AkDha FF - An Interlude of Passion (Update- PG 11)

Allah! This woman would drive him mad!

It was a beautiful day. The sky was interwoven in the colours of morning' A pattern of intricate merging of red and blue as only Mother Nature knew how. The birds had awoken a while back and were happily chirping away. All seemed in harmony' The peace only broken by the distant clanging of swords and the sound of horses' hooves as the men trained in the large grounds of the Palace. It was all peaceful, familiar and comforting.

Quite unlike his young bride of three months. "Jodha, you are being unreasonable!"

Eyes, the colour of honey, met his crossly in the mirror. A woman's lithe form clad in a simple red lehenga with delicate work stood in front of it, running a brass comb through her lustrous black hair. Even in his present state of exasperation, Jalal could not help admiring the contours of her body. Her smooth back peeped at him from the odhni she had wrapped carelessly around her lehenga. Her face ' exquisite. Delicate brows arched over amber eyes. Light red lips taunted him with their fullness. Flawless olive toned skin made the picture of loveliness close to ethereal.

Those eyes' They alone could make a saint forget his piousness, a king his integrity, a devout his prayers and a man his mind, he decided grimly. Early mornings beside this wife of his without a night of gratifaction did not agree with him. He shifted uncomfortably on the bed, pulling the coverlet over his lap to hide the evidence of the nature of man in the morning' and his uncontrollable desires when she was near. He was really not in the best of moods. It had been three months of his marriage with Jodha! Three months since he had had a woman! Not that he lacked any in his harem. Even now, he could go and slip into the bed of any of his consorts. The trouble was ' he had only wanted her since he saw her! And he wanted her willingly. Which, at this rate, was beginning to seem impossible.

"I'm not, Shahenshah!" the cause of his discomfort replied stubbornly. "I don't want you to go hunting."

He sighed. This argument never led anywhere. She would disapprove of his sport, he would go anyway, she would refuse to talk to him for weeks, and one morning they would end up arguing about this again. Like this one. "You don't realize the cruelty you display in killing those innocent animals! Why should they suffer for your amusement? You think ruling a Kingdom gives you the right to take anyone's life for your sport?"

She was pacing now, brandishing her loveliness in front of him. Unknowingly, but there was a limit to how much his body could take these days. The same thing. The. Same. Bloody. Thing. Every time! He was tired of it all. He didn't want to go anywhere except to her. But would she let him? No, she would much rather take the poison his sweet mother-in-law had proferred her, than lie with him. Thankfully, he had deposed of it without her knowledge.

Did she think he took some kind of pleasure out of killing hapless animals? He only went there to give himself something else to do rather than obsess about her like an untried lad in his first throes of passion. Besides, it was Ruqaiya who enjoyed the sport, not him. And he liked keeping his wives happy.

Jodha stopped pacing and stood in front of him, her hands on her hips. "I don't suppose my questions deserve an answer, do they, milord?" she inquired sarcastically, her eyes shooting sparks at him. "You have such strict codes of honour for everything else. What makes you think that one kind of creature is superior to the rest? That only one kind deserve care and respect?"

"I don't," he replied, mildly. This was getting tedious. She was not his teacher. She was his wife! And she seemed to do everything except fulfill that aspect of her role. He gazed into her turbulent eyes. Why wouldn't she appreciate him more? Why couldn't she see all the things he had done.. things he had changed.. just for her?

He had been attracted to her from the moment he saw her, by the lake, her reflection in the waters mesmerising and tantalising him. He had seen her eyes widen as she recognized him as the Mughal conqueror every Rajput despised. For her, he had always been the plunderer, the invader of her Holy soil. He had wisely chosen to walk away that day. He wanted no memory of her sullied by harsh exchanges. And that would have sufficed for him ' the memory of her. Maybe. But fate had gift wrapped her and given her to him.. in the form of her dejected father, offering his daughter's hand in marriage in exchange for his Kingdom of Amer. He should have turned the man away that day, Jalal thought vehemently. He should have refused to let him seek audience with him. He should have forfeited Amer without getting the Princess in return.. He should have jumped up and run to make the man his ally without a marital alliance. He was.. just deluding himself. Given a choice, he wouldn't have done anything different.

Sighing again, he pushed himself off the bed to stand in front of his wife. She pulled her odhni closer to her face. Somehow that action angered him. To think she wanted to act coy with him, her husband! By the rights of Allah, her bashfulness should have been a mere formality now. Not an instinctive reaction to him. He had tolerated her reluctance to bed with him, given her umpteen chances to get to know him. He had even tried to understand the plight of the Hindus residing in his Kingdom by banishing unnecessary taxes on them. He wanted to make this Kingdom her home. His subjects, her people. He wanted her to accept him as wholly as he had accepted that he wanted her above all else, that day when her father suggested the alliance. What else was there to tempt him? Certainly not Amer, which was already his. Certainly not gaining a wagonful of hostile relatives and subjects, who might as well slit his throat as they might garland him in welcome as their son-in-law.

"Maybe I don't go to the woods for hunting, Jodha," he was angry enough to spit out. "Maybe I go there for other'pleasures."

She looked stupefied at the statement, staring at him with her mouth a little open. She licked her lips, making his loins tighten in response. "What' pleasures?" she inquired hesitantly, not sure she wanted to know the answer.

