Luv (Un)Arranged (Luv Shuv #3)

Chapter 23

23

Song: Genda Phool

- Rekha Bharadwaj, Shraddha Pandit, Sujata Majumdar

Aakar

O n the first morning back from our honeymoon, I woke up to a cold, empty bed. I hated it. I’d gotten used to feeling the warmth and softness of Kriti in my arms, her scent that I wanted to rub my nose into, and hearing her husky good morning as she woke up.

I’d missed all of that today.

Yawning, I looked at the clock and flew out of my bed— our bed.

It was nine in the morning already.

I quickly freshened up and practically ran to the dining room.

Everyone was already seated at the table, so I dropped to my usual seat beside Abhi. I had a free chair right beside me for Kriti. Before I could question where she was, everyone at the table had turned to look at me with varying smiles.

Abhi waggled his eyebrows.

Dad and my uncles just gave me the usual grunt, their heads halfway stuck inside the newspaper. Dad glanced up from the paper, his attention still stuck on whatever he was reading. “You coming to the office today?”

“Yes. Maybe a little late, but I’ll be there.”

He grunted and went back to his newspaper.

Abhi nudged me with his elbow, his eyes glinting with his usual mirth. “How was Bora Bora?”

I nudged him back harder. “Shut up. It was great.”

Before I could ask him if he’d seen Kriti, she walked out of the kitchen. She was all dressed up, wearing a beautiful red salwar kameez and looking as fresh as a daisy.

Maa was right behind her. “Oh good, you’re up, beta. I was just telling Kriti to go wake you up.”

My ears burned at Maa’s comment. It felt like I was still her little kid. Or maybe Kriti looked so put together while I’d just rolled out of bed. I looked at Kriti when I answered, “Uh, I usually don’t wake up so late.”

She smiled. “It’s okay. We came in late last night.”

Approaching, she placed a cup of chai in front of me. “I’ll get you breakfast.”

She turned and was about to leave me when I clutched her hand. “Uh, where’s your chai? And breakfast?”

It was Maa who answered, “We already ate, beta.”

She had this smile that said, What kind of a stupid question is that? You know we’ve always finished our breakfast way before you.

Kriti was barely hanging on with a polite smile on her face. I knew she hated serving food like this.

I glanced at the chai in front of me and didn’t feel like I could get it down.

I looked at Kriti, who stood by the empty chair beside me, and my stomach tied in knots. “Sit with me while I drink chai?”

Her eyes widened, and her cheeks turned pink. She looked around at the shocked faces staring at us. “Umm. Let me get you breakfast.”

Her eyes were practically screaming at me.

I nodded. “And then you guys can sit with us while we eat.”

I kicked Abhi’s foot under the table.

He instantly parroted my thoughts. “Yes, bhabhi . And Mummy , sit with us. Aakar Bhai wants to tell us all about his trip.”

I absolutely did not want to talk about how I railed my wife for a week straight.

Kriti’s face had entirely turned red.

“Sure, Bora Bora was great,” I began, and Kriti flew out of there.

I barely managed not to laugh at her.

Once we were all settled around the table, Kriti right by my side, I told everyone about the beauty of Bora Bora, the water adventures we took, the hiking we did, and the food we ate—anything to keep Kriti by my side.

“Uh…Pappa, would you like more thepla?” Kriti asked from beside me. Thepla was a classic flatbread made of wheat flour, oil, and spices.

It was probably the first time she’d addressed my father as Pappa. He looked just as flustered as her but managed to give her a pleased smile. “One more should be good, beta,” he said, clearing his throat.

She quickly got up and ran to the kitchen, and I looked at the proud smile on everyone’s faces at the table. I didn't know whether it was for her addressing my dad as Pappa or being so active in serving the family, but I sincerely hoped it was the former.

Maa smiled at me. “It isn’t easy, you know?”

“What?” I didn’t know what she was referring to.

“To address your mother-in-law and father-in-law as Mummy and Pappa.”

Daadi—meaning Grandma—scoffed from the other side of the table. “I remember your mother choking on Mummy for two months straight.”

“And this one”—Daadi pointed at my elder auntie Sunita—“She didn’t even try addressing me as Mummy for the first three weeks. She never choked, though.”

