by Dyanne Davis
Hamid looked toward Heaven then swore softly in Urdu.
“You promised,” Heaven said in response.
“Promised what?” Tanya interrupted. “And, Hamid, while I’m your guest, you will either tell me what you’re saying, or speak in English.” She laughed when Hamid’s mouth flew open and Heaven rushed to his side. Okay, she’d taken this ugly American bit too far. If she didn’t stop they would more than likely be taking her butt back to the airport.
“Okay, okay, the baby is beautiful, but you both knew that. With you two for parents the baby had no choice but to be beautiful. Heaven, you’re beautiful and, Hamid, you already know I think you’re yummy. You’re super fine. I just hope your brothers look half as good.” She gave a smirk. “That’s why I know one of your brothers and I will make beautiful babies. Now all I have to do is pick the one I like best.”
“You’re going to do what with our brothers?” Fatima asked entering the room and bringing the freshly diapered baby with her.
Tanya sized Heaven’s new sister-in-law up, the woman who’d taken the honor one of Heaven’s friends should have been given, the godmother to Tsukama that Tanya desperately wished she was. Fatima was frowning at her, her look one Tanya didn’t approve of. When she saw her glancing in Heaven’s direction as if for an explanation “nasty” snapped to attention inside of Tanya. “So you work for Heaven? Are you the nanny?”
“Tanya, stop it okay.” Heaven rushed Tanya toward the other end of the huge house. “Let me show you your rooms.”
When they were safely inside Tanya figured if she and her friends were going to be living together in the same house for six weeks, she needed to know what was going on. They had to be straight with each other as they’d always been.
“What the heck is going on, Heaven? You’re giving me looks every time I open my mouth, and I see you looking at Hamid. You told me when I asked that I didn’t have to do anything any different than I did at home, that I didn’t have to change to come here. You know how much I wanted to come here first hand and learn about the culture and everything. I’m glad you gave me this vacation. But why are you suddenly acting like I’m doing something wrong? And that sister-in-law of yours, she has her nose all turned up in the air like she smelled something bad.”
“You’re being rude and you wonder why we’re all giving you looks. What’s wrong with you? You know better than that. Fatima is one of the nicest people that I know and if you’ve pissed her off I don’t even know if I should introduce you to the rest of the family.”
“But you told me I didn’t have to change the way I behaved.”
“I know that. But who knew you were going to hop off the plane and call my baby ugly, threaten to hit on my husband and then straight out ask my sister-in-law if she was my servant. You have more class than that and we both know it. Come on, what gives? Why are you doing this ghetto diva bitch thing?”
“Was I really that bad?”
“Yes. What gives?”
“I’m tired.”
“That doesn’t excuse your behavior and you know it.”
“Promise me you’re not going to laugh,” Tanya pleaded.
“Just tell me,” Heaven fumed, “before Hamid tells me to get you outta here. Hurry up.”
“What if none of Hamid’s brothers like me? What if his family won’t accept me? And you know I’m being for real about not coming here to live.”
For the first time Heaven breathed a real sigh of relief and hugged her friend. She’d hoped Tanya would love the country as much as she did and she wanted her to get alone well with her new family. Whether or not Tanya left Pakistan with a husband was a different matter. Heaven just wanted her friend to have a good time and help Heaven alleviate her homesickness.
“You’re crazy, you haven’t even met them and you’re worried about them liking you and following you to America. First, I don’t think that’s going to happen. But I do know you need to take it down a notch. Hamid and I will have the entire family over in three days for a party. Behave, okay. Now, for real, do you think my baby has a stupid name?”
“First, you tell me, do you really like it?”
“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 cou
ldn’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.