‘And the reason for that?’
‘A guy. That’s what Kashti said. She doesn’t know who the guy is. I am not sure if she’s lying about that.’
‘I’m sure she is. This can’t be a coincidence. You’ll have to extract more information from her, Kiyan. The more I think about it, the more possible it seems. A younger sister who thinks the guy is to be blamed for her elder sister’s condition gets in touch with him and avenges her sister.’
‘But why would she keep me captive like this? Why not confront me?’ Kiyan said.
A pause later Anaysha said, ‘I’m sure she is bluffing about not knowing the guy her sister was madly in love with was you.’
‘But how can we be sure of it?’ Kiyan asked. He had thought of the revenge angle, but the fact that he hadn’t heard about Kashti from Tina was making him think it wasn’t the only possible reason for Kashti’s appearance in his life.
‘The way she trapped you—seduction.’ Anaysha said.
Kiyan kept looking at Anaysha till he was sure she had meant what she had said.
‘But she is only 17.’
‘You have to choose, Kiyan. Do you want to get out of this mess or do you want to be morally correct? Don’t forget that this 17-year-old trapped you to begin with,’ she said. Kiyan thought about it. Kashti was physically 17, but her mind was that of an adult. An evil adult. Kashti’s evilness made him look around to check if someone was watching them. Nobody was.
‘I get your point,’ he said, looking straight at Anaysha.
Kiyan got home from Starbucks before Kashti did. She rang the doorbell, but when Kiyan didn’t open the door, she used her spare key.
‘I know you are at home, baby. The phone tracker tells me so. You don’t have to surprise . . .’ She walked through the house looking for him and paused mid-sentence when she opened the bathroom door. A lot of empty beer bottles were kept to one side. She glanced at the bathtub, which was filled to the brim with beer and had a couple of condoms on the rim. She felt two hands grab her waist. She closed her eyes as Kiyan turned her around. He had gulped a mouthful of chilled beer, which he slowly released on her forehead. As the beer trickled down her face, goosebumps appeared on her flesh. Kiyan started licking the beer off her. His hands were quick to unbuckle her belt and unhook her skirt. They fell to the ground. As he unbuttoned her shirt, she took off her socks using her feet. As he untucked her shirt, keeping the tie on, she unhooked her bra. Kiyan slowly tightened the knot and said, ‘I missed you very much today.’ He was wearing only a pair of black briefs. As she caressed his abs with her fingertips, he loosened the tie and pulled it over her head. He cupped her face with both hands and kissed her hard and deep, exploring her mouth. She put her hands inside his briefs on his bare butt, squeezed them once and tugged the briefs down. As the smooch continued, Kiyan took off the briefs while gently pushing her backwards till her legs hit the bathtub.
‘I want to know more about you, baby,’ Kiyan said in a rasping voice.
‘You are most welcome to,’ Kashti said.
Both of them got into the bathtub, still smooching. Kiyan made her lie down and got on top. The beer was chilled. Kashti felt goosebumps all over her body. Her breathing quickened, and she drew Kiyan closer to her for warmth. She felt his tongue lick the beer off every inch of her body. Her eyes rolled back when he started sucking on her toes, kissed his way to her calf muscles and bit her hard. It was the first time he was taking the lead during sex. Kashti liked the unexpected role reversal. Though Kiyan was hesitating to enter her, Kashti held his erect penis, rolled on one of the condoms kept on the rim and guided it to her vagina. The friction numbed Kiyan’s mind. He pushed it inside. A prolonged moan escaped Kashti. She moved her pelvis as she put her hands around his waist. They looked deep into each other’s eyes as Kiyan asked, ‘Is there anything you are hiding from me, Kashti?’
She responded after few seconds, ‘Why would I hide anything from you?’
‘You tell me.’
‘I won’t hide anything from you. Come on, harder now.’
Kiyan started thrusting even faster and deeper, knowing it was a lie.
‘You are lying?’
‘I’m not lying. Faster, Kiyan!’
Kiyan increased his speed as well as force. As his eyes started rolling backwards with pleasure, he realized the pleasure zenith was coming soon.
