Absolutely loved this OS - Please do continue your stories. I would have loved to see something like this happen on the show instead of Raghav forcefully marrying Pallavi under a MU. But we got a beautiful redemption of Raghav so I am not complaining.
Loved reading this one shot. Please do continue next and I would love to see a good ending to your stories. If you do happen to not write on IF and write elsewhere do please put a note in here so that I can catch up.
So is this the end of this OS Series or you might want to sync it up with the other series if it can?
Baba re! This was like Woooof!👏I'm just speechless🤗
Did you... Did you just take the decision out of every body else's hand & actually gave Pallavi not only the right to say Yes to the wedding herself but also that she kind of self-proposes her marriage too... instead of the normal Widow Remarriage drama (That's spewed on ITV)....WOAH! You go GIRLLL!!😎
Please Please do continue writing....Are you updating on Wattpad too cos I can't see updates there yet🙈
🥰🥰🥰👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
What a proposal 🌹
So considered is he to protect and shield her
Thank you for the tag, do keep posting please 🙏🏽🕉
Wonderful update 👏. If this is not love, then what is?
Is this the last chapter?
Awesome as always😳 I liked how Pallavi had a say in her wedding 😳Waiting for the next part❤️
STARLIGHT
The early morning sun filtered in through the peeks of the heavy blinds of the large windows of the room and took a playful peek at the two people cuddled on the single four poster bed like a pair of slumbering cats. The woman yawned and stretched to her abilities knocking over something with her hand which fell with a soft thud on the expensive carpeted floor.
She forced her stuck eyes open and blinked blearily at the pure apocalypse which had struck the room. Silken garments and bits and pieces of jewellery both free and kept still in their boxes were strewed like confetti all over the room. They covered the floor, some of the bed and most of the free space including the settee, the cushioned chairs and the mahogany table top.
She brushed the long strands of her luscious black hair from over her face and frowned feeling a weight over her body which had it pressed to the silken mattresses restricting her entire free range of movement. She looked down and let herself break into a soft smile seeing the reason of the comforting weight over her which had her kind of breathless to be honest.
She would never tire feeling an armful of her very sleepy husband first thing in the morning.
She saw his free curls resting over her clavicle and felt his warm breaths hit her naked breasts as he seemed to have made her chest his personal pillow. One of his rather heavy arm was wrapped around her waist and their legs were entangled snugly. She could hear his heart pulse against the sensitive skin of her stomach and she threaded her fingers through his hair unknowingly. She could hear the morning prayers thrum in the winter air and got reminded of the temple she had seen from a distance yesterday on her impromptu excursion outside.
She should really wake him up now considering their job was still half finished and today being the d-day only made matters way complicated. But the feel of his naked body sculpted and chiselled over years of rigorous workouts pressed against her softer and cooler one made her horribly distracted.
Oh marriage has definitely spoiled her.
More like made you aware of your deepest darkest desires sweetheart..
She could practically hear his velvet voice whisper in her ear sinfully.
As if on cue she felt him shift and raise his head up sleepily to meet her gaze. The morning daze hadn't left him completely making him look more adorable than she thought was even possible. He blinked and she craned her neck to kiss in between his 'adorably' drawn brows which broke him promptly out of his sleep drunk confusions.
"Good morning husband..."
His cloudy eyes darkened and swirled in a way which was solely reserved for her and made a bolt of pleasure shoot down her blood like always. He finally lifted himself up from her and rolled them over in a blink of and eye bringing her over to rest on him. She snuggled into his chest wrapping her limbs around him like a giant octopus and heard her mangalsutra clink with the golden chain around his neck.
He pressed his lips on the top of her head and mumbled into it almost inaudibly.
"Good morning wife.."
"We should really get up."
Pallavi said after a few moments of blessed silence. Raghav groaned and grumbled something in his native tongue and nuzzled into her hair further as if declaring his dissent. She smiled against his skin and pecked over his pectoral once.
"Raghav, we still have a lot of work left. We are supposed to match the Bride's jewellery with her changed lehenga remember? And then I have to get her reception gown altered and you told you are going to get them sew in the diamonds on the blouse ends as well. And then we have to go for the meeting in Bikaner too...Farhad said the King was free only for the afternoon.."
"Yes yes Saree ka dukaan... I remember everything very clearly. Do not worry, I have everything sorted. The blouse will be ready by six this evening, the wedding party starts at eight so.. no worries there. Anshul had already send the designs I needed for the Rajah of Bikaner.. and you will get the gown altered by one in the afternoon. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. "
Pallavi huffed and dropped her head down on her husband's chest inhaling a lungful of his cologne and his natural fragrance and well.. something that smelled definitely like her.
"You make it sound so easy Ghamandi Rao.. and I feel like a headless chicken running around in panic."
