Chandrakanth gave her a smile, his brown eyes crinkling at the corners as he cupped a hand over her cheek, his thumb under her small chin. “So it’s me you are angry with.”
“I didn’t know I was married to Sherlock Holmes’ heir. Should I be impressed?” Sparks flew from Ranjini’s jet black eyes.
Chandrakanth threw back his head and laughed, his chest rumbling with the sound as he pressed her body closer to his. Bending down to give her a swift but hard kiss, he said, “What happened?”
“Let me go.”
Her words only made his hold tighter, although he was careful not to hurt her. “No way. I didn’t get married to you to let you go.” He was serious now, no smile on his face.
“Why did you marry me at all?” Ranjini glared at him.
“What sort of question is that? You know very well why I married you.”
“So why don’t you tell me again?” Her voice was challenging.
“I don’t want to live without you.” Chandrakanth bent close to her ear and spoke the words in a fierce whisper.
Ranjini’s voice broke as she teared up at that, “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, a hundred percent.” Chandrakanth lifted his thumbs to wipe away the tear drops that hung on the tips of her lashes. “What happened Ranju? And don’t tell me ‘nothing’. I know you too well. Something’s happened to bring down your confidence. Did someone tell you something? It can’t have been Vivek or Urvashi amma. Who else did you meet?”
Ranjini felt torn as she wanted desperately to accept his words, bury her face in his wide chest and forget the rest of the world. But another part of her was highly disturbed. Mridula had seemed quite sane when she had hurled those insults that morning. While Urvashi had tried to shut her up, she hadn’t called the woman a liar. So, there must have been some modicum of truth in Mridula’s words. Ranjini didn’t set much store by Vivek’s defence of Chandrakanth. After all, the two of them were as thick as thieves and Vivek’s loyalty totally lay with the superstar.
While Ranjini had been working, the questions had built up in her mind, slowly but steadily, until she had lost concentration on her work. She had grown angrier with her husband by the hour. Why the hell did he have to rush into a marriage with her? Couldn’t he have waited for at least a month or two? The men took the decisions, but the world blamed the women. How had Mridula dared to suggest that Chandrakanth had married Ranjini in a hurry only because he had made her pregnant?
“Couldn’t we have waited for a few months before getting married?” Ranjini didn’t realise that she was opening the buttons of his shirt even as she spoke, her fingers tracing the whorls of springy hair on his chest in a caress.
“What if I had died before then?” His voice was a soft whisper as Chandrakanth’s eyes were open in barely a slit. He revelled in her caress, his body going hard in response.
Ranjini gave him a shocked look, her eyes having gone wide. “What nonsense!” A small fist connected with his hard shoulder as she pouted at him.
Chandrakanth shook his head, enclosing her fist in his left hand. “I’m serious. And we’ve been through this a few times already, Ranju. You did ask me this question before we got married.” He bent down to press his lips to the pulse beating at her neck, running the tip of his tongue over it, back and forth, making her moan in rapture.
Not the answer she wanted to hear! Did he love her? Chandrakanth hadn’t told her so. What did he mean by saying that he couldn’t live without her? But she wasn’t ready to ask him outright, not sure if she could face his answer. Colour flared in her cheeks when she suddenly noticed that all the buttons on his shirt were open and her left index finger was exploring his navel. She stopped what she was doing to walk away from him only to find her right fist held in his hand. “Let me go, Chandru.”
He laughed, shaking his head. “I told you that I don’t plan to.” He pulled her back into his arms effortlessly, his hand in her hair as he lifted her face to his. Pressing his lips to her petal soft cheek, he spoke in a whisper, “I want you.” He opened her fist to place her hand against his crotch. “See what you do to me.”
“Oh, I hate you.” Unshed tears shimmered in Ranjini’s eyes as she felt torn, yet again, between her body and mind this time.
“Ranju!” Chandrakanth shook her a little harder this time, his temper surfacing. “How the hell will I know what’s wrong unless you tell me, damn it?”
Ranjini raised her head to glare at him. “Who’s Mridula?” She was scared. She had met her husband barely ten days ago and she realised that she didn’t really know him all that well. What if he simply lied to her?
“Mridula is an actress.” Chandrakanth’s brown gaze never wavered from hers when he answered her question.
“How long have you known her?”
A black frown appeared on his face. “Is there a point to your questions? Did you meet her?”
Ranjini nodded slowly, trying to read the expression on her husband’s closed face without success.
“Okay. So what did she tell you?” he asked.
“Forget that. What do you have to say about her?”
Chandrakanth turned away abruptly to walk across the room, his hands behind his back, his scowl blacker than ever. He walked back and forth for a few minutes, not saying a word. He suddenly stopped in front of Ranjini, placed a hand under her chin and lifted her face up to his. Looking her straight in the eye, he said, “We were lovers for a brief spell.” He wasn’t going to say more than that. No way was he going to apologise for something that had happened way before he met Ranjini. Let her take it or leave it.