‘Is it just a coincidence that you approached me at the New Delhi book event?’ he whispered in her ears as he felt her grip on his hips tighten.
‘Yes . . . everything . . . is . . . a . . . coincidence. Harder Kiyan . . . do me harder . . . like I’m your fuck slave.’ Her nails were slowly digging into his flesh as beer kept spilling over the bathtub. He had never fucked her this hard. It was on the verge of pain, but all Kashti could feel was pleasure. Their copulation reached a crescendo in the next few seconds.
‘Tell me . . .’ Even Kiyan’s release was close.
‘What . . .’ she knew her muscles would spasm any moment.
‘What is it? I know there’s something.’
‘Who told you?’
‘Instinct.’
‘I want to avenge what you did to my sister.’
‘Who . . . is . . . the . . . guy?’
‘I . . . don’t . . . know . . . yet.’
They came together. As their breathing returned to normal, Kashti looked at Kiyan and said, ‘Would you help me get to the guy?’
Kiyan stole a glance at her and then buried his face in her soft bosom.
19
The next morning, Kiyan was still in bed when Kashti got ready and left for school. He knew he had to get in touch with Anaysha, but he didn’t want Kashti to get to know about it. He left the flat at his usual time and went to the same Starbucks he had been frequenting. He was hoping Anaysha would meet him there on her own the way she did the other day. She didn’t disappoint him.
‘I was right behind you,’ she said, moving towards the seat across him. Kiyan looked over her shoulder and then at Anaysha, and said, ‘Sorry, do I know you?’
Anaysha frowned but when her eyes met his, she understood something was wrong. She apologized and went to another table. Kiyan had noticed a teenage girl staring at him through the glass wall, sitting right outside Starbucks. As Anaysha went away, the girl stood up and came inside, to where Kiyan was sitting. He had a feeling she was one of Kashti’s friends. He was going to make sure Kashti didn’t know he was meeting Anaysha yet again.
‘You are Kiyan Roy, right?’ she said.
‘Yes.’
‘I’m a big fan. Can I get a selfie with you please?’
Kiyan relaxed. He stood up and posed for a selfie with the girl. She thanked him, praised his trilogy and told him she was waiting for his next book. Next book? Kiyan knew he would write the next book only when he was done with Kashti.
The girl went away checking the selfie on her phone while Kiyan joined Anaysha at her table.
‘Sorry. I thought it was one of Kashti’s friends.’
‘I understood that. But do you know any of her friends?’ Anaysha asked.
‘I don’t. I checked her Facebook profile, but none of them seemed like her true friends.’
‘She’s clearly hiding a lot of things. And we need to get to the bottom of it before it is too late,’ Anaysha said.
‘Too late?’
‘Obviously she has an agenda. She has a plan.’ Separating us was a part of that plan, she thought.
‘Hmmm.’
‘By the way, did you get her to confess anything last night?’
‘I tried, but . . .’
I tried . . . Anaysha knew what he meant by that. He must have seduced her. She remembered how she had been made to hear them having sex. Now she knew it must have been Kashti’s ploy to make Anaysha realize she had lost Kiyan to her. Anaysha sighed, thinking about the last time Kiyan and she had made love, before he left Delhi for his first book event. It had been more than two months ago. She knew how goo
d a lover he could be. Suddenly, with him sitting before her, she wondered why this couldn’t be like old times. Why did life have to make it so complicated? She craved for him emotionally but couldn’t confess her urges. She felt like his name was still etched into her heart. And yet . . .
‘What happened?’ Kiyan nudged her gently.
Anaysha nodded and said, ‘Should we go somewhere else? People may recognize you here.’
‘Actually, Kashti tracks my phone. She will know if I’m not in Starbucks.’
‘Tracks your phone? How?’
Kiyan explained how an iPhone can be traced if someone accessed the phone’s Apple ID.
‘But don’t you need a password to log in to the ID?’
‘Yes, but Kashti somehow guessed the password. It wasn’t that difficult after all.’
‘What is the password?’
