Chapter 2

Excerpt

Arnav Singh Raizada let out an irritated whoosh of breath as he honked on the horns of his brand new steel-gray Audi R8. It's frustrating not being able to step on the gas pedal & crank up the speedometer to the exhilarating highs he knew this beauty was capable of reaching. But that damned foot traffic barely let him glide the vehicle over the concrete, let alone run it. He cursed under his breath. The only reason he chose this route was because, he had thought the south campus of the Delhi University, near the Dhaula Khan Road, would have wider roads & lesser traffic around this time of the noon, with unbelievable heat & the scorching sun blaring down its heat over the earth, & so he would be able to have a nice speed-drive on his new wheels. But no! The campus was packed with students walking in snail pace & adult-looking juvenile girls chatting among themselves right in the middle of the road! Now all he wanted to do was get out through the gate on the other end of the campus, if only the blasted kids would let him.

Then Arnav shrugged a little & adjusted the front locks of his hair with his right hand, while his left was still laid over the steering wheel casually. There were perks of this over-crowded campus too. He could see the appreciative glances the numerous scantily clad chicks were throwing his way. He smirked a little. Maybe if it were any other area of Delhi, he would have attributed a lot of the credit behind those looks to his new wheels. But as it were, he had actually seen newer & faster versions of sports cars lined up behind the open-cafeteria-type-hang-out place just inside the main entrance gate & he had almost went out & checked out a few of them, as he couldn't believe those models were available in India so fast. But leaving his obsession for sports cars aside, he couldn't help but feel a little smug about the fact that, as he moved the car forward in a pace slower than a bicycle, more than a dozen girls checked out the man behind the steering wheel & the lucky ones who had the opportunity of a leisurely scrutiny also smiled at him.

& then he saw her. Or rather, her.. derriere. & what a delicious derriere it was. She was wearing a cream colored short sundress with yellow & red watercolor prints on it. The dress was neither too fitting, nor too loose. There were girls wearing shorter & tighter dresses on either side of her. But Arnav didn't know why, his eyes just seemed to get drawn towards her. There was something familiar about her. At this unreasonable thought, Arnav shook his head. It wasn't possible for him to know anyone who studied here when he, himself, had returned from New York only two days ago. Maybe it was those long creamy legs or those rhythmically swaying hips that drew his eyes to her & now he was trying to bring familiarity into it.

He again looked at the petite form. She had long silky brownish-black hair reaching down to her waist & when she put out her hand to push some locks behind her ear, he noticed her long, shapely, beautiful fingers. She was walking with a taller, more voluptuous girl with wavy, jet black, fashionably styled hair. Arnav vaguely wondered why he wasn't checking the taller one out, because his taste had always run to that type rather than the delicate & fragile looking, creamy porcelain doll he was staring at now. He suddenly noticed the crowd before him clearing out & he had an opening to speed away out of this jam. & as Arnav's foot hovered over the gas pedal, he shot another glance at the tempting back, & he couldn't just speed away. Arnav shook his head as he honked his horn sharply, wishing she would turn over at his direction alarmed by the sound of the horn. & she did.

Arnav drew in a shaky breath as he suddenly felt the urge to hit the brakes & just stare at that unbelievably fresh looking, innocently beautiful face. Her coral lips were thin in annoyance at his honking, but that only made her look more striking. In these 10 years that he has spent abroad, the first 6 in Boston & the later 4 in New York, he had seen & been with his fair share of beautiful women. Hell, he even dealt with models as a part of his job, for pity's sake, as the country director of his family's fashion designing & apparel business. But the pull he was feeling right at this instance towards this girl was.. almost uncanny for Arnav. & as he continued to stare at her, he saw her mouth gape open in the cutest expression of an 'o' & then to his sheer disbelief he heard the girl lips form the next words, "ARNAVJI! Is that really you?!"

As Arnav's lips clamped & unclamped together to form an answer to the girl's seemingly singular question, the girl came forward to his car & standing beside his window, she gestured with her hands for him to roll his window down. Arnav yielded to her command in a state of amazement, & when the glass was completely down, the girl too bent down & said in an astonished tone, "It IS you, isn't it?! When did you come back? Why didn't anyone tell me? Does bhaiya know you're back? He must know! Anjali ji would surely have told him!" She said in a rush of excited speech & somewhere in between her non-stop questioning, Arnav realized exactly who she was. Khushi. Khushi Kumari Gupta. Un-freakin'-believable!

