The night was descending quickly upon Shantivan after a busy day's hustle bustle. Tired from back to back meetings and client calls, Arnav slumped on his bed resignedly. He was feeling a nagging backache, probably from the hours he spent sitting in his office chair. He really needed to walk around more. But that would be later. Right now he just needed to relax, maybe ask his wifey dear to oblige him with a massage, as she was famous for her magical fingers. A smirk flitted across Arnav's face as he remembered the wonderful afternoon he had spent at the Gupta residence which had made him privy to that information.
Just then, as if having read his mind telepathically, Khushi walked into the room, looking lost in her own world. Arnav's smile became more pronounced.
"Uhm, Khushi?" he ventured. Khushi turned to look at him, but continued walking and so ended up banging her leg against the coffee table.
"Owww!" she exclaimed in pain and hopped on one foot while nursing her stubbed toes of the other foot. Arnav was out of the bed and crouched next to her in a jiffy.
"What happened? Is it hurting too much? Why don't you watch where you walk Khushi?" he mutters, successfully having managed to squeeze concern and reprimand in the same breath. Khushi looked at him teary eyed.
"How can I watch where I'm going when you call out to me and distract me?" she counter questioned. Arnav shook his head exasperatingly. She seriously was a Sankadevi. Taking her hand, he gently made her sit down on the edge of the bed and walked to the cupboard to get the first aid box.
"I'm fine!" Khushi panickingly exclaimed when she saw Arnav dab a piece of cotton with undiluted Dettol. He looked at her little toe which had a ring of blood at the base of its nail and looked up at her with his eyebrow raised enquiringly. She noticed the blood only then and smiled at him sheepishly.
Shaking his head again, Arnav knelt down in front of her and gently placed her foot on his thigh. Then holding it firmly in its place, he gently dabbed the dettol soaked piece of cotton to her toe. Khushi winced dramatically.
"It's just a small abrasion Khushi!" he mumbled, looking slightly amused at his nut crack wife's antics. "I wonder when you had a gash you must have bawled your lungs out at the hospital."
"I wouldn't know. I don't get injured that often," Khushi replied. Arnav looked at her surprised.
"Uhm, Khushi? You've been injured a lot of times that I know off. I have been like your official bandage-tying guy for over a year," he said. She looked indignantly at him. He chuckled seeing her expression. "Anyway, I was talking about your childhood. Didn't you have any injuries as a kid?"
"Of course I did!" Khushi immediately blurted. Arnav cocked his eyebrow again at this flagrant display of confidence.
"Really? Where?" he asked innocently. Khushi happily pulled up the loose salwar she was wearing right up to her knees. Watching her creamy white bare legs made Arnav's eyes widen in surprise. He felt his heartbeat race instantly as his gaze took on the curves of her calves meeting the hollow behind her knees. He gulped, all traces of his niggling backache quite forgotten. He looked up at Khushi's face; her eyebrows were scrunched in a frown, he tongue slightly out of her mouth as she determinedly searched for the scars to bear testament to her adventurous childhood. What an innocent baby you've landed yourself Arnav! He thought to himself.
"Aha! Here it is!" Khushi finally exclaimed triumphantly and pointed to a tiny round scar at the back of her left leg. Arnav inspected it interestingly.
"Impressive!" he declared, touching it with the tip of his finger. Khushi looked extremely pleased with herself. "How did this happen?" he asked.
"Oh, I think I was helping Bauji to hammer some nails in our house back in Lucknow," Khushi answered, she too looking at her scar now. "I didn't realise that there was one sitting upright on the floor and I sat down and flattened my leg right on it. Whoosh!" she motioned with her hand to show how the nail pierced into her leg. Arnav flinched slightly imagining it.
"That must have hurt a lot!" he said finally having finished tending to her toe and kept the first aid box back. Khushi nodded.
"I had to get 4 stitches for it," she said morosely, her nose scrunching up in disgust. Arnav chuckled again.
"Well, that is quite a lot. But I once had an injury for which I needed 11 stitches," he said walking back to the bed and getting back into his warm spot. Khushi's eyes had widened hearing his words.
"Whoa! Really? What did you do?" she asked looking awestruck.