‘Kiyananaysha30.’
30 was Anaysha’s birth date. Hearing their names together sounded like listening to a eulogy of their relationship.
She thought for some time and said, ‘She can track your phone. Not you. Let’s keep the phone with Rahul and go somewhere else.’
‘Who’s Rahul?’
‘He works here. Once he saw me reading a book and recommended something that I loved. Since then, we keep recommending books to each other. You can say that he is my book buddy.’
‘Okay. But what if Kashti calls up?’
‘You can always tell her you kept it on silent mode to focus on work. And I’ll tell Rahul to inform me if anyone calls on your phone.’
‘Sounds neat. I’m sick and tired of her controlling nature,’ he said and stood up.
The statement made Anaysha feel good about herself, even though she knew it hadn’t been Kiyan’s objective of saying it. She gave Kiyan’s phone to Rahul and together they exited Starbucks.
They took an Ola cab and gave the driver a nearby destination they had no intention of going to. It seemed to be a better idea to discuss their plan in a moving car, without risk of being watched or interrupted. Later, they could ask the cab to turn around and take them back to Starbucks.
‘Last night, she asked me if I would help her find the guy who rejected Tina,’ Kiyan said, turning sideways to look at Anaysha.
‘What did you say?’
‘I said okay.’
‘What do you think? Is she telling the truth?’
‘I don’t know. But she is definitely hiding something.’
‘What makes you so sure?’
‘The phone call she made that day seemed really suspicious. Also, her locked cupboards? I mean who keeps their cupboards locked and clothes in a bag, even after living there for 6 months? In fact, I’m yet to meet her local guardians.’
‘Local guardians?’
‘She told me her uncle is her local guardian. But I don’t know the exact address.’ A pause later he added, ‘What should we do now?’
Could this attempt of hers to rescue Kiyan from the crisis bring them close again? Anaysha wondered. She had told him clearly she would leave him forever once the Kashti issue was sorted, but what if by then she discovered the old Kiyan once again? Did that kind of thing happen to people? First falling in love, then separating and then again coming together?
‘My next book is suffering. I’m not able to focus at all,’ Kiyan lamented.
‘There is only one way to know if she is playing smart or whether she really doesn’t know about the guy responsible for Tina’s condition. If Kashti already knows it’s you then she is asking you for help only to buy time to finish whatever she has in mind. But if she seriously doesn’t know you are the guy, then . . .’
The cab went over a bumpy speedbreaker, forcing her to pause.
‘Then?’ he egged her on.
‘Then you should ask her how to find the guy. It might tell us just how much she knows.’
Kiyan mulled over Anaysha’s plan.
‘Bhaiya, Cyber Hub wapas le lo.’ Kiyan said to the driver, punching in the new destination on the Ola app on Anaysha’s phone, and turned to Anaysha to say, ‘You are right. If she wants to find that guy then let me help her reach him. If it is me or someone else I will know soon, and along with it, what exactly she has in mind for the guy.’
‘Right!’
The Ola cab drove them back to Cyber Hub. Anaysha went to her office while Kiyan collected his phone from Rahul and went home. He waited for Kashti. When the doorbell finally rang a tad before her usual time of arrival, Kiyan was quick to open the door. He had his queries framed perfectly in his head and also the perfect time to ask them—when they were drinking their evening coffee. But Kiyan opened the door to see Kashti looking like he had never seen her before. She was crying.
‘What happened?’ he gasped.
Kashti hugged him tightly and said in a whimpering voice, ‘Tina Di committed suicide last night.’
Kiyan frowned as he caressed her back, trying to calm her down.
‘I won’t leave the bastard. I swear,’ she said. Kiyan swallowed a lump in his throat. He asked, ‘Do you now know who the guy is?’
20
Kashti was on the bed, cuddled in Kiyan’s arms. They had skipped dinner. She didn’t feel like eating, while Kiyan had only his protein shake. When he had asked her if she knew who the boy was, she had replied no.
Lying in bed with her head on his chest, Kashti had her eyes closed, with dried tears on her cheeks. Kiyan had had to console her for more than an hour before she stopped crying.
