SS:The Vine of Desire...Last (E), PG-8 - Page 2

[B]

Bani knocked on the wooden door, clutching the file tightly, she was nervous, her first independent project, jai walia would be reviewing it and approve or disapprove it… whatever personal relation they had, she knew he would never compromise on work…taking a deep breath bani walked in…

"Good evening Sir…" she said…only to find him not responding to her greeting…he was leaned on his leather chair with his eyes closed, his forehead littered with worry lines, his face looked worn out…she looked at him for a complete moment, he seemed to be too stressed out for the past few weeks…disarrayed and troubled as if something was eating him from inside…she had been in touch with pia but she didn't tell anything…the work load was also not there then what was distressing him…unknowingly she felt a great deal of concern for him…

"Mr. Walia…" she called out…louder this time… …

"Huh!!!" jai's eyes opened abruptly, they seemed disoriented for sometime before resting on bani…

"Yes, Miss. Dixit…" he said a bit rashly…

"Sir, the project report…you asked…" bani went ahead putting the file on his clustered desk…

"I will see it later…" he brushed it off… resting his head backwards…bani was going towards the door, but on a impulse she turned around to see him rubbing his temples, he looked sick…

"Mr. Walia…are you fine…??" she asked surprising herself on the overtly display of concern for him from her side… …    

"I am fine!!!!" he barked clutching his head…bani rushed to his side…placing the back of her hand on his forehead, it was burning… …

"Mr. Walia…you have high fever…lets go home…I will call up pia…" bani said hurriedly…

"No need to call her…" he snapped before passing out… …

Bani dipped the cloth in the bowl of water, putting it on his forehead as he slept peacefully…with great difficulty she had brought him home with the help of aditya, who returned to the office since an important meeting was lined up…she had reached walia mansion to find it empty, with everyone gone out with their respective works…pia's mobile was unreachable… she felt extremely odd and self-conscious, sitting in the bedroom shared by her sister and her husband, she felt as if she was intruding their privacy, invading their personal life, prying over them standing behind the drawn curtains…a golden framed photograph of him and pia in their bridal finery was resting on the wall, no doubt they made a beautiful couple, he tall and handsome, she petite and pretty… …but it seemed incomplete to her…as if something inherent was lacking… and the way he behaved today hearing about pia perturbed her immensely… Was something wrong…?  

"Maam soup…" Tony came in soft steps careful not to disturb his master…bani wordlessly indicated him to keep it on the table…

"Mr. Walia…" she called out slowly…but he was not getting up…she shook him slightly…making him squint his eyes… jai opened his eyes groggily to see bani's large troubled eyes staring back at him…

"Get up…you need to take medicine…" bani said in her usual composed voice… feeling uncomfortable jai sat up not knowing what to say or do…

Bani handed him a tablet along with a glass of water which he gulped down, a cough escaped his blazing throat…

"Here have some soup you will feel better…" bani picked up the steaming bowl of soup towards him… he quietly picked up the spoon, the warm liquid soothed his aching muscles, pumping them with a wee bit of energy…

"Finish it…" bani said sternly, when she saw him drop the spoon mid-way…for reasons not known, jai loved the way she bossed over him in his own house, in his own room…she reminded him of his late mother who would pamper him endlessly, especially when he fell sick…a tinge of sadness engulfed him, it would have been so wonderful if pia was sitting by his side, taking care of him, scolding him, mothering him just like bani was doing… he quickly recovered himself from his astray thoughts reminding himself that he was thinking of his sister-in-law in a way he shouldn't…   

"The temperature has dropped but you need rest…I have told Tony to give you the medicine at night… please take rest…" bani said getting up, keeping the empty bowl aside…

"I will leave Mr. Walia…I am sure pia will take good care of you once she returns, I tried calling her, but her mobile is unreachable…" bani said, jai didn't bother to reply back…her words seemed more of a justification in defense of pia about whom he was no more bothered about, something which he came to terms only recently… …seeing him not utter a single word bani walked away…

"Thanks bani…" she smiled back at him hesitantly as she heard his hoarse baritone…their eyes engaged for a brief split-second… and then forewent…as she returned back to her deserted flat, she couldn't forget those eyes, as if he was trying to tell her something she didn't know… …
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Bani scuttled towards the elevator, it seemed she had woken up on the wrong side of the bed today, first she had a troubled sleep last night, then she got up late, then she missed her bus…she literally ran towards the closing elevator, breathing heavily as she finally got in…

"Which floor…?" a deep male voice startled her… taking short breaths bani looked up to her utter disbelief it was Jai Walia standing, peering over her…

"Mr. Walia…" she almost gasped… …

"Good morning…" he said curtly…

"What are you doing here??? I told you that you need to rest…you are sick…God!!!" she rambled making him raise his thick eyebrow…

"Thanks for being my mother Bani…" his satirical statement, caused her already red cheeks to flush…