She grumbled and felt his rumble of mirth coming from deep inside his chest. He squeezed her a bit tighter before pressing kisses over her head a few times.
"It's is not that hard for a man who is used to twenty times more pressure than this. I am telling you the greatest truth of doing business Pallavi. Nothing.. absolutely nothing ever happens according to plan. Something definitely blows over and most of the time is spent doing damage control. This is your first big project.. probably the largest one you have done till date.
You are doing absolutely brilliant till now. And you will continue to do so even after that. Have faith in yourself. And the most important part. Do not stress unnecessarily. You will get an acidity and then you'll not be able to enjoy one of the most exotic and scrumptious cuisines of the North West. That also directly from the King's kitchen."
Pallavi who had been listening intently to her husband's wisdom soaking in all she could like a sponge from the man she had basically learnt it all... the corporate play of business... burst out into laughter at the last part. Trust her husband to end something so precious with his insufferable attempt at humour.
"You are incorrigible Rao! As if a Royal luncheon is my concern right now.."
She said good naturedly before getting lifted as Raghav finally managed to forego his never ending laziness to sit up straight making her comfortable in his lap. He looked mildly distastefully at the pandemonium in their room and sighed.
"Woah! What hit this room?"
He asked and heard his wife snort inside his chest before turning her mischievous gaze which had the power to literally shake his core with dizzying pleasure up to meet his. She leant up and kissed the corner of his mouth.
"Us!"
She replied naughtily and saw his eyes blow wide.
The vixen..
-------------------------------------------------
The Mehrangarh palace was alight with activities as the Princess was being led to her place beside her groom on the elaborately decorated Mandap amidst a shower of rose petals and slow music wafting in the air. Her bridesmaids consisted of some of the country's enviable celebrities and Pallavi wondered how many of them were bought only for the five minute walk. She turned around for a second and spotted the guests gushing all over the event in high spirits.
Everything was picture perfect.
The flowers, the drinks, the food, the decorations, the ambience, the company and obviously the couple themselves. She took a sharp intake of breath as the bride crossed her and she saw just how beautiful had the end product of her months of toiling had come out. The Bride was looking radiant in her had woven red on red chikankari style lehenga with motifs inspired from the Rajasthan Royalty. And the heavy gold jewellery covering her from head to toe was yet another testimony to Raghav Rao's unparalleled prowess in jewellery design.
Whatever anyone else says, she knew at that moment... they had done a fantastic job.
She and her husband.
Her first partnership with Jayanti Jewels for making the wedding trousseau of the unofficial princess of Mehrangarh, Jodhpur, was a blinding success.
She saw the royal couple exchange wedding vows and scented garlands under the watchful eyes of a hundred some star studded guests and felt a weird rush in the pit of her stomach.
As she threw the flowers into the havan kund with her husband standing comfortably astride her she remembered her own marriage six months prior. That was nothing compared to the jaw dropping grandeur like this. It was more of a small ceremony attended by their close knitted families and a few friends in the Rao Mansion. But she loved it nonetheless. It was intimate and meaningful with their loved ones teasing them left, right and centre while he flustered and fumbled. Oh they sure did that a lot.
They fumbled while they said their vows.
They fumbled while garlanding the other and as he put the mangalsutra on her.
They fumbled while taking blessings from the elders.
They fumbled while narrowly avoiding a good deal of ribbing and 'I-told-you-so's from their friends.
They fumbled even as they dropped their heavy dressings and laid side by side on the bed, pretending to sleep.
So much fumbling that now she finds it almost endearing.
It seemed like they were two newly born deer tripping and falling while taking the first steps into the world. Those were some days. She remembers dangling between awkwardness of a newly married couple and a smooth partnership of being friends for years. It was quite an adventure for her, married life. But she has enjoyed every single bit of it. The little mundane things of life which they did falling into a well oiled pattern and even the juicy dicey bits which have come unannounced into her once boring life, courtesy of being Mrs. Raghav Rao.
Her husband sure did have a lot of less than pleasant friends.
But mostly she loved her new life as it is.
Pallavi sighs mentally as the bride puts her marigold and frangipani encrusted garland over her groom's neck and simultaneously she rests her own head at the crook of her husband's neck and shoulder. She had wrapped his arm in both of hers as her eyes refuse to leave the sight of the Royal ceremony. She felt his lips press on top of her head before he rests his cheek over it. The warmth from the kiss travels like a spreading light throughout her frame and she resists the urge to nuzzle into him like a cat with much difficulty.
Raghav Rao was nothing if not a perfectionist. He had easily picked out every single nook and cranny of the design of his jewellery personally as it now finds glory on the body of the bride like a thousand bits of starlight. He notices how the pattern of her crimson red lehenga reflects the shine of his diamonds to throw it all around like a dazzling spectrum. And he is unable to help but think how much the aforementioned observation rings true for him and his wife.
