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“Now that you’re staying in Dubai, please do come visit us, Sheena,” his mom told her kindly. “Any time you feel the need to eat some home-cooked food, just drop in. And I’d like you to meet my other girls as well.” Her eyes searched the crowd. “They’re here somewhere.”
Sheena and her mom spoke to them for a little while longer before another of their guests caught their attention. Her mom, too, moved forward to meet her other friends. Sheena took a step to follow her, a ready smile pasted on her lips. But her smile froze as she recognized the two women standing to her right.
Her heart fell to her feet. Here, she’d been thinking that she’d finally found a safe place, away from the past, but instead, the past itself had manifested itself in front of her eyes. A decade had passed since she’d seen these women. A decade since that last day in the courtroom, when they had cursed her to hell and back. She was told that they’d left Mumbai forever. What she hadn’t expected was to find them here, in the city she had recently moved to.
If those two women saw her, then she was certain all hell would break loose. Knowing how vicious they were, they’d ensure that everyone at this party knew their version of the events from ten years ago. After all, she was the reason they’d been ostracized in Mumbai and had to leave the city. The gossip and rumors that Sheena faced till date were extremely mild compared to the humiliation these two women had faced a decade ago. For certain, they blamed it all on her.
The younger woman shifted her head slightly. Sheena immediately swung around, turning her back to them. Shit. There was no option. She had to leave. Immediately. It was the only way to avoid an imminent confrontation with those women. But first, she had to inform her mother. She carefully angled her body to the side, hoping to catch her mother’s attention, but her mom wasn’t where she’d seen her last. From the corner of her eye, she saw that duo of women again. And this time, they were staring straight at her. Panic rose in her throat as they began to move toward her.
Someone stepped in their path. Seeing them momentarily distracted, Sheena quickly returned to the living room. From the mirror on a wall, she saw the younger woman follow her. Sheena rushed past the swarms of people and ducked into a corridor. Shit! She had to find a safe place to hide, from where she could call her mother, before those two women became a nuisance and embarrassed Sheena and her mom. On any other day, she wouldn’t have minded facing them head on, but not right now, in a new city where there was some hope of her finding the peace that she’d never found in Mumbai.
The last thing she wanted was to have a confrontation with either of them and have the whole crowd here learn of her sordid history. Her heart beating rapidly, she walked faster, rounded a corner, and entered the first door she found. The room was dark, lit only by a small lamp. She looked behind, and the corridor was empty. Thank God. She entered the room, walked up to the large desk on the side, and plonked on it, breathing heavily.
Loosening the straps of her high heels, she carelessly tossed her stilettos to her side. If she had to make a quick dash from here, then it would be better to do so barefooted. Reaching inside her bag, she fetched her phone to call her mom. Right then, the air around her shifted. Her nape tingled. She swung her gaze to the right and gasped.
Rajiv Mehra was leaning against a bookshelf watching her, his lips tipped in that arrogant smile onlyhecould come up with.
“Hello, Princess,” he drawled in that rich voice of his.
Her insides melted at that lazy tone. She watched as he came forward until he stood in front of her. His eyes took her in from top to toe, studying her in that intense way of his. A shudder raked down her spine as she saw the approval glittering in his eyes. She took that moment to take him in as well. He looked fabulous, dressed in a charcoal grey suit, no tie and a black shirt that was open at the neck, his short hair stylishly slicked back, and his jaw covered with the lightest of stubbles. Rajiv Mehra was too handsome for his own good, and what was worse was that he knew it. She saw it in the way his head tilted to the side, his lips widened, and his eyes gleamed as he perceived her interest in him.
She rolled her eyes and sighed. God! This was why she didn’t like him. His absolute and utter arrogance irked her no end.
“Don’t look mad, Princess,” he said as if reading her thoughts. “You have an expressive face that says you like what you see. Why hide it?”
She lifted her jaw. “In your dreams.”
“Dreams do come true, it seems. Here I was thinking about you, and you appear right in front of me, looking like a vision innude.”
Her jaw dropped at the innuendo in his words, and her heartbeat accelerated. So what if he’d been thinking about her? That shouldn’t delight her in the least. Yet it did. It so did.
Nonetheless, she masked her feelings. “What do you want?”
His eyes widened in amusement. “Shouldn’t that be my question to you? This is my study, after all.”
She looked around, finally taking in her surroundings. Dark bookshelves lined one wall, and the leather and wood desk she’d spotted on entering was in the corner, behind which was a wall of thick maroon curtains partly left open to reveal a glass wall that opened to a private garden. Soft moonlight filtered inside the study, highlighting the green of the plants through the glass. Right in front of the desk on the other side was a small sitting area with two recliners facing a flat screen TV. The room looked cosy, lit by just the moonlight and the hazy glare of a single standing lamp.
“Why are you intruding in a private space, Princess?” he asked. “It’s not something I’d expect from you.”
“You’re right, I better get going…” She walked to the door and opened it. “My mom must be looking for me.”
“That still doesn’t answer my question, though.”
She halted at the threshold. There was nothing she could tell him. She ought to not have been here in his private den in the first place.
She turned to look at him. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have come here.”
His eyes narrowed.
“I have to go.” She backed a step and froze as she recognized the voices from outside coming closer.
She banged the door shut and rushed to him. “Shit! I have to hide.”
“What?!” He looked at her in absolute disbelief. But she had no time to explain. Any moment, those women would appear, and she didn’t want to face them. Not at all. And definitely not in front of him.
Her eyes darted from left to right as the voices neared behind the shut door. Taking his hand, she began to pull him behind the desk to the private garden behind it. She quickly drew the heavy curtains shut around them and tried to unlock the glass door leading outside.
“Why are…” Rajiv began.
