FIFTEEN
Geet Handa.
Her name had a melody like her, a sweet song that echoed like music in his mind. The mental image of the lonely child had faded, replaced by the intriguing, compelling, multilayered woman she was now.
A voice began to sift through his passion-laden haze, coming from an unknown source. It was a message of warning, caution, telling him to slow down, so as not to scare Geet away.
Despite her dismissal of her brief marriage, the voice said, Geet had been hurt, in the past. Why he knew that, he didn't know. Where the voice was coming from was a mystery.
What was clear was that he must not do anything to cause her to refuse to see him again. Geet was his assignment. In his hazy state he had completely forgotten that she was more than an enchanting woman.
Mustering his last ounce of willpower, he broke the kiss, and then slowly, reluctantly, dropped his hands from her face.
Geet opened her eyes, and Maan stifled a groan by looking at her hazel eyes filled with desires of his own.
"Geet?" he said, hearing the desire in his own voice.
"Hmm?" she murmured dreamily. A soft smile formed on her lips, "Yes, Maan?"
"We'd better cool off here, don't you think? I want to make love with you, believe me, I really do, but''"
"You're right," she said, and then took a unsteady breath.
"Ye sab kuch jyada hi jaldi ho raha hai. Thank you, Maan. Most men wouldn't be gracious enough about calling a stop."
"Well, you are a very desirable woman. You're also a beautiful and intelligent woman. Kissing you, turned me inside out, and I knew I was losing control. You were responding to me, I could feel it."
"Yes," she said quietly, "I was."
"Tumhe ye sab purani baatein lagegi, like old fashioned garbage, par sacchai ye hai ki," he went on, "I don't engage in casual sex. I never did."
Geet looked at him keenly.
"When I'm with a woman, I have to care for her, about her. I have never been in love, but at least emotions of caring and respect have to be present. Then takes it out of sex area and into the making love area. That means a lot to me, it really does."
He looked directly into her eyes.
"I don't know you well enough to have any idea as to your stand on this issue, Geet, but I'm very aware of mine."
"Oh," she said softly. Then, she couldn't think of another thing to say; she was speechless, for the first time in her life.
She had never before, she realized, met a man like Maan Singh Khurana, who had such old fashioned values and self-imposed code of conduct. The men she'd dated in the past were ready, willing, and able to engage in casual sex on the first date.
She'd discussed it with Pari once, and they'd agreed that the "no" had to come from the woman. But not so with Maan. What an unusual man.
As for her response to Maan's kiss ' she'd returned it in full fervour ' and the sensations that had swept within her, she would discuss that with herself'.later.
Several minutes passed in comfortable silence, each lost in their own thoughts.
But their thoughts were interrupted by a phone call. Geet went to pick up the call.
"Thank you babaji, is phone ko bajane ke liye." She said to herself.
"Hello," she said.
"Yash, hi, how are you?" she asked.
"Just hold on for a moment," she said, "Maan, just excuse me for a moment." She said this and went in the other room.
While here Maan was lost on her, in her thoughts, in their kiss. And didn't even realize when she came back.
"Maan," Geet said, suddenly breaking him from his thoughts, "do you like boats?"
"Boats? Sure."
"Well, my friend Yash just called. He is going on a trip to Greece. He owns a cabin cruiser that I'm welcome to borrow. Would you like to go to Goa tomorrow?"
"I was going to look at a house with Dev that he'd just contracted to restore, but---"
"That's work, you know. Wouldn't you like to have a carefree day?"
He nodded. "Yes, that sounds great. But what about you? Your strict schedule due to deadlines?"
"I'm on vacation," she said, smiling brightly.
"Good for you." Score one for my assignment. "You decided to take some time off and you are doing it."
"Well, it's more complicated than that, but for now, I'm on a vacation."
"I'd love to go out on the water tomorrow, Geet. We'll have to bundle up good, but it sounds like fun."
"I'll book the tickets right away." She said, while getting up.
"Don't worry about that, I'll get it done." He said.
"Are you sure?"
"Positive. You already have a cruiser for us, let me do this much."
"As you say."
Maan then made a few calls and got everything arranged for tomorrow.
"Will seven be good for you." He asked while on the call.
"Make it nine. When I'm on a vacation, I indulge myself in sleeping late."
"I'll be here at nine o'clock on the dot." He glanced at his watch, and then rolled to his feet in a smooth motion. "It's getting late. I'm going to head home and read another one of your novels. I borrowed all of them from Annie."
Geet got to her feet. "You did?"
"Yep," he said, pushing his feet into his shoes, "I did." he sat on the edge of the sofa to tie his laces. "I've heard that an author reveals something of herself in everything she writes."
"I don't."
He stood again, then crossed the room to pick up his jacket.
"Are you sure of that?" he said looking at her.
"Bilkul. I'm the one writing the books, remember? They are drawn from my imagination."
"Maybe, maybe not."
"Well, main is baare me bahas nahi karna chahti. Chalo, main tumhe darwaze tak chod aati hoon."
Maan rolled down his cuffs, buttoned them, then shrugged into his jacket. At the front door, he encircled Geet with his arms and kissed her deeply before she could speak further.
"Good night," he said, then released her. "I'll be here at nine in the morning."
Geet nodded, not even attempting to answer. She was convinced that there was not one breath of air left in her body after that kiss.
Maan opened the door and left the house, closing the door behind him with a quiet click. Geet stood still, allowing herself the luxury of relieving the kisses shared with Maan ' every sensual detail.
When heated desire began to pulse within her once again, she spun around and walked back in the living room. As she sat ion the sofa, she told herself ' Geet tu jhalli ho gayi hai. Ye tujhe kya ho raha hai. Maan ab yahan nahi hai, ab uske baare me sochna band kar.
Fat chance, she thought, mentally throwing up her hands in defeat. Maan Singh Khurana was not easily dismissed from a woman's mind.
"Babaji," she said aloud. "Aapki problem kya hai?"
Forget it, she decided in the next instant. She had postponed the internal discussion with herself regarding her responses to Maan's kiss and touch. Now she was cancelling the inner dialogue. Maan was The Project, nothing more.
Yes, all right, she knew she had been swept away to an unknown place when Maan had kissed her. But since she was fully aware of her reactions to him, she was fine in shape.
"You're splendidly in control, Ms. Handa," she said, with a decisive nod. "You may carry on with the Project."
She would read a book until she was sleepy enough to go to bed, she thought, getting to her feet. As per her vacation routine, it would be novel far too removed from the kind she wrote. She'd read a thriller, scare the socks of herself, and have a wonderful time.
What a satisfying feeling it was to know she was in complete charge of her own life.
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