They reflect each other's beauty and spread it around the world to literally blind it in the process.
He looks down and manages to catch his wife's gaze as she takes that moment itself like a telepath to look upwards to him. Their eyes mirror each others glee and satisfaction of a job well done and the heart warming memories of what seems like a lifetime ago but his only a couple of months. Raghav could see his entire life flash in the hazel specks of her marble grey eyes and feels a familiar stab in his heart.
An overwhelming sensation of a foreign yet so friendly feeling which he has come to understand as love.
-----------------------------------------------
The air picks up a bit more pace and the chill settles uneasily on Pallavi's bare skin as she walks away from the comforting heat of the festivities after the end of the ceremony to stand near the bricked wall of the fort which allows her to look down upon the thousand sparkling lights which dot the map of the Jodhpur city. Its a spectacular view.
She sips the champagne in her flute and allows the fuzzy warmth of the alcohol to settle at the pit of her belly. She is lost in her thoughts when she is startled out of it.
"You are the designer eh?"
She turns to see a middle aged gentleman standing beside her, holding a glass of his own.
"Yes. I am Pallavi."
"Ahh yes.. I remember my niece gushing about you."
"Oh! I am so sorry your highness! I couldn't recognize.."
"Its completely fine my dear. I am settled mostly abroad. The king's brother and all. People don't recognize me instantly. But I see a lot of talent here. The pieces which you designed for the bridal trousseau surpass some of the most popular fashion designers here.."
Pallavi blushed a healthy red at the praise and fumbled with her glass unused to such thorough attention.
'I.. that's so kind of you sir but I assure you this is my first venture. I.."
"You don't say! This is your first! Amazing! If this is what a novice can create imagine how extraordinary will you be with the right amount of polish!"
She looked at him confused and he smiled at her kindly.
"Ahh.. of course. How manner less of me! I forgot to say, I am a designer myself. I was looking for someone to mentor. Your talent at Indian women fashion is truly unique. You have my undivided attention dear. I would like to extend a formal invite to my workshop. I have selected some other designers as well. If you all could learn even a bit from me, that would be a pleasure. You will have a review board meeting at the end. And if my investors and co creators like your work enough, you might secure the position of the CEO of my company."
Pallavi definitely knew it wasn't the champagne which made her feel slightly dizzy. She gaped at the benign looking gentleman who was offering her such a humongous opportunity to start her own venture into a field she truly had a passion for. She didn't know if the day could go even better.
"I.. I don't know what t say sir. I.. I am honoured. I will definitely be honoured to take part in your workshop."
His kindly eyes crinkled in happiness.
"Why thank you my dear! Ahh but I forgot again.... My workshop will be conducted in New York over a period of a year. We will provide accommodation and you will earn a stipend of course till and if you get the position..."
Pallavi felt her heart sink into the depths of her gut. One year abroad. One year away from the people she loved. Her family... Her husband. She didn't even know whether Raghav would be susceptible to the idea though she herself found it difficult to live a week away from him let alone a year. Raghav did encourage her working and helped her in her various pursuits, never stopping, influencing or obstructing her work life but.. this. And what if by any remote possibility she did get her position, will she be located to New York?
He will never agree to this.
"Ahh..I am so sorry Mr. Sisodia.. I don't think..."
She began with a heavy heart when her husband's deep baritone cut her words off in the middle.
"she has it in her to truly comprehend the enormity of the situation right now sir. Forgive me wife. She is quite a bit bedazzled by all this glamour around. "
"Mr. Rao! What a pleasant surprise! She is your wife? Wait.. you are married? When did you get married you big oaf!"
Raghav flashes a huge grin which splits his face in half illuminating the handsome edges of his face and affection rolls off Mr. Sisodia's frame as he tackles the younger man into a hug. Raghav reciprocates enthusiastically.
"Why, sir. I did send you an invite. You found it beneath your dignity to deign me with your presence."
Raghav teased him and he laughed raucously.
"You ba*tard! How did you flip your luck?"
"Ahh.. just a surprising stroke of luck. Meet my beautiful wife, Pallavi Rao. Pallavi, Mr. Sisodia is one of my oldest friend's and had mentored me quite a bit during my initial years."
He faced the other man again and let his grin soften into a smile.
"Thank you so much sir. Pallavi had worked quite hard for this endeavour. This opportunity will be very helpful for her."
"She has a lot of potential Raghav. I would love to work on that raw talent. If your wife is willing."
Raghav looked at her waiting for her approval and Mr. Sisodia waited patiently. Pallavi was completely flummoxed. Did she want this? Raghav seemed pretty okay with it yet staying away one whole year.... She had never done that before. But the opportunity was too lucrative to let go and she did so desperately want to find her footing in the corporate world.
"Y.. yes. Of course I want to but.."
"Splendid! There you go sir. Another intern to terrorise."
