Part 13 –

 

Kripa – where do you plan to start first? Or are you going to leave that to your wife?

Angad – I'll have to. I'll be too busy getting every thing back to square one, I will start the business all over again.

Kripa – so what business will you start?

Angad – I don't know yet the olden glamour days are over, so wait and watch.

Kripa – so you think if you confide in me I'll tell everyone else? (she was hurt he didn't trusted her but she made a huge effort to hide it).

Angad – I don't think that at all. not if I told you not to. It's just that it's difficult to talk about a lot of things right now.

She turned away from him.

Kripa – that's okay. It's not as if we're friends.

Angad – it's not easy to make true friends, what are we exactly?

Kripa – we are in the process of becoming friends.

Angad – so you're befriend me and rebuff your fianc?

Kripa – it's just a mess angad.

His brilliant brown eyes seemed to burn over her, amking her skin flush.

Angad – well you can't disregard it. It's your life's happiness that's on the line. Are you so afraid of increasing the discord between yourself and your father? He's obviously an extremely difficult man to please?

Kripa – my father is difficult about some things. He's a good father in others. I don't know why I'm telling you. I feel I know you.

Angad – you do know me. You're the little girl who used to deliver the sweetest smile and the wave of a little princess, remember?

Kripa – may I ask you a personal question?

Angad – you can try. And what it would be? Have I ever been in love?

It wasn't kripa's question, but she stared back at angad, aware she badly wanted to know.

Kripa – have you?

Angad – kripa I told you.

That smile was magic. Few smiles lit up a man's face like that.

Angad – my lifestyle left very little time for romance. There was a girl once. She got spooked by my lack of money. All she had to do was give me a little time.

Kripa – do you still love her? (she told herself it would be wonderful to have a man  like angad khanna love her. Something she knew she would agonize over later).

Angad – no

Kripa – are you sure?

Angad – absolutely positive.

He didn't tell her, nor would he, he'd already dated falling in love from the moment he'd laid eyes on her, albeit rashly. He had already discovered she was the fiance of prithvi bose, the bully boy of his childhood. Still was, for that matter. She wore prithvi's ring. Maybe the death of his mother and returning to Mumbai had put him in a very vulnerable state of mind. That's why he wanted a wife, and children, a family of his own to love. Having a family of his own had somehow developed into a passion. Kripa sharma could too easily become a passion. A doomed passion. Unless she found the strength to break away from prithvi.

 

Kripa – I love the fire place. It would take a great deal of furniture to fill this room alone.

Angad – a lot of the original furnishings, paintings, rugs, objects d'art, you name it, are in storage.

Kripa – really? On the property, you mean? One of the outbuildings?

Angad – my grand father wasn't so steeped in grief he didn't make sure nothing of real value was left here to be stolen. There are many more houses in different parts of country, one being in alibagh.

Kripa – I think you could safely say your grandfather fooled the world. Have you seen what's in there?

Angad – not as yet, but I have the inventory. I'll make a trip to alibagh some time fairly soon. Want to come?

Kripa – aren't you the bush bachelor looking for a wife? She gave him a look.

Angad – most definetly, he retorted. We could talk about what I should put in my ad along the way.

Kripa – you have a devil in you, angad khanna .

Angad – most men do, but you'll never stumble on mine, I promise. You speak of loving prithvi, but I don't think you do .

Kripa – off – limits, angad (she warned moving into the huge handsome room that was obviously the library).

Angad – perhaps you're a little too accustomed to going what you believe will please everyone? (he questioned, his voice resonating with a certain symphathy).

Kripa – is that a good reason to get married? (she felt wounded)

Angad – it happens a lot. I had no difficulty sensing you badly need to please your father. That desire must be far from new.

Kripa – you sense far too much. What is it you want from me, angad? (with tears filled her eyes)

Angad – kripa don't do that. I've got plenty of self control, but your tears might prove my undoing.

