The dawn came early, declared by the cockatiel's calling, playing hide and seek with the dying darkness, and inside the modest thatched hut, Batakrishna paced with impatience, his arms held to the back, his forehead with a hundred creases, his mind racing with thoughts that could burn a world.

How dare they try to hurt Mira! His Mira!

His warm rapid breaths kept asking the same question in a repeated relay, yet his heart was still unable to confide in the single inevitable answer.

Mira wasn't safe without him, not here, not anywhere!

The villagers had left, Batakrishna had drenched Mira with buckets of water, partly to get her cleaned from the stenchy stink, but mostly because his subconscious sense wanted to wash away all afflictions from her body, all the filthy touches, all insults!
Thoughts were bothering him, but what pained him more was the fact that Mira, not even for once, had objected to any of the mistreatment. She was quiet, and that quietness was what made Batuk mad with fury.
He had to know the reason... He had to talk! And if not words, he'd have to find a way to convince her otherwise!

The cockatiels kept calling, and with the first light, Mira came out from the petite bamboo barricade at the back of the hut, modestly structured as a bathroom. She had bathed, changed into a widow's white drape, ready to water the Tulsi stall infront. But the moment Batakrishna saw her shadow at the outside porch, he sprinted out of the single room and held her by her arm forcefully, making the steel tumbler fall from her hand with a metalic clank, spilling water all over.

Mira turned around and narrowed her eyes at him.
"Leave me, leave my hand Choto Zamindar Babu, aren't you ashamed? Ashamed to hold a helpless widow's hand like this?"

Batuk frowned at her sharp words. He knew Mira was upset because she believed it's because of him that she couldn't know the whereabouts of her son, but in anyway he wasn't prepared for these sharp words. Mira was meant to be the silent beauty as he had perceived her!

"It's shameful that..."
Mira tried to speak, but Batuk stopped her immediately, grabbing her arm yet firmer in his grip. Her words had somehow ignited that fuming rage in him once again, and deep in his heart, he felt a strange admiration for her, and more.

"No! it's not shameful, and I am not ashamed, not an ounce." He gritted his teeth and dragged Mira inside the room, but Mira kept wiggling, desparately trying to get out of his grip.

"You might be a widow Mira, but you aren't helpless in anyway... It's just that you are fond of playing helpless."

"Playing?"
Mira looked at him with questions in her eyes.

"Yes, you love to play the victim! You love to inflict sadness upon yourself!" He huffed the words and pulled her closer, and Mira gave up on her struggle, her brows furrowing into a hundred questions.

"What do you want to gain by proving yourself as helpless Mira? What do you want to gain from this luxury sorrow?"

"Luxury Sorrow?" Mira gasped at his choice of words, "I don't want to gain anything Choto Zamindar Babu, I just want my son."

"And I've promised I'll get him to you... What else? What else do you want?"
Batuk glared at her.

"Societal acceptance!" Mira muttered, and she lowered her eyes to look away.
"Widows are meant to be outcasts in the society Batakrishna Babu, the only way to gain acceptance is by abiding all rules laid for them..."

"And who asked you to be a part of this rotten society?" Batuk had now let go off her hand, as he stood with his arms cross to his chest, trying to listen to her logics with borrowed patience.

"Sense of belonging!" Mira muttered again.

"Sense of belonging?" Batakrishna huffed, this new fiesty beauty was making him impatient. " Don't humour me Mira, you know very well what this hollow society is after... They just need a way to take advantage, they just need an excuse to subdue the weak... They just need an opportunity Mira, a single opportunity to tarnish you, to hurt you... Don't let them have it!"

"But where shall I go leaving this society Batakrishna Babu... You are a rich man, an educated one... Tell me, where do you think widows go if not accepted by their husband's home? This very society which you're asking me to discard!" She asked him, without looking up, and the crease on Batuk's forehead deepened further.
"Do you want me to beg in the streets of Kashi? Sit in a house of sin? Is that what you want for me? That's what happens to widows rejected by this very society... Don't you know that?" Mira now held his arm and shook him gently with the question, and Batuk looked away from her, for in his heart he know the heavy truth of her statement.
"Go away Choto Zamindar Babu, let me deal with these people... They are Suresh Daktar's people, they can torture me to their heart's content, but they can't turn me away."

