Hoorain wore an orange suit palazzo after taking a bath and exited the closet. Her eyes fell on the glass of mango smoothie that Shahmir had brought for her. With a smile highlighting the dimples on her cheeks, she drank the smoothie and also took the pill placed beside it.

A knock was heard on the door and Ramsha, her sister-in-law, entered the room with a tray of food.

“Good morning, Bhabhi. Bhai told us that you are sick so here's your breakfast in bed. Reception is a week later so you have plenty of time to rest. And don't worry, you won't be forced to meet any relatives.”

“Thank you, Ramsha. The thought of facing so many relatives was making me nauseous.”

“I can understand. When I met my husband's army of relatives, I literally fainted in his arms.” She told her with a laugh, making Hoorain chuckle as well.

Ramsha put the tray on the coffee table and left with a smile.

Hoorain sighed in relief and first changed into her comfortable pajamas before eating breakfast. She was halfway done eating the toast when Shahmir entered the bedroom. His eyes fell on her who was about to eat her last toast but stopped midway when he entered the room. She resembled a deer caught in headlights, totally off-guard.

“Continue, please. I'm not going to snatch away your breakfast. I had mine already.” He said with a hint of mischief in his brown eyes.

Hoorain finally took a bite of the crunchy toast, but her mood was soured. He was behaving as if they were a normal newly married couple. But they weren't normal. Her past and his reaction to her past, both did a great job of ruining her most memorable days.

Shahmir entered the closet and returned after five minutes. He had changed into a normal t-shirt and sweatpants from the white kurta he was wearing earlier. She was expecting him to leave the room immediately or avoid her but he did the very opposite by sitting beside her on the couch. The surprise was clear on her face.

“Hoorain, we need to talk.” He sighed before uttering the sentence.

Hoorain stopped eating and turned to face him.

“What are we supposed to talk about? Things got disclosed, in an ugly way. And it ruined the foundation of our marriage.”

“Don't you have anything to explain? What's your side of the story?”

“Shahmir, I was young and naive. I made a mistake, realized it too late, and in the end, I chose my dignity over love. That's my side of the story. When he proposed to me, I didn't know he was married. When I finally found it, he easily manipulated me saying he'd divorce his wife. But a few months later I realized we had no future together. So I ended our relationship and invested my energy in my career instead.”  

“No one in your family knows about it?”

“I was afraid of telling them that I'm with a married man. I had decided that I'll introduce Areeb to them after his divorce. But it never happened. So I never told them about him.”

“Would you have kept it from me forever?”

“Yes. Looking at your reaction to it, I think I would have been right to do so.” Guilt made his chest heavy and made him feel sorry for his actions.

“I am sorry. I should have taken it maturely.” He apologized. Because he realized that it was wrong of him to judge her for something that was in her past.

“Yeah, but what hurts more is the fact that you still chose to marry me because you wanted my father's company.” It made her feel as if she was a liability for him to get the company and she didn't matter to him at all. His decision to still marry her made her feel worthless.

“I had told you earlier, I was more interested in the merger than the marriage. But I also liked the prospect of marrying you.” His words made her feel no better.

“Okay, imagine for once that I'm just a normal girl with no property in her name. Would you have married me then?”

Shahmir thought for a while before replying, “I would have. I don't know, it's hard to imagine it as an arranged marriage. Maybe we would have met under different circumstances. For example, you designing my new office building or home. I would have been impressed by your dedication and love for work. And then somehow we would have got to know that our families are old relatives, which would have called for a reunion. My mother, desperate to get me married, would have asked for your hand.” His imagination of their alternative meeting made her smile. However, the problem would have remained the same.

“But then you'll put a detective after me and would have found out about my affair. And the marriage would be called off.” She concluded their alternative story with yet again the same tragedy.

“Maybe. Or maybe you would have told me your side of the story instead of keeping quiet and crying in a corner.” His tone showed the desperation he had to mend things between them.

“I know I'm a coward.” She accepted it as her sole mistake like the coward she called herself.

“Hey, you are not a coward. You were scared and I can understand that. And I'm sorry for being a complete asshole. I should have been understanding.” He moved closer to her and held her shoulders to make her look straight at him.

“Shahmir... can I get a strawberry smoothie?” She asked with a whirlpool of emotions in her chest. She was sad, angry but happy and relieved at the same time. She could see their better future together but she could also see the rift this issue put in their relationship that was yet to bloom.

“Sure!” But he smiled excitedly, focusing on the positive side, “I'll quickly make one for you. Should I add bananas too?”

“As you wish.” She nodded with a smile.

Shahmir caressed her hands before going to the kitchen downstairs.

✨✨✨

“So your and Ayan's marriage was being considered earlier?” Shahmir asked while undoing the buttons of his white shirt.

Hoorain passed him a look while removing her earrings. It was their reception that evening. And her idiot of a sister brought up the topic as a joke. However, Shahmir took it too seriously and spent the rest of the evening mentally comparing himself to Hooriya's brother-in-law.

