There was no comparison between city boys....and Kabir. Pooja'd always known that. When they were kids and she came to visit the ranch over the summer, he was always pulling her out of some ditch or other, or dragging her out of the river, or teaching her some new trick. Survival, mostly, but he'd taught her how to ride, and how to rope. Then he'd taught her how to throw a punch when she came one summer and complained that two of the boys at school were bullying her. She'd been plenty happy to kick those kid's asses, and even happier to tell Kabir when she came back the next year.

Now though...she'd been away for five years and suddenly he didn't look like Kabir anymore. He looked like a man.

Pooja swallowed as she stared out the kitchen window at the muscular man chopping wood in her uncle's back yard. Shirtless. She'd been staring for the past ten minutes, and still couldn't look away. In the city, girls joked about cowboys. Save a horse, and all. She just doubted they had any idea how excruciating it was to watch a man chop wood.

Her fingers were gripping the sink hard enough to cramp. She could remember him being strong, even for the boys around here, but...Abercrombie boys looked like pussies compared to...this. What had happened while she was away? Her first day back and she felt like she'd never seen this guy before. If it hadn't been for the dark hair and the brown eyes...and that—she caught her breath at the memory—smile...oh hells. If she kept staring like this he was bound to catch her, and that would be damned embarrassing.

Dropping her head finally, Pooja took a few calming breaths, and tried to forget why she hadn't been here in five years. It didn't work very well. She could still remember his lips on hers, a moment stolen behind the dance stage when he tugged her away from the boys that had been showing her more attention than they had in previous years. Then...what he'd said.

Pooja hadn't even been ready to fall in love back then. She'd been eighteen. He'd been twenty two. She hadn't known how to respond to someone saying "I love you."

Pushing away from the sink, Pooja walked into the living room and tried to get a hold on her rampaging hormones. Why now, at twenty three, was she having more problems than in her puberty? Damn female stuff.

Right then, the front door opened and Kabir walked in, his shirt slung over his shoulder and an empty canteen in one hand. He froze when he saw her, and she stared at him in shock. Now was not the best time to make an entrance. Not when she'd been staring at him for half the morning, thinking: gods, he was gorgeous. Big, bulky, lean...he was tanned from years of work on the farm, and his cowboy hat sat forward on his head so his brown eyes were cast in shadow as he looked at her, one hand still on the door he'd pushed open. Worn blue jeans—the real kind, not the ones you buy 'distressed' in stores—topped off the quintessential boots that every cowboy was known for.

"Pooja," he said softly.

She gave a weak grin. "I got in last night. How are you, Kabir?"

He eyed her for a long, awkward moment. "I've been better," he finally said, and lifted his canteen. "Just wanted some water. It's hot out there."

The tension broke, and Pooja nodded, relieved. She liked Kabir too much to want awkwardness between them.

"Give it here. I'll fill it up for you," she said, and stepped forward to take the canteen from him. She happened to look up just as she took it though, and found him already looking at her. Their gazes met, briefly, and she felt a little chill run up her back before she turned away and walked into the kitchen.

"How have things been going?" she asked as she filled his canteen from the cool tap water. You could still do that out here, because the water was clean enough. Unlike in the city.

Pooja heard his heavy footsteps lead from the front door into the kitchen. "Well enough. We haven't been having much trouble with thieves lately, so the herd is getting big. Your uncle's health could be better though."

She looked up. "What's wrong?"

"He's getting old," Kabir said, watching her. "And he hasn't been the same since your aunt died."

Pooja screwed the cap back on the canteen. "I noticed he seemed a little worried last night, but he wouldn't talk about it. So what's going on?"

Kabir held his hand out and took the canteen back from her. "Well, it's all the usual stuff. We're shorthanded, nobody grows their stuff like we do anymore, the market keeps getting smaller, and on top of all of that he's lonely."

Something about the way he looked away at the end of that sentence made her feel a little...guilty. She rubbed her hands on her jeans, and shrugged.

"Well, I'm here for the next three weeks. What needs to get done?"

Pooja had never been a weakling. She'd been raised a country girl and went to the big city to survive as a city girl. The best and toughest of both worlds had built on each other to make her a tough cookie, so even after getting back from the big city in skinny blue jeans, black blouse and high heels, she could get up with the dawn and get out to the fields with the rest of them. Kabir didn't say much when he first saw her, just looked over her faded blue jeans, plaid shirt, and old muddy boots and nodded his approval.

"Guess you'll do," he said as he glanced down at the loose neck of her worn out tee shirt. "Let's go."

And thus the day began. He hadn't been kidding about how much work there was to do. There were eggs to gather, fences to mend, horses to tend, hay to move, cattle to herd, chickens to round up, the shed to re-roof, tools to repair, the porch to strip and repaint, the house's siding to patch, the chimney and fireplace to clean, wood to chop, etcetera and so forth. The cattle were kept a ways off from the house, and there were two other men besides Kabir that kept things running. Pooja did what she could to help out. It was like modern day cowboy-ing, except it didn't feel so modern from the back of a horse. It wasn't easy either. Cattle were bullheaded—ironic, no?—her ass blistered, her skin darkened to a deep tan, her clothes got raggedy in no time, and her muscles wept and hated her.

The days went on for ages. What they didn't get done they went out to work on the following day, along with the usual chores, and Kabir was always right there with her. They didn't talk much until the fifth day, oddly enough. There was more chatter at the dining room table every night with her uncle Tej present than there was the rest of the time, mostly because it just wasn't needed. Kabir and her had worked together before, and it was strange how things just came back to her, like she'd never left. He'd need something and she'd know without him having to ask. They worked in sync, so naturally it was almost uncanny.

She liked it. Kabir trusted her to pull her own weight, and he set a fast pace and worked hard so she had to work hard to keep up. Her uncle stayed indoors mostly, on threat of getting duct taped to his lazy-boy in the living room for the duration of her stay. By the end of the second week she felt rejuvenated and content with a job well done.

Well, at least, that's what she told herself. Frankly, she was tired, aching, and wishing that Kabir looked less sexy. People were supposed to look ugly when they were all doled up in work clothes, and sweaty, and...muscled...in jeans that had been worn so long they fit just right.

That was what she was telling herself right then in fact, while her face was planted on the hard planks of the living room floor. She was staring blankly at the front door, which she could see from her vantage point just a couple yards from the couch. Being too pooped to walk six more feet redefined exhaustion in her book...but she was more preoccupied with her frustrated hormones. Or frustrated with her preoccupied hormones. Whichever. Kabir was outside finishing up, and as she thought about him out in the sun roasting away again, she wondered absently if he would have taken a shower with her if she asked.

Pooja rolled her head around to thump her forehead against the ground, trying to jolt the immediate images out of her brain. The thing was, Kabir was—or had been—serious about her. She wasn't sure she could feel for him the same way, so even with the engines crying "full steam ahead!", she'd kind of labeled him off limits.

"Having a conscience sucks," she said to the hardwood floors, right before they creaked somewhere off to her right. She jumped and turned her head, half way afraid it would be Kabir.

"Haha, I know what you mean," said her uncle Ted, and Pooja sighed in relief. He was carrying a few ledgers in his arms, which he had to look over to smile down at her.

"You scared me," she said with a grin.

"Oh, did I?" he asked. "I didn't mean to..." He shrugged, and moved on into his study, his slow gait beginning to show his age. Pooja rolled to her feet to follow him, and took the ledgers away to carry them in for him.

"You stink," her uncle kindly informed her, and Pooja chuckled.

"Believe me, I know. I was on my way up to shower just now," she said, and set the ledgers down on his desk.

"Mm, don't mind me then. I've just got some numbers to crunch before I head out to finish with those vegetables you left in the kitchen." He glanced up at Pooja. "The meat smells delicious by the way."

"Thanks," said Pooja as she opened one of the ledgers absently. "It's a recipe I learned from mom..."

