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“Harsh.” His name was a throaty purr. “Why are you ignoring me?” she asked, her hand coming to rest on his chest, one long, red nail digging into the rip in his sweater and finding skin.
“I’m not ignoring you, Kajal,” he replied, wincing as her nail scratched him. Had she drawn blood? Would he need a tetanus shot? “I’m just here with friends.”
“Are you done with your friends now?” she whispered huskily, leaning in so her lips touched his ear. “I wanted to talk to you in private.” Her hand reached around him and cupped his ass, kneading it like she was making dough.
“Not sure my girlfriend would like that,” he said, removing her barnacle like grip from his butt and moving towards Rock Head who was watching the whole scene with a strangely indecipherable expression.
“Girlfriend?” Kajal laughed. “When did you get a girlfriend, sweetie?”
For the third time that night, Harsh yanked Raashi to him. She stumbled into his embrace, stepping on his foot and elbowing him in the ribs.
“It’s still new,” he gasped, pain bringing tears to his eyes. And it would be even nicer if his ‘new girlfriend’ would stop maiming him when he was trying to fake affection.
“Oh!” Kajal’s eyes darted between the two of them. “So, it’s not exclusive then.”
His hands tightened around Raashi. “It’s-“
But he never got to finish what he was going to say because his ‘new girlfriend’ turned in his arms and kissed him on the cheek, her lips gently touching his skin, the corner of it grazing the side of his mouth.
Shock ran through him, an electric current that seemed to singe his very soul. It was an innocent gesture, one meant to claim him in front of the other woman but all it did was upend his reality.
“Sorry to disappoint,” Raashi told Kajal, her voice calm and level like she hadn’t just dropped a keg of dynamite into his world. “But we’re exclusive. Very exclusive.”
“You mean-“ Kajal asked, her eyes narrowing.
“He’s mine.” Raashi smiled, a gentle but unmistakable warning in the curve of her lips. “So, hands off sweetie.”
Fourteen
RAASHI
He’s mine? He’s mine?? What the hell was she thinking? Was someone smoking weed nearby? Had she been inhaling it on the side? It was the only explanation for the spurt of jealousy that had led to the even bigger spurt of nonsense spewing out of her mouth.
“Yours?” The Aphrodite lookalike in front of her sneered. “Oh honey, are you delusional?”
Raashi’s spine stiffened and she took an extra-large breath, hoping the second hand weed wafted her way again. “No,” she replied calmly. “Just confident.” What a lie. Confidence was the one attribute she had decided to use the ‘fake it until you make it’ approach with. Sadly, the making it stage had still not made an appearance.
Aphrodite laughed, throwing her head back, her long hair bouncing in shiny waves around her shoulders. Raashi had the bizarre urge to attack it with scissors. “You think that you can claim Harsh Kodela. You? With your-“
“Careful.” Suddenly, Harsh was at her shoulder, one arm wrapping around her waist and pulling her close. His voice was soft, lethally soft.
Aphrodite frowned, confusion darkening her gaze. “You’ve got to be joking. What do you see in her?”
Raashi flushed, aware that the other woman was loud enough for other people to start looking at them. A familiar embarrassment coursed through her as she heard the snickers and whispers spread in increasingly wider ripples around the room.
“Everything,” Harsh answered, kissing the top of her head and setting it on fire. “I see everything in her.”
Raashi sucked in a breath, her face flaming to match the top of her head. She was a human bonfire. Someone needed to shove her into an ice bath, right about now.
Fake, she reminded herself. It’s all fake. Aphrodite or Kajal, as it were, flounced off in a huff and slowly people looked away from them as they realised the show was over and there was no more gossip to be had.
“You’re good at this,” she mumbled dazedly, aware that he was still holding on to her like he was glued to her side.
“At what?” Harsh asked, still sounding irrationally furious.
“Faking it.”
He stilled, his hand slowly falling away from her waist. She felt the loss of it keenly. She wanted to grab it, slap it back on her hip and glue it back there. Forever.
