by Raine Hughes
It was also apparent that the men in black were not willing to let her go. Men? Jasmine frowned, struggling to see beyond the hazy outlines of her dream. She sensed there was another figure hidden in the darkness who had not lent a hand in the dispute. He was simply a bystander. Her father? Prince Rasoul? But neither of them wanted her back at Mt. Kaf. Both had been extremely upset with her ineptness.
Master Noah would win, she was sure.
So she happily indulged in the fantasy, to dream of their lovemaking. Noah would continue to resist his role as her lover, she was sure. She was just as sure that sooner or later he would succumb and she could hardly wait. The slamming of the porch door brought her out of the daydream.
Chapter 9
When Noah returned to the house to ready himself for the trip to the Doers’, Jasmine was singing in the bathroom. Conversing through the closed door smacked of an intimacy that shouldn’t be but there was no help for it. He knocked loudly. “Jasmine, would you like to come along to pick up the load of feed? Mrs. Doer would welcome the company I’m sure, but I warn you, there are five little Doers and they’re a wild bunch.”
“Please come in, Noah,” he heard her call out and assumed there was no reason that he shouldn’t do exactly that. She was probably primping her hair.
She wasn’t.
Noah’s eyes goggled as he poked his head around the door. The first thing he saw was that Jasmine was in the bathtub, one slim leg projected upward as she leisurely trailed her hand from heel to… where? Her hand slipped into the water, below the rim of the tub where he could no longer see it.
The second thing he realized was that she was way across the room, a big room. She’d ignored his request to leave the structure of the house as it was. He stomped in, hands on hips and demanded to know what she was doing.
“I am having a bath,” she said innocently, dipping down below the rim of the new high-sided tub.
“I can see that!” Annoyed, he marched towards her, only to slam his knee into the tub. With a yelp, he barely saved himself from falling in by grabbing the far side. He gaped, not at Jasmine, but at the tremendous size of the tub, shoved himself upright, swung around, and looked in disbelief at the doorway. It looked to be several yards away, yet he had only taken three steps.
“Do you like?”
He swung his attention to Jasmine’s upturned face. She returned his gaze with eyes that looked anything but innocent. She was deliberately tweaking his awareness, submerged as she was in bubbles up to her neck. The globes of her breasts floated just under the surface of the sudsy water. With effort, he lifted his gaze away from the intimate perusal.
Her hair was piled high on her head, wispy strands framing her face while her precious gemstone necklace added extra allure to the erotic picture she made. She was naked under there. Noah swallowed hard, took two giant steps backward and slammed into the doorknob.
The jarring halt released the lewd thought forming. “What did you do in here? It looks… It’s still small but it looks huge. There’s no way that tub should fit in this room.”
He reached out to the wall that seemed so far away and jabbed fingers at the surface. When it flinched under his aggressive touch, he tried to soothe the wall by gently rubbing the material. Annoyed to discover what he was doing, seeking to calm an inanimate thing that was in fact disturbingly animated, he dropped his hand and glared at his houseguest.
Jasmine shrugged and rested her chin on her bent knees, arms circling her legs this time, while keeping below the surface of the water. The angle of her upward gaze suggested naughtiness, as did the momentary quirking of her lips before she spoke. “Your wish, your request, was for me to do anything without changing the structure of the house. I did.”
“But how?” he demanded, trying to be irritated with her so that he wouldn’t think about her sitting naked beneath the bubbles. He expelled his breath with a snort. “I know, I know—magic.” He turned and flung open the door that trapped him inside the perfumed room. His head swam from the scent.
Or maybe it’s because I’m hyperventilating!
“I’m leaving in fifteen minutes if you’d like to come.” With that he left taking big strides through the porch and out across the yard. Jasmine was one woman he knew could get ready in short time. Heck, fifteen seconds would do!
But he couldn’t escape the vision of Jasmine’s hands gliding over her leg to disappear below the surface of the water. Or of her submerged breasts that had been almost visible.
He wanted her.
He couldn’t have her.
