The Wait - Chapter 12

 

PREVIOUS PART 

CHAPTER 12



ARNAV SINGH RAIZADA

The room is dark but I hear feeble voices from inside.

“Khushi..” I call out her name, hoping she will answer me if she is in here. “Khushi.?” I call again but to no luck.

I keep getting inside pushing the curtains away. There are too many curtains on my way. Thin, white transparent curtains, all flying due to the breeze coming from the windows which are open. It’s thundering outside. There’s a storm brewing. Which season is this? I don’t much remember.

“Khushi?” I call out again moving inside and the feeble voices turn familiar. It’s Khushi’s voice.. I don’t know what she is saying but she is speaking to someone… to a man.. Who is she speaking to?

I keep walking inside the room, pushing the curtains off my way and there she is.. my wife Khushi hugging a man.

My heart skips a beat witnessing that scene. The man has his back facing me. He is as tall as me, body, personality almost similar to mine except the casual clothes. I don’t wear that kind of boyish jackets anymore which he has adorned.

“Khushi..” I murmur, wanting her to know I am in the room. Wanting her to see me and introduce me to the man she is with. But why she is hugging him? My voice breaks her trance and she opens her eyes, looking straight at me. She’s still hugging him despite knowing her husband is in the same room as hers. And then it happens!! The man pulls her away from his body to turn around. Another curtain blocks my vision and I shove it off angrily. I want to see who is this man whom my wife had embraced.

Seconds pass and he finally turns around. Completely!! I stop in my tracks seeing his face. DHRUV!!


“Khushi…” I jolt awake in my sleep, looking around me, my breaths coming out in gasps as I felt someone choked my neck.

It’s dark in the room and the bed is vacant next to me. Where the hell am I? Slowly I realize it’s my bedroom. Whatever I just saw was a nightmare. Damn!! I grab the water bottle and gulp some water to relax myself. Why did I see Dhruv? After all these months? Never ever after Dhruv’s death had I seen him in my dream. This was the first time I did. Is he unhappy that I married Khushi? But why? He had already broken up with her much before his death, hadn’t he? Damn!! I push away the duvet covering my sweaty body and get down the bed. I got married to Khushi yesterday and today she has gone to her Mayka for the Pag phera. She’s stayed the night. She’ll come back tomorrow. Yes! She will. What if she doesn’t? My subconscious mind pokes.

“No” I yell at myself. “She’ll come back.. She is my wife.. she will have to return. She will return.”


I pace in my room, with a sudden anxiety rising inside me. I’ve hidden a few things from her. She has no clue it was me she met after her breakup with Dhruv. It was me she had kissed. It was me who had touched her.. in ways I shouldn’t have .. not until I told her it was Arnav she was making out with.. Not Dhruv.. Damn!! I rake my fingers in my hair, pacing faster. I’ll tell her now. I can’t live with that guilt of hiding something so crucial from her. But will she understand? What if she hates me for what I did? But she is my wife now. She can’t hate me, can she?


My anxiety levels shoot up as these thoughts glue to my head like a leech. No! I can’t keep waiting here for her to return tomorrow. I.. I need her now.. I need her with me right at this f*cking moment. I stride to my closet, pull out the car keys and stride out of my room to get back Khushi home. Shantivan is where she belongs because she is my wife.. Arnav Singh Raizada’s wife.


KHUSHI ARNAV SINGH RAIZADA


I wake up with a start as Arnav barges into my bedroom. Why is he here so early in the morning? He was supposed to come in the afternoon to take me from my parents’ house. He looks utterly confused and helpless until his eyes meet mine. I get off the bed and I’m about to question him about his presence and his problem, when he reaches me and wraps me in his arms. His breath is ragged as he almost lifts me up to him and hugs me tight. His heart is pounding, his hold on me strong and protective.