"Oh I used to play rugby, uhm football," he clarified seeing the confused expression on Khushi's face, "when I was at Harvard," he finished lying down on the bed and resting his head on his arm.
"That must have left a big scar!" Khushi replied lying down next to him on her side and facing him. Her eyes were again wide open. Arnav felt the corner of his lips curve into a smile. This was going to be interesting.
"Yeah, it was a huge scar. Bigger than the one you got I mean. After all, we boys tend to get more injured than you girls," Arnav said teasingly. Khushi immediately sat up straight, her eyes blazing with annoyance.
"Arnavji, you just got hurt playing football okay? I had a nail gash through my leg!" she muttered indignantly. Arnav too sat up, looking apologetically at his wife.
"Arre Khushi! You don't need to get all riled up dear," he said mollifyingly and extended his hand to squeeze Khushi's arm. "I was just stating facts. Men do get more injuries than women," Arnav concluded still looking apologetic, but suddenly feeling gleeful inside.
"Really? Okay, let's check it out then," Khushi challenged him, slapping Arnav's hand away. Oooh, wifey was angry now. Arnav smirked at her.
"Check what out Khushi?" he asked innocently. Khushi raised her imaginary sleeves.
"Let's check who's got more scars. Come on! Unless Mr. Raizada is scared of losing?" she prodded him mockingly. Arnav's smirk became even more pronounced.
"Khushi, I never lose. You should know that," he reminded Khushi haughtily. "But just out of curiosity, what does the winner get?" he asked, his eyes sparkling with mischief. Khushi looked thoughtfully as if pondering her answer.
"The winner can make the loser do whatever she," Arnav raised his eyebrow enquiringly, "or he," Khushi added half heartedly, "wants." Arnav's eyes narrowed as he took a good look at Khushi. Aha, this would be interesting.
"Okay, deal!" he said thrusting his hand to Khushi which she shook enthusiastically. Arnav suddenly pulled her close to him and she crashed on to his chest looking astounded. "But just remember what you said ok? The winner can make the loser do anything." He stressed on the last word looking deep into Khushi's eyes. She gulped.
"Ok, Mrs. Khushi Kumari Gupta Singh Raizada, where do we start?" Arnav asked letting her go.
"We'll start at the legs," she replied instantly. "I mean, I showed you mine. So I have one from knee to ankle," she said pointing at her legs. Arnav hiked up his track pants up to the knee as well. Khushi crouched next to him and started hunting every inch of his exposed leg for a scar. Arnav couldn't help his smile from resurfacing again. So naive you are Khushi, he thought to himself.
"Okay you have two," she said resignedly after a minute's worth of inspection. Arnav smiled.
"Okay 2 to 1. Arnav leads," he said. Khushi huffed and rolled up her half sleeves till above her shoulders. Now it was Arnav's turn to inspect Khushi's beautiful creamy bare arms. He moved in closer to her, towering over her for an instant before taking her arms in his and started scanning it by caressing his fingers all over her. Khushi's breathing hiked up as she felt the tingling presence of his fingertips on her arms.
"There's one here," Arnav whispered huskily, his warm breath washing over Khushi's forearm leading to immediate goosebumps erupting all over it. "Oh and here's one more," he added, closing in and holding her right arm well above her head, running his finger at the soft insides of her arm. Her molten caramel orbs were so close to hers that she could see herself reflected in them. However, Arnav just closed in teasingly, his lips mere inches away from hers and then he moved away to her left arm, repeating the same actions all over again.
Khushi had started feeling a strange warmth building up inside her. This simple act of touching was doing so much more damage than Arnav's outright overtures ever had.
"Arnavji," Khushi mumbled croakily. "What are you doing?" she asked breathlessly. Arnav looked at her cocking his brow enquiringly.
"Just checking for your scars Khushi. We are just... playing aren't we?" he whispered back, his breath focussing on the side of Khushi's neck for its onslaught. Khushi felt a delicious shiver course through her body. This was wrong... but it felt... so right!
"Okay, your turn now!" Arnav suddenly backed away from her. Khushi looked dazed for a moment as she snapped out of the haze of his lingering presence around her. Then as she realised it was her turn indeed, Khushi steeled her frayed nerves and stilled her pounding heart and walked closer to Arnav.
