Page 109 of Reckless Hate

She nodded. “I’ll have to meet my father. I ran away from him yesterday in shock. He must be worried.”

“I spoke to your dad last night and told him you were fine.”

She was surprised, and then her expression softened. “Thanks, Ved,” she said. “Thank you for being there for me.”

He smirked. “So, you admit I’m not quite the asshole you thought I was?”

She laughed, and he felt his heart lighten listening to her laughter.

“You are still the arrogant jerk,” she said. “But I… love the way you are.”

Not quite the declaration of love, but he would make sure they would get there. He knew too much had happened in the last twenty-four hours for Samantha to digest and have a sudden change in mind and fall madly in love with him.

They freshened up in his bathroom and then had breakfast and coffee in the kitchen. He then smuggled her out of the boy’s housing unit back to her place. And when she got ready, he picked her up outside the gates.

She was going to meet her father at a restaurant right outside the main campus. He rode the bike there and stopped in front of the restaurant. But he didn’t join her.

“I’ll pick you up in a few hours after my classes are done,” he said.

She nodded. And then, looking nervous, she went into the restaurant. He could see her father from the huge glass window. The older man looked equally as nervous as his daughter.

Sam went inside the restaurant, and when she saw her father, she slowly approached him. There was a momentary awkward pause as father and daughter stared at each other, and then Sam hugged her father. Ved could see Samantha’s shoulder shake as she reunited with her dad.

With a smile, Ved shut the helmet visor and kickstarted his bike before riding away to a nearby place to wait for Samantha. He knew it would be a while before the father and daughter caught up on each other’s lives.

CHAPTER 47

Over the next few days, Samantha floated in a cloud of bittersweet happiness. The loss of Ved’s mother still lay heavily inside her heart. But gaining back her father’s love filled her heart with happiness.

Her father left the campus a couple of days ago. She missed him, but she was happy he was back into her life again.

She was still getting used to her new normal. And her bad-boy enemy turned lover was there every step of the way. But as usual, he continued taunting her to shake her up from her comfort zone.

“Oh, come on, don’t be a wuss, Sam.” He was lounging on her bed with a challenging grin.

She glared. “I’m not being a wuss.”

“Ava is arranging just a small picnic dinner at the beach house, not our wedding ceremony.”

Her cheeks heated as she continued to glare. “Yes, but they’ll know we are together if we share a bedroom at the beach house.”

His eyebrow rose. “Maybe we can tell them I’ll be sleeping on the floor. Although…” His mouth twisted into a smirk, “…your cries in the middle of the night will make it rather obvious what is happening between us.”

She threw a pillow at him as her face now caught fire. “Jerk!”

He caught the pillow and laughed.

She bit her lip and stared at him. She did want to go to the picnic with his cousins and girlfriends. She wanted to shout from the rooftops that Ved Simha was hers and that she was his girlfriend. But she hesitated for a reason.

She wanted to give Ved a choice to back away if he had to pick between her and his family. It would kill her to lose him again, but she didn’t want to again drive a wedge between him and his family.

What her mother accused his father of was still thought of as the truth by Ved’s grandfather. Unless that was resolved, there would never be a perfectly happy ending for her and Ved.

But she could see how much it meant for Ved to have her next to him when he spent time with his cousins and their girlfriends.

“Okay, fine. I’ll go,” she said.

His dimples flashed, and there was a wide grin on his face before he dragged her close to kiss her and then steal away her senses.

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