Continental Divide (4 page)

“I love the meaning.” Heaven conceded
refusing to meet Tanya’s eyes.

“The name,” Tanya repeated. “Do you like the
name?”

“I love his daddy madly.”

“The name, do you like the name?”

“I adore my baby.”

“Heaven.”

“Well, I’m afraid I might have to live in
Pakistan forever to protect him from someone wanting to beat the
crap out of him because of his name,” Heaven said seriously. Then
they both fell on the bed and laughed.

Wiping the tears from her eyes Tanya asked,
“If you didn’t like the name why did you allow Hamid to give the
baby that name?”

Heaven shrugged then smiled. “It’s custom
here for the father to name the baby and to be honest, when Hamid
looked at me after I’d given birth I would have named the baby
whatever he wanted, done whatever he wanted, gone wherever he
wanted.”

“You two really are happy here, aren’t you?”
Tanya sighed unable to hide her envy.

“Yes, it was so the right decision for us to
move here. Only one thing could make it even better and that would
be if one of my best friends would move here also.”

“Forget it,” Tanya laughed. “No way is that
ever going to happen.”

When they hugged again, Tanya felt better.
She knew she’d made the right decision to come. Maybe she wouldn’t
end up with one of Hamid’s brothers but it was still nice to see
Pakistan and to visit with Heaven and their beautiful new baby. It
was going to be a great trip and she was going to do her best to
stop acting like a bitch simply because she was a little afraid and
feeling as though time was running out on her for getting married
and having the same happiness Heaven had found. All she was hoping
for was to find a way to help build the village.

“Thanks for bringing me here. I’ll try and
behave, I promise.”

“You’d better keep that promise. Now come on
out and let’s eat. I have a ton of food out there for you. My
mother-in-law sent over food and Fatima has been cooking. She helps
us with the baby because she loves him and she adores Hamid. He’s
her baby brother. And, Tanya, she loves me also. I love her and I
love you, so I’m going to try and mend the fences between the two
of you. But you have gotten off on the wrong foot. You’ve even
gotten Hamid annoyed and you know how hard that is to do.”

“You annoyed him all the time.”

“That was my falling in love with him and
making him fall in love with me. Come on now, I’m not asking you to
change. You’re open and honest and speak your mind. I know that and
I love you. I’m just asking you to take that chip off your shoulder
and be nice like I know you can be.”

***

An hour later, Tanya was laughing and
enjoying the food when the doorbell rang and the sound of the door
brought her attention to the person entering.
Damn,
she
thought as she looked up at Mr. Tall, gorgeous, and a beautiful
golden bronze. Wow!
Welcome to Pakistan Tanya,
she said to
herself. Before anyone could stop her, she was making her way
toward the door, sticking out her hand and smiling.

“Hi, I’m Tanya Reed.” For a nanosecond she
didn’t think the hunk was going to answer her as he glanced
questioningly toward Hamid.

“Hello, my name is Imran Ahmed.”

Oh, damn. The sound of Imran’s deep voice
had made her wet her panties. It had a musical quality. She opened
her eyes wider; not even hiding the fact that she was checking him
out. She wondered how the men in Hamid’s family could have hair
that black without using dye from the Oriental store like her and
her friends did. She liked his face. There was a smile playing
along his full lips as he watched her evaluating him. He had brown
eyes that held a mischievous glint. Tanya moved back a little just
for a better look. He was even taller than Hamid. Good. She loved
her men to be over six feet. And he was built. Nice. A nice broad
chest, she smiled, long, long legs, and…she couldn’t wait to see
how he looked from behind. He had to be Hamid’s brother.

“You look like Hamid,” she offered. “Are you
his older brother?”

This time Tanya knew it took longer than a
second as Imran gave her a look and the small smile that had played
about his lips turned into a full fledge grin.

“Wrong Ahmed,” he answered at last. “I’m not
one of the millionaire sons. Sorry, but you were flirting with the
poor relation. I’m Hamid’s cousin. Better luck next time.” He gave
Tanya another smile and moved away from her.

Did he just call me a gold digger?
Tanya paused with her hands on her hip. Screw him. She didn’t come
to Pakistan for a cousin nor did she come for one of the ‘not
millionaire’ relatives. So Imran could just go shimmy up a tree.
She took another look at him. The man was still fine but she wasn’t
after him. She passed by him, stopped and batted her eyes. “On
second thought you’re right, Imran, you don’t look like Hamid, nor
do you look rich. My bad.”

