Arshi FF - Sealed With Your Kiss/Chapter 17/ (Pg-143)/UPDATED - Page 101

Chapter 17

Skeletons In The Closet

Who of us can say that we've left
Nothing behind?
All hidden away, nothing to find?
Left in closets that no one can see,
And has it really left you free?

No one knows what they are, save you.
And you can keep them out of view.
Or can you?
Maybe they're acts from long ago
That you don't want anyone to know.
Or maybe they're secret desires
You've had,
That if ever known would make you look bad.

Whatever they are, they don't go away.
They shake. They rattle and start to decay
Like skeletal bones, long overdue
To be ashes, rid of, finally through.

And so the closets filled with these
Are the reminders that never go.
They stick around like glue to you,
Those skeletons that you know.

~We stopped checking for monsters under the bed when we realized they were inside of us~

My love, I die a little everyday waiting impatiently for our meeting. Only the hope of seeing you again keeps me going on. I am writing this letter because I want you to know that how much I miss you when I don't see you and for you to keep it close to your heart and read it whenever you'll feel like missing me. I am suffocating here, the walls seem to be closing on me and the fear of my parents shunning our love for the greater is making me sleepless at nights. I want to scream to the whole world that I love you but thorns seem to be engulfing my throat, cutting off my protests.

My prince, I wait with bated breath for the day when you'll rescue me from this house. I feel suffocated here. I think I am going to die if I'll keep living here. Please, please...meet me soon...

Yours loving,

Garima

14^th December, 1989

"Watch me aunt, I learned how to ride now", a six year old boy whooshed inside the room on his tricycle, screaming with joy, a look of glee adorning his face on his achievement.

Startled an18 years old Garima, accidently dislodged the ink pot sitting nearby the sheaf of papers. It toppled over, the ink soaking through the pile to drip on the love letter she was writing to her lover. "God, what is wrong with you Arnav, how could you just come barging on me like this", she exclaimed, snatching away the letter from the table, to save it from more damage, but it was too late by then. Arnav who had wanted to show his new tricycle to his aunt, shrunk at Garima's cold rejection. His lower lip was beginning to tremble and his widened eyes had already started to swim with tears.

"Bicycle", he whimpered, pointing towards his tricycle as fat droplets, began falling from his eyes. "You ruined my whole letter you rotten brat, who told you to come with it inside my room", she burst out angrily, waving the ruined letter in the air.

"What letter", a voice spoke sharply from the doorway, causing the breath to hitch in Garima's throat. Her tongue in her cheek, she turned on her heels to look at the face of the young woman standing in the doorway, a frown lining on her forehead, one hand on her hip. "Nothing big sis", she stretched her face in a parody of a smile but it had the opposite effect of deepening the frown on her sister's face.

"Let me see what letter?", Manorama stepped inside the room and before Garima could protest, she had already snatched the letter from her hand. "Sis it's nothing, leave it, I am just practicing writing letter for my English comprehension", she floundered, trying to grab at her sister's hand. "Arnav you go outside", Manorama ordered her son, who at once fled outside, who wanted nothing except to get away from his aunt's and mother's furious tirade.

"My love", Manormam read loudly. "Do we really write this in English comprehension little sis", she asked sharply from Garima, who was now standing with her head bent, one toe picking up a hole in the cemented floor and her fingers twisting nervously. At her sister's query her head snapped up. "It's not your concern sis, to whom I write it", she tried to grab it back from her sister's strong grip but only managed in tearing a piece off from it.

"You've been seeing that rotten Shashi again are you not", after staring for a while at Garima's rebellious face, Manorma spoke up. "I am not", she pursed her mouth stubbornly. "You are, the knowledge is written in your face", Manorama narrowed her eyes as Garima shuffled her feet, her fists clenched at her sides. "So what if I am, are you gonna stop me", she hitched up her stubborn chin, staring boldly into her older sister's frowning face.

"Yes I will, I can't let you destroy your life over a mongrel like Shashi, don't you understand he is not good for you, infact he is not good for any woman out there", she snapped, waving a hand in the air to emphasize her point, displeasure streaking across her face. "I don't care Di, I love him", Garima protested passionately. "You are not meeting him again, Garima or I'll tell mother about him", she warned, waving the letter threateningly in the air and watching her younger sister's face paling before her eyes.

