Part – 2

(Wedding Evening)

Gautham takes the nuptial chain from the priest & ties it around Sanjana's beautiful swan like neck & she smiles with happy tears rolling down her cheeks.

"From this moment to Eternity you will be mine, only MINE!!"

Gautham whispers to her & with loving tender hands he cups her face & wipes her tears with his thumbs.

"Yes! Yours! Always!"

Three promising words from her sweet mouth were all he needed to hear... needed to make him the happiest man alive.

Then he took a pinch of vermillion & gently placed it on her partition making her beautiful face all the more perfect.

"Your heart is my home & My arms are your shelter in which I'll hold you, cherish you & safe guard you for the rest of my life"

Gautham's each & every word was uttered with so much love & genuineness. Sanjana was mesmerized with his words, his caring look & his gentle caress.

"You asked for freedom, which I will give you because I respect you but remember this 'Freedom is such a lonely word' so I'll never let you feel lonely, I'll walk with you, holding your hands, be the journey - hard or easy, I'll never leave you alone, Sweetheart!"

Gautham solemnly vows to her.

"If that's what freedom means then I'm willing to be your slave because you are everything to me, I can't live without you. My heart beats for you!"

She whispers, her voice chokes with emotion.

"I love you, Sanjana"

"I love you, Gautham"

The lovely couple are showered with rose petals & blessed by the gatherings but they are blissfully lost in their own world, lost in each other's ocean deep eyes, sharing the vows right from their hearts, which they fully intend to carry throughout their lives.

"Stop crying, biwi" Gautham whispers with a smile.

"I can't Gautham, I'm overwhelmed with happiness so my tear canals are not listening to me" She replies blinking her tears away to look at her man. Gautham chuckles & once again wipes her tears.

"You are looking beautiful. I can't take my eyes off of you"

"So are you, Gautham" she smiles & wipes her face with the back of her hand without smudging her makeup.

"I want to kiss you" Gautham murmurs. Hearing that Sanjana's eyes went wide & finally she reminds herself that they are not alone but huge thongs of guests are gawking at them.

"No, Gautham. Not now" She panics & turns to the direction where the photographers are capturing all their sweet tender moments which will be their beautiful memory for their life time.

Kiss!!

Gautham kisses her on her cheek as he couldn't resist himself and the photographer clicks the Perfect picture.

- - -

"Sanjana, Congratulations" Trishna, Sanjana's close friend wishes her & hugs her.

"Thanks, Trishu" Sanjana smiles.

"So where is your man?" Trishna asks her seeing only Sanjana standing on the stage set up for their reception.

"He is over there" She points to a distance where Gautham is talking with her father. Sanjana narrows her eyes to see what's going between them. They seem to be like they are in some argument. Sanjana wants to go down from the stage & go nearer to them but she is surrounded by her friends wishing & hugging her & she gets distracted.

"Sanjana?" Jaanvi calls her daughter.

"Haan, Maa" Sanjana responds.

"You are happy, right?"

"More than happy, Maa." She smiles widely & hugs her mother. "But I'll miss you & papa" She tells in a bare whisper fighting hard to keep her tears in bay.

"We are not going anywhere. We are with you only, Sanjana." Jaanvi placates her. She nods slightly still hugging her mother. Soon Sundar joins them on the stage with Gautham.

"Sanjana, you have always made us happy & proud & I hope you will continue the same by making Gautham and his family happy." he kisses Sanjana's forehead & she hugs him.

"Take care of my little girl, Gautham"

"I fully intend to, Papa" Gautham promises.

"You don't worry, Jaanviji. Sanjana is no less than a daughter to me. She will be fine with us." Radhika reassures. Sridhar too gave the same assurance to Sundar. Above all their words, Sundar & Jaanvi trust Gautham, they have been closely watching him for the past 8 months, he not only cared for Sanjana but also for them, he fulfilled the void of a son in their life. They even know that he has captured a place in their daughter's heart which no one can ever replace.

Soon after a teary Bidaai, the newlywed couple was taken to the Gautham's place where few rituals were conducted before letting the love birds on their own.

- - -

Gautham enters the bedroom to find Sanjana sitting on the bed hugging her knees with her arms & head bowed down & covered with a veil. Gautham locks the door & strides towards the bed & sits at the edge of the bed. He takes her fidgeting nervous hand in his. He brushed her knuckles with his lips. She shyly looks up through the transparent red color veil & blushed profusely.

"You are the world's most beautiful bride. I'm a lucky man, Sanjana" he says as he lifts the veil revealing her glowing face.

