The Sheikh Bear (13 page)

When he stopped talking, he was breathing heavily and there was a red color rising up his neck.

Angie was hanging on to his words like a drowning man holds on to the last floating piece of equipment, surrounded by nothingness.

“You can have all that.
We
can have all that,” she said, softly.

“I couldn’t possibly be such cruel. Taking you prisoner and binding you down to me.”

“Don’t you see? I won’t be a prisoner any more. We would be
together,
as lovers. It is the most beautiful thing in the world and you are too stubborn to see it.”

“I need time to think,” Shadow said and grabbed his jacket.

“Where are you going?” she asked to his back.

“I’ll be back,” he said and before she could say anything else, he was gone.

Chapter 9

Angie was downstairs. It was night outside and the fire was lit in the fireplace. Shadow had not yet returned from wherever he had gone to do his thinking.

Angie was getting worried. Maybe he got into fight with other panthers. She went from worry to anger quickly. Why couldn’t he see clearly and admit that he loved her and they would be together? Why did he have to bring all this complication into it? Couldn’t he see that she truly loved him?

It was absolutely like a man to balk at the first admission of love from a woman, a shape shifting panther man at that.

Angie was thinking about all the different scenarios in her mind when he returned. She had thought about all the arguments which he won’t be able to refute and have to accept that she was not
resigning
into being with him, she really wanted to. She would make him see that she loved him, man or panther or whatever he was.

Just as she was thinking these things, a car stopped in the driveway and Angie ran to the door. Through the door, she saw Shadow get out of the car and she sighed a breath of relief, followed immediately by anxiety as to what his decision was going to be.

She got outside and stood at the front door. Shadow walked up to her. She opened her mouth to say something but Shadow didn’t stop and immediately kissed her. It was a long kiss, and Angie forgot what she had to say.

She moved her hand to his hand and got lost in the kiss, and for a moment, nothing existed but the feeling of his lips on hers. He grabbed her waist and pulled her to him, her breasts pressing into his rock hard chest.

“What’s your deci ---,” she started saying but before she could finish, Shadow picked her up in his arms and she squealed like a schoolgirl at her favorite singer’s concert.

Shadow opened the front door and carried her inside. Instead of any room, he moved her to the rug where they had first kissed and laid her down and got on top of her and smashed his lips against her.

She returned his enthusiasm and their hands started exploring each nook and cranny of the other’s body. Shadow’s hands went for her breasts and massaged them. Angie moaned in pleasure.

Shadow moved his lips to her neck and placed wet kisses all along the ridges, which made Angie go weak in the knees.

“Have mercy on me,” she whispered and she could feel Shadow’s chuckle against her skin.

Shadow pulled her up and removed her shirt to reveal her bra-covered breasts. As soon as they were visible, he kissed them. Angie threw her head back and pushed his head harder against her chest.

He freed her nipples from the bra and took one in his mouth. Angie moaned louder than ever. The sensation of getting kissed in the most private of places was alien to her. She felt giddy, she felt hot.

“My turn,” she said and removed his shirt to reveal that perfect body that she had been seeing for these past days, now in her reach.

“You are fucking perfect,” she said.

“You’re one to talk,” he chuckled. Angie smiled and kissed the hard bone of his shoulder.

“Your body is so…hard and muscled,” she said, kissing his chest and running her hands all over his back.

She was on top of him now and still clad in her bra, was moving downwards and downwards. Her lips rested on his abs and Shadow moaned.

“You’re killing me,” he said.

“I am only getting started,” she said.

She bit the hard skin of his stomach and a gasp escaped his lips.

“I didn’t know you liked it rough,” he said.

“There’s a lot you don’t know,” she said as she opened his belt.

Shadow lifted his hips to let her remove his pants and once done, she leaned back and took it all in.

“Did someone ever tell you that you have a heavenly body?” she said as she leaned in and took a bite at his torso, closer to his waist.

His breathing was coming in ragged breaths and his arousal was quite visible.

“Your turn,” he said, as he swapped places with Angie, pinning her down on the rug and laying on top of her.

His naked body against her flesh sent goosebumps all over Angie’s body. He unclasped her bra and her breasts fell out. He took one in his hand and kissed it. Then he moved his attention to the other one.

