Continental Divide (10 page)

“Heaven told me your dreams. She’s very
loyal to you, even though you said you didn’t like the name of her
baby. I think Tsukama is a wonderful name by the way.”

The man was a hunk, a crazy hunk, and he was
definitely operating on stupid. “Let me get this straight. You did
this because of what? You really think I don’t like the baby?”

“Well…”

Before she could utter another word Imran
had reached out his and was caressing her cheeks. WOW!

“Your skin is so soft.” He moved closer.
“I’ve wanted to touch you for the last three days.”

“Why?” Tanya asked.

“Why does any man want to touch a woman? I
have an attraction to you in spite of my plans not to. And in spite
or refusing to go alone gently with my cousin’s matchmaking, I find
that you’re constantly on my mind. And I enjoy your company. I do
believe you feel it also. I want to get to know you better. Heaven
has asked that I assist them in showing you Pakistan. I think it
would please her to see we’re friends. Can you imagine if her and
Hamid’s matchmaking scheme worked? We’ve both known almost from the
beginning that they’ve been trying to set us up. This party was not
for you to meet one of Hamid’s brothers in order for you to charm
and perhaps marry one. It was merely a party for the family to meet
Heaven’s friend. Be honest, Tanya, you knew this wasn’t going to go
the way you planned. I told you on that first day that I would stop
you. You only have to look at the faces of your friends to know
their true intent for you.”

“Heaven and Hamid are so into each other
that it’s hard to know what either of them are thinking.” She
hesitated and held Imran gaze. “What are you after? Why are you
being nice to me now? Do you think you’re going to charm me and
then get me into bed?”

His dark eyes smoldered with raw passion at
the prospect and his lips trembled just a bit. His hand remained on
her cheeks and he pressed even closer running a finger lightly over
her lip, then pulling the finger into his mouth and suckling it. He
smiled.

“Heaven told me there isn’t a lot of public
touching you’re sure proving that to be wrong.”

Imran glanced around. “No one can see us.
Hamid made sure to buy a home that was quite secluded. He would
never have survived otherwise. I don’t know how he was able to keep
his hands off his wife before.” He laughed remembering that Hamid
had used every excuse for touching Heaven when he’d brought her to
visit. He noticed with satisfaction that Tanya wasn’t moving away.
“Do you mind that I’m touching you?”

“No, I don’t mind.”

“Do you mind that I’ve told you of my
feelings?”

“I don’t mind. I don’t know if I believe
you, but I don’t mind. Shouldn’t we go into the house now?” Tanya
asked wanting him to kiss her, not knowing if he would, or if they
should. She moved and her lips moved into his purely by accident. A
wave of want came over her and she lingered for a moment. Imran’s
hand caressed her back for a nanosecond before he smiled at her and
pulled back.

“Would you like for me to truly show you my
country when Heaven and Hamid are busy?” he asked. “I can show you
some of the places that I’m writing about.”

“I’d love to see some of the places that
you’re writing about. By the way I think it’s pretty cool that
you’re going after your dream. It really doesn’t matter if anyone
else believes in your dream. As long as you believe that’s
enough.”

The smile Imran gave her melted her heart
and her nether regions. If he didn’t stop looking at her in that
manner she would be attacking him. They had to remember where they
were. Heaven or Hamid would undoubtedly come out to check on them
very soon if nothing more than to make sure they hadn’t killed each
other.

The hand on Tanya’s back moved slowly along
her spine and he began whispering to her. She blinked. He was
singing. She didn’t understand the words but from the look in his
eyes it had to be a love song.

“You have a very good voice. Do all of the
Ahmed men sing?” Imran didn’t answer just lifted his brow. “Hamid
sings to Heaven,” she said by way of explanation.

“Hamid warbles.”

“Before this goes any further, Imran, tell
me a bit more about yourself. I wouldn’t mind hanging out with you
while I’m here but that’s it. Heaven told me you’re a writer before
you ever mentioned it, an unpublished writer, so that tells me
you’re not making any money. And I don’t care if you go back to
thinking I’m a gold-digger or not but this has to be said. I’m also
not planning on taking care of a struggling writer until he makes
it. I definitely don’t play that gonna help you get a green card
bit. So what’s your story?”

