FF: New York times with Maan&Geet Thread 4 09/13 - Page 10

It was some unknown, indecipherable attraction perhaps, for she had moved instinctively towards that corner of the bed. And when she woke up with a breeding familiarity coursing her skin, her head resting on a higher platform that was taut, yet comfortable, her hand loosely going around the same, she smiled with her eyes closed. She knew it like, it was meant to be, like it was nature's decree that he would be there, perched callous and right next to her, stretching his feet, having her head rested on his lap close to his body. His one hand was caressing her cheek and the other typed something on the laptop to his left side in an uncomfortable setting, when he looked down and noticed her being awake.

"You are up..." He asked softly.

Huh! Shouldn't he be worried? She thought to herself, as she raised her head, her eyes still closed and moved up against his body to settle on his shoulder.

"Hmmm" she mumbled as she buried herself into his neck and to that his arms responded with a tight hug.

"I missed this" she let out slowly "I missed you so much more..." She thought she was about to cry, but then he was already here, wasn't he? And with that consolation, she held her intensifying emotions.

"How is my Mishti doing?" He asked trying to sound serious, but the playful laughter that followed failed to make the intended impression.

She didn't respond, for she was slightly irked that he was dismissing her frail everything that was staring in his eyes. But then again, she was too tired to argue or fight. Not when she had another instinctive feeling she would only get a few hours with him. She hoped she could always act wise or at least have enough clarity about her priorities like this time around, when his questions resounded like possible accusations suspecting foul play.

She pummeled his shoulder gently, knowing exactly where he was going with that. Yet, she remained still in the same position as his hands worked up to her hair and eased it out of her face.

"I'm not answering that. Ask me nicely" she ordered, her voice picking up an ire; although it sounded harmless to him.

"I flew some 3000 miles after one call and you think I'm not serious or nice?" His tone laced with callous curiosity, his laughter hit her once again. As she remained wordless still in his arms, he continued "You better clear up their doubts. Or it will come sooner to bite, than you think"

"It's only last night's dinner at that stupid restaurant" She said sounding weak and reluctant to speak up.

"But they are not affected by it and Daadima..." He paused to face her and looked down on his shoulder while she turned too " As much as she is clever, she wouldn't mind assuming in this matter"

"That brings me to question why didn't you assume that I could be..." She faced him with doubtful eyes and a shy smile.

"May be because I painfully remember how you kept me up all night complaining about those cramps, some four days ago" His hold grew strong as if to make up for his absence at those painful times. But his tone was every bit mocking. She caught the change in his embrace and couldn't help the smile that came after. He was, no doubt, a marshmallow when it came to her being in distress, she concluded.

"Oh! So...you actually listen to me on the calls then?" She asked sounding groggy and intentional as she shuffled beside him.

"Ok Geet! We have had three fights in the last one-week. I really don't want to go that route now" It came more of a caution to her.

Pulling away, she sniffed her dupatta momentarily while she folded her feet. "I smell like puke...I need a shower and if you can get me anything spicy, that would be nice. I'm truly starving" she said slowly with a cry, grasping she had entirely forgotten what if felt like to need anything, ever since she married him.

"I have to give you that you have gotten better at giving orders" Getting up from the bed, he added with a smile "Daadima is a bad influence on you"

"Well I have to say you are to be blamed first...but can we work on that dinner now" She noticed he was already on his way towards the door and so her voice rose in pitch, rubbing her eyes, she said "I'm quite hungry jaan..." In spite of the daze she was in, she caught the slur. She held her mouth in disbelief and corrected herself in a hurry "I mean Maan".

He froze in his tracks. Turning around, he shot a curious gaze at her. With a sheepish look, she got up from the bed to run out, but he came around to catch her fast.

"Maan...Please" she yelled, with a troubled laugh as she rose to her feet atop the bed and tried to escape his extended devilish arm.

He had only been referred as MK otherwise and to hear someone call him in such a manner, that blared corniness at its highest, had the strangest affect on him. The surprising fact was that he actually liked it. And for reasons he didn't know, he wanted to cage her in his arms and have her repeat it until he would get tired of it, if that was even possible to being with.

To her own surprise, she was still fast given that she had not retained anything in her stomach the entire day. Still having given her the lead, he was only faster now and caught her by the foot of the bed. He stood on the ground, as he hugged her by the waist, while she continued to stand on the mattress, her feet sinking into the plush pillow top.

"Hmm...say that again" He moaned as he nuzzled her upper waist.

