Chapter 3
Aarush called Radhika once he reached outside the room. Radhika opened the door after five minutes, she was still asleep and tired probably.
‘Come here my child…’ Aarush hugged her and carried her to the bed.
‘I am so sorry, you had to suffer so much because of me’ he laid her down on the bed, hugged her from behind. They both slept in the same position for another four hours.
Late past midnight, Radhika woke up. Aarush was hugging her, deep in his sleep.
‘Aarush, wake up.’
‘Hmm?’
‘I am hungry. I need to eat something!’
‘Order whatever you want.’ Aarush was tossing on the bed.
‘Let me see, what we have here.’ Radhika went through the entire menu and ordered some strangely unfamiliar names of the items. In thirty minutes the food was there.
‘I am not sure how would it taste.’
‘If it tastes nasty, you will finish it!’
‘What will you eat then?’ Radhika asked him.
‘I will eat you!’ Aarush bit her shoulder hard.
Pushing him aside, Radhika started eating, and by that time even Aarush joined her, and they had their first meal together in two days.
‘Finally…’ Aarush had a fulfilling dinner, and hugged Radhika.
‘What are you doing? Let’s sleep some more.’ Radhika yawned.
‘Enough of sleep, let’s play a game.’
‘What game?’
‘Chess?’
‘Really? Aarush please don’t bore me, this is our wedding night for heaven’s sake and I don’t want to play chess!’
‘Hey, not that chess, it is my chess, where we follow my rules, and my ways.’
‘Really?’ Radhika smiled and kissed his cheek.
‘Yes..’ Aarush kissed her lips, ‘Stop…’ he asked Radhika as her hands moved in his hair.
‘What? Why?’ Radhika made a childlike face.
‘Wait…’ Aarush brought the chessboard he had packed in his luggage. He set the board, placed the pawns and the bishop, the knight, the king and the queen.
‘Okay, so the rules are – with every dead pawn or knight or bishop, the one who has lost, will also have to lose a pair of cloth. If you lose the king, you will have to strip-dance.’
‘What? Not fair! You know you are good at chess so you are taking advantage.’
‘Okay, just for you, I will lose two clothes if I lose any single item from my side of the board.’
‘Oh yeah! You are one shameless person, you won’t have a problem even if you have to sit fully naked in front of me!’
‘Man! If I am changing rules, you have a problem, if not, you still have a problem. Fine, let’s sleep now.’
Radhika knew she had annoyed him.
‘Hey…’
‘Don’t…’ Aarush closed the board and packed it back.
‘I am sorry. Let’s play…’
‘I am not playing now.’
‘Aarush. Please. I love you…’ Radhika hugged and kissed him.
Aarush agreed as he was being pampered, and they started the game. Pawns after pawns, Radhika kept losing till she was left in her two piece bikini.
‘Seems like you are stressed, wife…’ Aarush teased her as he thought upon his next move. Not even one of his pawns were down yet, but Radhika’s queen managed to come near his house.
‘You are making a move towards my king, and I will not let that happen…’ Aarush took his king outside and with her next move, Radhika put his bishop down.
‘Now who’s the loser?’ Radhika started jumping with joy. Aarush removed his shirt.
‘Don’t forget, I have around ten cloth-items and you have only two, and very critical ones.’
‘Shut up husband, focus, or else you will have none!’
Radhika surprisingly started killing Aarush’s army with her horses and knights. Her queen was at rest with a check to Aarush’s king.
‘It’s a check-mate now, baby!’ Radhika played one more move, and Aarush’s king had no chance to be spared now.
‘Fuck. How did you learn to play so good?’
‘Distraction helps.’ Radhika knew Aarush was not playing with full concentration for obvious reasons, so she took an advantage of his situation and there he was.
‘Fine…’ Aarush got up.
‘Strip dance, strip dance for me, husband!’ Radhika grabbed the bucket of strawberries, dimmed the lights, switched on, only the red lights, and played some sexy music. Aarush started stripping one by one, and was dancing for her, while Radhika was enjoying the dance in her two piece bikini, munching on the strawberries and the chocolates.
‘This is the best honeymoon night any couple in the world could have thought of!’ She said and joined Aarush as he was left only in his boxers.
‘What now? You want to completely undress me? Spare me woman!’ Aarush ran towards the bed and ran for the sheets, and Radhika followed him. She fell on top of him and they started kissing.
‘Shall we?’ Aarush opened the side drawer to find a condom.
‘No, wait…’ Radhika grabbed his hand.
‘What now?’
‘What do you think, only you have an idea for the first night? Even I have a game!’
‘What? No more games darling, have you seen the time?’
‘I don’t care. We are not going to get another ‘first night’ together, so shut up.’
Radhika was the wife now, she had every right to make her wishes come true!
‘Fine, as the woman says.’ Aarush got up and wrapped himself in the sheet.
‘Why are you wrapping yourself? You are behaving as if I haven’t seen you naked.’
‘It’s not that, I need to start working out, my body is all gone. My workout, is all down the drain, thanks to the last six months and that terrible accident I had. I can’t ignore these scars…’ Aarush pointed at his stomach area which still had scars and marks from his accident.
‘It’s okay baby, I love you, and I love your flaws too. They come with you in a packaged deal and I have signed up for the entire package.’ Radhika kissed his lips and asked him to uncover himself. Tonight, she didn’t want anything to be a barrier between them, not even a bedsheet.
‘Here you go…’ She opened her hands, there were chits and papers, that she put in the strawberry bowl which was empty now.
‘What is this?’
‘A game I made for us.’
‘Truth and dare? You always come up with this game! I don’t want any serious questionnaire this time.’
‘Hey, it’s not questionnaire. It’s just dare and dare. No truth!’
‘What?’
‘Yeah, come on, take one slip. Open it.’ Aarush chose the blue one. The slip read, ‘Remove one item of cloth from your body.’
‘WHAT? I already have one item left. I can’t…’
‘You have to.’
‘This is not happening!’
‘You were the one who said I will follow every rule, and I never cheat.’ Radhika had trapped him in his own words now.
‘The fuck!’ Aarush gave in and removed the last piece of cloth too. However he frantically covered himself in the sheet.
‘No…not allowed. I will do the same if I get something like this in the next chit.’
‘Argh!’ Aarush stood up, ‘See me. Look at me. This is the real me!’ Radhika couldn’t stop laughing at what he was doing.
‘Come back husband, we have an entire game to play.’ Radhika picked up the next chit from the bowl.
‘Dance on a sexy song!’ Radhika played a song, and started dancing, Aarush was searching for something to cover himself up, as Radhika snatched the bedsheet and threw it aside.
‘You are one shameless woman, you know? I didn’t know I married such a beast!’ Aarush was scared of her now.
‘Come on, husband. Your turn!’
Aarush picked up the next slip, and it read, ‘Remove one piece of clothing from your partner’s body!’
‘Who’s the daddy now? Come here wife…’ Aarush chased Radhika as she jumped outside the bed and ran towards the door.
‘What should I choose? Up, or down?’ He looked into her eyes, Radhika was staring at the floor. He kissed her lips and with a snap, he unhooked her bra behind her back.
‘Aarush…’ Radhika whispered into his ear.
He carried her to the bed where he started kissing her frantically.
‘But the game…?’ Radhika asked in the middle of the kiss.
‘Forget the game…’ Aarush held her face and kissed her again.
Till the break of the dawn, they made love. They entered into the new day embracing each other in their arms. As the sun rose from the ocean waters outside their sea-view room, Radhika kissed Aarush’s forehead, placed her head on his chest and slept. Their first night indeed was a unique one!