Chapter 48 #2
Amaal dropped Iram back home and into Atharva’s hands, then took off for Kathua that evening to host a delegation of international journalists who had come to the state to write about ‘J&K’s railway marvel.
’ It was a series Amaal had been championing, and had gotten the push from the Home Ministry and Railway Ministry — an unprecedented collaboration between the state and the centre to expand the rail network in Kashmir under Atharva.
Janta Party and KDP were running like a well-oiled machine, and the progress was unstoppable, despite the last month of disturbance.
The only drawback was, that she had to host the journalists in Jammu instead of Kashmir now.
That had kept her away from home, and Samar, for a long three days.
Amaal twisted the key soundlessly in the lock and opened the door of the flat.
It was not late but she knew that if she wasn’t around, Samar slept early.
He was on painkillers and sleeping pills, trying to sleep as much as possible in a day to speed up his recovery as well as silence the noise in his head.
It didn’t always work that well, she knew.
She had often heard him milling around in the middle of the night, but never got up to disturb him.
The light from the crack cued her that he was awake.
And then she saw what she shouldn’t have seen.
Samar’s naked back. The music was playing on loud as he stretched in the hall, one arm touching the toe of his other leg, the other arm up in the air in a triangle.
Amaal stared at his back, though. It was like she was staring at skin that had been melted in a cauldron. White, red rivulets.
She immediately made a rattling sound of the keys and he straightened.
“Hey,” she entered the flat and turned her back on him to pull out the key, giving him the privacy he would naturally need. When she turned around, his T-shirt was back on and he was striding towards her, sweaty.
“You are early.” He came and stood in front of her, looking at her face.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because I haven’t seen you for three days and you look tired.”
“Both of those things are exclusive and don’t make sense together…” She deposited her key in the bowl she had set at the entrance.
He held her wrist. “Can you come here for a second?”
Amaal swallowed, but left herself loose in his hand as he pulled her into his chest. He gripped her wrist and pushed her arm up and around his neck, where the sliver of skin was still smooth, leading up into his hairline.
She dug her fingers into his hair, letting him lead her other hand there too as her face pressed into his chest.
“You are sweaty.” She complained, but did not press away.
“I was exercising.” He wound his arms around her waist, pushing his mouth into her hair. “You smell of lilies even after three days of running around.”
Amaal chuckled. “I am so tired.”
“Dinner?”
“I ate.”
“What do you want to do?”
“Sleep.”
He trailed his hand up to the back of her head and stroked her hair. “Is everything ok?”
“Hmm.” She nuzzled into his T-shirt. “As ok as it can be. Iram is home, there is tension between them, Atharva refuses to see what the attack on him can spell out but at least he has everything he needs in his home now so life at work will become easier. The event at Kathua was good but everybody was more interested in getting deets about what’s happening in Kashmir and stone pelting’s hourly rate.
Nobody was interested in the railway lines we’ve laid out… ” she huffed. “What did I sign up for?”
Samar’s mouth pressed into her hair. “You are cursed with everybody who tests you, starting with me.”
She broke into a proper laugh, shaking her nose from side to side on his chest.
“What?” He pulled her back.
“If I say you are right, will you get offended?”
“I said it myself, right?”
She nodded. And saw his face soften into one of those rare expressions, the one that used to be his SOP back when they had started dating. Amaal leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed his rough cheek. His brows shot up.
“What was that for?”
“For not testing me this week.”
He grabbed the base of her chin and tipped her face up again to kiss her mouth.
She moaned, getting his tongue tangling with hers after weeks, maybe months, maybe years.
Amaal felt her head tip backwards as he banded his arms around her waist and licked her so well, that her stomach began to clench.
“Ohhh no.” She pushed back. “Don’t start something right now…”
“Why?”
“It’s been so long and… I don’t have the energy.”
“I pumped up enough for the two of us.” He pulled her into the hall and into his arms again, stepping back until he could tug the curtains on the windows with one shove.
“Samar!” She gasped.
“Quiet.” He kissed her, trailing his knuckles down her neck to her breast. “I haven’t been able to give you anything.
I have been taking and taking.” He kissed her throat.
“I want you to relax and let me do this. And then I want you to close your eyes and go to sleep.” He bit her chin. She gasped. “Hmm?”