Angie threw her head back and enjoyed the sensation of getting pleasure from this man, someone who had changed her live forever and quite possibly, for the better.

He planted kisses on her stomach and took off her pants. He took the hem of her underwear in his teeth and looked at her. She smiled and he smiled back, both not needing words to understand what was coming next.

Shadow peeled off the underwear down her legs. He took both of her legs in his arms and lifted them, planted kisses on both of them.

Slowly and slowly he moved upwards, finally reaching her thighs. She knew what was coming. Her whole body became tender and sensitive. Shadow kissed the inside of her thigh and gave it a little lick. Angie cried out load.

“Baby,” she moaned.

“Stop teasing.”

“What do you want?” he said in a husky voice, a voice dripping in arousal.

Angie put her hands on his head and pushed it in between her legs. Angie closed her eyes and she could have sworn that she saw stars, the sensation was so intense. She moaned loudly.

“Aahhh,” she cooed.

“It feels so great.”

Chapter 10

Angie was lying on the rug with her head on Shadow’s chest. He was stroking her arm, softly. It felt right, lying here, with the fire burning, wind breezing outside.

Angie had covered their naked bodies with a sheet because it was cold and she didn’t want this to stop on account of that.

“So, what changed your mind?” Angie said, lightly kissing Shadow on the shoulder.

“You did,” he said.

“I drove and drove and thought about the things you said and how it made sense.”

“Good of you to finally see some sense,” Angie said, rolling her eyes.

“And whatever doubt I had left was gone when I saw you outside that door, waiting for me. That was it. I was a goner; I knew it then.”

Angie smiled and proceeded to kiss him, starting from his lips where she spent a considerable amount of time. Then she moved to his chest, holding his arms in her.

“Mmm,” Shadow moaned.

“This feels so good.”

Angie got up and straddled his waist. Shadow moved his hand on the side of her waist.

“Your skin is so soft,” he said, moving his fingers lightly, up and down on her body.

He was looking at her, completely mesmerized.

“How did I get so lucky?” he said, more to himself than to her.

“Bless the day you decided to kidnap me,” Angie said and both of them burst out laughing.

Chapter 11

Angie was having breakfast downstairs and Shadow was nowhere to be seen. It had been two days since their blissful union and Angie was reliving the memories of the past two days in her head over and over again. Not a corner of the house remained where they had not done the deed, so to spoke.

As Angie walked down the stairs, she was reminded that in the heat of the moment, Shadow had taken her right then and there on the bottom step, them not being able to make it all the way to the bedroom.

She bit her lip to stop herself from grinning without any outwardly reason, but there was a certain anxiety going on in her head. Shadow had left without telling her anything. He had slept in her bed last night but when she woke up, he was nowhere to be found.

She had gotten no indication that he was leaving. All she remembered was the blissful ecstasy of last night and then the afterglow of this morning. At the moment, peace was the farthest thing from her mind.

She tried to think positive things, like he must have gone to the city to get some supplies or something, that it was nothing sinister or anything. Her mind was thinking rational thoughts but her heart was conjuring up scenarios that were far more dangerous.

It was the age-old battle between reason and emotion, between the mind and heart, between passion and practicality. She started pacing outside the main door, looking occasionally at the wall clock through the window. It was around noon now and it was getting difficult not to worry. She knew that Shadow could take care of himself but it didn’t make her job any easier.

Just when she had resigned to more bad things, she could clearly hear the rumbling of an engine nearby and knew that it was Shadow’s car, just by the sound of it. She became jubilant and immediately forgot all the things she had decided to say to him because he had not bothered to tell her where he was going.

But as soon as the car became visible from in between the branches of the tree hiding the cabin, she could see that something was wrong. The window on the passenger side was shattered and the windshield had become like an advertisement for Spider-man. Shadow was driving way too fast and it was clear that something was wrong. The front of the car had been hit badly.

Shadow stopped the car with a screech in front of the house and Angie, standing there astounded, saw that he was bleeding from the head.

She ran to the car and he got out. Apart from the head wound, he seemed fine, and was steady on his feet.

“What happened? What’s going on?” Angie said, trying to wipe away the blood and looking at the car with fear.

“Don’t have time,” he said quickly, getting away from her towards the house.

“We need to leave.”

“Leave?” she said, still rooted to the spot.

