Chapter 13

twerping

@twerping

That evening Raman found it hard to settle down to his evening's task of reading up on the company's latest acquisition. The rustling of the leaves on the tree outside his window raised waves of restlessness in him and he finally gave up and rose from his seat. Stretching, he moved towards the window. The breeze carried on it the whiff of spring. He peered up at the sky. He could make out a few stars. Perhaps on the terrace he would get a better view?

No sooner did the thought hit him than he was out of the apartment and climbing up the stairs to the roof. On the way, he met no one. City life had no time to spare for random excursions to the terrace.

However, once he reached the terrace, it was not the stars that his eyes sought out. There before him, leaning against the parapet was none other than Ishita Iyer.

She was lost in thought and didn't notice him. Her hair was still tied in the braid she had this afternoon but since then she had changed out of the salwar suit. Now she wore a pale sort of cotton saree that made her stand out in the semi-darkness. His heart raced.

When Raman walked over to her, she gave a visible start. 

"Thinking of someone?" he asked.

The distant lights of the lampposts created a soft halo around them.
Ishita felt an awkwardness descend upon her. She didn't quite understand this man. He was polite to her and yet there was something in his behavior that at once excited her as well as set her on edge. Something within her told her to leave immediately but that would be rude and she lingered. 

"It's a lovely evening," she said, turning her face away. 

"Makes you want to believe in magic," Raman replied, his voice gravelly. 

The words seemed to move under her skin. She felt her face heating up and felt thankful for the cover of darkness. The afternoon's exchange was still vividly etched on her mind.

Raman watched her, her face turned away, fingers fidgeting with her saree pallu and somewhere in him rose a surge of elation. He reached forward and took her hand.

This made her look at him. He saw her eyes widen in surprise. She made a soft sound that could have meant anything and he pulled her close without hesitation, till she was flush against his chest. His other arm encircled her waist of its own accord, and she was within his grasp finally. Just the way he had imagined a hundred thousand times in moments both of dreaming and wakefulness. But she felt a hundred thousand times more real now, softer, firmer, less of a siren and more of a woman.

Ishita gasped when he took her hand. For some time now, she had thought this man different from all her other Delhi acquaintances. That he was a man, was something she had been acutely conscious of from the first moment of meeting him. This was nothing like what she had felt for Subbu. That had been homely, expected, and grounded firmly to the mundane. This!?! This was something else. When he stood before her, she felt a thrill she could not explain. This was because from the first time she had laid eyes on him she had felt just the hint of something deeper, darker lurking within him. It ought to have scared her. Instead, it made her savour these brief encounters with this powerful man who seemed to belong to a world very different from hers.

She wanted to protest, to take away her hand from his gentle hold. But before she could do so, he had pulled her close and she was in his embrace. His arms encircled her and a distinctly masculine scent filled her senses. The world dissolved away. All she sensed was the pressure of his arms around her body and that elusive and unfamiliar mixture of man, soap and cologne that she had smelled in his car and which now seemed to seep into her very skin. She didn't protest, felled by the over-powering sensations. Enveloped in his embrace, tremors of some unknown, unfamiliar emotion sparked through her body. She was unable to think, unable to process what was happening.

It was as he lifted a finger and ever so gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ears, that the spell was broken. She twisted out of his hold and took a step back. He didn't notice the shift in her and simply stepped forward, reaching out once more, hoping to close once again the distance. But now she was alert and ready to attack.

"What are you doing, Mr. Bhalla!?!" she hissed at him. Her breathing was erratic and her words came out in gasps.

Raman seemed unfazed. "You can't deny you want this, Ishita," he murmured. Was that a smile she saw at the corner of his lips?

"But I'm married!" she spluttered out, trying to make sense of what she reasoned was turning out into quite a nightmarish situation. 

"So?" he asked. How was he so calm?! She looked at him and suddenly felt like she had been playing with fire all this time! This was no ordinary man! She hoped he was no monster.

She backed away from him but ended up against the wall. 

"I am a married woman, Mr. Bhalla and what you are doing is inappropriate," she enunciated each word forcefully, trying to school her voice into a calmness that she was far from feeling.

Raman stood before her, his hands now tucked into his pocket. He sighed as she spoke, as if what she was saying had no logic. 

"I don't see why you are making such a big deal out of this!" he interrupted finally. "You being married shouldn't come in the way of you being attracted to me and since I too find you quite attractive, I don't see what stops us from acting on this--" he left the rest of his words hanging in the air, unsaid but powerful nonetheless in their unvoiced presence. 

Ishita felt hot, cold, and then hot again as his words washed over her. 

"Attracted to you?!" she burst out. "Don't nurse such presumptions Mr. Bhalla! I don't feel anything for you! I am very happily married !"

Raman strode forward and she suddenly found herself caged in by his hands that rested on the walls, either side of her shoulders. He wasn't touching her, but his looming presence was too intense to ignore. 

"You don't feel any attraction, eh, Mrs. Ishita Iyer?" he asked. He spoke with a softness that belied the menace of his words. "Don't make me call you a liar."

Ishita felt a wave of red hot anger fill her. It was the culmination of everything she had experienced in this cold heartless city. Fraud, cheat, destroyer of families, liar! That was what she had become in the eyes of those she called family. Worthless, ugly, unworthy of love or respect...that's what she was to those she was closest to. And now someone who was practically a stranger thought it fit to hurl the very same abuses at her! 

She clenched at his shirt and pushed him back with sudden force. Raman staggered before balancing himself. Her eyes blazed as she spoke, "I don't care what you call me! There is nothing between us and there is nothing you can do to change that!"

Raman watched her, stunned, as she whirled around and left the terrace. His mind raced from shock to anger to a need to answer the challenge in her words. The pliancy of her body as she rested in his embrace had set his body and mind ablaze. That was no lie and he was determined to prove it to her.

'So you think you can lie and get away. Mrs. Ishita Iyer,' he thought to himself. "You clearly have no idea who you are dealing with."