Lying by Omission

"Ilaaaan," Nyssa grunted, her nails now clawing her pillowcase. A part of her knew she was going to come harder than she ever had in her life, which was directly due to his frustrating her beyond belief. But she was not ready for how her body ramped up the heat in her core as soon as he finally accelerated and hit her G-spot with every push.

Despite the fact she was reveling in being pounded sideways into the mattress, it somehow wasn't even about sex. As she cried out in a shattering orgasm that seemed to stretch on forever, most of the thrill was about having the love of her life finally all for her.

A tear spilled from the corner of Nyssa's eye as she lay exhausted on her side, Ilan still rock-hard inside her. His arms enveloped her while she softly whimpered, her legs shaking. When she lay a hand on his hip and pushed it slightly back and forth, Ilan knew she was ready again.

Slowly driving into her once more until he couldn't hold himself off any longer, Ilan fell apart with his final few thrusts and then fell back with his leg over Nyssa's hip.

This is the last time, Ilan promised himself as his forehead pressed against the bed and his nose took in the strawberry scent of her hair. It was the exact same thought he'd had after the previous time they'd slept together in law school. But the place where that thought stemmed from was completely different.

This is the last girlfriend I'm ever going to have.

***Epilogue, 2 years later***

Ilan knocked at the door of the cabin-style house on the property of the Richmond Hill temple he'd attended since he was a boy. A slightly cool breeze typical of late September mornings blew across his bare chest and he shivered, thanking his stars that at least this wasn't happening any later in the year.

"Nyss, you in there?" he spoke into the crevice of the door. The silk cloth veshti wrapped around his waist was not doing the trick at keeping his bottom half warm.

"We're not supposed to see each other now!" his bride's muffled voice replied from behind the door.

"If you want to keep that superstition, fine, but that's not really a brown thing," Ilan grinned. "A lot of my cousins have taken pictures when they had their first look at each before the wedding, but there's no photographers here." He leaned against the door with his forearm. "Just me and my erect nipples."

He almost fell into the cabin when the door unexpectedly opened, then almost tripped right into Nyssa's bedecked arms.

"Oh my god, Nyssa, you look--"

"You had me at 'erect nipples.'"

Anandi had done an incredible job dressing Nyssa in a deep purple sari embroidered with gold threading along a foot-deep border. She'd lent her soon-to-be sister-in-law an armload of her own gold bangles and long, ornate necklaces and earrings.

"This is it, Shivanesan," she said, her arms not touching her body as though she was afraid to disturb a single detail on her person. "This is the day I've peaked. It's all sweatpants and frizzy hair from here on in."

"That's the dream, Gallagher," he beamed. "God, I want to kiss you so badly."

"Right. Because you doing wedding number two isn't enough of a scandal; your pale-ass bride is gonna show up with smeared lip gloss as well."

"For the last time, you know damn well I was with hungover you when I should have been at wedding number one," he reminded her, reaching his fingertips to lightly touch her henna-covered hands. "And I want you to stop worrying. There's no way this is a scandal after how Priya eloped last year."

"I know, that was awesome," Nyssa grinned. "I feel bad for her, though. Did you even know she was bi?"

"No, but I'm happy for her," Ilan said, still in disbelief over how his ex-fiancée wed her female co-worker. "She didn't deserve all the flak she got from her parents. But the fact they still won't talk to her shows she made the right decision in running off to get married."

"I didn't tell you this, but I invited her to the wedding. Not formally, but I called her and we chatted a bit."

"Shut up, you didn't," Ilan's deep-set eyes widened.

"Relax, she's not coming!" Nyssa laughed. "She said it would be too weird."

"At least someone has some sense. Why would you do such a thing?"

"Because without you two breaking up, I never would have had a chance with you. I know it's terrible, and I know it hurt--everything you went through with her--but I... I guess I'm kind of selfish here."

"You're not." Ilan now put his hands on her waist, around which lay a wide, gold-plated belt. "I loved her; you're right. And what she pulled while we were engaged did hurt. But she and I weren't meant to be."

"You sure?" Nyssa asked, resting her warm hands on his bare biceps. "If you'd married her, you wouldn't have to change courthouses." Her groom rolled his eyes.

"Whatever. Burlington is practically next door anyway. And I put in to be transferred right after that first weekend together. It was obvious this is where we'd end up."

Nyssa desperately wanted to hold him and especially kiss him, and was thinking of how to do it without smudging her professionally-applied makeup. But then they both heard it--the heavy drums beating in the distance, accompanied by the nasally, old-world tones of the clarinet-like nadaswaram.

"Shit, I'm supposed to be out there," Ilan said, looking around the bare room for a clock.

"Uh-oh," Nyssa grimaced, peering out the front window. "How's it going to look if anyone sees you coming out of here?"

How's it going to look? That goddamned question ran his entire life and threatened to ruin it just a little over two years ago. Ilan was ready to bury that question in the cold, hard ground forever. He gave Nyssa's hand a little squeeze and gazed right into her clear eyes before reaching for the door handle.

"It's going to look like I'm so madly in love with my bride that I couldn't even wait a few hours to see her at the altar."

***END***