Page 86 of The Unwanted Husband
“Now I can’t think of going back. The thought of leaving you makes me feel like I’m being torn in half. What was home for so long, doesn’t feel like it anymore. Nothing does, except here, except this, except you and wherever you are.”
Tears streamed down her face, each one carrying the weight of her shattering reality. “I don’t know what I’m feeling and worse I don’t know how to deal with it. I don’t know how to do anything when every fiber of my being is screaming that leaving you would be a bad idea. I’m lost in how much I need you, and I hate myself for it because this adds complications and a situation that you may not want.”
He didn’t say anything, like he couldn’t or didn’t want to say anything in the face of her devastation. Instead, he kissed away her tears with infinite tenderness, his lips tracing the salt tracks of her anguish along her jawline. Each kiss of his was both comforting and agonizing at the same time.
She was coming apart in his arms, crumbling like sand on those beaches where she had developed those feelings for him. The intensity of her need, of these overwhelming emotions, of her terror at potentially losing him, all crashed over her in waves that left her gasping.
“Make me yours,” words ripped from the depths of her soul. “Please…make me so completely yours that even when I’m gone, even when distance tries to keep this from us, some part of me will always belong here, with you.”
Her plea hung in the air between them, desperate and beautiful yet heartbreaking at the same time. Isha was surrendering not just her body, but every guarded piece of her heart to feelings she never saw coming, never wanted, but now couldn’t live without.
For a moment as time stretched into eternity, he simply looked at her, as if he were trying to memorize everything about her, every tremor of her lips and every flicker of vulnerability in her eyes. His hands came up slowly, cupping her face with a gentleness that made her breath hitch.
When his lips finally found hers, it wasn’t just a kiss, it was an answer to her desperate plea. His mouth moved against hers with aching slowness, as if he were savoring every second, every breath they shared. One hand tangled in her hair while the other traced down her neck, his thumb brushing over her racing pulse.
She melted into him completely, her hands fisting in his shirt as if anchoring herself to something solid in the storm of her whirlwind emotions. The kiss deepened, became something raw and consuming, filled with all the words they couldn’t say and the promises they couldn’t make.
His lips left hers only to trail across her cheek, before going lower. She arched her back as she sat on his lap, baring herself to him, finding the confession liberating. She no longer had to hide what she was feeling for him or how confused she was about them. It was about taking the moments they shared and memorizing them to eternity.
He pushed aside the thin robe she had on over a slip. The makeshift night clothes she had left behind before they moved to the island came in handy when they decided not to return to the island that night.
She wound her arms around him, her fingers tightening in his hair as he made his way down to her taut nipples. He pushed aside the slip, making fabric rip as he eagerly sucked on the flesh of her chest. She arched her back further, throwing her head back as he devoured her.
Moans escaped her as his hand found her throbbing core to push away the thin fabric that had been soaking up her wetness. In one swift move, he shifted her hips so she was straddling him and a moment later, she felt him enter her.
Her nerve endings were already on edge and the sensations now mixed with raw emotion amplified the moment, setting her being on fire. He pulled her lips to him when one had tangled in her hair while the other hand guided her at her hip to ride him so they could both blast through all doubt and take in each other’s longing and desires.
When a peak rippled through her, she knew in that moment, there would never be another man in her life. Ashok had ruined her for everyone and the situation may demand them to choose different paths . But he had marked her soul forever and she would be his, always, no matter what.
*****
Much later that night, Ashok lay in bed wide awake. He had managed to get her to eat something since she was exhausted from their tryst on the couch and then she let him bathe her just so he could wash off all stress while she distressed him with her skillful hands in the shower.
He smiled as he turned his face to place his lips on the sleeping form of his wife, the woman who knew how to awaken every emotion and desire he didn’t know he had.
“You’re mine already,” he whispered against her forehead, his voice rough with emotion. “You have been since the moment you realized there was something between us. You just need to stop fighting it.” He fought it himself for the longest time but when she snuggled into him that morning, he knew something had shifted in her
He rolled a bit closer to her in bed, enjoying the feel of her softness against him. “I promise to give you everything and anything you want.”
CHAPTER 29
The following morning, Isha was a mess. She had set an alarm that Ashok had turned off and it was much later than she had hoped to wake up. When she sat up in bed in a frenzy, he only pulled her back to snuggle.
“Ashok, you know we will be late.”
He only tightened his hold on her from behind. “Stay.” His breath was warm in her ear.
The intensity in his voice shook her to the core and she slowly turned to look at him. She took in a hissy breath and said, “I want to stay. I want to be here with you and the kids, on the island. It terrifies me to even think about going to San Francisco.”
He only smiled as he pulled her to kiss her bare shoulder. “I meant stay in bed with me, just for a bit longer but if you decide to stay back on the island, you’ll make me the happiest man on this planet.”
“Ashok,” she let out a sob as she hugged him, unable to control her sobs.
What made it even more difficult was that Ashok would not tell her to do one thing or the other. It would be entirely up to her to decide what to do. And her heart beat faster for him for that very reason.
She took a deep breath and said, “I’ll stay.” She cuddled into him and said, “Let’s talk after the court hearing today.”
He planted a kiss on her head as she hugged him, drawing strength for what seemed like one of the hardest days of her life.
