A Reckless Night

by Van,P. G.

  “What? Why freaky?”

  “I had no idea what to do, but I ended up having them write me instructions and followed them to the T.”

  “You seem to have some baby-whispering talent.”

  “I don’t. I know for sure.”

  “Varsha, let me feed her. I am sure you are tired,” her nanny offered.

  She shook her head and refused to give the bowl to Pammi. She knew she missed out on a lot of things with her baby during the day, but she had a routine for the evening. She fed, bathed, and read her a book no matter where she was or how tired she was.

  “I am sure you are about to crash after pulling an all-nighter. You should eat while Myra eats,” Kris chimed in.

  “I am fine.”

  Varsha had mixed feelings about Myra’s fascination with Kris and wondered how her daughter felt the connection, which was very odd for a child to develop with a person in her first meeting.

  Tremors ran through her body when she remembered how well they connected the night they met. She had not had a sensible conversation with someone before. She smiled to herself remembering how upset she was when her daughter refused to come to her from his arms. She looked at Kris playing with her daughter as she ran her chubby palms along his jawline giggling as he pretended to be tickled by her touch.

  “Varsha, are you okay?” Kris asked interrupting her thoughts.

  She winced slightly with the concern in his voice but managed to respond in a cool tone. “I am fine, Kris.” She looked at Myra smiling, “Having fun with Kris?”

  “Yup,” Kris said getting up from the chair and added laughing, “I’m brushing up on my baby entertainment skills so I can watch my sister’s kid.”

  “How old is your sister’s child?”

  “She is due in a few months, and I need all the practice I can get.” Kris smiled looking at her baby..

  “You seriously want to hang out with her after this episode?” She laughed and Kris nodded smiling at her. Myra looked at the two of them laughing and started giggling so she didn’t feel left out.

  “Who says Myra is a drama queen, she is a happy camper.” Kris picked her up from the high chair and put her on the floor.

  She looked at Myra and asked, “How much longer are you going to ignore me, baby? She has not been in my arms without kicking and screaming since she met you, Kris.”

  Kris smiled sheepishly. “I am glad she likes me.”

  “Krishna, please eat something before you go,” Pammi called out from the kitchen.

  “Why does she call you Krishna?”

  “Indian version of my name.” He winked.

  “I know that, but do you go by Krishna?”

  “My official name, but you know what I prefer.” His eyes twinkled with a wicked grin that made her twitch. She looked away without responding.

  She ate in silence watching Kris and Myra interact as he ate with Myra in his lap. She saw him feed her tiny pieces of the food that the nanny had made and watched her totally enjoy all the attention.

  “This is great food, Pammi.”

  “Pammi is awesome!!” She knew she was blessed to have a nanny like her.

  “Pammi, can I have your family move into my place please? I will sleep in the garage if you cook like this everyday.” Kris laughed and caught the annoyance on Varsha’s face. He loved to see her fired up.

  “Stop poaching. She is mine,” she declared slightly irritated with his comment.

  “I am not going anywhere, Varsha. Sorry Krishna.” Pammi smiled at him.

  “Are you ready to sleep, Myra?” Varsha couldn’t wait to put her baby to sleep and crash.

  Myra shook her head and got away from Kris. She ran into the family room and started playing with her toys.

  “She took a shorter nap this afternoon. I’m sure she will sleep soon,” her nanny said encouragingly.

  “You should go Pammi. It’s pretty late.”

  “It’s okay, I’ll clean up before I go.”

  “No, Pammi. You stayed way past your usual time. I’ll clean up,” she insisted and saw her nanny out. She wondered when Kris was planning to leave, if he was planning at all.

  He sat in silence as she got her daughter to drink a few ounces of milk with her sipping cup while she was engrossed in play. She felt his eyes on her, watching the two of them from the corner of her eye. She took a deep breath fighting the urge to look into his eyes.

  She refused to start a conversation with him and when he showed no indication of leaving, she left Kris and Myra to play in the family room to cleanup. Midway through her routine she realized the house was awfully quiet. She gingerly walked to the family room to find Myra sprawled on Kris’s chest asleep.

  She put her palms to her mouth in disbelief. She walked over to where he was sitting on the couch and whispered in awe, “You got her to sleep without her set up upstairs?”

  Kris shrugged. “I think she was tired.”

  “Thank you, I will take her upstairs,” she whispered and gently slipped her palm between the sleeping baby and his tight chest to take Myra from his arms.

  Myra winced and wailed in her sleep at the change in position, and Varsha froze looking into Kris’s eyes.

  “I can take her upstairs,” he offered.

  “No,” she rasped without making an attempt to tame her tone.

  “Varsha…you don’t want her to wake up, do you?” he whispered.

  “Fine, up the stairs to the right,” she growled under her breath keeping her voice low.

  She followed him up the stairs watching her precious baby’s head on his broad shoulder and noticed how his arm held her to him with utmost care. She had missed holding her child all evening and felt possessive enough to risk waking her up if she needed to yank her away from him.

  He set her in her crib and stood silently by the door as Varsha adjusted the blankets around Myra and turned on the baby monitor.

