Captive- Veiled Desires Page 5

  “And how do I go about doing that?” she remarked sarcastically. “That’s almost impossible to prove.”

  “I’m sorry, Miss Jacobsen.”

  The whispers started again and they aggravated her. “Give me your supervisor,” she demanded.

  That blasted static!

  “Miss Jacobsen, there is great possibility that your friend is safe and will contact you in due time. In the meanwhile, we will keep an eye out for any news of your friend,” he said.

  “Is that all you will do?” Her jaw fell open in shock. “Aren’t you going to actively look for her?”

  His supervisor muttered something in the background and she seethed. Why was he whispering like that? Why won’t he simply talk to her?

  “Miss Jacobsen, are you aware that there is a travel advisory issued for Jammu and Kashmir?”

  “What?” she blurted. “I thought that was over.” Nora had said the kidnappings of those tourists occurred two decades ago. She had said Kashmir was much safer now.

  “The US Department of State has extended its travel advisory for Jammu and Kashmir. Because Miss Jennings traveled to Kashmir in spite of the warning, there is little we can do under the circumstances.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding-”

  “Until then, Miss Jacobsen,” he continued, cutting her off. “We’ll just have to wait for any news regarding Miss Jennings. And should you happen to hear from her, please let us know immediately as well.”

  She pulled in a deep breath, trying to control her temper. “And you will update me on anything you will find, right?”

  “I’m sorry, that is something we still won’t be able to do until you provide us with a written consent from Miss Jennings.”

  She grew quiet. She wanted to shout and scream at the man. But that wouldn’t help her at all. In her career as a nurse, she had long learned that it was patience and placidity that resolved even the toughest of situations. She could recall several occasions where relatives had screamed at her about a patient’s health. And many a times she had wished she could shout back at them. For Nora’s sake, she had to repose herself.

  Her mind raced through any details she might have overlooked before Nora’s departure to India. Letter of authority to act? She couldn’t remember her saying anything about such a letter.

  “Miss Jacobsen,” the man said, breaking through her thoughts. “Will there be anything else?”

  “No, that is all,” she muttered mindlessly.

  “Good luck, Miss Jacobsen. I do sincerely hope that your friend is well.”

  “Wait,” she blurted quickly. “How can I contact you again if I do hear something from her?”

  “Of course,” the man stammered.

  His supervisor whispered something behind him and the man repeated it aloud. “You can contact me on this number.” He rattled out the case number and his contact details and Amy scrolled it quickly down on a notepad.

  She disconnected the call and bit her lower lip in deep thought. Surely, there was something she could do to know if Nora was fine.

  “What’s going on, Amy?” Jake asked, leaning forward concernedly.

  She looked up at him, her eyes deeply lined with worry. “I think something’s wrong with Nora.”

  “What do you mean?” He frowned. “Hasn’t she been keeping in touch with you?”

  She shook her head and he put an arm around her, letting her lean into him. She gladly tucked her head into his chest, appreciating his protective presence.

  “How long has it been since she last contacted you?” he asked.

  “A week,” she muttered. “I’m so worried, Jake.”

  He caressed her head. “There must be a good reason why she hasn’t. There is every possibility she is simply enjoying herself and hadn’t had the time to call or email. She hasn’t had a good holiday in a long time and this was her first trip overseas. Maybe, she has met someone? A man?”

  She pulled back and looked up at him curiously. “Come to think of it, there was this picture of a man she had uploaded to her online database. It was one of her last photographs of Dal Lake.”

  “You think he could possibly be someone she would be interested in?”

  She cocked her head to the side, thinking deeply. “I don’t know. The picture wasn’t all that clear so I couldn’t tell by his face. He had a great profile though. His clothes were ethnic and I think he could possibly have been a Kashmiri native.”

  “Well, that could be it then. She must be in love and simply hadn’t had the time to contact you. Give her some space and I’m sure she will.”

  She sighed. “Yeah, I suppose. That is what that guy from the Office of Overseas Citizen’s Services said.”

  “And he could be right. They deal with these cases all the time. He should know.”

  She nodded. “I panicked. But that is only because she’s more than just a best friend, Jake.”

  “I know.” He wrapped her arms around her as he looked ardently into her face.

  “And I’m so protective of her. I suppose it has something to do with my abuse, but I can’t imagine someone doing that to her.”

  “She’s lucky to have someone like you looking out for her.”

  “She’d do the same for me.”

  He traced the edges of her face. “And that is why I think I’m falling in love with you.”

  “You shouldn’t say something like that to a woman,” she mumbled, entranced by his eyes. “She might take it seriously and fall back in love with you too.”

  “I was hoping she would,” he whispered as his lips came slowly down on hers.

  She opened her mouth wider to let him in, his tongue teasing and taunting hers. She groaned, tingles rising up her spine, her core growing damp from his kisses.

  He picked her up from the lounge, cupping her butt cheek as he tugged her against him so he could grind his erection against her damp sex. She leaped lightly onto him, winding her legs around his hips, his hard length chafing against her.

  “Amy, are you sure you want to do this now?” he rasped.

  “And why not?” she muttered, nibbling on the sides of his neck.