Raghav completed cheerfully and Mr. Sisodia huffed good naturedly and patted him in the back after extending his delight at working with Pallavi before sauntering away in a dignified grace.
"What the hell was that?"
Pallavi gasped once she could spot Mr. Sisodia at a fairly safe distance. Raghav shrugged his shoulders and sipped from the flute in his hand and raised an eyebrow in that infuriating I-just-saved-you-from-another-mess look which she loved to hate. She ribbed him playfully and he almost choked making her snort in an undignified way.
"Pallavi! Kya yaar..."
"What? Answer me Mr. Rao. Why did you hijack my conversation?"
"Because you were doing that frustrating thing of yours.."
"What.... thing..?"
"That diabetically sweet sacrificial gobbledygook. Your speciality.."
"I wasn't..."
"You were about to let that once in a lifetime opportunity go because of me and our families and God knows, my staff, your staff.. some poor stranger on the opposite street or our neighbours.."
Raghav stopped to chuckle smothering come of it behind a discreet cough seeing his wife's beautiful face twist in that angry pouty look which she thought was scary as hell but just made him want to pull her cheeks more. Pallavi crossed her hands against her bosom handing her glass to him and prepared to stomp away. Raghav swiftly handed over both the glasses to an unsuspecting journalist who was loitering around gawking at the festivities and ran behind his furious wife before the poor sod could even figure out who handed him what.
He managed to catch her just as they took a turn to arrive at a completely empty cobbled road of the fort still at a staggering height from the city which twinkled merrily below.
His arms wrapped around her wraith like waist and she got pulled into him against her will even as she half heartedly tried to resist. It was for naught as usual. She sometimes thought why did she even try...
Its not that Raghav used some inhuman level of force though he very well could. It was just that her body became like putty in his hands just from one touch itself and she bent towards him like a sunflower looks up at the sun.
She bloody well couldn't control it.
"It will be amazing there in the States hon. You will love it. And you are doing what you always desired to. What is the problem?"
She sighed and leant back against his chest, closed her mascara lined eyes and took a lungful of his cologne and champagne and mint stained breath to bring her jumpy nerves under control.
"Its just that.. fine. Even if we manage for the one year workshop. What if I get the job? Then I will have to work in New York and.. you will be here.. and I don't know what.."
"Oh darling..."
His breath ghosted on the shell of her ear and she shivered almost. He pressed his nose in her hair and inhaled her shampoo as was his habit which she openly disabused but secretly adored.
"We will cross that bridge when it comes. Why do you worry..? You make it sound like we are in the Dark Ages and I am some control freak caveman."
She giggled at the sheer grumpiness of his tone. She looked aside and kissed on his cheek to silently pacify him. He beamed like the moon above and she saw mirth and mischief spark in those mystifying depths of his coal drunk eyes.
"I have been thinking of an international expansion from way back when.. just didn't get the motivation. Looks like now I do.."
She stared up at him twisting her neck uncomfortably. Bewilderment mixed with awe made her eyes look like saucers on her face. She couldn't bloody comprehend this crazy man! Where was the Ghamandi Rao from all those months back... the man she had sworn off as the worst scum of the Earth? A ruthless gangster with a cast iron frame which apparently housed no heart let alone tender feelings.
She did of course rectify all her previous beliefs slowly and steadily as he universe pushed both of them together, colliding and intermingling like the meandering tributaries of a river which couldn't seem to let go of each other. Still, sometimes she still manages to completely befuddle her.
This was definitely one of those times.
Raghav hadn't been looking at her and was still waiting for her answer or a quip to be frank, gazing into the distant starlight from above her turned head, it looked like. He sensed her eyes a few moments later and turned down to look at her.
"You would do that? Seriously? For me?"
He smirked lightly and huffed, a bit exasperatedly.
"Of course darling. Why not?"
When she did not stop her incessant staring even after a minute and the winter air wafted a few of her strands to her face getting tangled in her earing and maang tika, her husband pulled them out softly like he was handling a butterfly's wings and rolled his eyes good naturedly.
"My darling wife, we are standing at a place from where you can practically look down upon the world and you are staring at me. Look beyond.. isn't it beautiful?"
His eyes shone in the silver glitter which settled like stardust on his eyelashes and splattered like freckles on his defined cheekbones and the bridge of his aquiline nose and Pallavi felt like some had collected over her heart as well.
" I am looking at my world husband... and it is very beautiful."
Wow. That was beautiful. I so wish we had gotten a track like this in the show.
This was so beautiful. We did get Raghav appreciating Pallavi's ability after marriage when he referred her to Nizam's family for designing the wedding sarees but unfortunately we did not get this kind of conversation between Raghav and Pallavi. I would have loved to see Raghav encouraging Pallavi to spread her wings and be a top designer. Loved reading this. you made my day with this beautiful update.
comment:
p_commentcount