Then:
Siddarth walked around the corridors. He didn't know which room his sister was. His palms were sweaty, his heart hammered but he kept a stoic expression on his face. He had come back to Mumbai only because Priya was getting engaged.
He had asked on of the guests and they had said that fourth room from the front was hers. But the house was a massive maize. He had counted four rooms down. He knocked on the door and moments later the door opened.
"Who are you?" She asked.
Siddharth was aware that Priya's match was fixed with the Rane's. He was also aware that he would have to face Sakshi Rane, but he hadn't expected to face her this soon.
"What do you want, stranger?" She snapped her fingers in front of her face.
Siddharth felt like cotton was stuffed in his mouth. It always happened to him when he faced unexpected situations.
"Priya" He forced himself to say it out loud.
"Oh. That door." She pointed to the door behind him.
He turned away from her. He couldn't take it anymore. He had wondered about how she was doing all these years. He was worried too but he could see that she was well.
"You're welcome, I guess."
He knocked the other door and Priya opened the door. "Bhai! I can't belive you came!" Priya pulled into a hug. He hugged her back until she withdrew.
"Oh god! Are you wearing that?!" They both turned to Sakshi. Siddarth frowned and looked at his sister. What was wrong with what she was wearing? She wore a cream colored legendary and it looked good.
"Priya! You are not wearing that color. Change." She bit in the meanest tone possible and slammed the door close.
A rush of anger passed through him as he looked at Priya's face. Her face had fallen and she looked like she was about to cry. He decided that he wouldn't let his sister marry into the family with that brat.
He remembered her arrogant accusations. She still was the mean girl. How he despised her. And he felt all the guilt melting away. Why was it this family of all the families?
***
Sakshi woke up and stetched extending her hand. Her back cracked in a satisfying crunch and she sighed. She got up from the bed, she noticed he wasn't there. She drank a glass of water and sighed. She needed to execute the next step of her plan, she needed to make her husband her ally. She was going to use one of Sanjay Sandhini's own blade to deliver a fatal blow.
She got up and paced around the room, sighing. She wondered how she could get him Siddarth on her side. He was the most vital key to her plan to bring down Sanjay Sandhini. She pushed back the plan to the back of her mind. She needed to go to the kitchen to play the perfect daughter-in-law again.
She bathed and dressed in a kurta and jeans. She rushed to the kitchens expecting him to be there. Disappointed washed over her. It wasn't him but Priya.
"Good morning babhi!"
"Good morning, Priya. Have you seen Siddharth?"
"Oh bhai told me he had an early morning meeting so I took over for breakfast! He might be in his study."
Sakshi frowned. She wondered why didn't tell her. She helped Priya pour the tea into cups. "There are only 4 cups here. Let me pour one more for Siddarth."
"I am so glad you changed your decision babhi. It is obvious you both care for each other."
Sakshi laughed because she didn't know how to answer that. Siddharth cared for her? Not a chance. Pigs would fly sooner than that. And her mind piqued, what about her? Did she care for him? Absolutely not. She thought. She was just acting. She was just using him to buy time so that she could clear his mess. She nodded firmly and grabbed two cups on a tray and walked up the stairs.
Before she entered his office, Sakshi took a deep breath and plastered a smile on her face. She knocked on the door and entered the room.
His study was a nice place. The room had a big wide window and she saw her husband with his back to her and facing the window. He was wearing a suit and he turned to look at her. He put a finger up as he was speaking on the phone.
Sakshi set the tray on the teapoy and sat on the couch. She settled on the couch and croased her legs and took one cup for herself and started sipping.
"No. We are not doing that. I'll talk to you later." He shut off his phone and walked towards the couch.
Sakshi peered at him from under her eyelashes. He was a fine specimens of a man, she would admit that. She almost forgot how good he actually looked in his tailored suits. But he was here now and it made her stomach flutter.
"How surprising you're in a suit today?" She said setting her cup down.
"I had a zoom meeting." He said settling on the couch in front of her. "What's surprising is you here. You need anything?"
He picked up his cup and hesitated before sipping it.
"Don't worry, Priya prepared it. Not me." She chuckled. He smiled too and took a sip, "I can see."
