Ian nodded thoughtfully. “These people love you, Adam. And I mean they really do love you. You’ve done so much for them in your time here. I really believe that if they find out your true identity, they will still stand by you.”
“I don’t know, Ian,” Adam said tiredly. “But I really do hope so. After getting to know them, it’s hard shaking off the feeling of disloyalty as it is.”
“I know what you mean. I feel the same,” Ian muttered. “Damn, we’re sounding like some sappy women.”
Adam chuckled. “It comes with the territory.”
“Yeah, and so does the trauma,” he said sadly as he refilled his glass. “A month ago, a woman was brutally raped. I saw to her injuries myself. I thought there was nothing left to horrify me anymore, but there I was sitting with my head in the bowl of a toilet, retching my guts out. Back home, the incident would have made headlines. But here… no one battered an eyelid. The thought that this situation is so fucking ordinary kills me.” He took a long gulp of his drink and banged his glass back on the table. “Three days ago, I learned she married her rapist. She has to survive, she says. Society wouldn’t give her a chance at life unless she marries the very man who brutalized her.” He let out a sarcastic chuckle. “Funny place, this is. Women are still treated like chattel, lovers are stuck in the tales of Romeo and Juliet, love stories always end in a tragedy and free speech means a noose around your neck.”
“Ian-”
The man shook his head. “I’m okay. Damn, I’m in the sore need of a shrink.”
“Aren’t us all.” Adam smiled.
Ian looked at his watch. “Time I get back to the hospital in Kabul. Let me know how she is doing though. I’ve given her enough sedative to last to the morning. She should be sleeping fine now.”
“Thanks a lot, Ian.”
“Yeah, well, add that to your list of IOU’s,” Ian said cheekily.
“I’ll ask someone to drive you back.”
“You think I’ll get a DUI ticket?” Ian laughed.
Adam smiled. “There is more likelihood you’ll run over a land mine.”
“Gah! I know these lands like the back of my hand,” Ian spat and began walking out the door. “Don’t worry; I’m not as drunk as you think I am.”
“There is still half a bottle of whiskey left. Don’t you want to take it back with you?”
Ian waved his hands. “Finish it. You need it. I’ve got loads more where that came from. After all, if you can smuggle opium out of this country, you can smuggle alcohol into it.”
Adam leaned against the front door as he watched his friend stagger towards his vehicle while humming a tune under his drunken breath. This was Ian Wright- his sole confidante, doctor and accomplice.
Ian had more than once saved Adam. And today, he had saved Nora. If Carter didn’t live up to his promise on shipping Nora out of this place, he would need him again tomorrow. He would just have to trust that his friend would be there to catch them again if they fell.
“Jake?” Amy said as she entered their little rented room in Kabul.
“I’m in here,” he called from the kitchen.
“What’s for dinner?”
“Lamb.”
She groaned. “Damn, not again. What would I do to get a piece of roasted pork and crispy crackling?”
Jake smiled and kissed her lightly on her lips. “So would I, darling. But we’ll have to entertain the possibilities of a beheading party straight after.”
“Is it worth it?”
“Their land, their laws.” Jake shrugged his shoulders. “How was the day at the hospital?”
“Like always. Depressing. No one can prepare you for the reality in this place.” She began unbuttoning her dress. “How about you? Any news on Nora?”
“Not yet. I’m hanging out as close as I can with the soldiers. It’ll take some time before they begin to trust me and let me onto more privy matters.”
“It’s been two weeks now, Jake,” she said worriedly. “Maybe, we should try something different.”
He put an arm around her and held her close to him. “My job is to make sure we both come out of this safe together- with Nora. This is our perfect cover, Amy. The locals aren’t going to touch us while we’re working for the government. If we need to find Nora, we’ll have to be alive to do it. Getting killed or kidnapped isn’t going to help anyone.”
She sighed as she tucked her head into his chest. “I guess I’m just anxious.”
“I am too, honey,” he whispered against her face.
She lifted her head and kissed his neck. “I’m so glad you’re here with me. Thank you.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he muttered hoarsely.
She gave him a small, teasing smile. “Do you not trust your wife?”
His eyes narrowed, staring heatedly into hers. “Stop teasing me, Amy.”
“What if I didn’t?”
He clasped a fistful of her hair, lifting her up to him and then captured her mouth roughly with his. She let him play with her tongue for a brief while before pushing away from him. He groaned, trying to pull her back to him.
“I’ve never shown you my appreciation,” she whispered seductively, her hands moving down to his zipper.
She could feel the hardness of his length through his pants and her fingers shivered from the ache in her core to have him inside her.
He watched her dazedly from the passion searing up his body, waiting impatiently for her to touch his flesh.
She went down on her knees, pulling his pants down urgently to free his erection. She curled her hand around his cock firmly and tasted his salty tip.
He pulled in a sharp breath. “Amy, please.”
She sucked in more of him, feeling the bulging vein on the underside of his cock on her tongue. She pushed in and out and then returned to play with the tip.
“Damn it, Amy, you’re going to kill me.”
