[Shiv-Gauri] The Oldest Story... - 3 (END -p. 134)

Chapter 83:  Mehndi

He couldn't believe that he was just like those idiot men in those Yash Chopra movies, hiding behind a curtain, on the lookout for his wife among the abundance of anklets, bangles, and laughter than he could hear from inside the large gathering area in center of the house that was lined with a zillion curtains of some light shade of blue that was straight out of some Sanjay Leela Bansali flick.  Lord, when did he become so Bollywood-conscious? 

He tried to be discreet as he slowly pulled back one of the millions of blue fabric panels that hung down the perimeter of the rectangular space, but there were so many woman there that he knew he was bound to get caught.  Get caught hiding out trying to get a glimpse of his wife when he could very well just wait until the evening and see her at the Sangeet!  But he wanted to see her now…

"Can you see anything?"  He heard the whisper behind him and jerked up.

"Lord, Rathan!  Can you give a guy a warning before you sneak up on him?"

"That's an oxymoron if I've ever heard one!"  Rathan said before he tried to pull apart the same blue panel that Shiv had just tried. 

"Don't be obvious.  They're going to find out!"  Shiv whispered.

"Oh come on!  They have to know that we will try to get a peek.  That's part of the fun of this thing.  Haven't you seen any Bollywood film?  This is our role.  Pilfer our women right after they get all the mehndi on.  Then their hands will be occupied waiting for the green stuff to dry and it gives us an entirely fair advantage to take advantage of their fair persons.  Capiche?"

"You have given this a lot of thought, huh?"

"Lord, yes!  I want to see where she is hiding my initial on her palm!"

"Palm? Ha! I am sure that's all you want inspect!"

"Hey hey! You'll only know my pain when you stop getting to sleep with your wife, alright!"

Oh, if his brother only knew what an additional torture it was to actually get to sleep with your wife every night and still not get to touch her!  Especially when her body was like a…   yea, okay… it was better to not complete that thought right now…

"Why don't you scope out your hone-waale from here and I will go to the other side of this blue blockade?"

"Great idea.  The last thing I need is for you to kill my mojo."

"Yea, whatever!"

Shiv walked over to the other side of "the Blue", trying to be careful.  The women appeared to be coming in and going out of a few of the panels that were floating around the entrance to living room.  So, he stayed away from there.  He thought he heard voices near where he was standing and quickly hid behind the column next to him.

Oh, this was ridiculous!  Why was he doing this?

Not that such self-admonishment stopped him or got him to move away from where he was perched behind that column listening to the surplus of estrogen inside the Blue. 

Finally, when the voices moved back to the center of the room, he managed to pull one of the blue curtain panels open slightly. 

His jaw dropped open at the sight of the plethora of colors that greeted him.  If the women were decked out in such ornate sarees for a Mehndi, he didn't even want to know what the wedding was bound to be like…

The first person he noticed was Senna.  You couldn't help but notice her given how they had seated her right in the center on a tiny footstool.  The rest of the women were sitting all around on a large throw that was spread out on the floor.  He didn't even know why Rathan had bothered.  There was no way he would be able to get Senna out of here.  She was essentially barricaded in…

His target, on the other hand… he quickly scanned the women sitting on the floor and a few seconds in, his eyes lit on her form just as she rose from where she was sitting, holding both her arms away from her body. 

This had been a bad idea…

Lord knew how he had been holding himself back from her all these weeks!  Although she seemed to not appreciate it one bit! He had read in those books that he had gotten that even though her body was changing in ways that drove him literally crazy with lust, it didn't mean that she was necessarily up for doin' the dirty.  In fact, the books were quite emphatic is cautioning that there were key areas of her body that were likely to be too tender for his amorous attentions.  Even though he had had a quick conversation with God right then about why He would do such a thing to needlessly tease men, he had also quickly reminded himself that he was supposed to be withholding himself from her anyways.  And thus, he went to the torture chamber known as his bedroom every night to fitfully toss and turn while remaining within hand's reach of his wife, whose body was quickening with his seed and yet off-limits to him. 

 As she rose from the floor now, he saw that in contrast to all the embellished clothes all around her, she was wearing a simple flowy pale blue sari that hugged all her curves most sinfully.  Her hair was unbound and streamed loosely down to her waist.   She was smiling, partially listening to something one of the women said to her and partially checking the design on her palms.  She was hands-down-and-without-a-doubt the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. 

As he looked on in a somewhat hypnotic state, she bent slightly to catch something that someone else said and in the process dropped the pallu of her sari.

He hoped to God that Rathan wasn't still on the other side!

Rather than pulling the pallu of the sari back up, Gauri laughed now at her own clumsiness and stood up;  the pallu collected in the crook of her bent elbow, revealing a glorious view of… he took a deep breath involuntarily.   When one of the women made to rise to fix the sari for her, Gauri gestured her back saying that she herself will fix it.

