by Dyanne Davis
It was only a dream she tried to remind herself and a dream more than likely brought on because she’d been tired and had enjoyed fighting with him. And dare she think it? Yes, she’d lost to him on her own turf and she very much wanted to rectify that.
Dressed and ready to face anything Tanya reached for the stack of gaily wrapped gifts and carried them out of the room. She took in a deep breath. That was coffee she’d smelled. Thank God, she thought, she needed her caffeine.
“Good morning, Tanya.”
The deep sexy voice snuck up on her, startling her, making her jump, dropping the presents in the process. When she bent to pick them up, Imran was already on his knees retrieving the packages. Reaching out at the same moment for the last wrapped box, they both stopped their fingers inches apart. Their eyes connected and they both smiled.
“What do you think would happen if we touch?” Imran asked.
“I don’t know, but I’m wondering if I want to take a chance on that right now.” Tanya’s eyes were focused on his lips. They were slightly parted, moist, and looked so kissable and dang it all, she wanted to kiss him. She didn’t know the man but she sure wanted to kiss him. She found her body swaying, moving toward him. What the heck, she wondered.
Imran moved barely an inch in Tanya’s direction, their lips nearly touching. He searched her eyes and found confusion. He could feel the heat from her body her unpainted parted lips begged to be kissed to be suckled. She was a stranger he couldn’t do that, it wasn’t proper. What if Heaven or Hamid walked in right now? What of Fatima? Still he didn’t move. He wanted to touch her to see if her skin was as soft as it looked. His glance fell on the base of her throat at the tiny flutter he found there. She was afraid. He brought his eyes back to meet hers wondering what it was she was afraid of. He didn’t want her to be afraid of him.
“Are you afraid of me, that I would take advantage of you if fate were involved and gave us a jolt?” He grinned. “Or are you worried that the jolt would be so strong that it would waylay you from your plans of marrying a rich man?”
“You really are annoying, Imran.”
“But correct,” he said grasping her hand in his own. “See, no electrical charge, no sign that fate has brought us together. You’re free to do whatever it is you came to Pakistan to do. You’re free to try and pursue one of the cousins.” He rose bringing her gently up with his movement. “But be warned, Tanya. I have every plan to prevent you from being successful with my cousins. So, I do hope your tricks are many for we’ve been well trained to the ways of women by some of the best courtesans in the world.” He laughed at her surprised look. “Maybe while you’re here you’ll allow me to show you where they plied their trade. Just in case you’re interested.”
Oh hell no! He didn’t just call her a prostitute. “Imran, you had better tell me and tell me quickly that you didn’t mean what I think you meant by that remark.”
“What do you think I meant?”
“That I’m here to sell myself and you want to show me a place where I can do it.”
Imran shrugged. “If you’re here with the intent that you stated then yes that was what I meant.” He saw anger burning in her eyes but he saw sadness also and softened his reproach. He had pushed her too far. “Heaven asked me to show you around the country. I’m a writer and I’ve done extensive research on my country. If you’d like, I can show you things you’d never see with Heaven and Hamid as your tour guides.”
“Like this place you think I belong?”
He held her gaze staring deeply into her brown eyes. “Now there you have me wrong. I do not think you belong there. I think you dishonor yourself with your plans, but some part of me admires you and believe your plans are honorable.”
“That’s a contradiction.”
“I’m filled with contradictions.” He looked down at their hands still joined. “And so are you,” he said. “By the way I felt the tremble when we touched. It wasn’t a jolt of electricity, but there was the tremble. Do I make you nervous?”
“A bit. But I felt your hand shake also, just barely, but I still felt it.” Tanya dropped her hand. “So are you here to fight with me today?”
“As I promised.”
“You went for the jugular.” Tanya hesitated and bit on her lips. She rather liked the way Imran was gazing at her, the warmth of his eyes making her feel soft and feminine. But he’d also made her feel trashy. She didn’t want him to think she was some kind of loose, immoral woman who’d jump into bed with any man for the right price. She nearly groaned aloud. Was that how she’d sounded like last night? No wonder Imran was insulting her as he was.
