Scandalous Wedding

Chapter 17

Sang released a huge breath as she placed her hand on the door knob of the condo, which was now her home. Images of last time she entered this house flashed in her eyes, when her husband was sucking faces with another woman on their couch. She shook her head to relieve those negative thoughts and once again took a deep breath and slowly released it. With sweaty hands she slowly opened the door, which made a swishing noise as she pushed it wide open.

She glanced quickly at the offending couch and reverted her eyes from it, but unlike her fears there was no one exchanging saliva on it. She sighed inaudibly and walked ahead into the condo with her head held high.

"Welcome home babes", Eli's loud voice startled her and her hand immediately went to her racing heart,

"Gosh! You scared me", she snapped at him angrily but the anger immediately vanished when she saw him. Dressed in a white body hugging vest and track pants, with a 'kiss the cook' apron over his chest, he looked delicious. She swallowed at her weird taste of delicacy and mentally shook her head.

"Sorry", he said cheekily and walked to her. She watched as he sauntered towards her with a grin and opened his arms in invitation. What is he doing? She frowned at his open armed stature.

"Say hello to your hubby", he said and enveloped her small form in a hug. "I missed you", he murmured huskily against her ears, his breath tickling her bare skin, while shaking her body with his tight hug.

"Ugh...er..." Sang was too caught up in the sudden embrace to understand what he was talking about. Miss me? Hubby? Is he drunk? She wondered, sniffing his body for any trace of alcohol. But instead her nostrils were consumed with an intoxicating odor of manly body wash and Eli's personal body odor, which was surprisingly very pleasant. She greedily took in another nose-ful of that delicious smell before he suddenly pulled back, startling her with the sudden movement.

"Zach is here", he added quickly with a fearful look in his eyes, as he held her within an arm's distance.

"Oh", was all she could manage to say before Zach stepped forward towards the couple with a bright smile,

"Good evening Mrs. McCoy", he said formally, giving his hand for a shake,

"It's okay Zach, you can call me Sang. Though we were never met properly, we have known each other for too long now, to go back to surnames", she said with a smile while shaking his hand.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Eli release a sigh of relief and she wondered about the reason behind his strange behavior. He looked scared, worried and also tensed, and for the love of Jesus, she couldn't understand why.

"Shall we have dinner, I am starving?!" Zach said rubbing his stomach emphasizing,

"Sure. Excuse me, I will freshen up", she excused herself and walked upstairs to her room still reeling with numerous doubts, why is Zach here? And why is Eli so worried about it? And if he is really uncomfortable with Zach's presence then why didn't he stop him from coming here?

***

"See, now that wasn't so difficult was it?" Zach grinned at Eli patting his back encouragingly. He didn't know what made him pretend like that in front of Zach, but somehow just the mere fact that his wife not paying any heed to his feelings and needs hurt his ego. Even though Zach was his best friend for so long, he didn't want to share that bit of his married life with him, in fact he didn't want to let any soul know about it. May be that is what they call a male ego. That urge to prove was so strong that he even pushed his fear aside and embraced Ace.

"Yeah", Eli muttered as his thoughts went back to the moment he embraced her when she walked in. Oh, how he wanted to hold her like that for eternity and he would have if the thoughts of Sang killing him in his sleep didn't pull him out of the dreamy trance.

"Okay!" Zach clapped his hands, "Is everything ready? – Salad?" he asked and Eli replied with a 'check', "Naan?" Eli opened the tortilla warmer and checked on the 'naan', "check", he replied. "What about Malai Kofta?" Zach asked opening the lid of the warm bowl, which contained the Indian recipe which they just made,

"Hum... it smells divine bro", Zach said ushering Eli to take a whiff, who just moaned hungrily at the delicious aroma,

"I think Indian is my next favorite cuisine, after Italian", Eli confirmed nodding at the Indian food they both prepared.

"Why don't you go up and invite her down. And don't forget to tell her how beautiful she is", Zach said wiggling his eyebrows, as he tried to play the role of cupid. After all he even made him cook all these Indian recipe's by surfing all through the internet, and while offering zero help in cooking. According to Zach, Eli can only win her over by doing it all by himself and taking the credit for it.

Eli frowned and crossed his hands against his chest, "When I said I want her to fall for me I meant for her to fall for my charms, not in love with me. And I seriously don't get why I am being made to cook for her. Isn't it a women's thing to cook and woo the man?"

Zach rolled his eyes, "Women love the man who can cook. How do you think I make women pant for me like dogs? Cook something delicious and you have them wrapped around your finger", he winked showing his pinkie to him,

"I don't thing Ace is among those kind of women. She cooks way better than me. And if you are somehow right about this theory and if women do fall for cooking skills then the guy from the YouTube cooking channel would be the new love guru", he said pointing to the ipad's paused screen where a pot bellied chef was showing recipe for Malai Kofta.

