Captive- Veiled Desires (13 page)

He reached for her dress and passed it over to her.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “You had a fever and I needed to take it off to cool your temperature down.

She reddened as she slipped into her dress hastily. She didn’t want to talk anymore about why they had spent the night together, naked and in each other’s arms. “Is it safe to crawl out of this now?”

He looked up at the opening. “It seems like it. Wait here. I’ll check first.”

He quickly pulled on his clothes and crawled out of the sleeping bag.

“It’s fine now,” he announced. “The storm’s gone.”

He thought he had been dreaming when she had touched him. And he had opened his eyes just to be sure he wasn’t. But then he had seen her above him, her hair tousled and hanging freely down her face. 
You’re beautiful
, he had thought to himself.

He had wanted to cup her face and bring her lips to his. Instead, she had turned her back to him. She was naked and she probably must have been checking to see if he was asleep so she could put her dress back on.

He winced inside. He should have pretended to continue sleeping so she could have some time to cover herself up.

And when she had asked him about the weather, he had been disappointed. He had been enjoying the close proximity the sleeping bag had given them.

But sooner or later, they would have to emerge from it, he sighed. The storm had died. There was nothing to keep her from staying by his side anymore.

Amy unlocked her door with shaky hands and then rushed inside, throwing her bag onto the couch. Someone wanted Nora. Did they have her? Or were they looking for her? Either way, Nora’s disappearance was becoming more suspicious by the minute.

She flipped through her notebook for Travis Mulholland’s number. He told her to call him should she learn anything about Nora at all. Surely, if he had to resign from his position, he’d hand over the case to the next officer. But the operator told her there never had been a Travis Mulholland working at the office. Not now, not ever.

She found his number and stared at it briefly, debating what to do. She was scared. Whoever wanted Nora was going to come for her in order to get to her.

She gave a silent prayer and then dialed the number. Her heart raced with each ring.

“Hello, Office of Overseas Citizens Services. Travis Mulholland speaking.”

She froze, sweating profusely. How could it be possible? The operator had told her no such person existed at the office.

She switched the phone off quickly. Her legs wobbled beneath her and she collapsed into the sofa, shivering from the fear and anxiety racing through her.

“What are you deciding to do?” Nora asked Adam, watching him carefully through narrow eyes.

“Get back to the house,” he replied, his eyes keenly set on the horizon.

“And me?” She bit her lower lip. “Are you going to let me go?”

He turned towards her, his eyebrows in a curious arch. “No.” He didn’t offer an explanation. Instead, he leaned down to roll up his sleeping bag.

“You’re not taking me back, are you?” she asked him fearfully.

He tied up his bag onto the camel, making sure everything was fastened securely to the animal.

“You… can’t. I might find someone who can save me…,” she rambled.

He glanced at her sharply. Hadn’t he done that one too many times since he had met her?

“I mean… I appreciate you saving me from the storm last night.” She coughed. “But surely there must be someone here who could take me to the nearest American base.”

“I didn’t just save you from the storm,” he grumbled. “If I hadn’t got to you in time, you’d have been dead from the heat itself.”

“And I am grateful. But please, you can’t take me back.”

He sat the camel down and then looked at her. “Get on. You’re still in no condition to walk back.”

She shook her head apprehensively. “No, you can’t do this. You let me go! You said I could!”

He stepped towards her, but she turned and started running.  He swore under his breath as he chased after her.

Even in her weakened state, she managed to maintain a good distance from him. The loose desert sand didn’t help him either.

Damn, she’s heading back to the plains.
He increased his pace, slowly gaining on her.
She would have to give up soon
, he told himself.
She’s still weak. She can’t keep this up.

After holding her so close as he did last night, tasting her, kissing her, nipping at those pink luscious lips, he really was in mood to do this to her. He caught up to her and grabbed her arm. She tried to twist herself away from him, but he tripped her, dropping her to the sandy floor. He fell with her onto the sand, and after a little tussle, he managed to grab her wrists, pinning her arms above her head.

“Let me go! Let me go!” she screamed angrily.

“Stop it!” he growled back.

“You can’t do this! You can’t! You can’t!”

“Can’t do what?” he grit between his teeth. “Can’t do what?” he repeated angrily. “Save you?”