Something caught her eye then, and Pooja looked a little closer as her uncle settled down in the chair by the desk. She pointed at the page she'd been looking at.

"What is this?" she asked, disbelief filling her voice. Her uncle had been putting on his reading glasses, and leaned over to look at the page.

"Oh," he said, and Pooja saw his jaw work. "That's nothing."

"Don't tell me—" Pooja caught her voice rising, and cleared her throat to lower her tone again. "Don't tell me it's nothing. Why does this say that Kabir owns the house?"

Her uncle leaned back in his creaking, old leather chair and crossed his arms. "I had hoped not to tell you. I...had some debt stacked up from your aunt's hospital bills, and hadn't been much inclined to deal with them."Tejreached out and flipped the ledger closed. "They told me I was going to lose the house, but after I lost Suman it didn't seem to matter much. I had been resigned to foreclosure, but Kabir went in and paid for most of it himself. He never even told me. I had to find out from the bank."

"So you sold him the house?" Pooja asked softly. She'd been unable to leave Indore for more than a few days when her aunt died, but hadn't wanted to leave her uncle in the state he'd been in. She'd had the phone dialed in and was ready to quit her job then and there, but Kabir had all but kicked her out. He'd said her uncle needed the money she sent, and promised he'd take care of everything. That he would have gone to this extent...left her completely speechless.

"I was so angry I went and signed part of the ranch over to him, since he owned more of it than me now anyway," said her uncle.

"What about the money I sent?" Pooja asked as a tear slid down her face. "Wasn't that enough?"

Ted gave a tiny smile and pulled the ledger over to set it in front of him. "Your money...it's all in the herd right now. Kabir's running the whole show. I didn't want to tell you this for some time, but I won't even be able to leave you much in my will. You're a joint owner of this ranch with Kabir, but that is just about all I can give you."

Pooja looked back at the ledger and swallowed past the lump in her throat. She tucked her hands in her pockets and turned to leave the room, not sure what else to say. What else could she say? Damn it, but she should have been here. Big Indore lawyer indeed. Fat lot of good it had done. Her uncle had raised her after the death of her parents, and was everything she knew from her childhood. She should have been here.

A few minutes later she found herself crying under the soft spray of the upstairs showerhead. Kabir had just replaced it the day before, and the gentle spray was eons better than the sporadic, almost painful barrage of the previous part.

Damn, she thought again. Damn to it all. Damn her selfishness, damn her absence, and damn her idiotic ignorance all those years ago when Kabir had said he loved her. Was she stupid, or was she stupid? Seriously!

A knock came on the door then, and Pooja pulled her face out of the stream of water to glance around the curtain. The house's foundations had settled oddly over the years, and as a result the door no longer fit the frame. Kabir had promised to fix it before she left, but for the time being it only closed to within an inch of the frame, and she could see a shadow from someone standing beyond.

"You forgot the bucket of water for the toilet," came Kabir's voice, and Pooja couldn't help the chuckle that escaped her. After five minutes of showering, the only way to keep hot water running was to pour extra water in the toilet and flush it. No one had ever figured out why it worked that way, but it had been a trick Pooja had used since her teenage years.

"Uh..." Pooja glanced around. Her clothes were scattered on the ground and the only towel in the bathroom was half sized. Oops. She grinned. Damn again.

"Sorry," she said. "Would you mind bringing it in?"

There was a pause, then the door slowly creaked open, and she heard his heavy boots step into the little bathroom. He poured the water in and flushed the toilet. The hot water in her shower turned scalding for a moment, and Pooja stepped out of the water with a hiss.

Kabir looked up then just as she looked back out from the crack between the curtain and the wall. He had already set the pail down and was halfway to his feet, but he paused and locked eyes with her from beneath his cowboy hat. His brows scrunched up and she watched his jaw clench. He straightened and started to turn away.

Pooja reached out before she thought, and grabbed the edge of his cutoff, sleeveless work shirt.

"Wait..." she said, and again, he paused. She took a deep breath, and... "Don't go."

She could hear him swallow this time.

"Pooja," he said slowly, "you really shouldn't be so cruel."

"I'm not being cruel," she said.

He gave a bitter laugh. "Pooja...dammit. Don't ask anything of me I can't say no to."

Pooja reached out for his hand then, and tugged gently. He stepped back, but didn't turn right away. Pooja edged to the corner of the shower to lean her head on his shoulder.

"I found out what you did for Tej uncle," she said, "and it made me want to cry."

"Why?" Kabir asked, his back still turned.

"Because..." Pooja gave a soft snort. "I thought it was damn heroic, and it made me hate myself for not realizing I was in love with you five years ago."

She lifted her head to look at him, and watched the cowboy hat slowly turn, Kabir's eyes cast down as his shoulder moved back a little and his profile came into view. He turned a little more, his jaw clenching and unclenching as his eyes trailed up the side of her body he could see....and then finally he had turned just barely enough to look her in the eyes.

"Don't lie to me," he said, his voice a little more ragged then he probably intended. Pooja gave a small smile. Verbally, it almost sounded like a threat. Thing was, his eyes told her just how much he couldn't afford to be lied to. Being a guy and all, he didn't mean for her to see it...but the great thing about being a female is her stereotypical intuition.

Pooja reached up to push his hat off his head and pushed his shoulder out of her way so she could reach up and kiss him. He sucked in a deep breath as soon as her lips touched his, and that was all it took to release the tenuous restraints. He stepped into the shower without a second thought, boots and all, and one hand went behind her head to press her deeper into his kiss, while the other reached around behind her to trail down her back, over her ass and then to her leg. She took the cue as he lifted her leg to his waist, and hopped up to wrap her legs around him. He leaned her against the wall, and a ragged sigh of lust escaped him when she mmmed her approval.

The water drummed down on his back as they kissed, and Pooja reached up between them to start popping open the buttons on his shirt. There weren't many...he'd already had it halfway undone when he came in, probably intending to go use the downstairs shower. She pushed it back over his shoulders and his lips moved back to her jaw, and then down to her neck. Pooja's eyes fluttered open as she sighed, and she watched his muscles move as he tried to shrug out of the clinging wet shirt. She ran a hand over one sculpted shoulder to push the shirt back, then ran her hands down his arm. He was...a little dirty from all the labor, but she wasn't really paying attention to the dirt. She had been admiring his arms for days, since he hadn't worked with his shirt off since the first time. His hands were massive and strong, and she liked the way his veins stood out just a little and wrapped back up his muscled arms.

Pooja got one of said arms free, and Kabir closed the distance between them to press against her, his billboard body god figure sending her into heady levels of guilty pleasure. Yep. Definitely keeping this one, she thought as they kissed again. His shirt had just hit the floor with a wet splat when she reached down between her legs to palm the front of his jeans. She felt a pretty well defined bulge already there, and Kabir let out a pained grunt against her lips.

Pooja put a hand on his chest then—a unique experience in and of itself, since she'd been wanting to feel exactly how firm a man's muscles could get from working a ranch...and the fit but flabby stereotype turned out to be a lie, she discovered. She pushed him away from the wall, and Kabir fell back a step. Pooja slid her legs down to stand in front of him and reached out to start unbuckling his pants.

The hot water randomly decided to quit working then, and Kabir swore as an icy spray showered them. They both ducked out of the shower, and Kabir reached back to shut off the water. Pooja chuckled and took his hand.

"Come on," she said, and pulled open the door to lean out and glance around. Her uncle was nowhere to be seen, so she glanced back to see Kabir's eyes more or less riveted to her derriere. Pooja grinned and pulled him out of the bathroom to hurry over to the guest room where she was staying. Her wet feet splatted softly against the wood, and she hears his loose belt jangle. It sounded loud enough to raise an army and it made her giddy with childish glee, like she was a kid again and playing hide and seek...sort of. Maybe it was a little different since she was naked and hell bent on getting Kabir that way within the next forty five seconds. She heard one boot hit the floor, and then the other.

