Continental Divide by Dyanne Davis Page A

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 that 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