I don’t mind at all. She shivered, the moisture on her body drying up instantly due to the heat generated by his promise with those five simple words.

There was nothing simple about the way he sauntered to her. The casual look in his eyes masked the purpose in his strides. Every part in her body stood to attention eager for his caress, and it came as a shock when he just walked past her to the chair beside the bed.

Her eyes widened when he sunk into its soft cushions, placed his long legs onto the bed, stretching the trousers over his thighs. Ofcourse she would notice that and the way his shirt hug the muscles underneath that her fingers and her lips knew so well. She licked her dry lips when he reached out for a magazine and lazily flipped through the pages.

Frustration was not what she felt. She was close to stomping over to her husband and demanding…demanding what exactly. She silently huffed instead and whirled away from him.

“I want to tell you something,” he said.

“Tell me,” she grunted from behind the almirah door.

What was she looking for? Ah underwear. Hmm. Underwear. She wore a devilish smile as she pulled out a red set of lingerie that she hadn’t touched for a long while. Red wasn’t her color but obviously her husband thought otherwise since he had bought it for her.

Casually, she threw the set onto the bed, and she heard a book snap shut. Rolling her lips inwards to stop her grin, she picked up the bra and ripped the price tag off with her teeth. The price was scratched off. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway because she knew how priceless it was. When she did the same with her panty, she heard a low growl and she couldn’t stop grinning. Thankfully she was still holding the piece close to her face.

“So, I was saying…” he cleared his throat when the words came out rough and continued. “Did you know the house next door has new tenants?”

Oh now we are chatty are we? Ofcourse we are. After all, discussion on neighbors was quite harmless.

“Yes, but I haven’t met them yet,” she grumbled, loosening the towel around her hair and throwing it on a stool.

“The boy Ria was talking about…Vansh. I had to…”

Naina dropped the towel.

“…to…uhm.”

She slid into her underwear as slowly as she could, relishing the effect she was having on him. She could tell from the way his breath hitched. But, she kept her eyes on her task putting on an air of indifference. It was killing her because she was a terrible actor. She usually didn’t use underhand methods to get what she wanted.

“To?” she asked, reaching behind her to hook the bra.

“uh…to our hook…home,” he faltered making her bite into her lower lip. She heard him curse, the chair scrape across the mosaic floor, and then silence.

She raised her eyes to see him stand near the window with his back to her, his hands stuffed into his pockets. Her hands itched to run along those rigid shoulders, her fingers massaging his broad back to release the tension.

“Why?” she asked reaching for her top mainly to get him to turn around.

She wasn’t putting on a show for herself. The whole thing would be moot if he stood staring at the curtains. Did he even realize he was?

Seduction was time consuming. She could have dressed herself ten times over during this ridiculous amount of time it took to get a man to notice her, react to be exact. Varun was reacting alright, but not enough.

He took awfully long to turn around – the time it took for her to button all the 14 little beads on her top. Yes, she had counted. And when he turned around, he kept his eyes averted. She quickly, discretely popped open the first three. Rookie-mistake!

He unclenched his jaw, hooked his hands on his hips. “Well, no one came to pick him up and there was no one at his home either. So,” he shrugged. His voice sounded gravelly even though he rushed through the words. It sounded sexy to her ears.

Who was getting seduced here? She frowned as she slipped on her skirt.

She tried to pull the zipper up, but it wouldn’t budge. On the verge of giving up, her hands stilled as Varun’s fingers slowly pried them away. She had he walked over to her?

His fingers were warm against her skin sending goosebumps wherever they touched. She didn’t know what to do with her hands so she lifted them up to her face, feeling her cheeks grow warm. She felt his breath fan her forehead and she tilted her head to the side to look at him. His eyes were already pinned on hers as he continued to tug the zipper up.

He was so close, a little tip-toe would bring her lips close to his. Lowering her eyes, she stared at his mouth, his lower lip thicker than the upper one. Her heart raced at the way his knuckles skimmed across her skin on her hips. She was aware she was breathing like she had run a thousand miles. Was she even breathing?

She would never know who made the first move or maybe it happened all at once. His palms wrapped around her waist, feet tugging at the skirt till it pooled around her legs, and she rose up on tip toes, locking her arms around his neck to press her lips against his.

A second before she felt his mouth take hers in a deep kiss, she heard him mutter a low curse. With a groan, she slipped her tongue inside, pleasure shooting through her at the way his hands gripped her waist and pulled her up against his chest.

