Falling For A Bollywood Legend. Mahi Jay

had a woman roused his interest so much. She made him furious one moment and the next he wanted to bury his hands in her hair and ravage her mouth. Striving for a mock apologetic tone and not quite managing it, he said, ‘The feeling is, of course, not mutual. I’d join any queue to win you over.’

      Nina looked at him in frustration. He was the very devil. The serpent in paradise. Here she was trying to keep him at arm’s length, while he was using every trick in the book to get under her defences with a lot more success than she was having. Nina gritted her teeth and was about to snap back when the beautiful young girl from before walked up to them and slipped her small hands into his. She turned to smile at Nina with an enquiring look on her face. From up close she looked to be no more than seventeen.

      Nina’s eyes flashed fire. If he needed to boost his ego playing with a girl so young she thought she wouldn’t ever be able to respect him. She could not hide her contempt.

      Aadith, picking up on it instantly, glared at her and said, ‘Nina, this is Lila Khan, the daughter of Malik Khan, the co-producer of this movie. Lila aims to direct a film someday so she often hangs around with Vinay on the sets.’

      When Nina still looked at him suspiciously he added fondly, ‘I’ve known her for the past ten years and she is an amazingly talented kid.’

      Nina noted the hurt in Lila’s eyes but Aadith seemed to be completely oblivious to it. Nina suddenly felt sorry for the girl. She had once been in the girl’s shoes and knew the pain of it. The pain of being regarded as a kid when you no longer felt like one.

      The girl’s father, Malik Khan, joined them and congratulated Nina on the success of the event. He shortly afterwards led his reluctant daughter away to meet some other friends of his.

      ‘What is it about me that makes you jump to conclusions?’ he asked furiously. ‘She is barely seventeen and you thought I’d dally with her? How low am I in your estimation?’

      ‘Well, you don’t exactly have the reputation of a saint,’ retorted Nina stingingly.

      ‘Maybe not, but if you’d care to remember I didn’t take advantage of you even then,’ exclaimed Aadith.

      Nina blushed scarlet. ‘You’re never going to let that go, are you?’

      ‘Well, when you insist on painting me pitch black at the slightest provocation, you leave me with little choice.’

      Nina knew that this time she’d been in the wrong. Her jealousy had prompted her to jump to an erroneous conclusion about him. She felt compelled to apologise.

      ‘I … I’m sorry, I did think you were involved with her, although if left up to her you probably would be,’ she said tartly.

      Aadith looked at her as if she were nuts. ‘What are you talking about? She’s barely more than a child.’

      Nina smiled wryly. ‘She sees you as more than that,’ she said simply.

      ‘No! What she sees is not me. Not the real me, anyway. She sees the romantic lover-boy/bad-boy image I have,’ he snapped. ‘Sometimes I wonder if anybody even knows there is a real person underneath all the characters I play. Do they see me when they talk to me or only imagine me as any one of the characters I’ve played? It often makes me want to say or do something to break the image everyone has of me until they see just me. Which is why I’m in this current predicament,’ he admitted.