Sanam woke up on their fourth day in Kerala. A grin played on her lips as she recalled yet another night they had spent making love to each other. It may have been only three days, but she had grown quite comfortable in taking charge and turning her inexperience to experience. She made up her mind and started to pull away from Arjun, pressing the blanket closer to her naked body as she tried to get out of bed.

He stirred just then, wrapping his arms around her waist and bringing her back. "No, just stay for five more minutes."

She tried to stay her ground but ofcourse her strength was no match for him. He tangled his legs with hers and half laid on top of her, hiding his face in her shoulder. "Arjun, come on. It's our last day here. Atleast today let's get out of this room."

"If you mean to say you're getting sick of me already, you have another thing coming." He murmured against her shoulder, pressing kisses from one to another.

She sighed at the feel of his velvety lips on her skin. He had been manipulating her each time she'd tried to get him dressed so they could go out. She knew it'd be futile, but she had to try. "Please, Arjun."

"Nope," he bluntly denied, bringing his hands from her waist to her breast as his lips trailed down her chest. Before his face would disappear under the blanket, she blocked it.

"How about we actually go exploring today and tonight..." She trailed off, trying to quickly think of something to gear him in with.

"Tonight?" He questioned, arching his brow and urging her to continue. His interest had been peeked.

She trailed a finger from his forehead down his nose and to his lips. "Tonight... you can eat dessert off me."

His lips twitched, "You're forgetting, sweetheart. I devour you each time."

She rolled her eyes, swatting his shoulder before beckoning his ear to her lips. He leaned in and she whispered, "Ice-cream. Me. And. You."

He pulled back on his elbow, eyes wide. "You read fifty shades."

"You gave it to me to read it, didn't you?" She teased back at his surprise.

"Yes, but... when did you get the time?"

She could understand his question. He'd never once caught her reading it with always the medical textbooks in her hand. Then they had been swarmed by pre-wedding rituals, the actual wedding, post-wedding rituals, and then straight to honeymoon. And while they had been on their honeymoon, he could vouch that she definitely hadn't had the free time to read. She couldn't have been reading when he had been asleep because he'd have made sure she was just as tired as him.

She smirked at him, pushing him back to tower over him. "That... is for me to know, and you to never find out." She then patted his chest, "Now come on, get dressed." She tried to slide off the bed, but he grabbed her wrist. "Arjun..."

"Wait," he instructed, tucked her hand to his chest, trapping it between his folded hands so she wouldn't run off. Closing his eyes, he said his morning prayers.

She considered fighting it but when she noticed he was going to pray, she dropped the plan. It was one of many things she'd come to admire about him. And then, there was a moment like this... he stopped in between so he wouldn't break his routine of praying before getting out of bed. She felt it would be wrong to disturb it and get between his prayers so she stayed.

When he finished, he took her hand and pressed his lips to her palm. "And yes, I promise, one of these days, I am going to bring this girl I love to your doorstep but until then, bless her for me?"

She fought the smile on her lips as he finished talking out loud and opened his eyes. She really would like to see how he'd manage to take her to the temple but till then, it was touching that he took it on himself to pray on her behalf. It was the smallest things that had the biggest impacts. In more ways than one, every day, he kept proving to her how he loved her so.

"Done?"

"Mhmm," he answered with a blink.

Taking the blanket with her, she stepped out of bed. Brazenly, he walked around to reach her and blocked her path when she tried to disappear in the washroom. "You promised you'd tell me what you thought of the book."

She side-stepped with another promise, "If you behave the whole day, I'll tell you tonight."

"If I don't behave?" He pushed the door when again she tried to disappear behind it.

"Then you won't be touching me for the rest of our honeymoon." She sounded so sure that she could make that happen but he could only laugh in response.

"Babe, you're as addicted to me as I am to you." She used all her might to shut the door on his face. From the other side, he promised. "Fine, sweetheart. I see how it is. I'll allow you a quiet shower today but don't expect the same luxury tomorrow."

~

They spent the day visiting the Athirappilly Falls, Folklore Museum, and bird sanctuary before finally coming to the beaches and walking the shore during sunset. With the setting sun and darkness enveloping around them, they found a spot to sit. The waves occasionally kissed their feet.

Sanam exhaled in peace, leaning back into Arjun's chest sitting in between his legs. He wrapped his arms around her front kissing her cheek. "Admit it, you had fun today." She said to him knowing he couldn't complain about not staying in their room on the houseboat.

He rolled his eyes in mock annoyance, "Whatever."

She laughed intertwining their hands and kissing the back of his palm. They'd both had fun with the exploring and all the mesmerizing views from the waterfalls and lakes as well as their random conversations jumping from one topic to the other from the things they observed around them.

