Enemy Within

Chapter 9

Sanskar had been fuming as he entered their room with Swara following behind him. He paced a bit before turning at her "What did you think you were trying to do there?"

"I...." she tried to explain but he cut in even before she could get a word out, she had never seen him this angry

"Who gave you the right to interfere?"

"Laksh was about to lose it. He would have come at you"

"And that gave you the right to interfere? Did you even realize the position you put me in, with him? That my wife had to interfere between us and pull me away!"

"Sanskar, he would have hit you!" Swara shot back trying to make him see reason, she had after all been only trying to help

"And you thought I couldn't handle him?"

"You know he is volatile, and you were riling him. He was going to apply his boxing practice to good use on you, if I hadn't saved your ass!" Swara was really getting pissed off at Sanskar's attitude right now

"Swara, when you don't know anything, just butt out! He first got interested in boxing watching me for heaven sakes! I know what he is capable of." He screamed at her

"I was only trying to help, you idiot! May be I should have just let him hit a few punches, in his crazy state, and let you bleed"

"May be you should have! You would have seen who would have gotten hurt then! And don't worry I wasn't going to ask you to help if I did bleed" He retorted angrily

"I wouldn't have helped you, the way you are behaving, anyway!"

They were both fuming, high on adrenaline by now, breathing hard trying to control they anger as they faced each other off.

Then some thing changed in the air. There was a different spark flowing between them and without realizing what was going on, Sanskar pulled her closer to him and kissed her hard on the lips. Swara was stunned for a moment, but then she too kissed him back with equal fervor. His hands tangled through her hair even as she gripped his shoulders tightly, each trying to bring the other closer, heating up things even further.

By the time they parted, they were both trying to catch their breath. As Sanskar calmed down a bit and realized what had happened, he dashed out of the room, leaving Swara to still catch her breath, as he tried to put some distance between them and make sense of things.

By the time he returned, it was fairly late. In a way he was happy about it. He was sure everyone would be asleep by then, even Swara, at least he hoped for it as he tried to climb up the stairs. But as fate would have it, he came across her as she was walking down the stairs just then. Neither spoke for a moment, before Swara broke the silence.

"You must be hungry. Come, I will serve you dinner"

"I am not hungry" he replied avoiding her gaze as he tried to make his way up, walking past her, but just then his stomach growled

"Your stomach has given you away" Swara commented "Come on, you are hungry and I am too. I haven't had my dinner yet, and if I don't eat soon, my stomach will start making noises too" she added trying to lighten the atmosphere

He stood still for a moment, surprised at her attempt and unsure of how to address the big elephant in the room. She seemed to have been acting as though the moment never happened, should he follow suit? It had been in the heat of the moment after all. They were both adults. That was it, right? If he was honest, he had been hungry. He sighed and followed her down.

She served them both and sat to have her dinner, along with him. After a while, he tried to break the ice by saying some thing that had been on in his mind "You didn't need to wait for me to have your dinner"