It seemed like an eternity before he pressed his lips against hers and even when he did, it was pure torture. His hands lazily rested on her waist while his lips gently nibbled on her bottom lip, occasionally chewing it. His hands moved over her curves, learning her body, warm and insistent. He kissed the corner of her mouth, feeling her warm breath and when she couldn't take the torture any longer, she moved her head sideways to take his lips in hers, but he moved away.

"Not so fast sweetheart" he mumbled as his lips trailed across her cheek. His voice was husky and deep and she felt every bone in her body melting. He kissed her cheek and moved towards her ear.

"I don't like earrings" he muttered as he grabbed the hoop earring with his teeth and pulled it out and threw it on the bed. His teeth caught hold of her earlobe and he grazed it every so lightly, tugging on it, biting it. He moved lower, pressing light kisses along the column of her neck and she arched her head back, giving him more access. After awhile, she felt his hands move up her arms and slowly pulled down one of the straps of her dress, while his eyes stayed fix on her face to see her reaction. In response, she just clutched his shirt a little tighter and smiled in content. His lips lowered to her shoulder and he pressed open mouthed kisses from the dent of her neck to her upper arm, slowly moving inwards. Her matching red brassiere caught his attention and with shaking hands, he lowered that strap too. Last night he hadn't been able to see her, but today he wanted to enjoy each sigh, each moan that he was going elate from her. His fingers curled up at the front of her lowered clothing and when he unconsciously touched the front of her swell, she gasped and her eyes flew open. His breathing was just as uneven as hers and his hand remained hooked where it was.

"Do you want me to stop" he mumbled against her lips, waiting for a response. When she shook her head in no, brushing her lips across his in the process, he took her lips in his. He kissed her hungrily while his other hand moved up and pushed the remaining strap. She sat on his lap, her chest bared and a slight tug on her dress would satisfy his hungry eyes. This time he didn't resist. When his hands moved down to cup her, she gasped and he took the opportunity to slide his tongue in her mouth. He traced every inch of her mouth, learning the contours, tasting every inch she had to offer to him. Tongues clashed, breaths mingled and when she couldn't take it any longer, she pulled her mouth away from his.

He took a deep breath in an effort to slow down and quell his own ardent desires and turned his attention to her neck, licking, sucking, nibbling, and teasing. She squirmed delightfully against him, making small whimpering noises in his ear. Every second, every moment was pure bliss, pure force and electricity.

With a quick flip, he had her flat on the bed, while he loomed over her. Her eyes flew open in shock and she barely murmured his name when he returned to her lips, kissing her with barely contained passion. His hips lowered against hers and he nudged her thighs apart, settling himself in between. Gazing down, he stared at the strained bud in front of him and rubbed it with his thumb, noticing it tighten even more.

Perfection

"You" he whispered as he moved his mouth lower, licking the curve between her swells "are perfect."

He memorized every line and curve, the way she fit in his hand while she squirmed and moaned under his torturous hands. Finally, he decided to have mercy on her and when he lowered his mouth to taste the tight peak, the knock on the door pulled him out of his reverie.

"Chote..."

"Chote, dinner is ready" Anjali lightly knocked on their door.

The next second, Khushi pushed Arnav off her as hard as she could, absolutely horrified, wondering if Anjali would push that door open and catch them in this state.

What if the door was already open... she thought horridly while her shaky hands tried to pull her dress up but stopped when another pair of hands interrupted her.

"It's ok Khushi..." he whispered and when she refused to look at him, he took hold of her hands.

"The door was locked... I am smarter than that" he told her, when she kept looking back at the door and her hands stilled. He yelled back at Anjali that they will be down in a second and moved towards Khushi.

"I'll do it" he whispered as he pulled up her bra cups first and then the straps slowly. Fixing it in place, he pulled her dress up letting his hands linger on her shoulders. He gave her a few minutes while she controlled her breathing and sorted herself out. Finally when she appeared to be done, he gave her a smile, smoothed her hair out and taking her hand in his, he walked out of the room to go see everyone.

Face flushed, Khushi sat at the dining table trying to listen to what everybody had to say, but her thoughts remain distracted. First, Shyam was sitting across her, conversing with everyone as if nothing had happened. There was no nervousness, no guilt and he seemed absolutely calm despite knowing that she had seen him with that man- and with those drugs. Was she hallucinating? It couldn't be otherwise why was nobody there when Arnav had looked? If it was some random person, she didn't think her and Arnav's presence would have mattered. Secondly, her husband sat and talked to everyone so calmly as if nothing had happened a few minutes ago. Here she was, feeling as if someone had put a fireplace on in the room, whereas he sat as cool as a cucumber, sometimes even looking towards her and smiling. She wondered if he had some sort of a switch on him that turned him off.

What a weird family.

"Whose weird Khushi?" Shyam asked across the table and she choked on her soup.

"Khushi dheere..." Arnav told her while patting her back, more like hitting her. God the guy only knew how to be gentle when...

Her hand flew to her mouth, shocked at her own thoughts and her wide doe eyes looked up at him as if she had just seen a ghost.

