Stars & Dreams

21) Alpha Tauri - Intriguing and Calm

The slap tugged him back to the present. When his senses spun out of control, he had lost his reasoning power. Neither the desert breeze nor the emerging stars halted Yohan's spiralling emotions.

His body had succumbed to the pleasure of the moment. Rumi's softness, her earthiness and her unique scent had seduced him to push harder for gratification. But the slap forced him out of the pool of carnal delight he had slipped into.

They stared at each other. If one paid attention, one could find a quietness that was unnerving; however, at that moment, neither Yohan nor Rumi paid attention to it, only the compelling sound of their shallow breathing interrupted the stillness.

Yohan stared at her in disconcerted confusion, trying to normalise the function of his lungs.

"Rumi...." he began

"That is it! I am done. I cannot continue in your film. You can find a replacement for me," Rumi declared, her eyes giving away her disgust and outrage. She hated him at that moment.

The look in her eyes made him cringe. How could he have done this to her?

Girls had refused him earlier, they had laughed at him, they had turned him down but he had never lost his temper or reason even once. There had been girlfriends who had cheated on him with his best friend, who had spoken ill about him to the media. Not once had that made him so angry that he had lost his brain. Rumi, just by talking to the other man had made him so insanely jealous that for a moment he had forgotten all the lessons and manners that his grandmother had taught him.

Why did Rumi wield so much power over him? He shrank away from finding the answer to that question. Right now, his priority was to assuage her temper.

"I am sorry, Rumi. I just lost it."

"Lost it? You assaulted me, Yohan. I don't want to work with you anymore."

Yohan took a deep breath, "Listen Rumi, I promise you that it will not happen again. If you want, I will give it in writing. I know I made a terrible mistake and I am extremely sorry for it. I will not interfere in anything you do from now onwards. Please Rumi..."

Yohan realized something that shook him to the core; that rooted him to the spot. His whole life had been a celluloid that he had watched and not been part of it. He had merely been an observer from the periphery of it. But right at that moment, unfamiliar feelings ebbed into his veins slowly and steadily, the intensity of it shuddered him; the pain, the pleasure, the turmoil, the guilt and the shame... They churned his insides.

He couldn't foresee his grandmother's movie without Rumi. Rumi was his gypsy; the wild, the temperamental beauty who stands for what is right and fights any wrong that she sees.

And he was in love with his gypsy......

However, what mystified him was the person he was in love with! Was he in love with Rumi or Mantra, the gypsy? The question rattled him. He didn't wait for Rumi's answer. He left the room. Running down the steps, he took his wagon and headed towards the barrenness of the desert as if it had solution to all his troubles.

****************

Rumi was in two minds; to pack and leave or stay and finish the film. Yohan's behaviour had distressed her. When she had opened the door earlier, she hadn't suspected that Yohan would grab her and kiss. She thought he had come to talk to her about Alec. Not that Yohan had hurt her. No, he hadn't hurt her physically. It was more of a shock than anything else. Rumi hadn't expected such behaviour from him. More than anything else, she did not deserve such offense. Maybe Ujjwal or Adil would not have shocked her by such conduct. But Yohan? She wasn't able to process it. Except that afternoon in his room, he had never shown any inclination towards a physical relationship with her. It had been Rumi who had sometimes wanted to touch him for some kind of human assurance. So when he had kissed her, it had bewildered her, angered her and finally outraged her. What is the guarantee that he wouldn't repeat it?