Bairi Sanam: The hate of a lover

Chapter XV: Madhosh

Tejasvin

"Sarkaar this is where all the village cattle are kept," Govardhan kaka said coming to a halt near the entrance of the stable and pointing towards it. He was showing me all the essential parts of the village that were necessary for me to know. I was looking around the area and thinking to give this place an upgrade when my thoughts were disrupted by sounds of laughter. I soon spotted Ketaki running behind another woman with a bucket in her hand. Her wavy hair was flowing in the air behind her as she kept running at a fast pace. She hid behind a wooden pillar to save herself and her side profile was visible to me from where I was standing. She placed her hand over her chest to calm her breathing down. Her chest was heaving up and down in the beige blouse that graciously covered it. A brown dupatta was draped on top that had moved away from its position due to running.

She was laughing frivolously, and my feet began taking steps towards the inside impromptu as my eyes remained fixated on her. She got so busy in following the other woman that she didn't notice any of us. I watched the lady turn around to face Ketaki, and she dunked all of a sudden. Before I could decipher the situation, I got splashed with water. My eyes closed with the force of water and when I opened them, they fell on the person who did this. I was wet from head to toe, and I glared at her.

"Seriously?" I said loudly and she quickly hid the bucket behind her. She began looking here and there and rubbed the back of her neck while giving me a nervous smile. "First mud, now water?" I fisted my hands getting furious at her as my entire white kurta was drenched in water now along with my hair.

I took predatory steps towards her, and she began moving back still facing me. The bucket that she was holding behind her fell from her hand. She stumbled on it as she kept moving back and was about to fall when I held her arm and pulled her towards me. My face was dangerously close to hers and I gritted my teeth looking sharply into her eyes.

"Do you have some special hate towards my white kurtas? Hmm?" I asked tightening my grip on her arm.

"Ah sahib, leave me. You're hurting me," she said wiggling her arm in an attempt to get out of my hold, but it was of no use. "And again, it wasn't my fault. You came in front of me. You have a habit of appearing at the wrong places at the wrong time," she yelled, increasing the intensity of my emotions more.

My other hand lowered to her waist and inserting my thumb into the hem of her skirt near the side waist, I pulled her closer. My eyes didn't leave hers for a moment and neither did hers. I moved my thumb against her skin on the inside of her skirt, leaving her rosy lips parted with the movement. Her skin felt soft that made me plunge my thumb deeper into her skirt. I slowly glided it against the hem, moving closer to the front where she had tucked in the end of her dupatta. I freed it out of her skirt with the moment of my thumb and wondered if she knew what I was doing.

Ketaki

He held my arm ever so tightly that I whimpered but he didn't let go. I tried to free my arm, but he didn't loosen his grip. His grey orbs were fixated on me, and I couldn't help but stare right back. Anger was evident in it but for some reason I didn't feel scared. The water from his hair was dripping down to his shoulder and some droplets trickled down smoothly from his neck. His chest was visible through his white kurta as a result of getting wet, revealing his strong front to me. His locket also became visible underneath the cloth just adding to his charm.

He plunged his thumb into the hem of my skirt and the touch of his cold and wet thumb against my warm skin made me part my lips. He pulled me in closer and the smoky smell of amber and sandalwood mixed with the earthly and woody fragrance of patchouli hit my nose. I got lost in thinking what he was wearing that made him smell this good. His touch and aroma had me intoxicated for a moment that I didn't realise when he untucked my dupatta from the skirt. All this while our eyes didn't move away. The anger in our eyes was slowly getting replaced by some unknown emotions.

He took the end of my dupatta and began rubbing it over the side of his neck, removing water with it. My arm was still captive under his hold that kept me closer to him. He then slowly glided it down to the front of his neck down to his chest over his kurta. My eyes kept following his hand as he took it towards his hair and rubbed the cloth against them. It ruined his hairstyle and few of the hair strands fell on his forehead ending just above his eyes. My breathing heightened unknowingly, and I began breathing through my parted lips looking at his dishevelled condition. He removed most of the water off his skin with my dupatta, leaving that end wet. Releasing my dupatta, he pushed me away with force using the hand that was gripping my arm.

"Next time if you ruin my clothes, I'll make sure that I ruin yours more," he said in his deep voice and turned around to leave. I kept looking at his back that got somewhat wet too. I came back to my senses when Subhadra and Reva came running to me and called me.

"Ketaki are you okay?" Reva asked.

"Hm? Yeah yes yeah I'm okay," I said coming out of my thoughts and looking here and there.

"I think we should return back home now," Subhadra spoke putting her hand on my shoulder and I nodded being unable to process whatever I experienced just a moment ago.

Picking up our buckets, we walked back home. I had left the dupatta hanging instead of tucking it back in as that end was wet now. I went directly to my room to get rid of it and drape a new one. Taking it off my shoulder I held it in my hand and was about to throw it on the table when the wet end of it touched my palm. I looked at it for a moment before bringing it closer to my nose and inhaling deeply. It still smelled of him. Even the water wasn't enough to fade away his fragrance. Collecting it in a ball in my hand, I sniffed it again and it reminded me of his touch on my waist, making my stomach twist.

"Ketaki"

I heard chacha ji's distant voice and I threw away the dupatta immediately. I slapped my forehead as I caught myself doing this and scolded myself for behaving so weirdly.

"Coming chacha ji," I shouted and went out after taking few deep breaths.

I stood in front of chachi ji who was sitting on the mat in the living room. He wiped the sweat from his forehead using the red cloth that was in his hands as he had just come back from the fields.

"Ji chacha ji?" I questioned.

"Bachi, do you remember the Khel Samaroh that takes place in our village every year?" He asked and I nodded. "It is happening at the end of this week."

(Games event)