Part 10: Unreserved
She scooped her hair forward. Combing through the long tendrils, her fingers, wafted down slickly reaching her waist. Her hair was still wet from the shower and they had hurried right after she got out of the bathroom to get to the train station. She sulked she had had no time to appropriate her appearance to that of a newly wed bride.
But it didn't matter to him at all. She had only clad a white sari with gold border and a purple blouse to go along with it and yet she was very much a vision in white to him as he watched her fervently, seated diagonally across from her in the side lower berth. It was only pure worship she deserved in his eyes.
Vasu uncle had scurried to get last minute train tickets to Palghat in the overnight express train. They were all unreserved seats even when half the train had empty compartments. The women of the group had taken the six berths together, while the men had taken the side berths and a few others in the adjacent aisle.
He looked away just as Adhi came to sit by him and offered him some Lemon rice that the ladies had packed in haste. Not that he hated it, but he was in no mood for dinner at that time and so he politely declined. Turning to stretch his feet along the length of his berth, he picked up his iPod and blasted the music to block out the scandalous thoughts that raged inside him; after all it was only supposed to be their first night together as man and wife.
Closing his eyes, he rested his head on the divider screen and hoped to catch some sleep. The time zones were messing with him and it had been two nights in a row since he had slipped into dream state.
Somehow he had dozed off for a good two hours with the music blaring in his ears. But the forces were for sure against him tonight. At least that is what he thought when the lulling sway of the train came to a jerking stop at an empty station. He woke up instantly as his head banged hard on the metal headrest behind.
"Argh.." he winced in pain and got up to find every soul on the train asleep, except her. She was lying flat on her stomach, a thin blanket draping her willowy figure and playing with the raindrops that hung on the metal rods that ran across the window. The monsoons must have started right after he dozed off and now the fresh scent of wet earth coated the thin air in the train. He smiled at the scene that greeted him. It looked like those sepia tone pictures from a lost time that always dowsed one in perpetual bliss. This was nothing but a Kodak moment, he thought.
Of course he wanted to climb into the middle berth with her and join in at the childish act that amused her, but there were far too many women above, below and to her sides for him to commit the frivolous act. Her feet crossed as he sat there lost in her sight and her anklets jangled to wake him out of the daze he was spiraling in. He sighed, as his arms and feet shook in a tremor in a compelling need to reach out to her feet. Unable to bear the torcher that she put him under he got up and left the area. He simply hoped distance would cure him of his want to be with her.
"Erhm...Erhm..." She cleared her voice to get his attention. He was leaning by the door as he took the fresh scents of the raw scenery they passed by. The wind that blazed through her skin from the other door brought her musky scents to his nose. He swiftly spun around to see her smiling, her arms folded and her head tilted to her side. With nothing but her mangal sutra, a thin chain, a handful of bangles that chimed with her every move, she looked like a goddess in white. He felt his eyes were playing tricks on him when he thought he saw a glow around her skin that ached his being and mysteriously pulled him closer to touch.
"Haan Geet...you need something?" He asked, shaking out of the dazed stupor he was in. She smiled coyly once again. He looked confused, but it only made him more handsome in her view as he stood there is a sky blue kurta and jean. She was letting out steam at the bare skin of his chest that came into view from the unbuttoned crack of his kurta. Did he really read that?
"No...I just needed some fresh air"
Lord! His mind screamed as he took her svelte form in and so he turned away, signaling disinterest of every kind.
What was wrong with him? She bellowed mentally. Here she was, keeping herself awake when the whole world had already slept at 11.30 PM in the night...And also given she had not slept well in a week he did not care to entertain her presence? For a moment, she considered if she had offended him in someway. But it must all be circumstantial and there was no way she was going to mind read his dismissal, she concluded.
"You know...I could use some... without you blocking it" she mentioned again, almost sounding ready to pick a fight with him. A casual look on his face, he once again faced her almost wanting to roll his eyes at her, but he didn't.
"There are about 100 other doors in this train...pick one" he said mockingly.
"No...I want to stand here..." Her eyebrows knotted as he pursed to be indifferent to her.
"Forget it..." he said coolly as he pivoted about the spot to look at the clearing skies that was bringing in brighter light into the night.
