Page 23 of Reckless Dare

The tray went crashing down breaking the soup bowl and spilling the contents on the sparkling clean marble floor.

Ava was stunned. She turned and her eyes met with the dark, intense ones watching her.

“You tripped me!” she accused.

He didn’t say anything. But Pooja jumped right in.

“Don’t be silly,” Pooja said. “Why would Abhi trip you?”

Ava shook her head. “No. He put his leg deliberately in my way and I fell.”

Pooja laughed. “Why would he deliberately trip you? And I doubt if he has such long legs. You tripped.”

Ava bit her lip and looked at him and then at where she was standing. She couldn’t make a scene even though she felt he was the one to trip her. She had clearly felt something coming in her way.

“You should watch where you are going,” he said in a casual tone.

Feeling embarrassed, Ava stood helplessly as a cleaning crew came in. She felt bad as someone else had to pick up the mess she made. She helped the crew by picking up the pieces of the broken soup bowl even though the crew insisted it wasn’t required.

Luckily, she tripped in a way that the hot soup did not spill on her. She would have been seriously hurt and would have also needed a change of clothes.

Ava felt the heat of someone’s gaze on her back while she assisted the crew. She knew it was his but she didn’t look back.

By the time the cleaning was done and the crew left, she only had a few minutes. She went back to the food area and picked up a sandwich. When she returned to the dining area, she didn’t join Pooja’s group. She sat at a table far away from Abhiram Simha.

While she bit into her sandwich, she could still feel his gaze on her.

Was Pooja right?

Maybe I just imagined that he deliberately tripped me.

“Abhi!” someone yelled from across the dining hall.

Ava watched as a group of guys dressed in Vipers jerseys came in holding a rugby ball. They threw the ball towards him but the ball fell away. It fell right at the spot where she had tripped.

Ava’s heart thudded when he looked right at her. And then, with a small twist of his lips, he extended his long leg to pull the ball easily towards him. Picking it up, he spun the ball on the tip of his finger while keeping his gaze locked on his.

The slightest doubt of whether or not he had deliberately tripped her vanished.

Abhiram Simha wasn’t pranking. He was determined to drive her out of the university.

Never in a million years did she think she would be the target for the most popular boy in college.

CHAPTER 8

“Oh my God! How was your first day!” Ava’s sister’s cheerful voice demanded.

Ava had just returned to her apartment. Her roommates weren’t back yet. Feeling homesick, she called her sister.

“My first day was good.”

Her sister immediately sensed something. “What’s wrong?” she demanded. “Why don’t you seem excited?”

Ava tried not to let her thoughts show. “I’m just tired, Pree. It’s the jet lag. I’m still getting used to the time difference.”

Preeti relaxed a little. “Oh yeah. I guess it’ll take a few days.”

“Yeah.”

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