For the first time Tanya noticed the twinkle
had disappeared from Imran’s eyes. His eyes narrowed and he held
her in his steely gaze. He dropped his hand from her back and she
instantly missed his touch.

“So you want to know more about me. You want
to know what I’m up to. Here goes. For the past few days I have
enjoyed toying with you. I felt you needed to be put in your place.
Then I thought I saw something in your eyes, something that my soul
recognized, and for some crazy reason I thought I felt things for
you, things that I thought you felt also. And probably from
spending so much time with Hamid and Heaven and the baby I began to
believe in fate, that fate had brought you into my life for a
reason. Now I say this to you. Damn fate. You are not the woman for
me.” With those words he turned on his heels and headed back into
the house.

Tanya swallowed, a moment of panic filling
her. She wanted to go home. Heaven had gotten her involved in some
major craziness. She should have known her plans wouldn’t work
anyway. Lettie’s kids would deserve a home when she was gone. She
saw baby Jo Jo’s face in her mind and swallowed again. She’d become
too attached to the baby. She’d been warned it would happen. He’d
been in her care a few hours after his birth, how could she not be
attached to him? He deserved a home. All the kids she was assigned
to deserved a home. Crazy, that’s what it was. Sure she knew that
even if Jo Jo became available for adopting one day, in all
likely-hood if she was taking care of Lettie’s kids she would be
unable to take in yet another baby. That thought saddened her
because she didn’t see any babies in her future. Jo Jo had somehow
become a surrogate for her.

She’d gotten into more fights since she’d
been here than she had in the last months. Sure she’d missed
Heaven. The group just wasn’t the same since Heaven had moved to
Pakistan. And sure she’d been a bit miffed that Heaven had not
asked her, or any of her friends to be godmother to her baby son.
They would have all been honored and would have loved it. But she
hadn’t even considered it. So yes, she’d made a few uncalled for
nasty remarks. Heaven understood that. She knew the reason. They’d
squashed that, but Imran had still used that against her.

She’d be a liar if she didn’t acknowledge
that somewhere inside of her, she believed Imran wanted her. But he
was moving so quickly. His nearness made her lose her resolve to
not have a permanent relationship. How could she? She had a truck
load of responsibilities waiting for her in her future. A groan
slipped from her throat. That time she’d really and truly not
intended to be nasty. Imran had scared her for a moment with his
directness and with his touch. He was turning her into a pile of
mush and she’d needed badly to breathe. Mercy, the man was working
on her nervous system big time. Okay, she admitted to herself. She
liked him. She liked him a whole lot.

For a long moment Tanya stared at the door.
Of course she’d known Imran was attracted to her and she’d readily
admit her attraction to him. The man had kept her in a perpetual
state of crazy, wanton need. If he’d been jealous of her talking to
his cousins why couldn’t he had done the sensible thing and told
her instead of what he’d done. He didn’t have to announce to the
entire family that she was a gold digging baby hating American.
That was as far from the truth as he could get. But to turn around,
bring her outside and tell her that he believed fate had decreed
that her life and his were intertwined that they should be together
was unfair. To touch her in such a gentle manner that he almost had
her begging, then to top it off with him singing to her, even more
so.

She’d been out of her element not knowing
how to handle it. She’d known she was being rude but she’d needed
to pull back to be able to breath or she would have done whatever
it was he’d wanted right out there in the open. Besides, what if he
were feeding her a line? Playing her? She had needed to think and
being in such close proximity to him had not provided that time.
But she hadn’t really wanted him to storm away from her either. Ah
hell! How about buying a girl a drink first? Tanya shook her
head.

Dang, how did he think his announce was
going to go over with her? He couldn’t just decide that he wanted
her and that was that. And he was right, she didn’t come to
Pakistan for a poor relation. If Imran was deliberately screwing up
her chances with one of Hamid’s brothers she wasn’t going to take
him by default. If she did, how the heck was he ever going to
believe that she’d had a thing for him the moment she’d met him?
Imran has issues himself and getting a woman on the rebound
eventually would not set well with him. They both needed a moment
to regroup.