That was indeed the last straw and so she moved to his side and jutted out her hip to push him aside. He was shocked by her sudden attack, at least that is how he felt and continued to hold his position as a rock. When he didn't budge, she put her hand in front of him on the doorframe and tried to get ahead of him. While she shoved and thrust him to move out of his rooted position, she began to wobble and slip. But right about the same moment, he caught her and pinned her to the hard divider.
"Pagal ho gayi hain kya?" He yelled at her as he watched her eyes drift close.
"Don't ever play games like that? Do you understand?" He was clearly angry with her. Her silly games could have cost her life and how was he to lose her now? When she had dropped into her life all so unexpectedly.
"Why not?" She asked, her eyes still shut, unable to bear the closeness between them. He was holding both her wrists to the sides of her head as he breathed fiery breath on her face. A new desire filled her as he came even closer. His gentle yet firm hold tingled her skin as his thumb traced her skin steadily.
"Just don't...your husband lik..." es you too much to lose you is what he wanted he wanted to say, but his words failed him as she lifted her gaze to him. She wanted to read those unsaid words in his eyes if she could, but there was so much she had to learn and ask before she knew it all with one glimpse of him.
"Why?" she whispered, not knowing what she really wanted to hear for an answer. Her voice left him strangely irked. It was all too much for him to take in when she stood inches away from him. Her chest heaved, as she grew breathless. He knew how much he was affecting her and so he moved to stand by the opposite wall.
"You ask too many questions..." He wanted to diverge from the previous conversation. It was too corny for now, he thought.
"I know..." she retorted. He wondered what made her approach him now, when she had not spoken a word with him all morning after their wedding.
"Then why all that pretending to be coy...this morning? Not a word for almost 2 hrs"
"So you have been counting..." She asked as she turned towards the door. The cold breeze billowed her aanchal in the air that fluttered passionately and landed on him to tease his face. He yanked the tail of her sari down and took her arm to bring her closer. Her shy eyes lowered not to meet his gaze as he held both her wrists by the side of her waist.
"Tell me why did you run away? You don't like the idea of a kiss or the idea of me kissing you" his hoarse voice whispered into her ears. A long mane came to settle by her forehead, which he gently moved to tuck it to the side of her ear, all the while caressing her smooth skin and the tender flesh with his fingertips. She shuddered at his touch, growing all the more sensitive to him. His voice instilled vibrant sensations in her, his eyes raked warmth in her skin sensually and his touch sent tingles up her spine. She was sure she was going to lose herself in minutes if not in seconds. It was easier to maintain her silence, but he needed an answer, confirming all the same as he shook her up.
"You didn't deserve it...and..." She hesitated wondering if it was appropriate to utter what she had in mind.
"And?" He grew curious at her pause.
"It would be my first...I wasn't prepared" she said as she moved behind to the same spot he had dragged her from.
Her first kiss? His curiosity piqued at her mention of the words.
"Pray tell me why I don't deserve it...YET?" Now his interest moved to a whole different plane. He needed some answers now and fast to see if the situation was redeemable to start with.
"You troubled me too much last night...I didn't sleep a wink" She placed her charges boldly. Indeed, what did he think? She would let him go for the cruel game he had played on her the previous night?
"Sorry...I couldn't help it...And I didn't know at that time my wife was so gullible" He said with a smirk, winding his headphones around his iPod.
"Well don't get carried away...I had my doubts..." She said as she hugged herself to keep her warm from the cold wind that blazed through her. The scene raised the hairs in the back of his neck to stand up, as her collarbones pressed against her skin. In the faint light that lingered by the doorway, it looked nothing less but inviting to confine her into an embrace. And that did it as he mindlessly strode towards her.
"Really is that why you didn't sleep a wink?" He held her cheek as his thumb traced her lashes. He was such a tease, she thought. But she didn't know how she incessantly tormented him by her mere presence. She gave in as she rested her head in the curve of his palm. The moment was quite intimate for her.
"Maan..." She moaned his name as his other hand went around to hold her close.
"Tell me..." He leaned in to murmur softly. His deep baritone and his toasty breath caressed her one layer deep.