“Arn…”

He draws me closer and tighter as I try to speak. With our bodies crushed against each other and his rough breath filling my ears, I stop my questions for a moment to let him catch his breath and realize where he is, what he is doing and how it’s terrifying me. He still doesn’t relax and holds me tight, as if I would flee if he lets me go. I finally wrap my arms around him and hug him back, soothing his back softly to calm him down. He nuzzles his nose into my neck, as if inhaling me, as I keep doing the same. He doesn’t know how this intimacy of our bodies is wreaking havoc on my senses, the kind I’ve never experienced for Arnav… the kind that can make a woman surrender to his every wish. My fingers instinctively glide into his hair, clutching and caressing them, my own breath becoming deep and loud.

“Mujhe chodh ke mat jaana, Khushi, main tumhare bagair jee nahi paunga..” (Don’t ever leave me, Khushi, I’ll can’t live without you.)

I’m transported to a different world as Arnav keeps whispering this against my neck. Something has happened, I can sense it. Maybe a nightmare, which scared him so much that he didn’t mind driving all the way from Shantivan to here to have me in his arms.

“You won’t leave me, Khushi.. Promise me…” he keeps murmuring against my neck.

I have never felt this much wanted by a man ever. Never thought I would get this feeling of possessiveness and obsession from Arnav Singh Raizada.

“Promise me…” he places a soft peck into the crook of my neck and my heart thumps. Things are slipping from my control too fast.

Arnav keeps kissing my neck, slow soft kisses, wet and completely having the power to seduce me. My heart squeals inside my chest as Arnav pulls away his face from my neck and looks into my eyes, cupping my face in between his strong palms.

“Promise me, Khushi.. Promise me you won’t leave me ever,” he doesn’t ask or plead this time, he demands..

And just like that, my lips part acknowledging his demand.

“I promise..” I whisper. “I’ll never leave you Arnav.. Never.”

The moment I say this, Arnav sighs in relief, and then his gaze drops on my parted lips. The look in his eyes intensifies enough to make my lips quiver with anticipation. His hold on my cheeks tightens as his lips approach mine.

I grab his T-shirt, over his chest to suppress the ache forming in my body by his heated gaze. The next instant, Arnav leans a bit and presses his lips with mine. I freeze for a few seconds, trying to process what is happening. He doesn’t make any other movement, just fuses our lips. Why does this kiss feel so familiar as if this is not the first time we are kissing? It should shock me, this closeness should make me panic but I’m anything but terrified at this moment.

I don’t know what kind of web Arnav is weaving around me but it’s working a hell faster than I thought it would. Arnav’s lips flutter over mine, sending hot air into my mouth and I give in. I press my lips to his firmly, letting him take the control he needs to make it memorable for us, to make it ease the ache that suddenly is shooting up throughout my body. The moment I let him kiss me, Arnav pulls me up, wrapping my legs around his waist as he carries me to the bed, without breaking our kiss. I feel heady at his intense actions but I don’t want to interrupt. It’s like my body is acting against its own will. He drops me on the bed, giving me a few seconds to breathe again before he hovers on me to kiss me again. This time he explores my mouth, nips and bites my lips before claiming my mouth completely and I return the favor. This is not a kiss.! It’s a Tsunami of feelings he is trying to show he has for me. When? When did he start having such intense feelings for me? The way Arnav was devouring me, the kind of passion in his movements, the way he kept groaning into my mouth like I was his favorite desert, the way I moan into his lips, having almost zero expertise to make him feel the same way as she does to me, is making me wonder these feelings he had for me were deep rooted from years. Was it possible?

We keep kissing each other, taking breaks for a few seconds to just stare at each other’s faces, stroke each other’s face, only to kiss again. Arnav doesn’t touch me anywhere else. Just the face.. just my lips, even if his body is crushing mine. Soon, he rolls on the bed taking me along and somewhere between the kisses I think I fall asleep.


ARNAV SINGH RAIZADA

I wake up as the beam of light hits my eyes. Its disturbing my sleep so I try to toss on the other side when I feel her.. Khushi.. I open my eyes and see the woman who has snuggled to me, like a woman would snuggle to her lover. I slowly recall where we are and everything flashes before my eyes. The way I panicked at night because of that nightmare, me barging into Khushi’s bedroom and hugging her, making her promise me that she would never leave me and then.. .our kiss.. Heck!! I recall I didn’t force her for the kiss but I didn’t give her much breather to deny me either. I look down at her face, she’s still asleep, breathing softly, and her lips.. are swollen. I want to kiss her again. Like right now. But of course not without her permission. I don’t want to scare my wife. I keep admiring her for another few seconds, not wanting to wake her up either. This is one of the best moment of my life. To be waking up with Khushi in my arms.