All it took was a blink of her eyes, she found herself on her back on the bed with him pressing her into the mattress. Kissing her into submission, he placed both his hands on either side of her head and lifted his upper body off her. He was sitting on her thighs, and she wriggled her hips to try and shift him to where she actually wanted him. But, he wouldn’t let her. He wore a devilish smirk as he shook his head.

“Please Raj,” she pleaded shocked at the way she sounded. She sounded needy. Embarrassed, she closed her eyes.

“Naina…look at me,” he said softly, his fingers tracing her cheeks. Leaning down he pressed kisses over her eyelids, her cheeks, her lips, and her forehead, kept kissing them till tears started flowing down her cheeks.

“Baby, don’t cry. Shit,” he cursed and rolled off her.

Wearing only her underwear, Naina had never felt so exposed at the loss of her husband’s touch. She curled into a ball and cried harder. She felt his arms gather her close and lift her into his chest. Squeezing her eyes shut, she fisted her hands around his shirt collar as he carried her.

She felt him place her on his lap, pull a bedcover over her and wrap his arms around her. He kept kissing her hair, running his palms up and down over her arms and her back. She snuggled closer, burying her nose into his neck, enjoying the familiarity of his scent wrap around her.

“What do you want, Naina?” he asked her softly, his voice a bit hoarse.

“You. All of you,” she said, opening her eyes.

“You have me. All of me,” he said, tightening his arms around her. “You don’t have to pull any such stunts to get me, Naina.”

She moved away and sat up straight to look into his eyes. “What do you mean?”

“What were you trying to do?”

She tried to act as if she didn’t know what he meant but dropped the idea. She sighed. “Seduce you,” she whispered, holding his gaze, a bit of challenge in her eyes.

He chuckled and her smile faltered. Was she that bad?

“Hey,” he said his voice soft and melting. “Consider me seduced for life.”

“But.”

“No buts, I thought you already knew the kind of power you have over me. I can’t resist you baby. I could never resist you.”

“Then why did you stop?” Her eyes met his in accusation.

He sighed, shifting her higher up his lap, placing her right over that part of him which was growing beneath her thigh. “Because that’s not why you started seducing me,” he said confidently.

“I want you,” she said and squirmed.

His hands shot out to hold her hips. “Stop moving, Naina. At least till we have this talk that you started this for.” He bent closer and whispered into her ear, “then you can move all you want.”

Her eyes brightened. She moved and folded her legs on either side of him and sat on his thighs.

She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “So, we’ll talk.”

He folded his arms across his chest. “Yes, we will.”

Naina saw the way his shoulders tensed, his muscles bunched beneath the shirt. He was definitely not too happy about it. That only showed her he was doing this for her.

Before she could ask, he lifted one finger up. “For every question you ask, I’ll ask you one. Deal?”

It was her lucky day. She had nothing to hide. She frowned. No, she had lots to hide, not exactly but lots not to tell yet.

Taking a deep breath she decided to take the plunge.

“Deal. Me first.”

He lifted a shoulder in agreement. More like it didn’t matter either ways.

“You have been calling me Naina since morning,” she said, fighting the urge to pout. Way to go Naina. Your husband decides to have the talk and you start with a no-brainer like that one.

His brows shot up. “Is that a question or an observation?”

“Both. Now answer.”

He ground his teeth. “It hurt when you walked out this morning. Right after you said what you did.” His eyes ticked but he held her gaze.

“I don’t…”

“Is it so easy for either of us to be done with each other?”

“I didn’t mean it, Varun…”

“Stop calling me Varun,” he snapped jerking up against the headboard.

Naina stared at him.

“I am your Raj. Only to you. Varun is…he is someone who has lost so much. Raj was born out of our love. He will never lose you. I need to believe that, sweetheart.”

The pain in his eyes took her breath away. She cupped his face, her fingers wiping away the invisible tears. She pressed her lips to his mouth. His only response was to close his eyes and pull her up tighter against his chest.

“Raj…” she breathed against his lips. “My Raj.” She kissed him, running her tongue over his lower lip that quivered under her touch.

His hands roamed over her body roughly, exciting her. He cupped her chin with his fingers nudging her mouth open and his tongue pushed inside deepening the kiss.

When her hands pulled at his shirt to take it off, he stilled, grasping her hands tight in his. Moving away from the kiss with a peck on her lips, he rested his forehead against hers, breathing hard.

His eyes were closed and Naina was dazed.  Her thighs shook from the desire he evoked in her.

“Why do you keep stopping?” she moaned, and Varun let out a chuckle.

“Will you make up your mind, baby? Because I don’t think I can take this hot and cold anymore.”

