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She let out a raspy breath. She had to control herself around him. Giving in to this raging lust between them would be too easy. But doing that would be so wrong. Her brothers would be so disappointed in her if they found out she’d almost gotten into bed with their enemy. She ought to be upset with herself for succumbing so easily to Dev, but that anger didn’t come. She wanted Dev; there was no doubt about it. And that border, that boundary line that existed between him and her, was slowly vanishing as she spent more time with him.
Her phone beeped, reminding her of why she had come to her room in the first place.
There was a missed call from Shaurya, followed by a string of messages from him. Before she could open Shaurya’s messages, though, another message popped on her screen.
Her eyes rounded as she read the sender’s name and forgot all about Shaurya’s call and texts.
“I’m reaching your hotel in ten minutes. Can you meet me?”
She checked the time. It was half past nine in the morning. She quickly typed a reply.
“Yes.”
She finished taking her bath in a record time of ten minutes, quickly wore a strappy summer dress, and rushed out of her room. Thankfully, the living room was empty. She looked at Dev’s shut door. They hadn’t gotten around to exchanging phone numbers yet. Since they were together all the time, it hadn’t mattered until now. Indecision warred in her chest. Knowing him, he wouldn’t appreciate whom she was going to meet. Not that it would stop her. Taking a notepad from the side table, she wrote a little note for him and left it on the dining table for him to see before she exited the room and went downstairs.
Avantika reread the message she’d received.
She typed a quick message back.“I’m down in the lobby. Where are you?”
Her phone buzzed with a reply.“I’m in the ladies room on the ground floor...”
She walked quickly to the ladies room, still in shock that the person messaging her was, to begin with, in London and wanted to meet her, knowing she was with Dev.
Anticipation buzzed under her skin as she opened the door.
“Avi!” Rajiv’s wife and Avantika’s dearest friend, Sheena Mehra, rushed to her.
Sheena pulled her in her arms and hugged her hard. Avantika reveled in the fact that her friend was here, in front of her. Already, the world felt so much brighter. Sheena held her for a long moment before searching her face.
“Are you okay?” Sheena asked. “He’s not hurting you, right?”
“No,” Avantika replied. “We fight and argue a lot. But that’s it.”
Sheena touched her cheek. “Thank God. Were you really unwell?”
“I was, for two whole days. And he…he’s been kind. He looked after me…” Avantika sighed.
“Really?”
“God, Sheena! He’s so confusing. He says and does all these sweet things, and now I’m feeling so conflicted about him. It’s like he’s regretting his actions from the past and keeps hinting that he had reasons for what he did back then, that there is more to the story of that night. It’s muddling up my mind.”
“What’s his agenda here?” Sheena asked cleverly.
“He wants me to listen to his side of the story.”
“And you are tempted to.”
“Yes. Although, it feels like I’m betraying my brothers because I want to,” Avantika said in a small voice. “Fuck! This is so hard. I never thought it would be like this. That I would feel like this. But he…he…”
She just wanted to pour her heart out and tell Sheena everything, so she quickly did that. She even told her about the two kisses they’d shared, about Dev’s generosity in saving her childhood videos for her, and she also told her about what had almost happened this morning.
Sheena would never judge her. They’d become fast friends after Rajiv had introduced them to one another, and Sheena was one of the few people she really trusted and who knew everything about the Rajpoots’ past.
After she was done, Sheena tugged her hand, forcing her to look up at her. Her friend was taller than her by a few inches.
“I can understand the attraction, Avi. He was your first love, and you’ve never allowed another man to come close to you after him. The question that matters here is, do you like him?” Sheena got straight to the crux of the matter, as usual. “Is that why you’re so conflicted about him?”
“I honestly don’t know what to think at this point,” Avantika said. “He’s not done anything that I don’t want him to. He’s not forced any decisions on me. If it were anyone else but him, I’d admit that I liked him. But it’shim, Sheena.Him.Even though I’m attracted to him, how do I even allow myself to like him?”
