Dhaagey: The Ties that Bind Us [Tere Bin FF]

66. maahir & maira

Murtasim arrived twenty-five minutes early, again.

Twice a week this happened, and twice a week he pretended it was coincidence, that it was just timing and traffic patterns when it wasn't.

He just missed his wife.

He eased the Range Rover into his usual spot outside the Khwaaish building where Meerab still worked part-time, the engine humming low beneath him. The midday sun had turned the windshield warm, a thin glow settling over his hands as he leaned back in the seat. He unlocked his phone, scrolling lazily through the news, half-engaged, half just killing time until she walked out those doors.

He didn't expect the passenger door to suddenly click open just minutes later.

His head jerked up, and there she was. Meerab, framed by the rectangle of sunlight, glowing in her pink suit, one hand on the door, the other already lifting to push her hair behind her shoulder as she laughed at the look on his face.

"No sense of safety. No awareness of your surroundings, tsk tsk tsk," she teased, amusement bubbling under her breath, throwing his words back at him.

For a second, he just stared, a beat too slow to catch up. Then he huffed a disbelieving laugh. "You're early."

"I looked out the window and saw you," she said, stepping in, settling beside him with that soft rustle of her clothes. "And I missed you, so..."

Her words faded into a smile and she leaned in before he could respond. She caught his jaw lightly with her fingers and kissed him with a sudden heat that stole the air from his lungs. Her mouth pressed and moved with a deliberate hunger, like she had been thinking about it for hours and refused to dilute it now. He felt it everywhere at once, his spine tightening, his hand flexing on the steering wheel. Her lips were hot, insistent, parting his, catching his lower lip between hers with a slow, deliberate pull that sent heat surging straight through him.

She pulled back first, but only barely, lips still hovering close enough that her warmth lingered against his skin. She hummed a satisfied, playful sound, like she got exactly what she wanted before pecking his lips again.

His gaze lingered on her mouth before he lifted his hand and gently brushed a loose lock of hair back behind her ear. His fingers slowed there, deliberately. He studied her face the way one studies something beloved and still surprising, the wide smile, the way her cheeks rounded when she didn't hold it back, the way her eyes smiled too.

"How was your day?" he asked quietly.

"Good," she said, already fighting a grin. "No one pissed me off today, what about you?"

The giggle that followed undid him. He leaned forward and pressed a tender kiss to the tip of her nose, "About the same." He muttered.

"And how is Meesam?" she asked softly.

Murtasim hummed. "She was having a tea party with Maa Begum, Waqas Uncle, and Sher when I left."

Meerab snorted. "Maa Begum must be over the moon and teaching her how to host teas properly."

He nodded, reached across to buckle her in, his fingers brushing her hip, her thigh in the faintest touch that she still reacted to with a subtle inhale, and then he put the car into drive and pulled into traffic, one hand returning immediately to find hers. Their fingers threaded together.

For the first few minutes, there was only the quiet hum of the engine, the soft rhythm of the road beneath them. Something felt... off. He realized it slowly, noticing it in pieces.

Meerab usually filled car rides without effort, talking about nothing and everything all at once, jumping from one thought to another, circling back, interrupting herself, pulling him into conversations he hadn't known he was having.