CHECKMATE

Chapter 1

"It was a misunderstanding," muttered a dark skinned woman with bright pink upturned lips embossed in gaudy gloss.

Her dark eyes remained fixed on the fare man with chocolate tinted hair in his early twenties who stood clenching his jaw. She could feel him burn in disgust at her very sight.

She wished he would rake her voluptuous figure with his grey and hazel eyes and stoke her long mane gently and hold her in his arms; but she knew he wasn't such a man. Her desires enveloped her mind and tugged at her heart, she wanted him to at least glance at her and say that he had forgiven her and he loves her despite her mistake.

A mistake, was that a mistake? she asked herself looking at her feet boiling in the disgust she began feeling for her very self. No I committed a crime, a huge crime against a guy who doesn't deserve this.

"No it's not a misunderstanding!" Yelped a man in his blooming teens, making the tall dark woman turn.

She saw him pushing his way through the excited students and stood beside her. He looked at the young man with contempt and spat, "I'm sure Pratap has threatened Urmika of some dire consequences, should she put the blame on him." Holding the girls hands in his he said, "I'm there for you, you need not fear this low-classed son of a driver."

Words hurt more than swords, inflicting deeper wounds than a dagger. The venom had done it's job once more making Pratap swallowed hard. The tears that seemed to burst out of his glands had to be controlled, blinking twice he successfully concealed his pain. How he began hating the aristocrats and wished them dead.

This wasn't his first insult and knew that this allegation won't be the last. Knowing well that he was innocent he looked straight at his most beloved professor saying, "If it's my given values of chivalry and righteousness that are at stake then I shan't shun away from proving my innocence."

"Prove!" gasped Urmika aloud. "What proof have you got?"

Her eyes darted into Pratap's blank ones, immediately guilt tugged on the strings of her heart. She knew he was innocent and he had warned her to spill the beans least he exhibit the proof of his innocence. For a moment she wanted to slap Indrajit, the college playboy who led her to take a dare and had challenged her to make a career oriented man like Pratap fall in love with her.

Yes, she was successful and she too began to bathe in the tenderness of his love. He just wasn't like the aristocrat playboy Indrajit Rathore who flirted with every woman he found appealing in the college. Elite was his style and class his persona. Urmika was charmed by his deep brown eyes, his dark black locks and his complexion. She was just the way he wanted, charming, romantic and classy.

But Pratap was something more, someone beyond her expectations. A man who never crossed his limits except once when he had kissed her.

She could still feel his thick lips pressed against hers. If not for her forcing herself on him he wouldn't have done that. He was poles apart from the aristocrat and how she lamented her decision to accept the dare.

Without a word Pratap handed a disk to his professor who looked at him anxiously. But the confidence in his students eyes reassured the worried man that his student was indeed innocent.

Pushing the disk into the CD player, the footage began. And lo! Pratap was innocent, it was Urmika who had entered the boys section of the sports changing room in her swimsuit and had deliberately entered Pratap's room as he changed. He was seen coming out in a towel filled with rage and disgust.

"That proves your innocence." Declared the weary professor Baghwant, moping the sweat off his temple.

"No sir," interjected Indrajit much to Pratap's irritation. He wanted this matter to end right there but this aristocratic playboy kept dragging the matter. "As students of law and as an advocate yourself, I believe this isn't proof enough of Pratap's innocence. We didn't see what happened inside the room did we?"