She grinned at Heaven and shrugged her
shoulder. She’d tried to be good hadn’t she? She walked back into
the kitchen, took her seat and returned to eating trying to ignore
Imran. But every time he uttered a word she got wetter. If one of
Hamid’s relative that was not a millionaire could do that to her,
she wondered how she’d react when she met his brothers.

Chapter Three

Imran lifted his eyes and stared across the
table at Tanya, smiling slightly, knowing that Fatima was right.
She’d thought he was one of his cousins. No Moslem woman would have
rushed to meet him the way she had, introducing herself instead of
waiting for a proper introduction from either Hamid or Heaven.
Imran grinned. He liked that Tanya had introduced herself. He even
liked the way her eyes had flicked appreciatively while she’d
looked him over without embarrassment. In the moment when their
eyes had met and held she’d smiled and he’d felt a spark.

He glanced once more at Heaven’s friend,
Tanya. Besides the things he liked about the woman he’d noticed
something about her that he didn’t like. It was no different than
when they’d been children and all of the mothers had tried to push
their daughters in his cousins’ directions. He’d wondered when
Fatima had called him sputtering angrily about Heaven’s rude
American friend. Fatima had cursed, something he’d never known her
to do, saying the woman had come to Pakistan to trick one of her
brothers into marriage. Imran had laughed at his cousin. Heaven’s
friend had barely had to time to say hello let alone hatch a plan
to marry one of his cousins, sight unseen.

“See, what did I tell you?” Fatima came and
stood by his chair. “She’s nothing like Heaven.”

Imran couldn’t help that his gaze swept over
Heaven’s friend. No, Tanya wasn’t anything like Heaven. Though
Heaven was very beautiful, in Imran’s opinion she was much too
tiny. Tanya was a tall woman, the kind he liked. He found himself
smiling even more. She was at least 5’ 9” or 5’ 10” easy. He
allowed his eyes to travel leisurely across her chest before making
a downward journey. Not that he wasn’t used to seeing women in
jeans and a sweater, but Tanya filled out her clothes rather
nicely. When he brought his gaze back up to rest on her face, he
met her unsmiling eyes and he smiled slowly at her, aware that
she’d observed him making a pleasurable journey across her body.
Well, since he was caught he didn’t see any harm in continuing his
perusal. Besides, she’d done the same to him.

Her glaring eyes were a beautiful brown and
her long hair was healthy, soft and shiny. Her brown skin glowed,
showing the red undertones.
Very nice,
he thought. Then his
gaze took in her gaily-painted long nails and he frowned and fought
back a shiver. The nails were ugly, too long, the paint too garish,
detracting from her true beauty. With a start he realized that the
brass American was truly beautiful. An unknown flicker danced about
his spine and this time he couldn’t stop the shiver. He had to not
allow her beauty to dissuade him. The woman was also here for one
thing and one thing only and that was to trap one of his cousins
into marriage. He had no intentions of allowing that to happen. If
fate had such plans for another of Hamid’s brothers, Imran was
going to give fate a quick shove.

At long last Tanya leaned an elbow back on
the chair and cocked her head sideways. “Did you find what you were
looking for?” she asked.

“I think I found it when I came through the
door.” Imran answered then turned toward Fatima and spoke in
Urdu.

“It’s very rude for you to do that with me
sitting here,” Tanya interrupted him.

For a long moment brown eyes met darker
brown eyes and stared then Imran gave her another smile. “Tanya, it
was not my intention to be rude to you, but it was my intention to
have a private conversation with Fatima.” He turned once again in
Fatima’s direction and spoke a few more words in his native
tongue.

“Hamid,” Heaven cautioned, “make him
stop.”

“Imran, Tanya is our guest. We all speak
English, please let’s do so.”

Imran’s gaze swung back to Tanya then to
Heaven. Heaven had his cousin wrapped around her little finger. All
the gibberish he’d given the family about fate bringing her to him.
Nonsense. Hamid lived to make Heaven happy. Imran praised Allah for
his own level head. He’d never allow a woman to do that to him. An
unexpected swelling in his groin and an acknowledgment of lust pure
and simple hit him when he gazed in Tanya’s direction.

“Imran,” Hamid said again, this time more
firmly. “Please apologize.”

This time Imran’s eyes sought those of his
cousin and he frowned before sighing and decided to apologize to
make his cousin’s life a bit easier. Heaven was becoming upset and
Imran knew Hamid would never allow that. Besides, he really liked
Heaven.