"You don't belong here Mira." Batuk touched her hand and she moved it away gently.

"I don't....I know... But I don't belong anywhere else either... Go away Batakrishna Babu, please." She joined her hands and pleaded.

Batuk moved a few steps away from her, his heart was paining and his head was raging in fury.
"My schedule doesn't depend on your wish Mira, I'll go when I want."
His grave words made Mira look up.

"But if you stay here, people will talk more... They'll shame me, they'll shame you too..."

"You don't have to worry about my social shaming Mira, I live or I die, what's it to you!"
He breathed the words and took the brass water jug kept on the window seal, pouring half a jug down his throat.
Mira watched him quietly, the water dripping down his mouth, and then very slowly she inched towards him and sat down by his feet.

"Choto Zamindar Babu, I beg you, please leave, please don't make this more difficult then it already is!"
She touched his feet, but he moved away immediately.

"And what if I don't go?"

"Then I'll die, just get me some poison!" Mira murmured, standing up slowly.
"I can't take this anymore."

"Where will you get poison Mira? These villagers won't give you poison, not until they're done with you!"
He chuckled disdainfully, fire spitting form his eyes looking straight at her, and Mira turned her gaze away from him.

"Then I'll jump into the river... Maa Ganga won't discriminate."
She sighed.

It was a moment, and it took a few seconds for Batuk to internalise what Mira just said, and then like a possessed soul, he paced forward towards her and pulled her violently by her arm, making her fall on him with an abrupt suddenness. Mira gasped out loud at his action.

"Let me die instead Mira, all your affliction would be over... Then do whatever your heart wishes!" He wrapped his arms around her petite body, grabbing the small of her back, and Mira continued to wiggle under his forced embrace.

"Leave me Batakrishna Babu, leave me... What if someone sees us like this... Please..." She kept muttering, and the more she pleaded, the more his grip on her became tighter.

"Let them see." He hushed, his voice cold, and Mira clearly saw how the fire of anger was brewing in him, only to find an escape at any moment now.

"They'll curse me... Please... They'll call me a slut!"

"I'll kill them!"
Batuk's voice was yet cold, and suddenly it broke the dam of resistance inside Mira's heart. Tears started to roll down her eyes, and she sobbed the words again.
"They'll call you names too Batakrishna Babu... I... I won't be able to bear that!"
She broke down.

"Let them!" Batakrishna's voice however was calm, and he hushed the words again, but this time they were a little softer, drenched in the wetness of her tears.

"Do you think I care Mira? I just care for you..." He loosened his grip on her body, letting her free, but Mira didn't move from his embrace.
"Nothing matters to me anymore Mira... Just you...! I just want you to be safe, and you are safe only with me!"
His words were gentle, and with his index he wiped her tears, making her look up at him with glossy orbs.
"Come with me Mira... You don't belong here."

"I don't belong with you either." She sobbed.

"I don't care... Come with me."

Mira now tried to move, but Batuk touched her chin to turn her towards him.
"Please Mira... " He urged.

"No... I won't." She whispered, and Batuk's hand moved from her chin to the back of her neck, grabbing her hair firmly into a grip.
"It's a sin!" She mouthed the words.

"Sin?" Batuk's voice rose up.
"How can my love be a sin? How can my touch be a sin Mira? And what about the sin that you were about to commit last night by letting them cut your hair? What about that?"

"That's the way for a widow I'm told." Mira murmured.
"I can't come with you."

"You're a stubborn girl Mira, but I know how to break you!"

"You can't break me more... I'm already broken." Mira let out a dry chuckle, and it made Batuk frown at her in helpless vexation.

