“Persia, I want you to tell me what’s wrong. We’re not in India any longer. You’re in no danger. And anything you say will be strictly between the two of us.”
She stiffened beside him. He could almost feel her guard coming up. He turned to read her expression, but a shadow had descended over her face.
“I don’t even want to think about that time, much less talk about it. It’s cruel of you to bring it up, Zack, especially on our wedding night.”
“Are we going to have a wedding night, Persia?”
His point-blank question stunned her. She looked away from him, into the fire.
“I don’t understand what you mean,” she whispered.
He took the brandy snifter from her hand and set it on the table. Then he gently brought her palm to his lips—breathing over her flesh, kissing it, finally touching one t throbbing spot with the tip of his tongue. Her fingers tensed in his.
“You know what I mean, darling. I want to make love to you. Am I going to be allowed that privilege?”
“Tonight?” she asked quietly, still not looking at him.
“Yes. Starting right this minute, in fact. I’ve been very patient, Persia. The last time we made love we were in Bombay. It was before—”
“No! Don’t say it!” she cried, and suddenly she was sobbing.
He pulled her to his chest and tried to soothe her, but it seemed that all her pent-up emotions from months and years past were bent on release.
“It’s all right, darling. Go ahead and cry,” he soothed. “When you’re finished, we’ll talk it all out.”
Even though his heart went out to her in her pain and grief, Zack felt a certain amount of elation that she allowed him to hold her. This was a first step, small as it was.
Persia was aware of his arms around her. She wanted them there. Suddenly her crying turned from pain to joy. For the very first time in so long, she didn’t feel repelled by Zack’s touch. She was frightened—yes!—but it was not the awful terror she had experienced for the past months. All the guilt and pain and fear of her time with Cyrus Blackwell seemed to be slipping away. Finally, her sobs subsided.
“Better?” he asked.
She wiped her cheeks and offered him a wan smile. “Yes. I think so.”
“Can you talk about it now? You don’t have to worry about shocking me. I know you were his wife. And I know that whatever you were forced to do, you had no choice in the matter.”
Suddenly, she wanted Zack to hold her and to kiss her and—yes, glory be!—to make love to her. But she would have to make him understand first.
“I was never his wife… .”
He frowned, not understanding.
“I was his legal wife, yes. But there was no love between us. I’ve never been truly married until this very night. Someday I’ll tell you everything. But not now… please, not now, darling.” She looked down at their clasped hands suddenly, unable to meet his intense gaze.
“You mean he never forced himself on you?” There was an unmistakable note of relief in Zack’s voice.
“Well… yes and no,” she stammered.
“Persia, you’re talking in riddles. He had you on that island for a long time. What did he do to you? Something terrible happened. I know because you’ve been so long coming out of it.”
“Zack, you mustn’t hate me.” Her eyes pleaded with him.
He hugged her. “Never, darling! Never!”
“But what I have to tell you sounds so bizarre. I don’t know even how to begin.”
“Slowly, darling. We have all night… a lifetime.”
She leaned back, letting him encircle her shoulders with his arm. She tensed for a moment when his fingers touched her breast. But it felt wonderful. She relaxed and closed her eyes. She began at the very beginning and told him about everything—Cyrus and Birdie’s game, his marriage to Hannah, his use of the servant Indira, his brutal attacks on her, the murders he had committed.
“He was not in his right mind. The night you came for me, he meant to kill himself and have suttee performed. I was to be burned alive on his funeral pyre,” she explained. “For a time that night, I was totally under his control. It seemed I had no choice but to die with him.”
“Persia darling, you’ve been through so much.” Zack cradled her in his arms, never wanting to let her go, wanting to protect her from the world always.
“We all have,” she answered quietly.
“And that’s why you’ve pushed me away all these months? Because you couldn’t bear thinking about the terrible things that had happened. Why did you turn me away when I came for you?”
“I had no choice. They had a gun on you. I had to keep you away. The thought of your being killed… It was just too awful! He also threatened to sell little Sindhu into white slavery if I made a false move. Thank God you’re both safe from him now; you here, and Sindhu with a good family.” She paused as if her thoughts were drifting. Then she shook her head and continued, “Afterward, it seemed that a barrier to love had come down. I couldn’t do anything about it.”
“And now?”
His hands were cradling her cheeks, and his lips hovered over hers, so close that she could feel his words on her face.
“Oh, Zack,” she said softly, feeling her body warm to his. “Kiss me.”
When he answered her demand, Zack found her lips parted and ready to accept him.
Persia felt no need to draw away. She answered his velvet probing with hungry thrusts of her own. A new need arose within her, but it was nothing to be feared. This longing was good and true and spawned by love.
Gently, he lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed, holding his breath for fear she might protest. But she snuggled close to his chest, showering little kisses on his neck and sighing softly.
When he placed her on the bed, she cast aside her wrapper and asked timidly, “Would you help me with these little buttons?”
Zack’s fingers trembled as he worked at the tiny things. And he felt a rush of need when she moaned as his fingers brushed her bare breasts.
When she lay before him, ready, he took great care to love her slowly, tenderly, throughly. And when he entered her, she clung to him, sighing his name and whispering her words of love.
Suddenly the world was filled with sound of bells. It was Christmas! The most wonderful Christmas Persia had ever known. She needed no carolers to serenade her; the song in her heart was the sweetest on earth. And there was no pretty wrapped gift that could be half as precious to her as the gift of Zack’s love.
There was peace on earth and in her heart.
And there was love… true love… forevermore.
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Hot Winds From Bombay Page 39
