The Holiday Affair: A Match Made In Hell Novel

by KASI, MV

  "Oh god, I am such a selfish snob," she whispered to herself.

  But maybe it was good for Rahul and her to have sweet memories of their short holiday affair, rather than turning bitter by slipping into an unsuitable long-term relationship.

  CHAPTER 19

  PRESENT

  Rana was watching Srishti while he waited for her to answer him.

  He had just told her that he wanted more of what they had during the weeklong holiday.

  "We've known each other for just a week, Rana. You don't know how I really am," she said.

  "Maybe. But I feel I've known you enough."

  "Really?" she asked. "What's my favorite color?"

  Shit.

  He watched her face as frustration tore through her.

  "It takes years to know someone, Rana," she said desperately.

  "I'm willing to spend those years, finding out more about you."

  She shook her head. "Why do you want to be with me?" she asked. "I know we enjoyed being together that week, but what's so special about me that you are demanding to be with me for even longer?"

  He gave her an earnest and intense look.

  "Do you believe in love at first sight?" he asked, and saw her freaking out.

  "Oh my god!" she shouted in panic, about to run away.

  He tugged her back with a deep chuckle. "Relax, Srishti. I'm not saying I'm in love with you."

  "Then what are you saying!" she asked in a high pitch.

  He pulled her towards a desk and pushed her into the chair. Then leaning against the desk, he looked at her keenly.

  "When we met, and you told me that we were only going to have a temporary affair, I agreed with you. I just wanted to get laid and you were readily available."

  "Thanks," she muttered drily.

  "Make up your mind, woman. Do you want me to be interested in you or simply treat you like a casual fling?"

  She bit her lip and kept quiet, probably wanting to listen to what more he wanted to say to her.

  "As I was saying, it started as an affair, but after I realized not only did I love being with you in bed, I actually enjoyed spending time with you outside it. Be it talking or playing games or simply exploring the outdoors."

  "It was just a chemical reaction of being with someone you were attracted to, Rana. Nothing more."

  "Yes, that was part of it. But there was more to it than that and you know it. You felt it during the last night together and when you were leaving. I think we should explore it. We'd be stupid not to explore it."

  She shook her head in denial. "I made it clear to you on that first night we spent together. We were meant to be together only for that week. I can't afford to—"

  She broke off and then taking a deep breath, she said, "I think we should just drop the conversation right here and leave," she said, swallowing hard.

  "Come on Srishti. You know based on what we know now, things have changed between us. We no longer have many social differences, if that was your worry—"

  "No, Rana. Nothing has changed. It was never because of the social differences...well, I agree part of it was. But it doesn't matter now."

  He could see the torn look on her face, even as she wrapped her arms tightly around her. But he didn't want to coerce her in any way. She had to admit it by herself.

  Unfortunately for him, she was willing to share her body and nothing else. Her shying away from any kind of possible relationship between them bothered him more than it should.

  "Rana, I'm still trying to adjust to the fact that I had an affair with a stranger during my holiday. And I even let myself feel—" She closed her eyes, not completing her sentence. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would turn out to be you."

  "Yeah, well. I'm quite shocked with the same fact too, Srishti. But I'm glad it happened that way."

  "But it has to stop, Rana. What we had was great. Don't try and turn it into something meaningful."

  He was silent as thoughts whirled through his mind.

  "Fine," he said quietly. "Let's not turn this into something meaningful, then. But how about continuing what we had during our week to a few more weeks?" he asked.

  "What?" she asked, looking at him as though he had lost his mind. "Are you saying you want to continue our holiday affair here? Right under our families' noses?"

  He shrugged. "Yes. Difference being, we'll just call it, getting to know each other before wanting to commit."

  Her huge eyes stared at him as she tried to read him. He was a good actor, and so he kept a deliberately casual expression on his face, even as he felt uncertain about his last minute plan to keep her close to him in any way possible.

  "What exactly would we be accomplishing with it?" she asked him reluctantly.

  His mind did a happy dance at her slight acquiescence.

  "A lot," he replied. "I uh have been threatened with bodily harm from an overzealous father of a woman who is bent upon making me her husband. That's one of the reasons I had agreed to come along to see you. To soothe my parents' fears who thought me settling down would discourage such women."

  "I don't understand. Who is this woman threatening you again?" she asked with a frown.

  "Not her. The father." He told her about Sweety Reddy, her false allegations, about her powerful father. He exaggerated the threat a little more, until there was a determined, hard look on Srishti's face.

  "I see. That woman is being quite troublesome to you, then?" she asked.

  "Yes."

  "I don't know, Rana. I do want to help and...I admit that I'm still very attracted to you. But so are a lot other women. Can't any of them help?" she asked.

  "Too clingy. I like my woman—"

  "Rana! I'm not your woman! I can't afford to be. Look, maybe I can ask one of my friends or acquaintances to help you pretend—"

  "No thanks," he said. "I'll never be able to get rid of them, later. Either it's you or no one else."

  She bit her lip uncertainly, staring at him.