"You've to come!" His voice was gaining weight again, his fingers combing roughly through her hair, squeezing her neck from behind, and Mira just closed her eyes and shivered at the touch.
"You keep telling me you're a widow, what if I put that vermilion on your forehead right now, the vermilion from the seat of the god." Batuk gestured towards the small wooden shelf where MeenaRani had set up her temple.
"What if I taint you, with my love, make you my wife, will you still call yourself a widow?"

"Choto Zamindar Babu!" Mira shivered at his words, and gulped nervously.

"Don't make me angry than I already am."
His grip on her hair become firmer, more of a pull, and it made her lean her head backward. Batuk was breathing rapidly, and somehow the sight of her unblemished slender neck exposed at his mercy made his heart skip a beat.
"Stop torturing me like this Mira!" He murmured, and Mira opened her eyes to look at him.

"I'm torturing you?" She gulped, feeling his touch on her neck, as his fingers had had already started to play with her hair, sending jolts of sensuality all over her body.

Batakrishna came closer.
"Yes... You are... Playing with my heart, my mind, my sense of judgement... You're cruel Mira..."
Hardly did he finish his words, when Mira felt his hands moving down her body, and before she could fathom the situation, he scooped her up from the ground and cradled her in his arms.

Mira panicked, and her hands automatically clasped Batuk's neck for support.
"Please... Please... Don't do this." She begged, but her resistance was visibly failing.

"Kill me Mira... Just kill me once and for all... I can't bear this, dying every moment!" He hushed, walking towards the single cot, and Mira closed her eyes to feel his thudding heartbeat.

"Put me down." She whispered against his chest, and Batuk lowered his face to touch her forehead with his.

"No I won't..
You'll stay like this... "

He slowly sat on the cot, still holding Mira, and she let her body relax in his arms.

"Kill me instead." She hushed, hiding her face, and Batuk felt her warm breath on his chest.

"If I kill you, then I too will have to die Mira, don't you think it would be better if we live instead? Together... In each other's arms...just like this!" His hands moved up to her face, and ever so gently he started to trace a line along her jaws.
"I love you Mira... I love you more than anything else in this goddam world..." He lowered his face on hers once again, with intent, and Mira closed her eyes.
Her lips parted automatically, her heartbeat irregular and Batuk just touched her nose with his.
"This place isn't safe for you... This men, the way they ogle at you... they just want to take advantage of you Mira... And I won't let that happen, not while I'm alive."

"Then I won't ever know where my son is!"
She gulped and whispered the words.

"I'll go to the post office where Davidson had called, and I'll ask around, we'll find him Mira, you don't have to torture yourself for it."

"I won't, but you would, isn't it?"
Mira murmured, now sitting up slowly, sliding down from Batuk's lap, and Batuk didn't resist her actions.

"What do you mean?"
He asked her instead with a new formed frown on his brows.

"My company would only bring you sorrow Choto Zamindar Babu... I'm a broken soul, I don't have anything to give you... But this togetherness would take away a lot from you in turn."

"Like?"

"Like your family... Your status! You are a Zamindar, and I'm nothing!"

"You are my Mira." Batuk leaned back on the cot and tugged at her arm, but Mira didn't give in to his advances this time.

"I don't want to marry you..." She murmured, and Batuk let out a soft chuckle.
"We'll see... Now come to me, you've had enough last night, now sleep for sometime, and I'll sit by your side.

"I'm not sleepy." Mira smiled, and Batuk tugged at her arm forcefully to make her fall on him.

"Sleep, I said... No arguments." He flipped her on the cot and pressed her down with his body.
"And, just admit that you love me... Everything will become much easier to accept."

"I won't."

"But why? I know you love me."

"I don't."

Batuk was loosing patience, and her constant denial was making it worse.
He let his hands trail along Mira's bare arms, before pinning them above her head. He hovered on her and aligned himself to her frame, crushing her with his weight. Mira shivered in anticipation of his ministration, her body reacting to his familiar touch.
Batuk smirked.