"Mom, what should I wear in Sukirti's party tonight", a 12 year old girl dashed inside the room, holding two cloth hangers laden with party wear, oblivious of the tension stretching between the two women present inside the room. "Mom tell na, what should I wear, this red skirt or this red frock, I am confused between both", she asked breathlessly waving both of the hangers in front of her mother's eyes. "I don't know Anjali, wear what you wish", she answered irritably and turned to go out of the room.

"Tell na aunt, what should I wear?", looking crestfallen and disappointed with her mother's lack of reaction she turned towards her aunt, an impatient look in her eyes. "Don't think that I am letting you off the hook Garima, I'll continue our conversation sometime again", Manorama warned before exiting the room. "Our conversation is finished Di", Garima whispered behind her back, but her older sister had already left the room. "Red skirt, Anjali", she answered tiredly to her niece, almost falling back on her chair, all of a sudden feeling more exhausted than her younger years proclaimed her to be...

"Save the passiveness for someone else princess, I know you, and I can prove it to you, that you are restraining yourself from feeling the pleasure in my arms", Arnav gave a harsh laugh in his throat. "I am not passive, I hate you and your touch", Khushi answered flippantly. "Hate away then princess, because I really need that hate of yours when you would fall apart beneath me", he said suggestively, trailing a burning finger over the clean line of her throat. "In your dreams prince", she said waspishly, her eyes glaring at him in defiance.

"In reality too princess", he said, an unpleasant smile on his face. The tension stretched between them, their eyes glittering with battle lights, then Arnav broke the tension by suddenly flipping her on her stomach. "What the f**k?", she shrieked trying to get back on her hands and knees, but he didn't give her an inch, moving over to lie heavily on her back, causing the breath to whoosh out from her lungs. "It's for the f**k princess, no gentle way with you, you seem to like the rough and crude way", he purred dangerously inside her ear.

"You b***d, w***eson", her tongue let lose a string of filthy curses which would have made a truck driver proud to adopt her as his daughter. "Good going princess, I am going to prove true to all your names", he taunted, flipping her skirt over her thighs to tear at the fragile piece of panties. "No", she struggled feeling the blast of cold air moving over her buttocks as her panties fell away, baring the round globes to his burning gaze. She couldn't deny the fact that she was wet with excitement beneath all her empty protests and angry vehemence...

Arnav pressed her wriggling body tightly beneath his heavy form, then added a finger inside her womanly core to check the wetness, it came out covered with her juices. "I was right the rough and angry pleases you a lot", he laughed mockingly. "Don't", she whispered through clenched teeth. "Your core is weeping for me", he whispered thickly inside her neck, moving his lips across her nape in a burning trail of pleasurable fire. Her hands fisted above her head in the bedspread, knuckles taut across her pale skin. "Go away, leave me alone", she said in a high pitched tone.

"No way princess not before proving you wrong", he growled. Her body tensed beneath him, not wriggling anymore to escape from him. Her heart had started to hammer inside her breast bone. She knew if he went on playing with her, she would snap like a fragile doll beneath his hands. "What do you wanna prove?", she asked sharply. "That you want me", he said huskily. "Never... will you let me go so I can go home", she snapped, fast losing control of her senses. "I will let you go princess, but not before you beg me to continue", he mocked. "Okay get over whatever you wanna do and then let me go, but forget the dream of watching me beg for it", she said hoarsely, her fingernails digging into the bed spread. "It's not a dream princess, you are sure going to beg me", he gave a confident laugh, adding another finger inside her core.

Khushi gasped as her brain short-circuited at the feeling of him stretching her painfully. But it was a pain combined with the feeling of intense pleasure. "One day a little princess belonging to a rich kingdom went for a walk to a children's park with her father", he whispered into her nape, giving a powerful thrust of his fingers inside her.

What the heck was he saying, which princess, which park, she had no clue and she didn't want to find it too, she thought as a helpless moan escaped through her tightly clenched lips when his fingers glided inside her. "Stop it", she groaned, thrashing beneath him to escape from the torment of her senses.

But Arnav held her still beneath his heavy weight, the fingers of his other hand creeping across her neck to hold her face pressed into the bed. "The princess was never refused in her life, infact she was pampered and spoiled rotten. So spoiled that she could make her parents kick out their employees, she was that manipulative", his lips were moving like hot liquid over her back, her nape, his tongue tracing vulnerable lines of her neck, while his fingers move inside her, first slowly then gathering up speed as the pleasure hiked up. Her body tensed at once beneath him, as she heard the words "kick out employees" echoing inside her hazy, pleasure filled mind.