  “Downstairs in one minute, I need to talk to you,” she whispered firmly when she felt the heat from his stare on her.

  “See you.”

  Varsha went downstairs holding the baby monitor in her hands to find Kris standing by the patio door with his back to her, looking out into her yard. He turned when he heard her approach him, a slight smile on his face.

  “This is getting out of hand. What the heck do you think you are doing?” she barked with her hands folded in front of her chest.

  “Easy…that’s a complete shift from the kind mom I was with all evening.” His voice was soft, but his tone had a tease to it.

  “Kris!!!”

  “I am not good at answering loaded questions; one question at a time, please.” He smiled leaning against the kitchen units.

  She took a deep breath wondering where to start as a million questions raced through her mind. She wanted to start with her burning question.

  “Why are you here?”

  “I am here because you wanted to talk to me.” He knew she was irritated and was exercising restraint. He liked to see her burn him with her death stare.

  “How did you magically become my neighbor?” Her voice wavered.

  “It’s a free country, people sell homes and other people buy homes.”

  “What do you want?” she asked boldly ready to handle anything she hears.

  “What do you want?”

  “Enough!!” she blurted.

  “I am sorry, it’s late and you haven’t slept in over twenty-four hours. Do you want to talk about it tomorrow?” His voice was soft yet firm.

  “No, now, and we will go back to being coworkers,” she declared.

  “If we are not coworkers until we are done talking, I have a question for you.” His voice was soft.

  “What?” she snarled.

  “Why are you losing your cool? I just need to ask you a question.” She knew exactly what he was going to ask her.

  “Why did you leave in the middle of the night?” The question hit her like a punch in the stomach even though she expected i
t.

  She fought back the jitters his tone sent through her body. “I had my own reasons.”

  “Fair enough. I had my own reasons to buy the house next to yours.” His eyes were on her face.

  “Who is Sam?” she blurted unable to contain the question that was burning her for the past few days.

  “You mean Sam who was supposed to be your date?” he teased.

  “I am not laughing,” she hissed.

  “I am sorry. I wanted to tell you I was there that night in place of Sam but…,” his voice trailed off and he took a step towards her.

  “But what, Kris?”

  “I think I made it very clear how I felt about you that night, do you think I should have told you I wasn’t Sam and let you get away?” he retorted and added, “It was a blind date, did it matter who showed up?”

  She was outraged. “Yes, it does. I went on that blind date only because my sister and brother-in-law knew the guy. I wasn’t interested in dating a complete stranger.”

  “I know…but I just couldn’t. I wanted you so bad, you know how bad,” he said sounding dejected and made her cringe. She knew exactly what he felt for her and was good at expressing himself.

  “That is not an excuse. If you had told me that night you weren’t the guy, we wouldn’t have this conversation to begin with.” Her voice ripped through the silence in the house.

  “That is true only because Sam would have eaten your brains out instead of blowing your mind.” His voice held a command over her body as she fought to hide every reaction she was having to him being at such close proximity.

  “It doesn’t matter. I can never trust you.” Her words made him ache deep inside.

  “I did not lie about anything. The Kris you met that night is the guy standing in front of you.”

  “That night is the past, there is no future to it,” she said gathering some strength.

  He moved swiftly towards her taking her by the shoulders. His voice was gruff making her quiver. “Don’t make it sound like it didn’t mean anything.”

  She knew he was right. The night was not just magical, it was unraveling for her. She shared the most intimate details about herself with him knowing he was a complete stranger. She walked away from him that morning feeling like a woman, a beautiful and a confident one.

  “I…I don’t want to discuss that,” she managed to say.

  “Why not?”

  “You won’t understand,” she felt weak.

  “Try me,” he challenged.

  “I have things to do and need to do without a distraction,” she said firmly.

  “You mean Myra?” he said scrunching his nose.

  “No.”

  “What is it?”

  She took a deep breath before responding. “Kris, just drop it. It’s over. I neither have regrets nor attachments from that night.” She was lying to him and to herself.

  She immediately felt his fingertips dig into her shoulders. His body emitted the raw masculinity making her nerves turn raw. She looked into his eyes as he bore down into her eyes.

  He was pissed and annoyed at her for being so unshakeable. He wanted her for reasons he couldn’t explain and hoped to get close to her, know her better. He released her shoulders and took a step back looking at her resolute face.

  “Fine, what do you want to do now?” he sneered.

  “You and I are coworkers and need to stay that way,” she said softly.

  “What if I wasn’t your coworker?”

  “You would be a nobody, a stranger I once met. It would be just like meeting someone on a plane and you connect with them and have a good conversation.”

  “Really, you would tell a person you met on the plane everything you told me that night?” The simmering anger in his voice shook her to the core as he closed the gap between them. He wrapped his arm possessively around her waist puling her to him and walked her backwards to flatten her back to the wall. She gasped at the sudden outburst and fisted her palm on his shirt holding on to it for support.

  “Yes,” she hissed when she felt his warm breath on her cheek.