Pooja wasn't sure who pushed the door shut, but no sooner did it click closed than they were exploring each other's mouths again, and her fingers were working rapidly at Kabir's jeans. Kabir picked her up and walked her to the bed, where he settled down with her on her back.

Kabir swore and reached down to grab her hand. "Wait," he choked out, and it sounded almost like the word killed him to say it.

Pooja gave him a confused look. "What? I know I'm a little overdue, but I thought..."

Kabir laughed bitterly, and dropped his head down into the crook of her neck. He inhaled against her skin, and his face moved like he was going to kiss her again. She felt his warm breath brush across her skin, cooling the beads of water scattered on her neck, and felt his lips just barely tease the surface of her nerves. She shivered, but it wasn't from the cold.

"Why now, suddenly?" he asked, and

his lips brushed her skin with each word. "Finding out about Tej uncle great and all, but not enough to just make you suddenly change your bullheaded mind about something like being in love...and I can't take it if you're not."

Pooja cupped his jaw in her hands and lifted his head. "It's not just that ," she said, and brought his head down to rest his forehead against hers. "It's the guy I grew up with that I can suddenly see as a man and not just my childhood playmate. It's the fact that I have loved the silly little moments we share for years and only just realized that missing them has made me crave them. I missed the way you talk, and the way you care about people, and the way you make me feel safe...I was just too dense to realize what it all meant back then. Tej uncle story just made the lightbulb finally turn on."

"You've made me wait for five god-damn years, Pooja. You better make it up to me," Kabir said, and immediately moved in the couple inches to make up for lost time. His kiss was as painful as it was pleasurable, but it drove her crazy with cravings that she hadn't known she could have with a man. Frankly she was a picky chick, and the couple of exes she'd left behind in Indore had never made her hormones burn with desire like Kabir did.

She was more than happy to make it up to him for being an ignorant idiot all those years back.

She finally got the jeans unbuttoned and unzipped, and gave them a good shove.

Kabir chuckled when she had a little trouble. "Wet jeans," he said, and Pooja started muttering a plethora of dirty language that had nothing to do with bed talk. He grinned, and Pooja glared.

"Stand up," she said, and Kabir smiled before dropping a kiss on her lips and moving off the bed. Pooja slid to the edge of the bed and pushed his hands away from the top of his pants.

"I've got an idea," she said as she trailed her thumbs back along the top of his waistband, and then around to the front where she hooked her thumbs under the damp denim and started pushing down. Mmmmmmmm, yes, she thought, as her breath caught and her eyes trailed up tight abs and photo-worthy pecs to his face. Then her eyes met his, and it was almost like she'd never seen him before. She'd always loved how his dark lashes ringed his intense brown eyes. When he smiled they all but glowed. But this time, that whole "different light" thing was in play, and Pooja felt a natural sort of connection fall into place.

"I have an apology to make," Pooja said, and slowly slid his jeans down. The muscles at his hips trailed down to a perfect v, and her breath caught as she looked at him. She exhaled softly, and as her breath trailed across his skin, Kabir sucked in a hard breath. Pooja swallowed, and tried to concentrate. She was getting heady with need. Her body was tingling, and the pressure was building between her legs.

"First..." she said, and trailed off. Kabir stepped out of his jeans, and Pooja reached up to take his hands.

"You know, I always liked your hands," she said, and lifted them to press her face against them. "As kids you always looked out for me and made sure I didn't get my clumsy ass hurt, and you've always worked like crazy to keep this place going. These hands...they're strong, and they keep us safe."

Kabir moved to lift her up, and she pushed his hands away. "Wait," she said, and looked up at him. "Hang on a minute."

Kabir took a deep breath, and Pooja dropped away his hands. She stood, running her hands up his arms, and kissed his chin, and then his neck. Her hands came up to his shoulders, and she started walking around behind him. Her lips trailed across his chest, then his arm, shoulder, and finally, his back.

"I figure, a little excitement is good for the heart..." Pooja ran her hands up his back, over every defined muscle, to his neck, and then back down to slip her arms beneath his. She opened her hands over his chest, and pressed her breasts against his back and rolled her body against him from her hips up to her chest. "And I kinda owe you."

He groaned. Her fingers played over his nipples, and his breath caught. Then her hands slid lower down, over his abs, to his pelvis. Kabir's head tipped back as her fingers touched him, massaging, and she felt his back muscles tense against her chest. His abs clenched, and he bent forward as her fingers wrapped around him.

"Pooja..." he choked out. "Seriously, this is more cruel than anything..."

"Mm..." Pooja's forehead dropped against his back. Her brain was all but fogging over. She felt like she was half asleep or something. Thoughts were shutting down and all that filled her mind was what she could feel.

Time to make her "apology"...she slipped around in front of him again, and trailed a path of kisses down his chest before wrapping her fingers around him and gently licking the tip. Kabir hissed, and reached out to steady himself on the headboard. Pooja opened her mouth...and proceeded to make her rather cliché apology.

Kabir was breathing hard after a couple minutes, which made Pooja feel just a little smug beneath the fog in her brain. One of her best friends back in NY had been a hooker, and she had been very adept at teaching techniques...

Kabir groaned and reached down to wrap his hands around her upper arms. He pulled her up, and she ended up with her back pressed against him with his erection sitting between the cheeks of her ass. He reached down between her legs, and Pooja's head dropped back on his chest as two of his fingers pushed into her.

"Feels like...you got about as excited by that as I did." His other hand went up to palm her breast, and a soft moan escaped Pooja. His hand left her breast then after way too short a time spent there, and slid down to her hip and up her back. He pushed her upper body forward, and she reached out to brace herself on the mattress. He shifted behind her, and the head of his penis pressed into her. Then Kabir eased in, and Pooja moaned.

He pulled out and rocked into her, and Pooja's jaw fell open. She hadn't expected it to stretch her that much...and he went so...deep...

"Oh god..." Her body curled in on itself, and then she lifted her head and her back arched. "Oh..."

Kabir set a slow pace at first, his thrusts timed with his ragged breaths. Pooja let out soft grunts every time he filled her, and she started rolling her hips into him. That turned him on, apparently, because his breathing got heavier and his pace picked up speed. It was just about deliriously heady by then. Pooja felt every jolt with a feverish intensity, and her body all but vibrated with sensation. What was left of her awareness kept slipping away.

She wasn't even sure when they shifted, but suddenly Kabir was on his knees on the floor, and leaning back to put his weight on his arms. She was on her knees too, straddling him as he thrust up into her. Pooja reached down to run her hands up his body. He was sweating, and still wet from the shower. She felt the damp building up under her nails as she scraped down his skin and left tracks in the sweat down his chest.

"Kabir..." she said on a moan, and Kabir sat up to run his hands up her tight stomach to her breasts. Then his arms wrapped around her waist, and he stood in a motion so fluid that he made it look like she didn't weigh a thing. When he laid her back on the bed, he braced his hands on either side of her and looked down at her.

She hadn't really thought until that moment that he could have been any more attractive than he'd always been...but as he looked down at her, his heavy breathing, flushed color, and most of all...the look in his eyes...he took her breath away.

"We are going to be up a while, just so you know," Kabir said.

Pooja reached up to pull his head down so that their lips were just a hair's breadth apart.

"Promise?" she asked, and couldn't help the little grin that tugged at her lips.

Annnnnnd they did.

The following morning, work began as usual...with a couple of minor differences. Kabir gave her a light smack on the ass at the kitchen sink, and they pretty much fell into the coat closet whilst making out in the entryway. Then Pooja upended a bucket of water on Kabir in the barn and fought him to get his shirt back off. Then they kind of ended up in the tack room...doing stuff other than work.

Annnnnnd the rest of the day went pretty much like that. Until the car pulled up in the lot just before suppertime.

