Reckless Rival : An Indian college romance

Chapter 17

"Handcuffed?" It was a gasp lost in the crazy celebration around her. What were they all so excited about? It was only going to make it that much harder for her to win—them to win and get out of being anywhere close to him.

She was still in a daze as the event planner handcuffed his left wrist to her right wrist.

"Great!" she said, looking at the restraints. "Now I know why you wanted me to be here, to up the torture level."

"Varma, you told me you'll win this for me. Keep your end of the bargain." He wasn't looking at her as he spoke. In fact, he was responding to some trash talking from the other participants.

"Good work being cocky as usual," she grumbled, looking at him. "Now what?"

He grinned, pulling out his phone. "We wait for instructions."

She looked around the group as everyone joked about how being handcuffed was more fun than the previous events. "What kind of tasks do you think we will need to do?"

"No clue." He shrugged. "We'll find out. This isn't anything like the Seek and Kiss game, for sure." His eyes held so much mockery, she wanted to walk away only to realize she was literally tied to him.

Nami scanned the other girls again, and some of them were dressed elaborately while the others were in comfortable clothes and shoes like they knew there would be games. What she had on was way too much for a beach party and was out of her comfort zone. She got carried away by the whole show he put on with the flowers and the invitation. She should have stuck to what her style was.

She looked at him, and he frantically refreshed the app for the first task. "Did you know there would be games we would participate in tonight?"

He still had his eyes on his phone screen. "Kinda... someone said there were fun games, and that's why I thought it would be cool for us to go."

"What?" She pulled on the hand that was clasped to his. "You knew and didn't tell me so I could dress appropriately?"

He chuckled. "You got this, Varma. If you can ace a game on day one and get me to kiss you, this is nothing."

"You're sick, you know that?" She fisted the free hand, so she didn't reach out and slap off the cocky smile.

"Stop with the complaining. I told you, you'll—" His phone buzzed, and he pulled up the message.

"What is the first task?" She was initially worried about what kind of tasks the game would have, but she was suddenly caught up in the details, wanting to win and put an end to the ruckus he has created in her life.

He held the screen in front of her. "First task is to find ten shells on the beach. Let's go."

"Yes," she hissed as all the other couples started to rush toward the water. The beach was not the main location of the event, so there were no lights, and they had to rely on the twilight.

Nami was having a tough time being able to do anything in the dress she had on as it swiveled around her. It was not hard to find the shells, but it was to stop them from falling on each other as they moved around the beach.

"I need to get out of this dress," she called out as he took a picture of her hands as she held the ten shells they had collected.

He scanned her for a moment but did not say anything before looking at his phone. "Ready for the next task?"

"No," she whined, unable to manage the dress even after she kicked off her sandals. "My dress. It's too long."

Rana looked at her for a moment and gave her his phone. "Hold this. I have an idea."