“Where?”

“I don’t know yet,” Shadow said moving inside and Angie followed him.

“But we need to leave.”

Once inside, Shadow was sifting through the cupboards. He ran inside his room and brought out an empty bag.

“Get whatever you need and put it here. We don’t have much time. I think I was followed but managed to lose them a few miles back. But they will eventually find this place.”

“Who are they? Why are they following you? What is going on?”

“Listen,” Shadow said and there was urgency in his voice.

“This is not the time to discuss what happened. I will tell you everything on the way. Just get ready for now. We don’t have time.”

Angie nodded and immediately went upstairs and got whatever she thought was necessary.

In a few minutes, she was packed and was downstairs. Shadow was already waiting for her, sitting on the breakfast table, putting a wet cloth on his head wound. A gun was lying in front of him.

“What’s this?” she said, eyeing the weapon.

“This is what saved my life,” he said, looking at what she was pointing to.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

Angie nodded.

“Good,” he said, getting up.

“Let’s go.”

They half ran to the car.

“You are gonna drive the car like this?” Angie asked, looking at the windshield. It was a surprise that he could look out of it on the road ahead.

“Wait a minute,” he said.

Shadow went inside the car and hit the windshield with his foot. Given the fragile state it was already in; a single kick was all it took to get it out from its snug fit place.

“Come,” Shadow said to Angie.

Angie sat in the passenger’s seat and put on her seatbelt. She had a feeling that this was not going to be a safely driven journey.

As soon as she had sat in the seat, Shadow put the engine to work and turned the car around with ferocity. They started their journey to whatever place Shadow was driving to, Angie thought.

A few minutes past and Shadow was uncommonly guarded when it came to other cars and traffic.

“Do you plan to drive all the way to wherever we are going in
this
car?” Angie said.

“No, we will dump this soon and get a rental,” Shadow said, distractedly.

Angie quieted down. She desperately wanted to ask him questions but knew that this was not the right time, so she didn’t press. They drove on for almost an hour and got on the interstate highway and after that did Shadow breathed a sigh of relief.

They had changed cars once and by the looks of it, Shadow was planning to do so one more time at least, before their journey was over.

“So,” she began, putting her legs up on the dashboard.

“Are you gonna tell me now what happened?”

Shadow seemed deep in thought regarding this question. It seemed he pondering where to begin.

“Well,” he said after some time.

“It happened at the
Crow.”

Angie sat up straight, and her heart started pounding.

“What happened?” she said.

“I was keeping a lookout outside, to see if Bob would come, and there he was…with three other guys,” he said.

Angie gasped.

“Who were they?”

“What do you think? They were the ones I was looking for. And guess what? They had the package.”

Angie was listening with rapt attention. How could this be? How could Bob, the one she worked with for all those nights, turn out to be in league with such rogues.

“So,” Shadow continued his story.

“I decided that it was now or never. It was day time and the bar was empty, thankfully, otherwise a lot of people would have been killed.”

“You went in and fought with them?” Angie said, surprised more than ever and thankful that he was alive and sitting here with nothing but a head wound.

“There was nothing else to do. I went in to retrieve the package but it seemed that they were waiting for me. They ambushed me and I was surrounded. I didn’t think I would make it. They were firing from all sides.”

He quieted down for a bit and shuddered as if the memory of the recent event still terrified him.

“Then I did it. I turned into the beast and they were astounded. A momentary confusion from them was all I needed and I got them.”

Angie realized that her mouth was open and she shut it immediately.

“What about Bob?” she said, slowly.

“You have to realize that he was a terrible man. A man who probably helped killed a lot of people. He was not who you think he was,” Shadow said, trying to make her understand the necessity of what he had done and what had to be done.

Angie nodded but she knew in her heart that it would take some time for her to fully grasp the reality of what had taken place and her own part in it.

She didn’t know Bob all too well but the old man and always been nothing but good to her.

“So where are we going now?” she asked him after some time.

“As far away as possible,” Shadow replied.

“Somewhere they can’t find us, until I decide my next plan of action. These people have long memories and they will not forget me.”

“And what happened to the package? Where is it?”

“I destroyed it,” Shadow said.

“As soon as I got it, I burned it. It was not safe, out there, in the world. I had to destroy it.”