Nandini's pov

Marriage had never seemed such a beautiful idea. It is now that i m living it, i feel every girl should go through this phase...but of course , only if you get a husband like my husband, Manik. And as if he heard me taking his name in my heart, he looks towards me from a distance as he is talking to some investors and clients with papa. And what I am doing ? well I am entertaining the female counterparts of those investors with maa. I smile back assuringly. I hate parties, but alas i have to be a party animal now, side effects of being a Malhotra. My phone beeped. And who else, its a text from my dear husband, he notices everything, eagle eyes.

Manik: not enjoying the party , wifey??
I look in his direction. To my amazement he seems to be engrossed in the conversation going on among the men.

I text back " no , its nothing like that" . i lied because I don't want to distress him.

*beep*

Again a message from him. How is he managing to chat amidst the conversation? This boy, he is something , i must say.
"don't lie, i can read your face"

I text back "you didn't tell me , you are a face reader too..:-D"

This time i looked in his direction to see how is he texting me?

I saw him looking down on his lap for just a few seconds.

*beep*

Wow he types fast!!

"that's the advantage of arranged marriage, you will slowly get to know more about me..:-)"

*beep*

"i have many qualities, would you like to see one of them TONIGHT?..:-)"

This boy, he has highlighted tonight' deliberately. Aiyappa!! What to reply now??

*beep*

"I love it when you blush and I am the reason..:*"

He is not allowing me to reply.

Typing...

*beep*

God again!! Let me type atleast !! (she is talking to her herself)

Manik's text read " you look cute when you are complaining...to your aiyappa , right?"

I looked in his direction, to know how he is getting so much time to text.
I should have known the answer , he is standing with his friends now.

Just then mukti appeared behind me with aliya.

Mukti: mom, can i take nandini with me?

Neyo: yeah sure beta...

I looked at my mother-in-law for her final approval, she smiled, that means a go-ahead and i smiled gratefully at mukti and aliya.

Mukti: so wanna thank me for saving from the torcher?

Nan: yeah i guess so..thank you!! (i said cheerfully)

We reached , where manik and others were standing. Manik came forward and took my hand and made me stand beside him. We were talking and enjoying , when a man in his late 50's approached us. Fab 5 greeted him, while me and navya stood clueless.

Manik did the honours of introducing me.

Manik: Mr. Khurana, meet my beautiful wife Nandini.( manik turned to me) and nandini , he is mr khurana, the producer of our next album.

I shook hands with him, but what he said next, just changed the environment.

Mr. Khurana: so nandini , how does it feel to be the wife of the most eligible bachelor , the heir of the richest man of asia and the 7th richest of world?
Although he tried it to be offensive, it somehow amused me, like he is not talking of a human being but a bank. I thought it was funny but the people around me had grim expressions and i could feel manik's body tensed up against me to react. But before he could speak, i spoke to let manik know that i can speak for myself. I am not weak and emotional. Cabir held manik's shoulder while I started speaking in a sarcastic tone,

Nan: well, thank you for the stats mr. Khurana, i must say that was some information for me, because when i decided to marry him, i thought of him as a human being and not a money bank.

Everyone in the group except khurana, gave me an incredulous expression , inspite of that manik was still angry and he was glaring khurana, khurana took it as a cue and left from there excusing himself!

Manik: cabir!! (manik spoke through clenched jaw) why did you stop me!! I should have just shown him his place for speaking like that to nandini!!.

For the first time , i had seen him getting angry like that. Wow he looks hot when he is angry.

Cabir: manik, don't forget its a party and not your office, we will deal with him later. Control yourself, anything you say or do here, will spread out like fire outside. Everyone is just waiting for some masala news..you want that?? Think rationally..

As the words of cabir sinked into him, he visibly cooled down and looked at me. I smiled my best smile to assure him that the incident had not effected me in any way. I am way stronger than that. He returned his best smile to me too but i can see something going on at the back of his mind.

Mukti: par nandini i must say.. kya jawab diya tumne...main toh fan ho gyi tumhri..
Mukti bowed down dramatically and i hit her shoulders playfully clearly embarrassed at her gesture. We all laughed.

Manik interrupted our moment.

Manik: come nandini, lets show people present here that I have not done charity by marrying you.

Before i could open my mouth , cabir spoke, clearly sensing some interesting idea in manik's head.

Cabir: whats the plan manik?

Manik: nothing much, i will just show them that nandini is different, special(he spoke looking at me) at first i had thought that it would seem as show off, but now it seems the necessity of the hour.

They discussed the plan, no reward to guess what it was, of course he wanted to show my classical singing talent to the guests. I refused, it seemed unnecessary, but manik is manik, he does, what he decides, by hook or by crook. He went even to the level of cajoling me like a 2 year old, using words like babu and shona, that too in front of his friends. But none of them noticed, as they were focussed on making me say yes. I said yes...but of course with a condition, i won't go solo, manik will sing with me. He agreed immediately, why not!! After all Music and singing is his passion, but not mine.