She stopped writhing under him, staring at him instead. His eyes followed her shivering lips as she nipped at it with her teeth. He wanted so much to press his mouth against hers.  But her eyes… he saw fear in them. And it angered him that she still didn’t trust him.

“Don’t you think if I had to do something, I would have done it by now? I had so many chances for that back at the house. And then last night… last night…” He stopped, not knowing how to explain it to her that she was her safest when she was him. How could he make her trust him?

He sighed tiredly and buried his head into her slim shoulders. He hadn’t expected this to be so gruelingly hard. Somehow, it had become the most strenuous task he had ever undertaken. Because now, it wasn’t just about watching his back. It was about her too. And somewhere since the day he had rescued her from that twisted bastard, Mateen, he had grown to care about her.

She felt his breath grazing her shoulders, his chest rising and falling against her breasts. Instead of feeling burdened by his weight, his head felt remarkably comfortable and pleasant. She didn’t know what was happening to her. Despite her will, she was drawing towards him. She was scared she’d grow fond of him. She didn’t want to fall in love with her captor. She didn’t want to grow weak and submissive to the man responsible for taking away her freedom.

She stared up at the clear blue sky of the vast arid Registan desert. “I want to go home,” she whispered.

He lifted his head to look down on her and then rolled silently off to her side.

“I just want to go home,” she repeated.

HAPTER 11

She wanted to go home.
He sighed, swiping a tired hand over his face.

He wanted her home too.  His home. Never had he yearned more for a woman he could return home to. Who would love him back. Who would tend to him after a day with some of the worst scums he’d ever met. So he could once again believe the world wasn’t as cruel and heartless as he had discovered it was.

He got up and gave out his hand to help her up. She looked at it sadly and then placed her hand into his.

“I’ll help you return home. But you have to trust me,” he said.

She glanced down and nodded.

He clasped her hand and led her back towards the camel.

He wrapped a shawl around her head. It was going to be another severely hot day and he didn’t want her suffering from more heat stress. She was also pregnant and that meant he had to take extra care of her health.

Another man’s child… He let out a tired puff of air. He was falling for a woman carrying another man’s child. Could it get even worse?

“Are you okay?” he asked her as she sat rigidly upright on the camel’s saddle.

“Yes,” she muttered hesitantly. “What about you? Are you going to…?”

“Ride with you?” he finished for her. “Would you like me to?”

“I… I don’t know if there is enough room?” She blushed with embarrassment.

“There was enough when we fled from the storm,” he reminded.

Her fingers trembled as she pulled her shawl down further to cover her eyes. “Shall we go then?”

“Aren’t you eager?” he teased.

“I’m tired of the desert,” she replied tersely.

He grinned. “Have you ridden one of these beasts before?”

“Didn’t I yesterday?” she snapped back at him with annoyance.

“Right.” He nodded. “Lean back. He’s going to stand on his rear legs first.”

He watched her from the corner of his eyes as he led the camel by the reins back towards the house. Her body bobbed along with the movements of the animal. She had her eyes closed and a strained look on her face. Not everyone found camel riding easy and comfortable.

“Do you want to walk?” he asked.

“I’d rather that than this.”

He halted the beast, getting it to rest on its knees. “You should have said something earlier,” he mumbled, offering his hand to help lift her up.

She took it without hesitation and he pulled her up. She stumbled onto him and he steadied her quickly.

She braced herself awkwardly against his chest. “When have you listened to me?” she grumbled.

“Other than your wish to send you home, when have I not?” He corrected her shawl. And as he straightened it about her face, his fingers grazed her face.

She stilled, her eyes frozen to his. The woman did something to him every time she looked at him like that. She bewitched him like no other woman he’d known.

His thumb traced down the contours of her face, resting finally at the corners of her lips. He gulped, finding the courage to take her mouth with his. Would she resist? He didn’t want to scare her. She had only just begun to loosen her barriers.

“Adam…,” she whispered.

He loved the way she spoke his name. He stared at her mouth, his body hardening with his desire to have her.

“Adam,” she said again, her voice trembling slightly. “What is that?”

He frowned, turning to find out what had caught her attention and broken their moment.

A cloud of dust hovered in the distance, masking the small group of camel riders within it. In this desolate place, where locals only traveled its path paved by the sole knowledge of their ancestors, these riders would have to be the radical extremists who monitored the land. And they searched madly for anyone who dared contravene their religious laws.

