“I understand you, Natasha Malik and I’m waiting for you at the end of the tunnel. You don’t want any light because you shine so bright you can brighten up the entire tunnel with your own light.” Vikram kisses Natasha’s forehead.
“Thanks, Vicky.”
“Ouch!” Looks like the baby agrees with her.
“You okay?”
“I’m fine.” She smiles.
“But I heard you grunt.”
“She’s kicking.”
“Who?”
“The baby, silly.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Here.” She grabs Vikram’s hand and puts it on her stomach.
“It’s miraculous. I can feel it.” Vikram moves his hand on Natasha’s baby bump, his eyes widening with surprise.
“You want to listen?”
“I do.”
“Wow!” Vikram gasps, surprise clear in his voice when he leans down and brings his ear to Natasha’s tummy.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“You?” Vikram narrows his eyes the moment he opens the door to the conference room.
“Surprise,” Sakshi chirps rounding the table. Reaching out to him, she throws her nude arms around his neck.
Vikram frees himself and reaches his chair at the head of the table.
“I was expecting Mister Purohit.” He feels anger churning inside of him. Mr. Purohit has yet not signed the deal papers. Though he has promised his full support, he’s taking his own sweet time to release the funds.
“Dad is off to London and won’t be returning for the next one week.”
“What?”
“It’s only you and me and the conference room. I hope it’s soundproofed in case I scream louder.” Sakshi pulls Vikram’s tie.
“Behave yourself.”
“Oh, come on Jaysingh, stop surprising me with this haughty look of yours.” Sakshi presses her nose against Vikram’s stubbled cheek and inhales him like someone inhales cocaine. “Umm. You smell so good. From where I should begin. You know, I can work really well on my knees.” Vikram feels a hand roaming across his torso before moving to his abs and further down.
“Stop it.” Vikram grabs her hand. He turns around having his back to the lady. He smooths down his jacket and adjusts his tie. Two naked arms capture him from behind. Sakshi presses a kiss at the side of his neck. “Are you the same ruthless in bed?” Sakshi speaks, and just as she said that, the door to the conference room creaks open. Someone enters the room. The same fragrance. The air shifts and Vikram feels the change in the aura of the room. He turns around, freeing himself from Sakshi only to find Natasha standing in the doorway.
Their eyes meet and for a moment it feels as if everything has been ruined between him and Natasha. “I’m sorry. I thought this must be vacant since there’s no meeting scheduled here.”
“Aren’t we having the meeting here? You didn’t notify your staff about it?” Sakshi blurts, her eyes darting between Vikram and Natasha. “We’re having a very important meeting here. So leave.”
“Sure,” Natasha murmurs, turning around. The next moment, she’s gone.
Everything happens so quick, Vikram hardly has any time to react. One moment he is thinking how to get rid of Sakshi, the next moment he is having Natasha standing in front of him.
He drops his head down and pinches the bridge of his nose. And when he lifts his eyes, he notices Sakshi reaching to the door and locking it from inside.
She then saunters to him like a fearless witch ready to swish her wand. She moans as she reaches Vikram and plays with his tie. “It’s only you and me now. And nobody to disturb us. Let’s get naked. You’re wearing too many clothes.” She tries to undo his collar buttons, sounding like a woman on edge, like she’s already moistening her panties, but Vikram has no time for such bullshit.
He holds her hand and takes her to the chair. He pulls the chair for her and adjusts it to her comfort. Vikram then slides on a chair next to her.
“Look Sakshi. You’ve become a good friend of mine but that doesn’t mean we’re having a romantic relationship.”
“Are you trying to play hard, Vikram? Tell me, I’m ready to do anything for you. Please.”
“No. I’m not. In fact, there’s nothing like chasing or playing between us. We are friends, Sakshi, are we?”
“Friends can be fuckbuddies too.” She tilts her lips.
“Shit.” Vikram massages his forehead. He clears his throat trying to calm down the raging anger. He doesn’t want to misbehave with her.
Regaining his composure, he speaks, “You’re beautiful, intelligent, smart and so damn young, you can have men waiting for you. I’m not the one for you.”
“But I want you, Vikram. And only you. Your thoughts have been driving me crazy. At least, help me get out of this shit once and for all.”
“What do you want?”
“I want you. Sleep with me.”
“Fuck, Sakshi. I respect women that doesn’t mean I’m ready to sleep with them.”
“I don’t want your respect. I want you to tear apart my clothes and fuck me hard, did you get that Vikram Jaysingh. And if you can’t do that, you better be aware of the consequences.” Sakshi rises from her chair.
“You are not in your senses. We will talk later.”
“There’s nothing left to talk, Jaysingh. It’s either this way or that. You decide.” She turns around, her heels clanking against the marble floor. She reaches for the door and pulls it with such a force, it would have fallen off its hinges.
It took not less than twenty minutes for Vikram to reclaim back his composure. When he returns to his normal mental state, the first thing that comes to his head is to call Natasha.
Vikram pulls out his mobile phone from his pants' pocket. He is about to dial Natasha, when his phone buzzes with another call.
