Kanchan's Protector

"I rehearsed this a while ago, but I seem to be forgetting my lines," she smiles wanly, trying to make a joke out of her nervousness.

"We are friends, Kanchan, no scripts are required, just be your spontaneous self."

"You said everything in your universe is not transaction based, right?"

"That is right, Kanchan."

"You get me a role I am desperate for, you take nothing in return, you protect me, you take nothing in return, you offer me friendship, you bestow your affection and hospitality on me, yet take nothing in return. Now give me your kisses, give me your body, give me your spirit and in the process just take me. Make love to me, possess me, make me yours so that I can become nobody else's."

I hold her tight. "Kanchan, my Kanchan, why do you make things so difficult for me?"

"What is so difficult, KK? I know you want me, I have felt your need for me in your kisses, I see the desire in your eyes. Where is the barrier?"

"You see only desire in my eyes? Do you not see love? Has it ever occurred to you that I could be in love with you, that I love you? That friends with benefits is not an option and I am not in this for the short term?"

"You were not listening to me KK. I said, '...make me yours so that I can become nobody else's.' What does this mean?"

"Oh, god, why did I fall in love with an actor? Why can't she just utter those three magic words and keep things simple?"

"Because, KK, you fucking haven't uttered those words yourself..., yet."

I roll her over to my left side. The movement is so sudden that she gasps.

I stare into her eyes, she stares right back.

"Kanchan, I love you."

"I love you KK, I love you, love you, love you. Now show me how much you love me."

I start opening the buttons of her blouse.

"Hey, fast operator, uh? No preliminaries? Aren't you going to kiss me?"

"I am, but not on your lips, at least not for now."

The blouse opens to reveal an intricately printed bra that unclasps from the front. I release it, push the blouse and bra to the sides and admire the contours I have revealed. I keep staring.

"Now what?"

"Trying to decide which flavour to taste first. Cranberry? Or Strawberry?"

"KK, I am going to murder you!"

"Let me see if I can get Strawberry to look a darker pink like Cranberry," I say and start licking her right breast, right around the nipple. She squeals in delight.

The breast turns a deeper shade of pink. I blow on her nipple and it responds by stiffening to attention. I move my head back.

"Oh, no! Now Strawberry has taken the hue of Raspberry, I have to now get Cranberry up to speed."

"KK, if you don't take at least one of the berry stalks in your mouth, I am going to have nuts for tea."

"Oooh, you are funny," I bring my lips on to hers, her tongue enters my mouth immediately. I place my hands, one on either breast and take each nipple between my thumb and forefinger. Then I pinch and twist.

Her squeal becomes a gurgle as my tongue wrestles hers. She squirms under me. Her nails rake my back through my shirt and she grabs some flesh on my back.

I pull her up, push her blouse and bra off and go for her leggings.

"Someone is in a hurry now?"

"Yes, you are hot, and I want a lot of your skin on mine."

Either she is not wearing her panties or they have come off with her leggings, not that I care.

She blushes as I stare at her while pulling off my clothes, and tries to cover herself with a corner of the duvet.

"You can't see mine if I can't see yours."

"I did the work, I get my reward, you want your reward, you do the work."

She pushes me and struggles to pull down my shorts. "Hey, isn't a gentleman supposed to help a lady?"

"Only if she is in distress. Are you?"

"I want you, KK!" the voice is beseeching.

I help her, our bodies come together, and we flail on the bed, this way and that. We are panting now. She lies with her breasts flattened on my chest, I rain kisses and nibbles on her neck. I am going to give her so many hickeys and love bites, she will be forced to wrap a scarf around her neck when she goes out tomorrow.

She reads my mind. "KK," she murmurs, "don't stop, I have lots of long-neck shirts, scarves and stoles, just mark me yours, all yours, all over as yours."

"You read my mind, Kanchan, now I am going to taste your body, literally that is."

I start to kiss her, inch by inch, using my tongue liberally and my lips occasionally. My fingers caress the sides of her melons and her smooth underarms. Her body jiggles over me, her perfectly symmetrical and round breasts shake like blobs of jelly. When I reach her inner thighs, she sighs. I steer away from her hotspot and her moans become louder.

I can't wait any longer. When my lips reach her knee, I move them to the other one and trace my way back down her thighs. Her cunt is beautiful, lips flushed scarlet, engorged and moist, with just a small triangle of soft silky, downy hair on her mons pubis.

