Blueprint for Love by Chatura Rao

Author:Chatura Rao
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

19

W

hen Suveer called for a break, Zahyan and Mahnoor went to their bedroom to rest. She’d never seen him this tense. Not just tense but exhibiting a misplaced aggression towards Suveer who’d put himself in such danger for her.

Mahnoor knew that Zahyan, being a caregiver to his siblings and unpredictable mother since childhood, had prided himself on possessing a sound instinct for danger. To have failed to predict that the trouble brewing in Puneet Nagar might hurt Mahnoor had shaken the foundations of his faith in himself. He felt keenly, at this moment, the fact that he could not bring her justice. That he had neither the power nor the tools for it.

In the little light that filtered in she saw his dark silhouette place itself on the edge of the bed. He rested his head in his hands and tiredly pressed his temples and eyes, then ran his fingers through his hair, making it stand on end. Mahnoor slid across the bed to him to put a hand tentatively to his shoulder.

‘I’ll never get it right,’ he said, his back to her. ‘I’ve only ever hurt you.’

That’s not true, she protested silently. You’ve loved and protected me, she said in her heart to him as he turned her way to lie down. She drew him into her arms. They lay with his head cradled against her shoulder.

Mahnoor remembered how her breath had lodged in her throat the first time she saw him at the cafe when Fabeha introduced them: Zahyan, tall and strong, composed in equal measure of suffering and dreams. She had known immediately that he was the man for her. She’d meant to ease his responsibilities by sharing them. Taking up the job at the nursery school had meant overcoming her fears and stepping out of the sheltered life she’d led. She’d accepted it in order to contribute to their household income. She cooked good, tasty food for him so he would be healthy.

She placed her lips to his forehead and cheeks and the dark hollows beneath his eyes. He tilted his head back a little and she moved her lips to his. Zahyan stilled as if a bird or a deer had come to eat from his hand. She paused there and then slid her hand along his ribcage and the muscle that draped it. His mouth found hers and they kissed.

She slipped her hand under his t-shirt and slowly down to the button of his jeans, the hair on his chest springy under her soft palm. Zahyan unhooked the buttons on her kurta and she sat up to help him slip it over her head. They kissed passionately as he found her in this conflicting time, found her as he never had in the safer spaces of their life. The irony of it was not lost on him, making love in this hated place.

Suveer had dozed off with his head on his arms when they came back to the table. Mahnoor sat down by him and Zahyan went to the stove to make coffee for them.

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