"Tell me you feel nothing Mira..."
He whispered to her ears, and Mira curled her toes in ecstasy.

"It's hurting!" She breathed instead.

"Where?"
Batuk's question was almost a hush in her neck, and Mira trembled once again.

"Waist!" She gulped.

Batuk got up, half hovering on her now, and he relieved her from his pressure.

"I won't hurt you, open you eyes Mira... look at me." His voice was throaty and Mira gulped in nervous temptation once again.
"Tell me you feel nothing when my lips touch your neck, when my hands knead your softness, my tongue play with your earlobes!"
Batuk moved his mouth to the crook of her neck, and Mira arched her back for more.

"I... I don't..."

"Then open your eyes and look at me... Look in my eyes and tell me, that you feel nothing, that I mean nothing to you."

"I... I can't."
Mira whispered, her lips quivering with the words.

"Why?" Batuk planted a soft kiss on her right earlobe and Mira whimpered.

"Because... Because I'm scared."

"Scared of ?"

"Being burnt..." She swallowed hard without opening her eyes.
"You burn me Batakrishna Babu..."

Batuk now smiled, as very gently his lips moved to her eyes, kissing them one by one.
"I burn you?" He chuckled. "What do you think you do to me Mira? My mind, my soul, my heart, body, everything I've surrendered to you... I know you love me, and yet you refuse me everytime! I have nothing left in me Mira... Nothing!"
Batakrishna's lips started to trail south on her body, from her ears, he moved down to her neck, planting baby kisses along the throbbing vein of her throat, and Mira clutched the cotton sheet on the cot to beat the sensation.

"Why are you trembling?" Batuk lifted his face and asked her.

"I... I'm not."

"You are... I can feel it..." He let go of her and sat upright, leaving his grasp on Mira's wrist, as with his free hand he now caressed her forehead instead.

"I won't make you trembled anymore Mira... Not until you accept your love for me..." He smiled.
"You may open your eyes."

Mira heard his words, and then opened her eyes slowly to look at the extraordinarily handsome man leaning over her, offering his everything to her as a prayer.
Mira tried to get up.

"No, keep lying down." Batuk pushed her shoulder gently to make her fall on the bed.
"I know you're worried about Awni, and I've sworn that I'll bring him to you Mira, he's my son too", he paused and Mira looked at his eyes to search for that much needed comfort which he was prepared to provide.
"But .. but don't push me away from you like this, please Mira..." He begged, his throat choking with the words.
"When you push me away, I feel like, like destroying everything, everyone around... I feel so... So angry... It's only you who could calm me down Mira just you."

Mira looked in his eyes, and then smiled.
"Batuknath, that's what your name should've been, not Batakrishna." She hushed.
"Always angry as the trident god!"

"And patient." Batuk smiled.
"Don't you ever feel like touching me Mira? Caressing my head the way I'm doing now?"

Batuk lowered his lips and planted a tender kiss on her forehead and this time it kept the smile plastered on Mira's lips, her heartbeat was calming down from the clutches of panic that she had felt a little while ago.
Batuk was smiling too.

"Tell me Mira... Don't you ever feel like..."

Mira didn't let him finish, as slowly her right hand moved up, touching Batuk's lips to hush him.
"Would it calm you down? Your anger?" She asked innocently.
"You're a very angry man Batakrishna Babu."

"Yes, it would calm my anger, and a lot more Mira... Only if you love me."

Batuk's lips now moved to her lips, only an inch away, and Mira looked at his parted pink petals and gulped.

"I've seen how you look at my lips Mira... Don't you want to touch them? Don't you want to make love to me? Sweet love! "

Mira closed her eyes immediately, making Batuk smirk, and then she turned her face sideways, a hint of bashfulness painting her cheeks with the colours of submission.

"You have beautiful lips."

"Just lips?"
Batuk teased.

"And, nose."
Mira added, "and beautiful fingers, like an artist... Even your feet!"