“I don’t have sex for money, Imran.”
He lifted a brow but did not speak.
“I don’t. I’m not going to lie to you about who I am. But I don’t have sex for money.”
“If you marry a man for his money then you would be having sex for money.”
“I would be married.”
“I don’t see the difference.”
“I haven’t done it yet.”
“Then maybe you should rethink your plans. I don’t think you’ll be able to handle the results. You don’t like the comparisons that I’ve made and we’re here alone in this room. I’ve not shouted the words at you or said them in anger yet they hurt you.” He stared hard at her. “I know of your dreams, Tanya. But you will kill your soul if you pursue it. Then what use will a fulfilled soulless dream be?”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Imran. I didn’t come to sell myself. I came to fall in love.” She ignored his raised brow and his smirk. “I came to see if one of Hamid’s brothers would fall in love with me. I’ll admit to that,” she said softly, not liking the bitter taste in her mouth. “I don’t see what’s wrong with that. You said you know of my dreams. If you did you wouldn’t continue looking at me like that.”
“I’m sorry if my looking at you makes you uncomfortable. If I’m staring at you it’s because I find you interesting.” He stopped, his lips curved into a smile. “You’re a brave, woman. You’re honest with others but not yourself. I believe you want love as much as you want to give a stable home to these wards of your. You’re afraid to admit it because you believe it will make you appear weak. Could it be possible that you’d feel guilty for having love when those you want to help need so much of you? You come to Pakistan and behave badly in case the people here don’t like you. You play it tough to insulate yourself from the world. Hamid told me that Heaven had done much the same thing. I suppose that as a woman you feel the need to do this. Maybe it’s as an American woman.”
“How do you think you know so much about me? You only met me last night. We fought. I wasn’t at my best and now this morning we’re fighting again. You don’t know me, Imran. How do you think you can judge me?”
“Judging?” he stopped and cocked his head. Was that what I was doing? He shook his head as though to clear it of something. “I’m sorry if that’s what you thought I was doing. I was merely pointing out my observations. Remember, I told you I’m a writer. That’s what we writers do. We observe, we study humans and we write about it. You speak volumes without talking. It’s all there in your eyes. I see your pain, your anger, your sadness and your need for love, your great need for love,” he said softly. “Someone has hurt you deeply. Perhaps you’ll tell me of it. I’d like for us to be friends.”
“I thought you came to continue the fighting.”
“Not today,” he laughed. “No, today I’d enjoy learning more about you, about the children that you care for. I want to observe you with my cousin’s child and see which is the real you, the gold digging American or the concerned social worker.” He gave one last smile and walked toward the kitchen.
“Wait up,” Tanya yelled. This wasn’t going well at all. How the heck did he think he was going to just put her on trial? And who did he think he was to say it or to intend to do it? She didn’t give a darn what he thought. Imran stopped walking so abruptly th
at she walked into his back and her stomach clenched. She moaned softly as her body came in contact with his. A moment of burning hell fire heat zapped her right in her private area and she had to stumble back. She fought off a breath and coughed to cover up her frustration. If she’d had even water to drink she’d swear she was drugged. That was how she was feeling—disoriented and hot, very hot. Her eyes met Imran’s and for a long moment they stared. She was too close to him, everything about him screamed out masculine, overpowering male. He smiled slowly making her breath catch in her throat. When she saw him swallow she went weak. What the hell?
Coffee, Imran repeated the word over and over to himself. Heaven and Hamid had asked him if he’d make coffee for Tanya and then bring her to their clinic. What they hadn’t asked him to do was to stand there and devour her with his eyes. Maybe it was the conversation he’d had a moment ago with Tanya about fate and feeling a jolt when he touched her that was almost making his toes curl now. He wasn’t sure but he was sure that he wasn’t standing as close to her as he wanted. He could feel the heat from her body. He could smell the tantalizing scent of pure woman mixed with some kind of fragrance she’d used in her bath.