I gently lick her vulva, homing in on her swollen clit. It looks almost inflamed. There is a heat emanating from her, and her juices have a mild tangy taste. I nuzzle her there and she comes with a twitch.

"KK, I love you, now make love to me."

"Kanchan, I don't have a condom, I didn't think we would reach this stage. Just let me use my hands and lips for now." My voice sounds plaintive.

"Will you just fuck me, KK?"

"No! I will not fuck you. But I will make love to you and I promise I will pull out."

"Whatever, just hurry, the last few days have been one long foreplay, I can't wait any longer."

I mount her. Her passage is smooth and slippery and the nerve endings on my tip send small electric sizzles all over. We hold each other tight, look into each other's eyes and start bucking and bouncing. I feel her clawing my back and that eggs me on. Then I slow down. I don't want to come too soon and our rhythm is upset momentarily.

But she synchronises herself to me. Her lips make a small 'O' that I find so enticing that I bend down and kiss them. Her hands tighten around me. I know she is coming again.

"KK..., Oh, baby... I want you so much..." a few seconds later, she is coming once more. I wait till I am sure she is orgasming and then I pick up speed.

"Kanchan... I need to pull out now..."

"No!" She screams and locks her legs around my hips.

"Darling, please..."

"No!!" she yells again, by which time I lose control and flood her insides.

My mind goes blank. All that I am aware of is that I am holding the most beautiful woman in the world in my arms and she loves me.

We come back, like two entangled super-excited sub-atomic particles returning to their ground state, radiating our own type of energy called love.

"KK?"

"Yes, beautiful?"

"Have you seen the flick, 2001: A Space Odyssey?"

"Yes, loved it, still do."

"I think I went through Star Gate like David Bowman."

"Well, you certainly took me along. Now give me a kiss."

"Mmmmmuuuuaaah"

"Why did you stop me from pulling out? You have a movie to do and the last thing you want is to get pregnant."

"I'll take a 'morning-after' pill."

"This is not right, Kanchan, your health is important, and I too have a responsibility towards you."

"Will you stop worrying? I am on the pill."

"You could have told me this in the beginning?"

"You are caring and tender to a fault, I was just being mischievous. I went on the pill the day after I met you."

"You thought I will anyway push you to go to bed with me?"

"I met Rekha after I met you that day. She assured me that you are a very good human being and then suggested I go on the pill. You know she used to act in multi-lingual movies and she remembered a line from one of them.

Loosely translated it means, 'if you place a bale of cotton and glowing embers next to each other, a conflagration is inevitable.' Then she added that if we do end up wanting to make love, it would be so terrible to lose out on the spontaneity of the moment."

"Oh my god, Kanchan, she set this up for us. She said something similar to me and advised that I carry protection. I am the stupid one, I didn't listen to her."

"Oh, then it is one more kiss for Rekha. I must meet her tomorrow, you know KK, I just love her, I couldn't have found a better mentor than her..."

She paused dreamily and then she added, "... Or a more wonderful boyfriend than you."

"Can I make love to you again?"

"I felt that coming, you horny devil, you still haven't pulled out and you are hard inside me already."

"Your fault honey, who asked you to be so sexy?"

I lie on her breasts, absolutely spent. Our faces and hair are damp. Her hands caress my back, and as it nears my right shoulder, I know what her next question will be.

"This is a very deep scar, KK. It is like they have removed some flesh from here. Is it a knife wound?"

"Bolt from a crossbow."

"Stop joking KK, it hurts when I see your injury. Tell me what happened."

"About 7 or 8 years ago, I was with Don Tomasino. Someone tried to kill him. I accidentally came in the way of the projectile."

"Accidentally? Is that a euphemism for saving his life?"

I grin sheepishly. This woman is smart. I am caught with my hand in the cookie jar.

"Oh god KK, now I know why Don Tomasino loves you so much and does so much for you."

I say to myself. "You still don't get it, Kanchan, in my universe, everything is not transactional. There is much that you don't know, and when you do, you will understand."

"Don't go back after dinner, Kanchan," I say, "please stay with me, tonight and ever after."

"After everything that has happened since I first met you, do you think I can stay without you, KK?"

