Okay, today's FF is for Vrush – inspired by our 'makeover' conversation last night. Nani becomes fairy godmother to Cinderella!
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Khushi would have collapsed, had she not been pinned between him and the door. The shirt clutched in her hands fell, forgotten on the floor, as her hands crept up and touched his naked chest responding tentatively to his passion.
Encouraged by her response, Arnav deepened the kiss, his hand moving from her waist up to remove the palla completely from across her shoulder. He then opened the buttons of her blouse with one hand while the other reached behind to unhook her bra, all the while not breaking his kiss.
Khushi clung to him; her short nails digging deep into the flesh of his shoulders, as the intense emotions rushed through her. She forgot the time, the place and every thing else sane …
He felt her nails cut through his flesh as his hand moved up to cup her now naked breasts. He needed her urgently. His self-control was rapidly fading, as all thoughts of this being her first time vanished from his head. He continued to give her small bites and licks down her throat, advancing towards her breasts, while he made short work of removing the rest of her sari, and lifting her petticoat, to get rid of the rest of her underwear.
Khushi was so lost in novelty of her own reactions and responses to his marauding mouth, to realize when he had unhooked, lifted, removed her clothing to get access to her body, and when he had unbuckled and unzipped his own trousers. She felt herself being hoisted up and pinned against the door. Her eyes finally flew open in shock when she felt him thrust into her with a passionate force. Her small cry of pain was muffled as he covered her mouth with his kissing her fervently.
As he continued to thrust, Khushi's head fell back against the door, as the shock soon turned into intense wondrous emotions that were alien to her. If she thought that last night had been a unique experience, she now realized the raw animal force that had overtaken both of them. The force of their combined passion was plummeting her into a world, she did not know even existed. Her body arched against his, giving him access unconsciously, encouraging him to continue.
He felt her body tense against his, and realizing that she was at the peak of her climax, increased his thrusts, while watching her collapse against his now sweating torso, as he too felt his own body shudder in response.
It was after a whole five minutes that Khushi opened her drugged eyes. The first sight she saw, over his shoulder was their reflection in the mirror on the opposite wall. Her eyes widened in awe at the sight they created – her husbands perfectly chiseled back and bottoms exposed by the trousers still pooled around his muscular legs. She blushed as she checked him out in the reflection astonished at the perfection she saw. His body had all but covered hers, his forehead leaning against the door beside her head, as he recovered his breath. She saw with acute embarrassment her disheveled state, with blouse gaping open, her breasts tender and bare. Her sari crumpled on the floor in a small pile with his shirt. Her petticoat ridden up where her slim legs were still around his waist … She squeaked in embarrassment when she saw her most sensual position in the mirror!
**
Arnav's mind was in a total mess. He could not have been cursing himself more than he was right now, with her still in his arms, half naked, as he hit his head in anger on to the door behind her. What had he done, his heart ached suddenly… he had taken her innocence in one passionate fury, without a single thought of her. He did not even want to look into her eyes right now, where he was sure there would be tears again. How could he force himself upon her, he groaned. And to not use any protection … Had he no self-control, behaving like a horny teenager at bloody twenty-eight! It was humiliating enough that he had made her cry last night, and now …
It was her small whimper that brought Arnav out of his thoughts, and he slowly put her down on the floor, not looking at her once – afraid to face what he would see in her eyes. He turned sharply, giving her the privacy to gather her clothes, while he pulled up his trousers, zipping them in one violent tug. He then strode across to the bed where his clothes were discarded, and picking them up in one swipe, locked himself in the bathroom.
**
Khushi stood stunned at the door, unable to fathom his reaction to what they had just shared. She blushed again as the image they had created in the reflection came back to her, and looked down at her flushed body, his finger marks still on the pale sensitive skin of her breast.
Never in all her nave eighteen years could she have imagined what she had experienced in the last two days of her married life, she wondered. But why was he angry with her, she thought staring at the locked bathroom door. What had she done now? As she put her clothes back in order, Khushi kept stealing glances at the bathroom door, hoping that he would come out and speak with her.
When the door did not open, nor was there any noise from inside, Khushi quietly picked up the forgotten tea tray and walked out of the room, giving one last look as she neared the door, her eyes suddenly filling with tears. He hated her still, she thought, still blamed her for his sister's woes. And here she had gone and fallen in love with him!
**
It had been a week since he had left for Paris that Khushi had been moping around the house. Jiji and Anjaji, both assuming that she was missing her husband, continued to rib her, or cajole her as they constantly tried to get her to smile more often.
Even though she as afraid to sleep alone and Anjaji had even offered to be with her, Khushi had refused, preferring to be in his room, surrounded with his things, and unknown to the rest of the family curling up on the bed, with his t shirt and sleeping.
It was nani who finally decided to take matters into her hands as she noticed Khushi getting more and more silent day by day, her face getting paler and paler, the dark circles increasing.
Calling Khushi to her room one afternoon when she was resting, she asked her gently what the matter was.
'Kuch nahi naniji …' Khushi started.
'I know you both married in a rush, and much as I approve of my grandsons choice … you are the perfect partner for him … I also know that as his wife you will need to partner him sometimes for his business also', she explained gently. 'I wanted him to take you with him to Paris, to be at his side when he entertains his clients and friends'.
Khushi looked at nani, wondering where this conversation was going. She need not have waited long.