  And then she sighed, as though she lost a battle with herself. "Okay fine. I'll be with you temporarily. It'll help you and it will also relieve my family's worry regarding me for a while. Later when we break up, I'll let them know that I could never possibly—" she broke off.

  "Never possibly what?" he prompted.

  "Nothing," she muttered. "If we are together, you'll find out soon yourself."

  He looked at her. "So...are we unofficially engaged now?"

  "No! We are just...together. Testing the waters," she clarified.

  He grinned. "Ookay. How about sealing the deal by testing them a little bit more?"

  Before she could answer him, they heard another cheer coming through her windows.

  "I think we should get back to the party. People might be wondering what we are doing together for this long," she said.

  She stood to go towards a mirror on her dresser and emitted a scream. "Oh my god!"

  "What?" he asked in concern.

  "Look at me! I'm a complete mess!" she accused.

  She was right. Her hair was mussed up because he had clutched it with his fingers and pulled at it. Her make-up was gone because of the sweat they worked up with the sex. Her long skirt was wrinkled where he had scrunched it up around her waist.

  She looked exactly like what they had been doing a few minutes ago up against her bedroom wall.

  Looking at her, his body that had already recovered from their last bout of sex, got excited once again. He slowly went towards her with an intent look.

  She saw the look on his face and shook her head at him with a warning look.

  "Don't you dare touch me now! Don't even look at me inappropriately," she warned him.

  He stopped and grinned widely. "Can I at least think dirty thoughts about you?" he asked.

  "That's not helping, Rana. Oh god! My entire family is outside and we have to face them! Is it too obvious that I just had sex?" she asked anxiously.

  He laughed. "Relax. I'll help you
fix yourself."

  He pulled her closer and gave a loud smacking kiss and then unhooked the skirt until it fell down in a heap, leaving her naked completely, and for his hands to begin exploring her.

  She swatted his hands away and glared at him.

  He wanted to tweak her nose, but he would probably lose a few of his fingers in that process. And he needed them during the upcoming weeks and months, to run them all over her body.

  "When will you get horny again, and start being nice to me?" he asked, rubbing his hands where she swatted him, in an exaggerated manner with a grin.

  "Just because we decided to be temporarily together, it doesn't mean we'd have to have sex every time we make an eye contact," she told him haughtily.

  "How about every other eye contact?" he asked, pulling her close again.

  "This is not funny Rana. We have to be out in ten minutes or someone will come looking for us," she almost yelled.

  "Okay fine. I'll really help you dress this time," he said.

  Over the next few minutes, she adjusted her hair, wore back her leganga. He helped her with the top, tying the knots.

  "Why are you torturing yourself with this top? Can't you wear something more comfortable and in your size?" he asked from behind her.

  "I got this one online without trying. I don't own many fancy dresses. The ones I have are all apparently out of fashion."

  "Hmm..."

  She twisted her neck to face him."Just hmm? Already regretting you asked me to be your fake girlfriend? Because let me tell you right now, I'm not going to be able to dress up on command or attend parties with you," she warned.

  "There. All done," he said, tying the last of the knot behind her and kissing her neck.

  And then he scanned her from head to toe. "Baby, as long as you undress on command, I'm fine. Now that I sort of know what your do, I understand that you have a busy schedule at work and you might not have the time to accompany me to events or other places."

  "Yeah. Yeah. You'll be fine with it, for now," she muttered.

  Rana didn't reply. He was quite surprised that someone as confident as Srishti had doubts about herself. From what he knew about her so far, she was no nonsense kind of girl who knew exactly what she wanted.

  During most of his adult life, he had never been interested to find out what any woman wanted. But Srishti was different. She was like an extremely complicated puzzle. Sometimes, so frustrating that he almost wanted to give up, but somehow couldn't.

  He was compelled to figure her out, until he knew everything about her and won her.

  CHAPTER 20

  When Rana and Srishti returned to the party, people watched them with curious faces. Especially Rana's parents and her family.

  Looking at the anticipation on their faces, Srishti felt guilty about fooling them with the act that would follow soon.

  "You guys are back quite soon. Already caught up with the last fifteen years?" Srishti's mother asked them with a smile.

  Rana smiled charmingly. "I wanted to stay longer. But Srishti insisted we get back to the party. Maybe we should return—"

  "That's not needed Rana. Remember we already decided to spend more time with each other during the coming weeks to catch up completely," Srishti said hurriedly.

  Rana's mother and her mother exchanged looks, and soon their faces were wreathed in smiles.

  "We knew it! We knew you both would hit it off. But we are quite surprised that it would be this quickly," Rana's mother said in excitement.

  "Slow down, Ma," Rana replied. "We decided to get to know each other well first, before we decide anything more...permanent."

  "Of course. Of course. You do need to know each other's minds completely before you take any big steps. But I'm so glad both of you kept an open mind and didn't completely knock the idea away because you thought this is an arranged match."

  Just then, the games at the party got over, and the kids surrounded Rana again. But he didn't let go of her hand.

