Chapter 14: Of Kisses and Dresses
Her class that Friday was three hours long, including the lab; it was the last one of the week and she was glad. She felt as if she has been sleep-walking the whole day. No, she amended, she has been sleep-walking since the day she got married, without even a chance to sit down and think about what was happening to her life... Where Shashank disappeared to, how surreal it was to be married to Shiv, the fact that she didn't live with her father anymore, and other things too…
Ever since that morning when she had realized that she wasn't as impervious to her husband as she wanted to be, he had taken to sleeping in his old room at night. He no longer went out and came back in the wee hours of the morning, something which his parents were clearly happy about… but they also didn't know that that he snuck out of their bedroom to go sleep in his room after midnight and returned at five in the morning. She was glad that at least he was sleeping well, now that he had made her lose her sleep! The bas***d!
When they were awake, they still fought like cats and dogs, but then when he came to their room at night to wait out the obligatory time until his parents fell asleep, she felt as if the tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife… she had taken to reading or studying, not getting in bed until he left the room. He never tried to touch her anymore either, for which she was eternally grateful. All in all, it was a strange co-existence they had, now a month into their marriage.
There were at least three evenings a week when Shiv's parents had her father over for dinner. Those were the highlights of her week. Even though she always wanted to leave with him when he left, it was also becoming easier to live in Shiv's house… slowly…
Her friends had gotten over their shock at Shashank's disappearance and had now taken to ribbing her about getting married to the most famous playboy on the planet, well, their little planet inside Delhi… Now they all insisted that she had always had a thing for him…. She wanted to shove something into their mouths… a thing for him! Please! She had told them not to project their own fantasies onto her… not that her attitude deterred them of course, because some of the more bold ones who were married wanted to know the details of her marriage to Shiv… intimate details… She had looked at them like they had grown horns and it was a good thing that they had always known that she could be a bit stand-offish about such subjects, because they didn't press the matter…
The lab ran over and she did not get home until late. Shiv wasn't home yet and mom and dad were in the middle of dinner; she greeted them before she rushed upstairs to shower and change. After the shower, when she opened the door, she bumped into Shiv just outside. It was just her rotten luck that she only had a towel wrapped around her.
"Shiv, seriously! Can't you see that the bathroom is occupied?" She asked immediately as he caught her from falling.
When he didn't reply, she finally looked at him and noticed that he had just taken off his suit jacket, but was still in his slacks and shirt, the shirt which was now wet from her hair. He looked tired, she thought, especially as he was still holding onto her without saying anything.
"What's wrong?" she asked now, putting the back of her hand against his forehead. "Are you sick?"
He shook his head, but she interrupted and said, "you feel warm…"
He took her hand away from his forehead, but held onto it without letting go.
"We have to go a party tonight." He said now, looking not in the least excited about the prospect.
"What party? Another one? Seriously! How many parties can one person possibly go to?"
"It's a family friend who is throwing herself a birthday party…" he said now, still sounding exhausted.
"She is throwing herself a party? What is she? 15?" she said flippantly and he finally cracked a smile.
"Yea, add 11 to that."
"Seriously though, I think the wealthy have nothing better to do that throw parties for themselves. And what's so important about turning 26? Absolutely nothing! So, why celebrate?"
"Alright you party pooper! We can't not go. My dad and mom don't want to, so, we have to represent the family."
"Can't you just go by yourself?" She asked now.
"Gauri, I am really tired. I have had a very long week at work and all I want to do is lie down somewhere and sleep for 24 hours straight… but if I am forced to go the birthday party of a spoiled brat, then my newly acquired wife is definitely not escaping the torture."
"Ah..great… a spoiled brat! That's who we want to go and celebrate with! Anything else I should know about this character?" she asked as she wiggled out of his arms to walk into the room.
"Yea, she and I used to date. And it wasn't a pretty break-up…" He said casually, right before he walked into the bathroom.
