Chapter 23
CHAPTER 23
RANVIJAY
I stared at the computer screen blankly. I should have been fine-tuning the NDA we had drafted for the staff of a luxury palace hotel that was hosting a high-profile Bollywood wedding. What with the wedding and working with the guys to stop the mafia menace, I had cut down on my work at the office, but it was time to pick up the slack now. My current task list was longer than my arm, and I was determined to get through all of it today.
If only I could focus on the words on my screen!
All I could think of was the way Shivina smelled and tasted and the pleasure of being buried inside her. The morning after we made love for the first time, I was eating breakfast in the courtyard with Ma while Shivina was still asleep. Out of nowhere, someone began singing a sweet Marwari song I’d never heard before, and I realised the sound was coming from Zarna’s room. It was Shivina, singing her sister awake.
That sound was now a regular part of our life, and we looked forward to hearing it. This morning, Shivina was humming as she made halwa-poori for breakfast, and her songs echoed through the house.
I looked at my mother and found her listening with a contented smile on her face, and I realised that life in our palace was just sweeter since Shivina and Zarna had moved in. Ma was happier; the staff was happier.
As for me, I found myself smiling at the oddest times as I thought about my wife, who was a bundle of contradictions. She was shy yet sassy. And she had a hidden obsession with weapons that bordered on the psychotic. The first time I took her out on the gun range, I had been worried she’d shoot herself in the foot, but she handled my weapons like she was born with a gun in her hand. Seeing her hitting every target with such ease tipped me over the edge, and I barely remembered locking the door to the armoury before I took her right there, standing up against the wall, surrounded by the smell of swords and gun oil.
The next night, she snuck me into the armoury after everyone was asleep and begged me to show her some sword skills. I had barely placed the sword back in the display case and locked it safely when Shivina dropped to her knees in front of me and reached out for my hard dick with a feral grin. Fuck me, but by a complete stroke of accident, I had gone and married a woman who was more warrior-like than anyone who was trained for it, and it only made me even more obsessed with her.
I groaned at the memory of her lush lips wrapped around my dick as she practically swallowed me whole. If I could, I’d cancel all my meetings right now and head home to spend the afternoon making love to my wife.
But I had to stay here in my office and do my job, and only pray that God rewarded me for my patience. A knock at my door brought me out of my reverie.
Veer rolled his eyes at me knowingly.
“Stop daydreaming about your wife, and come out for lunch.”
‘I thought you were working from home today.”
“Nah, man! Isha wants to spend some time with Diya and Shivina, so they are probably going out for lunch. And I don’t like to eat alone at home without my wife.”
Isha and Veer had moved into Gulab Mahal, the lovely little haveli she’d inherited from her uncle, which was ideally situated between Mirpur and Trikhera, which made meeting up with us very convenient for him.
My heart warmed at how the girls included Shivina in their group. And I was equally glad she had taken to them because my friends were very important to me. Devika had never liked them, which left me feeling isolated because she refused to spend any time with them while I had to spend a lot of time with her friends. It was an unequal relationship in every way.
Just then, Rajiv poked his head around the door.
“Your Highness, we’ve got a new date for the marriage registration.”
I thanked him and turned to Veer, who was staring at me quizzically.
“I had to file new papers for registering this wedding after the bride switch,” I explained.
I hesitated a little because I knew he was going to roast me for what I was about to say.
“Listen, Shivina and I didn’t have a proper wedding. I thought I was marrying Kavya. And I think, at some level, my wife still feels like a stand-in for Kavya.”
“Isn’t she?” asked Veer, and I almost lunged at him.
“Of course not! Shivina is not a stand-in for anyone,” I snarled.
“Just checking that you recognise that,” he replied dryly.
“Stop messing with my mind and help me out,” I snapped. “When we go to court next month to register the marriage, I want to make it more romantic.”
“Like a gesture?”
“Exactly! A big romantic gesture! How do I do that?”
“Ask the brain trust,” he suggested.
“Huh?”
“The girls. Ask the girls! Because my idea of romance is a moonlight drive-by shooting of a Goel cocaine lab. I know it’s weird, but Isha likes to take Basanti out for a spin sometimes. But I don’t think Shivina will like that.”
“Hmm, she might,” I said thoughtfully, remembering her love of weapons. “But I don’t want to involve her in that part of my life. It has nothing to do with her.”
Veer stared at me as if I was an idiot.
“Umm… she’s your wife. It has everything to do with her,” he stated.
“It’s not what you think,” I said wearily. “She’s had a hard life until now. I don’t want her to worry about things that are out of her control.”
He snorted in derision at my words.
“You don’t get to decide what she should worry about, RV. And let me tell you that if I tried to pull something like that with Isha, she’d murder me in my sleep.”
“We’re not like you guys. Or like Dheer and Diya. Our marriage is not like yours. We don’t plan to interfere in each other’s lives beyond a point,” I said irritably.
“Then you’re a bigger idiot than I thought. Shivina is the best thing that happened to you. You finally have someone to love.”
I made a barfing face.
“Ugh! You sound like my mother.”
“Your mother happens to be a very wise woman. Heed her words!”
“Eat your lunch and get out,” I snapped.
“I don’t see why you want to do something romantic if you don’t believe in love,” he complained.
“I might not believe in love, but I do want to make Shivina happy. She’s spent her whole life making others happy, and she deserves to know that she’s special and she matters.”
“But you’re sure you’re not falling in love with her?” he asked sceptically.
“Yes,” I thundered. “What does love have to do with any of it? I’m just being nice.”
“You don’t sound very sure,” teased Veer.
Just for that, I picked up the two dumplings on his plate and stuffed them in my mouth.
“Serves you right,” I said when he howled in anger. “You’re getting fat anyway.”
“Fuck you,” he replied, reaching for my plate, but I held it out of his reach and shovelled my own dumplings into my mouth quickly.
Luckily, Isha was more helpful than her useless husband and helped me arrange a magical second wedding for Shivina. We arranged for the registrar to visit us at home, and I married Shivina for the second time under the stars on the roof of my palace, with only my mother, Zarna, Sannata Mausi and my best friends in attendance.