  “Would you do this with someone you met on the plane?” He pinned her body to the wall and brought his lips to hers. She gasped against his mouth at the roughness in the kiss running her fingers into his hair.

  She wanted him, she had always wanted him, and she had dreams about him for weeks after she left him alone in bed. She knew there was no future, and she didn’t have the strength to endure another heartbreak.

  His lips were punishing, and she knew he was angry. She would be lying to herself if she said she didn’t want him to kiss her.

  She moaned arching her body towards him, the pressure from his lips eased, and she felt his palm caress her bottom bringing her mound to his hardness. Tremors passed through her body reminding her of what he was capable of doing to her and how quickly he could make her beg to take her.

  “Kris,” she pleaded against his lips.

  He released her lips and took a step back, but she wasn’t ready to let go. She took her cheek to his tight chest that was heaving up and down and wrapped her arms around him. She stayed in his arms drawing her strength from his embrace. “I promised not to leave, I am sorry.”

  “Why Varsha?”

  “I didn’t want to wake up to the harsh reality that I was just another woman you slept with. I needed to get out before anything ruined the night for me.”

  “Varsha, I told you...,” he started to say but she pushed him away gently. “It doesn’t matter now. I have moved on, and I have nothing to offer.”

  “What are you suggesting?” he asked steadying his voice.

  “I need you to treat me like a coworker and…,” she started to say and he completed,” And pretend like nothing happened?”

  “Yes.”

  “Suit yourself.” He turned away from her and added flatly, “Thank you for dinner.”

  He reached the patio door and turned to look at her. She felt her body jolt in reaction to the longing she saw in his eyes.

  “Good night, Varsha. I will see you in the morning.”

  “Kris…will you call me when you are ready to go?”

  “Sure, what is your number?” He grumbled and dialed her number and she heard her phone buzz in her purse.

  “I’ll save your number,” she said weakly.

  Kris opened the patio door and walked towards the door in the fence. She walked to the glass door and stood looking at him as he walked away.

  She felt sore on the inside, like a bulldozer dug up everything on the inside. She knew for sure Kris was there for her, but she refused to give in to the attraction. She had no intension of being one of his conquests and when he picks up his stuff and leaves, he will not only hurt her, he would leave her baby heartbroken. She would never let that happen.

  Chapter Six

  “Good morning,” Varsha said to Kris on the phone the next morning and added in a calm tone, “I am ready to go whenever you are.”

  “I will be in two minutes.”

  “I’ll meet you outside.”

  “Sounds good. Will I get to see Myra?” She was glad to hear his calm voice.

  She hesitated. “Yes. See you in a bit.”

  She hung up and looked at Myra in the nanny’s arms. “Myra, do you want to go outside to say bye to mommy?”

  Myra jumped with excitement as they stepped out of the townhouse. Kris was pulling his sleek car out of the garage, and she hoped Myra would not be able to see him through the tinted glass.

  She gave Myra a big hug and left a flurry of kisses on her cheek and walked towards the idling car. She opened the car door slightly, and Kris’s masculine cologne tingled her nostrils waking her up.

  Get a hold of yourself, Varsha. You can’t have him.

  “Hi.” She maintained a casual manner as she slid into the passenger seat. Kris had a glorious smile on his face and was looking at Myra with so much endearment Varsha could not believe her eyes. She rolled the window dow
n enough so Myra could see her and said, “Bye, baby.”

  Kris took in a deep breath. “So, you don’t want her to spot me? I think I know why, but I am upset I didn’t get to say hi to the beautiful little princess.”

  She smiled with pride. “My beautiful baby.”

  “Beautiful. Just like her mommy,” Kris said in a cool voice looking at the road.

  She shook her head at his comment as her cheeks started to burn. “Can you please stop flirting? We work together.”

  “I am sorry, but you suck at receiving a compliment. The normal answer would have been ‘thank you’!!” he taunted.

  “Whatever!!”

  “By the way, I am not just your coworker. I am your neighbor and the dude that’s taking you to work this morning,” he corrected.

  “Yes and about that…” she started to say and held off not knowing how to tell him.

  “Now what?”

  “Myra seems to be fascinated with you and after last night’s drama, I am starting to think that it’s best if you don’t show yourself to her in the evenings.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “I know it’s a ridiculous thing to ask for but…”

  “You are nuts,” he laughed.

  “I can’t have you come feed her and put her to bed every night, can I?” she barked annoyed at his laughter.

  “What if I don’t mind doing that?” His was voice stern, and his eyes were on the road.

  She felt sick to her stomach and felt her body slouch further into the low-level seat. It would have been easy to say yes and have everything she ever wanted, but she couldn’t.

  “Kris!!” his name rolled off her lips, a half plea.

  “Fine!!” he said through clenched teeth.

  *****

  Varsha stood in the middle of her closet staring at the light blue men’s cashmere sweater that had been a reminder of her passionate night with Kris. She ran her palm on the back of the sweater to bring the soft material to her face. The sweater smelled just like he did in the car that morning when she dumped another load of requests on him. She was sure it was a matter of time before he would be fed up with all the things she said to him, and he would pack up and leave.