Kabir was walking up the front steps of the house, and Pooja was just dropping off a saddle in the barn. When she came back, she saw Kabir talking to someone from the top of the porch. He was leaning on the railing, but he looked tense. When she rounded the house, she saw why.

The sight of their visitor all but stopped her in her tracks, and erased the good mood she'd been in. He must have heard her, because he turned, and Pooja got a good look at the face of the man she had come to the country to avoid.

"Dhruv?" She asked. "What are you doing here?"

Dhruv held up the bouquet of roses he'd been holding. "Trying to apologize," he said, and started toward her. Kabir stepped down then and put a hand on his shoulder.

"You're already closer than I'd like you to be, buddy," Kabir said, and he didn't sound very polite. "Don't push your luck."

Pooja's jaw ground down tight. "I don't want an apology, Dhruv. I want you to leave."

Dhruv sighed and lowered his frilly gift. "I'd hoped to make it up to you. You're the only reason I kept it together for two years and the only reason they let me out early on good behavior. I never would have held up in that place otherwise."

Pooja swallowed against the lump in her throat. "Still doesn't make it right, Dhruv. Saying sorry and handing off some pretty flowers won't fix the past."

"But it's a start," Dhruv said, and glanced back at Kabir. "I figured, the only way to really make it up to you would be to go legit. So I've got the start of a business in the works. It's all above-board...strictly based on my own money. I want to start over—with life. With us, too. Don't you think it would be worth it to try? I mean...what we had was pretty special."

Her eyes were fogging up, but Pooja kept up the pretense that she was being tough. "Yeah. Pretty special. I was living in an alternate reality. Way up in the clouds." She waved her hand at the sky. "Kinda hurt when I hit the ground and realized I'd been falling for a heap of lies."

"They weren't all lies..." Dhruv tried to say.

"I think she made herself clear, Dhruv," Kabir said, and pushed off the railing to start down the steps. His cowboy boots gave an ominous thud with every step, and Pooja felt glad that for once, a guy was coming to her rescue instead of being the problem.

Dhruv never looked away from her though. He seemed as obsessed with her in that moment as he had been for the past two years—prison included. So she made sure to break it to him gently.

"Turn around and go back to Indore, Dhruv," she said. "And don't ever, ever come here again."

The muscles in Dhruv's jaw clenched. "I thought we had a good thing." He sighed, and dropped his gaze to the ground. "I fucked up. I figured you of all people would understand that."

Pooja smiled, and shook her head. "All the right lines at all the right moments. Your Hollywood lingo is still impressive, but unfortunately I'm not as dumb as I used to be. Take your faux prince charming act and move on to the next blind little romantic, and don't waste any more of my time."

"In other words she's saying you have thirty seconds to get the hell off our property," Kabir said, and stopped just behind Dhruv to cross his arms. "If you take any longer than that, we'll have to teach you how Texans treat trespassers, old school style."

Dhruv sighed then, and turned with a wild swing. Kabir dodged and grabbed Dhruv's hand to twist his arm back, bringing Dhruv to his knees, and delivered one powerful punch to Dhruv's shoulder. Pooja heard the violent pop as Dhruv's shoulder wrenched out of its socket, and didn't even flinch at his cry of pain. The bastard deserved way worse. She'd been the lucky girlfriend, but the others hadn't been quite as...pampered, as Dhruv liked to put it. Too bad she hadn't known when she met him what a sadistic asshole Dhruv was.

Pooja walked past the two men and headed up into the house.

"You ready to leave yet?" she heard Kabir ask.

She came back out with Kabir's 12 guage pump shotgun and shoved a round in the chamber. It caught their attention when she yanked the pump forward, and Kabir backed away.

"If I ever see you again, I will blow your head off," she said, and Dhruv gave a small, sadistic smile before pushing to his feet and spitting on the bouquet of flowers he'd dropped. Then he walked over them and headed for his car.

"Oh," he said, "by the way, you better be packing when you get back to Indore."

Kabir shot forward then and grabbed the back of Dhruv's head to slam it onto the hood of the car.

"You should be more careful," Kabir said as he pulled Dhruv back up and delivered a solid blow to Dhruv's solar plexus. "A threat like that could cost you your life." Kabir brought his elbow in from the side to knock Dhruv's jaw out of its socket, and Dhruv stumbled back, laughing, and put a hand up.

He said something garbled, and Kabir paused for a second as Dhruv reached up with his good hand to manually pull his jaw back into place. Pooja winced at the disgusting, grinding sound it made right before it popped back in. Dhruv's cry of pain was somewhat loud, but his low-pitched tone was eerily well controlled for someone who had to be in as much pain as he was. He glanced between Pooja and Kabir then before reaching down to pull his arm back into its socket. The pop was just as creepy as his expression while he did it, and a shudder swept up Pooja's spine.

"I'm going, no need for any more temper tantrums," Dhruv said, and walked around to the driver's side of the car and opened the door.

"Nice to see you've found such a capable bodyguard, Pooja," Dhruv said, and winked. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised he's a cowboy. Just don't be surprised if he can't measure up to us city boys."

Dhruv dropped into the car and shut the door then, before Kabir could react to that comment. The car started, and he tore out of the yard, leaving a cloud of dirt in his wake.

"Great," said Pooja as she lowered the shotgun. "Now what am I going to do?"

"Quit your job and move in here," Kabir said, and turned to walk up the steps. He took the gun from hands that she hadn't realized were shaking til right then, and wrapped his other arm around her to pull her close.

"I take it you've never pointed a gun at anyone before," he said, trying to make light of the situation, and Pooja snorted.

"Never needed to. I've always had you to do that." She looked up at him then, and gave him half a smile. "I guess this is one of those cheesy moments where I'm supposed to praise your manly manliness and gush over how big and strong and tough you were." She put a hand to her forehead and gave a half-hearted fake faint. "'Gasp! The big bad ex-boyfriend has come to torment me! Whatever shall I do?'"

Kabir shrugged. "I dunno...maybe pull a shotgun on him. That was kind of sexy by the way."

Pooja dropped her hand and gave him a look. "Not nearly as sexy as that elbow to the jaw. It was hanging from its hinges in a way most unbecoming."

Kabir sighed. "Great. Shakespeare speak. Knock it off."

"Hey, you started the lighthearted banter. Don't chicken out when I bring in the big guns."

"Old English does not count as big guns. We've already discussed this like a thousand times. But ANYWAY, back to my comment," Kabir said, and reached up to give her braided ponytail a playful tug. Pooja's head dropped back so she had to look up at him. "I'm serious. Quit your job and move in here."

Pooja sighed. "It's not that easy. If I ever want to be employable again I can't just quit out of nowhere. And even if I wanted to pick up and move I couldn't do it immediately."

"Soooooo, that sounds like a yes," Kabir surmised, and nodded to himself. "Time to get a bigger bed."

Pooja laughed. "I've already got a King size..."

"Do you now?" Kabir interrupted, and Pooja smacked him on his chest.

"Focus!" she said, though she couldn't help but smile. "You're doing an admirable job restoring my moxy but I'm seriously concerned here."

"I know. So am I," Kabir said, and sighed. "Come on."

He led her inside then, and put up the shotgun and shut the door. "Okay, you said you can't just leave. Why not?"

"Well, I'd have to get my stuff moved, get my apartment sold..."

"All stuff you can do over the phone," Kabir said, and Pooja's jaw dropped.

"That's like trying to sing an aria over Morse Code," she said. "It's a pain in the ass and there's too much paperwork that I'd have to sign in person. Even if I were contemplating this—which I haven't made a decision on yet, by the way—I would have to go back for at least a few weeks to put in notice at work and to wrap up everything."

"Sounds like you made a decision to me," Kabir said, and raised an eyebrow.

Pooja held up her hands defensively. "Hey, don't try to make up my mind for me! I'm too skittish to take it kindly right now."