Khushi was the youngest daughter of Shashi & Garima Gupta. They resided in the same community in Delhi, where Arnav's Nani & his family lived. But that's not how Arnav knew Khushi's family. Arnav & his Di only came to live with their Nani 12 years ago, after his Mom & Dad both.. But no, that, too, had nothing to do with how he knew Khushi & her family. Arnav knew Khushi's family through Rohan. Rohan, Khushi's elder brother & Arnav's friend, philosopher & guide, since he had been maybe all of 4. The first time he actually remembered meeting Rohan was, when he & Anjali had come to Nani's house to visit her with their Mom. Rohan was 4 years senior to Arnav, & being of a similar disposition to Arnav, the two kids had hit it off like a house on fire & it has been like that ever since then. Even when Anjali & Arnav had permanently come to live with Nani, Rohan & his family had been a constant source of support for the whole Raizada family. & so, although Arnav remained in India for all of two years after the demise of his parents, he had known Khushi & her family quite well, from much before that. But not this Khushi, thought Arnav, as he scanned her from her head-to-toe once very quickly, nope, definitely not. When Arnav had left for Boston 10 years back, she must have been all of.. what?.. Arnav mentally calculated, barely 11? & now! Well now, if no one told him she was little princess Gupta herself, Arnav would never know it & gladly check out her butt for all he was worth!

Guilty at the last thought, Arnav forced himself to focus on the present situation, where Khushi was now, by the looks of it, satisfying the inquiries of her friend, which seemed to be all about him. Arnav hid a smile & called out to Khushi, "Khushi? So, you study here now? Good for you." then he frowned a little at himself for sounding so patronizing. & Khushi turned towards him again, her expression unreadable, "Oh so, you recognized me at last. It was starting to get a little awkward around here." she gave a rueful laugh & shrugged her shoulders. Arnav immediately wished she wouldn't do that, as that instantly brought her boobs to his attention. & what a nice pair they were. Immediately feeling like a lecher having these thoughts about Rohan's baby sister, Arnav said in a harsher tone than he intended for, "Um.. Look, I am in a hurry. Are you going home? Hop in. I'll drop you. Erm.. Your friend too. If her house is on our way."

& he prayed with bated breath for her to refuse the offer, As it is he knew, they would be thrown in close encounters in the coming days, as he again remembered the reason which had compelled him to return home after all this time, even after his vow to himself to never return to this blasted country where the reality of his past was everywhere, too evident for him to run from it. But as it is, Di & her happiness had come before anything else for him. & now he was here. & obviously he was prepared actually he was looking forward, to meet the Gupta household again. But no one had warned him about the pampered caterpillar of the Gupta garden blooming into this enthralling butterfly & Arnav felt damn frustrated at being ambushed by her unsuspected womanliness like this!

& as Arnav recalled the exact reason of his coming back, he only hardened his resolve more. No, the way he was feeling towards Khushi right now, was not the way you felt towards a family friend or your friend's younger sister, not unless you didn't mind ruining the friendship bit forever. Because, it was a well known fact, how Arnav Singh Raizada felt about marriages & commitments after the fiasco with his father & no one pretended that, he had been living the celibate life of a monk while he had been in the US. So, given all those, he didn't think anyone would appreciate the urges Khushi was arousing in him right now. He certainly didn't. So, ok, he would have put maintaining distance from Khushi on the top his priority list. On the other hand, his lips bowed down in the corners in wry acknowledgement of the fact that, given the sole reason he was here in India today, maintaining distance from any member of the Gupta clan was going to be an impossible feat.

As Arnav tore his gaze away from those bewildering, almost golden, hazel eyes, he let out a long sigh, any thought he had had about his stay in India being a boring one seemed very welcome right about now, because this was a stimulation unofficially forbidden for him. Especially, when his relationship with Rohan was now going to get more significant than ever. But did this girl have to turn into this.. this.. & then he took a steadying breath & admonished himself. There is no need to feel like this. It's not like she is the first beautiful girl you're seeing, & she definitely won't be the last. & the relationship between their families ruled out anything casual ever happening between them. & Arnav Singh Raizada didn't do serious. All he ever had with girls were casual flings. & this girl, by the looks of it, wasn't ideal fling material. She'd be high maintenance. But that girl La seemed like she'd be open for a fling if he chose to pursue. Arnav let out a whoosh of a breath, too bad she didn't look like Khushi.