"I mean…you…should have not come…you should have stayed at home…" she said gripping the strap of her leather branded bag, the first ever expensive item she had indulged herself in, something she gifted herself…

"I didn't want to stay at home…" he said with a serious coldness that shocked her… the elevator doors opened and he strode away in long steps leaving her behind muddled in her thoughts… …
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"Bani are you listening…" jai's impatient tone jerked her out of her thoughts…

"Yes…yes Mr. Walia…" bani spun her head towards him…

"I am thinking that you should assist me on the Goa project…" jai suggested, noting the nod of approval from aditya…

"But Pushkar was handling that project…" bani asked surprised…

"I know but he doesn't seem interested anymore…and my work can't wait…" jai replied…

"Koi ladki hogi…usse kuch tips deke aata hoon…" aditya joked getting up…

"Do you have any idea what happened to pushkar…he seems lost…" jai asked concerned…

"I…I don't know…" bani said sinking in her chair…

"We will be leaving tomorrow, be ready, I will pick you up…" he said causally… bani nodded her head getting up…

"Is pia also coming…??" bani asked, thinking that it would give her some time to talk to pia…

"I don't think so…" came his aloof reply…bani didn't probe any further… …

She had called up pia in the morning after her encounter with Jai in the elevator…to her astonishment, pia had just woken up, sounding drowsy on the phone, and when she enquired about where she was yesterday, she cleverly made an excuse saying that she was with her friends and came home late… …she was left stumped…What kind of a wife she was who was least bothered about her sick husband??? What was going on???? Maybe she should talk to Mr. Walia, but that option seemed inappropriate…What would he think of her, trying to interfere in his marital life…????  

An hour later, jai was surprised as the bellboy came with a tablet and a tall glass of orange juice… sent by bani…
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Bani giggled holding the child, tickling the healthy baby boy…who laughed spitting bubbles of saliva, they were on the plane to goa, one of the co-passenger, a lady travelling with her year-old son, she needed to use the washroom bani volunteered to look after the cute little boy who looked at her with shining eyes…

"He is so cute Mr. Walia…" bani gushed, glancing at jai who was sitting beside her…he was distracted from his laptop screen, watching bani with wonderment as she made peculiar noises, playing with the baby…he was momentarily transfixed by the image of bani cuddling the boy… …   

"Thank you so much maam…" the mother of the boy came and picked her son…

"No problem…" bani's face beamed with a smile…

"Don't you want a child Mr. Walia… I know pia is young but still…maybe becoming a mother she will take things more seriously…it would be so nice…first child in my family almost after two decades…" bani said looking at him whose attention reverted back to the laptop screen…he stopped typing… …

"I will be a badi maa…wow…" bani said fondly…almost imagining herself with a girl or a boy singing them lullabies… …   

"Why don't you get married then…??" jai asked…causing her to become her usual composed and reserved self again…jai looked at her steadily waiting for her answer…bani shifted in her seat…

"Err…I haven't found anybody to get married and have children…" bani said…

"You are lovely bani…one would be very lucky to have you…" he said honestly…observing her perfectly shaped pair of lips which twitched…

"That was flattering…" bani muttered…turning to the other side looking down through the small window… …

"We don't know what destiny has in store for us…" came her sweet voice a minute later…she was still looking down, searching for something… …

"Yes… I realized it…" he whispered to himself… …
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She loved the monsoon…this time the rains were delayed, showering at the end of the season… it seemed they would continue to rain in the autumn as well… …bani looked out of the huge window of the hotel room…the sight in front of her was breath-taking… the clouds gathered like a huddle, rainfall drizzling down, the far off sea becoming one with the horizon… it was so difficult to pinpoint where the sea ended and where the horizon started, it was like they had been joined together always, the blueness smothering their boundaries…the greenness of the nature appealed her eyes…with a lone light-house standing tall and mighty with the waves crashing down at its foot…she loved it, everything seemed symbolic to her and she found meaning in everything she laid eyes on… …

They had been working day and night for the past eight days, under un-regularized conditions…and finally they had succeeded in achieving what they had set out for… they would be flying back tomorrow…the knock on the door interrupted the quaintness… bani opened it to find jai walia standing at the doorway wearing an undecipherable expression…

"Hey…" he said, suddenly feeling very self-conscious of himself…    

"Mr. Walia…come…come in…" she mumbled…

"The Mr. Deb has organized a party today evening for the success of the deal… we are invited…I hope you will come…" jai said, anxiously waiting for her reply…

"Um…I will come Mr. Walia…" bani said…somewhere jai felt elated after hearing her answer… …   

"Okay…see you then…"

"Ya!"

