Beautiful Girl

Part Twenty One

"How long are you going to do this, sweetheart?" His exasperation is laced with the words of his question.
She has been hiding inside the covers since morning.
She didn't eat much for breakfast, didn't say more than few words before running back to her room.
Her NEET result is going to be out today, and Khushi who isn't fazed by anything or anyone is hiding since she heard the announcement.
"You're going to ace it, Khushi," He tells her again through the door.
"What if I messed it all up while coloring the bubbles?" She whines from inside.
"It ain't gonna happen, jailbait!" He slips into the nickname he loves teasing her with.
"Easy for you to say, Arnav! You fucking went to Harvard, you prick!"
He smothers his laughter in a cough and takes a moment to compose himself.
"I am going to check it now. With or without you!" He threatents her through the door.
"Is it out?" She yelps and there is the sound of covers being smacked on bed and then the door is wrenched open from the other side with such haste that he stumbles a few steps back.
She passes him like a bullet, leaping down two stairs at a time to reach his open laptop.
"Be careful, jailbait!" He calls out as he follows her leisurely, one step at a time.
By the time he is in front of the screen, she has already typed her roll no and her date of birth, her hand hovering over the touch pad, as the cursor stays still over the submit icon.
"What if I fail?" She asks him all at once, eyes staring at screen as if she can look through it.
"Not that you are going to," He tells her softly, "but if you do, you can try again. I will be there, every step of the way."
She taps the touch pad once and promptly closes her eyes.
It takes few seconds to load and anticipation pulls him forward to look at the screen from up close.
His eyes come to rest at once on the 692 and fuck, his Khushi is a ranker.
47th out of a million or more people.
"Shit! Why aren't you saying something, Arnav?" She mutters, hands hiding her face.
"Khushi...."
"What's with the tone? I failed, didn't I? How much did I get?" She mumbles from behind her hands and he pulls her at once to his chest.
"You did it, sweetheart."
Silence follows his words, but this time around, it doesn't ring with sadness.
It's quiet for moments upon moments until her hands are tugging at his collar to turn his head and her mouth is upon his.
This is new.
This comfortable physical intimacy.
This closeness that warms his blood and makes his heart sing.
She kisses like she does everything else. Her mouth is always insistent upon his as if she can't get enough. When he tries to slow down a little, she licks at his lips and with a gasp he let's her into his mouth.
The first time she kissed him like this, in his bed, stretched upon his body as if he were the best mattress she had ever slept on, her tongue in his mouth had been a little hesitant.
She has shed her inhibitions since then.
Her fingers grab a handful of his hair at the back of his head and she tugs a little. In answer, he pushes her into his chest by one hand at her back and his other grabs a fistful of her locks to pull her head back so he can nibble on the column of her throat.
He lets his teeth dig into the soft, pliant flesh of her neck and she moans softly, her hold on his hair painful.
He should ease back, shouldn't he?
He should, if he doesn't want her first time to be on a couch.
"Khushi..."
"Fuck, Arnav! You should finish what you start. You leave me so fucking frustrated," She complains as she moves away from him, scowling, and he just wants to crawl back into her embrace.
But... He's the responsible one.
"Excuse me if I want you to look at your result properly and not lose your virginity because you're feeling too emotional."
"Are you sure I am a virgin?" She cocks an eye brow.
"Figure of speech, sweetheart," He tells her mildly, pulling her to his side.
"So, you don't have a problem if I don't turn out to be a virgin?" She looks up at him from where she's nestling.
"I am not one of those men. I won't be enraged if it turns out that I am not the first to plunge into your cunt..."
She hides her face into his shirt.
"You are the one who matters to me, darling, not your hymen..." He whispers.
"And to tell you the truth," He continues, "I don't think I've bedded a virgin before..."
"So, I will be your first then," She tells him, a satisfied smile on her lips that he just wants to kiss off one lick at a time.
"Does it matter that much? Being my first?" He whispers against her cheek, letting his lips trace the edge of her jaw.
"Of course, it does. I will have a piece of you no one else has."
She doesn't look like she's joking and he feels a little overwhelmed.
And he's not even the virgin one in this relationship.
"You're a Neanderthal," He ends up telling her 'cause he has no words for the feeling filling up his chest.
She smirks at him as she rests her cheek against his chest.
"I don't care. The idea of having a claim on you is the best damn feeling in this world."
"Better than ranking on merit list and going to AIIMS?"
"Better than that..."
In quiet moments like these that follow the unbidden confessions, he ends up thinking how content he is by just existing in her periphery.
The need to rush, to lose himself in making more money than he would ever need, it no longer is his drug of choice.
She has become the center of his universe and he doesn't mind giving her power over him.
"Khushi?"
"Hmm?"
"We should celebrate."
"Let's have sex," She offers promptly.
"You have a one track mind," He chides her. "What do you think about Mauritius?"
"For what?"
"Vacation. Holiday. A treat for doing so well."
"Are you proud of me?" She asks in a small voice.
"More than anything else in the world."
"Okay then, husband mine. When are we going to Mauritius?"
"Tonight?" He offers.
"When will I pack?"
"I will buy you whatever you need. I am rich, remember?" He tells her, half serious and half in jest.
"Well, I am taking my bathing suit. You're going to have to worry about the rest."
"Deal."
They're going on a vacation.
She is going to get the college of her choice.
He loves her.
She likes him.
Life is great...
For a little while at least.