"Come with me" he takes her hand & waits for her to follow which she does though with a confused frown. He leads her towards the balcony adjacent to the bed room.

"You like it?" Gautham asks hugging her from the back resting his chin on her shoulder.

"Like what?" she asks her confused frown marring deeper on her forehead. She couldn't see any sort of special decoration but only a newly constructed house which is more or less similar to their house.

"The house" he whispers & nibbles her ear.

"Um...It's beautiful. Why?" she asks.

"It's my wedding gift for you" he tells her.

"What?" she shrieks & turns to face him.

"I was building my dream house for my lovely wife. I am so glad I could complete it before our wedding & present it to you on our wedding night." he pecks on her lips.

" Gautham... No... I can't... this is too much for a wedding gift..."

"You didn't like my gift?"

"Of course I love it. But still this is over the top... you could have given me something less expensive... like a saree or watch..."

"You are my priceless possession & for you I am even ready to give my life... so it's just nothing. Besides this is what I do & know so I couldn't think of any other gift" he tells her caressing her soft cheek.

" Gautham" she sobs emotionally & hugs him. "So you were busy in this work & you postponed our wedding, didn't you?"

"Yep!"

"Then take me to the house, I want to see it" she demands getting excited to see her wedding present.

"I'll give you a tour but not now"

"Why?" She asks confused & disappointed a bit. This is her first gift from her husband & she is not able to see it sooner.

"Because I don't want to disturb Papa & Maa" he murmurs still holding her in his arms & nuzzling her hair.

"What?" she pushes him a little to look at his face. "They are here? You showed them the house?"

"Yeah. It's actually my gift for you but the legal documents are in your parents' name so technically it's their house."

"So technically it's my parents' gift not mine" she teases him playfully slapping his arm.

"Yep. It's more like a barter system. He gave me you & in return I gave him the house" he teases her back & grins widely.

"So I worth only the house" she asks with her hands on her hips, faking anger.

"No. You worth the happiness you get when you see your parents staying with you, with us" he says tugging a loose strand of hair behind her ears. "We can even stay with them whenever you like" he adds.

"So this is what you were arguing with my papa in the wedding hall??"

"Yep... He is one stubborn man like you. It took me forever to convince him. Thanks to Maa, she favored me." he sighs. She giggles.

"Thank you, Gautham. You have done so much for me & I don't know what I'll give you in return." she says with tears.

"Give yourself to me"

"I'm yours" she leans up & kisses him on his lips, a soft kiss. But before she could pull away, he cradles her head with one hand & grips her by her waist close to his chest with other hand & deepens the kiss, sweeping his tongue into her luscious lips. Without breaking their kiss they stumble back to the room & falls back on the bed taking Sanjana on top of him.

"Oh my!" Sanjana breathes. "I could have died due to short of breathe if I hadn't pulled myself away on time" she scolds gently & examines her swollen lip. "You bit me. See it's bleeding" she complains to him pulling her lower lip between her thumb & index finger. Gautham laughs.

"Stop laughing" she hits him on his arms.

"Sorry" he presses his lips to suppress his laughing. Oh Gosh! What a tempting morsel she is? She is so innocent... beautiful... & sexy! But I should really go slow or else I'll scare her! My poor little naïve wife!

"I liked the kiss" She admits after steadying her breathing.

"You did?" he asks surprised. She nods shyly.

"So tell me, where you wanna go for honeymoon? Switzerland? France? London?" he asks her.

"I just wanna be with you, Gautham"

"You think I'll let my wife go on her own? Silly! Of course I'll come with you. After all it's our honeymoon and what you will do without me?" he asks naughtily. "So I will always be with you... to keep you warm." He winks. She blushes.

"I'm planning for a trip where I would like to whisk my wife away & keep her to myself. The place is your choice, so tell me where we can go for honeymoon?"

" Gautham..." she hesitates.

"What's it, love?"

"Would you mind if we go for a short trip, that too somewhere in India?"

"Well, No. I won't mind at all but tell me why you don't want to go abroad?"

"Um... Gautham, you know with all the wedding preparation Maa has exerted a lot & now her health condition is not so well, even last week she had mild chest pain, I'm really worried for her & in this situation I don't want to go far away from her & for too long so..."

"Okay darling. We will go for a short trip somewhere nearer as you wish. And please don't worry about Maa, I have talked to her doctor two days back & she assured me that Maa is fine." he says & plants a soft kiss on her forehead.

"So where in India?"

"Hmm... Haridwar, Rishikesh..." she always loved to go to pilgrimages.