"Oh! Please Maan" Her words slipping her slinky lips "It's...I mean...It's just so...I don't even know why or how..." She hadn't a clue on what she wanted to say that moment, when his hand slipped inside to touch her bare skin. Bending down to facilitate that much-awaited kiss, she took in his lips. He looked into her soft brown eyes a moment longer, wondering if it was her hazel eyes that had him on a leash. Her hushed whisper broke his penchant for meditating upon her leer. "Jaan..." she purred seductive, before she locked her lips with him once again.

Without wanting to let her go for the shower, he held her firm by her slender waist and showered kisses across her mid-riff. But it was so wrong to do that, at that exact moment.

Quite terribly inappropriate it was when the picture perfect couple, in that position, confirmed the doubt in Daadima's head as she walked in on them. This seeing was definitely not to be believed.

To be continued... One more Update in some more time.

Daadima hung around for a while before she left the room, hoping any minute she would be privy to the happiest news of her life. But in vain, Geet and Maan had exchanged shy looks at each other. Grinning wide in that delicate situation both of them had held their silence after Daadima had enquired about her health. At some point, Maan swore, he saw Geet turn scarlet with the piercing gaze of his Daadima. When the seconds of silence had extended to a minute, she had graciously excused herself, acting out a sudden need to check on Naini.

Upon her exit, they argued in hushed whispers why either of them had not cleared up the air around her pregnancy.

"But how do we even know she is assuming that?" She was carful not to name the subject of their discussion.

"It's only obvious with the expectant eyes, people look at me" He dismissed her question, without having much to say.

"I just don't want to start before they even ask anything" She summarized what she had repeated a couple of times before and left for her shower.

"Oh! I want to go for a walk with you...hope you are not too tired" She said stopping half-way across the room, with the towel and clothes flung loose over her elbow "It looks like a beautiful night outside" she added, making him shoot a glance out the window the same instant. And the pouring moonlight that streamed its way into the room, confirmed her claim. He smiled and nodded at that in agreement.

***

He watched her walk across the sodded lawn to take the steps up the tree house. She had in her hand what looked like a book and with weariness, trudged the length of the winding staircase. It was only predictable that she was going to get up there sometime soon; her favorite place in the whole wide world to drown herself into a novel and slip into dream state. For him, it was his routine to climb atop with a blanket for her and if possible return to their room, carrying her in his arms. Or if too lazy to do so, he would allow himself to sleep alongside her in that open airiness -that the tiny room made possible with mullioned windows- and bouncing moonlight from the built in skylight on the sloping roof. Ah! He sighed loudly thinking of such nights they had made passionate love in that creaky old house. She had even joked, many a time, they could bring down the tree house, literally speaking that is.

Pacing the room restless, he slapped his forehead with his fisted hand. What was he to do? They would for sure leave tomorrow and he didn't have one word that can effortlessly slide out his mouth to stall her for any length of time. His desperation was bordering on frenzied madness and yet he was cheating himself with a sham ego that paid for nothing, not even an ounce of happiness. Convinced that this was perhaps the last night, he would see her within the confines of his home, he picked up the same blanket that had made those frequent trips to the tree house and shot through the steps to get downstairs. He was there in a few hurrying minutes, hopping to take two or three steps at a time.

She was shocked to see him there, entering the small space in his usual regal and mighty form. There was a part of her that had expected him to show up unannounced, but then her rational mind had dismissed her fluttering heart. But now the skipping pace of her flailing heart had returned and she feared if he could hear it all. Her eyes wavered here and there, like it was lost in its path to meet his eyes. He was just the same stubborn brat, she muttered and cared less not to look to his side.

"What are you doing here?" she bellowed rolling her eyes, as she stared at his shirtless body in the fluorescent light from the bulb that hung low from the ceiling.

"Hush!" he put his index finger to his lip and quickly sped across diagonally to get the light.

"What?...What are you doing?" She panicked as she got on her knees to get up and stop him. He rushed to her side and closed her mouth in one movement, after bending down to her level. Gesturing her to look out the window, he slowly released his hand from atop her mouth. Her widened eyes, turned and peeked through the window to see her Bhaiya and Bhabhi walk out hand in hand.

"Oh!" she let out, her gaze fixed at the couple who were unaware of the two pairs of watchful eyes upon them. However justified to make their presence in the tree house discreet, the realization irked her. This meant he was not leaving until they got inside the house. Shit! She mumbled more to herself.

He handed her the blanket as he felt the cold wind rush inside the room. His arm stayed extended as she blatantly ignored his offer. When she was getting difficult on his nerves, he forcefully draped the fuzzy throw around her and settled diagonally across from her in the far-side corner.