“Heaven, please forgive me if I offended
you. It was not my intent. This is your home and I will respect
your husband’s wishes.” He then turned his head slightly to the
left and spoke again to Fatima.

“Fatima, will you walk outside with me so
that we may continue our conversation in private?” He almost
laughed aloud at the look on Tanya’s face. Had she thought all the
Ahmed men could be so easily tamed by American women? He couldn’t
help grinning as he glanced over his shoulder and saw the challenge
in Tanya’s eyes and the tiny smile gracing her lips. A tiny flutter
in his chest drew his attention away and he continued walking out
the door with Fatima.

***

“Don’t start with me, Heaven. I did nothing
wrong. All I did was go to him and say hi. That’s it. He then took
it upon himself to insult me.”

“I didn’t hear an insult,” Heaven defended
Imran.

“Oh it was there, it may have been veiled,
but it was there. Didn’t you hear him say, ‘I’m not one of the
millionaire sons?” Tanya did an imitation of Imran, her hand on her
hips twisting her body. She continued until both Heaven and Hamid
were laughing. When they stopped abruptly they didn’t have to tell
her Imran was behind her. She groaned and turned to face him.

“Sorry,” she said then turned away.

“Don’t be sorry, Tanya. I find you very
amusing. At first glance I had thought you ill, maybe having a fit
or something. But with Hamid being a doctor and Heaven being a
nurse and seeing the two of them laughing, I then assumed you were
trying to look as though you were having an attack.” He smiled and
walked away.

Round one to the cousin
, Tanya
thought, then remembered the comment he’d made before he went out
the door. No, he had two rounds. She had no intentions of allowing
him to win a third. She glared at his back and couldn’t prevent her
eyes from sliding down to observe the way his rear end looked in
his jeans. What was it about the Ahmed men and black jeans? She
didn’t know, but she was sure glad they wore them. Heck she didn’t
have to like the guy in order to appreciate his fine male form

For an hour or so both Tanya and Imran
behaved as they sat in the foyer bantering lightly back and forth.
Every time Imran looked in her direction or spoke, she felt a
tingle in her southern region. She couldn’t put her finger on it.
Oh wait, she could. The man was fine with a capital F and he’d had
the ability to put her in her place. That was a gift. Not many
people got the better of her. In fact she went out of the way most
times to ensure that she wasn’t beaten in the word game. It was
always, ‘get them before they get you.’

From time to time she saw the smirk on
Imran’s face when he looked at her. He was sizing her up. Out of
the blue it hit her and Tanya blinked. He wasn’t sizing her up. He
thought he already knew what she was about. She cringed, narrowed
her eyes and glared at him and he laughed at her. Laughed. How dare
he? No man had ever laughed at her. When the look in his eyes
softened and he stood she wondered what had happened to change him.
Her eyes quickly went in the direction he was staring. Hamid and
his son. Imran wanted kids. Like dominoes things began to fall into
place. Evidently he wasn’t married, or if he was, he didn’t have
any kids.

“Let me hold him,” Imran said reaching for
the baby and cradling him in his arms as Hamid stood close to him
beaming.

For a long moment Tanya stared at the men.
She’d never seen men look at a baby the way these two were doing.
Yes, she’d seen them look at their sons with love, but this was
something different. This looked close to adoration, downright
worship. Tanya glanced toward Heaven and back toward the men,
finally getting what Heaven had meant when she’d said she’d given
her son the name Hamid wanted because of the look he’d given her.
Tanya didn’t blame her one little bit. No wonder, ‘feisty, fight
with anyone Heaven’ was acting all soft and giddy. Damn, Heaven was
truly in love.

The knowledge hit her in the chest and she
heaved a soft sigh, wondering if she’d ever have that kind of love,
wondering if she should just forget her plan to charm the pants off
on one of Hamid’s brother and marry him. Maybe she’d admit it was a
bit more than materialistic. She’d even admit to being jealous. Who
wouldn’t be? After being married to Hamid for almost two years,
Heaven had found out he was a frigging millionaire. She’d given up
everything to follow him and live in Pakistan because she wanted
him to be happy. Shortly after they’d returned to Pakistan Hamid
had given her the news that they were almost as rich as God. None
of that seemed to impress Heaven. She was more concerned with her
husband getting the gleam back in his eyes that she’d said he’d
lost.