Chapter 53
*****
Isha watched Ashok dock the small boat to the small deck. It was a beautiful evening on the small island where they would be spending some time away from the twins. More like the kids getting used to being with the family.
Just as planned.
There was excitement about their plan coming to fruition but something pulled at her. She took in a deep breath pushing away that feeling, reminding herself it was the best thing for the kids. She would still visit them and they could go to San Francisco when they were old enough.
“You okay?” Ashok’s voice interrupted her thoughts and she looked away when she realized she had been staring blankly in his direction.
She pushed away the unsettling feeling. He didn’t press further and she was glad. He walked past her with their overnight bag and she followed him up the beach. “The cabin is not too far from here.”
“Okay,” her voice was barely a whisper.
A few minutes into the hike, the landscape changed into thick shrubbery and they started to gain an elevation. She remained silent as she followed the overgrown path. It was indeed secluded and it made her wonder who else lived on the island.
“Who else lives on the island?”
“No one. It’s mine.” He didn’t stop walking or stop to look at her.
But she stopped. “What? What do you mean by yours?”
He turned to look at her, an amused smile on his face as he looked at her. “I wasn’t kidding. It’s mine.”
She scrunched her nose. “No one gets to be here?”
“Just my wife and children.”
His words made her feel a tug at her stomach. Just the thought of him being with another woman made her stomach queasy. All the more reason to not divorce him until the kids were older.
Was that the only reason?
Just as she was going to answer him with a follow up question, she heard some noise in the shrubbery. “Did you hear that?”
“What?” He looked around. “There is no one here. It is against the law for anyone but you and I to be here now. Only the staff comes in regularly when I’m not here to maintain the cabin and stock up on some food.
Isha’s heart was racing, her hackles up and a bad feeling ran up her spine. “We should call for help.”
“Isha, let’s go. There is no one here.”
“Ashok, you don’t understand.” Her breath was coming fast.
His expression shifted as he walked back toward her. “What is it?”
She shook her head stepping in closer like she didn’t want anyone to hear. “I filed a case against Paramesh Saini. That man will do anything to not have any legal proceedings.” She leaned even closer. “I hired a private investigator and–”
Her voice was lost in a blood-curdling shriek that tore through the evening air when all of a sudden, half a dozen shadowy figures burst through the dense undergrowth like predators emerging from their lair.
The attackers were dressed in camouflage uniforms, their faces obscured by tactical masks, and Ashok immediately threw himself in front of her as they closed in with deadly intensity.
The attackers descended upon Ashok like a pack of wolves while two of them seized Isha’s arms with an iron grip.
“Let me go!” she screamed, her voice raw with terror and anger.
Panic clawed at her throat as her screams for help echoed through the wilderness, but the sound seemed to dissolve into the oppressive greenery around them.
She watched in stunned awe as Ashok became a force of nature, his towering frame moving with lethal grace as he systematically dismantled his assailants.
His fists connected with bone-crushing impacts, sending bodies crashing to the ground and sprawling across the forest floor, groaning in pain.
But even as he dominated the fight, she could see the exhaustion beginning to weigh on him. One of her captors abandoned his post to join the desperate assault on Ashok, leaving only one guard whose grip had loosened with the uncertainty.
This was her moment.
With lightning-quick thinking, she spotted a thick branch at her feet.
With her captor in her peripheral view, in one fluid motion, she stomped down hard on their instep, causing him to howl and release her.
She ran to quickly snatch up the branch and swung it with all her strength at the back of the nearest attacker who was restricting Ashok’s movement from behind.
The sudden impact sent the man stumbling forward, as Ashok drove a punch into the man’s chest. A few of the attackers lay on the ground, and she could not stand in the sidelines worried about the attackers possibly bringing more men for support.
“Isha, go!” Ashok shouted as he pushed one of the attackers toward a tree trunk. “Take the boat and get out of here.”
It should have been the natural thing to do. Self-preservation.
She scanned the ground frantically, and started to run down the path toward the boat. She knew she had to do what it took to be safe, for the kids’ sake. She didn’t need to go far. Just a few feet and she picked up two fistfuls of sand and hid her hands behind her.
She ran back to where Ashok was trying to free himself from the men. They had all managed to hold him against a tree.
“Let him go,” she shouted as she walked back toward him. “Paramesh Saini is a coward to keep doing this. It’s not him you want; it’s me. Come get me.”
She tightened her fists as three men moved toward her, their eyes on her as they moved toward her cautiously. The men didn’t seem to have any weapons on them as they probably did not expect anyone to fight back.