He instinctively moved in front of her, protecting her as they drew closer. The camels brayed, penetrating the silence of the desert. There were four in total. Four camels, four riders. Each carried guns, their Pashtun clothes dusted by the sands they had unsettled on their way. His heart raced as he rapidly drafted a plan in his mind. He could handle three of these men at most. But four men with weapons was going to be a tough call for any ordinary person.

“Salaam,” said one in Pashto. “Where are you going?”

Adam glanced at the others. “That way.” He pointed. He was darned if he was going to tell them anything more.

“To Kandahar?”

“Yeah.”

“Who is the woman?”

His temples pulsated rapidly. He placed his hands on his hips, pretending to be at ease, but secretly feeling for his pistol tucked securely in its holster at his hips. He didn’t like the question. He didn’t like how they tried to look at her. “My wife.”

“Tell her to come out from behind you. We want to see.”

“See what?” he asked, his eyes narrowing. “I told you she’s my wife.”

“We want to see if she’s dressed appropriately.”

“I’m her husband and only I will dictate how she dresses.”

“This is Afghan land and she will abide by the laws of our religion. You…” He pointed at Nora. “Come out.”

“Ta… Dalta raasha,”
the leader of the camel riders said. His eyes were cold and brutal. When he pointed his finger at her, indicating her to step forward, a chill ran up her. What could he possibly want?

“Adam,” she whispered.

“Stay behind me, Nora,” he whispered back sternly.

“
Amirika…Amirika!”
was all Nora could pick up from the man’s sudden tirade at hearing them speak in English. The other men panicked as well, pointing their guns wildly at them.

Adam spoke rapidly in Pashto, trying to calm them down.

“
Dalta raasha! Dalta raasha!”
the man yelled again at her.

“Step out slowly, Nora,” Adam said quietly.  “
Zama meerman… zama meerman…
,” he told the man. “My wife.”

His wife… I am Adam’s wife
, Nora repeated. And as long as he was by her side, she felt safe and protected. She couldn’t help shivering slightly though as the man hopped off his camel and came towards her.

He pointed at her feet and barked something at her. She stepped back nervously, wondering what it was he was offended with.

“It’s your ankles,” Adam breathed out softly. He was surprisingly calm and composed. He stepped in front of her again, blocking her from the man.

Nora crouched behind Adam. Her pants were short of her ankles. The man was clearly offended by her naked ankles. She had read of people who were killed for even less in Afghanistan. Was the man going to drag her out from Adam and behead her? Would he kill Adam so he could kill her? A vision of Adam lying dead in these desolate sands struck a strange fear inside her.

Suddenly, she didn’t want him to talk to the man. Suddenly, she wanted to be sure Adam would not rile the man to the point of angering him and shoot him. Suddenly…
Please let nothing happen to Adam
, she prayed silently.

She slipped her hand into Adam’s and he clutched it tightly. They were going to be fine, he was indicating quietly. But it was not herself she was worried about when the man raised his voice even louder than before.

The men cocked their guns, pointing it at them determinedly, and ready to kill them on instructions from their leader.

“If she is your wife, tell her to speak Pashto!” the man demanded. “But you lie! She is an American spy!”

“She is not a spy. She is my wife,” Adam tried to explain, forcibly keeping his voice as calm as he could. If there was anything he had learned in all his years in Afghanistan, is that people reacted accordingly to voice tones. And he certainly didn’t want to aggravate the man any further with an angry tone, no matter how infuriated he felt inside.

“Why does she not speak Pashto?!  Why does she only speak in the language of the enemy?!”

“Because she lived in America,” Adam said. He could feel Nora brace her head against his back. He could feel her body trembling. She was scared.  “She’s simply forgotten to speak Pashto.”

“Traitors such as her family needs to die!”

“Maybe so. But she came back to her land,” he lied. “She is with me now, isn’t she? And I’m doing my best to teach her our ways again.”

The man watched him carefully. “I don’t believe you.”

“Which part?”

“All of it.” He raised his gun. “Are you a spy too? Are you American?”

“I am Pashtun, just like you. My name is Adam Afridi. Have you heard of Darul-Ilhaam?”

“What about it?”

“Well, I hate to boast like this, but I lead them.”

Adam noticed the man gulp nervously. He let out a quiet breath of relief. Finally, he was gaining an upper-hand