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I threw my hands up in the air.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake! I had nothing to do with it. Arshia took one look at Zombie and started screeching as if she’d seen the devil. And then she took off. You know she isn’t as smart as the two of you believe,” I pointed out.
Which was true. It was just stupid to run from a pit bull. Even well-trained ones like my brother’s dog had a high prey drive. If you started running in front of him, he was compelled to give chase. Zombie wasn’t chasing her to rip her to shreds, even though Isowanted him to. He was just playing.
“She reacted out of her fear of dogs,” justified Aryan.
“And he reacted out of his instinct to chase anything that runs in front of him. Also, I’d like to point out that Zombie was very polite and well behaved in the face of her rudeness.”
“Excuse me?”
I shrugged.
“She screamed in his face and then ran away like a lunatic. If she did that to a human, wouldn’t you call her rude?”
“Zombie is not human.”
I crossed my arms over my chest.
“So, it’s okay to be rude to him just because he’s a dog? Don’t dogs have feelings?”
Aryan rubbed his temples as if I was giving him a headache.
“He growled at her, Jessie! Wasn’tthatrude, too?”
“He had his reasons, I’m sure,” I insisted.
“What reason could he possibly have to growl at a guest in his house?”
I knew exactly why Zombie had growled at Arshia. Because she had revelled in my pain.
But I could hardly say that to her doting boyfriend. He’d never believe it. Also, he would want to know what she could have possibly done to cause me such pain. And I’d die before I told him that.
“He’s very protective. Maybe he didn’t like the way she looked at the silver,” I said, with a slow smile. The special one. The one that was guaranteed to make him furious.
* * *
ARYAN
She smiled at him. That special smile. The one that was guaranteed to make his heart stop. And then start again as if it had received a jolt of five hundred volts from a defibrillator.
Aryan knew that she was winding him up. And that he was letting her do it. It wouldn’t be the first time. If there was one thing that Jessie Singh was good at, it was winding him up. And God alone knew why he allowed her to keep doing it.
Each time, he swore that he wouldn’t rise to her baiting and sniping. And each time, he failed.
If he’d had any sense, he would have followed Arshia and Munshi Ji into the palace, to make sure that his girlfriend hadn’t suffered too much from her unfortunate dunking. Instead, he had followed Jessie into the maze, ready to let rip.
When he strode into the centre of the maze, he had been stunned to see her slumped on the stone seat, defeat written in every line and angle of her body.
Only for a minute, though. The minute she set eyes on him, Jessie straightened up and stared at him defiantly. And the stubborn set of her chin reminded him why he was there. He stifled the urge to gather her into his arms and ask her why she looked so sad. If she looked sad, she deserved it, he told himself. She had behaved disgracefully that evening. Setting a vicious dog on Arshia was going too far, even for Jessie. She was never so unkind.
There was a soft groan from under her seat and said vicious dog came crawling out to greet him, looking so mournful and sorry that Aryan didn’t have the heart to scold him. At last, here was someone who knew how to accept his mistakes, he had thought, scratching Zombie behind the ear. Unlike haughty princesses who looked down their delectable noses at people.
To be honest, Jessie was the least snooty person he knew. She didn’t throw her weight around like some of her other royal friends. It was only Arshia who brought out that side of her. And again, if Aryan was completely honest with himself, it was Arshia’s fault most of the time. He didn’t know why she felt so insecure around Jessie, but every time they met, Arshia would say something snide to her, which in turn would set Jessie off. He was tired of playing peacemaker between the two. But someone had to, especially with Jessie taking on a stronger role in the Devgarh Foundation - the charity and CSR initiative of the Devgarh family.
Since most of the Foundation’s projects revolved around improving healthcare facilities in Devgarh, a goal that was close to Aryan’s heart, he and Arshia had to work closely with Jessie for the foreseeable future. But he was heartily sick of the constant warfare between the two women.
He was going to settle this issue once and for all, he decided. But before he could speak, Jessie announced that the dunking incident wasn’t her fault.