He held her head steady and then began sliding deep into her mouth until her lips touched the base of his cock. She let him drive in and out of her like a piston, his movements only wetting her more in her core. Finally, he pulled out before he could erupt and without a word picked her up from the floor and towards their bed.
“You don’t like a woman on her knees?” she teased.
“Just you,” he groaned. “And only when I have to die in those beautiful lips of yours.”
“And you’re not ready to die today?”
He threw her on the bed and spread her legs wide, admiring the juncture between them. “Tonight, I’d rather die inside you.”
He pulled her up to him, his hands snaking down to her crotch. She was hot and slick. His fingers found her core and he pushed into her. She bucked under him, writhing from the waves of pleasure he was sending up from her hips and to her brain. She was growing delirious with every thrust, her legs clenching unable to take anymore.
“Please, Jake,” she begged.
And when his lips curled up into that wicked smile, she knew he had her exactly where he wanted her. He turned her over, resting her on her stomach, her buttocks raised up high. She didn’t care. She wanted him. The how didn’t matter.
He mounted her, sliding his cock deep into her sheath. She gasped, biting her lip to hold onto her orgasm as he began thrusting into her with long and powerful strokes. His breath grew short and rapid. And finally he pushed his entire length into her, grinding his base against her core until they both stiffened. Electric pulses darted up them, sending a climax of pleasure and shivers.
She lay in his arms, her head curled up on the side of his neck. He caressed her arm, loving the feel of her warmth against him. She had one too many times called herself wife and he, husband. He couldn’t tell if she was teasing, but he was certainly growing attached to the idea of really being a couple.
“Dr Wright disappeared again today,” she said quietly. “I don’t know where he goes. But when he does, you can’t find him anywhere near the hospital for hours on end.
”
“He must be making some personal calls in nearby villages. I’ve heard him speak Pashtun. If I hadn’t known him, I would have thought he was a local.”
“Yeah… and that’s why I think he could probably help us, Jake. There is someone out there who is bound to know where she is.”
He pulled in a deep breath and held her tight to him. “You’ve still got to win his trust, Amy. I don’t want him reporting us to the authorities that we didn’t come here for the charity, but to play mission impossible in real time.”
“I just hope it isn’t too impossible.”
There was weariness in her voice and he understood how she was feeling. In the two weeks they had come here, they heard nothing that could give them even the slightest lead to Nora. Their duties didn’t leave them much time to do any investigations either. But he wasn’t going to let either women down just yet. It was still too early to give up on hope.
Nora sat on an old wooden bench, staring into the hills. They held a different memory now. Not the joyous ones she had when she had first come to Wardak. These were torturous reminders of her attack by Mateen.
“You shouldn’t be out here,” Adam said, breaking into her thoughts. “You haven’t quite recovered yet.”
“And what would you have me do instead? Stay curled up and depressed in that bedroom?”
“It’s okay to grieve, Nora.”
She grew quiet. “I didn’t know,” she mumbled. She could feel her sadness balling up inside her, her lips trembling from her lack of strength to restrain them. “How could I not have known I was pregnant? How could I not have known I had a baby inside me?”
“You were only two weeks old. Most women don’t have an idea they are pregnant at such an early stage unless they were deliberately trying to conceive.”
She clasped her hands tightly together. He was saying something, but she couldn’t hear him, her mind drowning in her self-rebuke. “Does that mean I am a bad mother? I must be… I didn’t know…”
His heart ached. He wanted to hold her and tell her he hurt as much as she did. This was his first child too. And even though he had never held his baby in his arms, the instant he had discovered he had created him, his heart had bonded to him. How could someone feel a loss for another when they had never met him? It was a pain he had never endured before, and it hurt far more than all the torture he had put his body through all these years.
The wind rustled the leaves of the trees above them. Fallen apples and peaches scattered the orchard. He sat carefully by her side, gauging her reaction towards him. But she didn’t do much other than shake from the torment she was putting herself through.
He shifted closer to her and then put an arm around her. It seemed that that was all she needed. She fell gladly into him, sobbing against his chest.
“I’ve seen you with children,” he whispered. “And you’re incredible with them. The miscarriage wasn’t your fault, Nora. If anything, it is mine. If I hadn’t sent you here, I would have protected you better.”
She drew away from him and a lump caught in his throat. She did blame him.
“Why did you send me here, Adam? I want the truth,” she said, her head bowed down as if she was studying her hands.
“I thought the change in scenery would make you feel better,” he said with a little hesitance. She got up to walk away and he held quickly onto her arm to stop her. “Nora?”
“You could at least tell me the truth now,” she said, her tears streaming down her eyes. “We created a life together. We made a baby and we did because there was more to us that night. There was more than sex. I began to actually feel we were just meant to be. But the next morning, you suddenly decided I would be happier anywhere else but with you. You don’t release me and send me home. No, you send me here! A place away from you and yet still a place where I am reminded of being nothing more than your captive.”
He grew quiet, unsure of how to tell her about he felt about her. She tried to pull her arm away from him, but he held her hard. He couldn’t let her go. It was a fact he had slowly learned to face.
“That night we made love,” he started. “You were calling out your boyfriend’s name again.”
“Gary?”