She played around with his fingers before it randomly turned into a game of thumb fight. Seeing she was losing, her other hand sneaked back to tickle him. "Cheater!" He exclaimed flinching away and instantly losing as she pressed her thumb over his in a tight grip. She bit her lip to bite back her laughter. His eyes squinted, "That's how you want to play this? Rematch."

She willingly complied for a second round, turning about to face him. Instead of their eyes on their thumbs, they were locked with each other still being able to see their thumbs from their peripheral.

He started a conversation, "Tell me; what did you think about 50 shades?"

"Do you have a one-track mind?" She questioned back with a smirk.

His lips twitched in defense, "We're still in honeymoon phase, okay? I'm allowed."

"Oh, I see. Just so we have it clear then, how long does this honeymoon phase last?"

He feigned sadness, "Until you give priority to your studies again and forget about me."

She bobbed her head to the side in a light scolding, "As if, Arjun. Do you really think you're a kind of person people can forget that easily?"

"It took you six months to come around." He pointed out his reasoning for thinking as such.

"That's the past," She grumbled not wanting to remember how hard she had made it for him. "You're in my life to stay now, dear husband."

He smirked, "Well then, dear wife, I suppose the honeymoon phase will never end."

She shook her head in amusement though knew better. "You're a tough person to keep up with." A gust of wind caused a speck of sand to get in her eye. She instantly pulled back, wincing and her hands going to her eye. "Ah, crap."

"Stop, stop." He pulled her hands back to stop her from rubbing her eye. "Here." He nudged her eye lid up and blew air into her eye as water trickled down her cheek. She blinked her eyes furiously till the tiny particle slipped out and stopped scratching her pupil. The back of his fingers wiped her cheek bone.

"Stupid wind." She muttered resulting in Arjun chuckling at her irritation.

He jumped up on his feet and held out his hand. 'C'mon, its time for our dinner reservation anyway."

She slipped her palm into his and he tugged her up. As she brushed the sand off her jeans, she muttered. "If you keep this up, I'm going to start hating your rich lifestyle again." Reservations meant it was a high-end restaurant and he was completely spoiling her. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but she didn't want to forget where her roots lay.

He teased, "Weren't you the one who said you were accepting me and all that came in the package?"

She elbowed his side at his innuendo. "Someone would think three days in bed would satiate you."

He laughed pulling her to his side and slung his arm over her shoulder. "Me? Get tired of you? Never!"

She didn't deem the comment worthy of a response.

~

Arjun glanced up from the menu to ask her if she'd like to drink something when he caught a glimpse past her. "Would you...?" He trailed off in confusion, knitting his brows together.

"What?" She followed his gaze but didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

He shook his head, "Thought I saw someone. Never mind. I was saying, do you want something to drink?"

She shrugged her shoulder, "Sure, why not? Whatever you order. Order food for me too? I don't understand half the things on this menu."

It was their second day in Venice and while the menu said the name of the dishes in English as well, it didn't well explain what was included in the dish.

He nodded and looked over their wine list but for the first few seconds, he couldn't get the glimpse out of his head. That side profile and those brown hair. That tattoo on her shoulder.

"Arjun? Babe?" She called him.

"Hmm?" He looked up blinking out of his daze. Sanam was looking at him in concern and he noticed a shadow next to their table, the waiter. He realized the waiter had asked for the orders but when he hadn't answered, Sanam had called him. Shaking out of his thoughts, telling himself it was ridiculous to think she was here, he placed their orders.

Sanam started the conversation, "So, I was thinking we could go to the Grand Canal after dinner on one of those water buses? I know we went in the afternoon but I want to go again at night time. And tomorrow we can..." She changed her statement noticing his attention seemed diverted the way he kept shaking his leg under the tablecloth. "...just, you know, stay in our hotel room and I can read you one of my medical journals while we have sex."

"Sure, sounds good." He interjected at the silence, her words not registering in his head.

She swatted his wrist that was on the table, "Arjun!"

"Hmm? What?" He snapped back and then crinkled his nose, "Ew, no! That'd be a major turn-off. Where the hell would you even get that idea?"

She rolled her eyes, "Well, duh. I know that. I wasn't serious. I was checking if you were listening, which by the way you weren't. What's wrong?"

He shook his head, " I'm sorry." He reached for her hands, "I'm listening now. What were you saying?"

It wasn't that important to her anymore for she was more concerned for him. "No, Arjun. Something is obviously bothering you. What is it? You said you thought you saw someone. Who'd you see?"

He was about to tell her it was just his mind playing tricks when again his eyes flickered past her shoulder and he froze. He could no longer tell her that. Before he had just caught a glimpse of her passing by. This time, he saw her front profile. "Incoming."