'I have organized for someone to come in and brush up your English, Khushi bitiya' she explained. When she saw Khushi open her mouth to say something, shushing her, nani continued, 'no… agar hum aapko bula sakte hain Lavanya ko train karne to hum apko bhi bana sakte hian Arnav ki pasand,' she ended intuitively.
'Harinder is the grandson of a good friend of mine. He is in his final year at college, and it will be good for him to earn some pocket money also.' He is going to come in the afternoons and help you with your English, to start with.'
'You do want to accompany Arnav on his next trip don't you,' she asked with an indulgent smile, when she saw Khushi about to protest.
'Par naniji,' Khushi managed to get in her opinion, 'humko badalne ki kya zaroorat hain …'
'Trust me, my dear,' nani cut her short again 'I have enough experience to know what I am doing. You just go along with me, okay.'
And so Khushi met Haridnder … Harry, he told her to call him. He would arrive every second day in the afternoon and they would sit at the dining table and go though tapes and conversations together.
His youth and exuberance for life, and the fact that they were more in the similar age group, soon got Khushi out of her misery, and she started enjoying her interactions with him. She played with his laptop, fascinated by surfing the net and getting answers to whatever she asked on Google. He would download dialogues on to his iPod and make her hear them till she started emulating them on her own. He started getting her the classics in abridged form and she started reading about Mr Darcy, a character she found so similar to her husband. This newfound world of discovery was fascinating, and Khushi started enjoying herself, looking forward to seeing Arnav's reaction to the new her, when he returned.
Harry also introduced her to his girlfriend, Sakshi. Sakshi was completing her fashion designing course at NIIFT. Khushi started joining them for the occasional coffee at their hang outs, as Harry now suggested they move out of the classroom, for her to use her knowledge and gain confidence.
And through Sakshi, Khushi was further introduced to her group of girlfriends. They would constantly rib her about her sexy husband, going into swoons and raptures about his dreamy eyes and other assets. Khushi, embarrassed at first, soon started enjoying the attention, and would shyly go along as they questioned her incessantly about how they met, how he kissed her the first time …
Within the month that Arnav had stayed away, Khushi was slowly transforming, though still managing to retain her innocent wonder at anything new she came across, and also her responsibility as wife of Arnav Singh Raizada, and daughter in law of the Raizada family.
She would share her new experiences excitedly with jiji, while Akash jiju and Anjaliji, who had started asking to be also called 'Di' now, looked on indulgently. Thankfully nani always rescued her from mami's sharp tongue.
And when Arnav returned one fine day, after he could not prolong his most painful, traumatic and lonely stay any longer, he entered a house where his wife was missing.
His flight has been delayed, and a part of him had been glad to be home, glad to be able to see her again. And she was nowhere on sight. He looked around his room as Jaiprakash brought in his bags, and was loathe to ask him her whereabouts.
Di walked him with some tea he had requested even at this late hour, asking him how his trip was and volunteering to help him unpack if he liked.
'Where's Khushi?' he demanded ignoring whatever Di was saying. He was sounding like a caveman even to his own ears, but ignored the warnings.
'Wo …' Anjali saw his irritation, and mumbled '… she has gone out with Shakshi for a ...'
'Sakshi!' Arnav stalled in the act of removing his waistcoat, 'who the hell is Shakshi?' he faced Di menacingly.
'Wo… chote …' Di wondered, why he was getting angry. After all he had not wanted to take his wife with him, and he had also landed back unannounced.
'Gurgaon…' Di said instead, 'She has gone to Guragon for the evening…'
'Gurgaon!' Arnav was finding his repeating Di's words more irritating than her cryptic answers. 'Where in Gurgaon, you have the address, I hope?' he was loosing it again, Arnav realized. He had wanted her here when he returned.
**
There was loud music and cheering coming from inside the closed door, when Arnav raised his hand to ring the doorbell. Someone let him in, and it took a while for his eyes to get accustomed to the darkness inside.
His eyes wandered around the apartment, bare of any furniture and just lit by floor lamps all around. Youngsters clapped and cheered all around the dance floor to the loud strains of 'chammak challo'.
And then he saw her, standing near the balcony doors, surrounded by a bevy of cheering girls, her eyes wide open with a scandalized expression, her mouth open under her slim hand, on which he noticed twinkled his diamond.
His eyes followed her's to see what it was that she was looking at and came upon an open area on the dance floor where there were two masculine young men stripped down to their underwear, gyrating to the strains of the music, while all the girls in the room cheered them on loudly.
'Who the hell had brought her to a stripper's party,' his mind thundered, 'and who had allowed her to come here in the first place.' He started pushing his way through the excited girls, towards where Khushi still stood, now shutting her eyes from the near naked images of the two strippers.
Her eyes flew open, and she jumped out of her skin, when she felt his familiar deathlike grip on her forearm. Sakshi, standing next to her reacted first on seeing him, starting to introduce herself above the din.
But Arnav continued to stare at Khushi furiously ignoring the collective 'ooo's' of the girls surrounding them as their attention was now on this sexy angry suit-clad man who was holding her severely.
Khushi only had enough time and presence to nod at Sakshi apologetically before she found herself being dragged across the crowded dimy-lit room towards the door, by her visibly angry husband.
Ye Hai Mohabbatein
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