"Whatever man, now just go", Zach ushered Eli upstairs who reluctantly complied.

***

Sang was about to open the door to go downstairs when there was a knock at her door. She opened the door, only to find a reluctant Eli standing outside her room with his hands shoved into his pockets.

"I was just coming down stairs", she said with a forced smile to ease that uneasy tension which surrounded Eli since the moment she stepped into the house.

"Zach is here", he said suddenly and Sang wondered how that is relevant to him showing up at her room, while she was only about to go downstairs to meet them for dinner,

"I know", she frowned, "I just saw him downstairs"

"Yeah... well..." he ran a hand through his hair, "Can we just pretend like a couple who are trying to make their marriage work?" his voice shook and he looked like a different person rather than the cocky arrogant over confident bastard she knew.

Sang was taken aback at the unexpected request, "Wait", she shook her head "Doesn't he know about... us?" she asked,

"No", he shook his head looking everywhere except her. Suddenly she started seeing things, so this is why he is so tensed!

"Isn't he your friend?" the question tumbled out of her mouth even before she could process it, and the sharp 'its none of your business look' Eli shot her made her take it back, "Don't answer that. I don't want to know", she shook her head.

Eli nodded shifting on his feet, "So, I hope you understand if I do something, I mean, it's all to make Zach believe", his eyes spoke uncertainty and so did his shaky voice,

"Something as in?" she asked suspiciously narrowing her eyes,

"Something like holding your hand or kissing your cheek, something like that. I won't cross my limits. I promise", he held his hands up in surrender. That was the moment Sang saw it in his eyes. Fear.

Was he scared of her? Did he think she would do something irrational like the other night? Suddenly she felt guilty and embarrassed all at the same time. She never made anyone feel like this. Everyone felt safe and comfort in her presence, and the simple thought that she made her husband feel uncertain with her behavior was hurting. All thanks to her antics and violent behavior. She nodded her head absently and Eli walked back downstairs gesturing her to follow, which she did while still deep in thought.

***

Eli was glad that he made it clear with Sang before the dinner progressed. Now he can do a little touching and caressing he had been dying to do since a long time, but was scared to do and the best part would be that Sang wouldn't stop him. A small voice in his head warned him to not take the liberty she granted too far. And Eli gulped at the thought.

He wasn't scared for nothing, cause he knew that she was too strong physically and mentally to take things in an violent direction.

He cast an uncertain glance over his shoulder where she followed him into the dining area. She was wearing shorts which reached her knees and showcased her long creamy legs. A tank top and hoodie covered all her luscious curves, yet she looked modestly hot. He had felt all her curves already to know what treasures lay beneath those layers of cloth, which was the reason for his semi hard erection.

"Since", Zach's voice combined with the clank-clank of the cutlery bought his attention back to the dinner, "Eli did all the cooking, I decided to set the dinner", he added a cheeky grin, not the 'I am a charmer' grin, but a 'I am like your goofy guy best friend' which he rarely flashed towards women.

"You cooked all this?" Sang's voice was full of awe and surprise as she lifted the lid of the curry he cooked. Her eyes showed the raw emotions she was feeling – admiration. His heart skipped a beat.

This was the women who would make you cry some day. A voice whispered into his brain as he stared at her honest face in trance. Somehow he didn't even dismiss the voice and kept staring at her awe-struck face.

Do I deserve her? – No. Will she hate me when she learns about the dark side of my world? – Definitely. Could I live without her? – NO.

"Of course he did", Zach elbowed his ribs and raised an eyebrow at him,

"Yeah, I did", he said catching onto Zach's 'talk something you dumbo' look.

"I love Indian food. Mom always makes something for me and Dad at random times, because Dad loves the cuisine too. We tried to hire some chefs to cook Indian at home but Dad didn't like any of their cooking. So mom tries a few easy recipes from YouTube and makes them for us", she was ranting and both men knew it. But the nostalgic look on her face didn't dare them to stop her from ranting. She looked so sad, like she was missing them too much. Of course she misses them, they are her parents.

"I think we should invite them over for dinner sometime", Eli spoke as he saw how her face split into a grin,

"Really?" she looked surprised,

"Yeah. I don't see why not", he shrugged nonchalantly,

"Oh that would be wonderful", she clapped her hands, "I think we should invite your parents too. I think it would be – ", Eli cut her off this time,

"No way. We are not inviting my parents", he shook his head. He stopped having family dinners with his parents since he turned nineteen, which was five years ago and he wouldn't start it now, just because his wife thought it would be a good idea. If she wanted to meet her parents then fine, but not his parents.

