THE PROMISE OF TIME (SEQUEL of ' SPARK OF LOVE')

Chapter 4

After the meeting, Ritika attended to her OPD patients till two in the afternoon and drove back home in her car. Abhiram, worked till six in the evening at the ER till he called it a day. This had been their routine for the past four months. When Dr.Shivom told him that he preferred doing night shifts, Abhiram had no complaints whatsoever.

Later in the evening, Ritika was in the kitchen with her mother-in-law,Sunita. Sunita was a good cook and she liked cooking for the family. Ritika offered to help her ,but Sunita usually declined. May be her mother-in-law thought she was a super woman in a cape and had taken upon her the task of protecting the family from Ritika's cooking. Not that Ritika was a bad cook. But ,her culinary skills were just tolerable, Sunita was an expert and she couldn't compete.

Abhiram was browsing through some medical literature about a manuscript he was currently working upon. Too many things in his mind and he couldn't concentrate much.So he closed his laptop reluctantly and came out of his study.

"Abhika, where's mumma?," Abhiram asked his daughter, who was sitting on the carpet and busily playing with her doll-house set.

"In the kitchen, with grandma," she said , pointing her podgy fingers towards the kitchen. Abhika was the spitting image of Abhiram, the million-dollar smile of hers, her eyes and even the scowl on her face when she was angry.

"Okay." He turned to go into the kitchen.

"Papa, sit here, play with me. I am going to make cake," Abhika ordered her dad, as she picked up the plastic muffins and put it in the doll house oven.

Abhiram could not deny his daughter anything. If she asked for the moon, he would bring it for her. So he sat down to play. May be he needed to reconsider his idea about a second kid, he thought. He needed to have this impending conversation with Ritika. He hoped she would see the reason and wait for some time.

**

Soon, it was dinner time and Ritika came out of the kitchen to arrange the dishes on the table. Watching Abhiram being the doting dad he was gave her butterflies in her belly. She yearned to carry a baby in her womb, craved to see Abhiram hold a tiny baby in his arms. A little brother or sister for Abhika. She did not want to wait any longer. She would put her foot down tonight. Sooner the better. Why didn't Abhiram understand what she was saying?

Dinner was a noisy affair that day, like every other day. Abhika was a picky eater and it took nearly an hour to make Abhika eat her food. While clearing the dishes from the table together, Ritika nudged Abhiram.

"Ram, we need to talk," she told Abhiram

"We need to do many things," Abhiram replied that earned him a pinch on his nearly un-pinchable biceps.

"Ouch," He winced.

"Serves you right. Behave, we have an audience," she told him and chuckled, giving a glance at Abhika who was playing on the sofa with Abhiram's father, Mahesh.

"Dad, will you take care of her for sometime and if she feels sleepy, let her stay in your room. There was this meeting today afternoon and we need to discuss a couple of things," Abhiram told his dad.

"Don't worry, let her sleep with us today," Mahesh replied, a smile playing on his lips.

Ritika was mortified. She turned around and scurried towards the kitchen.

Mahesh and Sunita were not the typical parents-in-law. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they loved Ritika as much as they loved Adhira and Abhiram. Ritika almost never missed her parents here nor did they give her a reason to cry. She knew she was very lucky and was ever grateful for being a part of this family.

Ten minutes later, Ritika joined Abhiram in the balcony attached to their room. Abhiram was leaning against the railing,

"Ram, have you gone bonkers? What will dad think?" Ritika had nearly died of embarrassment earlier.

"Let us get embarrassed once in a while," Abhiram said ,as he snaked his arm possessively around her waist and pulled her against his powerfully built torso."What's wrong? We are married .We made a baby together. It's not like they don't know we do it."

"Excuse me, I thought we are here to have a discussion. Not do it, Shameless," she scolded him sweetly and rolled her eyes. "I know you do this purposely."

Abhiram laughed for thirty seconds non-stop.

"First you called me a grizzly bear.Now 'shamless'. So what am I? A shameless grizzly bear?"

Ritika glared at him." Your diversionary tactics are not working,Ram."

"Ok fine. Discussion is what we will have. Be ready to go on a guilt trip. Why didn't you tell me earlier that you had stopped taking the pills?" Abhiram questioned her. Just thinking of what she had asked him in the morning made him hard. The morning scene had played non stop in his head all through the day. He hoped he could think with his brain and not with any other part of his anatomy to have a fruitful conversation with her now.

"Ram, I'm so sorry. I would have told you sooner. I mean, I wanted to ask you about it but I was scared you wouldn't agree. I just didn't feel like taking them anymore."

"Right, so you put on that goddamned dress, seduce me and shred whatever little self –control I have. I nearly lost it. If you wouldn't have stopped me I would have taken you hard and fast." He told her in a dark whisper.

"I just wanted you to know how much I want baby number two. I'm dead serious. BTW, you didn't stop when I said I wanted a baby. You were pretty busy taking my clothes off. You should have seen your face when I told you about the pills. "

Abhiram muttered an expletive.

"Well, what else did you expect? See,when the wife heatedly whispers to put a baby in her, it awakens something primal in the man. It's pure biology, not rocket science for you to not understand," Abhiram explained to her as she suppressed her smile.

"It was fun watching you lose your self –restraint," Ritika goaded him. She then stood in front of him with her arms on his shoulders, his steely hardness pushing against her navel. Her knees buckled when he planted a soft kiss on her neck. The heady rush of desire threatened to destroy all her sane thoughts.

She needed this as much as him.

"It is a miracle I'm standing here, getting tortured like this. From the looks of it, I feel you schemed the first pregnancy too." Abhiram arched his brows.

"Noo"

"Ritu,please let's get this out of the way and then talk." Abhiram pleaded to Ritika and when she nodded, he swiftly pushed her to the bedroom.

Half an hour later, they were on the bed together, too exhausted to talk, forget discussion.

****

Another chapter

Hope it was fun.