BTL - Chapter 9

She stared at the insistent rain that had become increasingly rough over the last one hour after they had finished up with their dinner...her thoughts kept wandering towards Arnav and his parting words at the dining table.

They had not shared a single word after that as arnav had helped her silently cleaning the table and leaving the dishes in the sink to be washed later..she had not stopped him from helping her but had kept quite and not probed him further about his statement...

That had been nearly two hours ago...she lifted her body off the wall adjoining the large verandah in the outside sitting area and came back inside the living room...she closed her eyes and smiled taking in a deep breath to inhale the heady smell of wet earth before wistfully shutting the sliding door...

How she wished she could go and play in the rain...but that wasn't possible...because even if she did want to...she wasn't foolish enough to go out in the pelting rain that occasionally shattered the night sky with thunders

She walked back inside the kitchen and kept her now empty cup of her ritualistic mint tea and went back into the living room to shut off the lights...but when she was about to put the lights off, her eyes went towards the dark corridor that showed a ray of light peeping from beneath arnav's door...she wondered if she should go and ask him if he wanted some tea or coffee..but then decided against it

The day had been weird enough, and now, she really wanted to just cozy up in her warm bed and dream about molten caramel eyes...wait...what? No...she didn't just say that! Khushi shook her head as she put her hand forward to switch off the front lights when a movement outside the window caught her eye...she saw a flash of something yellow move quickly inside their dimly lit courtyard...

She quickly ran to the window and peered outside to make out a small person...a kid to be precise who was now walking slowly towards the guava tree...her guava tree!

She threw open the main door and walked into the blitzing rain, shouting on top of her voice at the silly boy who was now climbing up the tree...her voice startled the boy, making him slip as he hung halfway from the tree...the rain making it difficult for him to grasp the large trunk...Khushi knew that if he fell, it might be fatal...so before she could think about anything else...she ran back inside the house and called loudly for Arnav

It was only a second or less when she saw arnav's door being thrown open with him striding towards her with a panic ridden face "Khushi! What happened...why are..." he started when khushi dragged him outside towards the tree... "There...we need to help him" she said as arnav nodded at once and made his way towards the now hanging boy..

The boy looked positively frightened with the double trouble he was in with him being caught and his current predicament... "Listen kid...its ok...just hang on ok...I'm going to help you climb down" Arnav's calm voice sliced through the thunderous night as the boy nodded his head and gripped the trunk with one hand tightly as Arnav made his way up the tree

"Arnav...careful!" khushi screamed as arnav's foot slipped repeatedly on the moss covered trunk...he looked back and assured her that he was ok... "Now give your other hand to me" Arnav instructed the boy as he swung his body over and lay over the huge main branch...Khushi just hoped that the old tree was strong enough to hold on to both of them over the large branch

It took a couple of tries but the boy eventually found Arnav's hand and hauled himself over the large branch as well...but as soon as both of them were safely over it, the branch started shaking...its end attached to the trunk slowly snapping away...but before it could totally give away, Arnav grabbed the boy and pulled him across another branch to reduce the weight over the earlier one

The snapping stopped and both Arnav and the boy got a better grip to slowly climb back down the tree...as soon as they got down, Khushi went around the bars and looked over at arnav once to make sure he was fine before kneeling down in front of the boy who did not look a day older than 10... "What were you doing! Don't you know that lightening strikes trees? What if it would have struck now??...do you even know what would have happened?" she asked him sternly to which hot fat tears started running down the boys face, mingling with the rain drops

"Khushi..lets take him inside first" Arnav said as khushi quickly got up and held the boys hand, pulling him into the safety of her house...but as soon as they reached the threshold of the house, he pulled his loosely held hand and ran away from there...before arnav and khushi could fathom what had happened, he ran out the gate and hopped on to his cycle before pedaling down the slippery path

"Foolish! Foolish boy...what if he slips down and hurts himself?!" khushi exclaimed as they stepped inside the house and shut the door behind them...she pulled her soaked hair over one shoulder and wrung them out...in her annoyance she did not even notice the way arnav's gaze lingered on her body that was now completely defined from her thin wet clothes sticking to her.