The ever increasing tightening in his groin became almost unbearable as he remembered how he’d heard her running her shower and an image of her naked, wet and luscious came to him, an image that he’d not bothered to erase. And now as he stood so close to her that the image returned and he could now count the lashes in her eyelids as they fanned her soft skin. He was fighting a shudder of desire, pure and simple. As much as he shouldn’t, as much as everything that was right and sane in his world was screaming at him that it would be wrong, there was something in her that called to a primal part in him. His erection jerked. A very primal part.
He’d touched her hand when he’d lifted her up. Now he wanted to caress a finger down the side of her face, slip his hand into the tight jeans she was wearing, cup her round buttocks that looked so luscious. And he wanted to kiss her full and sensuous lips. He was praying she didn’t look down right now. He shouldn’t be having a massive erection, but he had one anyway. It was the hardest thing he’d ever done when he tore his eyes away from her chest as she’d shuddered and drew in a breath. No woman had ever dared to show that honest of a reaction to him before. It was heady stuff, no wonder his cousins loved so many women. He stared into Tanya’s deep brown eyes nearly groaning as she absentmindedly swiped her lips with her tongue. What was he thinking of? His cousins would fall all over themselves to bed Tanya.
That thought stopped the smile and the erection. He’d have to double his efforts to make sure his cousins weren’t interested in Tanya. It would be for their own good he tried to assure himself… Then she gave him a lopsided grin and the now ever present flutter filled his chest. By all rights he shouldn’t want this woman. She smiled more fully. But he did. She was so wrong for him, loud, rude, he pulled himself up and moved back from her to peer at her horribly long blue painted nails again. Tacky, he thought, not at all what he wanted.
His image of the woman he wanted had been firmly planted in his mind for years. Quiet, that was the main thing. He didn’t want to bicker with a woman the way Hamid did with Heaven, he didn’t have time for that. He was a writer. He needed things to be quiet. He needed a woman who wouldn’t require much attention and he definitely didn’t need a woman he’d have to keep under lock and key to keep her from tempting any that came in contact with her. He’d no doubt have to do that with Tanya. He shook his head slightly, this was crazy. Coffee, he thought again, get the coffee
“Coffee?”
“Excuse me?”
Her breathy whisper went all through him and caused him to shiver in want. He cleared his throat. “Tanya, Heaven and Hamid asked if I would stay until you woke and make coffee for you.” He headed for the kitchen, “Heaven said to tell you she’s sorry but she’d promised Hamid she would go in and help him out today. I’m to take you there as soon as you’re ready.”
Tanya’s eyes widened as she realized that she and Imran were home alone. Panic rushed in suddenly. “Are you telling me that Heaven got me to Pakistan and dumped me and left me in bed sleeping? And left a strange man in here? She could have had the decency to wake me and tell me that.” Her voice went shrill and she moved a step away.
A flash of annoyance crossed Imran’s face and she saw a twitch along his jaw line. As he poured the coffee he didn’t speak, neither did he speak as he laid out dates, sweets, an assortment of bread and rolls, butter and jam. His annoyance seemed to kick up a notch when he went to the stove and poured boiling water from a pan into a sieve spilling boiled eggs.
“This crazy woman is rubbing off on me and making me crazy,” he nearly grunted, talking aloud to himself.
When he’d placed the eggs in a bowl and carried them to the table he sat the bowl down. “Eat,” he ordered.
“I would have preferred my eggs scrambled or maybe even an omelet if you’d bothered to ask.” Tanya stared at Imran then at the bowl of boiled eggs.
Imran decided it was time to confront the issue head on. Of course he wanted to spend time with the beautiful, but rude woman. What man in his right mind wouldn’t enjoy admiring her beauty? But her acid tongue…now there was a problem. Instead of thanking him for breakfast she was complaining that he was there. He sucked in a breath.