"Oh my god... are you choking on something? Di, Khushi's choking on something! What was in that soup!" he yelled, seeing her eyes so wide open and he hit her a little harder on the back.

"Stop! That hurts!" she yelled and his hands stilled.

"Did you just choke on something? What's in this soup?" he asked while he picked up the soon and stirred the contents to find nothing.

"Broth, Einstein" she replied sarcastically. Nani and Anjali burst into laughter, while Arnav looked at her accusingly for teasing him and Shyam looked as if he thought she was an idiot.

Once everyone went back to their own seats, Khushi quietly went back to her soup while Nani, Arnav and Anjali talked about some distant relative's wedding that they were suppose to go to. Head lowered, she took in the different voices and realized that Shyam hadn't said anything in awhile. Curiously, she looked up and found him staring at her intently. She gave him a small smile and went back to her food trying to figure things out. She needed to have a look at Shyam's bank accounts, she realized. Even thought it seemed absolutely ridiculous to think that he would be doing something like that, she needed to put her mind to rest. He had enough funds. Anjali owned close to 30% of the shares in AR and he was a lawyer himself, so what was the need? Drug dealing was usually for people that wanted fast money and he already had tons of it.

"I should get going." All of a sudden she heard Shyam's voice and saw Anjali stand up and walk towards him.

He was going somewhere? She looked over at Arnav who also confusedly looked at the scene before him. When he enquiringly looked towards Anjali, she told him how Shyam had to go out of town to meet a panel of lawyers for some case that he was working on and his flight was in a few hours.

"Meeting at this hour?" Arnav probed further, looking at Anjali and Khushi noticed Shyam's eyes hardening for a few minutes before he blinked it away, obviously not happy with Arnav's questioning.

"No Saale Sahib, the meeting is at 8 tomorrow morning but if I took the flight out in the morning, I would get late" Shyam sweetly smiled at Arnav before walking towards the door, ready to head out while Anjali and Nani trailed behind. Arnav looked towards Khushi who had a worried look on her face, and he wondered if she was finding anything suspicious as much as he was.

Shyam and Anjali had lived with Arnav and Nani for awhile after their marriage, before they had moved away, back to Shyam's hometown. For the amount of time they had lived together, Arnav had never noticed anything fishy but maybe that was just because he was happy seeing his sister happy. Even though Shyam was a criminal lawyer, he had never heard him talk about any cases that he worked on. Was he even a lawyer? Arnav thought worriedly. Nobody had done any background checks on him or his family when he had married Anjali. There didn't seem to be a reason to do any of that at that point since the whole family was extremely happy that Anjali had found someone who cared for her and loved her and that was all that mattered. Maybe that's why elders always said to look into family backgrounds before giving a daughter away. He had remembered his Nana saying that when he was younger but when life was going through a fairytale mode, all that stuff didn't seem to matter.

While Arnav went to go inquire a little more from Anjali about Shyam's constant business trips, Khushi went to their room trying to figure out where she should start digging into things. Something wasn't right. She could only think of three different things that fit her thoughts right now: either Shyam was bipolar or a very cunning man or she was flatly losing her mind. Telling Arnav that she was suspicious of his precious jijaji wouldn't be a smart choice till she had some sort of evidence against him.

Fifteen minutes later, Arnav walked into their room, ready to talk to Khushi about his scrambled thoughts. She was a smart woman and he knew she would be able to help him figure out a few things but instead he found her sprawled across the bed, lightly snoring. Chuckling, he lifted her up and moved her towards her side when she muttered something about him being weird. The one who talks in her sleep tells me I am weird, he laughed and lay in bed beside her. He moved closer and pulling her back against his front, he buried his face in her hair, inhaling her fragrance and fell asleep.

Everything could wait till tomorrow.

***********

Grabbing a cup of coffee, Khushi sat infront of the computer, ready to investigate. She started by looking through all the transfers from AR's accounts to Anjali's account but found nothing suspicious. She looked through Anjali's credit cards statements but nothing. Next came Anjali's bank account and it was as clear as mud. There were only a few transactions here and there at grocery shops but nothing out of place.

What could she check next? She wondered biting on her nails. She didn't know if Shyam had any personal accounts. All of Anjali's accounts were joint with Shyam however, there was no money deposited in those except for the monthly transfer's from AR. Where did all of Shyam's earnings get deposited? All of a sudden, she felt too nosy. Maybe Anjali and Shyam were ok with having separate bank accounts- that didn't mean there was something wrong with their relationship or Shyam. Maybe Google might help...

Khushi typed 'Shyam Jha' in the search engine but nothing much came up: a facebook account, a twitter account and some other random stuff. Who did Shyam work for? Did he have his own company? She had never heard anyone mention of Shyam having his own firm. She remembered Arnav telling her how he helped people with lower incomes and he was well known for his work, then how come nothing came up under his name?

Getting sidetracked, she typed in Arnav Raizada and the whole page flooded with information about him. Various articles on his business achievements, his university work, his parents car accident, a ball hockey league...Wait, he played hockey? How come he hadn't mentioned that before? Don't get distracted Khushi, she chided herself when she started reading a few articles on him and her heart swelled reading about the achievements of this man at the mere age of 27.