"Why?" Kabir asked, and reached out to slip his hands back over her jaw. "I think it's a damn good idea. I want you here for selfish reasons anyway. I was hoping you'd come to that decision on your own, but with that bastard making threats about you back in Indore, being polite became a little less important. You'd be safe here. I can go back with you to Indore to make sure you're safe, we can stay a couple weeks to get everything taken care of, and you can come back here with me...for good if you're cool with it."

Pooja swallowed again as she looked up at Kabir, and wondered why in the hell she'd been so dumb for so long. If she'd just fallen for Kabir instead of getting confused and running off to Indore, she wouldn't have met Dhruv and wouldn't have fallen for such a douche. She wouldn't have had her heart broken, and sure as hell wouldn't have had to be scared every time she left the apartment because her boyfriend's 'colleagues' had men out watching her. Life sucked sometimes.

"Cool with it?" she asked. "You didn't just say what I think you said, did you?"

Kabir chuckled, and leaned forward to drop a kiss on her head. "Maybe, maybe not. Meanwhile, I think you should go book a flight for tomorrow morning and I'm going to go find Tej uncle"

Pooja's eyebrows rose. "That soon?"

Kabir shrugged, but he was already halfway across the room when he did it. "Sure. Might as well get this over with. Sooner I get you back here, sooner I can have you for myself. No more Dhruv."

Pooja grinned at that. It sounded like a good idea.

Sooooooo long story short, after Pooja's nerves wore off and she insisted the farm couldn't do without Kabir for even a few weeks, and he insisted even more poignantly that there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that she was going back to Indore without him, they finally ended up in the Big Apple. Other issues proceeded to arise. Like Kabir's popularity with the locals. He wore the cowboy ensemble with familiar ease, boots, hat, leather and all...and as he strolled down the street after her with one little duffle bag thrown over his shoulder, he attracted pretty much every eye in the entire city. Gay, straight, or otherwise. Pooja got fed up pretty quick, and slipped her arm through Kabir's in an attempt to quell the looks of lust, but it didn't work too well. The line of gazes kept right on doing the elevator thing and then would wind up focused on Kabir's jeans.

"People around here sure are friendly," Kabir said as he tipped his hat to a middle aged woman they were passing, and Pooja shot a glare up at him—only to find his teasing grin waiting for her.

"I think I should dress up in a cowgirl outfit just to fit into the picture with you," Pooja said, and Kabir's smile got bigger.

"Only in private," he said as she led him toward one of the subways. They went below, and with one quick card swipe, and a few extra bucks, they were on their way. It wasn't very crowded, but they got on towards the back of one of the subway cars and still had to stand thanks to a bunch of teenagers that were sprawled all over the seats.

Pooja stopped right next to the door and reached up for a hand-hold. Kabir stepped up next to her, his back to the teenagers who were filling their eye- Pooja quota for the month, and he leaned against the rail that stretched from the floor to the ceiling. He winked at her, and she rolled her eyes. The train started moving.

Pooja glanced back at the teenagers. From where she stood, she could see the three couples and two or three single kids lounging carelessly across the seats—or each other in a couple of their cases.

"Huh," she said.

"What's up?" Kabir asked.

Pooja looked back at Kabir and waited for the rising voices to tip him off.

"Seriously, I wasn't looking!" said a girl's voice.

"Come on, I saw you! And you were getting on me for looking at that stripper the other day..." one of the young boys whined.

"Lay off her, Manny. We're just not used to seeing something so country show up in our city," said one of the guys.

Pooja chuckled. "How cute..." She winked at Kabir. "...Their boyfriends are jealous of you."

Kabir snorted. "Look a little closer and you'll notice that the girlfriends are jealous of you."

Pooja shot him a confused look. "If by that you mean they're jealous I have such a good looking guy on my arm, okay."

Kabir gave a soft snort and dipped his head forward so that his hat momentarily hid his face from view.

"You know, I knew you were dense, but this explains a lot," he said.

Pooja reached out to raise his hand and leaned down to look him in the eye. "What do you m—"

She wasn't expecting him to lean in right then, but suddenly the broad awareness of her world imploded to a narrow pinpoint of attention...centered on the feeling of his mouth on hers. It was truly amazing how he made her feel. It was like her emotions underwent a metaphysical earthquake every time he got near. She'd dated a few guys, and had thought she'd been in love, but after this new development with Kabir...everything prior felt like black and white before Technicolor television was created.

He pulled away after a moment, and Pooja's heady emotions escaped her in a low sigh.

"Get a room!" someone muttered from behind them. Pooja ignored them.

"Not fair," she said.

"Why not?" Kabir asked.

"How am I supposed to keep my cool if you're turning me on in public?" she asked.

Kabir sighed. "How much longer is this train ride going to last?"

Pooja glanced around. The teenagers were still where they had been, trying not to look like they were looking, but some of the other passengers were missing, and there were a few new faces.

"I think we've already made one stop," she said, "so there should only be two more."

"Good," said Kabir, and he reached up to wrap one big hand around a handhold. The other hand, which was closer to the wall, slipped back under her coat to curl around the heavy flesh of her ass. "Because I can't wait to throw you on the nearest bed and have a little of the ass that every man between here and Texas has been checking out."

His fingers stretched over her flesh and gave a greedy squeeze. It was the kind of squeeze that said he'd lift her up his body with just that move if they weren't in a train. Pooja sucked in a soft breath, and was glad that his cowboy hat hid most of her face from the passengers.

She gave him a wicked little grin. "Oh, so it's my ass they've all been after. And here I thought it was you all those women were eyeballing like you'd hopped out of a romance novel to fulfill all their cowboy fetishes."

Kabir shrugged. "Whatever. I don't care who's looking at who. So long as I'm the one there at the end of the day, they can gawk all they want. You're mine now, Pooja Sharma"

"That name sounds so sexy when you say it," Pooja whispered to him.

"That's because it belongs to a sexy woman," he whispered back.

"Who apparently belongs to a sexy man," she shot back with another grin. "Guess we're all sexy 'round here."

Kabir chuckled. "What can I say?" he joked, "I'm contagious."

Pooja laughed at that, and gave him a playful punch in the shoulder.

"Ouch," he said with a lighthearted scowl. "You should be careful...you don't want to turn me on."

Pooja rolled her eyes, and looked around the car. Fortunately, there wasn't anybody watching them besides the nosy teens. "I'd put money on the fact that it's a little too late for that," she said, and reached down to the front of his jeans. Her hand was hidden between them, so it was private gesture, but it did its job...Kabir tipped his head back and sent his gaze to a far off place located somewhere over the top of her head, and he took a very slow, deliberate breath to keep his expression neutral.

"Lookie there," Pooja said, and raised her eyes from her hand to Kabir's as her fingers gently trailed up the bulge in his pants...which made his pants a little tighter. "Shoulda bet dinner."

Kabir reached down and grabbed her hand. "That is not a good idea to be doing here," he said, "Unless you want me to fuck you in front of all these people."

Pooja cocked an eyebrow up. "Would you really?" she asked, more curious than anything.

"Wanna try me?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Nah, I believe we're just one more stop away from my place, and then we can go up to my room and won't have to worry about getting interrupted."

"It's a date," Kabir said, just as the train slowed to a halt. He turned to the teens and reached up to tip his hat at them.

"Take care," he said, and winked as he took Pooja's hand and dragged her off the train.

"So where to?" he asked from the front. Pooja chuckled and directed him to her place one block down and off on the side. They went up the building and barely got in the door before Kabir turned on her and descended with a ravenous kiss—occasionally interrupted by all the clothes they were tearing off.

"Bedroom," he said somewhere between the kisses, and as he wrapped his arms around her to literally lift her entire body up where he could suck on her tits, she gasped and told him it was back and to the left. A trail of clothes got tossed in their wake, and once in the bedroom Kabir tossed her down sideways on the bed and tugged her hips to the edge.

"It's going to take us a while to get ready," he said.

"Good," Pooja said.