"Don't", a whimper escaped her throat but he didn't stop, his voice hard. "When one day the princess's father stopped by a vendor to buy her ice-cream she found a boy sitting alone on a bench nearby", his thrusts had grown faster, lightening strokes were beginning to tug at her womb, rippling inside her sheath, the sound of suckling flesh erotically loud in the air.

He leaned over her, flattening her against the bed, so she couldn't wriggle a little even if she wanted to...

Every hard punishing thrust of his fingers pushed her deeply into the mattress while his other hand twisted her face aside, towards him, his ravenous lips closing over her open gasping mouth, sucking in her ragged breaths and taking in her keening cries."No, don't", she moaned into his mouth her hazy childish memory highlighting the silhouette of the boy sitting on the bench, which still to this day haunted her with his dead eyes.

"Stop what the story or this", he mocked moving his lips to bite at the corner of her mouth. A haunting wail left her throat, sounding so animalistic to her own ears that she could feel the sound raising goose bumps over every inch of her skin. It couldn't possibly be her, could it, she felt possessed as if the body responding to Arnav's was not hers, but someone else's...

She felt light, floating, feeling her original soul hovering above her form, watching the demon possessing it with disbelief. "Please no", it was not her who was begging for more pleasure it couldn't be the vain and ruthless Khushi. "Not me, it's not me", she moaned, moving her face into the mattress to keep it away from the hot breath of the man whispering across her embarrassed flesh. "It's you for sure princess", bitterness had crept up into his voice.

"You know Khushi, that boy saved the little princess from falling down. You want to know how she repaid him?", he moved his fingers inside her again, this time rubbing at her c*** and something snapped inside her. "Please...please", Khushi heard a voice sobbing and thought it was surely not her. She couldn't beg like this...could she. "About time princess", there was cold satisfaction in his voice as he withdrew his fingers from her, flipping her on her back again so she could see the controlled hatred in his eyes. Her body recoiled, her breath hitching in her throat, a certain kind of heaviness pervading her heart at the loss of his warm body. The condemnation in his eyes raked her body as if someone had doused her with ice cold water, such was the burning icy pain that made her brain shrink on itself...

At that moment it didn't matter at all to her that she hated him or not because even if she tried her best to escape from his clutches she couldn't keep herself away from the bodily pleasures that only he could provide her with, the release which only he could give her, no one else...

"Please",...she whimpered, feeling vulnerable for the first time in her life. She didn't know what she wanted. Him to continue his assault on her senses or to complete his story. "The hatred vanished from his eyes and cold triumph took it's place. "Please what princess?", he asked, one brow arching quizically. "Please continue", she begged in a low voice. "Continue what princess, the story or this", he scorned, a hand deliberately caressing the slim lines of her thigh...

Khushi really didn't know what he was talking about, she could only remember some snatches of memory from the incident which had occurred in her childhood, but she had a premonition that it wasn't something nice.

It was a destructive knowledge for her, to know that the man she hated and at the same time wanted the most was the same person who had haunted her dreams from childhood. His cold dead eyes hadn't let her sleep properly from the past 15 years, sometimes they had even woken her up from the middle of a nightmare, haunting, making her heart heavy with guilt, perspiration pouring out from every pore of her body. That was really her karma that had come back in Arnav Singh Raizada's form, to haunt her, to make her remember that past incident where she had unknowingly destroyed a human life. But she was used to destroying people's life, it wasn't something foreign to her, she thought hitching up her chin and glaring into his condemning eyes. She won't ask for forgiveness, she never had, her eyes seemed to be saying to him...

"I may beg for sex from you, but don't think that I am going to ask for your forgiveness for a past incident that I don't even remember", she said carelessly, seeing his eyes narrowing with bitterness.

"I know, and I don't want that princess, nothing could compensate for what you took from me", he hissed, his hand snaked out tug at her hair inorder to bring her closer to him.

"What do you want from me then", Khushi clutched his shirt in her hands, her eyes burning. His lips didn't move to voice his reply, they were silent like his caramel eyes, which stared at her without any emotion, devoid of any life, the same dead look in them which had haunted her in her nightmares, made her feel the guilt of her unconsciously spoken lies. But she would never confess to him, that she was ashamed to have taken a part in the destruction of his life...