Backtracking, she typed her own name and found many articles on herself plus her various social networking accounts. So how come this hotshot lawyer that was a part of their family had no information on him? Next she typed in 'Shyam Manohar Jha' and the screen filled up with various articles for a 'Manohar Jha.' Most of the news related to Manohar person was about being arrested and charged for supplying oxycontin to teenagers at clubs; students in parking lots at various post secondary institutes in Mumbai and then being bailed out the next morning for 20 lakh rupees. There was no information on who bailed him out and no pictures. The articles were dated back to 2007 and Shyam had met Anjali in 2008 in Canada. Did he use his middle name in India, and then legally change his name and move here?

Khushi Stop! She told herself. Her brain was going haywire and who knew what kind of thoughts were crossing her mind. Shyam couldn't be a drug dealer! There was no way Arnav and his family wouldn't have known the kind of stuff the guy was up to before marrying Anjali to him. That seemed a little out of character for the perfectionist that her husband was. But her interaction with Shyam thus far hadn't been the greatest. First, she was sure she had seen him at the hospital, then he had threatened her in the kitchen and told her to mind her own business but last night there was nothing. He kept glaring at her here and there but that didn't mean he could be accused of something that big. Maybe he just smokes weed and doesn't want anyone to find out? Maybe the white stuff that he handed to the man was not drugs? Maybe Shyam being with the man who had almost killed her was coincidence? Arnav did say that Shyam was a criminal lawyer and maybe he was just investigating something else? Maybe those people were just trouble makers and not abiding the law and Shyam was working with them as their lawyer? Not like Shyam knew anything about her being attacked.

Maybe she'll just keep her eyes and ears more open when she was around him before jumping to conclusions, she thought. It was too soon to say anything to Arnav yet.

********

Karan was lounging on the couch, flipping through channels when he felt his phone vibrate. Groaning, he picked up the phone, hoping it wasn't anyone from the hospital messaging him. Even though he kept his pager on him at all times, he had strict notes on his file to try his personal number first, before the pager, as he hated the feeling that he got from the vibration of that device, which pretty much meant emergency.

Before he could relax seeing that the message wasn't from the hospital, he frowned looking at the unknown number. His world crashed when he read the message, knowing who it exactly was from:

No he whispered the word before his shaking hands could actually type out the two letters.

"What have you done now Khushi??" he asked himself before getting back to his phone. He texted the person back and waited with a bated breath for a response.

*********************

Arnav walked into Khushi's office and noticed her reading something intently on the computer. Walking up to her desk, he leaned forward on it, waiting for her to realize that he was there. Her eyes bulged some more when she kept reading some more articles and gang related stuff in relation to this Manohar Jha person.

She was an undercover cop's daughter so she almost believed that it was natural for her to be interested in these sorts of things. As much as she had wanted to major in Criminology and follow her dad's footsteps, she wasn't given the permission. The kind of people that her dad dealt with only seemed better on screen and on paper but were far worse when dealt with in reality. After lots of arguments, she gave in. To an extent, she did want to get married some day in life and she wasn't sure if that kind of a profession would work for her unless the guy was in the same field. Two undercover cops living under the same roof perhaps wouldn't be such a great idea. Her marriage probably wouldn't have made it to its first anniversary, she had mused and then she had decided to become a Chartered Accountant and then a Forensic Accountant- her family needed to keep some sort of forensics running in their blood!

"Are you watching po*n?" she heard Arnav's voice and when she looked into his amused eyes, she thought she was going to die of embarrassment. Closing all the tabs that she had opened up,she sat back straight on her chair and looked at him with disapproving eyes.

"That's gross. No I wasn't watching any such thing" her tone was monotone and he couldn't help but chuckle noticing the redness creeping up her neck. With measured steps, he walked around her desk and stood in front of her, while she craned her neck to look up at him.

"Then what were you watching so intently? Your nose was almost touching the screen" he asked amusedly, enjoying seeing her all flushed and embarrassed.

"None of your business." She gulped in response and that slight movement of her neck, didn't do any good to certain parts of his body. God, she had no idea what some of her innocent gestures did to him, but he would discuss that with her at some other time. Right now, he needed to talk to her about something important.

"Your dad just called me" and when she looked at him confusedly, he motioned for her to look towards her phone and she saw the four missed calls from her parents. Just as she was about to press the talk button to call them back, he took the phone out of her hands and gave her his, motioning for her to read whatever was on the screen.

An itinerary?

As she scrolled down a little further, she realized the flights were for tonight and she could feel her heart in her throat when she read the hotel reservations

Honeymoon suite?

"What the!" she yelled and he looked at her a little apprehensively. Her parents had called him last week to ask him if he could take a week off from work to come and visit them as they missed Khushi and he had instantly agreed, knowing how hard it must be for them to be away from their daughter. Anjali and Shyam had only moved away for a year and only he knew how hard it was to see his Di move away like that. He had almost kicked himself for not even thinking of taking her to her parents' house.