"I didn't ask for it. Stop forcing your will upon me" She said, pulling down the blanket, although it was not entirely off her body. She shot an angry glare, which he was blind to.

"If you knew they were coming, then why did you even come here?" Now he was turning deaf too.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence and once he felt, she was relatively calm, he answered her.

"I was already half way up the stairs, when I heard them. It was either ways too late for me to return. It's not like I pray to get stuck with you" He said, playing with the needle like leaf in his hand. She inspected his face momentarily, for any intentions to conjure up reasons such as the one he had just made up and then taking no notice of what he had just said, continued reading. Words made no sense, even as she turned the pages ardently, when he was sitting bare chested in his white draw string pants, just like the one she was wearing.

He wondered what had stopped her from changing to her own pair of clothes, when the driver had brought her bag from the hotel. The only difference ever since, was that the clumsy looking long shawl was gone right after she had gotten her luggage. Did he care? He dismissed that thought.

When he heard giggles from outside, he couldn't help peeping out the window and so kneeling low, he looked out.

"Voyeur" She hissed as she squinched her nose and eyes.

He sat back heedless to her words. Time passed and the tension in the air grew thicker and hard enough to cut with a knife. As it is, it was difficult staying in the same house with each other in different corners and this particular situation was indescribable.

This time, when she felt she heard the sound of her Bhabhi's payal move distant, she got up from her place to check upon them and see if they were leaving. It was still not good news, when she noticed her Bhaiya was still sitting on the stone bank, with his feet dipped in the waters. God! They must be having such a good time, she thought to herself as she sighted Geet run back into his arms.

"Hypocrite" He said, making her turn her torso, about her knees..

"I just...I mean " She stammered giving away some hint that she was guilty of being caught in the act "Just wanted to see if they were gone" He continued to disregard her statement for a while, but when vile humor stuck his mind, he just had to throw it at her.

"Don't tell me you are a peeping tom even when they are at home"

"Duh! She is in SF" she bit back.

"So if she wasn't in SF then you would? Meaning you have"

"Did I say that?" she was unsure in her tone as she buried her head inside the book with the help of the streaming moonlight.

"Because you didn't object to watching, only pointed out why it isn't possible" He laughed up heartily.

"Tell me Naini" He looked soulful as he called her name and she was mindful of that too "Do you miss us? When you..."

"I'm not indulging you in any conversation Rishabh" She cut him off grasping where he was going with it "Can you please shut the hell up?" She threw her book in frustration and closed her eyes, resting her head against the wall. Us? Her mind was caught up on that word. Was it even valid anymore to ask such questions? She grumbled mentally.

Right when she felt she had seen it all and had had enough of him, the sky thundered and drizzles rained down inside the room.

"Oh! Lord...You didn't fix the roof after that storm?" She enquired concerned. The storm she was talking about was some two years ago.

"No...I felt there was no need for that after you left" He answered, his gaze fixed on her form that was slowly getting wet. She was beginning to shiver and the awkwardness in the room was making her repeatedly check if the couple had left from the garden.

"You should just move here" He placed his palm next to him, which seemed dry compared to her corner " I don't bite you know" He laughed wryly.

"I don't care...I'm not sitting next to you" She said, as she tipped her face up to catch a glimpse of the raining clouds. The showers were picking up pace and it was beginning to pour cats and dogs. In the due course of the next 20 mts, her teeth begun to shatter like broken glass and her skin had its own share of goose bumps from the nippy weather. Having nothing to do but study each other secretly in that dull light room, it would have led another couple graduate to the next level of physical intimacy in no time, but to them, it was like drinking bitter poison, at least that is how they acted out.

"You stubborn ass" he said as he got up and approached her. She was about to fight him off and utter profanities, perhaps, when his unyielding voice gritted the words he spoke. " Shut up and just do as I say. I'm taking you inside" He was about to pick up in his arms and had decided to walk out, when she hampered his hold on her upper arms.

"Just go. I will move to that corner. I don't want them to see us together and get their hopes high up" She said as she picked herself up and moved along with him.

Slumping down the wall, he cozied up in the same corner bending his knees, while she perched next to him.

"Here use this" He handed her a kerchief that he luckily found in one of his pockets. Taking it without another word, she wiped her face and arms down. Though there was no intention to seduce him, he felt she was trying to, when she took the piece of cloth and slid it down her wet skin in fragile movements. Now it was his turn to experience racing breath and thundering beats that he prayed, she didn't hear how much he was still affected by her. At that proximity when she moved either from feeling cold or when a heavy blob of water dispersed nearby, she was only bound to feel him beside her. In the course of avoiding the droplets, she had moved so close to him, that when her arm brushed his, she instantly turned to catch his face a few inches away from her. He didn't know what got to him that annoying moment of closeness, he hauled her between his legs, as he pivoted about his spot and took his long leg to her other side.

