An extramarital affair part 2 of 3

By the time Rakesh had finished the call and come into the bedroom she was fast asleep.
Next day was Friday and Maya was working on her proposal. But she was finding it difficult to concentrate. When did Rakesh stop loving her? What did she do to make him lose interest in her? Did he not find her pretty anymore? Was there any future for them? When did they last have any physical intimacy? A thousand questions buzzed inside her head for which she seemed to find no answers. Just then her cell phone buzzed. Rahul was calling. Rahul was an old colleague of her and they had worked together for 5 years in their previous organisation. They had been great friends. She had been unmarried at that time. It had been very obvious to her that he had a massive crush on her. But Maya had never encouraged any amorous advances from Rahul. Though she had been very fond of Rahul, she liked him as a friend and her feelings for him were strictly platonic. When her marriage to Rakesh had been fixed, she had invited him, but he had not come, though all their mutual friends had come. After her marriage, he had not been so friendly but Maya had been too involved with her brand new husband to really notice how much she and Rahul and drifted apart. Within three months of her marriage, Rahul had got a new job. But he still kept in touch albeit in a passive manner by sending jokes in WhatsApp or liking her Facebook posts. He was now working in a multinational organisation but was based out of the US. But he had never married. Nowadays, whenever he came to India, he would call her. Maya never encouraged long or intimate personal conversations. But today in her fragile state of mind, she welcomed his attention. Picking up the phone, she said, ‘Hi Rahul, how are you?’ They talked for half an hour and when Rahul suggested that they meet up for lunch, she accepted.
He picked her up from her office. When she sat in his car, he looked at her and said huskily, ‘Wow! You look beautiful! You have not changed at all in these two years.’
Finally Maya received the appreciation she had been looking for so futilely from her husband. This realisation made her kind of reckless and she seductively smiled back at Rahul and asked, ‘Do I? And have you been keeping a count of how many days we did not meet?’
A patch of red ran under Rahul’s cheeks under her openly flirtatious gaze. He said intently, looking into her eyes, ‘You know you always look beautiful!’ thus evading answering her second question.
Maya said, ‘Let us go, I have to be back in office by 2:30 pm’
Rahul said lightly, ‘Yes let us go, I also need to be back soon.’
Normally Maya never took drinks during lunch but today to make herself feel better she had two cocktails. Rahul did not order any drinks for himself but he was carefully watching her. But the two drinks had made her quite reckless and she felt happy and chattered non-stop. Rahul pretended to listen intently while all the time his eyes drank in her beauty and tried to read into her very soul. They did not hurry their meal, but at a quarter to two, Rahul sighed and said, ‘Time to go back to office. A pity, I was enjoying our little tête-à-tête’
Maya had been enjoying it too. When Rahul put her in the passenger seat and joined her behind the wheel, she glanced at him through her lashes and felt a little lurch in her heart. He was attractive, he always had been. Why had she never felt the tug of attraction before? She had always seen him in a brotherly light. Now she knew that the fraternal image was fast fading as Rahul intended that it should. He turned his head and gave her a slow assessing glance.
‘Stop thinking about office work’ – he admonished lightly.
Maya said, ‘I was not thinking about office actually. I was thinking about our friendship.’
Rahul said, ‘You think too much!’ He laid his whole hand along her cheek. ‘Even with my eyes shut in the dark I think I would know your face.’
Her skin prickled at his tone. ‘Hadn’t we better go? We would be very late at office.’
Rahul had closed his eyes. He leant towards her, his fingers drifting over her skin. Maya sat frozen staring at him. The long fingers touched her eyelids closing her eyes and she inhaled sharply. They moved down the delicate lines of her face.
‘Maya,’ he breathed.
She moved breathlessly, her hands flung to his shoulders. ‘No Rahul!’
‘Yes,’ he said huskily. ‘I have waited too long already.’
His mouth closed over her and she gasped. She was dazed by the strangeness of being in his arms like this – he had never touched her with such hunger and longing and she had been neglected too long by her husband not be flattered by this attention. For a few seconds she resisted and then she relaxed. She had not wanted him to touch her, yet now she did not want him to stop. ‘Maya, Maya,’ he whispered against her ear.
‘We can’t,’ she muttered huskily. He laughed softly ‘Can’t? We are …. Don’t tell me this is one sided darling, because I am not an inexperienced boy.’ He kissed her again and she was swept with sensual pleasure, responding without thought.

Rahul looked at her and she flushed deeply aware that he knew how he affected her. ‘Can’t we?’ he asked mockingly. He dropped a brief hard kiss on her mouth and then started the car. She saw his features brilliant with satisfaction and groaned.
He glanced sideways quickly. ‘Are you feeling guilty?’ he asked.
Maya said, ‘Rahul I am married!’