Now it was Karan’s turn to be surprised. She had felt it too? He smirked softly, bit gently at her earlobe, and then entered her slowly, carefully, murmuring for her to breathe in and out. Whenit hurt, he eased himself. When it felt like too much, his kisses gave her the strength to endure it.
Karan guided her through every movement with patience. The room seemed to fade away, the world narrowing down to the way she breathed against his skin and the way his name trembled again and again on her lips as he thrusted deeper.
Every cell in her body melted at the sound of him driving in and out of her body. Soon her core trembled again, heat flooding through her as stars burst behind her eyes. Mishti lay beneath him, boneless, taking everything he gave her, giving her heart back to this man, knowing with absolute certainty that this time he would not break it.
This time, he would keep it safe with him for the rest of his life.
When Karan was finally close to his own release, he stilled his hips and lowered his mouth to her neck, biting her there. He groaned her name like a claim he had waited a lifetime to make, like she was his undoing and his survival.
Mishti’s fingers tightened around him as he found his release, deep inside her, filling her with his love. Filling her with everything he had held back, everything that had been his to give only to her.
It felt less like crossing a line and more like returning home to something that had always existed, waiting patiently for them both. There was no rush, no doubt. Just two people choosing each other, fully, at last.
And this time, neither of them stepped away.
CHAPTER 43
Next Day Morning
Mishti stirred in the bed, only to be pulled closer. His lips found hers, and in that instant, memory rushed back. She recalled where she was and what had happened.
Last night, she and Karan consummated their marriage, crossing that line at last.
They had finally let sleep claim them sometime after three in the morning, exhaustion overtaking everything else. Her body felt deeply satiated, yet sore and heavy, the kind of tiredness that made her feel like she would need a full week to recover from everything they had done.
Karan’s lips drifted from her mouth to her neck, settling over the spot where her pulse beat softly. That was when she opened her eyes and looked at him.
He was still shirtless. At some point after freshening up, he had slipped into his grey lounge pants, while she was still wrapped in his shirt, the same white one that had started everything the night before. She wasn’t sure if Karan had slept at all, because even through the night, all she had felt were his arms and his mouth on her skin, still teasing her gently, as if unwilling to let her go even in sleep. The sensations were still alive, humming beneath her skin.
He finally lifted his head, nuzzling briefly between her breasts before raising his face to hers and smiling. It was the sweetest smile she had ever seen on him.
Suddenly, their closeness felt almost too intimate.
Thankfully, her phone rang at that very moment.
Mishti shifted slightly to reach for it, and Karan let her go. She slid the shirt back up over her shoulder, buttoning the top few buttons herself, coming back to her modest self, before she grabbed her phone and moved away from the bed.
Karan leaned back against the headboard, watching her as she went straight to the dressing mirror, fixing her hair while answering the call.
“Yes, Rukhsar,” she said.
Rukhsar was one of the coordinators at the Sahara Foundation.
“Yes, I got your message last night,” Mishti continued, as she adjusted her hair. “No, the donor meeting cannot be postponed. Please go ahead and finalise the venue. I’ll review the proposal once you mail it to me.”
She paused, listening.
“Yes, I know I’m not there, but that doesn’t change anything. Make sure the rehabilitation unit gets the additional funds cleared. And Rukhsar… keep an eye on the children’s education project. I don’t want any delays just because I’m away.”
Karan, who had been watching her all this while, finally slipped off the bed and moved closer. He came up behind her, gently sweeping her hair to one side. She saw it all through the mirror.His mood. His expression.The way his eyes darkened as he leaned in and pressed a hard kiss into the crook of her neck.
Mishti barely managed to contain the gasp that threatened to escape her lips. He did not care that she was still on a professional call.
Rukhsar said something, but Mishti hardly processed it this time, not when his hand slid beneath her shirt again, gripping her breast firmly as his mouth traced slow, unhurried kisses along her neck and down to her shoulder blade. She was losing control far too quickly. Thankfully, Rukhsar’s voice grounded her just enough for her to focus back on the call.
Rukhsar asked when her flight back to London was.
“I’m landing at Heathrow day after tomorrow, late afternoon,” Mishti replied.
