Page 55 of The Legend of Meneka
I nod but say nothing.
“How?”
My eyes dart to the incandescent forest. “I—I don’t know,” I whisper. “I—I didn’t do it deliberately.”
Kaushika nods slowly as though in secret understanding of something, then utters a small, rueful smile. “I should know better than to ask you,” he says quietly. “You are power incarnate. You are magic made flesh. You are glorious.”
His words are everything I have wanted to hear, and though his gaze is clear, there is deep admiration there too, just as if he were a mark. He studies me, drinking all of me in, and I inhale deeply, trying to hold on to my path, my hands loose by my side, waiting to curl into mudras.
Kaushika rubs one end of my sari between a thumb and forefinger. “Where did you find such clothes?” he asks softly.
“You are not the only one to come from royalty,” I choke out.
His mouth curves in an amused smile, but then his head snaps back up to meet my eyes and he finally notices me quivering. “You’re cold,” he says, frowning.
I shake my head. It is not the cold making my body shudder, but he is already clicking his fingers. Warmth swirls around us in spirals of steam, and suddenly we are cocooned in a comfortable heat. Through the eddying strands, I still see the forest beyond, glowing, but I know instinctively that we are ensconced in privacy, protected by his magic.
He tips my chin up with a knuckle. “Is all this for me?”
“Yes,” I whisper.
“Why?”
To save your life, I think.To save my city. To prove my devotion.The words crash in my head in a haze of storm, so close to coming out, but in that instant as I stare into his eyes, another truth emerges, and I blurt out, “Because I want you. I have wanted you for a long time.”Because Iloveyou, I add silently, cutting myself off before I say something I cannot take back.
He is silent for so long that my fear returns again, making my heart pound.
What am I doing? I should bedancing. But the jewels from heaven weigh me down, and my own intentions blur in my mind, and he is still so unreadable, everything too much, and I can’t breathe, I can’tbreathe—
Kaushika leans forward and captures my mouth in a kiss. He cradles my head in his hands, and a whimper escapes me as his tongue savages my mouth. He tastes of heat and desire and pure hunger, and suddenly nothing exists outside of this moment. No Rambha. No Indra. No mission. Nothing matters except that we live in this instant,and that he never stops. His tongue punishes and soothes me equally, one second ravaging me with harsh strokes, the next smoothing over my lips, his mouth kissing mine in soft whispers. My hands reach to encircle his neck, my nails digging into the smooth skin, and I begin to pant, chasing each kiss of his with my own, claiming his mouth when he pauses to catch his breath. Desire strokes my belly at the familiarity of his taste, at how much I need him now in this moment of combined honesty and deception, and I skim his lips with my teeth, nipping back even as he chastises me with bold lashes of his tongue, hungering.
I don’t want us to stop. I don’t want this to end. I don’t want to wake up from this dream, where this kiss is pure and untainted with anything but our greed for each other. Where I can simply lose myself and don’t have to think of anything else butnow.
With a groan against my mouth, Kaushika steps back. I am trembling again, but this time it is neither from cold nor from fear. I watch him, and his chest rises and falls.
“You want me,” he says, and I nod, my breathing uneven.
I want him. It is the one truth I know in this moment.
He smiles, a half-tilted smile that reveals his dimples, and reaches up to my neck to unlock the chains from swarga. One by one, he detaches them all. They are some of the most precious amulets from Amaravati, filled with enormous magic, but he drops them, the pearls and sapphires cast aside like so many stones. They clink when they fall on ice, but neither Kaushika nor I take our eyes off each other. I watch him, breathless, as his fingers graze my bare neck to the earrings, which he removes too. He pulls the pins free of my braid, combing out my hair with his thick fingers until even Indra’s circlet and his own crescent comb join the pile on the ground. My scalp prickles with his touch, and a husky sigh falls from my lips.
He watches my mouth like it is the tastiest fruit, deep desire in his eyes.
“Powerful though these amulets are,” Kaushika whispers, “you do not need them. You never have. Not for me.”
I shiver where I stand, chills erupting over me. His touch is like a tingling breeze, and his fingers skim over my neck and my jaw. He leans down and nuzzles me, trailing kisses along my cheek, along the corner of my mouth, and the soft spot by my ear. Kaushika inhales deeply, and the sound almost undoes me. I writhe in his grasp, but he keeps me steady, his teeth grazing along my neck as he sucks slowly, leisurely, at the delicate skin. A gasp wrenches from me, and I squirm harder, growing uncomfortably damp. My eyes flutter shut in exquisite agony. If he weren’t holding me up, I would fall.
Lust grows in me, hot and heavy, and I want to lean forward and kiss him. I want to take him in my arms, have him pressed hard against me, but instinct tells me I must not rush this. Kaushika is doing this not just for me but for himself. My hair falls thick and heavy down my shoulders, released from my apsara braid, and his one hand weighs it, a growl in his throat, tugging it ever so slightly before relinquishing it. A half sob escapes me as my belly churns with fire.
Slowly, ever so slowly, he reaches to pull the ends of my sari from around my shoulders. The pallu drops, sashaying around my waist in a train. I do not sense him doing it, so consuming is my own lust, but before I know it he has unbuttoned my blouse. He removes my arms from it, discarding the clothing so I am standing in a river of sari, my breasts bare.
Kaushika steps back then, and his gaze flares as he studies me. “You are beautiful,” he says softly. “Beyond what you can know.”
I have heard words like this before, but I tremble regardless, because for the first time these words are said not just for my body. Kaushika alone has seen of me what no one else has. My nipples harden in the bare air, and Kaushika captures one breast, brushing the nipple back and forth with his thumb until it is almost painful. I suppress a cry,and my head drops back, just as he dips his head and sucks the other nipple.My mind blurs. I hold on to him as my legs almost buckle, but he continues to suck, bringing me to a peak of pleasure before turning to lavish his attention on the other breast.
The sounds escaping me are part whimper, part sob. When Kaushika stops, my eyes fly open and I reach for him, but he is only dropping to his knees in front of me. I stare at him, amazed and heavy-lidded, as he unravels the rest of my sari, pooling it away in a glistening stream. The rest of my jewels come off too, and he tugs at my silk underclothes. I step out of them as though in a daze, and he tosses them all away.
And then I stand there, utterly naked as Kaushika kneels in front of me. His hands rest on my waist, thumbs pressing hard on my hipbones. His whole body shudders, his head bowed. He is still fully clothed, his hair still in a sage’s topknot.
