Dream and Destiny:The Saga of Love, Faith and Betrayal. *Editing*

Chapter Twenty

"parth" sanyukta narrowed her eyes! A kind of reluctance swept over her as soon as she read his name and so does the feeling of abhorrence. She flung down the bouquet on the floor and began to sweep all the roses out, crushing them ruthlessly. All the while she was busy taunting randhir, for not wishing her, and wondered what's making her stop to wish him, as it was his birthday too. Once done she dumped the roses in the bin in her kitchen and the bin brimmed with crushed roses. But still, the air carried their fragrance. She then walked back to her room and dialed up raghu. She screamed almost on the phone.

"What is it sanyukta?" raghu said groggily

"What is this parth up to? Damn!" she kicked the bed post and it hurt her in turn. "Ouch!" she hung up and threw the mobile on her bed. Raghu called her back a couple of times but she ignored the calls. That night she couldn't sleep. All that she could do was thinking about randhir.

However, when it dawned one by one all her well wishers began to call her and wish her, Soon people thronged in and out her office, a brook of surprise gifts flown to her office but randhir never showed up.

Hours flew and it was 7 in the evening. There was a grand eve for the celebration of her birthday at her place, on the roof top of her eight storied office building. There were everyone, local bigwigs, politicians, press people, celebrities, corporate big shots, everyone! Except randhir.

The stars were shining and the moon was gleaming as if blessing her, showering her with all joys, happiness' and adding radiance to her beauty. Sanyukta, that night wore a long, dazzling red gown to which she wore a diamond pendant round her neck and studs to her ears, her loose hair kept dancing to the winter night's cold breeze, experiencing the privilege of kissing her bare shoulders every now and then. She was a cynosure again. The women in the party envied her whilst the men surely were lusting her! A few of the old men asked her hand for their sons' offering their respective business for her forever, but she gently turned them down whilst few of them directly asked her to bed to which she gave a witty reply that "they may end up in hospital bed" thus turning them down

Soon it was eight thirty and sanyukta was hell tired posing for cameras, smiling incessantly from ear to ear till her cheeks hurt, at people. The party too was near to wind up that the guest sea had thinned up. It was then that she received a parcel. Neither sanyukta nor raghu had any clue about it. But sanyukta dreaded it to be a parcel from parth, which she never wanted to be. With her fingers crossed, she opened the parcel and the moment she did, a gross batman toy watches fell down on floor. Sanyukta looked at them in amusement, with tears in her eyes and a wide smile pasted across her face. Whilst raghu busily shuttled his gaze between sanyukta and those toy watches on the floor.

Sanyukta looked up at raghu and giggled as if she read that nonplussed expression on his face, she was sure that raghu was perplexed at the kind of gift she had received. C'mon. Like really! What kind of a thing was it to gift an attractive young lass on her birthday? That too when she's a much reputed and most popular face of the nation.

Sanyukta was overwhelming with the fact that randhir actually wished her on her birthday, that he's there around her. And she's totally glad that the parcel wasn't sent by parth.

The few guests around were now staring at sanyukta and at those gifts, sanyukta smiled at them smugly and collected all those gifts from the ground. She placed them in the box and ordered her maid servant to take the box to her apartment. As soon as her servant maid left for her apartment, sanyukta excused herself and walked aside, her eyes searching for randhir. The moment she saw randhir leaning against the wall at a corner, in crimson red shirt with his black blazer sagging down from her forearm, smiling at her, she felt her heart stop. She successfully veiled that astonishment on her face. She pretended as if she hadn't seen him and nonchalantly walked back to the table were few of her guests, ready to leave were waiting for her. Yet she noticed randhir's face fell.

Sanyukta walked back to her guests and was talking to them, a couple of seconds rolled and she noticed randhir walking towards her and her heart beat unusually faster. She loved the way she feels the warmth when he's around, but now she just want to skip the moment of facing randhir. So she quickly decided to abscond before he got to face her. Thinking so, she turned to her left. Unexpectedly in a wrong direction that, her face hit randhir's broad chest.

Oh my god! He's already here! — She thought and before she could react, she felt him holding her by her shoulders and lifting her up inches above the ground. And before she could figure out the situation she felt his plump lips on her thin ones and they were kissing. She heard a collective gasp from the people around, but she was too lost in him that she hardly cared. Soon all the people left, along with raghu and then it was only randhir and sanyukta on the terrace.

They kissed for minutes, under the star stud sky, when the cold breeze was rattling around. With sanyukta, inches above the ground, her legs dangling freely in air, her body clinging on to randhir's for support. Nothing could be a best birthday gift for a couple in love. Minutes later, as they ran out of their breathe, they broke the kiss and randhir let her on the ground. Sanyukta was now blushing profusely that her cheeks turned red. She was constantly gazing at the ground when she heard randhir's broken voice.

"Am sorry for what I've done. Do I deserve a second chance San-Yuck-Tha" he asked as a tear rolled down his cheek, more than his broken voice, sanyukta had noticed his broken soul. The remorse he was feeling about her. The love in his eyes. What else does she want? Isn't it this for what she had been waiting for all these years?

"Yes you do! Rain-Deer" she grabbed his blazer and pushed him back with all her might. There was a smile playing on his lips, whilst she reached him in a stride and covered their faces with the blazer. Just that she doesn't want any to steal a glimpse at the thing going in between them, not even the shining stars and the gleaming moon. Not even that invisible wind.

Under the blazer were they both kissing as if it was the eternity, the kissed till they reached her apartment — the eight floor of her office building turned to apartment for her living — once in her apartment, the distance that had separated them all these years, the pain of being alone all these years, the urge to make each other their own acted up on that they couldn't stay apart. Not even for a moment.

Sanyukta pulled him in to her bedroom, whilst randhir was busy, kissing her at every possibility. The bed in her bed room had witnessed a wildest love making that night ever as they both ravished their bodies with a hunger to be one.

Randhir had been with many girls before, in bed. But it was only the hormones that acted up on, not the heart... but today, with sanyukta, it was not just sex. It was love. A sense of completion had swept their senses just that they were like a couple of broken pieces that'd fit perfectly when patched. And that happened.

"I love you" he hushed in her ear, and she blushed, kissing his bare chest. It was the first ever time randhir had said "I love you to a girl" and so he closed his eyes with extreme content and bliss, calling it a night.