ArHi OS: Young Gods (16+)

She dipped her toes in the water, testing its temperature. She had forgotten to pack a jacket, despite it being early November, and was truly regretting her mistake. It wouldn't do to cause herself more regret by skinny dipping in ice cold water.

Thankfully, the water was lukewarm. So he did know how to throw a party.

 

She pulled her dress up to her knees, shivering slightly at the slight waft that suddenly seemed to hit her. Surely it couldn't be that cold? She put her feet in the water to resolve her discomfort. It felt heavenly, and she closed her eyes, enjoying the quiet bliss. Everyone at the party was, thankfully, indoors, losing themselves in champagne, terrible music and each other's boring company.

 

Speaking of, she thought, and took her phone and earphones out. Plugging them in, she blasted Kanye West and Jay-Z, raising her arms and waving them as the tempo increased. Some real music, finally.

 

She was too lost in the music to notice that someone had left the party hall for the garden, and was now standing over her near the pool, staring at her antics, amused. When she showed no sign of stopping, the stranger sat down next to her-not close enough to alert her of his presence, but not so far that he couldn't see her face clearly. He took off his shoes, then his socks, and dipped his toes in the warm water too.

 

Still, she didn't sense his presence. "WHAT SHE ORDER, FISH FILET?" she shouted, and continued to wave her arms.

 

That simply won't do now, he thought, before splashing her legs in the pool.

 

She gasped, and, her body being at an awkward angle, bending towards the side he was sitting on, almost fell in his lap. In the midst of his fit of laughter, he caught her and righted her posture, as she too laughed at his childish antics.

 

"You are too tall for a five year old. What are they feeding the kids these days?"

 

He chuckled at the question. "I wouldn't know. Still too young to father one."

 

"True, that", she said with a smile.

 

He picked up the flutes of champagne he had kept aside before sitting by the pool, and offered her one. After a little hesitation, she took it. She had already had a few drinks, and was well aware of what a lightweight she was.

 

They sipped their drinks in silence, the discarded earphones still playing some indistinguishable song.

 

After a while, the sounds coming from inside the hall seemed to rise, and she looked over to see the people were finally drunk enough to appreciate actual party music (and not some weird jazz composition which sounded like a dead elephant crying). God bless the DJ.

 

She saw him move from the corner of her eye, and knew that he too was trying to get a look at the people now. Probably making sure nobody broke a vase or vomited into it. However, his attempts to peer inside the hall brought him closer to her, and she could now smell him. His perfume...cologne... eau de toilette.. whatever it was called. It was messing with her head.

 

She cleared her throat. "Uhmm.. why aren't you inside? It's your party after all."

 

He moved back to his original position and looked at her. "It is my party, but it's in your honour. Shouldn't you be inside too?"

 

"Touch," she said.

 

The conversation was not over, though. He sighed before answering her properly. "I don't like being around them. Anyone. They're far too ordinary."

 

She chuckled at that that. "As opposed to me, the black diamond?"

 

He didn't disagree. Or agree. He just brought his fingers up and lightly touched her shoulder, running them down her arm. "We, my dear, are rarer."

 

Her champagne rested forgotten in her hand- he had moved closer, and his scent was doing a far better job at intoxicating her. It was a miracle she could even think.

 

When her voice came out, it was barely a whisper, but far more seductive than she thought it would be. "And what are we?"

 

 

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When Khushi Gupta had received an invitation to attend the gala, she didn't know what to expect. The only time she had interacted with AR, the company organizing the gala, had been when she had participated (and won!) in a quiz hosted by them back in college. The company had barely been a ten-people startup then, but four years later, there they were, hosting a gala in the celebration of having the highest turnover among startups that year, and Khushi was going.

 

It was also her second interaction with Arnav Raizada, the CEO and founder of AR. Back then, he had also been the quizmaster, and had almost made her swoon with the way he pronounced azure (the correct way). Well, he was the quizmaster, so it made sense that he would know the subject-- yet, she couldn't help but be impressed.

 

And her appreciation hadn't seemed one-sided. He would interact more with her, appreciate her with secret smiles every time she got an answer right, and she swore she saw him looking at her once during break. When he had handed her the trophy, she had felt his hand brush hers, but she had not read too much into the action. In fact, she hadn't thought about the man altogether, not until the gala, when he had greeted her on arrival. He was a far cry from the boy in a black kurta and white pants asking some Akash to see if all the mics on stage were working. This was a man.

 

No, that was wrong. He had always been a man. Sure, he dressed better now, but even four years ago when he was running around in his sweaty kurta, he had held an air of importance, of smartness, brilliance and sharpness. He did not need to tell people he knew a great deal- it showed.

 

And that was what had attracted her to him then, and what made her breath catch when she saw him again.

 

Their interaction, for the past three days, had been a recreation of the three hours she spent at the quiz. The gala's main event had been a mega-olympiad organized by AR to honour their roots, and she had participated along with the other attendees. It had been tougher than last time, but Khushi had soldiered on to win the olympiad, and that night's party, one of the many events in the gala, had been thrown to celebrate her victory.

