Zubeda Ch. 03

Zubeda felt her heart twist for Khalil and felt a reslessness. She missed Abu and Ammi so much. She longed for word from them. But no letters came answered from the war torn country and she worried for the safety of her parents. When she looked up again Khalil was crying too. She wanted to hug him, but custom forbade her it. So both of them cried in silence. Zubeda felt a kinship with him that she had never felt with anyone before. Similar destinies had brought them both to Gaphar. She felt she could tell him anything, unburden herself on him and he would never break her trust.

Across the street up the grassy hill at Jamin Khan's mansion Gaphar stood fixing the sprinklers in the garden. He knew the plumbing had been rusting and had been asking a change since a long time.

"The entire plumbing will need to be unearthed and changed. Otherwise the problem will keep persisting." He told Jamin Khan. "We'll start on it tomorrow. You'll need to hire Khalil too." He ordered Jamin Khan.

"Whatever you say Gaphar. Just see to it the damn place keeps running smoothly in my absence. I don't have time for this." Jamin grumbled exasperatedly. "Hire whoever; get supplies. You have worked the place a long time. You know it better than I do, or anyone else does. I apologize for my wife's behaviour." He shook his head with distaste. He had had enough of her tantrums.

My wife. Gaphar turned the word in his head. The words stung him. Noor. His heart screamed inside his chest. A few more days and he knew he would've gone insane. He had always prided himself for not being at any one woman's mercy and yet this past week had been a nightmare. He saw her lurking behind the curtain of her room and his heart began to thud against his chest. 'The witch,' he cursed under his breath.

It wouldn't be long before they would meet again. The anticipation made him tremble against his will.

By the time he got home, Zubeda had already started setting the dinner table.

"Is this evening?" she asked vexedly.

Gaphar was amused. "Is that annoyance Zubeda Jaan," he teased and saw her turning beetroot red.

She looked away at once. So he specially came to hold her face and lift her eyes to his.

"Are you angry?" He felt suddenly turned on by this chit of a girl he called his wife. She shook her head hiding her face in his shirt. He laughed, then let her go. "You are a coward."

That night he pulled her beneath him in bed and began to kiss her.

"I want..." she had to pause for the kiss. "I have to tell you something."

"Hmmm, tomorrow," He murmured then began kissing her again.

Yes tomorrow was better. Her arms were aching to hold him against her. She hugged him hard against herself and heard him chuckle.

"Zubeda Jaan what am I going to do with you Hmm?" he said huskily then began stripping her clothes one by one until she was naked and trembling, beneath him. Then he began to fuck her hard.

"Gaphar be gentle, please," she moaned into his mouth thinking of the baby. But her pleas fell on deaf ears.

In the other room Khalil sighed. How long he wondered. How long will he have to endure this? She was pregnant and the way he was fucking her, he wasn't sure she would remain so until morning. He wished it was he who was with her instead of Gaphar. He sometimes cursed himself for taking the high moral ground when Gaphar had offered to share his wife with him. But now that she was pregnant all the rules would change.

They were going to play the game of cat and mouse. Then so be it he thought. She was still lurking behind curtains. But today Jamin Khan was not home. He knew, she knew it and that would act in his favor. She wasn't the kind to hold out long on a presenting opportunity. And just as he had foreseen she called out to him for a cool glass of lemonade.

He went in. Wiped his sweat on his sleeve and took the glass. He leaned against the cabinet, sweat trickling down his throat, down his back. The cool indoors were a welcome change.

"How are you?" she asked in her sensual voice. Her eyes roving over him under heavy lidded eyes.

"How do I look?" he answered toying with her.

"Good," she answered thoughtful.

"No," he answered holding her dark gaze, while she grew expectant. Witch, his heart ached. "I'm great." he lied.

Her lips turned into a thin line and her knuckles turned white around the glass. She did not say anything for a while.

Gaphar held his peace. He knew too well, this wasn't the last he'd heard from her. She was aching for a pay back.

"And how's that wench of yours?" she asked her eyes burning holes in his soul.

"The wench," he smiled, "the wench scored an A+ last night?" His eyes smiled. He did not like teasing anyone as much as he did her. Her reactions were priceless.

"Then what are you doing here?" She barely controlled her temper.

"To give you an A-, which is still good, considering your age," he answered in amusement. How the mighty fall! He thought.

"Get out," she spat in white rage.

"I could, but I'm not here at your behest." He twirled the glass in his hand.