She held her breath.
Samar’s head rose and he twisted his fingers in the back of her hair. “Hmm?”
“Hmm.” She felt all her resistance, all her protests, all her muscles give up. He lowered himself on the sofa and pulled her to his lap. She pushed back — “You are still weak…”
His fist wound her hair in a loop and he tugged her head back. Their eyes met.
“Did I ask you?”
She swallowed, seeing that intensity back in his eyes after ages. Feeling the helpless surrender and pleasure return to her own body after ages.
“Can I ask you for something?” She tried. “You can say no.”
“Ask.”
“Can you take your T-shirt off?”
He stared at her.
“You want to see it?”
She shook her head. “I want you to not care about it.”
He hesitated. She thought he would deny her and that would be the end of it.
He paused, but gratingly reached back and pulled his T-shirt off. The light wasn’t enough for her to see it all, but she saw enough of the melted skin on his chest and felt him stiffen. Amaal leaned down and kissed the skin over his heart. Her hands went to his pecs — one smooth, one leathery.
“Do it.” She said.
His fingers went back into her hair. “What did you just say to me?” He tugged.
“I said, do it.”
He smirked. Then left her hair and pushed her to thump back on the sofa’s armrest, holding the cradle of her thighs on his own. Her head fell free into thin air just as his palm landed on her core. She screamed. The best scream, like something released from inside her.
“Quiet.”
He tore the button and zipper of her trousers, shoved the two sides apart and ground his hand on her.
Amaal moaned, blinking at the world upside down and trying to fly off whatever plain she was lying on.
Another blow landed and she was back, on his lap, feeling his fingers at the very focus of her being.
“Deeper…” she cried.
He pulled out.
“No!” She pushed up and he shoved his fingers in deep, making her gasp out in pain. And indescribable pleasure. “Oh oh… Samar… it’s…”
“Grind up on me.” He pressed his palm down.
She tried. She really did. Couldn’t. All rhythms were off.
All her body wanted was to release and finish it off.
But he pulled his hand back. Suddenly her knees were folded up and pushed apart and he was over her, winding her hair in a fist and tugging her head up — “You do what I tell you to do. Understand?”
She stared — unblinking, needy, whimpering.
“Nod, I will forgive the words this time.”
She nodded.
He kissed her mouth, tenderly, licking her tongue with a smile that she felt on her own mouth. “Listen to me when I am right, Amaal. It will make life easier.”
She shoved at his chest, not caring about his burns anymore so that he would stop caring — “You are wrong most of the time.”
“Not this time.” He shoved his fingers back into her without preamble and she bucked back. He made her buck back more with his fist in her hair. “Ready?” He asked.
“Yes.”
“Words are always better.” He nipped at her cheek and let go of her hair, bracing himself with one hand beside her head.
And then his fingers thrust into her with a single-minded vengeance.
Like they had never before. Like they were driving to go through her.
Like they knew where pleasure ended and pain began and knew that they would tease that line without crossing it.
Amaal revelled in it all. All thoughts left her mind.
All the bad evaporated. Problems? What were they?
It was just Samar, his fingers, his breath, his mouth.
And then nothing, not even him, as stars aligned and burst into light.
It was like her entire body broke the spiral and coughed up months of pent-up stress.
And he was there, his mouth on her core, shoving all barriers down to push her back again.
She went again. And he kept pushing, kept working, kept using his tongue, his fingers, his entire face to drive her up the universe, screaming her soul out.
And then everything went blessedly quiet.
Only the sound of her panting breath.
She felt him peel her trousers off, then begin to open the buttons of her shirt.
“What are you doing…”
“Quiet.”
Amaal kept breathing with eyes closed, slow, enjoying the after effects coursing through her body.
Her pyjama bottoms were slipped on and she found her body hauled up to sitting. He took off her shirt and her sleeping T-shirt came over her neck. She chuckled, pushing her arms through — “I am not a child.”
A kiss stamped into her neck and then she was in his lap again. She collapsed on his chest, still catching her breath. Her free hand went to his belly button and trailed lower but he caught it.
“Mmm?” She protested, wiggling closer to his groin. But he caught her hips, keeping her away.
“Amaal.”