 

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She smiled at his answer, knowing in her heart that he wasn't acting conceited- deep in her heart, she knew what he felt. Yet, the bait was too good to miss.

 

"Just because you look like one..", she teased.

 

That elicited a laugh from him, and he shook his head at her. She had had far too much to drink. But, so had he.

 

"All the people in there, they don't have what we do. What you and I do. We're extraordinary, Khushi. Look at yourself- have you known someone who had the ability to pick up whatever thing they tried- calculus, economics, hell, Swedish, in ten seconds flat? Do you remember the quiz? You were so hesitant to participate, you kept telling Anjali you wanted to back out. Do you remember how you won? The margin? Nobody in the entire group knew half as many words at you", he ended, his eyes shining at her in admiration.

 

She smiled at the memory, not disagreeing with him because she knew what he was saying was true, and it felt good to have someone repeat it.

 

"Do you know where I come from? I didn't just walk into money. This party, this gala, AR, they weren't handed to me. I made myself, much like you." His voice dropped to a whisper, and he moved his face closer to hers, so that he was whispering in her ear. "In this f**ked up world, Khushi, where people pray for their future, for 90% marks, for promotions--hell, even for kids when millions of orphans are rotting in foster care, we made our destiny. We are our own gods."

 

She felt breathless, light, shocked and excited, all at the same time. There seemed to have been a spark between them the first time she met him, but it felt like an inferno now. Now, now when she knew he understood her. Understood why she chose to sit outside instead of mingling with the people inside- she couldn't stand them and their desperate plea to please. He too knew what it felt like to be alone in a room full of people... but they were no longer alone.

 

She had been thinking all that while he was talking, but now that he was done, he had different things to occupy his mouth and her thoughts with.

 

He nuzzled the space beneath her ear, kissing, biting, sucking the point where he could feel her pulse beating. Then, a lick, and a soft blow, and he would move to another spot. One of his hands held hers, their fingers tangling, while his other ran, up up and down, down, down her open back.

 

"Mmmhmm..", was all she could say.

 

"I am a young god, Khushi, and a god deserves a goddess", he whispered against her skin.

 

She brought herself closer to him, smiling at his words as she brought her lips to his ear. "Take me to heaven, then", she whispered, biting his earlobe lightly.

 

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At the party, no one missed them, and time seemed to have stopped in his room where they were taking their sweet time exploring each other.

 

She was caged between him and a wall, and while he resumed leaving bites all over the slope of her neck, the curves of her shoulders, the dip of her breasts, she couldn't get her hands around him enough; enough to bring him as close as physically possible. As his lips moved up to bite at her earlobe, she found the pulse point at the curve of his neck and mirrored his actions, driving him to a frenzy. He pulled his face back and his lips crashed hungrily on hers. She opened for him, and he explored her sweet mouth. This was what manna dew//the fruits of heaven must taste like.

 

They enjoyed kissing for a while, drinking each other in, enjoying the pleasure of being. One of his hands wandered to a strap of her dress and pulled it down, while the other reached the base of her spine, the point where the open back ended, and lower, and pulled her into him. Despite the layers of his suit and her dress between them, she could still feel his hardness, and it thrilled her.

 

He moved to kiss the area the strap had exposed, and she whimpered as he bit the top of a breast. She felt aroused to the point that even the slightest of touches electrified her. Everywhere their skin met, her skin felt on fire. And the man hadn't even taken off his jacket yet!

 

She decided to remedy that immediately, and moved his lapels aside, helping him shrug the jacket off. His tie came next. And then he was standing in front of her in a dress shirt and pants, and she was panting, for she had no idea what to do. Men in button-downs had always been her weakness, and he looked so good.

 

He wasn't faring too well either. Her swollen lips, her heaving chest, and the blueish mark of a bite a little too low on a breast were making him lose control. When she bit her lip, it was his undoing, and he pulled her to him, kissing her again with a ferocity he didn't expect from himself.

 

Somehow, between kisses, he maneuvered them enough to make the back of her knees hit the bed, and then she was sitting on it. She drew tufts of his shirt until he bent lower, and then kissed him again, all the while unbuttoning the garment and pulling it off him. When she ran her hands over his chest, and then lower, he couldn't take it any more, and in a second, she was on her back with him on top of her.

 

He calmed himself, remembering to savour this, and started pulling her dress down, slowly. Whatever he uncovered, he peppered with kisses, until he was facing the hottest, wettest part of her. He looked up at her, then, as she kicked the dress off with her legs, and placed a kiss there. Kisses. Several long, deep, hungry kisses.

 

When he was done, when her moans and quivers had subsided, when he was facing her again, hovering mere centimeters from her lips, staring into her eyes, he whispered something to her, their lips almost brushing with the closeness. "Your move", he said.

 

In response, she trailed her hands down his chest, past his happy trail, until she reached his belt. She unbuckled it and unbuttoned his pants, and was only too eager to kick it away. Then, she kissed him, and for a while only the sounds of their kisses could be heard. That was until she decided to move, to test the waters, and rub a little against the hottest part of him. At that point, both of them lost whatever control they had left.

 

Outside, the party lasted all night.