A flutter began in her chest and worked its
way down. Her womb clenched and wetness filled her panties. Okay so
he was the only man in a long time to make her have that reaction.
No matter how handsome Hamid’s brothers were they had not made her
heart flutter.

Tanya bounced around on the balls of her
feet for a few moments throwing shadow punches seeing each of them
connect with Imran’s head. Okay, so that the way he wanted to play
it, did he? She strutted back into the house and promptly went to
the portable DVD player she’d brought and popped in
Cupid’s
Shuffle
and started dancing. As the room turned to watch her
she laughed and put an extra wiggle in her step. She didn’t care if
none of them liked her. This was supposed to be a party and she was
going to party. She gave Imran a smirk and saw that Heaven was
watching her.

She waved her hand toward her friend and in
a moment Heaven was beside her doing the cupid shuffle holding her
baby in her arms. Tanya laughed when Hamid came and joined in
taking the baby from Heaven. So it wasn’t just her that he didn’t
want holding the baby. Hamid didn’t even want the mother holding
his son. She ignored the frowns on the faces of Heaven’s in-laws
and wondered had Heaven never danced the entire time she'd been in
Pakistan. That was just wrong. She was going to have to teach her
friend how to have fun again. She wiggled over to Ali and grabbed
his hand, pulling him into the line, teaching him the moves,
smiling as he attempted to do the shuffle. She was surprised he
picked it up so quickly. Soon everyone in the room was doing the
shuffle, even Fatima and Imran.

As Tanya kicked and turned her gaze met
Imran. She moved toward him. “I’m sorry for the things I said
outside, the way I acted. You’re right about my feelings for you,”
she whispered. “I don’t know if it’s fate or not, but I do want to
believe in it.”

He smiled and for a long moment she was
still. It was as if the room had suddenly emptied out, as if they
were the only two people in the world. Her heart thudded and she
missed a step. ‘
Wow’
she couldn’t help thinking. She needed
to hurry and get home but she still had five weeks left. She didn’t
think she had five weeks of resolve in her. She didn’t know if
she’d be able to hold out if Imran wanted to push things. Heck, she
didn’t know if she wanted to hold out. There was no use in lying,
she was attracted to him. Wasn’t it just like her to fall for the
one member of Hamid’s family that didn’t have money?

***

A breath of fresh air, a party girl, a gold
digger, a woman he’d made sure his family didn’t like and now what?
He was falling for her. He couldn’t keep his eyes from following
her movements. Was this truly fate, he wondered? Shouldn’t Tanya be
able to pursue her dreams of building homes for disadvantaged
children? It was a good thing. He thought also of her promise, her
family obligation to care for the children of her cousin should it
become necessary. Maybe he would not pursue her. Then she turned
and smiled and told him she was sorry, that she was attracted to
him. He smiled back wishing they were someplace a lot more private.
As he thought about his earlier notion of not pursing her, his
smile turned into a grin. Maybe he would pursue her after all.

Chapter Five

A lunch of tandoor chicken, cheese, bread,
fruit and bottled water filled the basket to overflowing. Imran
waited for Tanya. He couldn’t believe she had at last given up her
fruitless search for a millionaire. He would be her chosen husband
and he didn’t care how old fashioned it seemed. He wanted her and
she wanted him. Simple.

“Where are we going?” Tanya looked
suspiciously at the basket Imran had just put into the trunk of his
car. “I thought you were taking me out to show me the country.”

“That’s precisely what I’m doing.”

“Looks like you’re planning a picnic.”

“If I am what’s wrong with that?” He smiled.
“I just wanted to have food just in case.”

“So where are we going?”

“To get rid of some of your misconceptions.
You think that in Pakistan there is no love or passion, that we all
use matchmakers or family introductions. Sometimes it’s merely that
a man and woman see each other and fall madly in love. Sometimes
it’s just fate.”

“Are you still trying to tell me that fate
put us together? Listen.” Tanya stopped and put her hand on her
hip. “I’m not Heaven and you’re not Hamid. I’m not a virgin who’s
waiting for the right guy. We may as well get that out and upfront.
If that’s what you think fate wants you to have then you’re looking
in the direction of the wrong woman. And I plan to return to
Chicago in a few weeks. You need to know that.”