Page 58 of That Same Old Love

He laughed. “What are you eating?” he asked looking at the thick white soup in a bread bowl.

“Clam chowder. You can try it. It’s pretty good, if you can get over your spicy taste buds and ignore the smell.” She ate a spoonful and hummed her approval at the thick and creamy texture with chunks of seafood and vegetables.

He looked at her with an odd lost expression. “My daughter Sana used to do that,” he told her softly.

Mahi paused for a second and looked at him quietly.

He smiled. “She used to hum while eating. It used to drive my wife, Nandini crazy, but I used to find it funny and cute. It was the greatest sound in the world.”

Mahi smiled. “That is funny and cute.”

Samrat stared at his dish as though it held some answers and then looked up at her. “I feel guilty that I wasn’t a good enough father. I never spent a lot of time at home with Sana during herbrief three years of life. Compared to how Sidhu was with Srishti during that age, I wasn’t a good father.”

He didn’t know why he was speaking to Mahi about something he never told anyone, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself.

She held his hand. “Hey, don’t beat yourself over it. And at three years of age, I’m sure your daughter would have thought the world of you, whether or not you were present all the time. All toddlers love their parents unconditionally. I’m sure your little girl thought her daddy was the best among all the daddies in the world.”

He smiled. “I really hope so.”

Soon they talked about their work. Mahi was excitedly telling him about her upcoming training and Samrat told her about the technology conferences that he attended each year in San Francisco around mid-July.

After dinner, they hurried back to the vacation home where he dragged her to bed immediately. And after they were satisfied temporarily, he grilled her,

“So tell me all about these sexual fantasies and expectations you have. What drives them and what feeds them?” he demanded, watching her intently as though he would write a thesis paper about it soon.

Mahi found his nerdy analytical brain very sexy.

“My God, Samrat, you have such an organized and analytical brain. But you are right, we should both discuss our needs, just so we know where we stand,” she said with a saucy smile.

And they did discuss them in graphic detail. Soon the talk got them worked up and they demonstrated some of their fantasies.

CHAPTER 18

Samrat woke up and reached out a hand next to him on the bed, searching for Mahi. He slowly opened his eyes when he realized she wasn’t there. Staring at the pillow indentation left by Mahi’s head, he smiled contently, recalling the last ten days in San Francisco.

Almost all their days had a routine of sort, just the way he preferred. They woke up in the morning, and had a round of sex, and then set out to their office.

During their commute, Mahi offered to drive, saying that she had missed driving, and blasted some gibberish songs on the radio. On the way they picked up some Chai the way he preferred, and ate their breakfast in the car. Usually he hated eating anywhere except on a table meant for meals, but if it got him a bonus round of sex, he was more than willing to eat anywhere.

At work, he headed for his conferences while Mahi attended her training and worked with her Palo Alto team. Once he was done, he called her and asked her to meet him at the parking garage, but sometimes he had to drag her away from her work desk.

On their way back, they stopped to pick up food from someplace. But sometimes when they were in too much of a hurry to get into bed, they got food delivered to their vacation house later on. After sex, they had dinner and fell into an exhausted sleep.

Mahi woke up earlier than him due to jet lag, and was usually on calls with her India team from her bedroom. Although that room barely got used after the first night, she still kept herclothes and belongings there. Thank god for that, since it was a huge mess! She finished her calls and sometimes woke him in the best way a man can ever be woken up, or sometimes he was already awake and dragged her back to the bed. Once they were done, they fell back into another round of exhausted sleep before waking up later in the morning.

The only thing that concerned him was that he always had the strong need to touch her, to hold her close, and then know all her secrets. Sometimes, it came off as desperate from his end and maybe scared her a little. And there was also the fact that with her, he continued to spill his guts about everything. Things he hadn’t shared with his sister or mother. Maybe it was the intimacy they shared or the way she listened quietly without interrupting and then just hugged him close. He was beginning to like it. A lot. A lot more than it was advised for a temporary relationship.

Samrat sighed loudly, and threw away the bed sheets to get up and go to Mahi’s bedroom.

She was working and was on a phone call talking to her team. She looked at him briefly, but didn’t acknowledge him and continued talking on her phone, while typing something on her laptop.

He knew he should be leaving her alone until she finished her call. But he crawled into the bed to pull her robe open from the bottom.

She kicked her legs at him with a small warning frown. He ignored her frown and gestured with his hand for her to continue with the call. Slowly he began to kiss her feet and could hear her voice stumble slightly on the call. And when he started to move up further on her legs, her breathing hitched and she tried to shake him off her legs again. But he was insistent and soon zeroed onto his target.

Mahi hurriedly hung up the call, and clutched his hair hard with both her hands to pull his head closer. He pushed her laptop aside and crawled up further on the bed.

Over the next few minutes they had an immensely enjoyable noisy sex. Or so he thought. Because soon after, as soon as their breathing slowed down, Mahi erupted.

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