"Just sit steady and stop moving around" He commanded with anger as he leaned over her shoulder to speak to her. Loosening his hold on her upper arm, he leaned back to rest his head against the wall.

Who did he think he was? She complained under her breath. His way of exercising his will on her was getting old and yet she had not stopped him that instant, when he lugged her to the current position she was siting in, which being almost in-between his barricading legs. Like she was running away...but then again wasn't she?

His hand covered his eyes, as he tried to draw focus to other things except her. And yet his mind like a moth to a flame kept coming back to her. It was either the way her wet ringlets was perched on her shoulder, or the view of her nape that ogled at him from the crack of the shirt collar, or even the nearness in which she was seated. As his eyes plastered to her, grazing her back through the transparent shirt, she felt a warmth rise in the pit of her stomach.

Since she couldn't lean on anything for support, her back was starting to hurt and she was fiddling about the position. He got her distress and instinctively held her to make her lean closer. There was some resistance initially, but when her back hit his chest and she tasted the comfort in the posture, she didn't want to continue with the fake struggle. She gave in after a bit and rested on him entirely. When he saw she was taking comfort to being around him, he gave out a smile. It was all too much to bear. He felt violated even, when she only used up his torso and still sat like he was an untouchable when it came to his arms or feet to warm herself. His arm balancing on his knee, took her hand as if he wanted to examine it. Her eyes lowered and she turned against his chest careful not to gain contact and met his eyes. His hand caressed her fingers and looked at the mark of sunburn that their wedding ring had left behind. Closing his eyes as if it hit a sore spot, he laced his fingers with hers. And as seconds became minutes, his fingers twisted and danced with hers like if it had a will of its own. When his touch was torturing and threatening her, she tried pulling it away, but he resisted and held on tighter. Tiny sparks were flying across her skin, with him in that close vicinity. She was convulsing in a fight of want and want not.

"Sod it Naini" he cursed as he sat up and tied his arms around her waist and moved his feet along the length of her slender legs, closer to her body. His lips traced her nape, taking in her scent and his arms in a heated urgency slipped under her shirt. She didn't oppose him one bit, like he was the panacea of all the sorrow she had inside of her. His kisses that trailed her neck were shamelessly romantic and laced with definite anger. Anger that he was denied of her for so long. The pressure of his lips imprinted on hers like hot stamps on her cold skin, but soon his warmth was flooding her too. It was slowly coming back to her...all that he was and all that she could be. Somehow the cloudy moments of the past was slipping away from reality and she was obsessing with the fervent ardor in which he guided his lips on her skin and neck. In that madness that was overtaking him, he pulled her shirt down her shoulder and claimed her in a rigid hold around her waist. But suddenly something hit his dowsed mind and he gradually became more sensitive and soft in his touch. Perhaps, there was a tiny chance for her to get away from him when he was brash with her, but this would draw up energy from all her being to even fight him off when he changed course to a slow and sultry way of relishing her, just the way she wanted. With every kiss that burst on her smooth, fair skin, her hand had climbed slowly up his body and was now knotting his hair in fervent passion. The pleasure was mesmerizing to be back in his arms. When his lips left hers and trailed else where, it only felt forsaken.

"Be mine baby" he whispered, just like the old days, nibbling on her ears. And that is when reality stuck her. Her abrupt pulling away confused him.

"No...No...No..." she cried when she realized she had easily succumbed to a few moments of physical delight. What ever happened to the distance of two years? The abandonment and the murdering doubt? Her heart throbbed as she remembered the lone moments in the hospital hallway. No women deserved to be given up in a moment's notice and undoubtedly not right after she was blamed for intentionally losing the baby, she cried to herself. She tore apart from his hold and got onto her feet immediately. With one last painful look at him and distressed eyes, she ran out of the tree house.

The last one-hour, seemingly put him in a head-scratching dubiety. The resistance and the submission were all misguiding. But he was to be equally blamed for the series of events that had led them to this painful parting. Perhaps even more to his credit than hers. However he could not shake off what he had seen; the self-evident love he had felt for her and even requited from her that short-lived period of intense ardor. No doubt, seeing was not believing at all.

Thank you all for the lovely and long comments to all those who are already writing up your thoughts. Please click the like button, if this is per your liking. More and more readers are becoming silent, not truly letting me know if something is missing in NY times. People, I apologize for not being active in the thread and responding back on the thread. But I intend to do more so, despite the active PMs that I do maintain.