“It's raining!” Anika sat up shocked as she heard and watched the heavy drops falling on the windowpanes.

“I know,” he said, pulling her back to bed to lie next to him.

“But how can it rain? There is supposed to be a draught for the past thirty years.”

He smiled. “Yes, but sometimes there are these small showers once in a while. Not a whole lot to help with the crops or fill up the water table with drinking water, though.”

She frowned slightly. “I see.”

They held each other as they watched the rain.

“Tell me about your family,” he asked, moving his fingers lazily on her back, drawing patterns.

She couldn't control the automatic stiffening of her body, and his fingers stopped caressing.

“What's wrong?” he asked.

Anika didn't know what to tell him. On the one hand, she was tempted to tell him everything about how she was brought to India under false pretenses and then blackmailed into marrying him. But knowing her aunt, she didn't want her aunt to find out and fly into a rage and order the killing of all her family members.

She decided to tell him the truth when she got her parents and Myra to safety. In the meantime, she tried to get her body to relax and enjoy the moment with him.

“Nothing. I was just missing my parents and sister.”

His fingers resumed their caressing. “I told you that you can invite them over anytime.”

She sighed. “I know. I spoke to them. They said they’d visit soon.”

“Good. Now tell me about your family,” he asked again.

“I have a mom, stepdad, and a half sister named, Myra.”

“I already know, Anika. I want to know more…”

“Wait. You know about them?” she asked, her heart thudding.

“About them, yes. Before I married you, Dev had a file prepared with yours and your family's information in it.”

“I know,” she said.

“You know?”

“Yes. I overheard you and Dev talking on our wedding night. You were telling him that if I didn't listen to your orders, you'd arrange an accident and marry a Senani next.”

There was a rumble underneath her ear as Abhay's chest shook with silent laughter.

“What is so funny?” she demanded.

He shook her head. “Apparently not the joke I was making at that time.”

“A joke?”

“Yes, a joke. I can joke, too, Anika,” he said drily.

She shook her head chuckling with self-depreciation. “I can't believe that it was a joke I heard. I was terrified of you that night and the nights that followed, worried you would kill me for real if I didn't listen and follow your each and every order.”

“And I was just disgusted with the whole situation. You kept shaking like a leaf each time I was around,” he said. He tugged her hair back until she met his dark intense eyes. “Whenever I saw you, I was torn between wanting to truly behave like a savage animal you thought I was because then I would have an excuse to possess you the way I wanted to. You were so beautiful that each and every night when you slept next to me, it was torture.”

“And now?” she whispered.

“And now… I'm addicted. I'm so addicted to you I don't think I can be without having your taste on my tongue or your sexy smell part of my every breath.”

Anika's eyes widened as she heard the almost poetic way Abhay had expressed about how he felt about her.

“I'm addicted to you, too,” she confessed. And then, slowly she moved on top of him. “Maybe we should both cure our addictions together,” she said as she slowly kissed his chest and then moved down his body.

He groaned and held her hair as she pulled him into her mouth. She pleasured him the way he had taught her over the last few weeks.

“I want you in me again,” she told him huskily.

“You'll be sore. I might hurt you.”

She had a determined look. “I don't care. Just take me,” she ordered.

With a growl, he flipped her on her back, and then he slowly returned the favor. His mouth met her intimate folds, until she was dripping wet again and thrashed about restlessly. Only then did he slide back into her.

It burned, but she welcomed it. She felt each and every inch of him inside her, filling her again and again, joining them together. She never wanted it to end.

He bent his head down to pull her nipple into his mouth. He sucked the tight bud, until she screamed.

He moved to the other bud and repeated, and this time she was begging him to take her hard. And so he did. He thrust hard—hard enough to shake their antique headboard and repeatedly bang it against the wall.

She screamed his name, and pulled him closer, shouting for him to make her his completely.

And so, he did. When he came, he shouted, “You are mine!”

 

*****

 

They fed each other lunch, during which she told him about her parents and Myra.

“My mother married my stepdad when I was seven, almost a year after I thought I lost my dad in an accident in India.”

“I see.”

“No, it’s not like how it sounds. She wasn’t actually looking to marry someone. It just happened, I guess. My stepdad was a colleague who worked at the same hospital as her. He told me he had fallen in love with her the moment he met her, but my mother married my father who swept her off her feet. When my father died, and she went into pieces, my stepdad helped us mourn and move forward.”

"You are close to them," he said. He stated that rather than asked.

"Yes. Very close. Even though we sometimes got on each other's nerves, not a day went without speaking to one another."

He frowned. "Have you spoken to them after coming here?"

She only hesitated for a couple of seconds. "Yes, a couple of times," she lied. "I told them about the invite and they are excited to visit us."

He was quiet.

"My parents are on a cruise until the next month, and Myra… she'll have a college break in a month too. Maybe they can visit us then."

His face relaxed.

They got up from the table and went back to the bedroom. He sat with his back against the headboard and pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her waist, until she leaned back against him. They could see the lake from the bedroom window.

She asked him about how it felt growing up away from his grandmother who was one of the only surviving blood-relative.

"It was hard," he confessed. "Each time I came home for the holidays, I saw how my grandmother had to deal with so many things by herself. The feud had become even worse. Not only did my grandmother have to try and maintain peace, but she also had to ensure the people in the province had a good source of livelihood."

Anika's awe with Devasena grew even more. "She must have had an iron will."

"Yes, she did. Not once, even when I was old enough to help, did she ask me to do so. She told me to finish my studies and even wait until Dev finished his before we returned."

"Was it hard?" she asked softly. "When you returned under different circumstances?"

He was quiet.

"Yes," he replied, after a while. "My grandmother had known for a while that she was dying. But she kept it from us until the last moment. I was quite angry, confused and worried at that time."

Anika gently squeezed his hands around her waist in reassurance.

"My grandmother passed away three months after we had returned for good. She had told me several times that she had a lot of confidence in me about being able to run the Singham Estate and to take care of the people within. But I wasn't quite sure."

Anika's heart went out to him as she thought about how he must have been grieving, but at the same time he had to deal with such huge responsibility.

"How did people react to you taking over?" she asked.

"Not good," he replied with a self-depreciating laugh. "I increased the profits of the manufacturing units, planted drought resistant crops, and did everything I could to keep the people from starving. But it took me close to two years to prove that I was capable of leading them effectively. And that was only after I shot down a group of violent Prajapatis who had attacked us."

She listened as he told her how he had wanted to avoid violence at first, but then when the Prajapatis were repeatedly taking advantage of the fact, he had to ultimately resort to violence.

"What about Dev? How did he handle the transition and the violence?"

He scoffed. "Like a duck to the water. He hated the Prajapatis intensely and wanted to wipe them away from the face of the earth. Most of my time went in trying to keep him out of trouble."

Anika frowned. "But he is friendly towards me."

"I know. I was surprised too."

Abhay told her about the construction of new units within the province that would keep Dev busy along with most of the Singham and Prajapati people.

It began to get dark outside.

"Do we have to leave?" she asked softly.

"Yes," he said with regret on his face. "It's not safe here for long. But I promise, we can come back here anytime you want to."

She smiled. "I'll be taking you up on that offer soon," she said.

Packing up everything, they headed home.