Page 39 of That Same Old Love

“Why won’t you call me Samrat?”

He had asked her several times before, but the use of his name seemed to be difficult for her. Nandini insisted on calling him formally like how the previous generation’s women addressed their husbands.

“Oh, I…I can’t. You are older than me and my husband. What will your parents and everyone think?” she said softly.

With great effort, he suppressed his rising impatience. “Try.”

“Samrat,” she murmured.

“Good,” he said and bent his head to kiss her softly.

Nandini didn’t move, and only stood passively, waiting for him to do what he wanted. After a while she finally brushed his shoulder with her hand.

He prolonged the kiss, increasing the pressure of his mouth. He wanted more than some quiet acceptance from her. But her lips remained stiff and still beneath his.

He knew that she considered it as part of her duty to sleep with him.

Lifting his head, he looked at her face. Nandini looked like a child who had just obediently gulped down a tonic she hated.

“Dammit, don’t just suffer me, want me and desire me,” he told her gruffly.

She stiffened in shock. “What?” she asked with widened eyes.

He knew he should treat her with tender respect, but his passionate nature demanded a response from her. “Kiss me back,” he commanded and crushed her against his body.

With a surprised squeak, she twisted away from him and looked hurt. Making him feel extremely guilty then.

Since then, he had slowly, but ultimately resigned himself to a life with no passion or the urgency or needs that he personally craved.

He had just made slow sweet love the way Nandini preferred. And over the months, he eventually showed her and taught her about female satisfaction. But even though he had reached his climax, it still left him unsatisfied, wanting more.

And within a year of their marriage, and due to Nandini’s insistence of starting a family right away, they had their baby girl, Sana.

As months and then years passed by, he realized that he wanted an equal partner with whom he could talk about his work, share his problems and be treated like a friend.

Nandini had been more like an old fashioned obedient wife who catered to him.

Any other man would have cherished a wife like Nandini, loved her and been ecstatically happy with her.

That guilt alone made him decide to never to marry again.

But whatever happened between Mahi and him did no way come close to wanting a long lasting relationship of any kind. Mahi had made it pretty clear that she wanted him physically and he already knew that he felt the same way.

He also now knew that he no longer held a grudge against her for the actions from years ago. In fact, he actually liked and also respected who she had become. But he needed to wait and figure out how he felt about her, and then decide what he really wanted from her.

CHAPTER 12

It was a Saturday morning and Mahi had nothing planned for the entire day. She had been so busy at work that she needed the time to simply relax and prepare for the upcoming grueling week and also for her three week work trip to San Francisco in mid-July.

Lately she was clocking in twelve hours at work every day to learn new technologies and also learn about management techniques. Her managers Mehul and Sanjay were kind enough to offer to mentor her and then send her to training courses in San Francisco while she performed her regular duties at work.

As she sat down with a bowl of fruit and toast for her breakfast, she had a huge craving for a cheese omelet. That reminded her of the cheesecake and then the last month’s events leading up to the episode she dubbed as‘Mahi attacks Samrat’. The few intense minutes with Samrat had been running in her head in Technicolor most of the nights, making her restless.

She tried blaming her pain medications for her behavior. But she knew that given another chance when she was well fed and not medicated, she would still jump over him. But the chance didn’t come. Samrat wasn’t home most of the time, and even if he was, he just ignored her existence. Or he gave her what she interpreted as ‘oh-god-she-wants-to-seduce-me’ looks.

Mahi sighed loudly, trying to distract herself. She recalled that In-Orbit mall carried a variety of specialty cheeses.

A quick shower and then hailing a taxi service she ended up in the mall. Soon, her cart was full of various cheeses and someother stuff that she definitely didn’t need. “Never shop for food when you are hungry,” she muttered softly while shaking her head.

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