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She turns to the door to leave.

“Don’t do this, Jaan.”

I warn her, but has she ever cared? Watching Jhanvi walk out without eating lunch with me is worse. I message Jaya the next instant to make sure she feeds Jhanvi somehow and my wife doesn’t stay hungry for long.

CHAPTER 34

Jhanvi

All I expected from Aarav was a little maturity in handling this matter. Drowning the company established by his grandfather only to avenge the sins of his grandmother was not a solution. He was choosing to wipe off his family’s existence, which I can’t support him with. Would his mother support him to do so had she been alive?

I don’t know why Jaya is back home when I reach and she insists that I eat lunch with her. I have a suspicious feeling it is Aarav who told her I didn’t eat with him and he’s sent her to make sure I don’t stay hungry. Though I don’t ask and appreciate his gesture and concern, I just hope he overcomes that revenge attitude he’s so packed with. I do sympathize with what he and his mother had to go through and I know that bitterness in his heart for Daadi will never go away, but I don’t want him to commit a sin for which he will repent badly in the future. This is strange. For the first time, I am thinking about Aarav’s betterment, his good future, his happiness before anyone else’s.

*********************

Jaya’s Birthday Party

The party has just begun. We have almost 15 friends whom we have known since university but most of them have now moved on for work to different countries, yet they could make it to Jaya’s party even if we planned it at the last minute.

When Aarav and Aman join us, Jaya introduces them as her friends as decided. I hadn’t expected my friends to bond with Aarav so easily, but it seems like this man really has a knack for turning people in his favor. Almost every friend of mine becomes his fan the very next instant he introduces himself and shakes hands with them. Kate, the most romantic one in our group, can’t stop blushing as he keeps talking with the rest of them. I don’t get good vibes from her anymore, but can I do anything to change the situation? Of course not.

In all this, I don’t forget to notice Aarav’s attire. If he looks gorgeous in beautifully tailored suits, he looks sexy as sin in jeans and a shirt. Tonight, he’s also wearing a jacket which he later takes off, revealing those tight abs and muscled arms. Urgh!! Of course, I shouldn’t be admiring him more than necessary, but I don’t like the fact that almost every woman in my group and the ones around us in the club have a wicked eye on Aarav as if he’s available. Technically, he is married to me but no one here knows, which means they have every right to ogle at him and make me jealous. I shouldn’t mind if Aarav even pays attention to these women around him, but why does it still hurt? It’s so silly of us women. When we even have a slightest soft corner for someone, we cannot imagine anyone else even looking at that person. But tonight, the way these girls have surrounded him and coaxed him for the Vodka Shots challenge, and he agreed to it, is making me sick and wild. The cake’s cut long back and Jaya has been busy since then, which is why all my attention is now on Aarav who has said nothing to me except a ‘Hello’ when he joined the party. He didn’t even look at me after that, which is even more annoying because he’s behaving as if he doesn’t even know me at all. Is this his trick? To make me jealous or he is just abiding by that ‘discrete relationship status’ demand which I made in the first place before signing the deal with him? Or is he still upset with yesterday's argument over revenge?

"God, I am in love.” Kate reaches me with her drink. Her eyes haven’t left drooling Aarav who is at the bar counter, having his fourth shot. I don’t see Aman and Jaya anymore. Where are they? Only Aman can stop Aarav from continuing the drinks.

“Love whom?” I purposely ask because, for some odd reason, I don’t want to know Kate is in love with Aarav.My husband.I want her to say something else and ease my heartache.

“Your hunk friend, Aarav Raichand, who else?” She batted her eyelashes forcing me to take the glass from her and gulp down the drink. She doesn’t mind. I have known Kate for quite a few years. She falls in love very easily with every man she meets.

“What if he is not available?” I try to dismiss her feelings, hoping it works.

“Then I would say, lucky is the woman who has him.”

Her reply burns my cheeks so badly that it forces me to think of the possibilities of me and Aarav together. This has come into my mind quite a few times now in the past week.

“Anyway, for now, let me assume he is single and ready to mingle. Excuse me.”

Before I can warn her, she is off to Aarav and he gets even more engrossed speaking to her after his fourth shot. The music changes, reminding me the only way I can get control of this jealousy is by giving him a taste of it. A group of men are dancing crazily on the dance floor and I decide to pick them to divert Aarav’s gaze on me. I join that group and groove in sync. As expected, within a minute, Aarav’s eyes fall on me and he doesn’t move them at all. Finally!! I keep dancing and laughing at the jokes these men crack. Though I can hardly hear them, I don’t miss laughing to show Aarav that two can play this game. If he can make me jealous, so will I. If he can avoid me, so will I and if he can behave like I don’t matter to him, so can I. This feels so good.

Though Kate and the other girls are busy talking to Aarav, he doesn’t even look at them, meaning, he’s got my message loud and clear. Three more minutes and I feel hot!! Both by draining my energy and Aarav’s heated glares. I unzip the long jacket I had kept on my body so far, revealing the actual black dress inside. It’s short, barely covering my thighs, with the thin straps of my dress hanging loosely on my shoulder blade.

It’s too dark around, but I don’t miss seeing Aarav clenching his jaw and mouthing something to me from that far. I ignore. He knows I am watching him, just like he is watching me. I twirl around, ignoring his frustration, and within a minute, Aarav Raichand is on the dance floor, close enough to drag me away. He grabs my wrist and drags me down from the floor. Pushing the crowd away, Aarav makes way for us. I don’t know where he is taking me, but it’s definitely not the exit. In fact, he pulls me towards the cozy private booths where I see couples kissing and making out, away from the eyes of the public. I am too messed up, annoyed and mad at him for treating me like a nobody at one instant and his toy of obsession the next. It’s either this or that, I can’t be both. He pulls me into one such private booth and pushes me roughly to the wall behind.

“What the F*** were you doing?” He growls, fisting his fingers.

“Why don’t you ask yourself that?” I snap.

“Don’t twist this, Jhanvi.”

“Then you too don’t do things which affect me. Ever since you have come here, you are busy with everyone. You are behaving like you don’t even know me or that I don’t exist. You hardly had any attention on me.”

Aarav punches the wall, just closer to my head.

“Now you have my attention.. Now what?” he shouts, tempting me further.

His scorching gaze falls from my eyes to my lips and I don’t know if I do this on purpose, but I wet my lips with my tongue. Heat rises in my body as I watch him lean closer. I see it on his face. He is fighting back the urge to kiss me. My gaze softens and zeroes in on his mouth, recalling what it would be to kiss that mouth again? Why do we always run behind the things forbidden for us? Why does the evil in us always tempt our will to take a chance we would never grab in our sane mind? Why does this temporary desire hold such immense power on our self-control that we don’t want to think of any consequences? I should stick to my policy of ‘I-will-never-be-yours-in-this-lifetime’ but instead, I am the one coaxing him to break my rule and give me something I am craving so badly for. I stayed away from him for two long months to settle my heart and forget that I was ever married to him but instead, each day became agony and I only dug more details of the man I was married to, so as to judge if I really made a rational choice by not agreeing to his proposal of a real marriage between us. Now, at this instant, all I want is to feel that maddening chemistry between us again, which we both had a taste of the night before I flew to London.

CHAPTER 35

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