The door knocks breaking my stupor and Khushi’s sleep.

“Khushi..”

It’s her mother. Khushi rubs her eyes and the moment she feels the barrier of my body against her, she opens her eyes wide noticing me. We both stare at each other as her memories of last night returns and Khushi’s face turns pink.

“Khushi, are you awake?” her mother knocks again.

“Mumma..” she murmurs in confusion before getting down the bed and hurrying to open the door. I watch her hurriedly open the door which I guess was already unlocked. We didn’t even lock her bedroom last night? Shit!

“Khushi, you..” her mother stops speaking the moment she sees me waking up on Khushi’s bed. “Arnav?”

And realization dawns. They didn’t know I came here last night. The servant had opened the door for me and he let me in as he knew I am Khushi’s husband. But probably he forgot to tell this to Garima aunty.

“When did you come?” she asks, feeling utterly mortified by the situation.

“He… he came early morning.” Khushi replies. “I.. I think so.. I mean.. it was dark but.. I think it was morning.. or maybe at night.. I.” she is so confused and it’s evident by the way she is stuttering and struggling to find the right answer.


Aunty looks between us and then she gives me a knowing smile.

“Fine fine. You both freshen up and come down. The breakfast is ready.”

“Uh… no..” I nod in denial checking my phone. “I’ll head back home. I don’t want Di and others to be worried by my absence.”

“So you didn’t even inform them?” Aunty asks shyly.

I look at Khushi who is looking down completely nervous to face this situation.

“Umm. No. I.. I didn’t inform anyone before coming here.”

Aunty chuckles.

“Don’t worry. I’ll inform them and you are not going anywhere without having breakfast. I won’t let my son in law leave like that. Freshen up and come down. Okay?”

She pats Khushi’s cheek and then passing me a sweet smile, leaves the room. Khushi locks the door and turns around. All that nervousness is gone out of the window and now she looks a bit pissed.

“Care to tell me what brought you here last night?” she comes straight to the point.

I keep staring at her. She looks so beautiful when she shouts like that.

“Arnav, I’m talking to you..”

“I’m listening,” I reply instantly, but still paying no attention to her actual words, just her cute face.

“No you are not,” she reaches the bed.. and stands two feet away from me. “Your last night’s distress worried me. The way you just barged into my room and…” she sighs not wanting to recall that moment again. “I didn’t ask you last night because you were not in a state to speak but now I need my answers.”


I rise from my bed.

“So just tell me what happened that you had to drive all the way here at night like that?”

I shut her lips with my fingers, smiling back.

“Do you realize you haven’t talked with this much authority to me ever?” I ask.

She wants to reply but she looks down at my finger which has shut her lips, as if wanting me to pull it off so she could speak. I don’t. Instead, I step ahead and she moves behind. Her back hits the wall in three steps and I pin her between the wall and me with my arms on either side of her body. The moment I take my fingers off her lips, she finally speaks.

“I’m your wife, Arnav. You got me worried last night.”

I smile knowing she was worried for me. That shows she cares!

“Stop smiling, Arnav.” She shouts at me. “And please say something..”

“Nightmare,” I tell her. “I saw you,” I pause.


What will I tell her? That I saw her in Dhruv’s arms? No!! I swallow painfully.

“You saw me?” she repeats.

“Yeah,” I pull away, letting her free. “I saw you going away from me and.. I..”

Khushi looks suspiciously at me.

“Only because I was going away you came here to take a promise from me that I would never leave you?”

“Yes,” I clench my jaw not willing to discuss this further. “I need a tooth brush,” I divert her.

She stares at me for a few more seconds and before she can read my obsession for her and my fear of losing her, I turn around and make my way to her bathroom.


To be Continued.

NEXT PART 

Connect me on Instagram
Connect me on Twitter

________________________________________________________________