  “Nora…”

  She ran her hands through his fair hair. “You’re probably right. I could be obsessing over nothing. I’ll just wait for her to contact me and then I can happily rip her apart for not calling me any sooner.” She smiled. “I love you. I love that you can make me see sense. If it hadn’t been for you, I’d be still agonizing over it like I had been the entire week.”

  He carried her to her bed, laid her gently on it and then straddled her. “You’re not alone anymore, Amy. Talk to me next time you have a problem.”

  She traced her finger down his body to his stiff cock. “Do you intend to talk all night or are you going to do something about this?” She massaged the tip of his erection, straining against his pants.

  He moaned, lifting up her tee-shirt to kiss her breasts. He kneaded them as his tongue circled her areola, his teeth nipping at her nipples. His hands ran down the length of her, caressing her bare skin at her waist, cupping her buttocks and then her crotch.

  She writhed under him, filled with the need to have him inside her, pumping her.

  He pulled off her tracks and then looked down at her as if he were studying her scarlet red thong.

  “What are you doing?” she whispered.

  “Wondering what it is that I should do?”

  She chuckled. “Have you forgotten how to do it?”

  He grinned. “No, but I don’t want to make it seem so autonomous.”

  “Trust me, it won’t,” she breathed, feeling his length through his pants.

  “I could rip this beauty with my teeth or I could…” He didn’t finish, running his finger down her crease of her thong marking her slit.

  She gasped. “I like that.”

  He found her clit and circled it. She moaned. The fact that he had yet to caress her flesh heightened her even more.

  She bit
into her lower lip. “Jake…”

  He didn’t answer, nibbling at the crotch of her thong while expertly pulling off his clothes. Finally, he tugged down her panties. She closed her eyes, eagerly waiting for him to ease his fingers into her. Instead, she felt the velvety tip of his cock caress her clitoris. She held her breath as a tingle of sensation ran up her. Her pussy flowed with her juices as he continued to tease her clit with his cock, pulling and then dipping it back slightly into her hole.

  She opened her eyes to watch him straddle her, holding his hard erection in his hand as he ran it ever so gently up and down between the lips of her pussy. She arched her crotch, offering herself up to him. But he only palmed it down, the padding of his thumb pressing delicately onto her clit.

  “Jake, please…” she begged.

  “Please what?” he rasped back.

  “Please, sir.”

  He pushed into her entrance, sliding easily into her, filling her to his hilt. She held her breath, his wide girth tantalizing the insides of her core. He pulled her legs apart as he began to rock against her, his balls slapping against her pussy, milking her even more. His rhythm grew stronger, rougher, harder, deeper.

  “Cum for me, baby,” he ordered. “Cum, Amy.”

  And in obedience, her body spasmed, her pussy clenching as bursts of orgasm rushed up her. She felt him shoot into her, filling her with another set of orgasmic pleasure.

  He collapsed over her, his sweaty body chafing against her breasts. She could almost hear his heartbeat racing wildly inside his chest.

  She cradled his head, soothing him. However, Nora still lurked there at the back of her mind. She tried brushing her worries aside. She thought the sex would have eased her. And it had very briefly. But now that it was all done, Nora had returned to haunt her again.

  Where was she? Where was Nora?

  Her wrists hurt her and she writhed in pain. The gag was still in her mouth. How had she breathed during the entire time she was unconscious? Was it even possible?

  Nora opened her eyes slowly. She wasn’t resting on a hard floor this time but on the soft padding of a mattress. The bright colors of the bedspread caught her eyes and she tilted her head up slightly to make some sense of where she was.

  The flashy curtains ballooned in the light breeze and the stream of fresh air mixed with the scent of jasmine drifted welcomingly to her nose. The change from the dusty dirty cell she was once imprisoned in should have pleased her. But instead it only unnerved her more. Had she been sold to some Arab as a sex slave?

  She recalled the last words of her American –Afghan captor. Which of those was he, she still wasn’t sure. You’re going to be my wife. She pulled her knees up to herself in fear, trying to peek about her.

  “If you promise not to scream, I will take that gag off you,” she heard him say from across the room.

  Startled, she tried to peer behind her, but her bound wrists and ankles limited her flections. The man who had introduced himself as Adam Afridi came into her view, his hands in his pockets as he looked down casually onto her. Her eyes welled with tears. How could a man as handsome and defined as he was, do this to her- to a woman? To see her weakened and bound at his mercy? Disgust filled her, shame clouded her face.

  “Well?” he asked.

  She gave him a slight nod. He sat down before her and dragged her towards him by her feet. He helped her sit up and then reached behind her to untie the towel muffling her. She tried not to focus on his musk tantalizing her senses. He had showered she noticed, and changed into a pair of clean jeans and a tee-shirt. His clothes made a remarkable difference to his persona. His choice of western clothing eased the trepidation inside her.

  But he is the same man, she reminded herself.

  Her eyes fell on his chest and sudden warmth spread through her core. His muscles on his biceps strained against the rim of his sleeves. They were strong, they were protective.

  Don’t be stupid, Nora. He’d kill you in an instant, she chanted to herself.