“You were discovered vomiting before our marriage and the women suspected you were pregnant. When they told me about it, I just assumed it was your boyfriend’s baby. And then when I caught you murmuring his name in your sleep, I thought you still loved him.” He released her arm. He’d just have to trust her to stay. “I was angry. I was jealous. I wanted the baby… your baby to be mine. And then…” He stopped, sitting heavily into the bench. He buried his head in his hands, shaking with delirium. “He was my baby too. He was my baby…”
Her tears poured heavily out of her eyes. She moved in between his thighs and cupped his head in her hands. He wound his arms around her waist and buried his head beneath her breasts. She caressed his head as he sobbed softly with her.
She had taken Gary’s name? Nora walked dazedly towards the kitchen. Why would she even take that bastard’s name? She had to be swearing at him in her dreams. That asshole had cheated on her and dug a hole so big in her heart, she had found it hard to find love again in a very long time. And then she almost sabotaged her chances with Adam by taking his name? She was out of her mind!
Her hand went down to her belly. Her baby would have been four weeks by now. Adam’s baby. And even though she was still sad that she had lost her first child, something had happened in her heart at that bench in the orchard when he had wept in her arms. She knew now that he had loved their child too. And if he had the chance he would have done everything in his power to protect them both.
“Khor, are you okay?” Husna asked her as she peered worriedly at her face.
“Yes, Husna,” she said. “What makes you think something is wrong?”
“You are smiling, khor,” Husna replied with curiosity. “You not smile much since the baby.”
Nora patted the woman’s arm. “And how are you? Is your back any better?”
“Not pain as much. I swear, that Mateen one day will get what he deserve,” Husna spat angrily.
“He will. Adam will see to it if he shows around here again.”
Husna nodded. “Not lala’s fault, khor. He love you too much.”
Nora stared at with curiosity, biting her lip. Had it been obvious to everyone but her how much her husband loved her?
“Anyway,” Husna started, throwing up her hands. “We no talk about Mateen. Today, we do something to make us both happy.”
“And what do you suggest?” Nora asked amusedly.
“We go to Pashto wedding. We go help make nice food.”
Nora smiled. “I would like that very much.”
HAPTER 21
The little houses that cluttered along the road were a far stretch from Adam’s lavish property. And for the first time since her days of captivity did Nora realize what it really meant to be an Afghan like Husna.
She pulled on the scarf covering her hair further down her face. Her tears stung her eyes as she saw sufferings other than her own. She may have been held against her will, but Adam had treated her well and with respect. And until she had wanted it, they had never made love. She was beginning to trust him. There was something that held him back from releasing her.
Sometimes her mind would wander off to those days of her miscarriage. She could almost be sure he had been talking on a phone. And she almost did believe he had been raging at someone to take her back home. But then she would shake it off as part of her hallucinations. According to Sakina, the healer, a doctor had come by and sedated her heavily due to the pain she was going through. Mateen had truly done a number on her.
“We’re here,” Husna indicated at a house.
She could have guessed even if Husna hadn’t told her. There was laughter and chattering coming from the inside like any wedding in any part of the world. She felt a little reserved though. Would the women accept he
r as one of their own? She still couldn’t speak much Pashto, but she was slowly beginning to recognize basic terms.
“You will like it,” Husna assured her with a smile. “Here, people are very good. Jabeen, mother of bride is sister of Jamila. She help cook in farm. Jamila’s sister will look after us. No problems.”
“Ahh, right.” Nora chuckled. “So that’s how we got our invite.”
Husna laughed. “Here, when we have wedding, whole village invited.”
“Well, in that case we should start helping out with the food.” She grinned.
Nora looked about her as she picked another bundle of green vegetables to slice through. It was the easiest of the tasks the women could give her while they continued with their chatter, working expertly on kneading and rolling dough into perfect discs.
The fragrance of the food bubbling in huge pots drifted over to her and her stomach rumbled, dying for a taste. But she politely waited until the women were ready to eat. It seemed that more likely the starving men gathering outside were going to be fed first.
“When is the wedding ceremony?” she asked Husna.
“Tomorrow,” Husna replied. “Today, we celebrate henna party. Just making happy.”
“A henna party? What is that?”
“In henna party, groom put henna on bride’s hand. But only after bride allow. She will close her hand and only open if groom’s mother give beautiful gift or if groom can open hand by force. It is fun.”
“I don’t remember getting a henna party.”
“Only because you very angry bride.” Husna chuckled, recalling those early days. “And we no have enough time. Lala want wedding so fast, we all so surprised. He say now we get married,” she tried imitating in a heavy voice. “Right now! No wait!”
The woman let out another little chuckle and Nora smiled. How had times changed? Not long ago she had been wishing to be free. And here she was, freely attending a wedding as if it was her duty as an Afghan wife. She had developed an innate desire to make Adam proud. She realized also that now she was the mistress of the farm and there were people looking up to her to take charge. Where was her fight and flight instincts to return home? Her warning bells to tell her she was assimilating into a culture that wasn’t her own? Yet she felt she was with family. And whenever Adam was beside her, she felt he was her home.
Captive- Veiled Desires Page 20