Page 17 of Reckless Dare

Feeling excited and nervous, she waited.

His eyes were trained on her but he did not return her smile.

“Hi…Abhi,” she greeted, trying to keep a steady voice.

He didn’t respond. The strong pull along with awareness once again buzzed between them, making her shiver lightly.

Pushing away the awareness, she continued to smile. “This is a great party.”

His eyes flashed. “You weren’t invited.”

She was taken aback by his words. She blinked, wondering if she misheard him.

“I-I came with my roommate Nitya. She said I could come, and you wouldn’t mind.”

She wondered once again if she was reading too much into everything in her nervous and hyper-aware state. But she could see cold anger on Abhiram Simha’s face.

“You are wrong,” he said in a coldly dark tone. “I do mind your presence here.”

There was no mistaking his anger this time. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I won’t come next time.” She was confused and also shaken.

He took a step closer. “There is no next time. You don’t belong here at Simha. You should leave.”

It took her a moment to understand his meaning. And a few more moments to recover from the shock. “L-leave Simha University?”

“Yes… Go back to Harvard or wherever the hell you want to go next.” The cold anger made her stomach tremble.

“L-look, Abhi. I-I don’t know what happened, but I’m sorry if I offended you—”

“Your very existence offends me.”

She sucked in her breath. His words made it sound like he hated her.

As she processed his words, she wondered if it was the same guy she had been crushing on and the one who had her heart race. He was still stunningly handsome. But there was now dark ruthlessness and menace to his demeanor.

What changed?

He was making her heart race, but in anxiousness rather than with excitement. Suppressing a shiver, she tried to reason with him. “You… you asked me not to leave early. I thought—”

He took another intimidating step closer to her, making her step back and almost lose her footing on the dirt road. His dark menacing expression did not falter.

“You thought wrong,” he gritted. “I want you gone.”

Shock ran through her and she stayed silent, while her heart thudded hard. She didn’t know what was happening.

Suddenly, a thought hit her. The one that might make sense of their current interaction.

This must be a joke. It has to be a prank played on a new student.

She let out a nervous laugh. “That’s enough, Abhi,” she said. “I’m not falling for this prank. I know about pranks played on the new students at universities.”

He fell silent for a long moment and she was so sure he was going to let out a laugh and tell her he was joking. But he maintained his grim expression, his eyes threatening to sear her.

“This is not a fucking joke.”

Once again, she was shocked. And she was lost for words. Unable to process it and in no state of mind to continue to face him, she decided to put an end to the strange encounter that was making her anxious and scared.

Even if Abhiram Simha wasn’t joking, and he really hated her, the only option left right then was to walk away from him. There was no point arguing with him. He was still technically a stranger.

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