“Phew!” Ranjini sagged into his arms. “I was kind of worried that she had some sort of claim on your affection.” She rubbed her cheek against his chest, wrapping her arms around his waist after pushing away his shirt tails.
“Why would I marry you if I felt something for her?” Chandrakanth crushed her against his body, his left arm around her waist, his right hand squeezing her bottom roughly to press her pelvis against his. Women! Why the hell couldn’t they understand simple logic? He bent down to kiss her hard, biting her lips demandingly, his temper still hot. He lifted her up to throw her over his shoulder and walked to their bedroom and placed her on the bed none too gently before flinging himself on her. Impatient hands tore her knee length dress right from the neck to the hem and flung the two halves aside before his hands reached out to pull her up so that he could open the buckle of her bra. He pulled it off her to throw it over his shoulder before his lips closed over her right breast while his hand squeezed her left one punishingly as he bit and sucked on her breast, his lower body holding hers down.
Ranjini moaned long and loud, her hands clutching Chandrakanth’s head as she pressed her upper body closer to him, revelling in his tempestuous lovemaking, offering her other breast for his kisses, her nails raking down his back, igniting him further. She felt bereft when her husband let go of her breasts but her breath got stuck in her throat before it came out in gasps when she felt his mouth on her abdomen, trembling at the onslaught as he rubbed his rough face against her sensitive skin. Her hands held on to his shoulders tightly even as her legs thrashed under him. She didn’t care when his forceful hands ripped her minuscule panties apart and groaned loudly when she felt his hand caressing her feminine mound. “Chandru.”
He got off her to pull off his pants and briefs before settling down on her, pushing her legs apart. He kissed her again on her lips and smiled inadvertently, his temper melting when he felt small teeth biting his lower lip. “Like it rough, do you?” He raised his head to look up at her.
“You talk too much,” she grumbled, pulling his head down to bite his lips again.
Chandrakanth kissed her back with equal fervour, his hands on her hips as he lifted his lower body to thrust his hard shaft into her pliant core, grunting in satisfaction before he rode her hard, her legs locked around his lean waist.
Ranjini bit into his shoulder, gasping as an orgasm ripped thr
ough her, shaking her to the core. Chandrakanth fell against her, groaning as he came almost immediately. It was a long while before either of them was in a state to talk.
“I loved it, Chandru, your wild lovemaking,” said Ranjini, cupping a hand over his hard cheek, a thumb brushing over his moustache.
“I can see that, since you almost bit off my scorpion’s head in your excitement.” There was laughter in Chandrakanth’s voice as he drew her attention to the reddening skin on his chest, right over the tattoo.
“What?!” Ranjini was sure that he was teasing as she looked into his laughing brown eyes before turning her gaze to his tattoo, her eyes going wide when she saw what she had done. “Oops! I gave you a hickey.”
“You sure did!”
“I hope you don’t have to shoot any bare body sequences over the next few days.” Ranjini’s eyes danced as she looked at her husband, a finger gently tracing the design. “I never thought I’d feel affection for a scorpion, ever.” She pressed her lips to the tattoo, running the moist tip of her tongue over the area where she had bit him.
“Now don’t make me jealous of it,” he growled, making Ranjini laugh gleefully as he pulled her into a hug.
Ranjini fell into a routine over the next few days, co-ordinating her work timings with her husband’s as much as possible so that she could spend quality time with him. It wasn’t too difficult once she set out to plan things a bit in advance. It was a good thing that she could work from anywhere she wanted. The next few afternoons, she left at noon in one of Chandrakanth’s six cars, at the pretext of taking his lunch. She worked from his vanity van on those days. The van was extremely luxurious, with a living-cum-dressing room, a bedroom and an attached bathroom. There was even a tiny kitchen platform fitted with an electric stove and a microwave oven.
Ranjini couldn’t help but feel impressed by her husband taking power naps in between shooting schedules. “That’s really fascinating. How do you manage to wake up so energetically after shutting your eyes for just ten minutes?” She asked him as he sat in front of the mirror while his makeup man, Senthil, touched up Chandrakanth’s hair and face.
“I took some special classes for that at a Buddhist monastery in Tibet. You know how odd my work schedule is. Along with the travel and jet lag, things tended to get out of hand when I appeared tired during shoots. I searched online and found out about this place. I was lucky that the monks were ready to teach me. I believe they are pretty fussy about who they take on as disciples.”
Ranjini was simply awed by his answer. Her black eyes connected with his heated brown ones in the mirror, making the very air around them sizzle. It was lucky that Senthil had turned away to mix some powders and hadn’t noticed the two of them making love with their eyes.
Oh yeah! Ranjini knew that her husband spoke the truth when he said that he had wanted only to marry her and no other woman. Actually, she kind of felt sorry for Mridula. Imagine having to let go of someone like Chandrakanth after having him for a lover. She could well commiserate with the actress’s pain.
But something happened at their reception that aroused suspicions yet again in Ranjini’s mind, about her husband’s supposedly non-existent relationship with Mridula.