I kiss her, I blow soothingly on all the love bites on her neck and breasts. She kisses me, her fingers caresses every part of my groin, tracing delicate patterns on my short hair down there.

Kanchan: The truth will set you free

Now for the logistics of living together! I retain my place and my staff. On the days I have a shoot, I am accompanied to the studios and outdoor sets by Sadhana and Hema. Sometimes, KK tags along, he sits in a corner with his laptop and works, but I know his antennae are monitoring everything. When we have to shoot in out-locations, he travels with me, we park ourselves in a hotel different from the rest of the team. He keeps away from Datta and the film crew, but the message is clear. No one messes around with his girl.

Datta takes out all his frustrations on me. I can understand the acrimony, the resentment from seeing what he thinks as rightfully belonging to him in someone else's possession. So I end up with several re-takes for every shot, and he raves and rants that I am not meeting his expectations, though both of us know it is not true.

But KK has prepared me for this.

"It will be a battle of wits and perseverance, Kanchan," he has advised. "Don't let him make you lose your cool. Soon the rest of the cast and crew will know that what he is doing is wrong and you will garner all the sympathy and compassion."

At least two days in a week and on weekends, I spend my evenings and nights at KK's place, the other days, KK sleeps over at mine.

I have long chats with Rekha twice or thrice a week. She advises me on how I should handle the role, and of course that frustrated director. She gives me tips on my make-up, asks me to practice meditation to calm my mind after a tough day and also talks to KK and gives him charge of my diet. I use diet restrictions as an excuse to carry my own food to the sets so that I do not have to eat what is served there.

But KK is from a different realm altogether. His back-rubs after a rough day are amazing. While our bathroom has a multi-jet shower stall, one of the guest rooms has a bathtub where he draws a bath for me. He sits next to me on a low stool as I let the hot water soothe my tired frame, listening to all my woes of the day, making me laugh with his jokes and puns and using his hands and lips to keep me horny for our nightly romps. If I have an early schedule, he is up before dawn and on occasions, when I come home early and don't find him there, I miss him terribly.

The lovemaking is out of this world. He is unpredictable, he surprises me every time. He always presses the right buttons, he can be spontaneous one day and have the entire session planned in minutest detail on another.

Six months go by. The shooting and dubbing sessions are over. The post-production and publicity activities will take another three months and the marketing team has cleverly planned a Christmas-New Year release to cash in on the holiday and festival crowds.

With the premiere of the movie still some months away, I am offered the lead role in another movie, albeit a low budget one. This is a story of a long-distance runner and the odds she faces while preparing for a tough sporting event. I have to train myself for this role, which includes running on rough terrain.

I train for three weeks on a treadmill, building up my strength and stamina and KK offers to accompany me on my first outdoor session on the Western Ghats, hilly terrain that he is familiar with. We travel about 30 kilometres on an expressway and then take a detour on a hill road for about 10 kilometres to our chosen spot.

Mike, KK's driver is driving our SUV, a sturdy strong vehicle with a four-wheel drive. We alight, leave Mike behind with the vehicle and start running. No words are spoken, we focus on the uphill terrain, breathing rhythmically. After one hour of steady running, I want to turn around.

"No sweetheart, another 20 minutes, push yourself."

"It will take us an hour to get back."

"No, it will take much less, we will be running downhill. Push, Kanchan, put yourself in you characters mind. Feel your role. Remember, you are portraying a long-distance runner."

"I will die."

"No, you won't, because I have something planned for you."

When we finally turn around, KK grabs me roughly and pushes me against a tree. Even then, his left palm is behind my head, cushioning me from the rough hard trunk.

"I have always wanted to do this, make love to you in the wilderness so that even the birds stop chirping and watch us."

His lips crush mine, his right hand goes under my shirt, stretching my sports bra as his palms squeeze my breasts alternately.

I go into beast mode, pull down his shorts, pull out his cock from his jocks.

"I need your battering ram," I growl.

Next moment my shorts and underwear are halfway down. In one strong move the ram enters my gates, then the battering is relentless. My screams and his grunts are animalistic and carnal. His hand leaves my breast to buttress my butt that is now taking a beating against the tree trunk.

Just the thought that even at his wildest, he is so kind and caring triggers an orgasm. He though, is unstoppable. He goes on till I come again.

