Touch Her And... (Completed)

Chapter 44

With every stroke of brush he was attributing more life to the painting . The grey pair of eyes and the painting brush were complementing each other so harmoniously that anyone would have concluded that this man deserved to be an artist.

But not everyone gets to fulfill their dreams. And in his case it was more of a crime.

After that incident she was ignoring him. But what made her different from everyone was that her intentions were clear as crystal. She didn't know faking her feelings. Probably that was why even when they came face to face while others were around.. she couldn't help but smile at him; the genuine one.

She was the ultimate definition of purity to him. Something that was dragging him dangerously close to his inevitable destruction.

He had the option to leave this place, the place that always made him feel so lonely, so deprived. But for the first time he argued with his father and stayed back. It was not lonely and cold anymore.

A particular curly haired source of warmth kept manipulating his life in a way that one could easily say that he was content. The "Prasad",something that he had never been offered with, had become a part of his mornings. Something nobody dared to do.

Now he woke up and waited for  someone sent by her to enter his room and place a plate full of Prasad on his bedside table then leave without uttering a single word. Also the additional perks came as surprise gifts whenever their was some sort of a special occasion. Every time it made him smile thinking about her innocent gestures.

By that time he just knew, someone out there considered his existence to be valuable. Someone that never deprived him of having his own share of happiness. It was a weird feeling and it was growing into him.

He was becoming desperate with every passing day. He wanted her all to himself. It pained him every time he saw her in Aditya's arm, the thought of him holding her like that angered him. But Aditya should not be blamed. He would have done the same if he was fortunate enough to have her for himself. He would have never had enough of her. He would have never been able to stop himself  from touching her, from loving her all the time.

From the last two weeks he kept on following her to the woods like a creep. He couldn't get enough sleep. Whenever he closed his eyes the same picture of her smiling in another man's arm popped up and he started sweating like hell.

That's how one day he saw her leaving the mansion with a "thali" (a plate) full of flowers,diya and other necessary things for a Puja. He couldn't help but follow her. Hiding behind that huge tree he continued to look at her from behind.

Her curls reached her waist, her tiny figure as always was wrapped in a saffron saree. The strings of Rudrakshas that complemented her goddess like beauty were wrapped around her upper arms, her wrists and he knew she was wearing one around her neck as a necklace. She needed nothing else. She was too beautiful for the artificialities of this world.

And then the thought crossed his mind. And the next thing he knew was that he started capturing a particular view inside his canvas.

He was too engrossed in the painting to notice a slowly advancing Ambika towards him.

"You paint?" She asked bringing him back to the earth.

His hand froze. Finally, finally he got to hear that beautiful voice again. He looked up to find her standing at the opposite end of the canvas at a little distance.
"I do." He answered after a few seconds. His eyes not leaving hers.
"Can I see this?" She asked. Her huge eyes held so much amusement and curiosity that at a point he thought of showing her what he was painting. But the sane part still stopped him.
"M-may be not this one." He said cursing himself in his mind.
"Oh..I am so sorry. I didn't thought.. " she started but he cut her short and immediately said,
"No,no it's not like that, I'll obviously show you the other ones, if you want. I'll be really happy to show you. But t-this one is a little personal." He completed and she did that again. She smiled and said,
"Trust me, it's okay. I am just happy to know that the grumpy man has emotions enough to paint." She giggled and he tightened his grip on the brush. His eyes kept shifting from her eyes to her lips. He knew what he was doing. He was controlling the urge to pull her tiny figure to his chest till there was no space left and hovering over her lips like a wild animal.
"Come on, let's take you back home." He said with every bit of control in him.

"This line should be mine you know. I know the woods better than you." And she smiled again.

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"She should be back by now, don't you think so?" Aditya asked. To which Ashok looked at the clock and nodded.
"Let's go and bring her." He said while standing up from his bed.
"Wait, she'll come down. It's just her habit,she loses track of time." Ashok said while laying back on the bed.
"You really call yourself her brother?" He asked grumpily.
"Yes! Very proudly." Ashok said while yawning, and added,
"And you know what? You need to stop freaking out like this. She is not a child anymore Adi and to be honest she knows the woods better than us."

"And who is worrying about the woods,there are things way more dangerous than wild animals Ashok. I am frightened of them. I am frightened of losing her to anything. You can call it insecurity. But I feel like she needs to be around me always. Where I can feel her presence,her warmth. I don't know what is happening to me." He said pacing up and down the room.

"I know what's happening to you." Ashok said to which Aditya looked at him curiously. He then very seriously added,
"You're whipped man!" He said and started laughing like a madman. Aditya rolled his eyes and moved to the window.

He looked outside and all the sanity left in him said goodbye at once. Within a second he was out of his room. Bewildered, Ashok stood up, looked outside and froze. The view was not good at all. He ran out of the room too.
                            ¤¤¤¤¤

"Well, well, well.. so? How many days have you two been doing this since?" Aditya asked too politely for his own sanity. Standing at the door was Ambika. Right beside her stood Pratap with the canvas under his left armpit.

"Not again Aditya. He was there painting something. You have to trust me"  She said as firmly as  possible.

"That's really nice. See, she never stops defending you Pratap. What have you done to her?" He asked as coldly as possible and slowly kept advancing towards them. Suddenly his whole demeanor changed from cold to furious. He fisted his hands as if automatically and growled.
"What the hell have you done to my Ambika?! Why the hell she keeps taking your side?" With this he punched Pratap before anyone could even react.
Due to the sudden impact Pratap lost his balance and the first thing that happened was that the canvas fell on the ground revealing the back of a beautiful, curly haired goddess in a saffron saree.

The honey brown orbs very slowly glared back at the already glaring grey orbs.

And the earth stopped rotating.