"Huh?" She questioned in confusion, twisting about to follow his gaze. She caught a female walking in their direction. Indian female. She turned back to him in a snap with wide eyes, "Tell me that's not who I think that is."

His lips thinned in a grim expression, the light that he always had in his eyes around her darkening. "I'm sorry," he apologized to her just before his past came to stand beside Sanam's chair.

"Arjun..." When she whispered his name, Sanam caught a hint of British accent that had started to fade from spending the last five years in the States.

Sanam felt a pang of irritation at the way Jiyah was looking at Arjun. Sanam's eyes flickered back to Arjun. He was looking back at her, but with a piercing glare, nowhere as longing as her eyes seemed. He ordered in a cold demeanor, "Leave."

"Just listen to me, Juno. I..."

Arjun's grasp on Sanam's hand tightened as he gritted, "Do not call me that. There's nothing you could have to say that I might want to listen to. So don't make me the bad guy here and leave."

Sanam rubbed her thumb back and forth on the back of his palm calling for his attention. His eyes softened as they locked with her instead and the knots at his back seemed to loosen. He faintly heard Jiyah walk away a few seconds later when he paid her no attention. Sanam asked the question even though she knew the answer, "Are you okay?"

He groaned and released his grip on her hand, bringing them to run over his face. "I just... I'm pissed she had the guts to walk up to us."

She offered, "Do you want to get out of here? We can get our food to go."

He took a deep breath and exhaled, shaking his head. "No. No, we'll stay. We came for dinner. I'm just going to forget this happened. You said Grand Canal, right?" He asked, turning their conversation's direction.

She opened her mouth wanting to tell him they had to talk about this. They couldn't just forget they had ran into her. But, she couldn't. She couldn't bring herself to push him into a hurtful conversation he was trying to avoid. It somewhere enveloped her in a dark feeling with the possibility that even if they were together now and married and in love, he could have some lingering feelings towards Jiyah.

He had been with her longer than you have been in his life. Her brain nagged, telling her it would be obvious that he might.

For the moment, however, she let him steer the topic, "Yeah, Grand Canal."

~

After their ride at the Canal, she suggested they walk a bit before heading back to the hotel. He had been awfully quiet. Finding a nearby empty bench, she nodded towards it. "Let's sit." He didn't much object and let her drag him towards it through their entwined hands. "Gosh, I'm so tired! I'm going to take a long bath when we get back to the hotel."

He pressed his lips into a brief smile.

She slipped out of his arm around her shoulder and faced him. He looked at her questioningly but that faded when she spoke up. "Say her name."

"What?"

With her hand on his knee, she repeated with more explanation. "Just say her name. I've noticed this, Arjun. Every time she's been mentioned, you can't even bring yourself to say her name out loud. So, just say her name. Get it over it, because if you keep avoiding it or keep suppressing your feelings, you'll only keep torturing yourself."

"I'm not torturing myself, Sanam..." He tried to counter.

She shook her head with a sad smile, "Yeah, you are, Arjun. Since the past two hours, you've been physically by my side but your head is miles away. And don't say it isn't because I've never felt you were this distant even when we used to barely talk in the beginning. I can imagine it couldn't have been easy seeing her again after all this time and all those memories rushing back, but to move on, you have..."

He stopped her there itself by taking one hand in his and cupping her cheek with the other, "No, love. You've got it wrong. I moved on from her way back during Spring Break when we played 20 questions and I realized how easy it was to share my deepest thoughts with you, to open up to you - something I couldn't even do with her even after years of being with her. Right now... I'm not haunted by her memories or anything. No. I just am mad at myself because I let myself be so affected by our break up then that I left my friends and family and ran off to India. I don't say her name because of that guilt. That regret. But if you still want me to say it, then I will. I don't have any unresolved feelings for Jiyah anymore. Jiyah does not hold any part of me. I think she never did. Even when I was with her, my heart was attached to the bracelet I always kept at an arm's length that belonged to the girl who changed me in that closet. My heart was never hers. It's always been yours."

Within a minute, he erased all her insecurities once and for all. It still surprised her how he could've held a light for her all those years, used those 7 minutes to fight his vices for good.

She closed the distance between their faces and kissed him. Resting his forehead against hers after pulling back breathing deeply, he moved his hand to her neck. "I love you, Sanam. Only ever you."

His words were music to her ear. "I love you, Arjun."

~
Author Note
I hope you're enjoying the quick updates! Trying to make up for my tardiness. My semester also ends in two weeks so hoping I'll be able to wriye a lot more and keep updating on a regular basis!

Don't forget to check out Esha's story; Silver Lining! It's published on my profile and prologue + 3 chapters are already up!

Enjoy the weekend. Vote and comment please <3