"Great! That's just fabulous! How badly did you break her heart? Should I watch my back and wait for her to stab me? No no… too messy… something less bloody. Maybe rat poison in my appetizer? A little cyanide in my cocktail?"
"Well, first of all, I didn't break her heart. It was more like I hurt her ego. Second of all, I don't think you have anything to be concerned about; the last I checked, she was just childish, not psychotic! And third of all, I am sure she has heard about the circumstances of our blessed union. So, I really don't think she is going to feel all that threatened by you!" he yelled out from his shower.
"Well, thank you, you obtuse nimrod! That makes a girl feel so much better!" she mumbled under her breath as she walked to the closet to pick out clothes for this impromptu party.
He came out of the bathroom then toweling his hair and said, "You really are very clever with these adjective-noun combos. I mean, really Gauri… one would think that you are getting your doctorate in inventing sobriquets for your husband rather than figuring out the miracles of cell science."
She didn't respond to him as she pulled out a pair of jeans and a blouse.
He came up behind her and said, "You're not wearing that! This is a party, not a date at the coffee shop! Wear a dress!"
"I am not wearing a dress!" she said now, turning back to face him.
"Yes, you are!" he said now, coming closer behind her and reaching out to go through her outfits that were hanging up in the closet.
"Shiv, you are not looking through my clothes! You don't get to tell me what to wear! What is this, the 50's??" she turned back around in anger and put her hand on top of his to stop him from his survey. As soon as she touched him, she became aware of other parts of his body as well, like the warmth of his chest on her back. They were arguing about what to wear to a stupid party that they didn't even want to go to while still in their towels!
The circumstances of the situation – the towel situation, that is - appeared to register with him the same time it did with her. Whereas it made her feel strange, it made him move closer to her, his chest now touching her back where the towel wasn't in place to offer any of its terry-cloth protection. She moved farther up front and away from him and pulled her hand back from his, but he caught it quickly.
"Shiv…" she whispered as she tugged on her hand to be released. Rather than letting her go, his other hand came around her waist to pull her back against him and she felt the heat of his chest and wetness of his hair all mixing with hers at the same time … And whatever she had felt that day when he had caught her in his robe and kissed her shoulder – whatever it was that regularly came to plague her in her dreams - now came back with a vengeance.
"Shiv…" she said again, but he was busy moving her hair aside to trail his lips down the slope of her neck.
Her eyes drifted shut and her breathing became shallow as she tried to fight the intensity of the sensation. She finally managed to turn around, but as soon as she opened her mouth to tell him to stop, he swooped in, catching her bottom lip with his. He was gentle this time, unlike the last, and the entreaty of his lips were so hard to resist, especially when the hardness of his body pressed into her softness, the only thing separating skin from skin their wet towels. At first, she couldn't do anything aside from getting used to the butterflies in her stomach that seemed to go crazy with each stroke of his lips. But then he pulled her closer still and her hands tentatively trailed up his arms – Lord, they were like stone – and around his neck and she hesitantly mimicked his moves, which seemed to go over well… well, maybe too well… because he suddenly pushed her against the wall, his arms around her waist tightening to lift her up.
"Stop, stop…" she gasped as she pushed him away, trying to catch her breath.
"Holy #!$@ What the hell was that?" he asked now, seeming a bit disoriented.
But then he was suddenly alert as he looked down; she followed his gaze and it was just in time to catch her towel from falling off. He backed away from her now, his breath still coming in pants, and turned around to curse another blue streak. She didn't hear much of it clearly as she felt as if she was trying to beat off a fog that was clouding all her senses.
He turned back suddenly to say, ""You ARE wearing a dress tonight. And if you can't find one Gauri, God help you! because I will buy you one! And I don't think you will like my taste!" His gaze shifted down to her legs suddenly before he looked back up. "So, I suggest you find one from somewhere within the hour!'
Clearly kissing did not improve his mood! She fumed as he stalked out the door, slamming it behind him.
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