In reality he saw himself on the very edge of a yawning chasm. If those tears spilled onto her cheeks, he might plunge into that chasm, taking her with him, his arms enclosing her, cradling her, his mouth closing over hers to muffle her cries.

 

Angad – oh god, kripa, stop it! (when he was with her his every perception was intensified)

Kripa – meaning what? (she tried valiantly to blink the tears away)

Angad – you know perfectly well what I mean. Why do your eyes contain tears anyway? They're no protection against me. The reverse is true. It seems to me you want to cry from sheer necessity. You're unhappy. You feel caught in a trap. You can get out of it if you're strong .

Kripa – (in her mind) was I strong? It's impossible overnight. Her hands were shaking.

Angad – no, it's not.

It radiated light like a halo around her head. He couldn't help himself. He moved nearer, lighting a hand and curling a long shining lock around his fingers. It felt like silk, sweetly scented. He tugged on the thick lock very gently edging her towards him.

Kripa – don't do this angad. She warned, knowing they had both reached a turning point that was far from unexpected.

Angad – look into my eyes and tell me that. (his hand moved to the mass of her shining hair pulling her head back so he could stare into her face). Kripa?

Kripa – (murmured) I must be mad.

Angad – I know. So am I.

Kripa – this may well be a serious mistake! (the streams of passion that stormed through her veins offered proof)

Angad – (he nodded solemnly, one hand cupping her face with a tenderness that was profoundly moving) you're so small!

Kripa – I'm a woman. A woman of nearly twenty-four.

Angad – a very serious young woman who has to put a few things right.

Kripa – that's how you see it? (she whispered, her eyes on his clean cut mouth)

Angad – don't you?

Before she had time to react – did she really have the strength? – he pinned her between him and the cupboard, which supported the ceiling – high bookshelves.

Angad – kripa sharma, you are so beautiful! (he trailed one hand down over her cheek, her throat, lightly skimmed the low – necked front of her tank top).

Kripa – why are we doing this, angad?

Angad – it's all I've wanted to do since you walked back into my life, he confessed.

Kripa – when kissing me is strictly forbidden?

Angad – by whom?

Kripa – god help me, not me!

 

Her words chimed in his mind. He lowered his head, while kripa closed her eyes, dizzy suddenly with the level of sensuality. His powerful body stood directly in front of her. Without thought – all she wanted was to get as close to him as possible. If indeed fall was that it was. But she had promised to marry another man, for all the decision to make a clean break from prithvi was fast overtaking her. She could pay heavily for this moment out of time. They both could. But kripa was powerless to stop what had already started. The sense of having been caught up in something far beyond the power of either of them to control was strong in her fate, destiny, something preordained?

 

Gently, so gently at first, he touched his mouth to hers. Yet the effect was so overwhelming it drowned her in a wave of the most voluptuous heat. It caught at her breath so it emerged as a moan.

Angad – I'm not hurting you? He drew back a little.

Kripa – no! never!

 

The flame and the urgency of their coming together seemed to devour her. No flutter of conscience troubled her then. His kiss was so deep and so passionate there was no question of denying him what he sought to take from her.

At that dangerous moment she was his for the taking. She was pressing herself against him with absolute abandon. All the world was lost to her. Instead of her habitual ingrained caution she felt only a magnificent generosity.

 

Angad – kripa! He gasped out her name, getting one hand to her hair that was tumbling all around.

She realized with a shock he was trying to hold her off.

Kripa – oh god!

His head was bent over hers as he smoothed the hair away from her flushed face.

Angad – you know where this is going?

Wasn't she inviting it? God help her, she was practically begging him to make love to her. She took a deep breath, then pushed him away, one hand flat against his chest.

Kripa – I'm sorry.

Angad – don't be. He too, had been unable to diminish the scale of all that he felt for her.

The whole extraordinary episode couldn't have taken more than a few minutes yet she would remember this encounter until the day she died.

Kripa – it's all right. I'm all right. I wanted that as much as you (her voice was full of confusion and regret) but we have to watch ourselves from now on.