Standing as he was like a statue, unable to look away from the way that her blouse molded over her breasts, it took him a moment to notice that she was walking right to where he was standing.

He quickly closed the curtain and snuck behind the column again, just as she pulled aside the panel and stepped out.

Her back was to him, so she didn't notice him immediately.  But she sensed him quickly enough and turned around, gasping when she saw him.  He covered her mouth and pulled her against the column as she extended her arms down to either side so as to not get the henna on his shirt.

"It's just me. Don't make any sound."  He said, although both those points seemed self-evident and thus moot when he said it out loud.

It struck him then that he hasn't been this close to her in a long time as he moved in even nearer until his chest rubbed against hers; he felt her body jerk in response as her eyes closed on a moan.

He pulled back immediately worried that he had hurt her.  Her eyes opened suddenly, although rather than pain or relief, he saw… disappointment? 

"Did I hurt you?"  He whispered, still remaining close to her, but making sure that his chest did not even accidentally graze her breasts.

She shook her head and turned her face away from him to give him her profile.

What?

"I didn't hurt you?"  He asked her again in a hushed voice, making sure that no one just happening to be lingering on the other side of the Blue heard him.

She shook her head again with a slight smile as she whispered back, "Will you pull my sari up?"

He paused a moment, mesmerized by her smile, before the coy tone of her voice registered fully.

What??

"I like it better this way."  He said, unable to resist. 

Her eyes rose to him in surprise, before she looked away again.  He couldn't believe it as he watched her pull the edge of her lower lip in, worrying it in a way that was making him want to carry her upstairs right this second.

He moved in closer once more to see what would happen, and sure enough, when his body touched hers again, her lips parted on a sigh as her eyes drifted shut.

"Shiv…" her voice had taken on a husky timbre.

"Do you want me to touch you?"  He asked, catching her face by the chin and bringing it back to him.

She nodded slowly after a beat.

There was a voice somewhere inside his head telling him that this was against his plan to win her over.  But he forcefully pushed it away.

"Where?"  He asked.

She looked up at him without saying anything, although her eyes were telling him many things, he could swear. 

He had never seen her like this before, not able to tell him exactly what she wanted.  In fact, the Gauri he knew would be demanding what she wanted without delay… which is why he had taken her un-demandingness these past few weeks as silent agreement with his no-physical-intimacy clause.  But she seemed to be just as silently asking him now to retract said clause…

Was he reading all these cues right?  Did she want him?  Did she appreciate the changes that he had made – the amazingly difficult changes, mind you?  Did she even notice?

But what he asked instead was, "Here?" as his hands stroked her waist.  Her shoulder jerked up to hit her chin as she gasped in pleasure.

It emboldened him to continue further and he ran his index finger down the vertical line of her bare belly to the tiny button at its destination point.  "Here?"

Her belly sucked in at his touch and her head fell back against the column.  He could only imagine what it must be costing her to keep her arms with the henna running all the way up to her elbows away from him to make sure it didn't smudge.

"Or…" he said before he paused.  It was several moments before her eyes opened as he delayed in naming the next part of her body that he wanted to touch.

But he wasn't touching… yet… he was just looking – like he had been sneaking glances throughout – now intently though, at her recently enhanced parts, as she liked to call them. 

As she felt the heat of his gaze, she understood why they called it a heaving bosom – when the bosom was actually large enough, it did heave… especially when your husband looked at you like he wanted to eat you alive and you didn't want to say or do anything that might distract him from his course of action, particularly because he hasn't looked or you or touched you like this in two weeks.

And so rather than saying anything – but she found that she wanted to say nothing anyways – she simply stood there, relying on the support of the column behind her, feeling as if her body was ripening solely by his gaze. 

"Here?"  He finally said just as she thought he would hear her heart trying to pop out of her chest.

"Where is Gauri?"  she gave a startled jerk when she heard someone call out loudly from inside.  She could also hear footsteps coming closer.

She looked back at him and could see the disappointment in his eyes before he quickly masked it.

He pulled her sari up and over her shoulder then, watching her face the whole time.

There was something about the way that he watched her that made her heart ache painfully.  She wanted him so much… not just his sharp wit, his charisma, the strength in his body, or the pleasure that he could give her… she also wanted this sweet Shiv – not the one who had been giving her diabetes for the past few weeks – but this Shiv… the same one who had always been there hiding inside other Shiv… this one who could be sweet in all the ways that counted… by typing her paper or taping her classes or looking at her like he thought he couldn't live without her. 

"Gauri…"  she heard her name again and just as Shiv turned toward the sound, she leaned up to kiss his cheek.

While he looked back at her in surprise, she smiled and snuck back in through the same blue panel that she had come out through before.

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Woooo Hoooo

congrats on ur new thread dear...

looking forward for another spicy update......

reva