14
At least half a dozen of Chandrakanth’s women relatives—cousins and in-laws—offered to help Ranjini get ready for the wedding reception to be held at the Rajendra Ballroom in ITC Grand Chola. Ranjini had greeted them all sweetly when they introduced themselves to her, all having arrived a few hours before the party at the 5-star hotel in Guindy. Chandrakanth was still at his advertisement shoot and hadn’t arrived yet.
It was all thanks to Maragadham. The relatives had been told that Chandrakanth’s bride was from a small hill station and chances were high that she would shame him by appearing like a village belle in the presence of the 2000-odd guests.
Ranjini was polite, but firm in her refusal of their offers to help her get a high-end hair-stylist and make-up artist.
“Thank you,” said Ranjini, to Maragadham’s elder daughter-in-law Kanthimathi. “I have everything covered.” Ranjini gave the other woman a soft smile. After a while, she realised that the seven women weren’t going to budge unless prodded. “So, will you all have something to drink? Coffee or tea?”
Kanthimathi, who seemed to be the leader, frowned at Ranjini. While they were all in simple silk saris—of course they planned to change into grand ones before the actual party—Chandrakanth’s wife was in jeans that were cut off below the knees and a baggy t-shirt. She obviously had no fashion sense. Maragadham had been right in sending them over to help the bride get ready for the reception. “Ranjini, I don’t think you understand the situation. Chandrakanth is a superstar and it’s not just his fans who are dying to know the woman he’s married. All the other actors, actresses, directors, producers, musicians, technicians and who’s who of Kollywood will be there in hordes today evening. People will expect you to be dressed to the nines. I understand that you may not know much about fashion since you are from Kotagiri. But in Chennai...”
Ranjini sat across them, her face stony. It wasn’t easy not to let rip. No, she wasn’t going to enlighten these people that she had done her engineering from IIT Bombay, had lived in New York for a year during an overseas project and spoke French and Spanish fluently. And then again, it wasn’t as if Kotagiri was from the back of beyond that the people living there didn’t know anything about fashion trends. That Ranjini chose comfort over fashion was her call and none of their business.
“...and another thing is that you are dark skinned.” Kanthimathi cleared her throat as if she had uttered an obscenity before continuing, “While Chandrakanth is so fair. People talk, you know.”
Ranjini came to a swift decision. She was the newcomer and the youngest of the lot. It was automatically presumed that she should treat everyone with respect. But that didn’t mean that they could blatantly insult her and she would take it lying down. They were begging to be slapped actually.
“I know what you mean. Tell you what Kanthimathi?” Ranjini paused, looking each one of the women in their eyes, “Whatever colour I am, Chandrakanth chose to marry me. Are we agreed on that? As for how I’m going to appear today evening, I suppose you’ll all have to live in suspense until I get ready and present myself at the reception. In the meanwhile, it’s three o’ clock already. I think it makes sense for you all to go get yourselves ready while I do my best here. Thank you all again for your offer of help, but as I mentioned before, I have everything covered.” This time round, Ranjini’s smile was anything but sweet. She was keen to kick all their asses by now.
Kanthimathi got up abruptly. “Come on, all of you. Why should we bother if CK falls on his face? Let’s go get beautiful.” All seven of them walked out of the Chola suite on the seventh floor, one behind the other.
Ranjini called her sister Varshini who was staying with their parents in The Towers on the same floor. “Varshu, I’m going for a bath now. Can you come over at five to help me style my hair? You get ready before that if you can.”
“Definitely Ranju. I’m also carrying my make-up kit and can help you with it.”
“Perfect. I’ll see you then. Are you all comfortable?” Ranjini had travelled with them to the hotel that noon and checked in along with them before settling in her suite.
Varshini gurgled with laughter. “You’re joking Ranju! This is the ultimate in luxury. I’m so loving it. Here, talk to mom.”
“Enna Ranju, has Chandrakanth got back from his shooting?” asked Parvathi, a smile in her voice. She had been so happy to see that her daughter was not just living in the lap of luxury but was also leading a joyful life with her husband.
“Not yet mom. I’m going to soak myself in the bathtub for some time. Maybe you and dad should rest for a while since the party might go on till late.”
“You don’t worry about us Ranju. You dad has already settled down on the bed. We are very comfortable and will be alright even if
it’s going to get late.”
“Okay then. I’ll meet you all later.” Ranjini disconnected the phone before going to the bathroom and filling the bathtub. She was disturbed after the visit from Chandrakanth’s relatives. While she told herself that she didn’t give a damn what they thought about her dark skin, the truth was that it had hurt. Not that she was ashamed of her body. She was born with her skin and there was nothing she could do about it. And her parents had never treated her differently because of her skin. Neither had her husband, for that matter. The couple of times she had pointed out the fact to him, he had had a surprised look on his face as if he hadn’t really noticed her skin colour. Buoyed by that thought, Ranjini added some bath salts to the steaming water, whiffing at the citrusy aroma as she removed her clothes, folded them and left them on a marble shelf before stepping into the rectangular bathtub that was the size of a kiddies’ pool.
Scorpio Superstar (Written in the Stars Book 1) Page 10
