of them. Except one of them didn't arouse such carnal feelings inside her. After the silence began to creep her out she thought of breaking it with her usual chattering. "Hey your mistress needs a quick fix Mr won't you give it to her, she is tired after her hefty work", Astha shook her shoulder on which Shlok had placed his forehead. "What did she want?", he mumbled in her shoulder.
"Mmm, let me think how about a house with a sauna, or maybe a stable full of horses for riding", she suggested. Lifting his head from her shoulder he mock glared at her. "No way, no riding for you young lady until you recover", he wiggled his brows sternly, acting like an old man. That made Astha break into deep rumbling laughter.
The baby wailed, protesting as the nipple slipped from his mouth. "Sorry baby, so sorry but your mother and father both are so naughty, hope you can forgive them", still giggling she placed it back in the baby's mouth. When she looked back at Shlok, she could feel that the atmosphere had completely changed. Shlok's eyes were kindling with fires of desire. She gasped as he lifted a finger to caress the exposed part of her breast...
"How many months you'll breast feed him?", Shlok asked thickly, drawing circles over the milky white skin. What a strange question, didn't Swati breast feed Abhi, may be not, she thought and dunno why she felt heavy at the thought of having him betrayed by his ex-wife.
He was really unlucky in matters of love and tenderness. "I dunno exactly, but I guess for many more months I have to breast-feed him", she swallowed as the tingly feeling was again rising up inside her belly. "Good than", he was absentmindedly stroking her collar bone now. "Hey look at me", at her voice he raised his head to look into her gentle eyes. They were shining with a light of understanding.
At this angle he was so close to her that she could look at the golden flecks inside his eyes and the dilation of his pupils due to desire. She seemed to be falling in those two whirlpools as she lowered her head towards him until his hot breath touched her lips and her tiny nose nudged the arrogant tip of his nose.
The kiss started with a light peck, just a slight touching of their lips, until it grew into a full blown kiss. She moaned into his mouth and he groaned right back, his lips nibbling at her lower lips, caressing them with the inner side of his masculine mouth...
"Thank you for the baby", it was only a whisper that she whispered into his mouth but it felt like a caress to his tormented heart, soothing its burning pain...
The baby gurgled sleepily, and at the sound Astha tore her mouth away gasping for breath. Shlok was breathing heavily too, trying to control his raging hormones and pounding of heart. "I'll be sleeping in the next bedroom from now on", he said getting up on his feet. He was back in control again in such a less time while her heart was still pounding like a steam engine. "Why?", she swallowed painfully.
"If you'll want for anything just call me by knocking on the door of my bedroom, otherwise I won't be sleeping with you from now on", he dropped the bombshell over her head. "Why you arrogant bas***d, do I look like as I am dying to sleep with you?", she sputtered with rage. How easily he could transform her desire into anger. He was the only one with that skill...
"You'll need to give your whole attention to the baby for now princess and sleeping with me might distract you", he was saying, probably back again in his devilish mood. But was he trying to give an advice to her or was he taunting her for feeling desire for him in this condition, she was confused.
"Explain to me what do you mean by that, did I by any chance hurt your pride by breaking off the kiss", she narrowed her eyes at him. "The kiss, well that was nothing princess, it was you who initiated it", he winked at her, smiling wolfishly at seeing her fuming with anger. "Well hell will freeze over before I'll let you touch me again you ugly, stinking bas***d", she said through clenched teeth...
"Tuh, tuh princess by any chance do you relate to a truck driver, cause it seems you've got the vocabulary of one", he was laughing openly at her now. "And what about you, were you born in a jungle, trying to be so sophisticated when I know this is only the veneer hiding an animal, inside you", she made a rude gesture.
"Thanks princess for your kind words", placing a hand on his chest he bowed to his waist in mock gratitude. "That's why princess we are the perfect soul mates, cause both of us are so uncivilized", he winked hotly at her and she could hear the invisible crackling of electricity passing between them, so sheer was the feeling of animalistic desire tugging at her gut...