With a groan that came out sounding like he’d been wounded, he snatched up a shovel and busied himself with removing snow from beside the big barn door, so that it would be free to slide open when he was ready to unload the hay and straw.
* * *
Jasmine was amused to note that Noah studiously avoided eye contact when she climbed into the pick-up. He was overly absorbed in the countryside as he drove, his grip tight on the steering wheel.
She had experienced a moment of worry at the way his eyes had gone from wide with shock, to narrowed as he indignantly demanded to know what she was doing in the tub. Her wariness had soon been replaced with amusement as he nearly fell into the bathtub with her, his features undergoing rapid change before his gaze took on a speculative gleam.
Then he had backed into the door with a jarring jolt and fled the scene. Whom had he been running from? Her or his own thoughts?
Maintaining a strong morality must be a strain at times. She longed for another reason to be in his arms, to make him forget his self-imposed limitations. Noah would try to maintain a stern control that would be enviable to a priest! But, he wasn’t a holy man, therefore…
Her memory went back to the dream, to analyze it: men of opposing sides, fighting for possession of her; the man in black possibly Djinn because without touching her he had been drawing her into his realm, sucking her into the urn; the man in white had some sort of powers of his own to draw her, but they lacked Djinni strength. The dream sent a shiver over her that had nothing to do with the wintry landscape.
“That’s the house,” Noah said, indicating a three-story, box-shaped, green trimmed building in the distance.
The home stood tall in the grove of shorter trees now naked and stark. Winter certainly held vegetative matter hostage to Jasmine’s way of thinking. There was a hip-roofed barn similar to Noah’s, and some other outbuildings. She much preferred green trees and flowers.
Would the people be friendly? It seemed reasonable to assume that if Noah brought her here, he would expect her to become acquainted with them. When they arrived in the yard, Walt Doer waved Noah in the direction of a stack of bales.
“I’ll just drop you off and you can introduce yourself at the house,” Noah said.
Jasmine was apprehensive that she might inadvertently say something she should not. It was a strange custom to introduce one’s self. “What shall we talk about?”
“Ask her to tell you some of the strange happenings around Mystery Lake. She’s spent her entire life here. Believe me, they’re incredible, or at least they were to me until I took a certain guest into my home.” He waggled his brows and gave her an encouraging smile as she let herself out of the truck. Then he shifted gears and went on.
Mrs. Doer greeted her with reservation when Jasmine introduced herself as Jasmine and informed her that she had come with Noah D’Ark. The plump, red-faced woman invited her inside but did not apologize for the disorder; the slight up-tilt of her chin said she expected Jasmine to comment.
Children ran throughout the house. There was bedlam with toys in all quarters. Mrs. Doer was no great housekeeper, though how anyone but a Djinni could keep up with five rambunctious children was amazing to Jasmine. Mrs. Doer casually swept a sweater and a book off a chair and placed them on the table before she sat down. After witnessing the move, Jasmine similarly cleared a chair for herself. A little girl was watching from nearby and she grinned at the c
hild, rewarded by a return smile.
Jasmine turned to her hostess, saying eagerly, “Noah tells me there is a proper puzzle about Mystery Lake and that you can tell me all about it. He has only told me a little.” She posed a hopeful look on her face before adding, “I love mystery and intrigue.”
Her hostess raised one eyebrow, appearing both surprised and delighted at the same time. Once it became clear that Jasmine was genuinely interested in hearing about Mystery Lake, she launched into the topic enthusiastically.
“That lake takes it upon itself to just dry up, no rhyme or reason to it. The water starts dropping, summer, winter, whenever. Nothing influences it. We had an extraordinary bit of rainfall: flooded creeks, washed-out dams and culverts. But the lake kept dropping till there was only a little left, creating deep ditches. You could walk on the lake bottom for months. Then one day it started rising. Didn’t rain more than a few inches during the couple of months it took. Came right back up to level.” She paused, then seeing that Jasmine was fascinated, she launched into speech again with zeal.