He cocked his brow at her. "The company? I go there with Ruqaiya, don't I?" he replied, just to be perverse. Ruqaiya and Jodha would never get along. He had been a witness to enough tantrums from both to know it for certain. A husband's life was harder than a monarch's.

He saw her suck in her breath, her magnificent eyes huge in understanding.

"You go there to..to.." she stuttered in shock. "With her? In the wilderness?"

He looked curiously at the myriad emotions playing on her face. What was she thinking? What had he said? Why was her face going from shocked to hurt to livid? In a flash it came to him what she had thought! He turned away to hide his amusement. She thought he was cavorting with his first Queen in the woods! The thought of it! He grinned, inspite of himself. He had meant the company only. Ruqaiya was a delightful Queen, however even she would balk at the thought of a tryst in the woods like a commoner, had he been of a mind to tumble her there. Which he wasn't.

"How could you!" she burst out behind him, after a stunned silence. "You fornicate with Ruqaiya like a beast in the woods, on the pretext of hunting?"

"So?" Oh, this was heights! He would start laughing in a moment! The imagination she had! Hearing her move behind him, he composed his face to a semblance of gravity. She came to stand in front of him, her eyes blazing gold fire.

"So? SO?!" her voice rose two octaves. "You have no shame, do you? None? Lying to me about hunting and actually standing there boldly admitting to your salacious reasons for the ruse after all this time? You come to me at nights and sleep quietly beside me! And then you plan a rendeavous with your other Queens? You are despicable!"

She turned away angrily. In a flash, he caught her and gripped her by the shoulders, turning her towards him. Staring down into her hostile expression, he bit out, "What in Khuda's name do you want from me, woman? I have other wives too. So what if I spend some time with them?"

"From you? Why would I want or need or expect anything from you, Shahenshah?" Jodha laughed bitterly. "You, who has conquered my land, stamped on my clan's pride and own me like chattel! What can be expected from a man like you?"

A deadly rage settled on him. Jalal was beyond angry now, he was furious! It was all he could do to stop himself from shaking her. Instead he pushed her away. She stumbled a few feet and glared murderously at him. "You know something, wench? I believe I know what my mistake has been all along," he told her, his voice a menacing hiss. "My mistake lay in letting your unruly tongue fly loose, letting you run roughshod over me all this time. Letting you take your time getting used to this life with me. I let you turn me the way you wanted to. " He walked forward few steps, making her back away in alarm from the rage on his face. It made him walk closer towards her, angered at what he saw was yet another rejection of his claim on her. She was his, by Allah's will! And she had pushed him too far now.

Jodha backed into the dressing table she had been standing against in the morn. "Maybe I gave you too much consideration," he hissed softly. "When all women like you are good for, is a toss in the hay." He saw her lose her fear, and become angry herself. Her eyes took on a dangerous gleam, blotches of red appearing on her cheeks from the force of her emotion. The Rajputs were a prideful lot, and he had just insulted her integrity.

"You crude man!"

She swung at him then. He caught her arm in a viselike grip, twisting it behind her back. Her odhni fell to the floor as she struggled to put some distance between them, her anger beyond her control. Jodha attempted to push him away with her free hand, only to find it caught and join its partner at her back. The position forced her into intimate contact with his arousal. Jalal groaned, inspite of himself. Having her this close to him was a bad idea. A really bad idea. A sharp pain on his foot brought him back to his senses. The vixen in his arms just wouldn't let up! Well, she was going to learn the folly of going too far with him.

He bent suddenly and picked his hellcat of a wife on his shoulders. "Hold still!" he bit out, as she squirmed to free herself.

"Let me go!" Jodha screamed, as he walked with her to their bed. Jalal dropped her unceremoniously on it. Before she could catch her breath, he had caught her hands again and pinned them to her sides. She stilled as he bent over her, her eyes wide and fearful. "No!"

"Yes'" he breathed, eyes dark as sin smoldering in their depths. He saw her catch her breath at the intent she saw in them. "What do I do with you, my sweet Princess?" He transferred both her hands to one of his as he stared at her compelling face. Her face was flushed from the remnants of her anger and her embarassment at their compromising position. Her eyes were huge as they tried to read his, her lips parted as if the words she wanted to say were paralyzed somewhere within her.

God, she was so beautiful. So glorious. With her hair spilling about her in abandon on his bed. Just like in his dreams, when he woke up sweating beside her. How many times had he gazed at her with longing after waking from such dreams? How many times had his inner demon wanted to possess her, to wake her up and remind her that he was her husband by rights. That she belonged to him ' body, mind and soul.

Yet he hadn't done that. He had looked at her sleeping so peacefully, so at ease beside him at night. That meant she trusted him not to try anything without her consent, didn't it? Maybe she was at ease with his presence? Maybe her heart, if not her body, knew him as her husband. Always he would lie down again and gaze at her through the night. He would tell himself in the morning to get a move on. Find someone willing to quench his carnal desires' And every night he returned to Jodha, drawn to her inspite of himself and his resolutions.

She looked at him now, with fear in her eyes. A fear he had caused. Jalal closed his eyes, regretfully. He couldn't bear it when she feared him. Her spark, her courage attracted him to her. It had made him admire her. "Please'" he murmured, opening his eyes again. Jodha tugged on her hands held in his grip, but he couldn't let go. Not just yet. "Don't fear me, little one."

Her movements stilled. "You.. you won't..?" she asked, softly, her gaze imploring.