Read You Can't Fight a Royal Attraction for Free Online Page A

stripes as broad as those.’
    ‘Oh, thank you. But nothing to envy, I assure you! Myfeet are so large I always have problems finding the right shoe size.’
    ‘Oh, me too—I can never find the exact size either in the shoes I like. But being tall is way better than always having to jump to look over other people’s shoulders in crowds,’ Saira told her with a rueful smile.
    ‘I think short is cute. And obviously Mr Khehra does too.’ She smiled at Rihaan, who remained unresponsive. ‘Well, anyway, great to run into you. You’re a love, Saira!’ She blew air kisses, moving away, and Saira waved back.
    ‘Hu kayra?
What did you just say?’ He corrected rapidly at her blank look as the Mewari words escaped. ‘Who gave you permission to apologise on my behalf, anyway? That was too presumptuous!’ Beyond presumptuous. None would dare it at the palace… He caught himself up and frowned. The palace… he didn’t want to think of it now.
    ‘You were really rude to her,’ she accused.
    ‘You think she was making a friend of you? She was after information and, thanks to you, she might have got it too. What else did she pump out of you?’
    ‘You’re really cynical, you know that? She was a nice lady. And, besides, the media only helps you become popular.’
    ‘Let me be clear.’ He caught hold of her elbow, leading her pointedly in the direction of the car. ‘I don’t like gossipmongers. So don’t go telling her or anyone else everything that goes on in my life,’ he told her grimly.
    ‘Are you doing something you shouldn’t?’ she shot back.
    He looked at her, charged with an angry retort, then paused. She was suppressing a smile, an impish light in her eyes. A naughty half-grin that set her eyes dancing.
    He wished he could see humour in the episode. He didn’t like to have his privacy invaded. While the media snooping was part and parcel of success—an obvious eventuality after penning three consecutive blockbusters, twoof which had featured newcomers as actors—he didn’t like the publicity writers hacking their way into every nook and corner of his life. He didn’t
want
them doing it.
    She’d nearly hit on that.
    ‘I don’t relish being the subject of gossip. Would you like people nosing in your life?’
    ‘This isn’t about me.’
    She was so right. It wasn’t. This was about him and his past—a past he needed to keep sealed away. He didn’t want his family estrangement to be made a national headline… the media slurping over his bad relations with his kin… The illustrious family name that now had a Bollywood connection was exactly the kind of news that would be like dry hay to a spark.
    The uproar his rift with his family had caused had died down long ago. No one connected Rihaan Khehra, scriptwriter, with the heir who had been cast off. Now, if the news went live, it would only bring a revival of a painful incident.
    Despite the intervening years, it seemed he still had feeling enough for them to want to keep them safe. That was a revelation about himself he didn’t expect.
    His sister had used to warn him about coming across too cool and unemotional. She said it was the effect of his British education. But at times that coolness felt as if it was all on the outside. Inside him, emotion ruled, reminding him he was still the man of his land. Sometimes it called to him. Sometimes he had the urge to at least hold the soil, let the grains slide through his fingers…
    He tried to shake free of the thoughts which threatened to suck him deeper into their fold if he wasn’t careful. Looking into the reverse guide camera output, he steered the car out of the parking place.
    ‘You’ve gone so quiet. Are you angry?’ Saira’s voice showed concern.
    He glanced at her, touched and amused at the same time. ‘Have I been sending you black looks?’
    She held up her hands. ‘Okay, I’m sorry. As you said, we shouldn’t quarrel all the time.’ She offered, ‘We’d better learn to be