Page 26 of His Accidental Princess

DV shrugged innocently.

“She must have pissed off the wrong people,” he said casually. “She does have a talent for that.”

“Well, she thinks I’m behind it all,” I pointed out. “She wants me to call off my dogs. Only, I don’t have any dogs!”

“Why does she think it has anything to do with you?”

“Because whoever took away all her privileges and threatened her with solitary confinement for the next ten years told her it was payback for what she did to me! And the only person who knows what she did to me is you, DV. So I ask you again,what the fuck did you do?”

DV sighed loudly as if I was being extremely unreasonable.

“Did you really think I wouldn’t make her pay for abusing you all your life? It’s bad enough that I couldn’t stop it from happening, but I can punish her for it. And I will. For as long as she lives,” he said menacingly.

“First of all, it has nothing to do with you. Secondly, how the hell is this even possible? My mother is very well-connected. How did you bypass all those important people and get her special treats pulled?” I asked.

DV ignored the first comment and addressed the second.

“If she’s connected, so am I. I have people at Tihar who owe me a lot of favours,” he replied.

“Owe you for what? Did you build them a new set of bathrooms or something?”

He sighed again.

“Not exactly. But I did help prevent a large jailbreak organised by one of the most dreaded terrorists on the face of this earth.”

I stared at him slack-jawed.

“Say that again?”

DV shook his head in exasperation.

“Tasha, what exactly do you think I do for a living?”

“I thought you had so much money that you didn’t have to work for a living,” I pointed out.

That was true. DV’s family had managed to retain all their properties and wealth even after the government took away their royal titles and privy purses. They had parked all their money offshore and their properties were tied up in knots that the government could never unravel. So why did he have to work at all?

“You’re right on that count. But I don’t work for money. I work for the joy of it.”

“Well, your official title is Business Head of The Royal Guard, so I’m going to say you find ways to make the company grow. And I know for sure you don’t go looking for new clients in Tihar jail,” I teased.

A ghost of a smile appeared on his face and then vanished as he became serious again. I didn’t realise how much I was addicted to that smile until I didn’t get to see it anymore. He didn’t smile at anyone else like that, with a mix of exasperation, tolerance and a little bit of fondness. It made me feel like a naughty pet more than anything else, but I still missed it.

“In another life, I was something very different, Tasha. I used to be a RAW agent.”

My jaw dropped open, and I almost had a heart attack.

“Shut! Up! How could you be a RAW agent? You’re a fucking Maharaja!”

He raised that irritating eyebrow again.

“They don’t discriminate against royals in the service,” he pointed out.

“Pfft! You know what I mean. Aren’t RAW agents supposed to be like really fit and strong?”

Even as I spoke those words, I eyed his broad shoulders, wide biceps and strong abs, and acknowledged that DV was built like a tank. He could be an agent if he wanted to. It was just that I had always thought of him as a royal playboy. Although, he could be an agent and a playboy at the same time. A playboy agent - an Indian James Bond.

“Why did you quit? I assume you’ve quit, and you’re not undercover at the commune.”

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