Five Weeks by Shruti Omar (any book recommendations .txt) 📕

With the crawling of sunbeams in their suite, Anahita woke up on her bed sans Yuvraaj. She yawned, rubbing her eyes and looked around, confused. She jerked the blanket away and slid off the bed to wear her flip-flops. She dragged her feet to the deck and her eyes zeroed on her husband who was doing pushups.

His sweat glistening body was like melting butter under the sun and his flexible muscles contracted and expanded with each downward push. His damp hair stuck to his forehead, proving out to be the delicious treat to her hungry eyes. She was so concentrated on reading him that she could elaborate how his veins protruded, mapping a path to his forearms and then to the back of his palm.

Yuvraaj sensed her near him – maybe because of her scanning stare – and greeted her in his wheezy voice, “Good morning, wifey.”

He continued his exercise without sparing her a glance and she scudded to him, hypnotized with his inviting body. Yuvraaj smirked, inwardly on catching her drooling over him. It was sight to register in history that she found him way more attractive, already contradicting her statement where she had blatantly claimed that he didn’t have anything to ogle at.

“I said good morning,” he teased her, making himself loud and she jerked out of her dirty thought that bloomed watching him moderately dressed. He just had his track pants on and that was…”Anahita?”

“Good veins…I mean, good morning,” she hastily amended her spilled words and dashed near him, “What are you doing early this morning?”

“Early?” He paused to cock an eyebrow up, “Eight O’clock isn’t early, you lazy bum! Come on, get on my back. I need something heavy.” He panted, using his core and she twisted her hair in a bun, looking at him apprehensively. “Are you sure? I mean last I checked I weighted fifty two. I am not sure if I have lost some or gained more. So, do you still want me on your back?”

"Just sit already."

"Okay,” she shrugged her shoulder and sat on his back, making him wince abruptly. He hissed, maintaining his balance, “When I said sit, I meant astride. God! Woman, you'll break my back."

"Oh, I am sorry, wait!" She acquired the right position and kept her palm on his shoulder blades that unhinged her very much with the way muscles contracted under her palm. She knew she would end up doing something inappropriate. Therefore, she closed her eyes. “Is it fine this way?"

"Yes." She heard his flat reply and smiled, experiencing the motions of see-saw. It was ethereal that she flattened her cheek against his back and hugged him, “Is this fine?”

Yuvraaj masked a smile and hummed, continuing his movements. “It is way more than fine.”

She grinned and suddenly thought about the stranger lady. She put her chin on his shoulder, questioning, “Where's that lady? How come I was on the bed?"

"Her friends were here last night. They thanked us and insisted to take her away with them. Manager checked everything and we shifted her to her room. Since the bed was empty and you were not comfortable on the couch, I shifted you there."

"Thank god!" She breathed but Yuvraaj didn't hear her, clearly, "What?"

"I asked how she is. Is her leg fine?"

"What happened to her leg? She was unconscious because she drank a lot of sea water while wrestling in ocean." Yuvraaj reminded and she curbed the urge to chortle, if she was fine, why were your mighty arms were holding her last night? Instead, she curled her arms around him tightly. “I know. I hope she doesn't go in sea to risk her life again. It’s not good for a non swimmer to dive so far. Let's not forget the possibility that if you hadn't been there, she could've died."

"Yuv... ahh!" Her eyes flew open as she felt the back beneath her twisting on its front and she landed upon the chest but within a minute, her back hit the cold wooden floor and Yuvraaj was over her.

"What was that? I thought I break your back." She panicked, catching her breath after the moment of shock. Yuvraaj bracketed her face between his arms and continued his exercise. She anticipated kiss on her face whenever he went down but he was careful enough to not touch her except his breath. His sweat dripped upon her few times but she didn't complain, instead brushed the tufts away from his forehead.

"You are not that heavy to break my back. I used to exercise with sacks of flour on my back." He smirked and she rolled her eyes. Her eyes travelled to his chest that was covered with fringes of dark hair. She ran her fingers over them, “It took you so long to shave and now these chest hair. You are really a caveman.”

Yuvraaj bent down, grinning at her and brought his mouth closer to her ear, “More chest hair means more testosterone. You should be happy, baby."

She turned deeper shade of beetroot and her ears heated up, “Shut up,” she gently slapped his arm, making him buzz into a belly deep laughter. He kissed her cheek and fell beside her.

"Come here!" He pulled her over propping his arm as pillow for her and snuggled her into his sweaty body. They gazed together at the bright, morning sky that had fought the doomed weather of the past three days. The couple beneath the endless sky was also fighting their dooms to have the smile etched on their face forever, just like now.

*****

Anahita sulked, glaring at her half-naked husband pointedly. He was emerging out of the blue waters, driving his fingers through his jet black hair and smiled at her. Except, she didn’t reverted the gesture because her eyes were focused on the bevy at distance who were gawking Yuvraaj with their eyes popped out.

"This man just doesn’t know how to cover himself,” she muttered, shaking her head and rose to her full height. She scooted to the giggling girls and waved at them, “Hey girls! Having fun, hah? That man there is taken,” she smirked, jerking a thumb at Yuvraaj and crossed her arms, “He’s my husband. Eh, hot, right?”