It was not long before his playful self returned as he removed his hand from under her cheek and held her other hand and tugged her rudely. She was now on him as his nose traced her cheek. Stuck in a trance, she shivered as her body came in contact with his. Well it was not going to be that easy with him, not when she had given every sign she was falling for him.
"Accept it...and I will give you just what you are thinking about this moment" he said carelessly as she looked up at him in surprise. Really? He only needed a glint of her eyes to be so full of himself, and here she was wheezing out his want for him, so what did she expect.
"Accept what?" She backed out of his teasing embrace and rested against the divider once again, while he kept his position.
"That you came in search of me...because you missed me" He smirked.
"No...not yet" She refused to give in, not when he came across brash.
"Really now?" He closed the distance between them, as he looked down her slender form and held her by her waist. She thanked the gods for he only held her over her sari, but the thin material, did little from having her feel menacing desire for him.
"Maan..." She moaned as an incredible lightness came upon her with his every crawling finger on her skin. Somehow, somewhere, she realized the place they were sharing such a passionate moment and she jilted to her side.
"I think its time for me to go now" She announced with a calm smile.
But just as he was about to stop her, a passer by interrupted their personal tete-a-tete. And so she jerked up in uncalled for embarrassment and walked in the opposite direction for him to follow. As they passed aisle after aisle vaguely and without motive in a slow chase, she felt a yearning to talk to him, stir inside her. She wished for them to cut through some ice. Perhaps that would slow down all that passion that bubbled in her. She felt that the stranger, attraction and the distance combination were coming together as a dangerous cocktail and muddling her senses. They came across an empty aisle and she settled close to the window. She stretched her feet to rest on the opposite side, to make sure he seated next to her, but to her surprise, he didn't. He shacked up right next to her feet. Well, if it was not for Mr.Tease, who else?
"So why did you look away when I was combing my hair...Was I an unbearable sight?" She asked, not knowing what to chat him up with.
"Well I could give you the answer Geet...but I guess you are not built tough to handle it" He said as he shuffled about his spot to dart closer to her feet.
"Try Me" She said as she looked out the window.
"All right...I had to look away because my wife was seducing me with 100 people around"
Her eyes widened in shock. What? How? Her mind raised all sorts of questions out there. She had least expected that answer from him.
"No I wasn't..." She denied blatantly. Well it was true; atleast according to her and it was quite a harmless act.
"No denying that it was every bit suggestive" He argued again.
"Entha guruvayoor appa...I would never do such a thing..." She leaned in from her seat, as her hair, shifted around to fall in front of her shoulder.
"Too bad I didn't tape it in the event of your rebuttal"
This was too much. She had to prove him wrong. What a silly argument that needed proof, she thought. But now that they were at this point, she might as well go about doing it, she concluded. And so she did.
"See all I did was..." She ran her hands through her long mane once again and scrunched up into a lose bun. When she was about to lift her hand up to tie it into a loose knot, he jumped about his seat.
"No don't...not now" he held out his hand to stop her.
Being clueless that she was, she went about twisting her hair up, when he rushed to her side. In a heated emergency his hand went around her back and dragged down her sari that would have given him a full view of her waist had he continued sitting facing her. His pace definitely scared her and she had cornered herself by the nook, as she had abruptly turned diagonal to him. Her hands was still up in fright, as if in surrender.
Now that his hand was resting by the side of her waist, he did what he could best from the position. He nudged her closer as he continued to rest his hand there. Only this time, he held her by her bare waist. She was a hopeless case now. Her skin burned like ambers where he touched her; her entire being was breaking down into pieces as he pulled her closer. His nose came to rest by her ears, as he lifted and crossed his feet right next to hers on the opposite seat. Her short layers, formed a veil across her face, which her moved aside ever so slowly, teasing her soft fair skin. He had to stop now else she was going to spontaneously combust in his hold...in his ragged breathing.
Although it was only the opposite that raged inside him. He wanted to touch, tease and even pinch her smooth expanse to remind him this was not a dream. As he saw her curvy hair, loose aanchal, the fresh turmeric thread and the red and green glass bangles in her hand that played carelessly, she brought about a different kind of beast in him.