"My feet?"
He narrowed his gaze at her in amusement.

"Yes... Whenever I see them... I... I feel like touching them in a prayer... To worship you!"
Mira smiled and Batuk sighed and lay back on the bed, right beside her.

"God! really Mira...? I don't want you to worship me... I want you to love me, like I do."
He crutched in his elbow and turned to face her, as his left hand wrapped around Mira's waist to pull her closer.
"Would you marry me Mira?"
He asked again, and just as before Mira nodded her head silently in negation.
Batuk smirked.
"Then what if something goes wrong while we love each other, while you caress me to calm my anger."

Mira frowned at his words.
"What's more to go wrong Choto Zamindar Babu?"

"Babies!" Batuk lowered his mouth and hushed to her ears.
"What if we have babies after we make love? You know how babies are made, don't you?"
He winked at her and Mira continued to look at him with a confused expression.

"You don't need love to make babies! I had mine, and no one had ever loved me!'
Mira murmured, and Batakrishna let out a soft exhale and grabbed her waist tighter.

"Our babies would be born out of love Mira... Wild passionate love, and I'll make you forget everything bad that has ever happened to you."

Batuk kissed her again on her nose, and Mira widened her eyes in response.

"How?" She asked innocently, but then realised the blunder at once, turning away her reddened cheeks from him to hide the shades of shame.

"I'll tell you how... " Batakrishna was smirking, and Mira tried to push him away from her face.

"I don't want to know."
She hushed, but Batakrishna was persistent.

"I'll still tell you... That greenhouse on our terrace is where we'll have our fulsojja. You'll be clad in a red benarasi, gold bangles clanking sweetly on your wrists, your silver anklets jingling along with your nose ring...", he whispered into her ears and it made Mira gasp, as very slowly she turned her face to look at him, their eyes aligned.

"And?"
She murmured.

"And, you'll be seated with a red veil pulled over your head, flowing down your lips, and when I enter, your red lips would be the first thing that I'll see."

"You enter? Won't you be there already?"
Mira breathed, and Batuk saw only her lips move a little to ask the question.
He smirked.

"I'm a Zamindar Mira... I'll come late in the night, you'll wait for me..."
He winked a tease but Mira failed to catch it's hint.
She pouted her lips innocently and batted her large eyelashes at him.

"Then I won't talk to you..."
She looked away, and it made Batuk let out a hearty laughter.

"Fine, I won't be late Mira... I'll come early, and then... I'll latch the door and sit beside you in our flower clad bed."

"And the windows?"
Mira asked, thoughtfully, and from her expressions Batuk could feel how his words had made her reach the room in the attic, daydreaming about the sweetness that she lacked all her life, the forbidden sweetness!

"Let them be open Mira."
He played along. "I'll ask Bondita boudi to stand a guard, no one would disturb us." He smiled and pinched her nose tenderly, making her blush further.

"Then?" Mira asked again, as if listening to some old fairytale, so long curved story of love, and Batuk inhaled sharply and continued.

"Then I'll lift your veil, and our eyes would meet, as man and wife, and I'll give you your wedding gift!"

"Wedding gift? What's that?"
Mira asked again, she wasn't moving much, snaked in his arms, but only her lips moved, minimally.

"Wedding gift is what a husband gives his wife on the first night... A chain, a finger ring, depends."

"I want an ektara." She smiled, and Batuk nodded his head in approval.

"Also, an ektara..." He added. "And then... I'll see you to my heart's content... Your forehead would have designed patterns with white sandalwood paste, your eyes would be painted with jet back Kohl and your lips would be strained red with betel leaf.
Uff Mira... My heart would stop."

Batuk moved his hand from her body and touched his own heart instead, the pounding had suddenly become increasingly strong, and Mira kept her hand on his palm, her face had an innocent frown.

"Your heartbeat... It's..."
She gulped, and Batuk smiled sheepishly.

"They just act funny wherever I'm close to you... Don't worry." He swallowed the words and brought his mouth closer to hers.

