Bairi Sanam: The hate of a lover

Chapter XVII: Naazuk

Ketaki

I giggled internally watching him cough like that. It was giving me so much satisfaction to see him struggle. My joy didn't last for very long as kaka left from there while he was viciously looking at me. He crushed the paper bowl in his hand, letting his hand get drenched in the syrup and I gulped looking at the condition of that poor bowl and squished gulaab jamun. He threw it away on the ground in anger.

This is what he's going to do to you Ketaki.

Coming out from behind the stall, I tried to run away but he held my arm from behind and abruptly turned me around to face him. Inserting the fingers of his other hand in my waist chain, he pulled me in, making my front collide into his. The sticky syrup that was on his hand transferred onto the skin of my waist. He was fuming and his warm breath was falling on my face making me gulp in nervousness.

"You did this, didn't you?" He questioned.

"Yes I did, what are you going to do about it?" I replied and instantly regretted my words as he squeezed the side of my waist with his hand. Instead of paining me, it left a weird sensation, and I scolded myself internally for feeling like this.

My eyes travelled down from his eyes to his lips, and I noticed some syrup still present at the bottom of his lower lip and some of it had merged into his beard.

"Sahib," I whispered as my gaze was still fixated on his luscious lips and he hummed in response, making them vibrate.

"Your lips—I mean you have some syrup on your lips," I said, my eyes travelling back and forth between his eyes and lips. Removing his hand from my waist, he rubbed his fingers over the wrong spot while his other hand was still gripping my arm.

"It's still there," I uttered looking at the sticky syrup on his face. He moved his fingers over his lips again in an attempt to remove it but missed the spot again.

"Still there?" He asked, and I nodded. "Where?"

I moved my fingers over my lower lip to show him where it was as his gaze kept following my hand. He held my hand and placed it on his lips and asked again.

"Where?"

My fingers moved to the spot where the syrup was lingering, and I gently brushed the pad of my thumb over his lower lip. It felt soft and caused a movement in my stomach. I removed the sticky substance from his lip and lowered my thumb to his chin where the remaining syrup was. As I brushed my thumb over his rough beard, it left a prickly sensation behind. When I lifted my gaze up from his lips, I realised that he was looking at me this entire time. I was about to withdraw my hand when he held it midway and brought it closer to his mouth again.

Before I could understand his actions, he licked my thumb, replacing the sticky feeling of the syrup with the wetness of his saliva. I felt my breathing getting escalated and my stomach twisting again.

"You really did add too much sugar," he said making my breathing hitch for a moment.

Honk

I heard the sound of horn blow that announced the beginning of the event, and I pushed him away coming back to my senses. Subodh kaka returned in the meantime, and he faced him.

"Kaka do you have some water that I can wash my hands with?" He asked and kaka looked at me.

"Aye Ketaki get some water for sarkaar, hurry up," he ordered and went away to help others in setting up their booths. I rushed towards the backside of the stall and filling up the lota with water from an earthen pot, I brought it near him. He brought his hands forward and I began pouring it on his hands as he rubbed them together to get the stickiness out. My eyes shifted to his face while his entire focus was on the hands. He soon lifted his face up to look at me and said, "the water's finished."

"Oh um yeah," I said moving my eyes away and didn't even realise when I poured all the water out of the lota.

I turned around when I felt a tug on my dupatta that was hanging over my shoulder.
"Wait Ketaki," I heard his voice and turned around to find him holding the end of my white scarf.

"What?" I narrowed my eyebrows, and he began drying his hands with the end that he was holding. I immediately snatched it away from his hands.

"Why do you always like to dry yourself with my dupatta huh?" I asked getting irritated by his act.

"Just like you always like to ruin my clothes. I'm surprised that my kurta is still safe today," he said with a stupid smirk on his face and only I knew how I controlled myself from punching him in the face. Ignoring him, I went behind the booth and taking a cloth I dipped it in water. I began rubbing it against my waist where he smeared all the syrup. I lifted my eyes up only to find him watching me do it.

"Seems like you don't want to watch the games today that you're still standing here," I said vigorously moving the cloth over my skin to get rid of the sticky feeling.

Tejasvin

Her fingers felt like velvet on my lips, and I couldn't help but lick her thumb that had the syrup on it. I noticed the change of expressions on her face when I did that, and she was evidently getting affected by it. She won't leave any chance to annoy me, but this mischief failed on her as she was left all flustered when I pulled her closer. She thought she could get away with it but what's the fun in that? She really does have too much courage to pull a prank on me.

She moved behind the stall and began removing the syrup from her skin. My eyes travelled to her delicate waist that was getting tortured as she aggressively moved the cloth over her skin. The cloth kept getting stuck in her waist chain just adding to her annoyance. She rubbed the cloth even more harshly when she spotted me still standing there and her skin had turned red now at that spot.

"Aaram se zara," I uttered looking at the condition of her skin and she glared at me.

(Do it a little softly.)

"You do not need to tell me what to do," she replied, and I chuckled thinking about her poor skin that was getting slaughtered just because she was annoyed with me. I moved behind the booth and turned her towards me by holding her arm. I snatched the cloth from her hand and leaning in closer to her face I said, "that's not how you treat something so delicate."

I lowered my hand to her waist where the syrup originally was and began moving the cloth softly against her skin while looking at her. I bet it was already cleaned off by the amount of force she had used. So, I don't know what I was trying to remove, and she didn't complain either.

"I can assure you sahib, I am anything but delicate," she said making me secretly praise her.

"I would like to test that myself," I replied, and she thinned her eyebrows not comprehending my words while I continued with the movement of cloth over her waist.

"Huh?" she questioned but I released her from my hold and throwing the cloth on the counter, I turned around to leave.

"What do you mean sahib," I heard her yell from behind, but I kept walking away.