‘Tell me what happened.’
‘She consumed poison last night. Mom and Dad found her dead some time later.’
‘Just like that?’
‘Not just like that. I told you she was disturbed because of that bastard who broke her heart.’
Kiyan stopped probing further. Lost in thought he caressed her bare back. She had put his hand inside her T-shirt, saying it made her feel peaceful. With his fingers moving gently over her skin, she looked up and said, ‘Aren’t you sleepy?’
Kiyan nodded and said, ‘What exactly happened between your sister and the guy?’
‘She loved him but he played with her.’
‘Played with her?’ he asked.
‘Yes. Toyed with her emotions. Left her suddenly.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean,’ Kiyan chose his words carefully and said, ‘You don’t know the guy but have already judged him?’
Kashti sat up, moving away from his grasp, ‘My sister killed herself because of him, Kiyan. I think I have enough reasons to judge him.’ Kiyan understood this was going the other way, where he hadn’t intended it to.
‘Calm down.’ He put his hands on her waist and pulled her towards him. Looking into her eyes he said, ‘How do we get to this guy?’
Kashti stared at him and then smiled, saying, ‘Thanks for the support, baby.’ She put her head back on his chest and said, ‘I don’t know how. By the time I knew what had happened with Tina Di, she had already become unbalanced. I didn’t even hear her say his name ever. Moreover, I have stayed in a boarding school for most of my childhood, so I was always away from her. And yet I loved her so much . . .’ She started sobbing again.
‘Calm down, Kashti. I know it’s a difficult time, but nothing can be done now.’
Kashti’s phone rang. It was on the bedside table close to Kiyan. He picked it up, glanced at the screen casually and saw ‘Mom’ written on it. This was the first time he had seen Kashti’s mother call her. He gave the phone to her.
‘Yeah, Mom.’ As she talked, Kiyan was lost in thought. What if her parents knew something about the guy? For a moment, he put himself in Kashti’s shoes. What would he have done if he came to know his sister went crazy and committed suicide because of a guy he had by the balls? He shuddered at the answer that popped into his head.
‘I’m leaving for the US tomorrow night,’ Kashti said, throwing the phone down on the bed.
‘Aren’t they b
ringing the body here?’
‘No. I will shift to the US after my boards. My parents have decided to settle there now. I was the only connection to India for them anyway.’
And all I’m hoping for is that you don’t come to know the name of the guy till you shift to the US, Kiyan thought and said, ‘I see.’
‘You will also shift with me,’ Kashti said, hugging him.
‘I wish, but you know I’ll have to be here for my work.’
‘What’s the problem? You can write from the US and email your publisher whatever they need. Then we can come here together for promotions.’
‘I write stories for Indians, and for that I need to research, sweetheart.’
‘Live your story, as you always say.’
‘That’s right. I need to live my stories to write them.’
A moment later she made a puppy face and said, ‘I will miss you.’
‘I’ll miss you too.’
‘Tonight is our last night together. I shall leave tomorrow. Dad has mailed me the tickets. I don’t know when I will be back.’
A part of Kiyan was happy she would leave. But he didn’t let it show.
‘Make love to me as if there’s no tomorrow,’ she said and kissed him on the lips. The way she put her hand inside his vest and caressed his nipples aroused Kiyan. They started smooching. Suddenly, Kiyan stopped.
‘One second.’ He went out of the bedroom. Kashti heard him open the main door and then close it. He came back.
‘What?’ she asked.
‘Nobody,’ he replied.
He started kissing her on her breasts. She kept pushing his head downward and was about to guide him to where she was wet when he stopped again.
‘Damn,’ Kiyan said and went out. Once again, Kashti heard him open the main door, lock it and come back. She was irked but chose to let it go once he was back. She pushed him down on the bed, removed her T-shirt and rode him. She pinned his hands on top and was kissing his chest when he cried out, ‘What the fuck is this! Excuse me.’ Kiyan left the bedroom, but when he came back this time, he noticed Kashti had worn her T-shirt.
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