“Shit! Now what the hell he wants?” muttering a curse, Vikram puts the phone close to his ear.
No greetings. No hello. Mr. Purohit yells at the other side. “Vikram, do you want the housing project to see the light of the day. If you do, then stop disappointing Sakshi.”
What?
“This deal will only be finalized if you and Sakshi get along well with each other.”
“I didn’t get you. What do you want to say?” Vikram’s insides churn with anger.
“Look, boy. Your company is running in loss. If you want to save it, do what Sakshi says.”
You and your daughter both have fucked my brains out and I’m not ready to take this shit anymore.
“Do you have to say anything, or shall I disconnect the call?”
“I’m done, Mister Purohit. There’s nothing left to say.”
“Okay. Go and find out Sakshi. She was driving on NH11 few minutes ago. Go and bring her home,” Mister Purohit barks orders as if he has already taken charge of Jaysingh Enterprises and Vikram is nothing but an employee of his million-dollar enterprise.
The moment Mr. Purohit hangs up, Vikram dials Natasha’s number. Full ring and she doesn’t pick up the phone. Vikram asks her PA to connect him to Ms. Malik’s desk but again a no show.
Vikram storms out of the conference room and reaches her floor. He reaches her cubicle only to find an empty chair. She’s nowhere in the office. Vikram reaches his room and dials the receptionist.
“Find out where’s Miss Malik.”
“She left, Vikram.”
“What? When?”
“An hour ago. She said, she isn’t feeling well.”
Shit!
The damn network always fails you when you really want to reach someone. Vikram slams a thumb at the screen and shoves the mobile phone back in his pants’ pocket.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Natasha!”
“Natz. You there?”
“Come on, baby. Open the door,” Vikram shouts at the door, banging the metal door knocker against the hardwood.
When neither his knocks nor his repeated shouting elicits any response, he dials her ag
ain, hoping to hear her silvery voice. No matter how angry and frustrated he feels, he’s still ready to apologize for his mistake, if he has done any.
“Thank god, at least it’s ringing now.” A half-relieved sigh escapes Vikram’s lips.
“Hello.”
“Natasha! Where the hell are you?”
“I’m at the hospital, Vikram.”
“What are you doing in the hospital?”
“Don’t be an asshole. What a pregnant lady would do at the hospital?”
“Routine checkup, right?”
“No, silly. I’m contracting.”
“What? When?”
“I can’t talk much.”
“Why? What’s going on with you?”
“Shut up and come to City Hospital, Labor and Delivery, if you can.”
She disconnects the call and Vikram feels his jaw slacking.
How the hell did she manage to make it to the hospital, alone?
Hell. I should have been with her.
***
Vikram is inquiring with the head nurse at the nursing station when a blue-uniformed nurse with a blue cap calls out his name. “Mister Jaysingh.”
Vikram widens his eyes. “Yes.”
“Miss Malik wants you to be with her.”
“Please.” Vikram follows the nurse in the hospital lobby. Soon, they reach a glass door.
“Please wear the plastic shoe covers.” The nurse motions her index to a wooden container containing plastic shoe covers.
“Yeah.” Vikram picks the shoe covers and covers both his shoes.
The nurse pushes the glass door and they enter a hallway laced with rooms, perhaps labor rooms. They are plenty and Vikram hears women screaming and doctors shouting, “push, push some more, you’re almost there.”
So this is what is called Labor and Delivery. Vikram looks around, taking in the surroundings and the screams and yells.
The moment they reach a small cabin, the nurse goes inside. After a short while, she comes out and hands Vikram a surgical green scrub. Yes, the ones doctors wear before operations. “Please wear this.”
Vikram takes the scrub from the nurse’s hands.
What the hell is happening? He has no idea what's going on. He does as he was instructed by the nurse. Once he dons the bleaching powder smelling scrub, the nurse asks him to go to room number 11.
Vikram’s eyes dart across the rows of labor rooms on either side of the hallway.
“Here it is,” he says to himself making his way to room number 11.
Inside, the sight is terrifying enough to give Vikram chills down his spine. He feels goosebumps erupting on his skin. His throat goes dry when he sees Natasha half lying on a narrow bed with her legs spread out. She’s trembling with exhaustion, sweat covering her whole face.
“Push. You’re almost there. A little more effort and you’ll have your baby in your arms.”
Natasha screams. Her sunken eyes meet Vikram and Vikram notices a weak smile covering her lips.
It’s not her usual smile yet it possesses all the power of the world to make Vikram walk to her and stand by her side. Without any hesitation, without any apprehension or perturbation, Vikram reaches her out. He holds her hand, his other hand caressing her forehead, wiping the droplets of cold sweat off her shiny forehead.
“Relax, baby. You’ll be fine,” leaning down, Vikram whispers against her ear. She smiles and grabs Vikram’s hand.
Next, Vikram hears, the dark-haired doctor shout, “I can see the head. One more push, a heavy one this time, Okay.”
