Page 57 of That Same Old Love

“Better eat well and power up. I have plans for later that require alotof stamina,” he told her with an elaborate leer.

She laughed at his playfulness. “Why do I feel we are not talking about hiking?”

Frowning in disgust at the thought of making his tea using the tea bags, hot water and cream, when he was actually craving a strong chai, he absently asked her, “Did you want to go hiking today?”

She was amused when he grimaced at the first sip of his watery tea. “No. I don’t want to hike. It’s afternoon now. Why don’t we spend some time just exploring downtown? We can just walk around, and maybe have our lunch slash dinner at a local restaurant, and then return to our vacation house in a few hours.”

Samrat wanted to just stay in their vacation house, and hold her naked under him in between bouts of sex, but he didn’t think she would go with his suggestion, and he did promise her some recovery time.

“Okay. Go get ready then. We will leave in fifteen minutes,” he said and finished the rest of her breakfast.

He hated wasting any food.

CHAPTER 17

Samrat was surprisingly having a great time outside the bed. Mahi got the commentary about the various city sights going, and he didn’t want to stop her. He had been to San Francisco at least twice a year from the past ten years, and had also visited the downtown a few times as well.

The best thing about exploring the city was the fact that he could hold Mahi close and whisper some things into her ear in the public. No one really cared about public display of affection and even Mahi was game as well.

Even she couldn’t keep her hands off him. When he whispered things about what he would do to her that night, she took it up as a challenge and whispered back equally raunchy things that she would do to him in return.

Samrat groaned and hugged her close to hide his body’s reaction. “It’s not fair. I would look like a pervert walking around in public with an obvious arousal while you can hide yours since you are a woman,” he complained.

Mahi grinned. “Well, you started it. I was talking about some harmless history behind the cable car system, when you began talking about doing it in… doggy style and some other styles,” she said smirking at him.

He laughed. “Let’s go find a place to eat our early dinner before we head back.”

They found a restaurant on the pier that overlooked the ocean and the golden gate bridge. When they sat down, Samrat watched Mahi as she began to place their food order. When she asked him for his preference, he asked her to pick something for him.

When the waiter left, Mahi was quiet and seemed to be contemplating something while look out at the view.

“One of the rare days when the bridge is actually visible,” she remarked after a while.

“Do you miss living here?” he asked her softly.

“What? No. Not really. I loved the bustle of the city, especially because I worked in a company here for nearly eight years. But outside work, I hated my life here. I think I enjoy living in India better, even if it’s only been a few months.”

Samrat wanted to know more, but he didn’t want to push her. He knew that her marriage hadn’t been a happy one. And then there was also the fact that she had an affair while she was still technically married.

A few months ago, he would have been disgusted associating himself with someone who had an extramarital affair. But after observing her for nearly five months, he knew there must have been more to it. And he was right. She had been separated from her husband when she was with another man, and he didn’t consider that as cheating.

Then there was also the fact that she had a son who died when he was four years old. For a mother, that loss would have been two fold. He had loved his daughter deeply and she had loved him back.

And even though he barely spent any quality time with his daughter, she was always happy to see him, and came running to him, to hug him, and then covered his face with her kisses. One of the things he felt guilty and broken over, was that he had been so busy building and then running his company that he barely had enough time to spend with his daughter.

When Sana died in the accident along with Nandini, he had gone into an inconsolable grief for a very long time. He refused to talk to anyone about her, not even to his mother or his sister, who were grieving along with him.

And later when he went back to work, he had announced that he would be quitting as the CEO, and would be only involved in mandatory management of his company, and that he would dedicate his time with something he liked to do.

Samrat’s thoughts were interrupted when their food arrived. He dug into the spicy dish with rice, vegetables and lots of seafood.

“Not bad,” he commented.

“Oh please. It’s okay to say that something is good or mind blowing. Stop with your ‘not bad’ comments,” she told him with a slight eye roll.

He smiled. “I’ll leave those superlatives to rate your performance tonight,” he replied suggestively.

“Hah! Obviously I’ll earn them and I promise you that you’ll be screaming out more superlatives in the next three weeks. I know I’m the best at what I do. I work veryhardand verylongto be the best,” she told him coyly.

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