The phone rang then, and Kabir swore. "Now see," he said, "no one in the country would be rude enough to interrupt other people like this."

Pooja chuckled. "Liar," she said. "People in the country are the nosiest people I know."

"Oh really?" Kabir asked, and reached down to grab both her wrists. "What're you tryin to say, huh?"

Pooja tried to hold him back, and slipped her knees up between them, laughing.

"Cheater!" Kabir said, and let go of one hand to push her knees away from his gut.

The answering machine kicked on then, and an unwelcome voice sounded out over the machine. It was sitting out on the kitchen counter, so both of them turned to the doorway and froze to listen.

"Hey, Pooja! I heard you were back in town. I wanted to know if you'd like to get together and grab a bite to eat. I'd just like a chance to explain things...you know, as friends if nothing else. We don't need to date again right away. I'd just like to see you again. Call me back."

The message ended, and Pooja's eyes turned back to Kabir. "I didn't tell anyone I was coming back..." she said.

"Fucking asshole," Kabir said, and stood. "Come on, let's go get a drink. If this guy shows up at the door I'm going to throw his ass out the window." He picked his jeans up off the ground and slid them back on, then grabbed his hat. Pooja sat up on the bed and looked at him standing next to her...jeans unbuttoned...shirtless.

"No wonder," she said.

Kabir looked up, his frustration still palpable. "What?" he asked.

Pooja stood. She'd gotten down to her bra and panties, and now she walked forward to put her hands against his sides, just above his jeans. His skin was hot to her touch. She glanced down to look at the top of the v-shaped muscles that rose up from his jeans to sweep back above his hips. Her fingers traced the v from his hips down into his jeans, and leaned close.

"It's no wonder you were getting stared at all day. I bet they were trying to imagine what was under the clothing. Guess I'm lucky I get to see for myself," she said, and Kabir grunted as her hand inched around his nethers and gave his balls a slow, deliberate stroke.

"Forget the bastard on the phone," Pooja said, and reached up to unhook her bra. "Just fuck me."

Kabir smiled. "Make me," he said, and Pooja reached up to take his hat away and put it on her own head.

"Come here then, cowboy," she said, and pulled on his arm until they switched places and she shoved him back onto the bed. Kabir hit the soft pillowtop with a heavy whump, and Pooja ran her hands up her thighs, shook her hips in a slow, sexy rhythm, and hooked her thumbs into the lacy material of her thong to push it slowly down her hips.

Kabir scooted farther back on the bed, and Pooja reached out to pull his jeans down just enough to pull his growing penis out of its denim restraints. She glanced from it up to meet his gaze briefly, and thought twice of commenting on how f-ing big he was. Sure, it beefed up a guy's ego...and happened to be true...but it was just so cliché...

She leaned over to tease the tip with her tongue, running the tip of her tongue along the ridge at the base of the head. Then she ran it down the back of the penis, and sucked her way back up. Kabir gave a low, frustrated growl like he was exercising a lot of restraint, and Pooja opened her mouth to suck on the head. Then she slid her lips down, easing him back over her tongue and then down into her throat. He was downright huge, so she could barely get . She had to relax her muscles so he could go farther, and as she turned her head she wiggled her tongue, sucking and teasing the ever more rigid skin of his penis. She had to reach up to take the cowboy hat off for a minute as she began pumping up and down his penis. She listened to him groan, and glanced up across his clenched muscled to his face. He had pushed up onto his elbows to watch her with clenched teeth. Pooja continued, her eyes on his for a while, until she moved away and stepped up onto the bed to straddle him. She put the hat back on her head, and pulled out the clip that had been holding her long chocolate brown hair up. The soft curls spilled down her shoulders, and she reached down to ease Kabir into her. She moaned as his rigid head eased up through her flesh and into her womb.

Kabir reached up to run his hands back over her thighs to her hips. "Save a horse," he said.

Pooja grinned as she started rocking up and down. "Ride a cowboy," she finished, and dropped her hands to either side of his head. She leaned down to kiss him, her hips still pumping up and down over him. She had to break away after a moment to breathe. Her gasps came closer together as she lifted her body up and slid back down over him, over and over again...She reveled in the feel of his hard flesh pushing up through the tight passage in her body, then sliding back down as she lifted her hips. Her fluids made his entry so easy, so slick...and her nerves burned with maddening pleasure. It felt like a rush of adrenaline almost—like her lifeblood, and her emotions—were roiling around in a ball of hot sensation in the pit of her belly. Pooja reached down to run her hands up his body, and moaned.

Kabir looked aside for a second then, and pushed up to his elbows. "I've got an idea love. Turn over."

Pooja slid off him then, and Kabir sat up enough to suck on one nipple before they both stood. Then Pooja turned and bent over the bed, and Kabir's hand ran down her back to push her head into the covers. His middle finger pushed into her and hooked toward the front of her body, just barely hitting the bundle of nerves scientifically referred to as a woman's G-spot. Pooja gave a loud moan, her body craving the arousal as much as her mind was, and he started massaging the spot as a loud mechanic click sounded out next to Pooja's ear.

"Dial his number," Kabir said, and the surprise hit Pooja like a ton of bricks. She tried to push up off the bed, and his hand with the phone in it just pressed her back down on the covers. Then he used his leverage on her soft spot to make her forget why she was trying to get up in the first place.

Oh! Damn but she loved how strong guys were, Pooja thought as Kabir used his farm-earned hand strength to press hard against her g-spot. Her world nearly turned white, and she let out an explosive cry. It wasn't climax, but her arousal was so intense that it almost felt like a premature one. Pooja reached out to take the phone, and despite her blurred vision she managed to punch in the number she'd called so many times before Dhruv had broken her heart. As soon as it began dialing, Kabir took the phone back from her. A moment later, his finger withdrew, and his penis took its place. It felt bigger from the back, and the pressure was more intense as he pushed his way into her. She reached out to gather handfulls of the covers to grip onto, and Kabir started thrusting into her. Damn was he huge!

Pooja moaned hard, and Kabir picked up the pace. He was breathing hard too, so when her moans had started coming as frequently as her breathing, and he finally spoke...she was fairly sure the person on the other end could hear them both loud and clear.

"Hello? Yes, I'd like to order a large all-topping pizza," Kabir said, and managed to sound somewhat clear while he spoke. As soon as he stopped though, his heavy breathing was evident. "Wrong number? Oh, sorry about that..." he thrust into Pooja hard, and she bit off a loud moan. Kabir tossed the phone down by her face, and she saw the blinking orange light that meant the call was still connected. Both Kabir's hands went back to her hips, and he held her ass in place as he proceeded to pound into her at a bruising pace. She felt his jeans press into her skin with each rhythmic smack of his thrusts. Pooja cried out, and her moans became more desperate. Her whole body felt like a conduit for the anguish of her arousal.

"H-harder," she said, and Kabir leaned down to speak in her ear.

"Louder, Pooja. I can't hear you," he said.

"I...said," Kabir straightened, and Pooja straightened, arcing her back to reach up and slip her hand behind Kabir's head. "Fuck. Me. Harder!"

She twisted her head back to lean it on his collarbone, and he leaned down to kiss her as his hips thrust him into her.

"Ah!" she cried into his mouth. One of his hands came up to wrap around her breast, and the other went down to lift her other leg onto the bed. His hand trailed back inward along her thigh, and then his fingers hooked around to press into her clit. Pooja's body all but seized up, and Kabir pushed her back down to the bed. His unforgiving grip on her pelvis kept a harsh pressure on her clit, and he hammered into her until the pressure built beyond bearing. Pooja screamed out her release, and gripped the sheets again as she threw her head back and her whole body clenched up. Kabir pulled out after a few more thrusts and came on her ass with an aggressive cry. When he finished, he stood breathing hard, and reached out with a chuckle to drag one finger through his seed to draw little symbols on her ass.

"What the hell are you doing?" Pooja asked, and dropped her feet to the floor to stand up.

