Chapter Six
Aisha kept a tight hold on Drake. She was also afraid something would happen to separate them again, and she wouldn’t be able to bear it. She already thought she had lost him for good when she was told he’d left Afghanistan thinking she was dead.
God, that whole day her life had exploded, literally, was still kind of a blur. She remembered walking out the back door to get the wash and then being thrown. The pain that hit her had been excruciating, and she panicked when she couldn’t breathe at first.
Her cousin, Larmina, had rushed to her and started to drag her away from the fire. She’d been crying out for Drake when her cousin hushed her.
“Stop talking. We need to let them think you’re dead.”
Aisha hadn’t understood what her cousin was saying, but she did stop talking and crying out. Finally, they made it to her cousin’s house. Fortunately, her aunt was good at healing.
She wasn’t looking forward to the first time Drake saw her naked. It was bound to be a shock to him, and she just hoped he would still love her.
It had taken her several months to heal, and that whole time, she’d had to hide in her relative’s house because the people who’d blown up her home thought she was dead. If the insurgents found out she was alive, they would have come for her, and she would have prayed for death because she knew the things they would do to her. They’d torture her until she died, and from what she heard, they liked it to last a long time.
When she finally became conscious a few days after the explosion, her cousin and aunt had told her that her brother had not made it. She later learned the bomb was for her for talking and having a relationship with the enemy, which made her guilt so much worse. When she’d heard Drake had left the country and would never be back, she went into a depression so deep, her cousin and aunt worried that she’d commit suicide, so they had watched her all the time.
Then Ryker showed up one night and told her they found out she was alive, but Drake thought she had died. He talked about a plan to get her to America to be with Drake, which had brought some hope back to her life. Enough to fight to heal and stay alive so she could get to him.
It had taken a few months for Ryker to get the approval to bring her into the military camp. She used that time to get stronger. She had been whisked away in the middle of the night and was hidden for a few days until they got her into a hotel by the airport.
Every day seemed to get tenser, and she worried the insurgents would find out she was alive and come get her. There was a time she and the men had thought that happened, and the hotel was attacked for a brief time, but they never got word about why they had done it, and they decided it didn’t have anything to do with her.
They had all breathed a sigh of relief when the military plane was in the air and headed to Germany, and then Ryker’s men and she had to take another one to the United States.
When they landed in the United States, she had been taken to an office and had to fill out more forms. Fortunately, Ryker and a few of the men had been with her the whole time to help her since she was still learning how to read and write English.
When they had handed her off to Nolan, she’d given all of them a hug. Then, when she started to tear up, they’d made fun of her, making her laugh, which took away her sadness. They all thought of her as a little sister and treated her as such.
They had all been so good to her and had never left her side. All of them promised they would stop by and see her, which helped the anxiety and desolation of leaving them. In her heart, they were her angels that were bringing Drake and light back into her life, and she would never forget them as long as she lived.
Through the last several months, she had tried hard not to think of her brother, Fatin, who had died in the explosion. There were so few family members left that every time they lost another, it was like another part of her soul was torn away. It made it worse when it had been her brother because he was six years younger than her, and she had raised him for the last three years after her mother had passed away.
Drake shut the bathroom door behind them.
“Strip, baby, while I get a bath going.”
She had hoped to keep from showing her injuries to him until she felt more secure.
He walked to her and grasped her shoulders. “What are you thinking about?”
“I just can’t believe I’m actually with you again.”
He cupped her cheek with his hand. “Believe it, and you’re never going anywhere.”
God, she really hoped that was true. She started by slipping out of her shoes and then her skirt. Next, she turned to face him and pulled her shirt over her hair. Last was her bra.
“You are so fucking beautiful, baby.”
Her gaze slid over his hard, sculpted body. There was not an ounce of fat on the man, and he was so much bigger than when she’d last seen him. It looked like he’d gotten a few new tattoos, too. It was something she would study later. Even after the orgasms he’d just had, his cock was rigid with need.
“Why are you so muscular?”
He held a hand out to her. “Let’s talk in the tub.”