“Shahmir, Hooriya wanted me to marry Ayan so that we live together after marriage. But Ayan was always a big no for me.”

“Why? He is a gentleman, to be honest.”

“Now you are praising him? He is so boring. It was so hard for me to even strike up a conversation with him. How would I have spent my entire life beside him?”

“True. He hardly talked to anyone.”

“Now can we please change the topic? Hooriya is enough to nag me about not marrying her robotic brother-in-law.”

“I was thinking about which flavor you would like. Chocolate or Strawberry?” He asked quite thoughtfully while removing his shirt and proceeded to undo his belt.

“For smoothie?” She asked while removing her heavy pearl necklace.

“For condom.” And the necklace fell on her lap as she kept staring at him through the mirror. Now she couldn't understand if she was shocked because of his reply or the fact that he was stripped of his pants and stood in front of her in just boxers.

“Are you serious?” She dared to ask. Not that she was refusing the offer, she only wanted to confirm if he really was talking about having sex. Their first time together.

“Yes.” He nodded while walking towards her.

“Strawberry.”  She gulped down her saliva as he came closer and closer.

“Get rid of your clothes or I'm afraid I'll tear them.” He smirked and unhooked the blouse of her ivory-colored saree. He got a glimpse of her baby pink bra and unhooked that as well. His fingers traced the length of her now bared back. Hoorain tried to open the safety pin securing the saree on her shoulder but she couldn't focus on the pin when her husband was successfully arousing her. Shahmir took the matter in his hands and undid the pin quickly and pushed the saree away from her chest. He looked at her chest heaving up and down through the mirror.

“Get up.”

She stood up from the small stool and kept staring at his reflection. While he began removing her neatly tucked saree. When she was left in just her petticoat and unhooked blouse and bra, he stopped.

“Do it, Hoorain.”

She shivered at his intense voice and slowly removed the petticoat. She pulled away her already unhooked blouse and bra at an even slower speed. She was a nervous wreck. He was about to see her breasts.

“Hoorain, don't test my patience, baby.” With that one sweet warning, he held her hands and made the process a little faster. The fabrics slid down her chest and his eyes fell on her assets.

A smile graced his lips as his eyes devoured the sight in front of him, “They are beautiful.” He kissed her shoulder and threw the blouse and bra away.

His hands rested on her belly and his lips gave her sweet, desperate neck kisses. Her hand involuntarily went around his head and the other pressed against his hand daring to move up in the north. Soon his lips captured hers while his one hand cupped her breast and the other slid inside her pink lacy panty. Hoorain moaned out loud as she was being attacked at the same time by three different places.

Shahmir withdrew from the lovemaking and pushed her to the bed. When she fell on the mattress, he went to bring the condom from a drawer.

Hoorain silently witnessed the scene as he tore the pink packet and put the condom on. Confident enough that the sex would be baby-free, Shahmir launched himself on her. He kissed her hungrily and passionately. His hands roamed over her chest and pinched her nipples. While Hoorain caressed his back and tried her best to refrain from the urge to remove his boxers. But she couldn't refrain when his hands came around her panty and removed it effortlessly. So she too pulled down his boxers, making him smirk mischievously in response.

“You are not at all shy. I like it.” He gave her one hard kiss before gently sliding inside her.

Hoorain didn't feel much pain. It wasn't her first time. And she regretted wasting her first sexual intercourse on a man who didn't deserve her. But it was her first time with her husband and she wanted to live in the moment instead of feeling sad for her past mistakes.

“Oh, you are just perfect, Hoorain.” Shahmir moaned out with his eyes closed.

He kept repeating the words and moaned after every sentence. His words, his moans, and his movements inside her, all were driving her crazy with pleasure. And it only intensified when he gave some of his attention to her breasts. One by one he tortured her boobs and only stopped when they turned completely red. While the friction down there was driving her to the verge of release. When Shahmir realised that he slowed down his pace to tease her. Hoorain groaned at his mischief and ground more into him. Shahmir kissed her on the neck and increased his pace. She bit her lips to stop herself from moaning and closed her eyes.

“Shahmir!” She couldn't help but moan when she finally reached her peak and moaned again when his release was flowing down her thighs.

Shahmir kissed her forehead before pulling out of her and hid her in his arms.

“Sleep, Hoor.”

Hoorain slept peacefully in his arms. It was so warm in his embrace. She saw a beautiful dream about their future. Where they were playing with a baby boy and she called him Shahzain.

“I love you, Hoorain.” She couldn't really decipher if Shahmir said that in her dream or in real. But he was being honest with his words, which she was sure about. And maybe she was finally falling for him too. And maybe she will keep falling for him. They were imperfect, but when they are together they felt just perfect. And that's what mattered to them.

✿  T H E   E N D  ✿

•••

Huff! This chapter was really hard to write because I was clueless how to end this story. But I did it!

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