Satarupa was giggling again, uncontrollably, tucking her loose hair behind her ears and fluttering her kohl dabbed small eyes at him. A constant flirtatious smile plastered over her lips and her eyes oogling at the seated man made Bondita furious.
'How unwomanly of her! Pathetic!', Bondita thought, as she passed by the common room beside the library, stealing a glance of all the women, and men too, that had surrounded Anirudh. Their muscles were shaking, and tears streamed from their half closed eyes. Bondita had held her breath behind her pursed lips to steel herself against the gales of laughter to come. They always do. She knew very well what might had happened. Someone must have just asked a lame question and Anirudh must have answered it in his own quirky humour, and now they all are bonding over it, rolling over each other's shoulders. Anirudh wasn't really looking at them, none of them, but that didn't mean he wasn't a party to it, Bondita told herself.
The bell rang, making Bondita sigh silently. She made her way to the library, alone, a feeling of cloaked insecurity creeping up her chest.
Anirudh had looked up at her, just a glance, while she was passing by, his teeth shining like some stupid toothpaste commercial, Bondita thought.

"Hey, where were you? What did he say?" Beena had hugged her suddenly from behind, overenthusiasm evident in her tone.

"Nothing noteworthy." Bondita breathed the words.

"Hm... He is giving an off-class lecture, apparently, on ethics and values, in the common room." Beena chuckled.

"Good for him." Bondita pursed her lips.
"And good for them, those vultures." She murmured under a breath.

"What?"

"Nevermind." She closed her eyes and calm herself down. "Beena, I'm going to the library. Would you come along?" She asked her politely.

"Um... Well... I think I'll pass this time. Ethics had never sounded this fun before." She winked at Bondita meaningfully, a hint of tease in her tone.
"Come, join us."

"Never!" Bondita let out a suppressed growl.

"Ya. Whatever... See you later then." Beena rolled her eyes at her strangely behaving friend as she too, made her way towards the common room to join the rest of the party.

"To damn with ethics and values." Bondita murmured inaudibly, as she briskly walked inside the library with two books in hand.

"I'd like to return these books please." She almost slammed the books on the librarian's table before walking towards the law section. ' That's very unlikely of her", the old librarian frowned.
The portion of the grand library with shelved law books lay in the furthest corner. On her way her eyes had skimmed through the literature section once, fiction, as the thought of romantic tales made her blood boil.

'All are same... all women...' she thought, 'nobody would ever let her husband be.' she stopped at her desired destination and skimmed through the shelves. 'But, how can Anirudh... her Anirudh be a party to this? Surrounded by women all around... what does he think of himself!' Her long flowing traces tickling her cheeks suddenly became unbearable to her, her hands moved up in a hurry tying the locks up on her head into a messy bun. She pulled out a pin from her hair and secured it. The fresh air of the library suddenly tickled the exposed skin on her back.
'Why should she think about him while he's having fun', she let out a gasp of hot fumed breath as her hands roughly pulled out a book from a high shelf unmindfuly.
'She would teach him a lesson.' her mind told her, while her hands flipped through the pages of the big fat book.
It was a copy of 'The Prince' by Machiavelli. Uninhibited, Bondita skimmed through the first few pages of the masterpiece on politics, before her narrowed eyes turned the book around to check the content at the back.

"Interesting." She murmured inaudibly.

"I agree!"
A tingle of cold air caressed the nape of her bare neck, as she felt the sensation trailing down her exposed spine, fading into the lining of her blouse. Anirudh had blown air on her creamy white skin, before his mouth moved dangerously close to her left ear.
"Where the willingness is great, difficulties can't be greater... " Anirudh paused, his warm breath caressing her left cheek, tickling her earlobe into budding rhapsodies. Bondita shivered.
"Machiavelli was an amazing man... In this book he said how you can be a lion and learn to play with a fox." He hushed the words into her neck, as she felt her entire body stiffening at this sudden stir of ecstasy.

'Why was he doing this?' her mind rang, her own heartbeat betraying her rationale.

"Why are you doing this... to me?" She breathed the question, her breathing still synchronised with his warmth involuntarily.

"What did I do?" Anirudh groaned into her ears, almost making her jump, arousing goosebumps across her body.

"You... You seemed really busy back there?" She murmured as she felt his index finger raising up her neck, brushing feather-touches on her sensitive skin, trailing up behind her ear to her head.

"I was expecting you'd join."
His words were husky sending another round of shivers down her spine, making her core tingle against her will.
Bondita was about to reply, but instead she gasped, as with one quick tug, Anirudh pulled the silver pin from her bun, letting her hair go undone, long black traces cascading on her shoulder covering his face near her ears.
Anirudh sniffed the fragnance sharply, making Bondita clench her stomach muscles as another round of electric currents coursed down her body.

"Open Sesame...
Open your heart.
Trust as essential to love.
Love as our treasure.
Love as the gates of heaven.
Open Sesame!"
Anirudh recited the words, almost breathed into her neck, as he touched the loose tangles of her hair, tucking them carefully behind her ear.

Bondita turned around slowly. She bit her lip, eyes everywhere but on him. And, then he moved closer with those eyes that look so deeply into her own, "Hey, it's me..."