Cabir announced as we took our places on the stage.

Cabir: ok, attention ladies and gentlemen, we have a surprise for u, kindly take your seats.

Everyone obeyed and settled down.

Manik chose a song which was highly classical in female voice. Before going on the stage , I and manik had taken the blessings of amms.

Dhruv began on the flute. Manik followed on his guitar and started singing. Cabir took to tabla this time, as the song was classical and it didn't require drums. Mukti and alia synchronised with ghunghroos.

MANIK:
Tere bin, tere bin
Tere bin, tere bin
Tera bina marna nahi
Jeena nahi tere bin (x2)
I STARTED AFTER HIM, REPEATING THE SAME LINES.

MANIK:
Tere bin, tere bin..

I SANG THE ALAP.

pa pa pa...

MANIK:
Bawre piya laage na jiya
Dekho mera mann jalta diya

I FOLLOWED HIM
Jalta diya bujhe na piya
Bujhe na piya jalta diya

MANIK HUMMED
Hmm mm..

Tera bina marna nahi
Jeena nahi tere bin
Tere bin, tere bin

AGAIN I SANG THE ALAAP AND THE LINES THAT FOLLOW
pa pa pa..

Bawre piya laage na jiya
Dekho mera mann jalta diya

MANIK:
Jalta diya bujhe na piya
Bujhe na piya jalta diya

THIS TIME , I HUMMED

Hmm mm..

Tera bina marna nahi
Jeena nahi tere bin

MANIK:

Tere bin, tere bin
Tere bin, tere bin..

I AND MANIK SANG TOGETTHER

Tera bina marna nahi
Jeena nahi tere bin
Tere bin, tere bin..
I SANG THE LAST PART SOLO.
pa pa pa..
...
As we finished, the hall sounded with thunderous claps and everyone had got up from their seats. I saw Mr. Khurana leaving the hall. I couldn't see his expressions due to the crowd. But in a way i was pleased and felt strangely relaxed, i guess its the soothing effect of classical music over my senses. Manik seemed to be elated and happy more than i had expected him to be . people praised me as we got down the stage. I thanked them all and made my way to a corner away from this chaos. Of course , manik followed me and so did the piercing gazes of some of the girls, as the jealousy factor overtook them.
...
I was sipping the juice that manik ordered for me and manik was happily playing with my fingers. He held my palm and brought it closer to his lips, i thought he is going to kiss my knuckles, but he inhaled deeply taking in the smell of henna (mehendi) and smiled as if intoxicated and said looking at me " i just love this smell, and your hand, it looks so beautiful" and finally he placed an open mouth kiss on my palm. A shot of current ran through me, it always does whenever he does any romantic gesture accompanied by the heat that colours my cheek red and yeah also the butterflies that start dancing. I just can't describe the feelings in words.

All this while we were in an eyelock, which was broken by the announcement of cabir.

I said to manik "i think cabir should try in movies, he speaks very well" manik chuckled " you should suggest him yourself"

Cabir: beautiful ladies and handsome young men, apart from having cute eyelocks with your partner, you can eat, drink and of course dance...i m getting angry glares from somewhere in the hall to shut my mouth up, so on a serious note, people the dance floor is all set, DJ is waiting for you people to hit the dance floor, so that he can play some good numbers. Of course the first dance of the event will be graced by the couple in question tonight, mr manik malhotra and his beautiful, gorgeous wife mrs. Nandini manik malhotra. Welcome them with a huge round of applause.

We were already approaching the end of the party and i was in no mood to dance. I told him "manik just once dance " he chuckled "ok baby just one" . and we went on the floor.

An English number started playing. I instructed manik to do a little bit of salsa and a little of free style dance and that he will take the lead and i will follow him. that's how chemistry works, isn't it?. He nodded like an obedient child which brought a smile on my face.
We danced on the full song. It was an English number , of course, because we had foreign guests as well. By the claps and smiles, that we got, i think we danced pretty well. Now my mood had changed , i wanted to dance more as while dancing , we got a little chance to do romance . manik made full use of the opportunity, deliberately pulling me with extra force so that i crash into his chest, his fingers lingering for a little more than usual time on my bare back, his breath fanning , at times my face, at times my shoulder, his face digging into my hair. Wow ..i m loving it all. I looked at the people around, to see if they felt our romance to be obscene, but i found them enjoying, it means manik did it carefully.

I wanted all of this more , so i asked him for one more dance as other couples too joined us on the floor. He gave me an amused look.

Manik: i thought you wanted just one dance.

