Page 40 of First Comes Marriage
‘For God’s sake, Niya,’ Shoaib groaned.
Zafar kept quiet this time.
‘We’ve got time to kill. Just one round.’ She ignored the protests and grabbed an empty fizzy drink bottle and putting it in the middle of the blanket, she spun it with a flourish. It landed on Shoaib, who shook his head, resigned that his sister would get her way, as he sat up. ‘Truth or dare, Sho?’
‘Argh, she’s relentless.’ Reshma groaned as she started putting lids back on containers and clearing up the food debris around them. Zafar helped her. He needed more ofa distraction from the thoughts that had plagued his mind moments ago and knowing Haniya, they weren’t likely to get up until she had extracted her pound of flesh from them.
‘The words dog and bone come to mind,’ Shoaib griped. ‘Dare.’
‘Fab. Sing us a song.’
What ensued was one hundred and twenty seconds of hilarity as Shoaib sang a song dreadfully off-key.
It took them a few minutes to recover from that, Zafar feeling his abdominal muscles protesting as he tried to stop laughing. The girls were wiping tears from their cheeks and they only managed half a dozen seconds of silence before bursting into fits of laughter again – Shoaib included.
‘Right, my turn.’ He spun the bottle and it landed on Reshma.
‘I’m not playing.’
‘If you co-operate, it’ll be over quicker.’ Zafar tried to reason with her. ‘Trust me, I’ve suffered at the hands of siblings. They’re unrelenting in the extreme.’
‘Argh! Fine. Dare.’
Shoaib grinned at her maniacally. ‘I dare you to sit in Zaf’s lap.’
‘Yesss! That’s brilliant.’ Haniya high-fived her brother like they were both six years old.
The pair of them were beside themselves with excitement while Zafar’s entire body went on high alert. He tried to get his tongue to dislodge from the roof of his mouth to intervene before things became super awkward, but the stupid thing wouldn’t budge.
Reshma narrowed her eyes at her cousins, enunciating her words slowly as though she were speaking to idiots. ‘That has got to be the silliest of dares ever and I refuse to do it.’
‘Are you forfeiting then?’ Shoaib asked her mischievously.
‘Yes.’ Zafar felt immensely grateful at her refusal and overwhelmingly disappointed at the same time, the conflict making him grit his teeth in frustration.
‘No. You’re not allowed to forfeit,’ Haniya protested. ‘It’s truth or dare, so if you won’t carry out the dare, then you can tell us a truth.’
Zafar watched the silent exchange between the two women for a moment and then he saw Reshma’s shoulders slump as she looked in his direction and he froze in a bid to stop himself from fidgeting, keeping his expression as neutral as he could.
Reshma got up and circled a finger towards his legs. ‘Stretch them out, please.’
‘No, cross them,’ Haniya shouted from where she sat.
Reshma turned, pointing her finger in Haniya’s face. ‘The dare is to sit in his lap, so I’ll choose how. I’m not a child, so I’ll be doing it in as ladylike a fashion as I can. Any of our relatives could happen upon us.’
Wordlessly, Zafar stretched his legs out and with her back to him, Reshma sat on one knee, keeping her feet on the ground. He could tell she hadn’t put all her weight on him properly and the way she was sitting had her bones digging into him.
She nearly lost her balance as Zafar moved his knees to get more comfortable, until he moved his arm around her waist to steady her as he grunted under his breath. ‘It’ll be more comfortable for both of us if you sit on both of my thighs. You need to move back a bit. Please.’
From her side profile, he saw her close her eyes, her cheeks going pink.
She got up and Zafar moved so his legs pointed towards the ocean rather than the blanket. He held his hand out to her and gave her what he hoped was a comforting smile.
She placed her hand in his and he closed his fingers over hers, swallowing her petite hand with his much larger one. As she lowered herself onto his legs, he swapped her hand into his other one and his now free hand landed on the small of her back, steadying her as she finally sat back. She was as stiff as a board and that made him tense, though his nerve endings were currently singing songs of praise in chorus at their closeness.
She shifted and he bit back a groan as his thigh muscles twitched. This seemed to be more a test of endurance for him than anything else. Her warm and woody perfume mingled with the scent of the ocean and bombarded his senses as her warmth seeped into his body, warming him in a way the sun had nothing on.
She shifted once more and before it got any worse for either of them, Zafar moved his hand that had been on her back towards her right hip and pulled her up his legs to sit in a more central position. ‘There. That’s better.’