"Why not?" she c****d her head to the side while serving the men and herself since either of them didn't make an attempt to serve,

"Because I said so", he snapped irritably.

"Look Mr. McCoy", her eyes blazed with anger, "We will not invite my parents if we don't invite yours. Have you ever wondered how it will make them feel if they learnt that we had dinner with mine while we didn't bother with them? They are our parents, and not to forget, we are their only kids", her voice heavy with anger and determination. Eli felt like a kid who was being scolded by his teachers, something he haven't felt in a long time. But Sang always managed to make him feel that way.

He crossed his hands across his chest, ignoring to attend to the matter. It felt childish to him too but he didn't feel like giving a reply. He didn't want to have dinner with his parents and that's that.

"Fine", she snapped, "I will call them for dinner. You can skip it if you like. At least one of us have to maintain healthy relationships, right?" she said eating her salad. Eli looked at her from the corner of his eyes, expecting a comment on his culinary skills. Not that it mattered, but he did put in a lot of effort in cooking this dinner and knowing that Sang always wore her heart on the sleeve, she was expecting a compliment, but none came from her as she sat with a game face on.

"Actually", she spoke in the same snappy tone, making both the men stand attention to her, "You will come to the dinner which I am going to arrange with our parents. You don't have choice in that matter", she shot him a look with narrowed eyes which spoke volumes.

"Fine", he muttered grinding his teeth. Not wanting to create a scene in front of his friend, who was throwing all smug and 'you are whipped' looks at him.

Her defiance and domination was getting on his nerves. He wanted to right there and then take her across his knees and spank that pretty ass of hers to teach a lesson, to show her who is in charge. But again, thoughts like this were exactly what he was scared of.

He knew that he was already pushing his luck with Sang too much. Once she hurt him, the other time she punched a woman, which was definitely not her character, and it was all because of him. He didn't want to push her anymore; especially he didn't want to change her anymore. Her pure, selfless, friendly nature is what he has always loved in her.

***

Sang's eyes widened for a minute which she quickly recovered. Did he just agree to it? Is this because Zach was here? Her eyes skimmed to Zach who was sitting next to Eli on the opposite side, who bore an amused look on his face, while he savaged the naan with excess curry. For a minute she feared he would get troubled with gas, but she simply shrugged the idea as she thought men and their appetites were heavy.

Eli stared into his plate as he munched on the food. No one spoke much, except Zach who tried to keep the conversation afloat by asking Sang about her work, her recent meditation classes, etc., but Eli remained silent.

This made her wonder, was Eli scared of her? Like really scared, not that she would create a scene, but scared that she would hurt him? She looked at him and he was clenching and unclenching the fork, while he finished his dinner, hurriedly, like he didn't want to stay here anymore. He did look scared to her.

Should she be glad or sad about it – that he was scared of her? Most women would find it exciting to have their husbands scared about them but wouldn't that kind of ruin their marriage? Sang snorted at that thought, this marriage was already ruined and completely hopeless, so there was no point in worrying about that. At least if Eli remains scared of her, then at least he would keep his filthy hands to himself, she thought with a bright smile.

But wouldn't that be disappointing? A small voice whispered in her mind which she blatantly ignored.

Soon the dinner came to an end and she offered to clean up, because both the men had already contributed for dinner. They both went to the bar cabinet in his study while she cleaned up in the kitchen.

Zach didn't stay long, cause he had to drive back home which was quite far from Eli's condo so he bid his good night's to the couple and left.

Sang's thoughts were still revolving over the doubts which clogged her mind throughout the dinner. Was he scared of her? Feelings like hurt, relief, anger, embarrassment, guilt, and many more which she haven't even realized swarmed in her stomach, making her dizzy.

She walked to drinks cabinet and poured a glass of wine for herself, too cool her nerves. Never in her life had she made anyone feel intimidated. That was one of the reasons she discovered that she was not made for business, and chose fashion career. And she always thought when the time of making someone feel intimidated would come, she would rejoice the feeling. Then why wasn't she happy about it? She drowned one after another glass of wine until she felt tipsy and tingly all over.

Only one way to know if he is really scared of me or not!

***

Eli's phone rang stopping him from drowning in alcohol, "Speak", he barked into the phone in frustration,

"We found out the rat. He fell right into the trap", the voice in the phone spoke to him

"Good", a dark smile graced his lips, "Bring him into the den and fish out a confession. I need names", Eli barked and hung up when he heard a satisfactory 'yes sir' from the other side.

The familiar feeling of power and excitement coursed through his veins and he reveled in the feeling, when suddenly the door to his study flung open.

"s**t", he muttered at the sight that greeted him.