"I don't need anything. I just wanted to spend time with you." She lied through her teeth. She needed him to take down her uncle. That's all she needed from. Inwardly, she knew that was a lie too. She remembered her imagination last night. She wanted him to call her darling again. She always felt a rush of pleasure when he called her that and many such things.
Her apple watch beeped and it was a reminder she had set. It was time for her therapy session with Dhruv. "I have to go. I have an appointment. I'll see you later."
He stood up with her. "Definitely."
***
"Bye. Have a nice day." She said.
Siddarth watched her give him a million dollar smile. He could feel his heart race under his suit. He felt all the tiredness of last night seep out. When she walked in with that smile, he couldn't understand a word his secretary was saying.
She was fresh and glowing. He had woken up early and he was in a bad mood because of the lack of sleep last night. But it had all vanished, when Sakshi walked into the room smelling like roses.
His body tensed as he remembered her soft moans last night and shook his head. No. No. No. He was not going to dwell in that again. He said.
But he was forced to eat his words when he walked to the master bedroom. His zoom meetings were over and he wished to change into something more comfortable. He opened the door when he heard her voice.
"So, how was it?" A male voice asked from her desktop. She was engrossed in whoever that was because she hadn't even noticed him walk in the room.
"It was amazing." Her cheeks were red. "At first, it was difficult but then it happened. I get it now."
His gaze darkened at her flushed cheeks and her bright smile. Was she talking about last night? Something so private that she was scared of him - her husband discovering but talked so freely with some other man. She was so engrossed with that man that she hadn't noticed him still.
"What was different? You told me you were experiencing trouble initially?" The guy asked.
Siddharth's hands curled into fists as he controlled his irritation. "I think I found the anchor you suggested me to. It really helped."
"I'm happy, you are making progress but take it slow."
She went scarlet at his statement. The guy was right, indeed she was glowing. He felt a bad feeling bubble in his stomach. He shut the door loudly.
Her eyes snapped to him and her whole face changed as she paled.
"Who are you talking to?" He couldn't handle the curiousity anymore. It was the same guy who was telling her to divorce him. He recognized the voice.
***
***
Sakshi frowned. First of all, her husband was here. And he looked tense. His jaw was set and his shoulders were bunched.
He walked over to where she sat and looked at the screen. Dhruv was waiting patiently. As he saw Siddharth, he waved. "Hello! Who is that?"
She chuckled at that. "This is my..." She hesitated. First of all, he wasn't hers. Secondly, he was her husband in name only. And thirdly she was just using him.
"I'm her husband." Siddharth leaned down. His cheek brushed against her neck and she felt tremors go down to her toes. Sakshi's nostrils filled with his aftershave and it made her toes curl. He smelled divine.
"Who are you?" Siddharth asked.
Sakshi panicked as her eyes widened. "I'm Dhruv. I'm Sakshi's friend. Nice to meet you."
Sakshi relaxed and her cheek brushed against his jaw. She drew away from him. His cologne was already making her giddy.
"Dhruv, I'll talk to you later. Bye." She said quickly before Dhruv could tell Siddharth that she was taking therapy. Cutting the zoom call, she stood from her chair and moved away from him.
His eyes stalked her as if a tiger stalking a doe. She frowned, why was he acting so strange all of a sudden? And moreover, she was the one who should be mad.
"Don't do that again. I mean it. You're not allowed to invade my privacy." She snapped.
His jaw set and then he took a deep breath. "Fair enough. Who was he?"
She scoffed. Where did this sudden interest come from? "He's my friend like he told you."
"Wasn't it the same guy who came onto you at the party?"
Sakshi rolled her eyes. "No. Actually I came onto him. He was just sobering me up."
She folded her arms around her chest. She had said that to take a rise out of him. What she had felt for Dhruv was a tiny crush arising due to his friendly personality. She had confessed it to him in a session with much shame and embarrassment. He had told her that he was honored and he suspected that she only had a crush on him because maybe she felt safer around him and that he listened to her. And many-a-times clients did confuse all these feelings with love and that she wasn't the only one to develop such feelings for their therapist and that she shouldn't be ashamed of that. And most of all he told her, he was happily married.
Sakshi did a lot of introspecting after that. It was true that she did like Dhruv based on the safe space they had created. They had fortunately moved past it. And all of this was a while ago.