“We can make love and then talk,” she said hopefully.

Varun threw back his head and laughed. “That would work for a normal couple, not us. You know we can’t stop getting distracted when we are naked in bed. Scratch that. When we are in bed. Clothes or no clothes you are always a distraction,” he said pecking at her lips repeatedly.

When he stopped, she pouted and he groaned. “You witch, do you have any idea how bad I want to take that scrap of red off you?”

He toppled her off onto the bed and stood up.

“How bad?” she teased rolling onto her stomach.

He tore his eyes off her rear to look into her eyes. He shook his head, smiling.

“You know exactly how bad. Now get up and get dressed, we are going out,” he said, smacking her bare behind.

“Hey, that hurt,” she cried.

“I know. It was meant to.”

She sat up on the bed and pouted. “First you accuse me, shout at me over the phone, ask me a stupid question when I get back home, be a total meanie and then you say you meant to hurt me?” She listed off each one on her fingers.

Varun rushed to her, wrapped her in a large towel and knelt in front of her.

“I’m sorry for the way I behaved the whole day. Believe me, I am,” he said looking earnestly into her eyes.

“You don’t trust me,” she said. It was a statement not meant to accuse.

“I do. In my own way, I do. I also understand it might not be enough for you.” He dragged his fingers through his hair, messing it up. “But right now, that’s all I got, sweetheart. I cannot honestly give you something that I don’t know how to.”

“Raj…you are saying you don’t and cannot trust me.”

“No. I said I don’t know how to trust you the way you want me to,” he said, begging her to understand.

She shook her head, worry seeping into her. “All the anger today was because you didn’t trust me…in any way. Not mine or yours.”

“Don’t say that.”

“Why not, Raj? You basically asked me if I had gone to Nashid with some man. Wasn’t that what you were really asking? Look at me and tell me the truth,” her voice rose and he flinched.

“Yes, but…”

It twisted her insides to know that she had been right all along.

“There is no but here, Raj. You either trust a person or don’t. There is no halfway here.”

“Damn it, Naina. I do trust you.”

“What have I done to lose your trust again? I thought we have gone past that, Raj.”

“You haven’t. Damn it, Naina. You aren’t listening. It’s not you I don’t trust,” he shouted, springing up onto his feet.

“Who else is there in this relationship, Raj? I was the one at the receiving end of your suspicions. So how can you say it isn’t me you don’t trust?”

“I don’t trust him,” he snapped, anger evident in his tone.

Naina froze. “Him?” she asked even though she knew.

He stood staring down at the floor and shaking his head. A lock of black hair fell over his creased forehead.

“I asked who, Raj,” she stressed, unable to let it go.

“Shiven. Damn it, Naina. Don’t act dumb. You know exactly who,” he said, locking eyes with hers.

She rose from the bed and walked up to him. Standing close to him so their chests touched, she tilted her head up to look deep into his eyes.

“The day you trust Shiv is the day you trust me.”

His eyes twitched and narrowed. “I can never trust him.”

“Why?”

There was no response. He glared at her.

“Why don’t you trust him?”

“You know…”

“Pretend I don’t and say it.”

He ground his teeth and locked his jaw.

“I’m standing here in my underwear, and I swear on all that I love, I won’t move from here till you open your mouth and say it,” she spoke each word through clenched teeth, her eyes a mix of fire and storm.

He shook his head and pursed his lips. Moisture gathered in his eyes but she didn’t let him look away.

Her eyes were dry. She had cried enough and more for the day. There weren’t any tears left to shed.

Finally she felt rather than saw his lips move.

“He betrayed me,” he said and squeezed his eyes shut, a tear drop rolled down his cheeks.

She had to blink several times to focus her eyes on her husband’s devastated expression.

“With whom?” she asked, ringing the final death knell.

His lips quivered, his nostrils flared. His hands clenched into fists by his side but he was yet to open his eyes and look at her.

“He betrayed you with whom, Raj,” she asked as softly as she could.

He opened his eyes and she shook uncontrollably when she saw the raw hurt in them. Like his heart had been ripped open.

“With you,” he whispered.

She sucked in a breath, and held him as he broke apart in the circle of her arms.

******************

Hello guys,

Warning: Too many errors and it'll be like that for all the updates during this month. Please bear with me. It's 2 am now. I just wanted to get his chapter out of the way so I can start afresh tomorrow. Hope it has turned out fine. I wouldn't know since I just typed and posted it for you guys to read and see for yourself :)

A comment and vote please :)

Neeru <3