Natasha pushes and pushes some more, screaming, gasping, heaving and then it happens.
A soft cry of a newborn dissolves happiness in the sterile air of the labor room. The doctors and nurses pull down their masks. “Congrats, Miss Malik, you’ve got a nice baby boy.”
***
“Did you inform the baby’s father?” Vikram asks adjusting the pillow behind Natasha’s back as she tries to feed the newborn.
“Not yet.”
“I think you should.” Vikram perches on the bed next to her and caresses the baby’s forehead with his finger while the infant drinks his first milk.
You’re the father of the baby, Vicky.
Natasha lifts her head and gazes at Vikram.
“You look tired.”
“Yeah, I’m.”
“Do you want me to go so that you can take some rest since the peanut is also sleeping now.” Vikram drifts his eyes from Natasha to the sleeping infant.
You’re my rest, Vikram.
Natasha nods.
“Okay, then. Call me if you need anything.”
Without speaking anything, Natasha nods again.
Vikram rises from the bed. He reaches out to Natasha’s forehead and drops a kiss there.
“Take care.”
“You too,” Natasha mumbles.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Six weeks later…
“Looks like you haven’t slept for ages.” Keshav pulls a chair and slides into it.
“Any updates from Purohits?”
“No except that they are delaying the project.”
Vikram leans back in his chair, twirling the pen between his fingers.
“Start contacting the companies that have worked with us before.”
“We’ve already contacted, and everybody has declined. It’s only Purohits who came forward. I guess there’s some ulterior motive of Mister Purohit that he came forward and offered help. Else, he’s a penny-pinching jerk.”
“You guessed it right. He wants a playboy for his daughter.”
“What?”
“You heard it right.”
“What did you say then?”
“He didn’t ask me frankly but…”
“The daughter is after you?”
Vikram never speaks and Keshav displays a sardonic smile.
“You, pantie-melting bastard. Tell me what’s brewing between you and Miss Purohit.”
“Keep exercising your brain cells till I am back.” Vikram rises from his chair and brushes a hand over his head.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to meet Natasha.” Vikram adjusts his tie knot and marches to the door.
“Vikram.”
Vikram turns around only to find Keshav standing. “Tell her that you love her. She’s your strength. Something you desperately need to face the storm lurking around the corner.”
“Do you think I’ll wait for this long? I’m not the one who’s shy of feelings. It’s she who’s still undecided about her feelings for me. I can see it in her eyes but…”
“She will soon realize her love for you. All the best, buddy.”
“Thanks, Keshav.”
“Carry on. Meanwhile, I’ll try coaxing some of the other investors who’ve been on good terms with us.”
“Great! And all the best to you too.”
***
Natasha’s life has changed. Changed a lot. When earlier she used to be a carefree bird, flying in the sky with her wings wide open, now she’s confined. Confined within the wall she has built around herself. But now, she’s desperate. She’s yearning. There’s this urge that forcing her to crush the walls of anger, disappointment, animosity and welcome the newcomer inside her heart, into her soul.
Vikram is not a newcomer. He’s been inhabiting her heart for years. The only difference is that when earlier he would make intermittent appearances in his mind’s eyes coz most of the time, she tried to push him away, now he has become a regular traveler to her fantasies.
Natasha snugs herself in the warm blanket and closes her eyes, letting her head fall back on the headrest of the couch. She needs a nap, a quick one since she hasn’t slept properly for the past several nights. Little Jaysingh keeps her awake and on her toes all the time.
Natasha feels her lips curving into a smile. Would there be a day when she doesn't think about telling Vikram the truth of her pregnancy? No.
Would there be a
way she can tell Vikram about the baby’s father? Indeed, there would be a way that can make Vikram realize why Natasha decided to go ahead with the pregnancy. Would there be words that can convey her feelings to Vikram? Would he ever be able to read her eyes, her heart, her soul?
A soft tap on the front door breaks Natasha’s thoughts. This indeed is going to be Vikram. Heat rises to her cheeks when she glances at the wall clock. It’s past eleven. The night outside is dark. It’s been drizzling since the fall of the evening.
A single thought of having Vikram inside the house in the middle of a dark and rainy night gives Natasha a tingle in her belly. Critters start to swarm inside her stomach as she strides to the door.
At the door, she sucks in a deep breath and exhales heavily.
Way better now.
Though she’s happy with his unexpected arrival, seeing him in the middle of the night—standing at her doorstep—waiting for her—when the rain is lashing on the rooftop and bolts of intermittent lightning striking the sky—make her feel nervous. She feels her heart racing. Her feet feel like jelly, the moment she opens the door.
“Hey!”
“Hi!” she fumbles, opening the door wider for him. A familiar fragrance of musk with the fragrance of fresh rain disturbs the air of the living room.
“How have you been? Sorry for not being in touch for the past few weeks.” Vikram edges closer and holds her hands, rubbing her fingers. His hands are cold in contrast to his warming stare.
“I’m fine. And we’ve been in touch on phone, haven’t we?”
Accidentally Ever After Page 11
