FF - The Promise - Thread I - Chapter 1 to 68 - Page 86

Chapter 61

Her heart clenched when she heard him say that. 

"I mean, I've had good moments, and I've made some good friends." He rolled his eyes. "Even if Akash does drive me crazy he's a good guy."

She kept looking at him as if she were looking into a mirror. She watched as her life flashed before her eyes. He looked at her, "What?"

She came back to the present. "I'm sorry... I wasn't.. I didn't mean to... I .. I was just seeing myself in a mirror."

She paused trying to gather her thoughts and formulate them in words, words that would be comprehensible to him. "Rishab, though I have been surrounded by people who love me all my life, my Daddy, Maya, I still felt empty. Then I met Abby and Adam and the children with whom I volunteer with, they helped me see the world for the first time, see the beauty in it. But even then, it felt like I was waiting for something. And now I understand. It was you. For once in my life I feel fulfilled, like I am bursting with joy. I love you Rishab Kundra. I love you"

For the first time since she realised her love for Rishab, did she realise that they were connected not only through physical attraction but through something so much more deeper and meaningful... It was their souls that were calling out for each other, they were looking for completion. And isn't that what she feels like every-time she is around him. She stepped back a couple of paces and stretched out her hands in the air and shouted out in the joy of realisation, realisation that she is finally whole again. "You hear me... I love Rishab."

Rishab grabbed her and pulled her hard against him and covered her mouth with his hand. "Baby, I love you too. But your going to get us killed by causing an avalanche. And I would rather grow old with you than die right here right now."

She whacked him slightly on his arm and frowned, "Way to ruin the moment!!"

"Hey!! I was just saving all out lives and all." He said pouting a little.

She just shook her head at his charade and sat down with him again. Leaning back in her seat, her face grew grim as she stared into the fire. "Can I ask you something? It might sound stupid, but in some way the answer is important to me."


Oh, hell, questions like this had a tendency to put his ass in the fire, he thought even as he nodded.


"Alright," she took a deep breath. "Where do you see us in a few years?"


He cleared his throat. Ran his free hand through his hair. Reached up to scratch his eyebrow. Shifted in his seat. Cleared his throat again. "Why do I have the feeling so much hinges on this answer?"


She glanced at him nervously and tried to force a smile. "You know... what we plan to do... it's a huge step and I have to know what you want."


"What I want... that's easy, Madhu, I want you. I've only wanted you. You are my family. From the moment, I saw your painting at the gallery, from the moment you first hit me with your car door, from the moment I laid eyes on you at that parking lot, from the moment I saw your eyes and the same longingness I see in mine each and everyday of my life. Yeah, I'd like to stay here. Just you and me, no one and nothing else. But since that is not going to happen, I would settle for having you when and where you want. Uh, did that last line just sound the way I think it sounded?" He shook his head at her. "Don't get all pissy at me now. You know what I meant."


Madhu stared at him and smiled softly. He had absolutely no clue that the only word she had been waiting for was 'family'.


He bit his bottom lip as he looked at her. "Okay, you're smiling... that was the right answer?"


Madhu chuckled. "I think so, even if you don't really know what you said." She took a sip of the coffee he had prepared for her.


"I know what I said," he denied. "I just don't know which part made you smile."


She shook her head. "It doesn't matter. Main point is that you said it."


"I've gotten older and presumably smarter and women still make no sense to me," he muttered.


"Someday you might be even smarter, baby," she said with a wink.


"I'm feeling smarter right now... it's getting colder out and I think the wind's picking up. Maybe we should get in one of these tents."


"Uh-huh, just a petty excuse to get me into your tent," she teased. He grinned unrepentantly. "Is it working?"


She shrugged. "Maybe." Hell, she knew she had said that she wanted to take things slow, but it was killing her to not be able to touch him.


"You know, we could just make out for a while," he said with a teasing grin. "We're both adults... we don't have to go all the way..."

"Think you can stop yourself, huh?"


"I think we're both old enough to know when to put the brakes on. Will we want to? Hell no! But, we're capable of stopping before things go too far."


"My tent or yours?"

"I don't care," he growled.


She leaned forward to lay her hand in his ' it looked so small in comparison. 


Rishab raised his head to meet her eyes. "How about my tent, since yours is currently occupied? You go on and get settled down and lemme put the fire out."


"Sounds good," Madhu stood up to walk to her own tent to get some stuff.


He took his time as he put the fire out and put a few things away, giving himself a few minutes to remember all the reasons why they were taking this slow. But he also didn't want to spend any night without her in his arms. It wouldn't be easy, but they could do both; they'd both be happy and no one would get hurt.


Madhu searched around her tent quietly so as not to waken up the sleeping tenets, until she had found her toothbrush and a hair tie. She considered if it was necessary to take her sleeping bag with her, but decided against it. When she closed her tent up from the outside she glanced around to see where Rishab was. She located him a little ways away from the camp and decided she should just quickly brush her teeth and go to his tent and wait for him.


Rishab stood and stretched as he looked around at their camp, tipping his head to one side as he listened for anything that was out of place. After a few minutes he finished his nightly routine and paused to look up at the stars, inhaling the cold, crisp air, and wishing they were already back down at the base of the mountain.


Madhu made herself as comfortable in his tent as possible. She shook her head slightly and chuckled. She felt like a teeanger sneaking around... excited, nervous, a little scared about what would happen.

He drew in a deep, calming breath, and wished his nerves would settle down. They suddenly felt all jittery and hyper-aware and he knew it was because he was planning to spend the night with Madhu. How was it possible to feel like this? It wasn't exactly the first time they had just slept together and they weren't gonna go all the way, they had both agreed to wait for that. He made one more mental note to put the brakes on before he walked across camp and ducked down to climb into his tent.


Madhu smiled a little when he crawled into the tent and kicked his boots off. Before he had walked in she had taken a flashlight and tied it to the ceiling of the tents to give them some dim light.


Rishab shrugged out of his outer gear, watching Madhu the whole time. "This's gonna sound really stupid, but... are you nervous about this at all?" he asked as he stretched out next to her.


She nodded. "Like hell." He huffed out a relieved laugh. "Good, it's just not me then."


"That's really weird huh?" "Little bit, yeah." He reached up to run his fingers over her face. "I think it's good though, right?" "Yeah," she leaned into his touch and closed her eyes.


Oh, this wasn't gonna be easy, he thought as his eyes slid over her, taking in every nuance of her expression. "I'm just sorry we didn't meet before now and lost so many years, years where we could have been together, Madhu," he whispered as he leaned in to kiss her.


"Maybe we needed it, so that we could appreciate this," she mumbled against his lips.


Maybe she was right, he didn't know. All he knew was that she was here now and they both wanted to make a relationship work. That was all that was important. He shifted, easing her onto her back and leaning over her as he braced his weight on his forearms.


She stared up into his dark brown eyes, searching for anything that would tell her that he had doubts about them ' but she couldn't find any there. Her hands came up to wander over his sides, still hidden beneath lots of layers of clothes. "Maybe we wouldn't have been ready for this step if we met earlier. Who knows... we probably would've questioned ourselves if we were really doing the right thing... you hear about a lot of young lovers who break up early because they think they're missing something in their lives."


He caught her hand when she reached up to touch his face, playing with her fingers as he watched her in the dim light. "You think you could be happy with me, Madhu?"