Her breathing became softer, the stiffened ecstatic look melting into a gaze as soft as the morning light. Her body squirmed just a little as her muscles relaxed. There was something about that gaze of his that she'll never find in another man, as if in that moment their souls had made a bridge... transferring all that their heart contained.

Some gazes were of promises, Bondita felt, but his was all that and a lot more.

Anirudh noticed the hint of glossiness in her eyes as his voice became even softer than before.

"What do you want?" Her voice quaked a little.

"I want my old Bondita back. I want her love, her trust, everything...", his words were measured, his throaty voice synchronising perfectly with her emotions.

"You have her, don't you?" She lowered her eyes and looked away.

"Not like this..." He sighed.
Bondita... Love without trust is nothing. And trust needs courage. So do you have the courage in your heart to trust me one more time? Just once more?" His words were clear pleas melting her heart.

"How?" She muttered.

Anirudh sighed at her monosyllabic question.
"To start with, don't give up on me... on us." He paused to gauze her reaction.
"My Bondita isn't this quiet. She is fiesty, she fights with me if she feels being wronged."

Bondita swallowed at his words.

"And, if possible, please find in your heart to forgive me. The first step to rebuild trust is probably forgiveness."
He cupped her face in his hands, gentler than ever.
"And, let's not dwell in the past. What had happened, we can't change it Shona... But, we can build a beautiful present with promises of rainbows ahead."

Bondita nodded her head.
"I'll try."

"That's all I need to hear." He leaned forward bringing his mouth close to her left ear once again.

"And, I'll try harder, I promise." His words had send a cold shiver through her neck, channeling directly down to the core of her body once again. His intoxicating cologne and the bulged muscles through the folded sleeves of his black linen shirt was enticing her in every way to loose control, to jump into his arms and scream his name in love.

"Bondita..." he almost breathed her name in her ears, bringing back that tingle between her thighs. She felt his right hand moving up her lips as he touched her gently with the silver pin, pulling her lower lip down sensuously, the pin trailing further south her body, traveling down the crook of her neck to the lining of her blouse guarding her undulating heaved breasts.
His left hand, in the meanwhile, had found refuge on her waist, as suddenly with an abrupt pull, he brought their bodies closer than before.

"Bondita... I promise I won't touch you until you find in your heart to trust me again... Completely." He sighed.

"Aren't you touching me, already?" Her voice was low and hoarse as she saw a naughty smirk played on his thin wet lips.

"Not like this..." He chuckled.
"I meant proper touch... Like THIS!"
He moved his hand back from her waist and grabbed her soft round buttock with a fevered wildness, giving her a firm squeeze and making her jump fervidly.
"And, THIS!"
He leaned forward, and with no prior intimation, grabbed and pulled her lower lip biting in between his teeth, before leaving her as abruptly as he had started. His hands had rested on the wooden frames of the book shelf, entrapping Bondita within an untouched embrace.

"I want to love you like mad, tigress... I want you to loose yourself to me once again." He groaned.
"I want us to be one!"
He let out a sharp sigh before standing upright, leaving her undone both physically and emotionally.

"Your touch is the magic I need
to keep going
until our next chance to touch again."
Anirudh hushed, folding his hands to his chest, as he distanced himself from her slowly.

"Why didn't you come back home last night?" She lifted her eyes and asked slowly.

"I had work." He smiled.
"And, I won't come to you till the time I get your trust back."

"How many lectures..." Bondita suddenly couldn't find any words to complete her sentence as Anirudh's strong yet angelic face reflected a veil of sadness. She can't see him like this... It's heart-wrenching, it's like death!

"Three."

"Which days?" She asked again making Anirudh chuckle.

"I won't tell you, for I don't want you to plan your absence syncing with my lectures." He turned around and faded behind one of the big book shelves in no time, leaving her standing alone, swimming amidst the vastness of knowledge and emotion.

'Why do you do this to me Anirudh Roy Chowdhury? Why? Don't you know I can never mistrust you... No matter what! I owe my life to you... My every breath... But why it is suddenly so difficult for me to express? Why do you always leave my emotions so undone...'
Random thoughts clouded her judgement as she turned around facing the bookshelf. She clutched the fat old book close to her breasts in desparate attempts of masking the void that Anirudh's absence had created, while her head rested on the beam of the wooden shelf.

'I trust you Anirudh... I trust you more than I trust myself... And I love...'
Her thoughts were interrupted by a soft touch on her shoulder.
Without wasting any second, she quickly turned around and jumped into Anirudh's arms.

"I love you... I love you so so much... You hear..."

Her words and actions were interrupted.

"Ahem... Well... I hear you."

If there was a practical implementation of the textbook definition of shock, Bondita had felt it at that moment.
She felt like a thousand needles had pierced her body at the same time, her insides churning out fear. She looked up at the owner of the voice.
A tall handsome man, a little tanned, with ruffled hair and big round glasses, but what was familiar to her was his clear blue-green eyes, staring back at her in amusement.

"Someone is showering love today." He smirked, a tone of tease in his words, taking the book from her hand to skim through the cover.
"But, it felt nice to hear it." He looked up straight to meet her eyes.

Bondita's heart sank.
"Satya...I... I..." She fumbled.

"I what? I love you?" He teased her again.

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My birthday treat for you guys. Do let me know how it was.