"But I don't like betel leaf." She murmured, and Batuk smiled at her response.
"Fine no betel leaf then... I too won't eat then."

"Then?"

"Then what? I'll eat you instead!"
Batuk chuckled, and Mira closed her eyes immediately.

"Issh...!"
She pressed her lips.

Batuk moved closer to her yet more.
"Do you want to know what happens next?"
He hushed, and Mira nodded her head nervously.
"Then I'll teach you how to make love... Would you learn?"

"How?"
Mira felt her heart in her throat, and his words were raising a havoc inside her body, ecstatic sparks coursing haphazardly throughout her veins.
Batuk too felt her thoughts.

"Like this..." Batuk touched her forehead with his lips, planting a soft kiss, and then his lips trailed along her cheeks to her throat, his hands caressing her arms all along, and Mira let out a soft moan as she felt his teeth grazing her collarbone.
"This and a lot more Mira... I'll remove all your jewelleries, one by one, kissing you all along, and then I'll remove your benarasi, very gently, there won't be a single thread on you, except those white sankha on your wrists.
Batuk's breathing became rugged, and Mira's rapid breaths collided with his with desire and intent.

"My lips would roam around your body, all over, and you'll grab my hair and guide me... On your lips, your neck, your breasts..." Batuk's voice was thick with desire, and Mira clutched his shirt, and gulped.

"Choto Zamindar Babu!"
was all she could mutter, and Batuk let his fingers entangle with hers, capturing her in a seductive entrapment.

"Tell me Mira... What would you do if I start kissing you more, on your midriff, your stomach, your waist... What will you do if I roll my tongue in your belly button, or below..." Batuk squeezed her fingers, slowly moving to hover on her once again, crushing her beneath his body, and Mira trembled at the immense physical tension that she felt with her entire being.
She was only an inch away from giving in, but then she didn't know how to!

"You?"
Her lips just moved and Batuk narrowed his eyes and read her words.

"Me? What about me? I'll be wearing my kurta and dhoti, the regular wedding dress I guess..."

"Won't you..."

"No... I won't..." He smirked, as this newfound bravery sprouting in Mira was amusingly arousing for him.
"If you want to see me, you'll have to unclothed me yourself, you understand me... Or else, I'd be the only one  devouring you!"

Mira trembled once again, as his last words sent a sweep of sensuality down her core, forming a knot of desire inside her abdomen, and she licked her dry lips to fight the indomitable urge to capture Batakrishna's lips in a violent ministration.

Batuk however continued to stare at them, and then suddenly, he exhaled out his pent up excitement and left Mira, falling back on the bed beside her. The abrupt unanticipated void made Mira's heart cry out loud.

"I'll end up destroying you... eating you, if I continue today." He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
"And I've promised I won't make love to you till you agree to marry me."

Mira wasn't speaking anymore. She just lay with her eyes shut, her hands pressed on her chest to control the thudding heart.

"Your heartbeat, I can hear it... Do you want to hear mine?" He asked, and without giving her the chance to reply, he held her wrist and made her touch his chest, her fingers quivered in contact with his body.

"You are burning Mira!"
He muttered, and Mira continued to breath rapidly.

"This is how you make me feel, all the time... Like my heart would stop any moment now, without you... And you want to know when I felt it first?"

Mira now opened her eyes slowly.

"The day I lost you in that fair."

Mira heard him, and then felt him leave her hand, but she continued to touch his chest, beneath his shirt, feeling his tight muscles, the soft brown hairs on his midriff. Her entire body felt ecstatic, electricity coursing through, and slowly she moved her face and pressed her lips where her fingers were.

It was Batuk's turn to tremble.

"Mira..." He gasped, and Mira smiled at him.

"Did I burn you? Again?"
She widened her eyes innocently once again, and murmured.

............................................................

The part 2 of this would be in the next update.
100 votes, and I'll post.
I'm done writing. 🙈😊

How was it?