“What was real scary though, was if you threw a chunk of wood in that tiny pond it would float round and round in a big circle, never going anywhere. There’s a whirlpool there, but it never sucks anything down.”
Jasmine smiled at the contradiction of a tiny pond and a big circle.
“I hear Noah is going to go ahead with his ark. It’s a fantastic idea, though there are others say he’s crazy, of course.” The woman grinned, showing a couple of missing teeth. “Wouldn’t get me on it though, not if it was spinning round and round.” Mrs. Doer agitated her finger in a similar manner before throwing her head back with a laugh. Jasmine couldn’t help but join her.
“Ben Jensen’s boys, Burt and Davis, decided to launch a rowboat in that whirlpool one day. Wanted to ride around in circles, I guess. Did just that, ‘cept Burt, he fell out. Didn’t drown even though his brother swears he went under and got sucked down by that whirlpool. Spit him back out, it did. That’s why some folk say the water in Mystery Lake is magic, that there’s a magical force controlling it, that maybe there’s a Djinni down there, considering the Legend of the Djinni-Of-The-Lake. Would you believe that?”
Jasmine could not imagine such a phenomenon without the use of magic, and hoped her hostess would explain the legend.
Mrs. Doer went on as if not expecting her to answer. “There have been some bizarre happenings. Like when it rained frogs and fish, but I think folks are just telling those stories so tourists come around. Tourists are good business and all, but you know that already.”
Jasmine had only to smile at the reference to Noah’s Ark.
While they talked, the smallest child took to her after a shy period. Soon Jasmine was bouncing the little girl on her knee as she showed her the Mouse Guy watch. That seemed to impress Mrs. Doer and the woman moved closer to talk of more intimate subjects. Jasmine soon had the story of Noah and Carol.
“Unfortunately, most folks figure he’s about to make the same mistake again, getting himself a foreign mail order girl this time—no offense intended,” Mrs. Doer said solicitously as she patted Jasmine’s hand, “though I would never mistake good manners for acting highfalutin. Carol never set foot in my house, I can tell you! Wouldn’t lower herself to talk to us common folk.”
Noah’s ex-wife sounded cold and selfish. Jasmine was glad not to have landed on the D’Ark doorstep while Mrs. D’Ark was still present.
“I hear you created quite a stir in town. You must have a good sense of humor. Bet Noah and you laugh a lot. Lord knows, might be you are just what he needs.”
Her words gave Jasmine the feeling that she had just been approved, very similar to the day they’d gone clothes shopping in Mystery Lake. The clerks had seemed so welcoming and had put Noah into a good mood.
The slamming of the outside porch door, followed by the opening of the inner door into the kitchen where Jasmine sat with her hostess, ended their private chat.
“So yer the little lady that’s got Noah goin’ again?” the farmer with Noah said by way of greeting. “I’m Walt.”
Jasmine stood and placed her hand in the one offered to her, not sure what his intention was. The big man pumped her arm enthusiastically, his jovial smile wiping away her wariness.
As soon as the men folk sat, Noah was besieged by Doer children. They delighted in his teasing and three of the youngest insisted on sitting on his knee, all at the same time. He had a way with children and Jasmine found herself wondering how he would handle the challenges of Djinni children. He had the patience and understanding to do it. He took their attentions in stride, all the while listening as Mrs. Doer passed on the latest gossip. She did not repeat any of the things she had told Jasmine.
Later, Noah hummed softly beside her as they left the Doer farm, interrupting his tune to ask, “Did you learn more about Mystery Lake?”
“Oh, yes, Noah! It was fascinating, especially that part about the boy who nearly drowned, and of course about the Djinni-of-the-Lake Legend.”
Noah chuckled. “No telling how much of the kids’ story was true to start with, and that incredible idea of the Djinni has been a mythical legend for years. Now I’m not so skeptical.” He glanced sideways at her and quirked his eyebrows. “Talk about anything else?”
“She knew all about our trip to town.” That gained Noah’s hoot before she asked, “Did you get all the feed and straw you wanted?”
