CHAPTER 21 Kavita
Kavita
There are only a few families staying at the resort tonight, and dinner is a lively affair with Arjun cracking wedding jokes.
“The most effective way to remember your wedding anniversary is to forget it once. You’ll never hear the end of it, and you’ll never forget it again!” he says.
“Like he does,” Kiara teases.
“Do you know the secret to a happy honeymoon?” he asks Dilip.
“No, bro.”
“It’s room service and remembering which remote control turns off the TV and which one turns off the lights.”
His jokes get laughs around the table. Neel and I are seated next to each other. He’s having soup. He gets up to get more food and returns with another bowl of soup.
“You like it that much?” I ask him.
“You should try it.” He nudges his bowl toward me. “Go on.”
I’m sharing his soup? I catch Kiara’s raised eyebrows across the table and smile.
“Neel, can I try some soup too, please?” Elena says from across the table, obviously teasing him.
“Get your own, Elena!” Neel responds.
“Okay, I guess your soup is only meant for the special company tonight.”
I blush, and Neel chuckles. “I agree.”
He’s not even denying it.
“Kavita, you’ve transformed my brother,” Elena teases. “He was always so grumpy at the dinner table.”
“Must be the company,” he laughs.
She scrunches up a tissue and throws it at him.
We’re having fun at the table, but it’s almost time for the movie.
Outside, it’s dark. The resort has set up a moonlit outdoor movie screening with blankets spread on the floor and soft yellow lighting.
Earlier, I checked out the collection and picked my favorite—the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
I’ve seen it many times, but on a lovely night like this, I can’t resist watching it again.
After dinner, we’re all ready for it. The weather is cool, just perfect, but I decide to grab a shawl from my room in case it gets chilly later.
When I return, I see Elena and Dilip cuddling in a corner.
Kiara and Arjun are nowhere to be seen—maybe they’re having a private moment in their room.
I plop down next to the lone man sitting in the dark, assuming it’s Neel.
“Hey, you! Hope I didn’t miss much,” I say.
The man turns around, and he’s not Neel. A wave of confusion hits me as a woman approaches. “Excuse me, that’s my seat,” she says.
“Oh, sorry!” I scramble up, hearing Neel’s laughter behind me. He’s right there, watching the scene unfold.
“Why didn’t you warn me?” I ask, pretending to be angry.
“I didn’t think you’d cozy up to a stranger so quickly,” Neel teases.
“I didn’t cozy up—” I swat at Neel’s shoulder, realizing he’s joking. He chuckles heartily. I can’t help but smile, even though I’m supposed to be mad at him.
He pats the blanket next to him. “I saved this spot for you.”
“Oh, did you now?” I settle down beside him.
The movie started while I was searching for my shawl, which I couldn’t find. I ended up grabbing a shrug instead. We’re at the ball scene where Bingley is urging Darcy to dance with Elizabeth.
I squeeze Neel’s hand as Darcy says, “She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me.”
Neel shifts, letting our shoulders touch.
“He’s so cute when he’s grumpy, isn’t he?” I whisper close to Neel’s ear.
He turns to me, smiling. “Am I cute when I’m grumpy too?”
“You used to be, but now you’re just cute.” I’m surprised by my own boldness.
“Am I?” Neel chuckles, placing his hand on the grass near my hip.
Just as Elizabeth is about to put Darcy in his place, I hear smooching sounds from the front.
The couple I accidentally sat next to is clearly making out. When I shoot a questioning look at Neel, he pulls out his cell phone, smiling, and starts typing.
My phone buzzes, and I check it.
Neel: Can’t blame them for making the most of this intimate setting.
Kavita: He seems a little uncomfortable to me.
Neel checks out the couple, and I follow his gaze.
The guy is sitting in an awkward position, looking uncomfortable as the woman grabs his neck and presses her lips to his.
Neel stifles a laugh but fails to hide it.
He looks back at his phone as he lets out a hilarious snort, but not before the woman in front turns around.
She’s not looking at him, though; she’s looking at me like we’re the losers.
My eyes widen. Does she think we’re wasting this opportunity if we’re not making out, too?
My phone buzzes again.
Neel: She’s probably afraid you’ll tempt her guy and lure him away. You better not look that way anymore.
Kavita: Tempt him?
Neel: Yeah, with that look, you could tempt anyone. Try it if you don’t believe me.
