Desired..

 His muscles rippled in the sunlight, beads of sweat softly dripping down his dark skin as he swung the axe again and again and splintered the logs into pieces. Sudha stood on the terrace, her white saree draped around her body like a talisman of purity while she suffocated within its confines, looking on entranced at the sculpted muscles that swelled with exertion and shone dark in the light.  There was something innately sensual about the man and desire, warm and molten, coursed through her veins. Was this how it was supposed to feel? She had heard the women talk in whispers about it, their excited tones filling her with curiosity as she stood outside the kitchen doors listening to their tales. She had never known desire with him, never known the pleasure that a man could incite in her bosom. The lonely nights came back flooding to her mind- the smell of his old wrinkled skin, his desire for her young flesh, the forced nightly rituals that had disgusted her and Sudha closed her eyes against the wave of despair. His death had released her from the pain, from the dark tunnels that had encased her youth and filled it with sorrow. And yet she now yearned for it, yearned to feel the pleasures that unfold between a man and a woman beneath the night skies.

Nauhid felt the eyes of the mistress on his back and smiled to himself. He had seen the longing in her eyes, her enchanting beauty surrounded by an air of melancholy never failing to leave a permanent gut wrenching ache in his loins. He gathered the logs, piled them together beside the kitchen and looked up at Sudha. Of late she had withdrawn her gaze but today she met his stare, the desire written clear on her pale face. And as the moments passed, their gazes turned heated, lust filling their bodies with its might, driving sanity and thought away as all barriers came crashing down.

That night Sudha discovered the joys of womanhood, revelling in this new found ecstasy, drowning in waves of pleasure as Nauhid took her to heights hitherto unknown to her. That very night, Nauhid left her sleeping beneath the deep blue skies, his bag laden with the jewels of the mistress of the villa.