“Yup.” He fell silent with his thoughts, allowing Jasmine to return to hers. She liked the Doers very much and looked forward to visiting there again.
Once they pulled into the yard, Noah asked her to make supper while he unloaded the hay. “I’d appreciate it if we didn’t have a repeat performance of the last time, you know, the fire.” However, he said it with a smile and Jasmine was able to return it.
He did not instruct her on what he expected for the meal. She tried her hand at making an omelet as he had shown her a few days previous. By the time he came in, she had onion peelings, egg shells, and scraps of vegetables over every counter in the room. The omelet stuck to the bottom of the pan, the smell of burning egg permeating the room.
She met Noah’s astonished gaze and her words slipped out in a whimper. “I think this does not resemble the one thee showed me.”
* * *
Noah took in the disarray, then stepped up and took the frying pan from her. “I think you forgot to grease the pan,” he said quietly, briefly holding it under the tap. Steam erupted from the eggs. He stirred and chopped at it. “We’ll just call these scrambled eggs.”
The smoke detector went off and he stepped over to disengage it.
Then he took up the eggs again and met her gaze. Unshed tears glistened on her lashes. She had been trying to please him by doing it his way instead of using her magic. She was miserable because of him.
He set the pan down at the back of the stove. “Come here.” His voice came out gruff so instead of asking again, he simply held open his arms and Jasmine rushed into them. He held her as she sobbed. He understood her frustration with him, with herself, with the way things were supposed to be and the way they actually were.
She felt so fragile tonight that he instinctively wrapped his arms around her more securely, hoping to ease her sense of inadequacy. Her hair held some sort of fresh garden scent, a mixture of flowers and cedar. And a faint burnt egg smell. He led her to the sofa that had once been their bed, sat down and pulled her into his lap while her sobs subsided into a few hiccups.
“I’ve decided to let you do things your way,” he began after a long moment. “Who am I to change your ways, things you’ve been doing for years? Due to circumstances beyond your control, and mine, you landed here with instructions to serve a master, in this case me. I’ve resisted your efforts, but not for the reasons I’ve let on.”
With his chin resting on the top of her head, Noah sighed. “I’ve never admitted this to anyone, not even my parents, but I want you to understand, Jasmi
ne. I’ve never been waited on hand and foot and I don’t want to be because I hated doing that myself. That’s exactly how my wife looked at our relationship. She expected me to jump to her every demand.
“I don’t know how that happened; it wasn’t like that in the beginning. I thought she was the most wonderful woman in the world, and she was mine. But, in short order, I realized that her expectations were far different than mine.” He dropped his voice a notch lower. “I kept hoping that somehow my catering to her would help our marriage. It didn’t.”
When Jasmine lifted her head to look at him, she would no doubt see the self-loathing and contempt he held for himself, for allowing Carol to manipulate him so completely. “I hated that I bowed to her demands like a lesser being.”
Jasmine nodded. “Even though I willingly carry out your commands, you do not like to see me in the role you felt forced into.”
“Exactly.”
“For me, it is what is expected.”
“Not by me, it isn’t, Jasmine,” he emphasized, then a little less forcefully repeated, “not by me.”
She returned his gaze for a long moment before saying, “I understand, Noah. In my culture, it is the man’s role to rule, totally. We, the women, do not always like it but that is the way it has always been. You have given me choices and freedoms I have not been used to. This is how it is in your culture, for everyone?”
“Yes. No... It should be.”
“This idea I like. So what is it I should do for you?”
Plainly Jasmine couldn’t fully comprehend this equality of the sexes, just as he couldn’t imagine what it must be like to have absolutely no rights at all.
“Perhaps if I understand your entire situation better, we can arrive at”—he struggled for words—“we can reach a mutually acceptable solution to the problem and, ah, another one.” He heaved a sigh, eyes closed, while he reined in his sexual frustration and willed the throbbing in his swollen lower regions to subside, which of course was a useless wish. He didn’t look away as he focused on his houseguest once more with a steady gaze and an unsteady, husky voice. “You know what I mean.”