"This is my house and I can shunt whoever I want from here," she screamed.

"Technically this is Jamin Khan's house. And technically I work for him. You were just a side project I did for a while," he laughed as she lurched towards him. The lemonade pitcher fell with a crash on the floor and broke into a countless shards every piece reflecting images of them. She swung a slap across his face and would have scratched his eyes out had he not caught her and held her arms behind her back. She cursed him and tried to kick him. So he held her legs between his.

"Now, what did I tell you the last time. You touch me again and I'll make you bleed." His manhood began to throb.

"If you touch me, I'll make you bleed," she glared at him breathing noisily.

"We'll see." With that he lifted her over his shoulder and led her into the guest bedroom while she dangled behind him, scratching his back.

He threw her with some fury over the bed, then began to kiss her. The witch pays and she makes me pay too he thought.

"Get away from me." She gritted through her teeth.

"No body asked you, now shut up and let me kiss you. I've waited long enough."

Blue eyes glared into dark ones for an instance and then they were kissing each other.

"Shhhh, my love," he coaxed when she began to silently cry. "Noor, stop... please." You'll break my heart in two. Do you want that? Hmmm? Shhh." He coaxed. He placed light feathery kisses on he dark Kohl eyes, down the side of her face, to the mole on her neck, then down on her cleavage. He tore her blouse and her bra, freed a breast and attacked her nipple. He knew what that did to her.

She arched beneath him, moaning. He couldn't stop himself anymore. He had to be inside her.

"Ahhhhhhhh," she groaned deep inside her throat, her fingers twining painfully in his hair. The pain made him fuck her harder.

"Noooooooooor," he groaned when he came and collapsed in her arms while she lay light kisses on his head.

He was back in the circle of her arms. She sighed.

When he stirred post orgasm, he looked deep and long into her eyes. If this was a dream like so many he had taken these past few days, he did not want to lose sight of those eyes.

She smiled at him and he smiled back, kissing her nose. Witch he said. He lifted himself off her, then pulled her up. "I'm thirsty." He said. "Did you have to throw that perfect lemonade. You couldn't think of anything else to chuck?" He asked annoyedly.

"Did you have to say you were great?"

"What did you want me to say? I pace the terrace like a mad man in the middle of the night, thinking of a witch."

"Yes, I want you to say that."

"Why?"

"Because you are mine. You should die without me." She bristled with jealousy.

"I'll die when you do." He looked down thinking of Zubeda. She would die next if he did not fix it before he did.

Noor handed him water and then pulled him behind her.

"I have work to do Noor," he beseeched.

"Work can wait, I want to see you."

He knew what she meant. Ages ago when he was still a young man she would make him rest his head in her lap, then she's spend hours watching him, talking and kissing.

"Noor, I really ought to be getting back to that work."

"Shut up. I've missed you. Haven't you missed me?"

He exhaled resting his head in her lap. "You are my soul. Once a man has it, then loses it, he will yearn for it for all eternity. So rest in peace Noor, You've ruined me for everyone else." He had never said this to her before. But then he had never had to endure so many days without her either.

She cradled him in her arms, kissing him fervently, gently rocking him in her arms. They stayed like that until it was time to leave and she began to cry again. No matter how much she wanted him, the night would always part them.

"Noor- e - Jahan, why do you cry now? The night has ended, the day has dawned."

The words still echoed in his head when he stepped into his house. He smiled and sighed in peace. "Noor," he whispered her name one last time.

Zubeda stood at the gate waiting for Gaphar, as usual when he clapped eyes on her. He exhaled. What was he going to do with her? She followed him everywhere like a pup.

"Zubeda Jaan what may I know are you doing at the gate when its almost night time?"

"Nothing, I like watching the street?" she answered vexedly. "Khalil came home ages ago." she complained.

"Did he now? The rat!" He cursed faking petulance. He had asked Khalil to come back to work with him for Jamin, but he had refused. He preferred to work at the factory but mostly did not want to be a witness to Gaphars's indiscretions.

"I'm hungry Zubeda, serve me dinner, I'll go freshen up in the time being." Gaphar ordered, trudging to the bathroom.

She sat next to him while he had dinner outside in the courtyard, under the summer sky.

"I'm fine Zubeda, go and rest now. Has Khalil gone to sleep?"

"Yes." She fanned him with a punkah.

"Go and sleep now, I'll help myself."

"No," she answered stubbornly.

What was he going to do with her? He thought.