I replied sarcastically "i didn't know dancing can have more to it"

Now a bollywood number was playing.

"ishq wala love"

We were dancing cosily as the number was slow. I looked around to see other couples. Aliya and Dhruv were dancing very sophisticatedly . manik had told me that Dhruv is a professional dancer. They made a cute couple.

Manik held my chin to look at him. He can't bear that my attention was not on him. I smiled and placed my face on his chest, swaying slowly as the song came to an end. He kissed my hair. I felt content. I had everything now.

I pulled back to look at manik after a few seconds and i informed him "manik , i need refreshments, lets go" he took me by my hand and we made our way to a table and manik ordered refreshments. Suddenly i caught sight of mukti and bhai. They were dancing together. It was fine with me, but then i noticed the shyness and the blush of mukti, while my brother, he looked mesmerised by her. This is a revelation for me. What is going on bhai?? I need to talk to him. I don't know their relationship status and also what my husband and in-laws will think of this. I need to talk to bhai before i share this with anyone.

Manik clicked his fingers in front of my eyes to break my reverie "nandini, where are you lost, take this" he forwarded the juice. I smiled and took it from him.
...

It is nearly 2 in the morning' you can say , we reached manilla! maa, papa went to their floor, mukti accompanied them, even though i asked her to sleep upstairs in her room on manik's floor but she refused giving us mischievous smiles, gawd! She really thinks that we gonna do it tonight?? Manik hit her head playfully. Finally me and manik had to leave alone for our house.

After entering the house , manik locked it and then we made our way to his room, i would be entering in his room for the first time and this realisation made my heart thump at double the speed.

He opened the room door and signalled me to go in first. I took a step forward, the room was dimly lit by the candles in each and every corner of the room. I was surprised , so looked at manik, and to my next surprise, he looked equally surprised. He switched on the lights and i gasped for two reasons. First the room was huge, when i say huge, i mean extremely large in size. Second it was beautifully decorated with flowers and candles. The king sized bed had white cover with a beautiful red heart made out of red roses on it. Floating candles were also placed on the tables. The large glass walls cum french door giving the view of the city below, had blinds to cover them when privacy needed. Overall it was beautiful and exotic. I had yet to see the rest of the house.

I was lost in admiring the room until manik back hugged me asking "did you like the interiors? I know due to the glass walls, its too open but i like the view that it gives, besides you can put down the blinds whenever you like..i hope you like it" his voice was unsure. I turned to face him and put my arms around his neck " manik, i loved it. Its very beautiful. If you are with me , the place doesn't matter." I saw a beautiful smile building up on his face, so i thought to tease him "but..yeah ..the interior is a little masculine, feminine touch is needed" he was jubilant now "of course wifey, you can add your taste to it, i would love it!!" he was happy that i was making efforts to make place in his life , his house.

The proximity was already building up unknown emotions inside me. We looked into each other's eyes trying to fathom the depth of emotions. Manik's one hand rested on the sides of my waist while the other traced its way to my bare back , he pulled me a little that there was no space between us, our bodies rubbed against each other. I fisted his hair on the back and pulled him in for a deep kiss. Manik was expecting this , so it didn't take much time for him to react. The kiss began by sucking each other's lips and it deepened as he nibbled my lower lip biting them with his teeth, i gasped and taking the opportunity he immediately pushed his tongue inside my mouth. I thought of taking revenge, and saw that we were near his bed, so i pushed him not allowing to deepen the kiss. He fell back on the bed and i sat on him straddling him by my legs on either sides of him. He tried to get up but i pushed him back again and bent down to kiss him hard again. I took full revenge this time by biting, nibbling his soft thin lips. He saw that i was not allowing to deepen the kiss , so he conveniently switched our positions and came on top of me. We kissed and kissed like there's no tomorrow. After our marathon kissing session, we pulled apart panting heavily.
I realised i was still in the same party gown, even I had not taken off my stilettos and manik well he was clad in more clothes than me, his shoes still on. He again came on top of me for another kiss but i placed a finger on his lips, he frowned making a cute face. I pecked my finger which was on his lips and smiled my best smile "we need to change hubby" he realised i was right so he lied down back on the bed resting for a moment.

"manik where should i look for my clothes?" i asked sitting up and taking off my stilettos . manik sat up too beside me. The heart design on the bed with red roses was rumpled now. Manik took me to the walk in closet

it was as big as the bed room itself, in fact bigger than that. He showed me the contours were my clothes were neatly piled up or hanged. I took my changes and manik his . while i decided to change in washroom , he started unbuttoning in the closet room itself teasing me.

I quickly walked out to the dresser and took off all my accessories, clips, watch leaving the churas' of my wrist and went in the washroom before manik came out of the closet room.
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Credits to the writer- Manini Mehra