She turned to my younger aunt, Radhika. “And Radhika was the fastest at calling me Mummy.”

Maa laughed, her ears turning pink. She looked at Daadi. “And I remember you cooking me gaajar halwa the first time I didn’t choke on my words.” Gaajar halwa was a traditional Indian sweet made from carrots, ghee, and sugar. Maa’s and Abhi’s favorite.

Kriti had already arrived from the kitchen with Dad’s thepla when Daadi was regaling us with the stories. The entire time, she had a smile on her face, her eyes twinkling when Maa talked about Daadi preparing gaajar halwa for her. I hope she makes Kriti feel special like that.

Back in the bedroom, I paced across the room, waiting for Kriti to arrive. I was about to walk back to the kitchen to drag her back when the door to our bedroom pushed open, and she stepped in.

I instantly had her in my arms, clutching her in my arms, terrified she’d be mad at me. “I am so, so sorry. I know you hate serving people. And usually, everyone does have breakfast together, and either Raju Kaka serves us, or the food is laid out on the table, and we just make our own plate when we get there.”

Kriti chuckled, which had my heart calmed down a notch. “I do hate serving people like that and eating food separately. That doesn’t mean I haven’t served people before. We ladies were all up early today, and the breakfast was hot and fresh, so we just dug in. Everyone gathered around like an hour later. I might’ve hated waiting for everyone more than just eating when I was ready. And anyway, school starts tomorrow. So I’ll be out of the house way before breakfast.”

I caressed her back while she moved her hand across my T-shirt, feeling my chest. I flexed my muscles, and she chuckled. I leaned down and captured that beautiful sound with my lips.

Her hands moved around my neck, and she raised on her toes to kiss me the way she wanted—thoroughly and with so much passion. My legs moved, and I pushed us back on the bed.

“Whoa.” She jumped up. Well, she tried, but my arms were like steel bands around her waist.

“Where do you think you’re going, wife?” My voice was rough with arousal.

She whimpered. “Oh god, that’s so hot.”

I pulled her closer and kissed her neck. “You like it when I call you wife ?”

She turned her head, asking for more. “Yes, husband .”

A rough, animalistic sound escaped my throat as if pushed out from my chest that banged around like a drumbeat.

“Fuck, I need you.” I pushed my hands under her top and kissed the side of her neck, taking in her rose and vanilla scent.

“Whoa.” Before I could understand what was happening, Kriti was out of my arms and off the bed. My body was strung tight, ready to devour my wife, who now paced the room, fanning her face.

“What happened? Come back.” I started to move off the bed to drag her back in.

She took two steps back. “Oh my god, stop distracting me with…” She gestured her hand at my body. “I need to go downstairs and help prepare lunch. We can’t have sex in the middle of the day while everyone is up and awake downstairs.”

She was right. She was absolutely right. She just made me lose all sense of control. I groaned and dropped back onto the bed, dragging the blanket over me.

Before I could snuggle in and try to gather some sense of control, she pulled off my blanket. It was only because I was already clutching it so tight that I still had it in my hands. “Oh my god, Kriti. What are you doing? Let it go.”

She pulled at the blanket again. “Are you crazy? You can’t go back to sleep. You just had breakfast.”

I pulled it back harder, and she almost got dragged back onto the bed. “Let it go. I’ll just rest for five minutes.”

She pulled on it again. Harder. Digging her heels in and everything. “What? No. I’ve been up for the past three hours, hopefully impressing everyone. You don’t get to keep resting. Get. Up.” She pulled the blanket so hard at the last two words that I lost my grip on it, and she almost ran into the opposite wall.

Her hair was a mess. Her eyes were wide and crazy. Her lips were pulled into a tiny, cute frown, like a baby lion. Absolutely stunning. And fucking mine .

And she had the audacity to put her hand on her waist and stand there like the teacher that she is, firing up all my fantasies. “Are. You. Getting. Up?”

I leaned forward on the bed, and with barely restrained control, I said, “If you don’t get out of the room right now, wife , nothing is going to stop me from dragging you back to bed and showing you what you’re doing to me right now.”