  "Stay," he told her.

  And so she stayed next to him.

  It was quite sweet to watch him interacting with his little fans, and patiently signing autographs, while answering their questions.

  "What's your name, little girl," he asked a child of maybe four or five years old.

  "Nidhi."

  "That's a cool name. So what do you want to be when you grow up Nidhi?" he asked, drawing a smiley face next to his autograph.

  "I want to be a princess. I will marry a handsome prince who looks like you, and we'll live in a very, very, biiig palace with lots and lots of toy rooms."

  "Or," Srishti interrupted. "You could become a real-estate developer and build a huge palace of your own. And design it just the way you like it."

  Rana grinned. "Srishti is right, Nidhi. Do you kids know that Srishti builds cool video games and also other cool toys?"

  There were oohs and aahs, and they began chattering excitedly about it.

  ***

  Much later, when they inadvertently split up, she stared at Rana as he stood at a distance, and her old doubts began to emerge.

  "Tell us everything," Sapna asked as she and Priya cornered her to ask about how Rana convinced her so quickly to give the arranged match a try.

  Rana was a popular celebrity with his swarm of admirers and amazing charm that made him a perfect guy any woman would want. And she was the overachiever, the kind who worked her ass off with no work-life balance to meet her self-made goals.

  Their match would definitely be made in hell.

  "Argh! I'm so stupid. How could I agree to this?" Srishti muttered.

  "You are not stupid," Priya objected.

  "If anything, you are too smart," said Sapna. "Your brain unfortunately is your biggest enemy."

  "What do you mean?" Srishti asked with a frown.

  "It means you think way too much. We all saw how you and Rana looked at each other when you met, and even now, you can't get your eyes off him. You really like him."

  She was quiet. Because she couldn't deny the fact. "But he scares me," Srishti told them truthfully.

  Sapna and Priya stared at her in surprise.

  "He's just too much for me," she improvised, not wanting to give too much away about the reality of how Rana and she met and had their fling.

  "So what if he scares you?" Sapna asked.

  Srishti looked at Rana standing and chatting with another group in an animated manner.

  Sapna touched Srishti's arm gently. "You need to take a chance after what happened with Gaurav. And unlike your insecure ex, Rana is confident and perfect for you. You will regret it if you don't give this a try."

  Srishti wasn't stupid. At least when it came to reading Rana's intentions, she wasn't.

  She knew that even though he thought he was convincing her for a temporary relationship for their families' sake, he actually wanted them to seriously try and work it out to see if they were compatible on a long run.

  She could have refused him, but she herself wanted to be with him, and give them a chance to try. She could get hurt, but she wanted him badly enough to take the risk.

  CHAPTER 21

  Rana was cornered by Rahul when they were about to head back home.

  "What the hell is happening here, Rana? You asked me to rescue you from an arranged match. And then you take off with the girl, only to return after a couple of hours, saying you want to commit to her while looking at her like you want to have her for your dinner."

  Rana instantly shuttered his expression. Which was weird, because he had always confided to Rahul about his love life. But for some reason he hadn't told Rahul anything about Srishti. Especially when he knew her as Sapna.

  Besides, what was there to tell Rahul about him and Srishti during the Sri Lanka trip? She had shot him down. She more or let made it clear she didn't want him and that they could never be together on long-term.

  If he had thought that there was a slightest chance that Srishti wanted him to genuinely chase
after her after their brief holiday affair, he wouldn't have taken her refusal seriously.

  He would have hunted her down somehow, using all his contacts and resources.

  He had spent the last night of their weeklong affair, watching her sleep, making plans for them. He even thought about how he'd reveal his true identity. He had mentally practiced what he would say, and confess to her regarding how he felt about her.

  But when Srishti woke up, he has seen the look her eyes. She had meant what she said—she genuinely didn't want to make anything of their brief affair. And although he didn't mind being the pursuer, he was not going to chase after a woman who was not interested in him.

  Or so he thought.

  But now, after seeing her again and finding out that she was the same girl who had been his childhood nemesis and his crush, it was game on, all over again.

  Was he turning into some sort of obsessed creep with her, slowly drawing her into a relationship?

  Maybe.

  His mind was definitely treading into a creepy manipulator territory.

  Shaking his head, he looked at his cousin. "I do want to give this a shot. Maybe my parents are onto something when they say Srishti and I make a good match," he said.

  Rahul narrowed his eyes. "Uh huh."

  ***

  Much later that night when Rana reached his place, he called Srishti to set up a dinner date the next evening.

  "I'm sorry, I can't," she said with regret in her voice.

  "Having second thoughts already?" he teased.

  "Third and fourth too. But that's not the reason why. I have meetings all day that would end a little after midnight."

  "But you'll have to eat sometime. Do you mind if I come down to your work around lunch time?" he asked.

  There was a pause. "Sure."

  "Actually, my day is pretty much clear after twelve. Can I hang out in your workplace all afternoon? You know I'd love to see where some of my favorite games are created."