Indebted Forever

Suhasini lay in her bed and ruffled Ginger’s fur as he wagged his tail in joy. ‘I know he likes me, that much I am sure of’, said Suhasini to herself, ‘and he wanted me.’ She sat up in her bed

and Ginger jumped in her lap as Suhasini’s face looked clouded. ‘He wants me but wanting someone and loving someone were very different things’, she thought troubled. Her eyebrows narrowed in thought, ‘was it only lust – as Nihaal had claimed it to be – that he was experiencing?’ But the hungry kisses, the passionate long moments, the way he touched her, held her, the way his body perfectly fitted with hers – what was it? Lust? Or was there something more?

Ginger jumped off the bed and sat washing himself as Suhasini thought, ‘the only way to know was to ask him. But…’ Rani’s beautiful but now daunting portrait flashed in front of her eyes once again and Suhasini stopped in her thoughts, tense and suddenly cold.

*****