Her feet stumbled, her cheeks turned pink, and before I could get up, she threw the blanket on me and ran out the door, muttering, “If you’re not downstairs in five minutes, I’m sending in Abhi.”

The rest of the day went by pretty fast. By the time I went downstairs to go to the gym, Abhi had left for college, and Ria was ready to leave for work. Kriti sat at the dining table while Ria packed her lunch, saying, “This new job that Aakar got me is crazy hectic.”

“Or you just got too relaxed and complacent in your last job,” I piped in, grabbing an apple from the fruit basket on the dining table.

I anticipated the kick coming from a mile away, so I quickly jumped out of reach from Ria. “Mind your business, Aakar. Your friend Zayan isn’t much help either. Why are you even friends with the guy?”

I bit into the apple. “ The guy helped you get the job.”

She glared at me and turned back to packing, muttering, “He’s making it very, very hard to remember that.”

Ria hated feeling obligated to someone, especially a guy. So I know she must hate just being in Zayan’s presence.

But that couldn’t be helped. Zayan helped her get her foot in the door of that office. And he was one of the most stand-up guys I knew. He wouldn’t harm my sister, so I wasn’t worried.

I quickly finished off my apple by the time Ria left.

It was just Kriti and me in the dining area. I could hear Maa and the aunties’ voices coming from the kitchen.

So I quickly dropped a kiss on her head. “I’m going to the gym.”

She tried to hide how much she liked the kiss, but I saw the way she blushed.

Time flew after that. I returned, got ready, then had lunch with Maa, the aunties, Kriti, and my grandparents.

After lunch, I went to the office and spent the rest of the day catching up with everyone and everything. It was pretty clear that the office hadn’t handled the past few weeks without me all that well.

Dinner was ready when I returned home with Dad and my uncles. We all sat together to eat, Kriti right by my side. My brother joked around, Ria complained, and the elders gossiped about some relatives.

I spent the night buried balls deep in my wife, quietly making love to her while she muffled her moans in my shoulder, and all was right in the world.

Kriti

I was the first one up in the house today. Quietly, I made my way downstairs to the kitchen. Aakar’s house was so much larger than mine. I was used to being the first one up in my house, but today was the first time I was up this early. And with so many people living in the house, this sort of quiet in the house was spooky.

I put the pot on the stove and started preparing my chai. I made some extra in case someone woke up, and I’d need to offer it. School started today, and I had to go an hour early to get all the paperwork and introductions out of the way. Thank God Meera started working there a few months ago. In Laxminagar, I helped her get the job in our village school. And here, Meera helped me get the job as a science and English teacher for eighth and ninth graders.

I’d already started reading up and preparing notes a month ago. I knew I wouldn’t find time around the wedding and honeymoon, so I had to be done way before that. The syllabus didn’t concern me. But I was still a little terrified.

I sat at the dining table, reading my e-book and sipping my chai.

And just breathed.

It was the first moment I had on my own, for myself. No Aakar. None of his— mine now — family members. Just me, my book, my chai, my thoughts.

Just peace.

I vowed to wake up half an hour earlier now. If every day could start like this, I just might tolerate and make it through a busy school life and my abundant new family members.

I cleaned up the kitchen once I was finished with the chai and went upstairs to get ready for school. I entered our bedroom and found a sprawling Aakar, his one arm flung over his head and another very close to his hips. I so badly wanted to get under that blanket and repeat what we did last night. My cheeks heated just at the thought of what we did. How he’d moved so slow inside me, how he had to put his hand over my mouth to keep me from moaning, the way his hips had felt as they moved and flexed so deep inside me. Who knew we had it in us?

Before I jumped my husband, I quickly opened my half-arranged closet.

I used to wear a proper conservative salwar kameez at my school back home. Meera told me some teachers here wore pants and suits, some dresses, some sarees, and some salwar kameez. So, I guessed everyone was on their own.

I picked my slightly modern but simpler salwar kameez and went to shower.

My mind kept spinning over how dramatically my life had changed. Maybe the new beginning looming over my head once again caused me to just ponder. But life was certainly different back home.

And for the life of me, I was still not used to referring to my new home as home . Why was it still just Aakar’s home for me?