"Oh wait, I won't be able to fold my sleeves so high. This would be better," Arnav muttered and in a flash he was out of his orange jersey. Khushi's throat dried up completely as her eyes hovered at the perfect curves of his now bare chest.
"Ahem ahem," Arnav cleared his throat to point to his arms. Khushi nodded her head flusteredly and took his arms in his hand, and started searching. But her gaze kept flitting to his chiselled frame, resting on his perfect abdomen. Khushi concentrate! She gently admonished herself.
"There's one here..." she mumbled looking at a long straight one close to his elbow.
"There's one here too," he added pointing to his collar blade.
"No, that is ramanchi!" she countered immediately. "You checked only my arms. Now if you want to count this one, then you'll need to check my..." she suddenly stopped as she realised that she was saying, rather asking Arnav to check out her collar bone too. Arnav smirked again at seeing the realisation dawning on her face. So, so naive you are, my darling Khushi, he thought fondly.
"Okay, if you say so," he said and start moving towards her, raising his hands to the collar of her kurti simultaneously.
"No!" Khushi stopped him by placing her palm flat on his check in a reflex action. Arnav looked down at her hand on his chest and then back at her, his eyebrow cocked enquiringly again. She immediately blushed a shade of deep crimson at the feel of his warm skin under her touch and slowly started to withdraw her hand from his chest. Before she could, Arnav clasped her hand tightly in his and redirected it to his chest again, right above his heart. Khushi stared at his chest as she felt his heartbeats thudding under her fingertips.
"It's okay Khushi," he murmured huskily. "Biwi ho tum meri. Haq hai tumhara... mujhpe.(you're my wife. You have a right... on me)" Khushi slowly looked up into his smouldering gaze and felt her knees weakening. Giving her hardly any moment to stabilise herself, he slowly started walking towards her. She reflexively stepped back as Arnav had expected she would. It only made the smirk reappear on his face.
"Arnavji?" Khushi whispered.
"Khushi?" Arnav whispered back, his hand still holding Khushi's firmly on his chest.
"Arnavji, what about the... the bet?" she murmured as the back of her legs hit the edge of the bed and she started climbing it on her knees.
"You want me to continue... exploring?" Arnav murmured, his free hand touching Khushi's waist. She instantly stilled, getting very aware of his fingers that were now brushing the bare skin under her kurti. Her breathing hiked up again thinking of the possibilities.
"Uhm..." she murmured losing track of her thought.
Arnav leaned in and whispered huskily against her lips, "Because I can do it all night long." Khushi shivered as the delicious implications of Arnav's promise made her heartbeats race again. She slowly released her hand from under his death grip and placed both her arms around Arnav's neck freeing his hand to join the other one. That was sign enough.
Arnav's other hand joined the first one and delved under her kurti, gently brushing her waist. He noticed how she closed her eyes, relishing his touch. He smiled and suddenly slumped down on the bed taking a squealing Khushi with him. She looked at him with wide open eyes, no wonder surprised at this sudden playfulness in him. Then when she saw the lopsided smile on her husband's face peering from under his tousled hair, she smiled shyly.
"So... is that bet still on?" she asked. The next thing she knew, Arnav had pulled her close and his lips came crashing down on hers, enveloping them in a passionate kiss.
"I've already won, Khushi," he slyly replied back making her realise that this entire bet was just a ruse. She blushed again, her cheeks glowing red in the dimmed light of their bedroom. "Although, I wouldn't mind continuing it till the end if you wouldn't..." he murmured suggestively.
Taking just a moment to contemplate what this meant, Khushi murmured, "I've a good chance of winning too, Mr. Raizada," and she slipped her kurti just off her shoulder and cheekily added, "I've got one here too," pointing to her collar bone. Arnav felt a frission of thrill course through him. He looked at her hungrily with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
"Game on, Khushi Kumari Gupta Singh Riazada. Game on!" he growled and swooped down to kiss her again.
Writer's note: Yeah, so, I've never written a mature piece and I discovered that I lack the finesse to write one either. So this is all you get. I think the lurking soul of a SP nun possessed me while I was penning this down 😆
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