But she didn't know why her husband was acting the way he is right now. She looked at him and his eyes were darker.
Her stomach fell as she realised he was suspecting her. She felt anger rise in her.
Sakshi held her tongue and took in deep breaths. She wanted to lash put at him. Therapy had helped her in controlling her anger. He was accusing her of infidelity. Him. He was the one who slept around with mistresses and he was the one who neglected and isolated her. She tried to search of a way to land a heavy blow on him.
"He's married." She snapped.
"So are you." He dealt another blow.
What the fuck was happening? Why were they fighting? She wanted things to go back to normal, like it was this morning.
"Well, he's happily married." She retorted back.
He looked at her abashed. But she was not finished. "And besides, me having a lover should not matter to you."
***
Siddharth snapped his jaw shut and walked closer to her. "Why is that so, my wife?
He watched her scoff and look away, he didn't know why he was still talking to her. It shouldn't affect him if she had a lover. But it did. He felt like a possessive brute. It shouldn't matter if he chose that guy over him. It shouldn't but it did.
"Because I don't interfere in your personal life. I don't bother you about your mistresses. I never have."
"Why haven't you?" He was curious about that. Why she had never thrown a tantrum? Why she always was silent?
She looked at him with so much fire that he was surprised that she hadn't punched him. He deserved it as He was behaving like an asshole
"Okay." She sighed and relaxed her shoulders. "We do not have a typical marriage. I have given your privacy and you have given mine until today. I do not care if you keep mistresses. So don't care if I do."
"Why do you need a lover?" His eyes burned in a cool dark fire. He stalked towards her. She was on the edge of exploding. The twisted thought tingled his spine.
"I don't know. Maybe, because you haven't touched me in five years!"
There it was. His spoiled brat. With so much fire in her that burned through her eyes. He wanted to burn in her flames.
"Understandable. Do you want to change that?" He asked.
***
Sakshi felt hot all over. "Wh-What?" She asked.
"You heard me."
Her eyes were wide as saucers as he removed his coat and his cuff buttons. He slowly walked towards her as he undid his shirt buttons one by one. Her eyes followed his exposed skin hungrily. It made shivers rush all over her.
He pulled out his arms and tossed it aside as he walked closer towards her. She walked back until her back hit the wardrobe door. He was very close to her now. Her chest rose and fell with the deep breaths she took.
His breaths were brushing her hair. She looked down at his smooth skin, his chest and his flat abdomen. She couldn't look lower so she closed her eyes shut. She knew his arms had trapped her. She felt his scorching presence.
"You are a hypocrite, you know?" His lips brushed her ears and she almost crumpled to the floor. Her hands were flat on the surface of the cupboard.
Sakshi frowned and snapped her eyes open. She raised her chin to look at him. How was she a hypocrite? She wanted to ask him but all her thoughts jumbled as she felt him shift closer to her, his hair brushed her neck. She bit her lip so she didn't moan.
"You haven't touched me in all these years too, Sakshi. Except for that night in the study. Did you forget?" He asked her huskily.
Sakshi felt her throat clog and she pressed her lips into a thin line because she was damned sure, if she opened her mouth, no words would slip out but a moan would.
She looked away from him panting for breaths. He lowered his head and his lips brushed against her ear again, "So by my calculations, it has been only about a couple days since we touched each other."
His rough cheek dragged across her cheek and he pressed his lips on the corner of her lips. That was enough to make her gasp. "There, make it zero."
She felt her whole body tremble with need. Her breaths were hot and harsh. She saw him pull away and she looked at him. He still had one of his arm on the side of her and looked at her with hooded eyes and a lazy grin stretched his lips.
"Now what about me, darling? Won't you return the favour?"
Sakshi opened her mouth and closed it again. No words came out of her throat. His chest rumbled and his shoulders shook with laughter.
"I want you to know, that I loved your initiative that day. I'd like you to do that again. But, sober. I want you to take me, Sakshi. Will you my darling?"
He asked and then he chuckled and opened the door of the wardrobe. He took out a t-shirt and shrugged it on. He then winked at her and walked out of the room.
Sakshi had taken a whole of five minutes before she moved.
***
A/N: Please vote and comment. I changed the story rating to mature because I can't handle with the way people are treating Sakshi and her sexual desires.