I type on, encouraged by Neel’s flirting. He hasn’t flirted before. Today does feel different. Maybe Pride and Prejudice has that effect on everyone.
I’m suddenly in the mood to flirt back. It doesn’t help that he looks amazing tonight and smells really good, too. I feel like resisting would be a waste of a night like this.
Kavita: My look could tempt anyone? Even you?
Neel looks up from the phone and gives me a smoldering look. If looks could kill!
Neel: Oh, I can’t imagine a situation where you wouldn’t tempt me.
I smile, recognizing the reference. He’s paraphrasing Darcy from the movie but with a flirtatious twist.
I don’t look up from the phone for a long moment, smiling at his text. And thinking of all the times in the past when I dreamed of kissing him. So, is he saying I’ve seduced him? Is he saying he wants me to? Tingles shoot up my body at the very thought.
A server walks by with a tray of something, and Neel leans forward, slipping his phone into his pocket, and asks him something. I lean back and try to think of something else, anything besides kissing Neel right now.
Neel picks up a plate and turns back to me. “Would you like some mangoes?”
“Huh?” I’m too hot and bothered to hear what he just said. The couple kissing in front of me, the smoldering look of Darcy on the screen, and the heightened awareness of Neel beside me are like a deadly combo.
“Mango?”
A juicy fruit to bite into sounds like something too hot to handle at the moment, but I nod. Even before I take the slice from his hand, he brings it to my lips, making me open my mouth.
He’s feeding me?
He watches as I bite into the juicy flesh.
The flavor explodes on my tongue, and I chew, savoring the taste while noticing his lips lift into a smile.
I focus on chewing and swallowing the mango rather than on how close Neel is sitting.
The way the tiny hairs on his hand are brushing against my arm as he comes closer and smiles, the corners of his eyes crinkling. “Like it?”
I’m still not used to the million-watt power of his smile. I swallow, taking a moment to answer. There are all sorts of things going on inside me, and my senses are overloaded. Neel’s touch. The closeness of his body. The heat of his gaze. I swallow again as Neel waits for me to answer.
“It’s sweet…and juicy.”
On the screen, Elizabeth is talking to her sister about meeting Darcy at the ball, as Neel lifts another slice to my lips. I take a smaller bite, my lips brushing against his thumb, and savor it slowly. “It tastes like honey,” I groan, enjoying it even more.
“I’m going to try it too.” He pops the remaining part of the slice in his mouth, acting like it’s no big deal that we’re sharing a slice of mango. Like it’s no big deal that he’s feeding me. Like it’s no big deal how much he’s affecting me.
He looks at me oddly when we finish eating after he’s fed me a few more slices, and I’m too full to eat anymore.
“What?”
“I like you,” he says.
“I thought you were never going to say it,” I tease, my voice low and playful.
His thumb traces my jaw. “You’ve got a little…” He points to somewhere above my chin.
“Where?”
“Would you like me to kiss it away, Miss Kavita?”
He leans forward, and our noses are inches apart. We’re breathing the same air, but I can hardly breathe. He smiles, and I can’t take it anymore.
“Can you—”
He doesn’t wait for me to finish as he closes the distance between us, and his lips land on mine.
He pulls me closer until I’m pressed against him.
I slide my hands to his chest, feeling his heartbeat quicken beneath my palm, and a soft moan escapes my lips as he deepens the kiss.
He smells of mangoes and mint, filling my brain with all kinds of thoughts, like what it would be like if we weren’t here watching a movie.
“Get a room,” someone says in the dark. I don’t know if it’s meant for the couple in front of us or for us. I giggle, unable to contain the naughty feeling of kissing Neel in an open courtyard.
“Let’s get out of here,” Neel says, breathing into my mouth, smiling as he squeezes my hips.
“Wait.” I let my lips linger on his for a moment longer, savoring this unexpected surge of feelings within me. It feels like I want this kiss to go on forever. But Neel is right. We’d better get out of here.
As I hear him groan, the sound reverberating within my chest while I suck on his lips again, determined to take in every last bit of the delightful sensations that have lit up my very soul, it’s the final push I need to fall for Neel.
We don’t even stay for the end of the movie, but I find myself echoing Darcy’s words, and they feel exactly like my own in this moment: I have fallen for Neel, and he has bewitched me body and soul.
I love him and never wish to be parted from him from this day on.