When they got closer, she looked at Ashok and nodded, hoping he would get a signal that she was going to do something. She saw the somewhat confused look on his face but she went with her plan. When the men got closer, she held her breath, pressed her lips together and closed her eyes.
She waved her partially opened fists letting out the sand to seep through it. The annoyed groans of the men confirmed she did her part and she took a couple of steps toward Ashok and opened her eyes.
She was about to call out to Ashok to duck or close his eyes when he said something in a commanding tone. One that made the men holding him freeze and step away like it was an order. She watched in shock as Ashok went to assist the three men who she had sprayed sand on.
“Ashok, what are you doing?” she was utterly confused.
He didn’t respond to her or look in her direction. He was speaking a different language with them and a few seconds later, the men disappeared just like they had shown up.
“Ashok?” She was livid.
He walked to where she stood, her fists still holding the sand. He slowly reached for her hands and made her loosen her hold making the sand flow to the ground. He slowly cupped her face with his hands and said, “I’m sorry.”
She pushed his hands away from her face. “What the fuck, Ashok?”
“It was a part of the post marriage rituals.”
“What?” She was so stunned, she didn’t know how to react.
His voice lowered further. “It is a requirement that my wife be put through the test and I–”
She pushed him away and started walking away, not bothering in which direction. “I don’t want to do anything with you.”
Instead of walking to the beach where she should be taking the boat and leaving the island, she realized she was walking deeper into the woods. She fought angry tears as he kept pleading with her to stop.
When she finally did, she turned to look at him. “I just can’t believe it. You didn’t think to tell me? Or did you think I wasn’t equipped to play along? Isn’t that what I’ve been doing all along?”
“Isha, I had to–” His voice was lost in the sound of her palm striking his cheek.
It was a moment of anger and frustration for her but the next moment, it was something else as Ashok’s lips descended on hers, hard and hungry. His fingers gripped her hair, angling her head to deepen the kiss and all thoughts left her mind.
She clung to him, kissing him back, raging mixed emotions fueling the moment. Every emotion had morphed into something else, something too dangerous but she wasn’t going to back down. She dug her nails into his flesh as he pushed her back against the big tree trunk.
She let out a gasp, when he let go of her mouth, gently biting down on her jawline before taking his mouth to her neck.
Her pulse beat hard and fast against his lips as he kissed her there.
She pulled on his hair not wanting his mouth to move too far away from hers but when she knew where he was headed, her core clenched in anticipation.
His hand cuddled the flesh on her chest before he went down on his knees in front of her. She had a knee length shirt dress on and with every button he opened, he planted a kiss on the exposed skin. She moaned, thrills erupting with every graze of his lips over her heated skin.
“Ashok,” she hissed like she could not contain herself anymore. Where did all the anger go?
When he finally pulled her undergarment down and took a long whiff of her throbbing core, like she was a delicate flower, she thought she would collapse to the ground. She hugged his head closer to her, his mouth closing in on the peak at the apex of her thighs.
She let out a cry of pleasure when he gently bit down on her nib, setting her being ablaze. His tongue took in every nook and cranny of her folds and he devoured her, like she was the sweetest thing.
The heat of the moment, the feel of his mouth over her folds and the roughness of the tree bark on her back, it was all she wanted.
Like that wasn’t enough a raging peak was starting to build and she clenched her core bracing for the outburst of sensations and when she came undone, she let out a cry of sheer pleasure, calling out his name.
She didn’t care where they were, it was just him she was aware of. His breathing was ragged just like hers as he came up to claim her mouth.
“So hot,” he mumbled against her lips as he drove his thick shaft into her.
She gasped into his mouth, unable to handle the threateningly strong peak that was building up. She was confused and existed at the same time. She had never had this feeling of an impending peak when she had just peaked from him tasting her.
Just when she thought she could not handle it anymore, she imploded, every nerve ending flaring within sensations.
She gasped against his lips, her breath coming fast as waves of overwhelming emotion crashed through her.
The intensity of the moment wasn’t just physical, it was everything she had been holding back, every wall she had built around her, came crumbling in his arms. She felt exposed, vulnerable in a way that terrified and excited her simultaneously.
“I never thought…” she whispered, still catching her breath.
His hands found her face, thumbs gently brushing over her heated cheeks as he looked into her eyes with an intensity that made her stomach clench.
“Beautiful,” he murmured, his own voice rough with emotion.
The moment stilled between them, fragile and electric. She could feel her heart racing not just from passion, but from the raw moment, where she felt like she had discovered a side of her that she didn’t know existed.
In that moment, she found herself surrendering not just to desire, but to something far more dangerous and deeper. The emotional release was more overwhelming than anything physical could ever be, leaving her breathless and transformed in his embrace.