41. OS 18. Too Tempting to Resist (Part 41)

Part 41

He drove in silence.

Khushi looked out at the lights and the shops, at the crowded pavements and busy roads, a part of her mind wondering why he wanted to take her out. Was he planning to take her to a temple?

Even as she thought this, he took a left turn and parked his car in the parking lot near a park.

He left the car, came to her side, opened the door and held out his hand.

She placed her hand in his and let him help her out.

He led her into the park and they walked together among flower paths in the mellow evening light, holding hands. Far away, couples sat close together and children played in a sandpit.

Khushi looked at his relaxed face with unsure eyes. Why had he brought her here?

“That’s a Blue Jacaranda,” he murmured, pointing to a sprawling tree covered with purple flowers. “A Neel-Mohar.”

“It is beautiful,” she whispered right back.

“I like to sit here...in this park,” he confessed. “Sometimes the work gets too much and I...”

She nodded.

“My mother loved gardening. I...I learned it from her.” He looked at her face. “I feel close to her when I work in my garden.”

Khushi listened with full attention. It was rarely that he let anyone in and she was fully conscious of the honour he was according her.

He led her to a bench in the park and they sat watching the ducks in the pond nearby and the carpet of multi-coloured flowers all around them.

“Khushi,” he murmured.

She looked at him with wide eyes.

“You are beautiful, Khushi,” he whispered, his eyes mellow and tender.

Khushi swallowed hard.

“Inside and out. So beautiful,” he murmured.

He pressed her fingers gently. Khushi felt warm and cherished even as butterflies fluttered in her tummy.

He continued, “I was alone.” He paused and then continued, “But I didn’t know what I was missing. Then I met you and...I realised. Are you happy, Khushi?”

She nodded slowly.

“Nani and the others love you,” he said softly.

“I love them too,” Khushi admitted.

He smiled a proper smile. This was no smirk. This was too important for him to turn into a war. There was a tender light in his eyes and his lips were relaxed.

“You are so hard not to love, Khushi. I had a hard time fighting my attraction for you, till one day I just stopped fighting,” he confessed easily as though it were a thought that had occurred many times to him.

“Kya?’ Khushi asked after a long moment of staring at him with eyes as wide as saucers, her voice a low squeal. “Kya kaha aapne?”

His twinkling eyes met her startled ones. “I love you.” He dropped the bomb and sat back.

Her mouth fell open. The breath she had been taking when he spoke caught somewhere in the region of her chest and she began to choke.

Arnav pulled her close to rest against his shoulder and thumped her back till she got her breath.

When she could stop worrying about dying, she looked up at his face and gasped again, “Kya kaha aapne?”

His eyes smiled into hers. “Tum ajeeb ho,” he said lovingly. “But I am no less.”

She waited, eager to hear him, every sense alert, every muscle tense.

“I love you,” he said in his husky voice, his possessive eyes running all over her lovely face.

Her breath left her in a huff. She sagged against the bench and said in wonder, “I thought I must have imagined it. Matlab, my ears....”

He looked away smiling.

“You love me,” she whispered in wonder.

He looked at her awe-struck face in amusement and then slowly clasped her hand. His fingers slid into the gaps between hers and took charge.

“Chalein?” he asked.

She had no idea what he was talking about. Her head was in the clouds and she was happy to let it be. He loved her?

She walked by his side and as they exited the park, he saw a young girl selling strings of jasmine flowers. For the first time in his life, he purchased a roll of fragrant jasmine. He then held it out to Khushi.

She took it with a smile and held it to her nostrils.

Her eyes fell shut as she inhaled the heady smell. His intent eyes watched her, not willing to miss even a fleeting expression on her face.

Then she tried to pin the string of flowers in her silky hair. He quickly offered his services even though he had never done it before.

Khushi looked down at her clenched hands as his fingers played with her hair. She could feel his breath against the tender skin of her neck. He loved her? Really?

When the torture was over, she heaved an unsteady sigh of relief. He walked by her, making their way to the car.

Suddenly her eyes fell on a man selling roasted channa. Her face lit up.

He hid his amusement with great difficulty and quickly bought her a paper bag full of channa.

He then seated her in the car and drove away from the park.

                                                                     ***

Khushi offered him channa.

“Aap leejiye na,” she persuaded him.

“No, thanks,” he said, his eyes on the road.

“Just one,” she pleaded, holding out one channa on the palm of her right hand.

He turned the car away from the road into a bylane and hit the brakes.

Khushi looked at him in astonishment. He was stopping the car to have a channa? Her hand still remained stretched out, the single channa sitting on her palm.

His wicked eyes looked into her confused ones. Then he bent and making sure his lips touched her palm, bit the channa from her hand.

Her breath hitched. Her shocked eyes were trapped by his.

As he chewed, his hand caught hers, cradling hers in his.

Khushi looked down at her small, fragile hand lying in his larger one and felt her heartbeat pick up. Her breath came fast and shallow as he bent his head and placed a kiss on her palm.

“A..arnavjiiiii...” It was a whisper.

“Hmmm?” he asked, his lips savouring the soft skin of her palm.

Khushi swallowed hard.

He lifted her hand and let his lips run over the mount of Venus at the base of her thumb and then to her wrist where he dropped a loving kiss.

Khushi jumped.

“Kya hua?” he asked softly, his hot breath against her wrist.

She had no reply to make. She could only wet her dry lips.

His lips ran up to her elbow, kissing her thoroughly.

She was shaken out of the haze only when he undid their seat belts.

“Kya..yeh kya kar rahe aap?” she whispered.

“Don’t you know?” he asked.