“I was here to do a favor for Heaven. I have done as she asked and more. I prepared breakfast for you, but since you prefer to be alone I’ll leave.” He started for the door his steps quick and sure.
Snap out of it, Tanya commanded her body. She turned watching him walk toward the door knowing she didn’t want him to leave. She knew she had to say something quickly. “Imran…” she called and her voice faltered. It was his voice it had done something to her. She had to fight to concentrate “Imran, wait, listen. I’m sorry,” Tanya said.
He turned toward her leveling her with a look. “Do you want me to stay, or go, Tanya? It’s your choice. I have a ton of other things I could be doing.”
While he stared at her Tanya had to catch the back of the chair for support. Oh God, she thought as the deep musical sound of Imran’s voice played over her spine. She’d swear she could…she could….
“Well, Tanya, which will it be?”
“Drop the attitude and stay if you want. Either way I don’t really care.” Liar. She brought the coffee mug to her lips and took a sip. “Thanks for the coffee. It’s really good.” She turned back toward the spread Imran had laid out and gobbled one sweet roll. By the time she had finished her second one Imran was handing her a peeled egg and was once again smiling at her.
“I see you were hungry,” he said with a slight smirk.
“Famished,” she answered, reaching for the egg. The tips of their fingers touched and zap, like that Tanya knew what had just happened. Fate was trying to intervene in her life and mess up her plans. Besides wanting a gorgeous hunk that made her shiver just by the sound of his voice she wanted a man with more drive than Imran, one more like she was. She wanted a man who believed in her dreams and who could understand those dreams would be her top priority. She did not want a teacher slash struggling writer. What the heck did she need with a man she’d have to no doubt end up supporting? And she was not into that. She bit into the egg.
“Imran, are you sure you’re not rich?” she asked as he peeled a second egg for her and placed it on her plate.
“No, I’m not.” He smiled and sipped his coffee. But my father is, he thought but didn’t say. “Would that make a difference?” She didn’t answer, only gave him a tiny smile. But she didn’t have to answer. He knew it would and didn’t like it. He didn’t want a woman who wanted only the gold in his pockets. He wanted a woman who wanted to struggle with him, to know that his dreams were important and would come first. He wanted a woman who wasn’t so driven to succeed, but one who could enjoy the simpler things of life.
***
Tanya walked around Hamid’s office
looking in wonder at the sentimental objects Hamid had built into a shrine. She smiled at the movie theater ticket stubs, a menu, a playbill and other worthless trinkets and laughed. She remembered Heaven’s complaints about constantly misplacing things. Looks like she’d found where they were. An unwanted ping of jealousy zapped unexpectedly at Tanya making her wonder if anyone would ever love her the way Hamid loved Heaven. For all her big talk she wanted that kind of love and to love a man that way. She wanted to be school girl goofy the way Heaven was.
She glanced at Heaven and watched her for a moment while her friend’s eyes sought out her husband. She saw them smile at each other and they both went all soft and mushy. For a second Tanya wondered if that was how it started for her friend. If she’d been all hot and bothered when Hamid looked at her. As a smile curved Heaven’s lips, Tanya had her answer. Hamid still made Heaven hot and bothered. Then she glanced over Heaven’s head and her gaze landed on Imran who was watching her with a very curious look on his face.
“I like your office, Hamid. But still I’m wondering why Heaven would have to help you when she had my visit planned for weeks. It was kind of rude don’t you think, to just leave me in your house alone with a man I just met? How did you know that he wouldn’t take advantage of me, or that I wouldn’t take advantage of him? That was so not cool, Heaven.” Tanya was putting a bit more mean into her words than she felt because frankly it was bothering her how Imran was watching her. And it was bothering her even more about the reaction she was having to him. He was ruining all of her plans. If he were one of Hamid’s brothers or even rich she’d stop her search. But he wasn’t. And besides having the ability to make her hot and being able to go toe to toe with her, he seemed darn boring. She turned her back toward Imran wanting to block him from her line of vision. “Well, Heaven? Is this how my entire vacation is going to be?”