"Time for a shower," Kabir said with a grin. "You've got a dirty ass."

Pooja rolled her eyes. "It's going to take us forever to get out of here."

Kabir looked over at her again, and looked away.

"What?" Pooja asked, and crossed her arms. "Stop doing that."

"Do you always dress up like that when you go out?" Kabir asked.

Pooja smiled. "Just looking the part," she said. She was wearing a one-sleeved shirt with a sliced design from the shoulder to her wrist, and a fancy winged design across the back. She was also wearing skinny jeans with a lot of holes and fur boots, and looked fairly decent, if she said so herself.

They went to a couple bars first, where Kabir soundly beat her in a round of pool and then lost twice in a row at darts. Pooja hit six bullseyes (even though she'd never played the game before in her life). According to one of the passers-by, she could apparently KO an opponent with a jab, if her dart-throwing technique were any indication. Kabir opted not to be a test dummy.

They saved the club for last, and Pooja could tell that Kabir wasn't enthused as soon as they walked in, especially since it was packed wall to wall and the music was deafening—a new experience for Kabir. Pooja just smiled at him and pointed to the bar. He followed her through the crowd, and had to glare at a few guys who missed their interlocked hands and were heading for Pooja. They reached the bar and Kabir stood behind Pooja, his hands on her hips.

"Is it always like this?" he said in her ear.

Pooja reached up to run her hand back along his neck. She turned her head back to answer, "It varies...sometimes it's packed and sometimes it's not, but the music is always this loud."

"I meant the guys."

Pooja glanced back at him and saw a couple of women checking out his ass.

"That depends," she said.

"On what?" Kabir asked.

"On whether the girls are always like this," Pooja nodded behind him, and Kabir followed her gaze. The women quickly looked away, but Kabir had spotted them.

"Why would that change your answer?" he asked when he turned back, and Pooja shrugged.

"I might want to make you jealous," she said.

Kabir laughed. "No need to work at that one. I figure it's not fair that the men of Indore have seen this side of you for the past three years and tonight's my first time." He glanced down at her outfit.

Pooja rolled her eyes. "It's not that big of a deal. You get to see more than they do."

"Good point," Kabir said, and lifted her up to set her atop the only empty barstool near them. Pooja caught a few curious looks getting tossed their way out of the corner of her eye. She winked at some old middle-aged guy off to one side behind Kabir and leaned forward to whisper in Kabir's ear.

"So I'm curious...do you want me to teach you some dirty dancing?" she asked.

Kabir turned to speak back into her ear. "I think you've already done that," he said, and Pooja gave him a playful punch, then slipped her hands up under his jacket and smiled at him.

"You're gonna like it," she said, and Kabir looked up over her head like he was weighing his options.

"The offer is about to expiiiiiiiiiire," Pooja warned.

Kabir sighed. "Fine, I guess I can try it," he said.

Pooja rolled her eyes. "Since when did country boys get so caustic?"

"Since they fell in with cranky city girls," he shot back.

Pooja opened her mouth to tell him off, and couldn't think of a good comeback. He had a point. So she glared at him.

"No dance for you," she said.

Kabir took a deep breath, and glanced out at the crammed dance floor, where most of the dancers were bouncing up and down with barely a couple inches between them and the next person.

He leaned close. "I've got a better idea. How about we leave and you can teach me at the hotel across the street? I'm pretty sure we could still hear the music from there."

Pooja laughed. "You are such a guy."

"Glad you noticed," he said.

"Fine," she said, "but you have to let me go to the bathroom first."

Kabir lifted her off the seat and stepped aside. "I'll be waiting impatiently for your return. Want another drink before we go?"

Pooja shook her head. "I'm good. Be right back."

She pushed away through the crowd then, and headed for the bathrooms. About half way there, someone ran into her from the side and knocked her into the next guy on her right. The two of them almost went down, but fortunately it was packed enough in there that falling was kind of difficult. The guy reached out to steady her, and they straightened.

"Sorry!" Pooja shouted above the noise, and froze.

"Pooja..." Dhruv smiled. "Nice to see you!" he glanced around. "Where's your guy?"

He didn't look surprised to see her, Pooja thought as she noticed that his hand was still wrapped around her arm.

"Hey Dhruv, can we talk in a minute? I was heading for the bathroom," Pooja said, trying to give herself a way out.

Dhruv looked back at her. "Sure," he said, but his response was delayed. He followed her to the bathroom door, and waited as she went in and closed the door.

Shit. Pooja pulled out her phone and texted Kabir for backup. She really didn't want to be alone with Dhruv. Not even in a crowded club. She hurried to take care of her business and washed her hands. When she finished, she stood and waited for a return reply. The bathroom hostess sat listlessly on her stool texting someone or other, and paid Pooja no attention. Until Pooja started pacing.

"Bad date?" the woman asked.

"Sort of," Pooja said, and looked down at her phone. Nothing. She texted Kabir again, and this time there was an answer. He was coming over.

Pooja snuck over to the door and leaned close to listen. She hoped that when Kabir came over she'd hear his voice or something to let her know it was safe to come out...but no sooner did she get close to the door than it opened and smacked her in the nose. A short fat lady came walking in and gave Pooja a glare. Since Pooja was the one hurt, she felt a little insulted and glared back.

She swore too, but that didn't last long. She fell silent when Dhruv's head swung around and saw her, and immediately realized what she'd been doing. She saw his face darken, and he reached in for her. Pooja twisted her arm out of his grip, which irritated him, and he grabbed both her arms.

"Let go!" Pooja shouted, and the bathroom hostess stepped forward.

"What's going on?" the woman asked.

"Hey!" came Kabir's voice from outside the bathroom door, and Dhruv turned to get clocked in the face. He stumbled and fell to the tile floor, and shook his head to clear the dazed look from his eyes.

"FIGHT!" someone shouted from nearby, and the bouncers immediately started closing in.

"This guy!" the bathroom hostess said, and pointed to Dhruv when a big guy in a black t-shirt stepped out of the crowd.

Kabir grabbed Pooja's hand then and didn't wait for the story to be worked out. He just booked it for the front door, shoving his way through the people to get out. When they broke into the entryway, one of the bouncers noticed that they seemed to be in a hurry and stepped forward.

"Hang on a sec man," he said, and looked at Pooja. "Is everything okay here? We just got a call that something was going on by the bathrooms."

"There's no problem, sir," Pooja said with a shrug, and smiled. She glanced up at Kabir. "We're just in a hurry to get back to the room, if you know what I mean."

The guy looked at Kabir, who shrugged. "Too much dancing," Kabir said, and the guy chuckled before glancing back at Pooja.

"I bet," he said, and waved them on through. They walked through the door then, and Kabir picked up his pace.

"Let's get outta here," he said, but shortly after they got out, there was a commotion at the front door and they glanced back to see the bouncers "escorting" Dhruv out of the building.

"Fucking let GO of me," he shouted, and yanked his arm away from the nearest giant white guy. They didn't take kindly to the aggression, and shoved him out.

"Don't ever show your face here again," one of the bouncers said, and Dhruv threw them a bird before catching sight of Pooja and Kabir. Kabir pushed her behind him, and Dhruv turned to walk up.

He didn't say anything. Just hauled back with one fist and swung at Kabir. Kabir diverted the blow and stepped in to send a low jab toward Dhruv's ribs. Dhruv had been a boxer in college though, so he didn't just let it come. He turned aside and used the momentum to throw a punch into Kabir's face.

"Hey! Get out of here you two!" shouted the bouncers at the door, and two of them started down to break up the fight. Kabir dodged most of Dhruv's punch then, but Dhruv's knuckle clipped him in the side of the mouth. His head swung around, but he came back to block the next punch and delivered a solid one-two-three, with one punch to Dhruv's face, another to his abdomen, and then hooked his hands over the back of Dhruv's head when he bent over the blow to knee him in the face.