Khushi Kumari Gupta who had all of her life never felt ashamed for lying, stealing and destroying other people's lives so easily, was ashamed now. The girl who had never batted an eyelash and who had never looked back to ponder over her reckless actions was feeling guilty for the first time. "You...I want you", his eyes were still empty, haunting her and his quietly spoken confession didn't surprised her at all as she already knew what he would ask of her. As she went on staring helplessly at him, her mouth trembling, the whispered protests forming on her mouth, an unholy smile broke out on his lips which was still unable to reach the frozen wasteland of his eyes."I want to own you princess, your body, your soul & sanity, even your emotions...I won't stop until I have it all...all of your dreams and desires...whichever way it will take to scratch the itch that I have for you... I will follow that way...right or wrong I won't look into that".

Khushi closed her eyes desperately to block out his haunting whispers which still resonated in the chamber of her mind even when he stopped talking. She stared at his dark profile glowing in the lamplight, his words magnifying, resonating in her mind and heart. Then giving a desperate moan she let her head fall back on the pillow, her fingers clutching the collar of his shirt, as if wanting to seek a spark of warmth from him despite his cold and emotionless words.

"And why do you think that I will just give in easily", she mumbled after sometime as the heavy silence in the room began crushing her spine. He let her words linger in the space, twisting a wayward curl of her hair around his finger. "I don't think princess, I know it", his chest rumbled with mocking laughter. The note of confidence in his voice, made her lift up her head with a jerk and stare angrily into his mocking eyes...

Pursing her lips in a thin line she lifted herself away from him, tugging irritably at the chain of her handcuff. Crossing her legs to sit near him on the bed she glared at his relaxed profile while being totally unconscious of her semi-nude body and the ethereal picture she made sitting there. "You can open it now, I won't run", she pointed towards her handcuff. He turned his head to look at her calmly, his body lying unmoving, his eyes silently watching her rattling the chain with impatience.

She wasn't able to read his expression, the shadow had concealed his eyes from her view. "Say please", he mocked. "No way", she hissed. "Then I won't open them", he turned his face away, staring back again at the shadowed ceiling. "Okay, please open it", she snapped, jangling the chain harder. "Say it with love", he arched an eyebrow at her angry profile. Her face tightened, but she stretched her lips in a parody of smile and scuttling closer to him stuck out her handcuffed wrist under his nose. "Honey will you please open it", she batted her eyelashes at him, while the caustic smile playing on her lips belied otherwise.

He didn't reply to her too obvious and fake loving words, neither he showed any sign of getting up to open her handcuffs. Like an unmoving statue he lay there sprawled, silently staring at her face leaning above him. The only living sign about his frozen profile were his glittering eyes, which were glowing with a strange light. Khushi caught her breath in her throat, at such close range to him that she was now the heat in his dilated pupils seemed to be reaching inside her, tugging at her, reducing her mind to mush...

"How could you do this to me?", she whispered exasperatedly, biting her lips to control herself from crumbling down. The answer to her condemning words was the satisfied cat-like cruel smile that curled the top of his upper lip. He knew what she was trying to control and lifting a mocking finger he trailed a knuckle from the corner of her smoldering eye to the edge of her jaw in a whisper like caress. "Easily", he purred and wrapping a hand around her neck tugged her face down, until her lips hovered over his at just a breath away.

Needing him to feel the same frustration as she was feeling she brought her head down and mashed her lips with his mouth...

Arnav must be really surprised at her unexpected attack, because for many seconds his lips remained frozen and unresponsive, then after many breathless seconds during which she could hear the pounding of her own reckless heart due to the rush of adrenaline he began to respond. Sparks of dangerous excitement grew inside her, catching fire, making her heart beat rapidly as his lips begun to move beneath her mouth...

Then before the kiss could deepen she bit painfully at his lower lip, her teeth latching onto the soft flesh. His hands shot out at once to grab at her hair and drag her body on the bed beside him, his mouth grinding down on hers in painful retaliation, forcing her lips apart and back against her teeth until tears of pain started to grow at the corner of her eyes. Khushi had thought that she would teach him a lesson but as always she hadn't counted on his retaliation...

Even with all the pain, she couldn't stop herself from responding to his animalistic kiss, of her own accord her arms clutched at his shoulders, her mouth opening beneath him, letting his tongue enter and explore every nook and cranny of her mouth, his taste exploding over her tongue, masculine and tangy sending shivers of uncontrollable pleasure all over her body. He forced her gasps back into her open mouth by pressing a hand over it, his burning lips now exploring the contours of her cheeks and the corners of her closed eyes, his teeth nipping at her jawline, the rough beard scratching against her soft skin leaving whisker burns on it's wake. She didn't mind the burn, the tug at her hair, the sharp bite of pain against her throat where his fingers dug in the softness...