My new family was pretty decent. I didn’t expect a modern and nonconservative family. I knew what I was marrying into. So, I was getting the hang of their day-to-day life. Aakar’s family was certainly not as modern as he thought they were.

But who was I to judge too soon? I was just happy they were okay with me working.

I quickly wore my kameez top and went out to the bedroom to wear my salwar. I didn’t know how my maa and other ladies managed to wear the tight salwar without getting it wet, but that wasn’t one of my skill sets.

So I took a seat on my side of the bed and started to roll them up my legs.

And I almost shrieked the room down when a warm breath touched the back of my neck.

“Good morning, baby.” Aakar’s raspy voice made me shiver.

“You scared me.”

He ran his nose along my neck, and I stopped whatever I was doing. I turned my neck to give him more space to explore. And he placed an open-mouthed kiss right where my neck met my shoulder. “You didn’t wake me up.”

My heart picked up speed as he kept placing kisses along my neck. “Was I supposed to?”

His large hand moved between the slits of my salwar, under my top, and up my bare stomach. “You didn’t think I would want to drop you off at school?”

Oh. School.

I quickly pushed him away with a nudge of my elbow and started wearing the tight salwar. “No time for romance right now. I need to get ready.”

I must have looked something ridiculous while pulling up my salwar because Aakar wouldn’t look away from me and kept smiling like an idiot.

“What?” I asked.

He shook his head, laughing. “Nothing. You look cute.”

Butterflies swarmed my stomach, but I didn’t let it show. I just shook my head at him and pointed at the bathroom. “If you’re going to drop me off, I need you ready in fifteen minutes. I cannot be late today.”

“Yes, teacher,” he said, running to the bathroom, but not before stealing a kiss.

By the time I went downstairs after getting ready, I found Maa, kaki, and Daadi sipping chai at the dining table. I touched their feet for blessings.

Daadi smiled at me while Maa quickly got up. “Wait here, beta.”

Kaki turned to me and asked, “All ready, beta?”

“Yes, kaki. Just a little nervous.”

She waved her hand. “I’m sure you’ve dealt with worse. First days are always the easiest. Don’t worry at all. I’m sure you’ll be just fine.”

Well, that gave me a little boost of confidence.

Right then, Maa came out of the kitchen with a small bowl. “Here, Kriti Beta, some yogurt with sugar. For good luck.”

My nose instantly tingled with tears. I tried to blink my eyes to keep them at bay. And Maa’s laugh helped me gain some control. “Now, don’t go crying on me, beta. I know it’s a little tough, but you’re not alone. You’ll do good today.”

And here came the waterworks.

Right then, Abhi walked into the dining area, his hair rumpled like he just got out of bed. “Oh god, Maa. You’re making your daughter-in-law cry already?”

“Did you even wash your face, Abhi?” Maa asked.

Loud approaching footsteps had us all turning to see Aakar walking into the dining area, his head in his phone, as he ran his fingers through his hair.

“Bhai, Maa made bhabhi cry,” Abhi blurted.

Aakar’s head instantly whipped toward his brother, then to me, and then to Maa.

His frown deepened as he looked at my tearstained face.

He quickly walked closer to me, but before he could say anything, Maa threw a spoon across the dining table straight toward Abhi’s head. This must be a regular occurrence because he ducked at the perfect time.

“I just got emotional when Maa fed me the yogurt, that’s all,” I said to Aakar as Maa scolded Abhi.

Abhi must’ve predicted Aakar’s actions too because before Aakar could throw the spoon that he now held in his hand, Abhi had Maa in front of him like a shield.

He still managed to give me a wink.

And I burst out laughing. Abhi reminded me so much of my own brother.

Aakar turned to me and shook his head, giving up on Abhi. He quickly brushed the stray tear off my cheek. “C’mon. We don’t want to be late now, do we?”

“Wait. Wait.” Maa quickly went to the kitchen and came out with a lunch box. “Here, I packed you some snacks. We’ll ask Raju Kaka to keep a better, heavier breakfast packed for you from tomorrow.”

Before I could start crying again, Aakar snatched the box from Maa’s hand and dragged me to his car.