“I am taking that as a yes,” he announced and pushed her farther up her bed.

“So you are finally giving me your virginity?” She reached back to help him pull off her spaghetti.

He laughed, reaching for the shawl around his neck and carelessly pulling it off, tossing it to the side.

He got off the bed to do the same to his pants and briefs and stopped long enough to grab his wallet.

Avantika stared enraptured. She had seen him completely naked.

She had seen all of him, even touched him.

His trips to her apartment in Paris hadn’t been spent playing cricket, after all.

But now, knowing what they were going to do… her legs began to squirm together of their own accord.

“Shy?” He asked, getting on the bed and crawling up to her. She opened her mouth to make a smart comment but he cut her off — “Open communication, Ava.”

She swallowed it down. Then stared into Samarth’s dark eyes and nodded. His face softened. The tenderness such a contrast to his earlier dominant claim.

“It’s’ me,” he whispered, cupping her cheek in one hand.

“That is why I am shy,” she managed, fluttering her eyelashes rapidly — looking at his face and then not. Light, then dark, light then dark, light then his lips on her eye, pressing a long, tight kiss.

“You were my all or nothing,” he reached for his wallet and pulled out a condom. She stared on as he rolled it over himself and got ready. Her legs fell open, embracing his hips into them as he adjusted himself.

“I am still your all or nothing,” she murmured, feeling him sink closer and closer down into her.

“And you will always be my all or nothing,” he completed, notching in to the point of fullness. She bit her lip, trying to push her legs farther apart.

“Does it hurt?”

“A little…”

“We’ve been working at it for so long,” his face contorted. Her belly shook with laughter. Avantika took his face in both her hands and pulled him to herself, in the process pushing him deeper until he was all in. Their hips slammed and she gasped.

“Slow, Ava, easy…” he began to push out but she held him. “Let’s breathe for a second.”

His teeth gritting, he laughed — “You are the test of my patience, Raje.”

“How does it feel?” She took a deep breath.

“Like I have never felt in my life. Like I want to stop here and stay forever. Like I want to move the fuck out and slam back.”

“Option 3, please.”

He slowly pulled out and nudged back in with a smooth stroke.

“You said you’ll slam in!” She whined, loving this tender, long, smooth rhythm too.

“In the next chukker,” he pulled back and repeated, his hips replicating their favourite lovemaking rhythm. Her body opened to him then, recognising that rhythm.

“There’s a next chukker?”

“Oh, it’s a tournament tonight, Raje!” He grinned and reached down to play with her.

Her eyes rolled back up. That was it. That was the dial-up.

Her thighs began to quiver and what started in her limbs travelled all the way into her stomach and burst. She felt walls she had never felt inside her palpitate.

“Oh shit… fuck, Ava… Stop doing that!”

“I cannot help it!!!” She kept fluttering around him and he kept losing control until he spiralled right along with her too.

————————————————————

“Two chukkers, 2-0,” he ran his live commentary in her ear, sitting naked behind her on her bed.

She lay between his legs, on his chest, her hair dried after their shower and again sweaty after the last round…

chukker. She didn’t have any energy to even return with a smart comment.

She just turned her mouth to his chest and kissed him over the heart.

“That’s acceptance of defeat, Raje.”

“Aren't you exhausted already?” She glared up at him.

“You don’t get your girl of a decade in bed and not be ready to go all night.”

Her mouth dropped open — “Good sanskari boys don’t talk like that!”

His chest vibrated. “I can offer you my bhajan playlist in the morning to make up for this.”

She let out a throaty, tired laugh, feeling his arms cocoon her in and his mouth press into the top of her head.

“Can I stay the night, Ava?”

“Try and escape.”

“No,” he smiled. “I mean, won’t your chaperones come in to wake you or massage you or something?”

“What kind of culture do you have in Nawanagar?”

“Chaperones do enter your chambers to wake you up there.”

“It’s not like that over here… except for Kaka and Kaki Maharaj. For Kresha and me it’s as normal as it gets. Nobody enters until we leave the chambers.”

His mouth pressed into her head again — “Good to know.”

“Today was the most fun I’ve had in a long time,” she sighed.

“Thanks,” he pushed his hips into her back. Avantika chuckled, rolling her sleepy head on his chest and blinking up at him — “I loved seeing the old Samarth back.”

His face softened. His hand came to hold her jaw and he pressed his mouth to her forehead.

“Bring me the old Ava any time and I’ll bring the old Samarth to play.”

“What was old Ava like?” She wondered aloud.

“A lot like this one. Only, she sassed a lot more, and yapped like there was no tomorrow.”

“I still yap a lot, don’t I?”

“Not as much as you used to. I still remember Ms. Veda’s words when she punished you to sit beside me — ‘If I let you, you’d talk to the walls, child. What will I do with you?’”

Avantika laughed with him, their bodies so in sync now that even their vibrations matched. And amplified.

“Today felt like we were back to school… even the Badri gang… oh, did you notice something?” She perked up, catching his hand and entwining her fingers with his.

“Harsh and Kirti didi.”

“Yes! They had caught a corner. Do you think…?”

“I don’t know. Ever since Harsh’s divorce, we don’t talk about that topic.”

“What topic?”

“His love life. He is in a weird phase right now. And he has let me rot in my weird phase for years. So I have to return the favour.”

“Hmmm…” she unlocked and locked her fingers with his. “FYI — Kresha hates you with a vengeance.”

“As she should.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll tell her about our plans soon and then make her like you again.”

“It’s alright, Ava. I get her. I get her loyalty to you.

For all the taunts you hurl at each other, it is clear how much you both are concerned about each other.

I didn’t understand this sibling bond in school — how you both could fight like cats and then team up like you both had come into the world joined at the hips. After Sharan, I understand.”

“You fight with him?”

“Not fight per se. Our age gap is much bigger than yours. But we banter, and disagree pretty violently.”

“Violently?”

“Not in a bloodshed way!” He clarified. “In the WWE on the bed way.”

“Vikram Dada used to give me the Undertaker choke slam and once Kaka Maharaj saw it. Vikram Dada was locked in his room for three whole days. He forgot how to give that choke slam then,” she laughed.

His hand came to her throat and he rubbed the place tenderly, his knuckles soothing something that hadn’t even hurt too bad then.

“You are coming to Paris next week? Confirmed?”

“Yes.”

“It’s becoming a little difficult to live without you now,” she confessed.

“Just a little?”

“Mmm…” her eyes began to fall shut.

“It’s becoming extremely difficult to live without you,” his heavy, solemn words fell into her ears. Her eyes popped open and she smirked. Her fingers trailed down his side and to his balls. Samarth cursed under his breath — “Leave them if you don’t plan to do anything about it.”

She let go and rolled off him, pushing herself under the duvet.

“You can’t sleep already!” His head bent into her neck. “What about our third chukker? You have yet to open your scoreboard.”

“Sleep for now,” she yawned, pulling him down with her and under the duvet. “I’ll play your third chukker in the morning, score my points, and then order you poha with sev.”

“You mean sev with a garnish of poha?”

“Yes, that one,” she held him down and put her head on his chest. “Thank you, Samarth.”

“For what?”

“For falling in love with sev over poha.”

“I promise I’ll eat it for a lifetime to come.”

“I know now.”

A pause. A beat. Then his arms came to cocoon her tight into his body — “Goodnight, Raje.”