Sensitive content ahead. Reader's discretion is advised.
***********
Manik
I take in a sharp breath when Nandini turns toward me.
'So beautiful,' is the only thought in my mind as I see her looking breathtaking in the body-hugging blue gown she is wearing.
The blue color of the gown complimenting her fair skin perfectly and her makeup enhancing her already beautiful features.
I thought she looked gorgeous with her hair down, but today, with the messy bun like hairdo she has done, with a few strands framing her face, she looks simply mesmerizing.
I slowly walk toward her, unable to take my eyes off her as I go near her.
"You look...," I pause, trying to find out the correct word to describe how she looked. "...umm, I mean....you...and the dress.... perfection.... enchanting...perfect."
I wanted to punch myself due to my utter inability to thread the words and properly compliment her.
She smiles slightly, tucking the hair behind her ear, and my already fluttering heart skips a beat, looking at that smile making her face glow.
"I take you like the dress then? It's beautiful, isn't it, Manik?"
I shake my head. "You are beautiful, Nandini, and the dress looks gorgeous because you are wearing it," I say, noticing her cheeks get slightly redder.
"Thank you," she says. "You too look good in this black suit."
Many girls have told me I look handsome in anything I wear, but this is the first time a compliment has made me go warm.
"Umm, before I forget," I start speaking, trying to get a grip on my erratically beating heart. "This is for you."
I notice Nandini's surprised look as she sees the rose in my hand.
"Yellow rose?" She asks.
"I wanted to bring the red one, but I thought you would not accept it because you are not there yet," I tell her.
"Not where yet, Manik?" She questions, and I immediately backtrack.
Tonight is not the night for that conversation and we are so not ready for that yet. That will have to wait for some time.
"Nothing. I mean, we are married, but have not had any relationship yet. So, I thought it would be better if we started from the friendship. Hence, the yellow rose," I reply.
Nandini narrows her eyes at me, hesitating to take the flower.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" I ask.
"Nothing. It's just that I never thought you would bring yellow rose for me one day, extending a hand of friendship," she says.
I take a step closer to her, noticing her suck in a breath when I get closer. But she does not step back.
"That's the thing, Nandini. Sometimes when we least expect it, life gives us the thing which we have wanted all along. You just need to have some courage to blindly trust and take a leap," I tell her, indirectly answering the question she had been asking earlier to her brother while looking at the sky.
"Manik," she says, her voice low, and I feel her breath fanning my face.
We are so close that if I tilt my face even slightly, our lips would touch.
As that thought enters my mind, I look at her lips, those full enticing lips, wondering how would the feel of them be.
"We should go now. Otherwise, we will get late," she says, taking the rose from my hand and taking a step back.
She tightly grabs the stem of the rose as she averts her gaze from me and looks everywhere except at me.
I also turn away from her, and take a deep breath. 'Why do I feel like I ran a marathon just now?' I wonder, trying to calm my racing heart.
"Yes. Let's go," I tell her, but frown when instead of following me to the door, she walks to the center of the room.
A small smile curves my lips when she keeps the rose on the vase there, gazing at it for a few seconds before looking at me.
"I didn't want to lose it by taking it with me," she says. "This is the first time someone gave me a flower. That is why, it is special for me."
Hearing that, I had to fist my hands to stop myself from grabbing her hand and pull her into my arms.
***********
Rishabh
I enter the venue where the party is being hosted by the company where Nandini works.
I can already feel excitement running through my veins, my mind full of Nandini's thoughts.
Of her catering to my every wish.
Of the beautiful tears running down her face as I will make her mine repeatedly till she completely submits herself to him.
Of that moment when she will finally accept that her mind, body, and even soul is mine to use as I wish.
"Ah! So fucking beautiful. I want to make that sight of Nandini my reality soon," I say to myself as I look at my other obedient slut already inside the venue.
She is with her date, Samrat Ahuja.
It had been my plan to send marriage proposal from Aastha's family to Samrat's parents.
I was the one to arrange everything.
From Aastha's fake parents to the fake priest who took the proposal to Samrat's house.
I bought Aastha from her parents from the village I visited six months back.
When I saw her, her innocent face and gullible personality somewhat reminded me of Nandini and that was the moment I decided that I needed to have her.
That is why, I proposed a good amount of money to her parents, who were all too eager to get their nineteen year old daughter off their hands as they had two younger sons to raise.
For the first few months after I bought her, I enjoyed her a lot.
It was so much fun breaking her, hearing her cries as I slowly made her surrender.
But now, when she is completely broken, my entertainment level while playing with her has decreased too.
After all, it is no fun, watching a girl so pathetically broken that she would willingly do anything and everything I tell her to do.
'That's the reason why I want Nandini now. It would be so much fun to tame her. I hope it will take longer to break her. I want to have fun for a longer time with her, unlike Aastha, who took only three months to completely surrender.' My mind again pictures the things I would do to Nandini and the things I would make her do.
"Come soon, Nandini. I have set everything to take you away from here." I smirk, looking around at the men I have stationed around the party hall. "After tonight, you will be mine, Nandini. Only and only mine."
***********
Aastha
"Is something the matter, Aastha?" I hear Samrat ask me, and I shake my head at him.
"No. Everything is fine. Absolutely fine," I try my best to smile at him, but I know he must be sensing my restlessness.
No matter how hard I try, I am unable to shrug off my fidgety demeanor.
I feel that monster's gaze on me, and when I look up, I see him there, at a small distance from me, smirking at me.
He bought me from my parents and brought me to this city six months back.
My eyes well up as I remember the things he did with me right after bringing me here. He continued to do them, making everything more intense and painful, until I had no choice but to completely surrender to his depraved wishes.
Control yourself, Aastha. This is not the time to think about that.
I take a deep breath to calm my emotions because I need to keep a clear head tonight and somehow think of a way to not let Nandini get into Rishabh's trap.
No one deserves the fate I got after my parents abandoned me, selling me to this devil, so they could properly raise their sons with the money they got from Rishabh.
They not only sold me, but betrayed me too.
Again, Aastha. Not the time for that now. Think how to save Nandini first. Think hard.
I look around, spotting the men Rishabh has stationed around.
I recognize the faces of each one of them because Rishabh made me memorize them. I also know what the job of each one of them tonight is to properly execute Rishabh's plan and be successful in taking Nandini with them.
I have met Nandini only once when I went shopping with her and Riya and found her to be a nice girl.
After spending some time with her, I found she was somewhat like how I used to be. But unlike me, she is not tainted. She is not a kept slave like I am.
And I need to keep it like that.
As long as I can, I will do my best to not let anyone else get crushed by that devil like he crushed me.
'But how will I do that?' I wonder.
I cannot tell anything to Samrat, Riya, or Nandini, too, because Rishabh has tapped a mic and wire in my body. He also has placed a tracker in my thigh.
The tracker was placed the night he brought me to the city.
And the mic and wire, well, he tapes them in place every time he lets me out of my prison which he calls his home.
As he does each time, this time too, anything I say tonight will be heard by him. Tonight it is more intense as it is not only him listening to me, but his other men around the hall are listening too.
If I stepped even a toe out of the plan he has set, he would either kill me, or worse.
When I think of the worse, I shudder as I recall the words Rishabh threw at me before letting me out tonight.
"If you do anything to jeopardize my plan, I will not hesitate before giving you to my men for a whole week. I will order them to use you however they wish to if I do not succeed in my plan because of your fault."