"When I say don't...listen to me its for your own good...You don't know what you wield on me yet...I can kiss you right now...For starters that would prove very much in favor of me...but I wouldn't be able to stop there and it wouldn't prove much in your favor...trust me" He spit out a warning by her ear, each word coming out after a stressful pause.
"God...you talk dirty...So much foreplay..." This was his time to be shocked at her choice of words.
"If my warnings to you come across as foreplay...when I have said nothing at all of that nature...then my wife..." To prove his point, he nuzzled in by the curve of her neck as she turned away, all the while careful not to let his lips touch her. She withered and came together as his nose drew lines and patterns by the sensual slopes of her neck and shoulder.
"You are going to suffer when I right about start doing what you have just mentioned" He raised his head back to meet her eyes. The golden pecks of her eyes were still behind her eyelids as he pulled back his hand away from his waist. He moved a tad bit farther and laced his hand with hers. Just as she sensed his body withdraw from her side, she slowly returned back to her senses. She was long gone from the grounds of reality.
"I have to go now...I haven't slept in the last 36 hours" She got up from her seat. His feet now formed a gate and kept her from escaping his devious schemes he had for her.
"Ah! yes...Are you so sure you will not dream of me? And catch up on all that lost sleep?" He recoiled his feet back, but instead, tugged her by her wrist and she fell slackly on his lap. His hands went around her body caging her to him. She closed her eyes for a moment as a cold thrill came upon her, but soon came out of it to meet his eyes with a smile. This was going way too fast for one night and too much of a tease, more than she could handle.
"Maan...sleep tight" She said as she attempted to lean forward to get out of his hold, but she did not want to convey that she was putting up a fight. Yet.
"I'm just going to go ahead and be shameless to accept I will be dreaming of you...only you" He winked at her.
"Lord! Maan...I should perhaps take lessons from you to talk like that" She brought her mouth in an O and closed it at once with both her hands. He was indeed Mr.Nice, she was now sure.
"Don't mind at all...as long as it involves lots of touching...holding and of course kissing...God No...I'm not talking admissions without that last one" His flippant tone accompanied a light laugh. Now she didn't even know what expression of hers this statement deserved and so she simply curved her lips as her mind played the images in her mind.
"Good night My sweet talker" She said as she removed his hand around her and got up to round the corner of the aisle they were sitting in.
"Jokes apart...Good night...Wake me up if you need anything" He said as he was on his feet to follow her.
"Why Thank you...I can fend for myself pretty well...I guess I will have to extend that offer to you as well, given you don't speak the language" She said with a warm smile, as all traces of their sultry endeavor were beginning to fade out of her mind. Or so she thought, while he had no such intentions. He once again, cornered her by the door that they just passed.
"Are you sure my naive wife?...Think twice before you mean that...My needs can be quite demanding" He pinned her hands to the side of her shoulders, while he heaved himself upon her.
"Maan...please...you are simply incorrigible" She complained for this was yet another start of a game that night. His lips lingered close to hers. A cold sweat was forming over her brow at the thought that passed her mind. Her heart raced and her pulse went skittish by her jaw.
"Don't worry...Given that it would be your first...I don't want to steal your thunder...not until you are ready" He let go of her hand and tipped her chin to look up to him. She had been sure she wanted him to kiss her that night, but all this foreplay was too tempting to lose out on. Especially when he was so good at it and so she assured him a time for the same.
"Only until our other wedding...actually.." she thought over her previous statement. "Maybe until I get to know you better..." she shied away at that.
"Good night Geet" Her forehead was too alluring for a good night kiss, but he controlled his affections for the moment, as he moved back and she slid out of the space.
"Good night Maan" She turned to call out after she had walked further away from him.
As she climbed up to settle in her berth, she saw him settle into his own. A smile crept up their lips, as the past hour played back in their mind. Well it was more than what she had asked for. And for him, it was a promising start. This train journey was a memory etched in gold for them. A simple, sensual treat that bore a silent oath of their fondness for each other.
Uff! 😳 . I'm slipping again. Got carried away and wrote a long one...Nope..Not falling for that one. Oh! I was teasing myself I guess...Let me know how this one went. Her sari in already in the picture album.
Edited by 6thElement - 13 years ago
