House of Ashes [Complete]

8. Beguiling | دھوکہ

*Flashback Chapter*

Warning: Slightly mature content. Proceed with caution.

He traced his lips against the line of her bare shoulder from the back as he held her from the sides.

"Saqib, what are you doing?" She giggled.

Saqib was a nice guy. A guy any girl would wish for. Would die to have. That's how soft he was. A man straight out of utopia. There was only one word for him: Perfect!

Safa was happy with him. They were happy together. He was her hero. A hero who was madly in love with his heroine. Or at least that's what she thought.

But today was the day, the perfect shattered into the ruins of broken soul.

"Mhm." He snuggled in the crook of her neck as his callous hands slid inside her shirt and she flinched away instantly.

"Don't do that, Saqib. I'm not comfortable," she said with a forced smile, her 19 year old innocent face framed with a few tendrils of hair that had managed to slip through the high bun her hair was pulled into.

"It's alright." He raised both his hands, taking a step towards her as his shoes clanked against the wooden floor of the master bedroom. "It's okay, baby. Come here." He beckoned her to a hug and she succumbed.

However; this was the first time, she didn't feel that tingling sensation on her nape she'd always feel during their hugs, neither the churning of stomach on the word 'baby.' It was the first time this word made her want to puke and she didn't know why.

"You're in safe hands. You know I'd never hurt you. Right, baby?" He uttered as his hands moved to unforgiveable places.

With an abrupt jolt, she pushed him back and he stumbled upon his feet.

And there. Right there. In that moment, a smoldering look descended upon his eyes she'd never even imagined she'd ever be at the receiving end of. She was scared. Terrified. Her teeth rattled as her entire body wavered.

But just as soon as the rage came, it banished, too. He could always compose himself. He was really good at that. But the other thing she didn't know he was good at was beguiling. Brain washing. The art he had mastered in.

"I... I'm... so sorry." Her lips quivered as her face went ashen.

"It's okay." He grinned. He was back to being his normal self now. Perfect.

"I just don't feel comfortable, you know?" Her eyes pooled with tears as she sniffed.

"I can understand." He said with a reassuring smile in his ever so charming mellifluous soprano. Anyone could fall for that tone. That incredibly enchanting tone.

"Come here." He held his hand in front of her to hold. "Sit."

Obliging, she sat with him on the couch.

"Alright. I'm gonna tell you something, hmm?" He beamed from ear to ear as his deceptive eyes crinkled. "You know how man is superior to woman, right?"

She nodded.

"That's like my girl." He pulled her cheek and she managed to conjure up a smile.

"Now, you see; there are certain responsibilities assigned to husband and wife. While a husband is supposed to go out, face the battles of the outside world to earn money for his wife, it is also obligatory for the wife to fulfill her husband's needs. You know what I mean?" He referred to her as if she was a child.

"But what if the wife is not comfortable?" She asked rhetorically. "Doesn't she have a say in it? Isn't her consent necessary, too?"

"It doesn't matter." He shook his head with the grin till intact on his seductive lips.

For the very first time, she wasn't liking his enthralling smile.

"But it's only been few weeks since our wedding. It's too soon. And I'm not comf..." But he cut her off.

"You're only upsetting God by delaying it and making your husband unhappy. It's a sin. A woman whose husband is not happy with her can't step into Jannah (Paradise) and we both know how much you are afraid of that, don't we?"

He was right... She thought.

"And besides, woman is supposed to fulfil her man's needs only. That's the only purpose of her existence. The only focal point. And doing what you're sent to do in this world is an act of worship itself."

His ways. The choice of his words. The structures of those sentences were so on point that she couldn't find a flaw in them. He was brainwashing her and she couldn't even fathom that. And then he put forward a treat she could never deny.

"Do as I say and I'll let you talk to your father for two minutes."

She instantly perked up at the gesture. Since the day they had gotten married and flew to USA, he hadn't let her talk to her father because now he was her only family and so her only preference should be him. She was his property!

Not that she never found his remarks disturbing in the slightest. She did. But his enchanting ways would make her forget everything and question herself only.

So she succumbed to his salacious desires. And her entire next day was spent throwing up because she still couldn't get over what happened as her mind was still not ready for it.

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