  He had protected her against Mateen for a reason. She didn’t know why and the reasons didn’t matter. She had to survive and that was all that was important for the present.

  He released the gag from her mouth and she coughed, glad to be rid of the cottony taste in her mouth. She flexed her lips, trying to alleviate the numbness in it, alternating between large mouthfuls of air.

  “Don’t worry. I only had the gag placed back when you started stirring,” he said.

  Was that supposed to comfort her? She looked at him apprehensively above her brows. Try stuffing that disgusting rag into your mouth, you bastard.

  She dared not say it aloud though. She still had yet to know where he stood with her. With Mateen at least she knew he was an evil psychopath. This man, on the other hand, was unpredictable.

  “I’ll remove the binds of your hands and ankles only if you behave,” he said sternly.

  She nodded again and he began untying the ropes. He clasped onto the offensive pieces of cords as they loosened off her.

  “You must be thirsty,” he muttered, running the ropes through his hands.

  He rose up and poured her a glass of water and then ambled up to her with it.

  She glanced hesitantly at the glass and then him.

  “Here,” he said, handing the glass over to her.

  She took it, her hands trembling lightly from the fear his cold stare invoked in her. She sipped from it, keeping an attentive eye on him as she did. Would he turn just as Mateen did? Would he try to beat her up next?

  “Are you hungry?” he asked.

  She didn’t reply, dipping her finger into the water and running it along her parched lips, dampening it. She glanced back up at him and she froze. His gaze was riveted to her lips. She tensed. He had saved her from Mateen. But who would save her from him?

  “Freba,” she mumbled with a little quiver. “Where is she?” Her voice croaked from the dryness caught in her throat but she didn’t care. Freba was the only person she felt safe around for the moment. And she couldn’t help feeling clingy over her.

  He stepped back from her. “Freba’s back at the house you were held in. She is needed there.”

  “Is that far from here?”

  “We’re in Kandahar. A good day’s drive from Paktika.”

  “Paktika?”

  “Where Freba is.”

  Her lips trembled. She was alone again. Her eyes scanned the room with increasing alarm. Her breath caught in her throat and she clung to the base of her throat. She felt something caught in it, blocking her airway. She gasped for air and he rushed up to her, grasping her shoulders.

  “What’s wrong?” he ordered.

  But she shook him off her, racing blindly towards the door. He ran after her, only just managing to pull her away before she could reach for the door knob. She slapped him away hard as she cried loudly.

  “Stop,” he said, trying to keep her still, but she flung her hands wildly at him.

  “Let me go! Let me go!” she screamed at him.

  “Nora, stop. Stop!” He slapped her hard across the face, felling her to the floor. “Stop!” He pointed angrily at her.

  HAPTER 5

  She crouched, pulling her legs up to her chest, as she lay on the floor, crying. “Please, I… want… Freba.” She shivered, unable to string her words into one complete sentence.

  She didn’t understand why she was sobbing over a woman she hardly knew. But just knowing Freba would no longer be at reach when she needed her almost felt as if the woman had died.

  Adam ran his hands through his hair with frustration. “Well, that’s not going to happen. Now, unless you want to be bound back again, I advise you shut up and behave.”

  He moved away, pouring himself a glass of cold tea. He ambled up to the windows, staring outside it as he slowly downed his tea.

  She lay there, on the tiled floor of this strange bedroom, sniveling. Everything was so gaudy and garish about it. Right from the iridescent curtains
to the flamboyant bedspread. Whoever had decorated it was trying desperately to escape the dullness that lay outside this room, and in the process stuffed it with as much color as it could possibly take, inevitably drowning it.

  “Sit up,” he commanded.

  She realized he had been waiting for her to calm down from her fit over the loss of Freba. She pulled herself up slowly, trembling.

  He glared down at her on the floor. “Get up onto the bed.”

  She backed away further from him nervously. Why did he want her on the bed? He was not going to…

  “Get on the bed!” he demanded. “I’m not going to ask you a third time. We don’t put our women on a pedestal here like you’d expect back home. So when I tell you to move, you do!”

  “No,” she mumbled. Stop it, Nora. Don’t do it? Are you crazy? Why are you standing up against him?

  “What?” he asked in slight disbelief.

  “No,” she repeated, lifting up her chin defiantly at him.

  His eyes darkened, burning with rage. He marched up to her in two quick strides. “Don’t dare me,” he growled, pulling her up by her hair.

  She cried, lashing out at him, trying to release his tight clutch. She felt the skin of her scalp burn as he dragged her by the hair to the bed. He threw her onto it and she fell down face first.

  He placed his hands on his hips, huffing with anger. “Don’t make me do that,” he threatened. “You’re not achieving anything by trying such a stunt.”

  “I have done nothing wrong,” she bit back. “Why won’t you let me go?!”

  “And where is it you’re gonna go?!” he threw back at her. “You’re a Western woman in fucking Taliban ridden Afghanistan. Where is it you’re gonna fucking go?!” He leaned down at her. “You sealed your fate the moment you took that photograph of me,” he whispered menacingly. “You’re not going anywhere.”

  “I would have been more careful if I had l known you were a camel riding Afghan bastard!” she shouted at the top of her voice.