The Fallen Widow

21. Confession in the Night

Dressed in a loose grey kurtha Shah Nawaz approached Meh'r-Bano trapped and alone in the middle of nowhere. Just like he planned. She stood up trying to cover her revealing figure in her soaking wet pastel pink kameez, but it was no use. Her clothes clung to every curve of her body and revealed the fullness of her breasts. Shah Nawaz ran his hand over his beard. 

***

"What are you doing here?" I ask her without waiting for a reply. Where I can I lay her? The hay looks soft and sturdy. Maybe against that brick wall. Her clothes will rip in a simple tug and no one can hear her scream. Why is my throat dry?
"Sheeda-"
She's talking about the stupid bull. I need to get close to her and she needs to stop backing away or else this will be chase. Her long slender neck drives me wild- that's I want to attack first.

"Are you listening to me?" She asks.

Of course I'm not listening to Bulbul. She's soaking through and through. I can see every part of her delicious body and I need her here and now or else she will drive me insane.
"Why did you take me from the darbar? One minute I was there- the next in your ...haveli."

What shall I say? The truth? How those hounds would have ravaged every part of her fragile body? I would have burned the darbar down if they touched her. Bulbul is mine. She belongs to me.

"What were you doing at the Darbar?" I ask her.

"For my spiritual self."

I snort with derision.

"Why do you doubt it? My husband commanded me and I had to obey."

"You don't believe in this- you're way smarter." The stones crunch under my feet and the rain grows ferocious. This is the weather for two.

"I don't know anything anymore, Choudhary Saab. I don't know myself."

Her body softened and her back now hit the brick wall. Her cheeks blush pink. She's stunning and this is perfect.

"You saved me." Her emerald eyes sparkle and I know she wants me as much as I want her. Her skin smells delicious, like lavender. This won't be hard. She's not resisting as she melts in my arms and pressed her breasts against my chest. This won't take long. She will be mine tonight; but will one night be enough? The rush in my blood drives me mad as I cup the back of her head in my hands.

"This is wrong." She whispers but doesn't fight it.

"-But feels so right." Between the kisses I ravage her neck I have to get into her mind and convince her and the rest is easy. Seduce her mind, and take her body- What a body!

"Please, Shah Nawaz-" She pushes me back, I grab her and pull her in. I'm too far gone to back off now, I need her.

"You belong to me Horayn." I breathe in her moist, musky scent.  Her body signals. There's no stopping me tonight. It's my time- to devour her lips. She can't fight it any longer. The mighty Shah Nawaz has pulled bulbul into his cage and now it's time to take her.

I must do this. I'm a Choudhary. 

***

It was fifteen minutes when Meh'r-Bano raced out of the barn and splashed through the puddles. Her heart pounding, adrenalin rushing she had too much energy to burn and ran as fast as her legs could take her dragging her shawl through the mud. When she finally stopped under a tree she looked up gasping for breath.
"Uff Allah! What happened?  Did he kiss me? Did I kiss him? I don't remember anything. My heart." She pressed her hand on her pounding chest.

Falling to her knees she gasped for air. Meh'r-Bano looked up into the sky watching the rain fall as it cooled the hotness of her cheeks.
What have I done? I'm soaked through. The rain feels so good. His voice. His scent and Uff! His eyes. He's a dream! Staring at them I just melt in his arms. Uff Choudhary Shah Nawaz Qureshi- I'm crazy for you. It's driving me wild.

 A wide smile decorated her face and her chest widened with joy.
"What is this feeling? This high?" The rush of dopamine drove her to run through the barren fields splashing in ditches intoxicated and wild.
The way he holds me with conviction. I know now he feels the same. She laughed.
"Just like me."
Should I go back? Will he be there? "I want to see him again and again. I want to confess"- She fell to her knees and opened her arms out wide leaning up and out to the rain extinguishing the fire of desire burning in her chest. Her mouth wide  with an unbridled laughter collecting rain as she looked up at the dark sky.
"I, Hoorayn Ghalib belong to Choudhary Shah Nawaz Qureshi the king of Jahanpur!" The urge to yell, to scream from the top of her lungs was strong- to call his name from the top of her lungs and confess to the night sky, the rain, the wind and tell the world finally how she felt without an iota of doubt and fear. She was free, a feeling she hadn't felt in a long time. Free to love the man she coveted for months. A man who made her feel alive, valued, and visible. A man who made her dance in the wet fields in the rainy night. A joy off the Richter scale. 

***

Returning to Sang e Mar Mar Haveli damp, Shah Nawaz went to his room for solitude. In the darkness he sat in the silence listening to the pounding of his heart and the fastness of his breath. Meh'r-Bano was burned in his mind, he closed his eyes and could see those sparkly emerald eyes as he held her pressed against his body. There was a fiery spark of forbidden desire he'd never felt before. 

"What is this madness?" He whispered to the silence. 

In the barn once he'd melted her mind and her body was in his arms he ravaged her with moist kisses first along her neck then he collar bone. It was when he framed her small face in his large hands and drew her into him, her luscious lips a breath away when she stopped him and pushed him away gasping for breath. He gained into her. But she fought back. 

"Not like this-" She panted for breath and shook her head. 

"It's too late." He grabbed her arm and yanked her close. 

"Please Shawaj-" She pressed. "Please-" 

It dawned on Shah Nawaz. He had never forced himself on a woman. He didn't need to- women fell to his feet. Why was tonight any different?

"I'm a Choudhary." He confessed to Meh'r-Bano. "We take what we want, when we want it. We don't ask for consent."

She inches towards him and pressed her hands on his chest and softy whispered.
"You're different, Shawaj. I trust you. I feel safe with you. Don't ruin me." 

Meh'r-Bano disarmed Shah Nawaz and ran out of the barn. 

Back in his room, Baba's words echoed in the eerie silence. He was a Choudhary and had to prove to his father by his actions. Women were disposable. One comes. One goes. How did he allow Meh'r-Bano to disarm him and make him look like a fool? He charged to his feet and paced his room. What would he say to his Baba? How would he look him in the eye? He'd failed his forefathers. Meh'r-Bano was trouble and he had to get her out of his system another way. She was a dangerous distraction. He grabbed his phone and dialled a saved number. 

"Fill my nights with the sound of your ghungru. Manghal haveli awaits you. "

"Your wish is my command, Choudhry Saab." Said Dilruba, the city's famous dancer. 

*****

Author's note. 

Double update: What are your thoughts? hat next for Mehr-Bano after the midnight confession.