KATHA

27 KATHA - FALLING IN LOVE.

After revealing himself and getting stabbed in the ribs, Kalki started taking more liberties than he usually did. He was regular at the shop during daytime and my nights were filled with his shadows. He didn't touch me in the ways he did before in the sensuous silence of the dark nights which I desparately wanted him to. I wanted him to touch me like that. I wanted to fall apart and melt into him. I laid on my bed every night, my body tensed and thrumming with the visceral need of his touch. But no. He just came, stayed, and left before the strike of dawn.

I understood though. He wanted me to ask for it. Beg even. Tell him how much I loved that side of him.

If he expected that from me, well... That was on him.

Then early in the mornings, after having his favourite Chai and brownies and now samosas and puff pastries, he made a habit of walking into the kitchen and leaving no chance to touch and kiss me. I always kicked his behind out. No insanitary business in my kitchen. It had been two weeks with the same routine and I was getting frustrated. We weren't getting enough time due to business but... I thanked goddess for the timing with every waking breath. I didn't have anymore men to kill. My last target was a few weeks away.

As the days unfolded, a realization began to take root within me like a fragile bloom in the midst of a desolate landscape. I tried to quell them, the crashing waves of emotions overwhelming me, but the truth was undeniable: I was falling in love with Kalki Rajas Samrat. I, a woman harboring dark secrets and a past stained with blood, was starting to find home in the presence of another. A man.

I tried to deny it. Giving it the label of attraction. Infatuation. Yet, there was no denying the way my pulse raced whenever he entered the room, the way his mere presence had the power to banish the shadows that sucked away my soul like leeches. I found a sanctuary, a respite from everything I once was.

But with every bloom, there were thorns. Would he be repulsed by my blood stained past ? Would he despise me ? Would he be disgusted ? Would he love my scars like I loved his ? Would he accept and still want what's left of the woman I once was ? The chasm between the woman I had become and the love that dared to blossom from the cracks seemed insurmountable.

Not to mention, I'd killed his brother.

As I watched him, engaged in animated conversations with the patrons who dared talk to him, his laughter echoing through the air after something Kisan said, I couldn't help but yearn for a future that seemed impossible. I was left suspended in a web of uncertainty, I wanted to confess my feelings yet... I feared his rejection.

I knew he would not reject me if his unwavering pursuit was any indication but... I sighed.

I turned up the volume of the radio and got back to preparing the order of no sugar gajar halwa. Yeh Vaada Raha by Asha Bhosle, Kishore Kumar and R. D. Burman silenced the surroundings. And just like that, as if summoned by my longing, he was there. He wrapped his arms around my waist from behind and started nuzzling my neck. I'd just kicked him out like ten minutes ago.

"Easy. I closed the door."

"Should I consider putting a restraining order now ?" I stirred the grated carrots in the pan.

"Like it's going to stop me from getting to you." Kisses. Kisses. Kisses. I closed my eyes, a lost woman to that gentle touch of his lips along my neck.

"I have a shop to run, don't you have a city ?"

"I have people to do my bidding and that is why you should just let me put some people here to run it for you. You don't have to pay a penny, just let me kiss you all day long."

"And the nights ? You'll just watch me sleep like a creep you are ?"

He sucked the skin into his mouth, biting, marking. I shuddered in his hold, going slack against his body. He held me tight against him. "Do you yearn for me, Little gazelle ? My touch ?"