His eyes darkened as a hit of desire ran rampant in his blood, making it difficult for him to breath as water trickled down her form...right from the tiny droplets over the bridge of her nose to her bare long legs, glistening under the dim yellow light of the porch.

"I mean...who the hell climbs trees in thunder! Foolish, stupid boy.." she said as she looked up to finally notice arnav looking at her...her instant blush and soft gasp making him aware of his extremely dirty thoughts and blatant staring...he quickly looked away and ran a hand through his wet hair "Uh...yeah...but aren't you glad you finally found your thief?" he asked her as she recovered quickly and nodded

"Yes, I suppose so...but I never imagined him to be a child...he looked so innocent" she said as her eyes took in the water clinging to his hair, running a path down his face to his throat where his adams apple bobbed up and down...before finally ending somewhere inside his white t-shirt...white...that was now plastered to his well defined body...ok...stop, now she was being really shameless...she looked up to find Arnav staring at her once again

"Lets get out of these clothes" Arnav said suddenly, just because something needed to be said...the tension was too much to take otherwise...he saw khushi's eyes widen at his suggestion which struck him at the way it sounded "No...I mean...not together...I...in our room...separately" he said as her lips twitched "I know what you mean arnav...Good night" she said as she quickly walked towards her room without giving him another look

Yes, he was disappointed...but he knew that if they stayed in the same room for a second longer, looking the way they did...the consequences would have been...well justified but totally wrong! He switched off the lights and walked into his room...but as soon as he shut his door...his well lit room suddenly got cloaked in darkness... "Shit!" he exclaimed as he realized that the damn lights had gone out

He strode towards his desk and saved his work once again before shutting down his laptop...he kept his laptop on perpetual charge and that had weakened its internal battery which did not last for long if left off DC power...he tried to search around for some sort of candle or similar when he heard a knock on his door

"Arnav?" he heard khushi's hesitant voice as he groaned and walked towards the door...the last thing he wanted in this co-incidental bollywood movie type situation was to find her in front of him with a candle, dressed in a wet white flowing sari...

Well...there definitely was a candle...but not a white sari...she was still dressed in the same sinfully thin clothes that were still stuck onto her like glue...and had increased her sensuousness a thousand fold as the faint flicker of the flame cast a bewitching look to her countenance...

"Did you find the candles? I'll show you where they are kept otherwise...the power cut is probably from the bad weather only and might last all night" she said as she walked past him...her elbow brushing against his arm, making him stiffen at once.

"They are some over here.." she said softly as she held the candle in front of the small cabinet near his balcony...but yelped as the melted wax fell on her hand...arnav was next to her in a second, taking the now flickering candle away from her and dropping it into an empty glass on top of the cabinet... "let me see" he said as he took her hand and scraped away the hardened wax which had fallen near her wrist...the now flaming candle illuminating the area around them

"Its...ok...I..." Khushi said as arnav kept holding her hand with one of his while his other hand swept over her forehead to tuck damp strands of hair behind her ear...the sudden touch making khushi close her eyes...

She knew she had to pull away...but his proximity created sudden difficulty in her breathing...she went closer to him as if in a trance while he left her wrist and wound a hesitant hand around her slim waist, as if giving her a chance to pull back...to resist...but she shamefully went closer still, her body slightly brushing against his

She felt a moan erupt in her throat as he trailed a finger over her jaw, before lightly brushing her moist pink lips with his thumb...making her lips tremble in barely controlled desire...she slowly opened her eyes to find him staring intently at her lips while his hand tightened around her waist

Arnav could feel his heart trying to make its way out of his chest as he felt khushi's labored breaths over his finger...her closed eyes seemed serene in total contrast to her trembling lips while her body felt limp in his arms as he tightened his hold on her...he could feel the goosebumps form over a small patch of skin that was left bare at her waist due to her wet vest riding up

He knew she had her eyes open...waiting...expecting him to do something...but he did not want to give in yet...not till he knew she wanted this too...but then it happened...he felt her tiny fists curl into his wet t-shirt as she let out a throaty moan "Arnavv..." and he felt the last of his constraint break away before he wound his hand into her thick lustrous wet hair and covered her lips with his own.