Dhruv hit the ground just as the bouncers stepped in, and Kabir put up his hands and stepped back.

"What the fuck is going on?" asked the bouncer that was getting up in Kabir's face, and Pooja stepped in and grabbed the side of Kabir's jacket.

"He was harassing me!" she told the bouncer, and pointed at Dhruv. "He's been stalking me and I was seriously afraid he was going to attack me."

Those were taboo actions in Indore. Any guy that got accused of that kind of thing was in serious trouble, as became immediately evident when the bouncer turned to Dhruv, and the other two circled around him.

"That true?" they asked.

Dhruv was brushing himself off casually as he pushed to his feet, and avoided looking at Pooja.

"I wasn't doing any of that," he said. "I just wanted to let her know it was cool with me if we parted ways, but I wanted to do it under good terms. She misunderstood my intentions and pulled her new boyfriend in to defend her honor." He gave his displaced shirt a quick tug to put it back in place and finally glanced back over the bouncer's shoulder to subtly glare at Pooja.

The head bouncer, who was just the guy doing all the talking, turned back to Pooja and Kabir.

"Look," he said. "I don't know the whole story but this guy looks like a dick. Don't bring trash like this to my bar again."

Pooja smiled, and Kabir answered for them both. "No need for that," he said, and put an arm around her. "She's coming home with me."

Pooja slipped both arms around his waist as a feeling of total security and contentedness wrapped over her, and she glanced back at Dhruv, who was wise enough not to make any further moves.

"Goodbye Dhruv," she said, and Kabir reached out to shake the bouncer's hand before turning them both to walk away. A cheer went up from the drunk spectators gathered at the door to the club.

"Kiss her!" a chick shouted, and Kabir laughed. He lifted an arm to wave them off, but someone else joined in on the demand.

"Come on, don't save her ass and run...kiss her!"

Pooja tugged on his jacket. "Come on, I know you like to show off in public," she said.

"True," said Kabir, and reached down to lift one of her legs. She hopped up and wrapped her legs around his waist, and kissed him. Another cheer went up...along with some cat calls and a lot of cheesy leering.

"So how about that hotel?" Kabir asked. "Your guy is gonna be pretty pissed. I wanna find somewhere where he can't interrupt us."

Pooja slid back to the ground and gave him a concerned look before he took her hand and glanced back and forth at the road.

"You think he's gonna try something else?" she asked as he took her across and started walking down the opposite sidewalk.

"I wouldn't put it past him. The guy's a douchebag. Where in the hell did you drag him up from?" Kabir asked.

Pooja cringed. "I thought he was a better man than that. He proved me wrong."

"Sorry, I didn't mean it that way," Kabir said. "You just worry me is all. You were always attracting all the worst kids in the neighborhood growing up, like you were a magnet for lowlifes. Doesn't look like much has changed."

Pooja smiled to herself. "Awwww...that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside."

Kabir glanced back. "Huh?"

Pooja tugged him into an alley between buildings. "It's just so cute is all," she said, and edged him back against the wall. He probably didn't realize she wasn't pushing him...just walking forward, and he was obligingly stepping back. She reached up to put her arms around his neck.

"Cute?" he asked.

"Well, you playing the heroic cowboy," Pooja said, and reached up to tip his hat back. "Coming to my rescue and all. Just like old times. It's incredibly sexy."

Kabir smiled softly at her. "Mmm," he said, and looked heavenward to sigh heavily. "The lengths I go to just to turn you on...." he said, and Pooja's jaw dropped.

"Hey!" she said, and suddenly found herself getting pushed up against the wall.

"By the way," Kabir said as one hand went down the front of her pants, "this is why I am not fond of skinny jeans. They're harder to get into than just about anything else."

Pooja's eyes rolled up in her head as Kabir's finger found her clit, and the heady hormones that had been sitting in her belly like hot coals all evening lit up into a blazing fire. Her head went back against the brick wall behind her, and her back arced. Kabir bent to press a hot kiss against the base of her neck, right where the nerves would tingle at the barest touch. She reached up to slide her hand along the back of his neck.

"Kabir..." she sighed, "...hotel..."

"Not here?" he asked.

"No! Come...come on..." she said... "I mean...doesn't matter...but I want your clothes off right now. Don't think people passing by would...appreciate the show."

Kabir chuckled, and reached up to pull down the sleeveless side of her shirt to expose her bra-less breast. His big hand took the whole thing in his palm and gently squeezed. Pooja moaned.

"Clearly you haven't been paying attention today," he said, and popped open the front of her jeans.

"Kabir! Seriously...I just wanted a quick—Ah! I just wanted a kiss...we...unh...oh..." she rolled her hips over his touch, and squirmed under the desire to tear off her clothes right then and fuck him anyway. "...we could get mugged..."

Kabir turned her around then to put her back against him, and led her further into the darkness of the alley.

"Nobody back here," he said as his fingers pushed into her, "it's a dead end."

"Oh," Pooja said, and moaned as he stopped next to the wall in the back and pushed her forward so her upper body was leaning on the cold rock face. His hands were unzipping her pants. She heard another zipper soon after, and he shoved her pants down.

"It's dark back here. They won't see us from the street. Better keep quiet if you don't want to be found," Kabir said, and a moment later, thrust into her. Pooja sucked in a hard breath and clamped her teeth down tight. She fought the moans down, but her breathing hitched up as he fucked her right there in the alley.

Shit. Shit shit shitshitshitshit. She couldn't believe they were doing this. Seriously. There was exhibitionism and then there was just plain perversion.

Guess that made her a pervert for enjoying it.

Kabir turned her around and pushed her jeans down far enough that he could lift her up. She bent her knees on either side of him, and he thrust in again. Damn, but she loved the feeling of him filling her. He reached up to pull down the sleeve of her shirt and hooked the whole thing under her breasts—probably so he could watch the effects of his thrusts on them. Her body shook with the jolts of his thrusts, and it felt deliciously amazing.

She reached out to pop open the buttons of his shirt, and slid her hands back across his sides to his back, and pulled him close to press him against her breasts. The shirt and jacket fell back off his shoulders after a while, and he shrugged them off the rest of the way. Yep. They were going to hell, she thought.

They didn't take long. It was kind of a textbook quickie, but Pooja felt all the naughtier for it. She couldn't help the loud moan that ripped out of her at her climax, and saw a middle-aged couple hurry but the entrance of the alley. Pooja giggled, and Kabir glanced back over his shoulder and laughed.

"Was that...?" he asked.

"Yep," Pooja said, and they both laughed as he set her down. Pooja pulled up her jeans as he zipped his back up, and then straightened her shirt. Kabir picked up his coat and handed her his button-up shirt.

"Here, since you didn't bring a coat," he said.

Pooja looked from it to him. "You just want me to walk into the hotel wearing your shirt."

Kabir shrugged as he put on his jacket and held out his hand. "Maybe," he said.

Pooja laughed and put on his shirt, then took his hand. Hell, she'd probably go along with just about anything he asked her to do.

It took a few weeks to wrap everything up, but Kabir stayed with her until she was done. They didn't see anything more of Dhruv, though they stayed at the hotel for a few more days before returning to her apartment. The hotel staff was probably relieved. After walking in the way they had, and then when the maid knocked on the door and had a half-dressed Kabir answer, and then when the neighbors called the front desk to complain...yeah. They were glad Kabir and her were gone.

And now she was leaving Indore. Kabir carried her carry-on, and as they waited for the plane and multiple passersby glanced over in curiosity at the cowboy getup, he slipped his hand into the back pocket of her jeans and pulled her close. Pooja smiled and leaned close.

"I'm a lucky girl," she said.

"How so?" Kabir asked.

Pooja shrugged. "I'm going home with the guy I love. It doesn't get much better."

Kabir leaned down and kissed the top of her head. "It will," he promised. "Though you better prepare yourself for some hard work. I make a lot of demands."

Pooja snorted. "I can handle it."