Jai loitered, his feet scuttling…

"Did you see the beach…?" he asked turning around…  

"No…" bani said…

"Come let's go then…" he said… amusing bani… …
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Only the unknown ocean may return a lost ring, an eclipse reveal a sun… maybe bani was the person he was searching for…the person who was so close to him and he conveniently ignored… he felt his heart flutter as he saw bani standing barefoot on the sand…looking skywards… her eyes closed…the sea waves washing her feet…his gaze didn't seem to leave her… Why hadn't he noticed her before???  She was everything he admired…cultured, caring, loving, honest, sincere, dedicated…But he had always seen her as Bani Dixit, the daughter of Nishikant Dixit, an old acquaintance he even forgot, pia was vivacious and bubbly, who challenged him, her physical beauty marred everything… he who could see through people didn't want to see anything beyond pia, she was the perfect girl to be his wife, to wear the tag of Mrs. Jai Walia, that was the sole reason he was so hell-bent on marrying her…but in all this process he seemed to have not noticed the demure lady who had made a place of her own in his heart, Bani… he was impressed by her confidence and stability, that was why he gave her a job, not because he was obliged to…he saw a fire in her eyes to achieve something in life… the same fire which he once had in him… which by time extinguished… 

"Chalen Mr. Walia…" bani turned to look at him…

"Haan…" he said unmindfully… …

As they walked back to the hotel, they struggled to speak, their words intervened by long pauses…the over-powering silence made them alert to the voices that seemed to grow out of the sonorous sea… …
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Bani clapped as the local musicians finished presenting their song…it was rhythmic with loud beats of the conga/congo… the beach-side party was in full swing with people enjoying themselves, relaxing… walking to a lonely spot she sat on the rock, watching the crescent moon, hung low in the sky… 

Jai stood in a corner watching her with hooded eyes; she was wearing a simple sleeveless chudidar, in jaded pink…her long hair open…fluttering in the salty sea breeze…as much as he was touched by her frailty, she invoked more than merely a desire in him…it seemed like an obsession without hunger…he felt like the breeze…touching without being touched…like the unreflecting mirror…he longed to merge… to feel the invisible… … conveniently forgetting the lawful relation they shared between each other… … it was forbidden yet he desired it… …

Bani turned her head as she felt someone sit beside her...it was Jai Walia...

"Aap..." bani fidgeted with her words...a slow blush flushing her cheeks having him in her vicinity...

"You look pretty..." he commented, looking ahead, not meeting her eyes, playing with his unfinished glass of alcohol...

"Tha...thanks..." she mumbled, trying to relax, his heady scent was making her senses go numb, she always felt nervous and stripped off confidence in front of him… …

"I married for the wrong reasons didn't I…?" he spoke after a considerable quietness… … she sat stupefied by his words…

"Is everything alright Mr. Walia…" she said seeing him so broken and helpless for the first time since she had met him…he was always in control come what may…

"Pia…she doesn't love me…" he said throwing away the glass with a ferocity that it sent a shiver down her spine… …

"Mr. Walia…she is still immature…you talk to her… you have to work at a relationship Mr. Walia…you are married… please talk to her…don't spoil yours as well as pia's life…" bani said, fearing the worst… …

"Why pia's beauty blinded me…??" he said looking into her eyes… rendering her speechless… …  

 "Why did I let my ego rule me…I have destroyed myself bani…pia was a challenge and I won it but the truth is that I have lost…she only saw the money I had, like everyone…didn't she…"

"You were right bani…you were bloody right…" he banged his fist on the rock, which scratched his skin…

"It's never too late Mr. Walia…marriage doesn't break so easily…" she tried to convince him desperately… …

"A marriage which is based on trust and love is difficult to break but this marriage is all wrong bani…all wrong…it was broken from the start…"

"Why couldn't I see you bani…???"

"Why couldn't I…???" he uttered staring at her, he was mesmerized by the pinkness of her face...it captured his strongest, farthest and profoundest desire locked in his heart...

It started raining… …

"Mr. W..a.l.ia…" her words broke…lost somewhere in the din of the raindrops…

"Banii..." his gentle call of her name cuddled her... bani looked into his eyes only to sail in the oceans of dark want swirling in his deep eyes which oozed with potent magnetism…his unmoving gaze froze at the base of her neck where her arched bones met…at the little dip, a shallow hollow…she trembled as his tongue fondled the empty space as if drinking nectar from an urn…her fighting breaths quarreled with each other as his fingers dug into her arms…he held her tight…dropping light kisses across her face…his smoldering lips finally rested near her quivering lips… kissing them…bani's eyes grew wide in shock as his lips fondled hers, blanking her mind…at one point of time she found herself giving in, responding to his forceful kiss like a seducing inamorata…all of a sudden realizing what she was doing she pushed him back with her whole might… …

"This is wrong…it's a sin…" her voice croaked… …

"Go away…" she said acidly…burying her face in her palms…sobbing… …she ran off as fast as she could… …
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God bless

Dhani

Wow...........is all I can say for the second part. Bani is dealing with her emotions and Jai finally realized Bani's true character and her heart of gold over Pia's physical beauty.