"See, you can't hide your feelings so well princess. I know you inside and out. It will be only a matter of time before you would come running to me panting and on fire", he threw the gauntlet, seeming to understand her dilemma. "No sweetheart, it will be you this time", she bared her teeth at him.
"You bet princess", he raised one eyebrow in mock disbelief. "Yes I bet, give me some days and you'll be out ", she drew a slashing sign at her throat. "We'll see", pointing two fingers at his eyes than at hers in a gesture of I'll be seeing you again later he headed out of the room...
TWO MONTHS LATER
"Here hold Abhi for a moment, while I change his diaper", a calm looking Astha almost threw the wriggling baby in Shlok's lap, while he glared at her over the top of his son's head. "Don't you think princess it's suspicious, whenever he has to change his diaper, I am the one who comes in handy while God knows where his nursemaid is dilly dallying", he narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"So you mean, your son do this on purpose", hiding her smile she widened her eyes in mock anger. "No...that's not what I mean...I mean...", he sputtered.
"I too don't know where the nurse goes at that particular moment", she muttered. "I'll fire her certainly this time", he grumbled. "Don't you dare, it's the fourth nursemaid in two months and God knows your son has got your genes for disliking people on the instant", she growled at him. "I don't dislike people, rather it's them who dislikes me", he said outraged. "Here starts your self-pity session, when are you gonna come out of that phase", she rolled her eyes at him.
"I don't do that", he swelled up his chest. Abhinandan, that was the name Astha had given to their son, on Ramu Kaka's insistence, chose that moment to break out in crying, blowing at the top of his lungs. "God what does he eat, to let out such a sound from his tiny lungs", wincing Shlok clapped both of his hand at his ears.
"That's because your son, couldn't bear to hear his father lying and in this way he is showing his protest towards you", she bit her lips to control her laughter which was bubbling out of her mouth by looking at his harassed expressions.
"No he has your genes, it's you who is always trying to deafen me", he protested and Astha's control broke. She went into raucous giggles while the baby stopped crying and started giggling too at seeing his mother rolling over the floor. "Stop it princess, I don't have the energy to control you both", Shlok snapped feeling at the end of his tether and Astha stopped laughing at once like someone had twisted the key in a mechanical doll...
"Okay boss", she was sweeping away her tears of happiness. "Here hold him, I have to go and freshen up for an urgent meeting", avoiding her eyes he lifted the baby from underneath his armpits and held it out to a smiling Astha who caught the child at once...
But to Astha's astonishment the baby refused to let go of his father's collar, clinging on it like a limpet. When Astha tried to prise his chubby fingers away from the collar, he let out a deafening roar and hung on it with a strength belied to his tiny frame.
"Hey child let go", Shlok asked him gently. He still hadn't brought him out to call his son from his given name, Abhinandan. That name had too much of painful memories attached to it and whenever he wanted to call the baby with that name it reminded him of son Abhinandan, dying in his arms while he called his name in torment, shaking his body to wake him up from dead...
Astha knew that so she had never forced him to call the baby with his given name. He will come around in time when he'll want to replace the painful memories with the good ones...
Starting from this night, she though smiling secretly. She'll surprise the socks off him. Their bet was still on, but it seemed he had made it his secret ambition to resist her with all of his might. Because for the past two months she was putting every effort to lure him in her trap, trying on seductive wiles at him and wearing sheer lace nighties...
Knocking on his bedroom door in the middle of night with little excuses like she wasn't sleepy and needed a book to read. But it seemed she had only succeeded to arouse feelings of irritation and disbelief at her bold ways...
But this would be the final time, when with all of her might she will make him lose face and come to her otherwise she had to accept defeat. And then she'll go to him as per the demand of the bet...
The storm was rising in his eyes, she could glimpse it in his eyes. It would be a matter of time before this flood tide would erode away the embankments with it...
She would wait for that moment...
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Mannat Har Khushi Paane Ki
Cricket
Anupamaa
