The harsh lines of strain engraved between Aahil's nose and mouth smoothed out. Natural colour gradually returned to reanimate his dark taut features.
"Noor woke me up to tell that a car carrying a woman had gone off the road and the police and media had gathered around the place. Then he informed me that you were gone -----"
"When I saw the car, I knew nobody could come out of that alive," He continued to stare at me as if he couldn't believe his own eyes.
"We sent a whole lot of men to search the valley for your ---," He ran a hand through his tousled hair and bit his lower lip.
I let out an uneasy breath, "I'm sorry, I was foolish enough to make such a drastic move."
"Dilshad was informed through our sources that someone saw you enter a hotel," His uneven tone cut in harshly.
"I hope you can forgive me for putting you through such stress."
"You're alive. I'm in a forgiving mood," Aahil quipped humourlessly.
The heat of his fingers engulfed my smaller ones and I bent my head.
He had been badly shaken by the sight of the crushed car and the conviction that if I had not been killed then I was at the very least severely injured.
He pushed me to him in a staggeringly sexual embrace and since that was where every inch of me wanted to be I gladly returned the favour.
Meshing a hand through the tumble of hair which had slipped out of my hijab that lay on my shoulders in a messy knot, Aahil held me away from him, his breath coming out in tortured bursts.
A flicker of discretion drew his winged ebony brows together and momentarily he closed his eyes as if he was fighting for control, a muscle pulling taunt at the corner of his sensual mouth.
"Please promise me that you'll care, I do not wish to lose my wife," Aahil delivered with a ragged breath.
His wife, I savoured in a sudden stark surge of possessiveness that engulfed me.
"I promise," I said softly. The tenderness in his steady dark appraisal made my heart sing and I just wished for the moment to be frozen as I was revelling in the awareness that he couldn't take his eyes off me.
_____________
A fortnight later, I stood on the heights of a cave, my bare toes heated by the sun-warmed ground and conceded that Aahil was making real efforts to please me.
He had taken a few days off and we had decided to explore some places.
I realised a lot of my earlier assumptions about Aahil weren't true. For a start, I believed that he switched on his charm around me to deceive people and portray the image of a happy couple. But I was entirely wrong in my calculations, he had a naturally charming personality.
He was far more conservative than I had ever appreciated.
I stared at the huge ancient cave that stood before me and gaped at its beauty.
I felt very hot despite the straw sunhat Aahil insisted I wear. I rubbed at the perspiration beading my face and suddenly realised that I felt pretty sick and giddy.
It had been an incredible climb up to the cave and the trekking up the mountain had taken all my strength. Later, the tour guide had spent so long giving us the tour of the astonishing inscriptions and carvings on the wall of the cave that I had a hard time staying upright.
"Do you think I could get a drink of water?" I whispered.
Aahil stopped midstream in his conversation with a tiny wizened Buddhist priest in his saffron robes, reminding me of yet another unknown facet of his character that had lately been revealed.
YOU ARE READING
HONEYDEW (A murder mystery)
Mistério / Suspense#1 What's hot list Aleena is extremely distraught by her father's tragic death. But what follows is a series of bone-chilling occurrence. She is watched. Her every action is tapped. A mysterious man lurks in the dark. The thriller unravels dark secr...
