Busted in Bollywood by Nicola Marsh Read Free Book Online

do.’
    Aiming for cool, I nodded. “When Anjali said there’d be a welcoming party, I didn’t expect so many people.”
    He shrugged. “This is India. Get used to it.”
    I don’t think so, Lover Boy. “About that—”
    “I know.”
    Huh?
    “You’re not Amrita.”
    The dhosai I’d snacked on before arriving roiled in my stomach and I would’ve staggered without the wall behind me.
    I could’ve bluffed, uhmed and ahed and generally made more of an ass of myself than I already had, but there didn’t seem to be anything sinister about Rakesh, so I opted for honesty. “How’d you know?”
    A glimmer of a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth—this guy was seriously sexy. “Contrary to what you may think, I’m not some Indian hick waiting to be shoved into marriage with a woman I’ve never seen or met. This is the twenty-first century. I value my parents’ opinion and respect their choices but that doesn’t make me an idiot.”
    No, I was idiot enough for both of us, thinking I could pull off this ridiculous charade as I belatedly wondered if the crowd waiting beyond the door would stone me on the way out.
    “I’m sorry,” I said, ready to tear off my fake finery and grovel at his feet.
    No mojitos, no cheesecake, and the proverbial egg all over my face—what ever happened to the hip NY girl I used to be?
    “Who are you?”
    I sighed. “Shari Jones. Amrita’s best friend.”
    “Where are you from?”
    “New York City.” Duh, maybe he wasn’t so bright after all.
    “Originally, I meant.” He rolled his eyes. “You look like Amrita so you must be part Indian.”
    “My mom’s Indian. I was born in Arnala.”
    He nodded, satisfied. “Knew you had to be from these parts.”
    I expected his interrogation to continue. Instead, he frowned as if mulling this disastrous situation. The silence unnerved me more than his disapproving stare.
    I tried not to squirm. “This is kind of weird for me, so if you skip to where I can get out of here and nurse my humiliation in peace, I’d be eternally grateful.”
    “How grateful?” He hadn’t come across as sleazy, but maybe I’d misjudged him. Maybe he had only half a brain like the rest of the Neanderthals in his species.
    “Not that grateful.”
    “I didn’t mean it like that.” I braced myself for whatever punishment he dished out. As long as it didn’t involve more food, I figured I could handle anything. “Heard of Eye-on-I?”
    “Uh-uh.”
    The name sounded vaguely familiar as an image of a full-page glossy ad from the in-flight magazine sprung to mind. Something had grabbed me: cute kids posing with cuter animals? Half-naked men doing housework? It’d come to me eventually.
    He raised an eyebrow and stared at me like I came from another planet. Which I did, and I had every intention of getting back to Planet New York as soon as humanly possible. My cover was blown and there was no way this Bond Girl was staying around to face the fallout.
    “Eye-on-I is India’s number one Internet provider. We do it all. Hosting, domain stuff, IT bundling, the works.”
    Uh-oh. Top IT guys would have loads of resources available to their spying, prying eyes. No guessing how he’d sprung our scheme.
    I plucked at the hem of my tunic, fiddling with the embroidered crystals, worrying about the punishment dished out to fiancée imposters.
    “We?”
    “My partner, Drew Lansford, and I. Graduated with MBAs from Oxford, went into business soon after. India’s IT industry was about to take off and we jumped on for the ride.”
    Fascinating trivia, but I had no idea of its relevance to my penance. I managed a tight smile. Get it over with already.
    “I have the world’s top IT resources at my fingertips, including online PIs and experts able to infiltrate any site, which is how I found a picture of Amrita and information about her.”
    He’d used a private investigator and a hacker? Desperate, and so far ahead of Rita’s scheme it made us look like