"Stop it, Sanjana. I will decide the place."

"Why?" she asks innocently.

"Those are not the right places to go for honeymoon"

"But I wanna see those places"

"Surely I will take you there..." he can't say no to her wishes.

"When?"

"Hmm... we will go for our 60th or 80th marriage anniversary not now okay?" he says.

"Okay! For this time shall we go to some hill station?" she suggests.

"Hill station? Why? You have any diabolic plan of pushing me off a cliff & eloping with your secret lover huh?" he asks teasingly & bites her earlobe. "Ah" she yelps.

"Secret lover?" she giggles.

"You have?" Gautham asks curiously.

"No!" she laughs. "You were, you are & you will be my only boyfriend, lover, husband, you name it" she vows. He sighs in relief & kisses her tenderly on her lips.

"You had any girlfriend or lover?" she backs at him.

"Yep"

"Oh! You have feelings for any of your Ex now?"

"Don't be silly. I had dated many girls & I thought I loved them but I didn't, maybe that's the reason why nothing worked out. Only you captured my heart. I fell in love with you the moment you said about your worries for your parents on the day we met in the café for the first time & at that moment I have decided to make you my wife. Trust me, I have feelings only for one girl and that's you." he pecks on her lips. She smiles shyly.

"You are not a virgin, are you?" Sanjana pops the question out of blue when he was busy kissing her neck.

"No. I'm not but I do regret for not waiting for you."

"Why are you so brutally honest?" Sanjana asks.

"I never lie & I am not going to start lying with you" he tells her. She remains silent.

"Look at me, Sanju" he turns her face holding her chin.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you, but you should have known that you are expecting for too much" he says. She arches her eye brow, puzzled.

"You expecting your twenty seven years old husband to be a virgin when he had sex at the age of seventeen" he bursts out laughing seeing her loud gasp. Later she too joined him in laughing.

"You had sex at the age of seventeen?"

"Yep!"

"With whom?"

"I was the school people leader and there was this girl named Ridhima, she was the assistant school people leader. We spend lot of time organizing the school annual day events. One day she came to my house for dance practice. We were dance partners too. My mom was not at home. My dad was at office. She took the chance and advanced on me."

"She raped you?" Sanjana asked in utter shock.

"I won't put it like that. She didn't coerce me. It was consensual. I kinda liked her... she was really a hot chick in school. And I was very thrilled to have sex for the first time with her. We both made out for a while. I decided to stop... but she insisted we will go ahead. She was well planned. She even brought condom packets. And we both lost out virginity on that day." He ends his story without any hesitance.

"Oh. I feel what you both did at that young age is wrong. Did you tell your mother afterwards?"

"Yep and got nice cheek burning slaps from her. My mom didn't let that girl to come to our house from that day onwards as she didn't like her. She even made me promise that I won't fall in love with her."

"If your mother hadn't made you promise would you have fell in love with her?"

"I guess no. she was just a passing cloud to me. After schooling we went to different colleges and lost contact."

"Oh. So you don't know where she is now?"

"Well, I heard from our mutual friend that she is married and happily settled in Dubai. That's all"

"Oh"

"You didn't ask me whether I'm a virgin or not?" she asks after a while waiting for him to ask the question.

"I know you are a virgin" he dismisses her question just like that & starts nuzzling her throat.

"How?" she wonders how he knows that.

"I found that from your inexperienced sweet kiss, your shock when I said I'm not a virgin & also you said you didn't have any boyfriend so I am sure that you are an untouched pure soul" he says proudly.

"Hmm... Okay, from now on you won't touch any other girl" she orders.

"You are so cute and innocent, Sanju" he twitches her nose cutely.

"Promise me?"

"I won't. I promise. Only you, I will love." he promises.

"If you broke your promise..." she pauses. He raises his head from the crook of her neck & waited for her to finish her sentence. "Then I'll fire your ass" she says seriously only to make him laugh out loud.

"Oh my tigress, I love you" he kisses her soundly.

"And I love you" she says & hugs him.

"You are exhausted. I guess we should sleep so you better go change & come" he suggests her. She nods & walks to the changing room. After changing their cloths, they lied on the bed on their back looking at the ceiling.

"You want something, Gautham" Sanjana asks hesitantly.

"Just YOU" he whispers. Without any preamble she rolls over to his side & takes his lips in hers & soon they started making out passionately.

"I want to see Kashmir" she breathes.

"I'll take you, darling. Tomorrow, we are leaving to Kashmir!" he kisses her forehead & they went to sleep in each other's arms.

... To be continued!!!

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