Instead she felt exhilarated, as if she was in a trance, dizzy, floating in the air, her eyes staring into the space, dazed and unfocused, reveling in the pleasurable pain and the heavy weight of the man moving over her, pushing her deeply and roughly into the bed.

Then cold air flowed over her body, instantly raising goose bumps all over her skin and she came out of her trance...

Arnav had moved away from her and was now watching her with a burning look on his face, his breathing a little ragged and blood oozing from his lower lip where she had bit him cruelly. Her own breath was coming out in gasps and when she lifted a hand and touched her own bruised and swollen lip, it came out smeared with his blood. They both were really animals of the worst kind, bent over each other's destruction, hating and giving pain, yet unable to part from each other. The cord of hatred and pain binding them seemed to be more strong then love, she thought bitterly touching her tongue to the tender corner of her mouth. The chain of her handcuff, clanged against the bedpost reminding her that she was still tied to the bed, a prisoner to him...

Ironic really, she was more a prisoner to their twisted desire that burned between them...

Khushi couldn't deny the fact that she was starting to become his slave more mentally than physically, he was beginning to rule over her brain, taking over her emotions just as he had said he would. How much would it cost her in the end, she didn't know...

Arnav leaned over the side of the bed and took out the key to Khushi's handcuff from the pocket of his coat, which was lying on the chair nearby. Silently she stuck out her wrist and he opened her handcuff with a click. "I won't give you release, neither physical nor mental, you have to come to me of your own accord ", his words broke the spell of silence, that had started to stretch between them...

Like a moth to the flame, Khushi thought helplessly staring at his chiseled and shadowed profile. She couldn't run from him ever she knew that now, infact the truth was that she didn't want to run away from him at all. By nature she was reckless, restless driven, knew no fear, nothing could bound her, neither any relationship, nor any norms of society and this time she really wanted a quick fix of the thrill which he was promising to give her. "And what if I won't come", she said challengingly. He didn't answer, but instead buttoned up his cuffs and shrugged on his coat, then moved to stand infront of the window, gazing keenly at the light breaking out over the horizon...

"The end would still be the same princess, but the damage maybe less", was it her imagination or was there some sort of threat hidden behind his calmly spoken words. His back was turned towards her and his hands were deep inside his trouser pockets. He looked powerful, standing there, flooded by the orange light that was beginning to pour inside the room, which was conveying the message that it was soon going to be morning. But what about the darkness inside her which would see no light ever...

"Ah you are blackmailing me, now I get it, if I won't come you would hurt me", she shook her head scornfully. "Would I be able to hurt you really?", he turned his head, a strange smile playing over his lips. "No you won't be able to hurt me, no one can really", she answered, her eyes like two chips of ice. "So you will come?", he raised a questioning brow. "Yes, but how", she heaved a deep sigh.

"Leave that to me", he answered non-committaly. "Soon it's going to be morning and I'll leave...you can sleep if you want, someone will bring you a dress in the afternoon and will drop you to your home", he said without turning his face towards her. "Just like this", she didn't know why she felt hurt at his dismissal. He let the curtains fall back on the window, turning to face her with a guarded expression on his face which gave nothing away. "Yes just like this", his tone was dismissive...

"Where is Khushi, she didn't come for breakfast", Shashi inquired from behind the newspaper, held in one hand, while with his other hand he picked up a piece of toast from the plate. "She didn't come home yesterday", Garima who was busy pouring him a glass of fresh orange juice answered evasively. "What?", Shashi sputtered, pieces of bread flying from his mouth. "I mean she went to Angie's house straight from the hotel, Josh dropped her there", she thumped at her husband's back. "Why are you telling me this now?", he coughed.

"You went to sleep early yesterday night, so I thought of not disturbing you", she said hesitatingly, chewing at her lips. "What if she didn't go to Angie, Josh could be lying to you", his appetite gone, he pushed the plate away. "Why would he, Josh is not that kind of a boy", she protested. "We can't trust anyone Garima, even you know why", Shashi said exasperatedly, throwing back the newspaper on the chair beside him...

Garima flinched at his answer, the pain evident in her features. Heaving a deep sigh Shashi got up from his chair, his shoulders hunched as if he was carrying the weight of the world over them...