He has not come still. "KK, stop!" I cry and go down on my knees.

"Rest your knees on my shoes, or you will scrape them," he says. This man is so amazing.

My mouth begins to make love to his obelisk. I kiss and lick his complete length, mash my pink lips on his purple tip, cup his jewels, use my teeth and do all the naughty things that a naughty girl should do with her mouth to her live, throbbing sex toy.

I suck as my hand pumps, he supports himself with one hand against the tree trunk, the other grips my ponytail.

I mentally will him to come, swallowing spurt after spurt till he brakes to a shuddering stop. I lick and suck till I can't taste the leftovers anymore.

He pulls me up and we kiss deeply. "Honey, the birds have started chirping again," I say. Then I take his hands and kiss the abrasions on the back of his palms.

"I have never been cared for like this, KK."

"I have never had a person like you," he says and the pun makes me smile.

We are running late, the downhill run is not that easy as KK had anticipated. In this hilly terrain, intermittent rains and strong chilly winds are common. We are caught in a mild downpour, the wind slows us down.

We are 100 metres or so from our vehicle when I hear a gunshot. I assume it is some hunter somewhere shooting small game when Mike runs out of the SUV towards us.

The second shot rings out and I see a rock ahead of us chip off. By then Mike has reached us and is herding us into the vehicle, and I realise he is using his body to shield us. He pushes us into the back seat, and rushes to the driver's side, gets in, slams the door shut when the third shot is heard. Mike slumps in his seat.

"Mikey, are you all right?" KK shouts. He pushes me down to the floor.

"Keep down Kanchan," he screams.

Mike, stirs. "I think he got my arm or shoulder, boss!" His voice is calm and steady.

"Can you roll over to the seat on the side? Keep your body and head down, below window level."

Mike rolls over. He is obviously a very strong man. He is bleeding but not heavily. The bullet seems to have just grazed the top of his shoulder.

"Kanchan, stay down, don't move till I tell you to." KK wriggles through the gap between the two front seats. By now it is pouring heavily and visibility is low. In a flash, KK positions himself behind the wheel and we take off. He has engaged the 4-wheel drive and the tyres screech as they gain enough traction on the wet road. We are racing now, with wipers going full blast. A few kilometres down, the rain eases.

"Mikey?"

"I am good boss," KK stops the vehicle, pulls out the first aid kit from the glove compartment and staunches the bleeding. He tears Mike's shirt and ties a rough bandage running the strips under Mike's arm.

"I will get us out of here."

As we drive, KK gives specific instructions on the phone to someone. As soon as we reach the intersection he turns into the freeway and at the first available break in the divider, he takes a U-turn and then moves into the service lane.

"Mike, how are you, are you feeling dizzy, nauseous, uncomfortable in any way?"

"I am fine, Boss, are you guys okay?"

"You saved us, Mike."

"I think the guy was using a low-grade sniper rifle with a telescopic sight. He was higher up on the hill."

"How do you know?"

"I was in and around the SUV all the time, Boss, there was no suspicious activity around me. He was waiting for you, he could have picked me off anytime, he didn't."

"Why are we waiting here KK, why can't we drive back and get Mike to the hospital?" I almost scream at him.

"Mike is okay for the moment. We have to pass three toll plazas on our way back and there will be traffic queues. An ambulance is reaching us any time now. They can go through the plazas without stopping. With their sirens and flashing lights, traffic will make way for them. He will get to the hospital faster this way and the paramedics in the ambulance will handle emergencies and render first-aid better than us."

In about 20 minutes, the ART Hospital's ambulance is beside us. So is another vehicle with two burly guys who help Mike into the ambulance. The paramedics take over and the ambulance whizzes ahead, sirens screaming and lights blazing.

One guy gets into the SUV and drives off, we get into the car. "Let's go home, then we can go to the hospital," he tells the driver. Then he turns to me and gathers me into his arms.

He is thoughtful as we are being driven home. I open my mouth to speak, he silences me with a gesture and a shake of his head.

It is only when we gulp down large glasses of fresh sweet-lime juice that our housekeeper has kept ready for us that we realise how thirsty and dehydrated we are.

The high adrenalin levels in our bloodstream dictate what we do next. He closes our bedroom door, and we kiss hungrily. Our passion is driven by stress, anger and fear. The clothes come off instantly.